Chapter 5: Current Events

“There's so much to look at! I feel like my durned eyes are gonna pop right out of my head!”

Close to the black watch held city of Manehattan

  I knew that the wasteland was still inhabited with ponies and other such animals, but there were surprisingly low amounts of clear skies. Where were the Pegasus? It is their job after all to keep the weather in touch. Even if they were, they weren’t doing a good job at it. We were in a thunderstorm with lightning that would light up the sky as if it were day time. The lightning itself was green. This was odd weather, and the rain felt like tiny little stones hitting my helmet. I looked over at Winter, he was just walking along as if the rain was normal. I suppose all waste Landers learn to get used to it after a while, or they just have some really bucking hard heads. As I was walking along to our destination (Cloudsdale which is where I built the thing), I started noticing shadows stalking us. Eventually, one with glowing green eyes appeared about 10 hooves away from us. Then all these lights came on, their beams were pointed directly at us.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Tyco Riptides’ loyal enforcers” One mare said.

  Wait, I knew that voice. I turned on my flashlight and saw Silver Spoon staring at us. I was surprised to see her out here in this wasteland. Then another voice spoke up.

“Take the robot, kill the rest!” She said.

  It was Diamond Tiara. No surprise there, I could tell by her taunting tone. I looked over at the alicorn stallion with glowing green eyes, the same eyes I saw back in Geomania.

“Black Watch,” Winter said.

More soldiers surrounded us, preventing our escape. I drew my C-01r and took a fighting stance. I was in no mood to stall my mission. Then Flamebell spoke up as he raised his hoof, “I’ll see you in…. Hell!!” he said as a hidden gun fired off. The shot killed a Black Watch soldier. This alerted others, and they all started firing at us. I switched to my G Blades and went for the Alicorn named “BW-R0TS”. He took a fighting stance and pulled out a blade the same color as mine. I swung at his face, and missed. He had sidestepped like he was in no trouble and buck kicked me. This sent me flying into the fight Winter and the others were in. I looked around and saw a Black Watch mare soldier trying to stab me. I scooted over the side to dodge her blade. I jumped up, causing her to take a new fighting stance. She swung at me with a hoof, and I caught it. I pulled her into my blade, causing her to fall. She was stuck on my blade so I started swinging her around and around. After I gained enough momentum, her body flew off of my blade. She was flying straight at BW-R0TS. He teleported, and her body flew into the darkness. I looked up and saw him flying down straight at me. I waited for a second, and right before he hit me I jumped out of the way. He teleported again and appeared right behind me. He grabbed me and flew up into the air. Then he nose dived, causing me to land on my head. It took a second for me to get up, and when I did he punched me into the air. I landed away from the action, so it was just me and him. I got up again and saw him zooming straight at me. When he got about four hooves away, I asked, “Ready?!” as I switched to my pistol. “Now Die!!” I said as it fired a shot that was more powerful than that of my shotgun. This halted him instantly. He looked at me with murder in his eyes.

“At first, I thought you would be easy” he said quietly.

“Guess I was wrong” he said as he sprinted towards me.

“Do not test me” I said blankly as I sprinted towards him.

   During my sprint, I switched to my G Blades and prepared an uppercut. While my bladed hoof was traveling through the rain like a bullet, BW-R0TS did the same. Our blades gave off a large disturbance in more than just sound. It shook the ground and it sent us away from each other. As I was flying through the air, I saw Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon galloping away from the battle. I slowed down time and switched to my rail gun. I took my shot right beside the two. They stopped instantly and looked up at me. They pulled out weapons of their own and galloped to where I was going to land. When I landed, I saw them jump on top of me. They held me down and started shooting me. They took mainly headshots, so my energy bar was at forty-four when they stopped. I saw them start to walk away and I looked over and saw BW-R0TS trotting towards me. I was dying and I couldn’t get up. He whispered something I couldn’t understand.

“You can do this, stay calm” I repeated to myself.

“Nothing is true” he said as he used telekinesis to pick me up.

“Your deeds condemn you,” he said after he threw me into the air.

“May no pony remember you name,” he said as he teleported on top of me.

His buck kicked me down to the ground, and my health meter went below 20. Then he zoomed down at me with incredible speed, and I had nowhere to go. I was paralyzed as he flew down at me. When he landed, he landed on me with his back hooves. My health meter was below 10 after he did that. He used a healing spell and picked me up with his telekinesis again. He dropped me and galloped towards me. He used his wings to help him go faster. I was in shock so I still wasn’t able to move. When he was about two hooves away he spun around and buck kicked me with unnatural force. So hard it put a hole in my helmet’s visor. I lie there, looking up at the storm through my partially destroyed visor. Rain was falling through the hole into my eyes, but I didn’t blink. I was in too much pain and shock to flinch or move. This alicorn was too much for me. I saw him standing above me, “Sorry” he said as he pulled out a G Blade. I took a look at him with my emotionless face before he raised he hoof. Then in a flash of green light he stabbed me, and didn’t bother to take out the blade. My eyes were wide open in all of this, so I could see him trotting away slowly chanting, “Victory to the Black Watch.”

   After a few moments of lying there, my ears perked up as I heard somepony galloping towards my direction. “Damnit!!” I heard Nightingale say.

“Some pony help!” I heard a malfested voice say.

“Father?! Father please answer me!” I heard Winter yell.

“Oh Luna please help him!” I heard Nightingale say sadly.

  In a flash of dark blue light, I saw a dark blue alicorn standing above me. It was indeed Princess Luna. I could tell because her mane and tail flowed with the wind. She looked down at me with pity and regret.

“I’m so sorry Autumn” she said telepathically.

“Its ok Princess, always willing to die for you” I replied.

“Here” she said quietly.

She touched me with her horn and my health bar shot up to 500% once more. I got up and staggered a bit. I looked at my friends and then at Princess Luna. I looked at the blade inside of me, only to see it wasn’t there.

“Princess you should be going” I said.

“Who are you talking to?” Nightingale asked confusedly.

“What?” I asked.

I looked over at Princess Luna, only to see she wasn’t there anymore.

“Oh, no pony really” I said once more.

“If you say so” Flamebell said.

“Lets find some shelter, this is the lightest part of the storm” Wrapy said.

After a few moments of trotting, we came up on this old house. We looked at each other and shrugged simultaneously. I found that funny, first day out and we are already finding more about ourselves.

“In the morning we should keep heading to Manehattan” Nightingale told us.

We all nodded and headed to find our rooms. Before I went to sleep, I took off my helmet and sighed.

“Damn, this place got the hell beat out of it” I thought.

“And I’ll have to ask how exactly these malfested ponies came to be…malfested” I thought once more.

I put my helmet back on and closed my eyes. My spot in the house was in the corner, so I’m going to sleep in a ball? I shrugged and leaned on the wall, resting peacefully. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for us, were going to Manehattan.

   I awoke early the next morning. I blinked a bit and got up from the floor I apparently fell onto during the night. I heard a clatter from outside. I switched to my G Blades and snuck out. No pony else was awake that early so whatever was out here, I planned to dispose of it quickly. I looked up on the roof, nothing was there. I looked behind the house, nothing was there either. Then I looked to the side of the house, an unpleasant site it was to see. A very thin pony with tentacles and a suit with was tapping on the window. Then he “looked” at me, he had no face. I switched to no weapons at all and trotted up to “him.”

“You sir, need to find some other dimension. We already have a shortage on ponies here” I told him politely.

“He” looked at me and started tapping on my visor. I sighed and let him tap on it some more. I turned to walk back in, only to see him following me. I kept walking and he used his tentacle to keep tapping on my visor. We walked inside and I called out to the Wrapped pony. He came down quietly and saw my “friend”. He wasn’t scared at all, despite that he had no face.

“That’s Slender Mane” he said.

“I know that, but why is he here?” I asked.

“Ask him” Wrapy replied.

I looked at Slender Mane and asked him why he was here. He stopped tapping and got up in my face. He spoke nothing but just looked at me, then something hit me. He was here to say hello to Wrapy.

“hey Slender Mane” Wrapy said.

  Wrapy took a loose wrapping and used it as a tentacle. He wrapped up Slender Mane’s face and unwrapped it. Then Slender Mane disappeared into oblivion.

“The hell was that?” I asked quietly.

“Just saying hi the fourth dimensional way,” Wrapy replied.

“How are you fourth dimensional?” I asked eagerly.

“Lets take a walk C-01Ts,” he said as he turned to walk out.

“Ok” I said as I followed.

  After we got about a few hooves away he started with “let me tell you a story, Autumn,”

“About a stallion who felt that he deserved to die for what he did” he went on.

“This stallion thought it would be best to kill himself. And that’s what he did, only to find that he woke up the next morning. He found this odd and decided to try again. He kept trying, still waking up the next morning after he tried. Eventually he stopped and sought to find help. He did, but he found Slender Mane. Slender Mane explained to him that he had become fourth dimensional. The stallion had thought about this, and decided to go into stalking like slender pony. And he’s been around since the invasion first began” he explained.

“So that explains it eh?” I asked nicely.

“Yep that’s about it,” he replied.

We heard a gunshot and saw a bullet hole in the ground beside us. We looked up and saw a Black Watch Pegasus, glaring at us and fully armored like me. I switched to my rail gun and took my shot, he dodged it and fired off his own weapon. It was a rocket launcher. This bounty hunter was known as “Blacklight”. He was a fully armored bounty hunter, with a larger variety of weapons than I had. His armor was fully black with a red visor like mine and red lights on his armor’s shoulder, thigh, legs, and helmet. His current weapon looked like my rail gun, only it was black and had a red clip instead of blue. He turned his visor opaque so we couldn’t see his expression. He shot Wrapy with his rail gun and that sent him flying away from the field we were in. I looked back at him, his weapon was recharging. I shot once more, this time it hit.

“Damn!!” he said as he fell off the cloud.

The shot stunned him, so he couldn’t flare his landing. When he fell, blood shot out from his side. He got up and shot a rocket at me with his rocket launcher. I slowed down time and galloped over to the rocket. Just as it was about to hit, I jumped over it, causing Blacklight to miss. I switched to my shotgun and galloped over to him, and set the time back to normal. He saw this and switched to his G Blades. I shot at about 4 hooves away. He slowed down time and mirrored my bullets. They came right back at me and I had nowhere to go. They hit me, sending me back. He galloped up to me while I was unstable and uppercut me with more speed and power than I had ever seen or felt. This caused my health to drop bellow 60%. As he was preparing another hit, I pulled out my rail gun. My shot hit him, and staggered him. I galloped up and buck kicked him further back. I switched to my C-01r and opened fire. This sent him back with such momentum and force that when he hit the ground he rolled a bit. I trotted over to him and an indicator popped up.

“You can use telekinesis to pick things up without touching them by holding out your hoof and concentrating on the object.” it said.

I concentrated on Blacklight and held him up with my telekinesis. A little white ball appeared over his head as I did that.

“Draw…your final breath” I said tauntingly as I let him go.

He looked up and galloped away. I took my shot through his leg, causing him to fall.

“Fool” I thought.

I galloped towards him and held him down once more. Then Wrapy came up from behind and a hidden blade spouted from his hoof.

“Your deeds…condemn you” he said as he put the blade through Blacklight’s visor.

“I‘ll see you in hell” I told the now dead Blacklight.

“We should probably get going” I told Wrapy.

He nodded and continued to trot back towards the house. It took us about five minutes to get over there and back, overall ten minutes in that little trip we took. We knew that it was still pretty early and if we started that way, we could get a headstart. Wrapy told me that the fastest way to get to “my” time machine was through Manehattan. After we got to our temporary home, we got our few supplies and started to wake everypony else up. After everypony was awake, we headed out. Heading for Manehattan.

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The road to Manehattan, by the Everfree forest

Though going by road wasn’t really a smart idea, where else was there to go? The land was singed and stripped of any grass or shrubbery. Except the Everfree forest, it was just a landmass of dead, singed trees. I thought of walking through it, but then something caught my eye. I zoomed in and saw a black pony in a hood staring back at me, with a smirk on his face.

“Hey, who is that?” I asked Winter.

“Hmm? Oh, that’s Adriano Adalfiere. He’s an assassin for The Society” Winter replied.

“What is his current mission?” I asked nicely.

“And why is he smiling?” I asked once more.

“He smiles because he doesn’t want anypony to know his personality, he has a different expression everyday. His current mission is to assassinate the Black Watch mayor of Manehattan.” Winter replied.

I looked over at the now gone Adriano and continued to trot on.

“I wonder, what time it will be when we get there?” Flamebell asked.

“About 6:00” Winter replied.

In unison, the rest of us, we all started saying “Yeah.” Despite the fact it was about 10:00 a.m. I ignored it. When Winter Wind said something, he knew he was right about it. I first noticed that yesterday and the night before, he said what ever it was with such calmness that it sounded like he was planning at least 4 steps ahead.

“Stop, its an Usurpation camp. But usually the have some sort of mine or facility built under it for reinforcements.” Nightingale said quietly.

I looked over and saw a few concrete buildings in a circle. We all agreed on one thing, that was to destroy the camp. We found a hill to hide behind and spied on the camp.

“Gratta che, we will get there at about ten if we do this” Winter said.

Although I don’t know any bitalian, I could tell it meant something bad. Flamebell offered me to go with him to take out the guards. We all agreed on that and Flamebell and I were slowly heading to the camp.

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Outside the camp

  Flamebell and I started on opposite sides of the camp, so if one of us got caught we could save each other easily. I started going behind a building and saw an Usurpation Soldier come around the corner. I pinned myself to the wall, hoping it would give me cover. It didn’t so when it looked at me, I switched to my G Blades and put one through its visor. Blue blood spewed out and onto the ground. I looked away and continued our mission. I looked to the center of the camp and saw more enslaved ponies and foals. Then I saw Usurpations executing them one by one. I saw one foal begging a Usurpian soldier to spare him, then a bullet hole appeared in his head. I slowed down time and galloped into the middle where at least 18 Usurpians murdering these ponies and foals. I picked one up with telekinesis and threw him into my blades. He fell over and I saw 17 Usurpian soldiers charging at me. I changed time back to normal and took a fighting stance. I killed the first one by slicing his neck open. Then the second by stabbing him through the shoulder. I backed up and prepared for the next Usurpian to charge at me. When he did, I pulled my hoof back and stabbed his head. I jumped over him, with my blade still in him, and ripped his head off. I threw it at another Usurpian soldier, knocking him back. I jumped and dived towards him, stabbing his neck with my blades, and ripped them out , decapitating him. The next Usurpian came up behind me, he didn’t last very long after I spun around and sliced his head open. Three more charged at me, I prepared my blades by scraping them together. Then something weird happened. Plazma bullets shot out of the blade I scraped. I waited for one Usurpian to get close enough to me so I could get an accurate shot. When he did, I let him have it. It broke him in two and sent him into a wall. The next Usurpian threw a punch. He missed and I stabbed his head. I spun his lifeless body around and around and let him go. He went flying into a wall, he hit it so hard that he cracked it. I turned around and saw another Usurpian coming towards me. After he got close enough, I pulled up both of my blades. This took both his front legs off and caused him to back flip into the air. He landed a few feet away on another Usurpian soldier. I went offensive this time and went for an Usurpian against a wall. I buck kicked him so hard that it left a hole in the wall. He fell over forwards, dead. I changed to my C-01r and started opening fire. I killed about seven more Usurpians after I stopped shooting. I trotted over to the Usurpian that I threw the body of another at. He couldn’t get up so this made it easy for me to kill him. I took out my rail gun and shot his head. It was filled with so much force that it caused his body to stand up. He was headless and lifeless. So I just pushed him down, and trotted over his body towards the enslaved ponies. While I was freeing the ponies, Flamebell finally showed up.

“Where the hell have you been?” I asked.

“Taking out those other Usurpian soldiers behind the camp.” he replied.

“There were more?” I asked.

“Yes, about 20 more” he replied in an honest voice.

“What? How? We didn’t see them when we were over on the hill,” I said.

“They have mother bucking back doors to these things” he replied.

“Damn those Usurpations, Damn them to the moon!” I thought.

  I turned away from Flamebell and trotted over to the body of the young colt that was killed. I looked down at him with such sorrow that I didn’t even notice Flamebell and Winter put their hooves on my back. I turned around and saw them looking at me while Nightingale and Wrapy freed the enslaved ponies. I turned back around and kissed the colt on the head, sending my prayers to Princess Celestia. I trotted over to a mare who couldn’t stop crying, she was alone. I trotted up and asked “was that your colt?”

“Vweis?” (Geomanian for “what?”) she replied.

“Min apologheic tin yur kolt” (Geomanian for “My apologies to your colt”) I told the mare.

She sniffled a bit then replied “jshonke” (Geomanian for “Thank you”). I gave her a nod and trotted on with Flamebell and Winter.

After all the ponies were out and galloping away, we turned our attention to down bellow in the Usurpian’s camp.

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under the Usurpian camp

“Hot damn, its crowded as hell in here” Nightingale said.

“Shhmhh!” Winter silenced Nightingale.

  We continued walking in our little group until we got to a fork in the pathway we had. We looked at each other and decided to split up.

“Winter, you should go with Autumn” Flamebell suggested.

“Ok, I agree. Buona idea” Winter said.

We split up and Winter and I headed down the pathway which turned into a hallway the more we walked through it. An indicator popped up as I looked up and said “Advanced Usurpation Soldier.” All I could see was metal and a little concrete. But the indicator insisted on it being there so Winter and I decided to check it out.

“Stop” Winter whispered.

Well apparently Winter saw it and decided to take him out. He disappeared for about ten seconds, then the Usurpation fell from whatever it was the Usurpation Soldier was standing on. I looked at it for a minute, it had a full body of armor like mine. His helmet had red streaks on it along with a bit of blue on the edges. Turquoise blood was oozing from his neck, side, and visor. I looked at it for a bit more then trotted on. Winter had taken out the other Usurpations in the room the whole time I stood there. I felt bad that I didn’t help him. He looked at me and turned around, as if he didn’t mind. I shrugged and continued on. Eventually we got to the engine room. Winter and I looked at each other deviously. “Blow this damn thing to the moon” we said in unison. I had a few grenades and decided to use them. We heard so clopping towards our direction. Winter peaked out and motioned somepony to come to us. It was Flamebell.

“Where’s the others?” Winter asked.

“Another luna damned fork in the pathway” he replied.

“Aww hell” I said.

After I was finished with the charges, we set out to look for Wrapy and Nightingale. While we were trotting down a hallway, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I stopped and looked at it. It was a few Usurpation Soldiers checking up on something in a room. I was going to do this quietly and nicely. I crept into the room and switched to my blades. Right as they turned around, they got a hoof full of blades. I pulled them out and held them for a second. I let them fall silently and galloped out, hoping I could catch up with Winter and Flamebell. Eventually I did, and everypony was ready. We had found Nightingale and Wrapy all geared up and replenished in supplies. We turned to be on our way, and saw a rather buff Usurpation Soldier looking straight at us. Winter galloped at him and buck kicked him so hard as to simply stagger him. The Usurpation, however, got pissed and picked Winter up with a hoof. I switched to my shotgun and galloped up to him. I grabbed onto his neck, held on tight, and started shooting. This did nothing. The Usurpian put Winter down and grabbed me. He held me up and threw me down with a thud. I tried to get up, then he held me down with one hoof. I looked up and saw him looking at Wrapy. Wrapy, however, used a few loose wrappings as tentacles and picked up the Usurpian. Wrapy, threw the Usurpian into the room we were in and told us to run. We all ran to the place we were before and set off the charges. When we got out, we saw a huge explosion go off around the whole camp. It literally blew a hole in the ground, so inside of the perimeter of the camp, the whole landmass was collapsing. Winter flew into the air as the land was falling. I looked down and saw I was about to be spiked by a pointed rock. I fell onto the rock and blacked out.

  The next thing I knew I was on the ground outside of a city. I saw Black Watch guards all over the balconies and walls of the place. This was Manehattan. As I looked up, I saw the sky was turning and Shade of orange, red, and yellow. It was sunset.

Manehattan

I looked around and saw no red tint or shade to my surroundings. My helmet was off. I looked to the side and saw a little reflection of me, I was wearing a hoody under my armor. How they got it of, I had no idea, but this hoody felt familiar. It felt like my special hoody back at home. I turned my head and saw my cutie mark on the hood. I looked beside me and saw my helmet, with a huge hole in it. Anypony could’ve seen my face if I wore it so I suppose it made sense to take it off. But was it necessary? My head could’ve been taken clean off from my neck if I didn’t have it on. I looked on a balcony and saw a Black Watch guard looking straight at me. I could tell that something was about to go down, even if my friends weren’t in the area.