Part 3: Chapter 9: Another Heartbeat
The Alicorn casually strolled through the empty streets, seemingly oblivious to the puddles beneath her hooves. She stopped by an abandoned carriage and looked to the sky.
It was midday; white fluffy clouds slowly crawled above the sky, untouched by the chaos below. The sky was incredibly blue and she could not stop herself from taking a breather. She took this time to take off her helmet and take a breather, opening the door of the carriage and placing the bloodied helmet inside. She could almost smell the iron in the liquid the pooled on the cement and painted the walls. She could certainly taste it. The memories of laughter and happiness rushed into her mind, blinding her senses.
She opened her eyes and looked at her reflection on the blood-stained window and thought she saw a friend.
"Hey, Lu-" She stopped herself cold, remembering the recent event that took place with her sister.
Celestia closed her eyes and shook her head, returning to the memories.
A loud crack ripped her out of this rare blissful state she was experiencing. She whipped around, her helmet falling to the ground. She watched several spells flew past, impacting and taking chunks out of the concrete wall behind her. Ignoring the helmet, she walked into the open, revealing herself. A gasp echoed in the silence as her secret was revealed.
She heard the whizzing before she even saw the sickly green spell and easily sidestepped to the left, dodging the attack.
Changelings, she thought. I should've known that taking out their queen wouldn't be enough to drive them away.
Out in the open road, she was alone. Her thoughts began to grow and she walked off, forgetting about the helmet. The smoke from the burning buildings created a smoggy fog that engulfed the city, reducing visibility severally. The princess paused and turned around to walk back to the carriage only to realize she couldn't see the carriage any longer.
"Right…" Celestia spoke aloud to herself uneasily as she looked around, and resumed hunting.
She knew she was walking in circles. She already walked past the burning bank three times already and yet…
"I don't know…" She spoke as she paused in front of the building. "It could be…" The Alicorn cautiously walked in, the sound of broken glass crackling beneath her hooves. The bank vault was intact and in place. "Odd. I swear he threw it at me."
Although it made her sound insane, she found her own voice comforting. She kept herself company, although the though made her feel crazy.
She tapped twice on the steel vault, making sure it was real. She backed up and opened the vault door, revealing those hiding within. She recognized only a few.
Rarity was in the far right corner, softly crying, her purple mane covered in dust. Derpy was in the near left corner, Dinky huddling behind her. Spitfire and Soarin were in the far left while a few changelings were hiding on her right. Celestia looked at Spitfire and could almost see the betrayal in her eyes.
"History needs to be restored. Your kind has had its time, and now has come for the new breed of ponies to live." Celestia spoke out softly, answering their pleas before they began to speak. She closed her eyes as Dinky began to cry.
The two mutants appeared from thin air with a loud crack that would temporarily deafen any pony within a three meter radius. They looked around, their armor glowing; one red, one blue. Without making a sound, one nodded to the other and they began to walk through the smog, searching. The smog reduced their visibility and the two stayed closed together, peering over their shoulder every few minutes, making sure the other was close behind.
He heard the buzzing of insect wings as three changelings landed behind them, joining the group.
Alpha was about to break silence when the screams of ponies echoed throughout the ghost-town. The sound waves bounced off the buildings, scattering as they hit the obstacles and split apart. The sound slowly eased and as Alpha was about to resume walking, it returned.
"The sound must be bouncing off the buildings. It's gonna echo for a while."
The suit nodded in agreement. He looked over his shoulder at the changelings. "How many of you are here?"
One responded in a high pitched chirp before realizing that neither Alpha nor Beta could understand. It stopped halfway through as its horn began to glow. Numbers appeared next to the changeling, colored in a radioactive green; 50.
"Take 20 and surround the city in the air. Take another 25 and begin searching the buildings in groups of five. Cloak yourselves. If you find any survivors, take them back to the mountain."
Two of the three nodded and took to the air, leaving one changeling with the mutants.
"Take the four remaining changelings and go to the remaining cities and help the others evacuate every pony else."
It nodded and took to the air like his friends, leaving the mutants alone again. Alpha turned to Beta, who was looking the opposite way into the smog. "Let's go." Beta began to walk without responding, leaving Alpha to trot to his side and walk at his pace, searching.
Beta, like Alpha, began to subconsciously extend and retract his metallic wings. He was nervous, and Alpha knew it. He couldn't blame him though, he was nervous too. How couldn't he be? The fact that he knew he could die any second now freaked him out. Not like he hadn't felt this fear before, he has, but unlike the other times, Beta was also nervous, which made Alpha even more cautious.
It was now night time. The two glowing Estefanias were in the middle of the road, their hooves stained in the red viscous liquid. The smog had slowly dispersed over the day and the continuous screams were enough for them to know that Celestia was still in the city, but they were now less frequent. Which only meant one thing.
Celestia's search was coming to an end.
The sound of their hooves hitting the ground echoed loudly.
"I do not like this." Beta said, coming to a halt at the four-way intersection.
"Everypony's gone. Most are dead, yeah, but I never heard anything this quiet. The Factory at night with everything powered down was louder than this." Alpha agreed. As if by natural instinct, he stopped and turned around, listening for anything different.
"Anything?"
Alpha glanced to the left and looked over the road. The mutant removed his helmet, lowered his head, closed his eyes, slowed his breathing as best he could and stayed perfectly still, directing all his energy to his hearing.
Beta knew Alpha had a keen ear. In the Factory, he always was the first to hear the sound of a guard's heavy breathing. He walked, trying to make as little noise as possible, up to Alpha and watched with some amount of amusement and curiosity as he watched the mutant's ears flick left and right ever so slightly, picking up the sound waves.
Alpha could hear everything; the lightbulb down the street buzzing as electricity coursed through it, the faint hum of flies hovering above the open flesh and blood, the slow sizzling of an ember floating by, the faint pounding of a-
"Heart beat." He muttered, opening his eyes and looking around.
Beta looked up at him. "What?"
He put his helmet back on, and without answering Beta, cautiously walked down the street on his left. Beta watched for a few seconds before following.
"What do you hear?" he whispered.
Alpha reduced the glowing light on his suit to 25%, the same brightness of the tips of a dying flame, and kept on walking. "Heartbeat."
The Pony of Rage extended its wing-like knives and bent them so that they were almost parallel to his back.
"I don't think it's her."
"How can you know that?" Beta snapped back.
"It sounded as if there were more than three separate heartbeats. If it was her, there would only be one, and it wouldn't be beating quickly. This way." Alpha moved ahead of Beta and to the right. He heard the buzzing of the light above him grow louder before it burned out. The rest of the lights on the street followed suit.
"Well, at least we know where Celestia is at."
Alpha increased the glowing light to 40% and walked, with Beta behind him, up to the entrance of a building; a library. Its cedar door was not gone, but was everywhere at once - splinters dotted the immediate vicinity. "There is more than ten in here."
"You can hear them? Are you sure it's not yours or mine?"
"I know it's not my heartbeat and you don't have a heart."
The PoR shrugged as Alpha entered and backed him up.
The library smelled of the distinct smell that an old book would have. It was dark but the two walked on, glancing once in a while at the bookshelves. Alpha's suit, excluding the eye sockets, was no longer glowing.
Two pairs of glowing eyes seemingly floated as the two searched for the source of heartbeats. A pair of red eyes turned left and walked in between two shelves, while the pair of blue eyes took to the air, flying above the bookshelves as quiet as an Owl hunting for prey.
"Is it her?" She asked.
"I don't know." He replied. "It doesn't look like her."
"I can't believe she would do this."
Alpha stopped nearly at once and landed on top of the nearest shelf when he heard the question and looked around. He heard more whispering and spun. He tilted his ears, the metal surrounding them retreated, revealing the white soft ears.
He began to walk the other way, jumping from one shelf to another, avoiding the ground. "B," He whispered and looked around.
The pair of red glowing eyes met his.
"It's looking for us." She spoke.
"No shit Sherlock."
Alpha pointed down and cloaked himself. Beta nodded and made his way to Alpha's position.
"Can you see it?" The other asked.
"No."
Alpha jumped to the next shelf and peered over the edge to see a group of school-ponies. He turned around and jumped down to the floor, turned right, then right again, exiting his corridor and entering theirs.
"Where is it?"
"I don't know, I think it's gone."
Alpha uncloaked himself. "I'm not gone yet."
The group spun around. The group consisted of several jockeys, a few mares and two teachers, one mare, one stallion. They stared in fear and horror at the seemingly floating pair of blue glowing eyes.
"Are you a spirit?"
The "spirit" activated his suit's lights, but kept it on low brightness. "No."
"What are you?"
"A mutant. Name's Alpha."
The teachers moved themselves so they stood between Alpha and the students. "Is she still out there?" One of the jocks asked.
Alpha nodded. "Celestia has been actively hunting for a full day now."
"Why is she killing everypony?"
Alpha noticed the red glowing set of eyes behind the group. He looked to the teachers. "Any of you a history teacher?"
The mare nodded. "I am."
"Remember the Legend of Beta?"
She nodded again.
"Well, see those two red glowing eyes behind you? That's him."
All but the teachers turned around to face the living legend.
"Two days ago, we attacked Canterlot to stop Celestia." Alpha explained.
"Why?"
"Rainbow Factory, Assassination of King Sombra, Mass Genocide of Mutants in 100 of the lunar calendar." Beta explained.
"But she didn't do any of that."
"Trust me; there is a lot that she doesn't tell."
"Why should we trust you?"
"You shouldn't trust me. You should trust Alpha."
They all turned to look at the suit.
"We have a safe haven, a hollow mountain that we are sending survivors to if we find any." Alpha spoke.
"Who's 'we'?"
"I, Beta, and the rest of the Changelings."
The mare was stunned. "We are not going with you."
"Unless you want to die by Celestia's doing, you are coming with us, all of you."
"And what if we decline?"
"Well, first off ma'am," Beta spoke as he moved into the group. The students moved away, trying not to touch the legend that they were all told would kill them if given the chance. "You don't choose what everyone does now. What you do will impact your life, not anypony else in your group. Those who want to live can come with us; those who want to see how long they can live in fear from Celestia can stay here and wait for the inevitable."
"Are you threatening us?" The stallion spoke.
"A library is a good place to hide, but will fall when the fire reaches it. Huh?" Beta continued, before he noticed that the teacher spoke.
Alpha shook his head, before removing his helmet, revealing his face. "All we are here for is Celestia; to end this genocidal campaign that she has begun."
The mare lowered her head and gave up. There was no way she could argue with somepony that was willing to bring them to a safe haven, even if the bully was actually talking. "Fine, we'll go with you."
Beta nodded. "Everypony, grab a hold of the pony next to you, and whatever you do, don't let go." He turned to the mare. "And by the way, I am no bully." And teleported.
Right, so I think I should mention (This isn't part of the story, just a heads up for whoever is reading this) My computer is...having hard times connecting and surfing the web. So, I'm sorry if these aren't released every friday, I'm trying to work with what I have.