//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - Point Insertion // Story: The Foals of Harmony: The One Free Stallion // by Rainy Meadows //------------------------------// Ugh... my head... I wondered if I had a hangover. So what exactly had I been drinking? All I could remember was a haze... And in that haze, there were these-these things... “Rise and shine, Mr Baxter, rise and shine.” Oh no. Please. Not him. “Not that I wish to imply that you have been sleeping on the job.” His face appeared, rather alarmingly close to mine, those aqua eyes almost filling my world. His coat was white, his mane was black, and his suit was blue with a dark red tie. He had no cutie mark. The G-Colt. “No-one is more deserving of a rest than you,” he said, “and all the effort in the world would have gone to waste until... well, let’s just say your hour has come again.” I tried to speak. I could feel my mouth opening and closing, and yes, my lips were definitely moving, but no sound was coming out. How the smeg did he know my human name? “The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world,” said the G-Colt. I had no idea what he meant, but I did know that coming towards me was the inside of a train carriage. “So wake up, Mr Baxter. Wake up and smell the ashes.” I woke up. I was on a train carriage, with only two other ponies. Stallions. I can’t recall at this point exactly what they looked like, just that they were both wearing rather drab blue jackets. I looked down: so was I. “Didn’t see you get on,” one of them said to me. “I...” Wasn’t used to talking yet? “...don’t think I did.” “Hm,” said the stallion. “This is my third transfer this year.” “No matter how many times I get relocated,” said the other one, “I never get used to it.” With a squeal, the train pulled to a halt. “Well,” said the first one, “end of the line.” The two ponies, apparently used to this sort of thing, stepped off the train and onto the platform. I looked around. The first thing that struck me was that the station was brown. The trains around me? Brown. The floor under my hooves? Pale brown. The walls? Light brown. I considered that if I stood flat against them I might just be invisible. Also, these weird orb things were floating around everywhere, clicking and flashing and apparently taking pictures, and the walls were covered in propaganda posters. Mounted on the huge wall was a large screen, showing a middle aged, light blue unicorn with purple eyes and a mane of such pale blue it was almost white. “Welcome!” she said cheerfully. “Welcome to City 17! You have chosen or been chosen to relocate to one of our finest remaining urban centres. I thought so much of City 17 that I elected to establish my administration here, in the citadel so thoughtfully provided by our benefactors. I have been proud to call City 17 my home. So whether you are here to stay, or passing through on your way to parts unknown, welcome to City 17, it is safer here.” Somehow, every word she said made me feel like upchucking. The two other ponies that had been on the train with me were walking through a gate over to the left. A third was being checked over by some rather ominous looking black clad ponies wearing light grey gas masks. They had Civil Protection emblazoned on their sleeves. “First warning,” one of them said, “move away.” The civilian reached for a suitcase. “It’s all I have left,” he said. The police-like ponies shoved him roughly into a luggage rack and said “Move it!” “Alright, alright,” said the civilian. “I’m moving. Jeez!” He carried his suitcase through the gate the other two had previously gone through. A worried looking mare was watching from the fence next to the gate. “Were you the only ones on that train?” she asked. “Um,” I wasn’t sure what to say again, “I guess so.” “Overwatch stopped our train in the woods and took my husband for questioning,” the mare explained. “They said he would be on the next train, but I don’t know when that was. They’re being nice and letting me wait, though.” I walked through the gate, seeing no other place to go. As I wandered through a food court, I began to sense that not all was well in Equestria, if that indeed was where the G-Colt had decided to place me. Every pony face I saw looked dejected and depressed. “Don’t drink the water,” one of them said. “They put something in it to make you forget. I don’t remember how I got here.” Another was staring up at a screen not unlike the one I had seen on the main platform, where the blue unicorn was repeating her message. “Trixie again?” he said. “I was hoping I’d seen the last of her in City 14.” “Don’t say that too loud,” said a third, “this is her base of operations.” Trixie? That was a name that rang a bell. Apparently, she’d come to Ponyville calling herself the Great and Powerful Trixie, the most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria, and claimed to have saved Hoofington from an Ursa Major. However, she threw a panic attack and Twilight Sparkle – the incredible, intelligent, beautiful Twilight Sparkle – had to step in to save her from an Ursa Minor. Trixie had last been sighted heading out of Ponyville at top speed. Apparently, whoever was calling the shots now had chosen to give her a position of power. And she was definitely as boastful as Twilight had described. I looked down to the end of a corridor, where I saw more citizens being led through a checkpoint. There was a scuffle going on between two Civil Protection ponies and a civilian. “You. Citizen. Come with me.” “Wa-wait a minute, where are you-“ “GET IN HERE!” “Go on!” “Me?” “I SAID MOVE!” I definitely didn’t want to go down there. ‘So wait a minute,’ I thought as I explored the station further. ‘How long was I... away? Twilight said that Trixie was about the same age as her and her friends when she turned up, and on that monitor she looked close to middle age. What the hell happened to me? I threw myself at that-that thing and then...’ ‘I hope they’re all okay.’ Eventually I came to a fenced in area: an entrance to a platform with a train apparently departing for some place called Nova Discord. ‘Sounds promising,’ I thought. ‘Better check this out.’ Well, I would have done so if a Civil Protection pony wasn’t blocking my path. I went the other way, and when I entered the caged area leading to the platform both doors slammed shut and one of the camera orbs from earlier snapped some pictures of me. ‘Wonder if this is how Sapphire Shores feels,’ I wondered. ‘Or felt.’ “Don’t move,” said another Civil Protection pony, “hold it.” I didn’t move and I held it, wondering what the smeg was going on. A side door opened and yet another Civil Protection pony appeared. These guys were everywhere! “You, citizen,” he said, “come with me.” He led me down a corridor lined with cells, where ponies were obviously being interrogated. I heard snatches of talking and pleading coming from some of them, usually along the lines of “This must be a mistake. I have a standard relocation coupon just like everypony else.” An observation slot was open, but before I could get a look I was stopped and pushed into an interrogation room. The centrepiece was a chair standing in a pool of drying blood, making me choke back bile, and the wall had upon it a control panel and a screen. There was a camera hanging from the ceiling in the corner, and another door on the other side of the room. That’s it. I was dead. “Need any help with this one?” asked the CP who’d brought me. “No,” said the one who had already been in the room, a pegasus. He was the first I’d seen since my arrival at the station. “I’m good.” And with that, the escort CP departed. “Back up,” said the one still in the room, and the camera slid into the ceiling. “Yeah,” he said, “gonna need me some privacy for this one. Now...” He turned to face me and lifted up his mask. I stood where I was, frozen in fear that I would die within five minutes of arriving at this hellhole. I didn’t know what I expected to find underneath that mask, but it definitely wasn’t a grinning colt in his late teens. His coat was light blue, his mane coloured navy and striped with red and yellow, and his eyes a familiar rose colour. “About that drink my mom owes ya,” he said. “Your mum?” I asked. “Drink, what are- Do I know you?” “Well,” he said, “I’m rather hurt you don’t remember me. After all, you were the one who brought me into this world in the first place.” I squinted. No, it couldn’t have been... “Lightning Strike?” “Yep!” “Rainbow Dash’s son, Lightning Strike?” “The one and only!” “You scared the smeg out of me, you smeghead! But-but you were only about a month old when I- how old are you?” “Seventeen years young,” the pegasus replied chirpily. “It’s been seven-“ “Yep. Seventeen years since that... incident.” “The Combine invasion.” “That,” said Lightning Strike. He started to prod buttons on the control panel, and the screen above it flickered. “Sorry about that, by the way. Had to put on a show for the cameras. I’ve been working undercover for Civil Protection: can’t take too long or they’ll get suspicious, and I’m way behind on my beating quota as it is.” An orange earth pony with green eyes, freckles, a blonde mane and a Stetson hat appeared on the screen. She hadn’t aged at all since the last time I’d seen her, and I had never been happier to see her in my life. “Yeah, Lightnin’, what is it?” she asked. “Sorry, auntie AJ,” said Lightning, “but I’ve got somepony here you might wanna meet.” The mare’s eyes turned to me. “Well, as Ah live and breathe,” she said, “Hex? Ah expected more warnin’!” “Applejack!” I exclaimed. “Smeg, am I glad to see you!” “And so you should be,” said Lightning, “he was about to board an express train to Nova Discord.” “Well, Lightnin’,” said Applejack, “what’re you intendin’ to do?” “I’m thinking!” “Twilight’s ‘round here somewhere, she’d have an idea to get him here.” “What?” I felt my heart skip a beat. “Twilight as in Twilight Sparkle?” “Who else?” asked Lightning. “As long as you stay away from checkpoints, you should be alright. Listen, I gotta go, auntie AJ, we’re pushing our luck as it is.” “Alright,” said Applejack. “And Hex? Good to see ya.” “Good to see you too,” I said, and the screen went blank. “Okay Hex,” said Lightning, “looks like you’re gonna have to make it to Sweet Apple Basement by yourself.” “Sweet Apple Basement?” I tried my best not to laugh, but it was pretty difficult. “Well, it ain’t really a basement,” said Lightning, “but you try getting auntie AJ to change her mind once it’s made up.” There was a loud knocking at the door. “Oh, horseapples!” Lightning swore. “This is exactly what I was afraid of! Go out the back way, stack some stuff up to get out the window, keep going till you get to the plaza! Quick, before you blow my cover, I’ll meet up with you later!” I pulled open the other door and desperately scrambled up some rusting steps and leapt out a window onto a wooden crate which promptly broke under my weight. It most likely wouldn’t have in normal circumstances, but I had landed on it from a height of about four metres. Somehow I found my way back into the station. I had a brief moment of panic when I ran into a CP pony, but all he wanted me to do was but a drink can in the bin that he had knocked onto the floor, the smegging dick. I made my way through the waiting room and out into what Lightning had referred to as the plaza. It was a plaza. There was a column in a small garden in the centre, and upon it a screen which depicted Trixie apparently answering a few letters, and I choked again. I looked above it, and saw what was undoubtedly the tallest building I had ever seen in my whole life. It was a towering mass of blue steel, stretching so far into the sky that the pinnacle was lost in the clouds. Clouds – evidently the weather pegasi were no longer in employment. There was only one way out, and that was down a street to the right. I froze when I saw a CP barricade right up ahead, but I was in luck: there was an alley right next to me. It was blocked by a chain link fence, but there was also a ladder, a platform and a crate on the other side to break my fall. ‘Luck by my lady tonight,’ I said in the privacy of my thoughts. I instantly regretted it at the next place I came to. It was a blood-drenched children’s playground which evidently hadn’t been used in seventeen years. I didn’t know whether to cry (like a stallion) or throw up. There was a lump in my throat which could easily go either way. There was a burnt and broken baby doll in the corner of a flower bed, slowly replaying its cutesy message over and over again. I felt myself shudder in horror. Damn the Combine! There was no reason for this! This was-this was evil. I couldn’t bear to stay here a second longer. I cantered through the playground and into a nearby apartment building. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. The structure was swarming with CP ponies, and just as many civilians. Many were bucks comforting weeping mares. I went up several stories before I almost bumped right into a pair of CPs. “Psst!” said a pony behind me. “In here!” Glad of the escape, I ran into the apartment and the door was slammed behind me. “Run for the roof!” said the stallion who’d pulled me in. “There’s no time to lose!” “Run for your life!” shouted somepony else. “Civil Protection!” I ran for the roof, and heard the clopping of hooves right behind me. Evidently it was the most direct escape route. I darted into another apartment, happy for the cover, and another pony pressed his body weight against the door. “Head for the roof!” he shouted. “I’ll keep ‘em busy!” I wondered if my hooves ever touched the floor as I galloped up the stairs and out onto rooftops, panting my lungs out. A bullet rebounded off a tile and grazed my ear. Great. They were shooting at me. I started a madcap dash across the rooftops of City 17 as another PINGED off my horn. Eventually I reached an open window and leapt into an attic. There was a stairway leading down, so down I went, and heard the wood give way behind me as I found myself in a corridor with a door at either end. And then the doors at either end bust open in front of the hordes of CPs, who warmed up their electrical truncheons. One hit me on the head and everything went white. “Over here!” The voice. It couldn’t be... “Ha! No you don’t!” It was! There was a series of thumps and a small magical explosion, and then silence. “Thought so.” The whiteness faded and I was finally able to see the face of my saviour. And I was right. Again. “Let me guess,” said Twilight Sparkle, “Hex?” I rolled over and prised myself up off the floor. “Just because that’s what you said when we first met!” I said. “Holy smeg, you haven’t changed one iota!” Twilight ran a nervous hoof through her beautiful indigo mane. “Well,” she said, “that’s because-“ There was the crackle of a CP voice from somewhere lower down. “We’d better hurry,” said the gorgeous purple unicorn. “The Combine can be slow to wake, but once they’re up you’ll have a hard time taking them down.” She opened an elevator and the two of us stepped inside and began our descent. “Did you invent some kind of anti-aging spell?” I asked. “’Coz I was just talking to Applejack and she didn’t look a bit different.” “Um,” said Twilight, “promise you won’t get angry?” “Cross my heart and hope to fly,” I said, “stick a cupcake in my – ouch!” I rubbed my eye where I’d prodded it. “Well,” Twilight said, “when the Combine invaded, we needed a way to make sure we weren’t going to die very easily so we... kinda broke into your store and stole all your nanites.” She grinned anxiously. “I don’t blame you,” I said. “Wanting to stay the same. I’ve just met about a billion ponies who want exactly that. Though I don’t see why you had to break in.” “The door was locked and the teleporter was busted.” “Oh.” “Think of it this way,” said Twilight as she laid a hoof on my shoulder, “I stole your nanites as repayment for you stealing my heart.” I tried hard not to laugh at her blush. “Like I said,” I said as the elevator drew to a halt, “I don’t blame you.” We stepped out of the opening doors and Twilight led me through a veritable maze of corridors, all emblazoned with posters of the aforementioned Trixie. Twilight scoffed with disgust was we passed them. “Don’t get my friends started on Trixie,” she said. “I guess,” I said, “if she really wanted to be Great and Powerful she’d have done whatever it took.” “Like I said,” said Twilight, “don’t get started.”