AN: WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS WHAT IS AS GRIM/DARK AS I CAN DO! IT IS HOWEVER, IMPORTANT TO PLOT SO READ IT AT YOUR OWN RISK, OR PM ME FOR A PLOT SUMMARY!
"How long do you think it would take me to fly to New Pegasus?" I ask Hawkens. It's 7 hours before the attack and I need to check something with Yes Stallion.
"Maybe two hours or so. Why?"
"I just need to check on something is all. When I get back, I am going to attach those gems to your shotguns. Should reduce recoil to almost minimal."
"Sweet. I'll be waiting." He replies. I take off from the camp at the dam and fly to New Pegasus at top speed.
"Flare!" Yes Stallion exclaims as I enter the penthouse after an hour and a half long flight. "What can I do you for?"
"We're about to fight at the dam. Is there anything that we need in there for our plan to work?"
"YES! Take this receiver." He replies, and a securitron buts something in one of my new bags. "Attach that responder to the control panel in the bottom of the dam. It will give me complete control of the power and I will be able direct it to the securitron army under Fortification Hill."
"Sounds like a plan." I reply to him before heading back to the NCR base.
"OK Hawkens, I need you to take your shotguns off for me to work on them. Twilight, could you do the spell?" I ask her. I had just arrived back at the NCR after another hour and a half long flight and it is nice to be in a tent with the gang.
"I can try, but no guarantees."
"I could enchant those gems for you. For me, it is nothing new."
"Thanks Shiara." I reply, hoofing over the 4 black gems to her. "I'll still need to see your guns to put them on correctly."
"Fine." He replies before un-strapping his shotguns. They are basically giant barrels with no clips, and instead of triggers, it has pull strings.
"Damn dude, how do these even work?"
"They just do. I made them and they haven't broke yet."
"I can tell. How thick is the barrel. I am going to have do make an indent to fit the gems on each side."
"Quarter inch thick Gildian steel. Toughest thing to come out of the griffin empire before the war."
"OK, will you still be able to use them if it goes down to eighth inch toward the end of the barrel?"
"Easily."
"Good. Let's get started." I say before bringing out one of my grapples. I use the hook to trace a pentagon on each side of the barrel, which is rather easy thanks to superheated me. I then bring the hook around the design I made until I have melted away all of the steel inside the trace. I do the same on the other side, and then on both sides of the other shotgun. By this point, Shiara has enchanted the gems, and hooves them back to me. I inspect them with my Pip-Buck to ensure that they are all good. They are, so I let Twilight levitate them into place. As each one falls in the proper slot, I take some of re-solidified metal and lay it around the edge of the gems, welding it, sort of, into place. "All set. Now you should have minimal recoil on these monstrosities."
"Thanks bro." He replies, punching me lightly in the shoulder. "YOW! Dude, you are hot. And not in that way you weird pony you."
I can't help but smile at this.
"Alright you guys, fight is starting soon." A NCR soldier says, sticking his head in our tent.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" I shout.
"Looks like fun." I say, observing the dam. "What do you know Twi?"
"Well, NCR was pushed from the dam while you were out. The big stallions of the NCR said they would be most appreciative if you could remove their presence from inside the dam."
"That works perfectly with the plans from Yes Stallion."
"Well then. Anyways, it looks like there are at least 50 zebra on the top of the dam, with many more coming. I can also see eyes on the wall shadows so I am suspecting more Shadow Demons. Where the hell are they getting that much taint?"
"My mother told me of shamans after the war." Shiara starts. "There were some who were overly fascinated with gore. They used their black magic to create some sort of body paint. In the end, it had the exact same effect as your taint."
"Just great." Hawkens complains.
"Yeah, well we have to deal with it and win." I reply
"Well, what are we waiting for?"
"Nightfall. The Shadow Demons will have to go inside since they can only be hidden in shadows."
"Fine." Hawkens replies. We spend the last hour before nightfall preparing everything. Hawkens checks that he has a full belt of grenades and his front pouches have enough shells to last a while I fill up my pyre canisters as much as I can and ensuring I have enough spell packs. Twilight sorts her ammo and then uses her magic to put us all in prime condition. Shiara sharpens her blades. Stardust checks the levels of Sparky and that everything is as it should be.
"OK gang, night has fallen, and the Legion is unprepared." I say to my team, giving a pep talk of sorts. "The goal is to eliminate the Legion as best we can. What the NCR doesn't know about the plan is that we are also taking the dam. When we get in the dam, we need to get to the control center at the bottom. I can use a receiver that Yes Stallion gave me to allow him to divert the dams power to the securitron army in Fortification Hill. After that, we can take out the NCR and Legion." I lead the group to the edge of the dam, my mane and tail lighting up the ground around us. "ONWARD!" I charge forward and take flight, Hawkens beside me. Stardust is with Twilight providing ranged support. Shiara of course is doing her ninja thing cutting down the Legion to her best ability, which is a lot. I start launching pyre at the Legion and Hawkens is raining grenades. Safe to say, the dam has turned into hell. I can hear both Stardust and Twilight firing their weapons with very loud bangs. I see Hawkens drop down on top of a group of zebra and he proceeds to cut one deep, shove a grenade in the wound, and take flight again. Before any of the zebra can register what happened, they explode. Hawkens roars in delight and moves on to another group. I head to the entrance of the dam and send pyre at the doors, burning the guards. I land down at the doors and wait for the gang. In a few minutes, we enter the dam and head down the stairs. Not even 5 seconds after we start down, the Legion is rushing up the stairs, sees us, and is about to attack if it weren't for the fact that I burn them all.
"They looked scared." Twilight says.
"Well who wouldn't be, considering that we are us." Hawkens comments.
"Still, I feel sorry that they have to fight against us. What horrible odds are against them."
"Regardless." I interrupt. "We still need to do this, so let's just make our way down and finish the job." As we continue on, I think I hear a faint buzzing, but considering we're in a hydroelectric dam, I ignore it. When we reach the bottom of the stairs, there is a hallway that splits off in two directions, one of which is caved in. Thus, we go the other way, and after a minute or so and a turn or two, we reach a locked door.
"Twilight, is there anything on the other side?" I ask her.
"Nothing living."
"Good enough for me." I reply before bringing out my grapples to pick the lock. I stick them in the lock and it melts. Luckily, the door swings open, as though I opened it. Inside, on charging stations, are defense robots. Not at par with securitrons, but still. They aren't active so that's a plus. I walk past them without setting them off and so does the rest of the group. On the other side of the room is an open door, which leads to another hallway. A few more minutes through that, we come across a room with two of the security robots guarding a large metal door. I move back around the corner leading to the room and motion to Twilight. She moves back around the corner, into the room, and from the light show, I can tell that she used her EMP spell. I lead the rest of the group around the corner and see the robots on the ground, sparking. I move past them and examine the door, which is locked. I decide to skip the picking process and just cut the door out, so, with my grapples, I melt the edges of the massive door and let it fall to the ground. Inside is empty except for all of the machinery. Stardust and Shiara wait outside as guards and I look around with Hawkens and Twilight until I find the main control panel.
"Twilight, inside one of my pockets is a receiver that needs to be attached to the panel. Can you levitate it out and into the slot there?" I ask her, pointing to a slot in the device. She uses her magic to grab the transceiver out of my pocket and levitates it into the slot. Hawkens, I need you to input some commands into the..." I am interrupted by a loud rumbling outside and dust falling from the ceiling. Shiara runs through the opening and begins to lift up the fallen door.
"What the hell is going on?" Hawkens asks.
"PINK TAINT IS FLOWING THROUGH THE HALLS!" Stardust yells from her position. "I'M USING SPARKY TO HOLD IT BACK BUT YOU 4 NEED TO BARRICADE YOURSELVES INSIDE!"
"HELL NO! GET YOURSELF INSIDE!" I yell at her but Shiara has already sealed the door, due to the metal still being hot enough to re-fuse after I cut it. An instant later, before I can yell at her, the dam shakes again, and the room collapses on top of us.
"There he is, the prisoner of the hour. How's it going Flare?" A voice asks me as I begin to come back to the world of the living, again. I open my eyes and catch a glimpse of Chrystal Horn before I close my eyes again.
"Chrystal Horn, what are you doing?"
"OH it is quite simple. Since the Caesar sheltered me since I was kicked out of New Pegasus, I have been working for him, as head of interrogations. The best part is I can do whatever I want. Fun isn't it."
"Hardly." I reply. Now that I am awake again, I look around to gauge my surroundings. I am restrained on a stone table, probably so I can't burn through it. I see Twilight held up by the hooves, suspended in the air, still unconscious. Hawkens is thrashing like an insane creature, but is restrained with metal cables tied around his waist. Shiara is tied to a pole, also unconscious. Stardust is in a spiked cage so she can't move, since the taintbomb hit the damn and spilled pink taint everywhere and fused sparky to her back. "So what is your plan anyways?"
"Simple, I am going to eliminate your friends until you tell me how to control the securitron army that I know you failed to destroy."
"Don't you dare tell this scumbag anything unless it is a lie Flare." Hawkens says to me in the most serious tone I have ever heard from him.
"Since you decided to speak up first, I think I will start with you." Chrystal says to Hawkens. He then pulls out a griffin doll that even has the eye patch and scar that Hawkens has.
"What are you going to do with that?" Hawkens asks. "Give me a show?"
"Better. I am going to give Flare a show." He proceeds to move the dolls limbs and Hawkens limbs move in the same way. "As you can see, the doll is a metaphysical representation of Hawkens. If you don't tell me how to control the army, then I will rip the dolls head off."
"DON'T YOU DARE TELL HIM ANYTHING!" Hawkens yells at me.
"But then you will die."
"I don't care. I would rather die than let these glorified raiders have their way with the world."
"Have it your way." Chrystal says and with his horn, rips the head off of the griffin doll. Hawkens head flies off, gushing blood, as his body falls limp.
"Now to the traitor Shiara."
"It doesn't matter what you do. In the end, this day you will rue."
"Pity that one of the descendants of Zecora would have to die, would you not agree Flare?"
"Do not tell him anything, or the end of freedom, you will bring."
"Very well Shiara, I relieve you of your life debt."
"Thank you Flare. I wish for you no despair."
"Plea, have your way with her." The evil doctor says to his compatriot.
The horrors that the huge, black pegasus does next are not fit for any ears. They are so bad that I try my hardest to remove the images from my head. But in the end, I am always seeing her body, limbs ripped from it, brutally raped.
"That's enough Plea, our point has been made. So Flare, ready to spill the beans?"
"If I did, it would be ignoring the last words of both Hawkens and Shiara, who have been as much a brother and mother respectively in this hell hole of a world." I say before spitting at him.
"Suit yourself. Now to Stardust, what are we going to do to you?"
"It doesn't matter. The minute I die, Pon-3 will know, and then your murders here will be known to the world."
"Doesn't matter to me. Once this little project is over, the only threat to the Caesar will be either in my control or without its master. You know, I think that you should get electrocuted to death, like all of the legion that you have killed." Chrystal says before pulling out a button from under Stardust's cage. He presses it. Her cage, now full of electrical current, electrocuted Stardust. Her body spasms causing the spikes of her cage to dig into her body. "Well Flare, going to tell me?"
Now panting with tears rolling down her face, Stardust says to me, "You owe me nothing, so don't bother trying to save me." She then fires off sparky, electrocuting the entire cage, and her along with it. The lightning dies down and leaves Stardust's charred, lifeless body suspended in the cage.
By this point, Twilight has woken up and is crying in fear.
"Hello there Twilight, come to join the fun?"
"YOU LEAVE HER ALONE!" I yell at Chrystal.
"OH, what is this recent development?"
"If you touch even a hair on her mane," I threaten.
"Well I won't have to do anything if you just tell me how to control the securitron army now will I?"
"Look, let her go and I will tell you." I say to the bastard.
"Well how about you tell me first, then I let her go. That way you can't lie to me."
"Fine you sonofabitch. The only thing controlling the securitron army is an AI system that is loyal to me and those I approve of."
"Come now, tell me the truth."
"I am not lying you smug bastard." I reply. "Now let her go. I told you the honest truth."
"Well, since you won't tell me the truth, I am going to have to kill Twilight here. I think a live autopsy of an unusually tainted unicorn is in order. Plea, would you get my tools please."
That bastard actually did it. He killed Twilight. All of her organs were on a metal table next to her body. Among the organs were two foals, two months along the growth cycle, my foals.
"Well let me tell you, that was rather informative. Now I see why you were so protective of her Flare, you and she were in love, so cute. Too bad it had to end. Now are you going to tell me how to control the army or am I going to have to kill you as well?"
"I hope you die a cruel, cruel death." Is my only reply to him.
"Suit yourself. Plea, tie the weights to him. I will prepare the vat. Flare, now I get to see what happens to a Pegasus when they are overexposed to taint."
The giant pegasus comes over to me and clasps a steel ball and chain to each of my legs, which immediately begin to glow with heat. When he is done, Chrystal Horn is back.
"Would you carry Flare to the pit for me Plea, set him down, or throw him down, whatever you want."
Plea hefts me over his covered back and takes me to a more open area with a large hole in the ground, at least 15 feet deep. He bucks me off his back and I land face first on the ground. I don't even care anymore, there is nothing worth fighting for.
"Get ready Flare, the taint is coming. I would hold my breath if I were you." Chrystal says before starting magic, causing his horn to glow again. Pretty soon, taint is starting to flow into the pit through a pipe at the edge. I don't even bother trying to avoid it, I just let it wash over me. I feel the mutation advancing, my body growing hotter and hotter as the transformation advances more. I can feel the taint beginning to boil as my body grows hotter and hotter. I open my eyes and see that there is an area of ground around me where the taint has completely boiled off. My body is made of fire now, my breaths, also fire. My wings are molten metal mixed with bone and fire. I realize that now I must be at the final level of my mutation. Now I can get a worthy revenge for all of my friends, and my lover, Twilight. I get angry now, rage fills my body, mind, and soul. My body, in reaction, starts to burn white hot, and the flames growing in size exponentially.
"NOW YOU WILL PAY CHRYSTAL!" I yell at him, my voice now much deeper and sounds like multiple voices were speaking through me. I lift off, able to since the steel balls and chains had melted off a while ago. I see him smiling and this makes me even angrier, causing my fire to get hotter and hotter until I can no longer contain it. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" I release wave after wave of fire, incinerating everything in the vicinity of 100 feet easily. Even though this hits Chrystal, his burning body is still smiling at me. What happens next, I only know because my mind got a back seat for the ride. I go supernova, releasing the energy of at least 20 Megaspells. After that, I black out.
'Wha…what is that noise?' I think to myself, trying to lift my head while waking up to a strange noise that I can't quite describe. Something starts to appear on the edge of the pit. A blue box finally fades into view. It is a blue telephone box, with writing on the door that I can't read from here. The door opens and a huge cloud of smoke flows out, shortly followed by two ponies, one of whom is flying.
"No no no no NO!" One of them, defiantly a stallion says, with an accent. "This time stream is all screwy."
"What is it Doctor?" The other one, a mare, asks with a strangely cute voice.
"Something happened that shouldn't have occurred this early in this timeline, something that knocked that Tardis into this moment. Let me check." I hear a high pitched noise and see a bright green light coming out of the smoke. It points towards me and makes a higher pitched noise.
'What the hell is that. It better not be dangerous, 'cause I'm too tired to fight.' I think.
"Strange." The stallion says. "There's a life form over that way, though I can't tell what it is. The sonic doesn't even know. I must investigate." He jumps down into the pit and out of the smoke. He is a tan stallion with a spiked brown mane and tail, and he has an hourglass for a cutie mark. In his mouth is a strange device that has a green light on one end.
"Wait for me Doctor." The mare says before flying down. I can't believe it, because that has to be Ditzy Doo, from the descriptions that I have heard.
"I'll be, it seems that the life form is some sort of pony, which is on fire. Blimey, he is emanating a lot of power, and heat. What do you think of him Derpy?"
"Well, he has wings, but no horn, so he has to be a pegasus like me, but there certainly is something strange about him."
The stallion, who must be Doctor, scans me with that device in his mouth, and holds it in front of him with his hooves.
"We need to get him into the Tardis, and then take him back. He is part of a temporal anomaly that we need to fix, or I may need to remake the universe, again."
I proceed to black out again and wake up in some sort of futuristic, even by my standards, building.
"Doctor, he's coming to." I can hear Ditzy shout though it sounds distant, probably because I am just coming back to reality.
"Ah good." The Doctor says, galloping into the room that I am in, sliding around a bit reorienting himself to face me. "Now sport, you are probably wondering where you are, and I am wondering what you are, so how about you tell us your story and I will tell you mine."
"Just give me a minute, and something to eat, please." I reply. After I am fed with some delightfully delicious pastries from who knows where, I start my story, basically telling them everything up unto my premature death.
"Hold on, you say you're a pegasus with cyberwings, but you clearly have biomechanical wings and you are, quite literally, made of a plasmatic substance that radiates incredible amounts of heat. What is going on here exactly?"
"Well, it's a very long story involving some dear friends of mine that are recently murdered, along with lots of robots, a very dangerous pony-made mutagen, and lots of fighting centered around me. All in all, I'm a freak of nature who lost everything he was fighting for and now just wants to see the world burn." I reply.
"What if I told you I could help you get all of that back, and save the universe at the same time." The Doctor tells me.
"Then I would tell you to tell me everything you know or I would burn this entire structure down." I reply, in a monotone voice..
"In that case, I guess I have to oblige. You see, I am called The Doctor, and I am a time traveler. This is my assistant, Ditzy Doo, or Derpy Hooves, she is fine with either name." He says, pointing a hoof at Ditzy.
"We're acquainted, in this time. Anyways, go on." I interrupt.
"Something caused the Tardis, the time machine you are in, to crash into this time period and this point in space. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you caused the anomaly."
"Probably, what was the anomaly?" I ask.
"It was some sort of solar explosion emanating from this plane, which is strange because there is not a sun inside this planet."
"Eeyup, that was me. When you were outside, did you notice how the entire surrounding area was burning. That was me, in my rage. As of now, you are in a room with a living bomb much much more powerful than a balefire bomb and has near infinite detonations possible."
"Yep, this is the temporal anomaly alright. Flare was it, I need you to follow me. I have something that you may be interested in." The Doctor says to me before walking off. I follow and he leads me into a room with a surgical table and about 100 different tools, most of which, I have never even seen.
"This is the Tardis's bioscience room. I believe it will be able to reduce your, taint was it?" He asks me. I nod yes. "Yes, it may be able to reduce your taint levels, reverting you back to a less mutated version of yourself. I can then take you back in time to the beginning of the time flux, replace your current memories with your own older ones, and then stop whatever it is that is causing the alteration of the timelines."
"I have no idea what you just said, but if you can take me back and let me save my friends, I'll do whatever you need me to."
"Good good good. DITZY! Please start up the Biofield containment around Flare here while I prepare the substance extractor and the metafilter."
"OK Doctor." She replies before flying up to a control panel, and using a device of her own similar to the Doctors, cause a field to surround me, lift me up, and take me to the bench.
"NOW JUST RELAX AND THE TARDIS WILL TAKE CARE OF THE REST!" The Doctor yells from wherever he is, while at the exact same time, one of the hundreds of tools begins to move on its own. I feel a sharp prick on my front leg and hold it up to see a drop of blood bead on the surface of my skin. I start to feel sleepy and once again, I black out.
"There he is. How you feeling?" The Doctor asks me as I wake up.
"Not different really. Why, did the plan work?"
"Take a look." He replies, stepping out from in front of a mirror. I see my reflection and I look like I did before I started generating pyre constantly. It's very impressive.
"Dang, what exactly did you do?"
"Well, it would involve a lot of complicated words and terms that your race is just not ready for. Basically, I injected a serum into your body that caused it to revert to what it was like before the time stream was manually changed. Now, I am going to use the Tardis to lock onto the time stream that this body belongs in, and we are going to send you back. I am also going to kidnap your younger self and fuse your bodies. Side effects include loss of skills, a second personality, and a strange sense of knowing what is going to happen before it happens. That last one is because I will have to erase your memory of everything that happened after the time stream was altered. You will, however, retain your memory, vaguely, of the events that transpired up to the point where you first encountered us."
"I don't care. Just send me back so I can save my friends, and the world."
"Then let's go!" The Doctor says enthusiastically before galloping out of the room. Ditzy and I follow and find the Doctor at a strange contraption that must have been the control center for the Tardis, as he called it. "You may want to hold onto something. First time riders tend to experience some turbulence."
"Whatever, just get us going."
"Suit yourself." He replies before pulling a lever down then shoving it back up. The entire Tardis shakes and after a few minutes, it stops. "Welcome to the exact moments before the time stream was altered." He says before jumping out of the doors, and into the sunlight. I follow and I see a group of legionaries marching quickly, and in the distance, a group of 3 ponies, a zebra, and a griffin.
"Is that my group?" I ask.
"Yes indeed, right before these nasties decide to attack you by the looks of it." He replies.
"Is there anything we can do?"
"Stop them of course." He replies. "How do you want to handle this?"
"Well, one of them has grenades on them. Do you think your future tool thingy can detonate them?"
BOOOOOOM!
"See for yourself." he replies. I look to the sound of the explosion and see that there is a pool of pink taint and body parts scattered around the area of detonation.
"Well I think that about solved that problem. Now to meld you with, well, you." He says before using his tool on the group and on me, causing the group to fall unconscious by the look of it, and then do the same to me.
"What just happened?" I ask as I come to.
"I don't know. We heard an explosion and then out like a light we go." Shiara replies.
I look around and notice that everyone is waking up, and feel a strangely overwhelming sense of joy when I see them.
Level Reset: Lv. 15.
All perks and stat increases before LV. 15 have been eliminated, and can be regained.