I landed softly on the roof of one of Manehatten’s skyscrapers, my hooves kicking up dust. Below me, the city was burning. A pony garbed in black and white armor paced in front of me. It was the armor of my enemy, the armor of the ponies I had just killed in cold blood. My eyes narrowed as the pony kept pacing.

“We have less than an hour,” the pony said through his gas mask. The voice that came through was altered significantly to a very male-sounding tone. Static underlined the voice. “What’s next?”

“The last pony who’s responsible for all of this,” I gestured with a hoof at the burning city around me, turning away from my companion, “dies tonight.”

Two helicopters zoomed past, their rotary blades swishing through the air as they flew towards their next battle. It would have been easy to take them down from here, to just lash out. The distance wasn’t too far, and I could have easily jumped to close the distance between us. I had larger concerns, however, and I just watched as they flew away, towards the bridge connecting Manehatten Island to the mainland.

“Assuming we make it out of here,” my companion responded. The pony shrugged its shoulders, adjusting its weapon harness. A simple assault rifle was the only firearm that the pony carried, but various other trinkets and gadgets were attached to its chest. I didn’t need to ask to know what they did. “Do you think you’re ready?”

I turned and fixed the armored pony with a glare. “I was made for this.”

20 Days Earlier…
MANETEK Morgue, MANETEK Building, New Colt City

“Hey, I knew this pony.”

I was faintly aware of somepony talking about something. I struggled to make sense of the words I was hearing, struggled to string them together. No matter how I tried, though, I seemed to be trapped behind a veil.

“Yeah, he was Blackhoof.”

Blackhoof? What was Blackhoof? An organization I was part of?

“Well,” a second voice, deeper this time, attempted to punch through my veil, “now he’s ex-Blackhoof.”

Ex?

“His name was Kione, Chase A. Next of kin… whoa, you’re not going to believe that.” The higher voice paused, disbelief riddling his tones.

I heard the rustling of cloth and a low whistle and my mind added confusion to the mix. Were these ponies wearing clothing? Why?

“You’re right, I don’t believe that. Who would have thought that Rainbow Dash would be a relative of someone in Blackhoof?”

“Sparkle is the head researcher, you know. They say those two were closer than sisters years ago, before this entire fucking mess hit Manehatten.”

“Is Rainbow Dash his wife?”

Did I have a wife?

“I don’t know,” the deeper voice replied.

“Do you think this has anything to do with…” the higher voice paused, then resumed in more quiet tones, “the test subject from the EF zone?”

“I have no idea,” the deeper voice replied, resignation apparent in his voice, “and I don’t want to know. That kind of information was put on lock from the highest of high authority, and probably for good reason.”

The highest authority? Who or what were they talking about? The EF zone? The veil had become thinner, and I was beginning to make sense of some of the words they were saying.

“Prepare the eight inch blade. We’ll start by going through the torso.”

Wait. What? They were going to cut me up? I don’t think so. I pushed harder than ever against this veil that was holding me back. I could feel its weak points, I could feel it starting to give way, and I could feel… something behind it. Whatever it was, it glowed with a dark red light, and it seemed to pulse. I pushed and tore at the veil with my mind, hurling myself at it over and over…

…and the veil gave way.

My eyes shot open and I gasped, my lungs burning with disuse. There was a unicorn that was bent down low over me, with a scalpel wrapped in light blue magic hovering just below the base of my throat. The pony was wrapped in a light green-blue plastic material.

Biohazard suits, my mind whispered.

The two ponies recoiled in panic, stumbling over medical equipment as they hastened to get away from me.

“Get the fuck outta here!” the pony with the higher voice screamed.

“Get the kill team in here!”

Groaning, I managed to roll of the medical table I had been positioned on, knocking various glass instruments to the floor and shattering them in the progress. The ponies disappeared through the only door of the room, leaving it open in their haste.

I struggled to get to my hooves. My legs were wobbling, and my head was swimming with pain. I felt like I had just gotten shot multiple times and then hit with a train. The entire world was wobbling as I stumbled through the room and out the door.

A silent red light was rotating slowly, casting its glow down an otherwise dark hall. A sign kindly informed me (a smiling pony with a stethoscope around her neck was pointing to the ground floor of a vertical diagram of a huge building, proudly proclaiming “you are here!”) that I was on the ground floor.

Okay, just put one hoof in front of another. I could see the sliding magic-powered glass doors not ten steps away. By some miracle, I managed to stumble out of the building. There wasn’t another pony in sight as I fell to my stomach and literally crawled behind an idling truck.

I always disliked trucks. I don’t know why my mind decided to make me think this, after all. I couldn’t remember who I was, where I’d come from. All I could think about was how blocky trucks were, how foul and putrid they smelled.

I heard the sound of helicopter blades cutting through the air and looked up. I was propped against the truck on the opposite side of the entryway to the MANETEK building, but I still had perfect view of the proceedings.

The helicopter descended gracefully, landing in the front area that was enclosed by a wall topped with barbed wire. I noticed that there was, once again, only one exit from the confine, as the wall stretched around the entirety of the building. And the helicopter had landed right in front of it.

“Go, go, go!” At least six ponies in black combat armor began to pour out of the helicopter, forming a circle around their flying vehicle. Their saddles were fitted with assault rifles, and the medical ponies had since trotted out of the front of the building. By their communicative gestures, I could guess that they weren’t happy about something.

“Get on the ground!” The lead armed pony yelled at the scientist, a red laser trained on the unarmed pony’s head.

“Fuck you!” the medical pony yelled back. “You’re supposed to make sure that the things we get are dead the first time!”

“I’m authorized to shoot if you fucking argue with me,” the lead pony warned.

“What the fuck ever,” the medical pony replied, turning his back on the lead pony. “You’re not supposed to shoot civilian ponies.”

The laser fell from the medical pony as the lead soldier lowered his weapon. Looking to the soldier on his left, he jerked his head in the medical pony’s direction.

Pop.

My eyes widened as a single slug tore through the medical pony’s head. Blood splattered against the pavement as the pony fell to the ground, lifeless. The lead pony looked at the soldier on his right, who was already opening fire upon the other scientist. In a flurry of bullets and a crimson spray, the second medical pony fell to the ground.

A resounding coldness spread through me. I knew this was wrong, and something inside of me was shifting. It had heard the sound of those gunshots and recognized a threat, and wanted to quell it. I peeked out from behind the truck to try and get a better angle.

“Look!” One of the soldiers had spotted me. I panicked and began to run, only to find there was nowhere to go. I was stuck against a hard concrete corner, and the soldiers were closing in on me.

“Take him down!”

I felt the bullets tear through my chest. I felt them enter my body, and I felt them leave again as something inside me pushed them out of my body. Falling to all four knees, I panted heavily. Pain was the only thing I knew. It was all over my body, and blotted out everything.

Everything, that is, except that I was still alive.

What was happening to me?!

Time slowed as I desperately cast my eyes around, looking for a way out. There! A dumpster was shoved against the wall of the corner. Maybe I could jump on top of that, and clear the wall. Doubt struck as I saw that the wall was easily ten feet tall. Even with the dumpster aiding me, I would still have to leap over seven feet of steel-reinforced concrete topped with barbed wire.

“Take him down! Take him fucking down!”

No time to deliberate, then. Throwing caution to the wind, I scrambled to the top of the dumpster. More bullets ricocheted off my flank. I tensed my muscles and jumped.

My breath caught in my chest as I cleared the seven foot wall, with several feet to spare. A giddy feeling came over me as I landed on the ground below, pavement fracturing beneath my hooves. The impact shook me, but I was otherwise unharmed.

The yelling from the armed ponies shook me out of my momentary daydream. I needed to get the fuck out of here. I could already feel myself weakening, and I knew I couldn’t keep up my guise of immortality forever.

I started to gallop away from the building, cutting between the tight alleys of Manehatten Island. A million things ran through my mind as I ran, but the most desperate question that rang out was the one I had no answer for.

Who am I?

Abruptly, I found myself on a busy street. Cars whisked by as angry earth and unicorn ponies honked at each other, and pegasus ponies were walking down the sidewalks. I found it strange, but as one walked past me, grumbling about the military-enforced no-fly zone throughout the city, I began to gallop again.

Why was I being chased? Why did these ponies want to kill me? I didn’t have any of the answers. But maybe there was one pony who did. Silently, I determined that wherever this Rainbow Dash was, I had to find her quickly, before the military did.

My planning was cut short as the sound of a helicopter roared from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder, still galloping, and was unsurprised to find that the helicopter that landed in front of MANETEK was now floating behind me.

A small explosion lit up the left side of the helicopter as a missile detached itself from the helicopter. It flew through the air, and my eyes widened as it focused in on me.

“Shit!” Instinctively, I jumped. I could feel the edges of the missile graze my hooves as it tore past me, exploding on the ground. The force of the explosion threw a car into the air, its passengers screaming in terror. I landed on the ground and deftly turned, throwing my front two hooves in the air.

Oh fuck me. I was going to get crushed by a taxi. At least, that’s what I thought.

Instead, the taxi hit my hooves and I held it there, a surge of strength running through me. Moreover, the taxi felt as light as a pegasus wing feather. I knew that I could hold it for hours, maybe even days without growing tired.

A hail of bullets jerked me back to the present. The helicopter floated above me, and I could have imagined it smirking as it swooped in for the kill.

“What are you gonna throw at me next, huh?!” I screamed at the helicopter. “What do you want from me?!”

The only answer I got from the helicopter was the armed ponies beginning to rappel down from the floating helicopter. Shit. That wasn’t good.

Briefly, I weighed my options. I could run, but they’d end up chasing me all over New Colt. I could surrender, but they’d probably just kill me anyway. So, I did the only thing that I could. I threw the taxi (screaming passengers included) at the helicopter.

The taxi collided with the helicopter in a fiery explosion. It began to sink as the blades slowed, and eventually hit the ground, crushing the soldiers who had managed to rappel off the helicopter.

Falling back to all four hooves, I stared in disbelief at the destruction I had caused. How did I do this? What am I?

I had to get to higher ground, but ascending a building the normal way through its interior was out of the question. Blood was matted in my coat, mostly my own. So I started to gallop. I don’t know what possessed me to do it, but I ran straight at the side an apartment building. My hooves hit the wall…

… and I continued to run, straight up the side of the wall. A sense of vertigo gripped me as the ground vanished, but I kept running. Soon, another feeling accompanied the vertigo: freedom. There was no restriction on where I could and could not go. I may not have remembered who I was, or even knew what I was, but I was free.

I reached the top of the apartment complex building. I landed on my hooves lightly, since my momentum had carried me higher than the building actually extended. Another pang of weakness shot through me and I doubled over, groaning. I was still getting weaker, and the sound of more helicopters rising above the apartment building wasn’t doing anything for my disposition.

Great. Now I had to kill them, too.

Gazing around, I noticed that there were several industrial-sized air conditioning units fastened to the top of the building. A simple buck with my hooves was enough to detach the air conditioning units. Grimly, I smiled.

Two destroyed helicopters and one long fall from the top of a building later, I stumbled my way through a nearby alley. My body was ready to give out, and voices were whispering in my ear.

“He…Chase…Kione...Blackhoof…Rainbow…”

I couldn’t go on. Falling to my knees for what seemed like the tenth time that day, I crawled toward a dimly lit corner and slumped against the wall. The last thing I saw before I shut my eyes was a pony dressed in black combat armor, his laser trained on my chest.

Then the world went black as I shut my eyes. I knew what was going to happen next.

“Hostile spotted.”

“Roger that,” even though the response through his radio was quiet and filled with static, I could easily make out what was being said. “Permission to engage.”

“Copy that.”

Pop. Pop.

I felt the slugs sink into my chest. Feigning death, I slid farther down the wall. I heard the pony’s footsteps as he turned and began to walk out of the alley.

“Status report!” Well, that didn’t take long.

“Tango down; terminated,” was the pony’s confident reply. I opened my eyes and silently got to my hooves, feeling adrenaline course through me. The soldier pony’s back was faced toward me. He wasn’t paying attention to his ‘kill’ at all.

Perfect.

The poor pony never stood a chance. He stood there yammering on his radio, oblivious to me as I crept up behind him. I moved slowly, getting into position, then swiftly slid underneath his torso and kicked his chest with my back hooves.

The pony went flying into the wall, nearly breaking through. I heard the crack of multiple bones breaking as the pony groaned and whimpered, trying to crawl forward. I slowly walked toward him.

That weird presence inside me twisted and reached, and four dark red tendrils of matter extended out of my body. They wrapped themselves around the dying pony, who quickly dissolved into a writhing mess of dark red matter. I watched the entire thing with detached interest; I was too far out of it at that point to marvel at it or feel apprehension.

Of course, that all changed when the writhing mass merged itself with my body. The swirling matter condensed itself into strands, which wove into me. My body started shifting, accepting the new addition.

The entire thing felt amazing. It was like someone was eating and digesting pure energy for me, and injecting it directly into my veins. I felt like I could take on the world, or at least a sizable chunk of New Colt City.

And then the memories hit me. Images swirled in a maelstrom of color and voices as everything the soldier pony had ever done rushed into my mind. I barely registered that my knees gave out before a memory swirled in front of me that lingered. Something in my subconscious had reached out and latched onto it, and I relived the entire thing…

“Alright, maggots, listen up!” Oh man, the commander really has something big to say. “We got ourselves a new situation. I’m posilutely-fuckin’-sure that you all remember the EF zone, right?”

“Right!”

“Well, we got ourselves the beginnings of what looks like a major shitstorm of the same kind we had back then in New Colt City! Our job is gonna be huntin’ down Patient Zero. Name was Chase Kione, codename ‘Crux’. We are to destroy that thing with anything and everything we have at our disposal. Remember, he ain’t a pony no more. Show no mercy, ‘cuz you sure as hell ain’t getting’ any.”