Singularity: Demons in Paradise
Chapter 19: Crash And Burn
Previous Chapter Next ChapterRenko sat in Sugarcube corner, his gun was laying on the booth seat next to him, Pinkie pie was talking up a storm to him while he and Twilight just watched in silent boredom as they both still could not believe that the pink pony could possibly talk on-and-on the way she did.
"So Twilight, how much did you learn about Renko when he was in canterlot with you? Are you two dating? are you two going to be sharing the library when all of this blows over?" Twilight and Renko both had an embarrassed blush on their cheeks as they realized where pinkie had gotten to in the conversation, Twilight tried to respond but ber brain couldn't register how to put a sentence together because of what she knew her friend was suggesting... so Renko answered first.
"Pinkie, we are just friends, I stay at the barracks now... and will be with all the other guards when we get called back to canterl-" His statement was cut off as he saw Pinkie begin to violently twitch, shudder, and whatever else her "Pinkie Sense" allowed. As soon as she stopped both Renko and Twilight had their mouths open, surprised that Pinkie hadn't broken her neck in what looked like a siezure.
"That one was a doozie..." she began, turning to Twilight, "...Even bigger than the one that predicted that you'd believe in my Pinkie Sense." Renko began to reach for his gun, he knew that if this 'Doozie' meant what he thought it did... there were about to be more deaths on his hands. His thoughts were answered almost a silent minute later when he began to hear screaming, the girls and him rushed ouside quickly. Renko barked orders to each of the elements.
"Rainbow Dash, I want you to warn Luna that we have more reverts in town. Everyone else... I want you to round up the survivors and get them to the barracks." They all gave confirming nods as Renko dashed off toward the screaming. His body threatened to completely stop him as he saw the massacre that had happened near the edge of town.
"All these innocent civilians... all of them... and I couldn't save them... What good is a device that goes through time if I can't save anyone with it." He thought as a feeling of soul-shattering cold washed over him, the feeling didn't last though, his gaze fell to a group of reverts that were feeding on the fresher corpses and the fury of his memories began to fill his mind. He no longer cared if these monsters were close-combat killers, he wanted every single last one of them dead at his feet... even that was at least a little compensation for what happened. He shouldered his M16 and charged toward them guns-a-blazin'.
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Luna had heard the screams even before the element of loyalty warned her about the monsters, she had readied four guards that were to join her in the fray after Rainbow had left, a snag caught her mid-way out of the barracks though. Before she had time to react, all of her guards were slaughtered, as if they had been attacked by an invisible assailant. She tried turning to get some sort of glimpse of her attacker but she only saw the bodies of her guards strewn about the area. When her gaze came back towards Ponyville's direction she saw a creature that was shaped like Sergeant Renko, his features were masked by a full bodysuit, but she knew that this creature was no ally.
Despite her attempt to throw up a defensive shield, the creature managed to get to her before she could cast the spell, the creature's hand locked around her throat and a massive electric charge shot through her body. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was the creature standing over her giving orders to several others like it.
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Sweetie Belle was being chased by what looked like an overgrown bug, there were several thoughts going through her head at the time but only one stuck out the most.
"...And Applejack told me that my fear of bugs was irrational..." she sped along the street in panic and tried to turn enough times to try and confuse the creature that was chasing her. Unfortunately, everything came to a screeching halt as one of her turns placed her at a dead end.
"Now why did I have to go and do that...?" she squeaked in fear as she heard the chittering sounds of the giant bug coming to get her, the ominous orange glow that it gave off before coming into view scared her almost as much as the evil bug-looking creature did. Her pupils shrank in fear as the creature began to creep closer and closer to her, she held her hooves out in front of her and waited for the pain to come.
A small echoing explosion brought her back to her senses and she saw nothing left of the creature except for an orange puddle of goo, she looked around to try and find her savior, her eyes fell upon a guard that was at the end of the alley. The unicorn stallion had just brought his rifle to a resting position and quickly went to check on the filly he saved.
"Are you ok?" He asked while he lifted the filly onto his back.
"I-I think so..." She stuttered, truth be told she was actually thanking Luna and Celestia that she was alive.
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Moon Shimmer had just dropped Sweetie Belle off with her sister when he could hear more gunfire coming from town square. He dashed off as quickly as he could to try and help his sergeant, he and several of his guards were surprised by the sight that greeted them when they got to town square though. The corpses of many of the townsfolk were strewn about as if feral beasts had rampaged through the town, the corpses of the monsters... that they had learned from Renko were reverts... were similarly strewn about riddled with bullet holes and others even looked blasted apart, but the final thing that shocked them was Renko sitting against Town Hall with several bleeding wounds. Moon Shimmer was the first to his side.
"What happened... We need to get you a medic..." He blustered before shouting out for a medic to get his flank over to them. Renko gave a sly smile that quickly turned into a grimace as a wave of pain shot through him.
"Don't... Worry... I've been... Through... Worse than... This, You... Should've seen... Me when... I was... on... Katorga-12... There were... a lot... more..." Renko's breathing had been incredibly labored, but the medic that came to his aid had almost forced him to shut up and allow them to put him on a streacher. Moon Shimmer knew that his friend was tough, but the grotesque display of power that was evident on the remains of the reverts proved that he was a killing machine, a new wave of fear spread through him as he thought about what Renko was able to do.
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Renko had gotten up off the streacher when he saw the entrance of the barracks, the bodies of the guards had looked like they had been attacked before they could even draw their weapons, Renko fell to his knees as he realized that they were lunar guards. His heart sank even lower when he heard that Princess Luna was not among them, that had been the straw that broke the camel's back, sadness flooded his entire body as he looked upon the devastation that had happened in the wake of the reverts. He brought his hands to his face in order to cover the shame that he had been feeling, none moved to stop him... out of respect, kindness, or fear he did not know or care... all he knew was that he had won the battle... but lost the war. He turned his sight sharply to his right when he felt a hoof on his shoulder, his mind was grabbed by a pair of light-blue eyes. He began to realize that he was looking at his friend Pinkie before he noticed something different about her, she had a pitying look in her eyes and her hair was almost perfectly straight, she closed her eyes and pulled him into a tight hug... not caring whether his blood or the blood of the reverts got on her. He did not refuse, in fact, he held her back because he knew that she needed it as much as he did.
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He didn't know when he had broken the hug, nor when he had gotten up and limped off to the hospital tent, all he knew was that he now laid on one of the tables staring up at the top of the tent. He had a mask that was pumping oxygen into his lungs on his face, his body was bandaged in so many places that the doctors thought that they would need to mummify him to make the process easier. Everything was silent, except for the beeping of the heart-monitor and even that was low, the silence made Renko feel horrid... he knew that as soon as he recovered he would have to explain to Celestia what happened, but until then he only had silence to accompany him, Luna had been ponynapped and he had nothing to go on except for a bunch of dead reverts. Despite all of the hardening and tempering that he had gone through in the military, he now began to silently sob, each one made the beeps on the heart monitor fluctuate.
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