Last time on “There Is a Very Good Chance No One Will Survive This” Quest:
>Continued to be hunted down by Nightmare Moon.
>Retreated to the exterior garage and hoped into the biggest, most heavily armored vehicle you could find with the others
>Didn't really know where you were going and ended up making a big circle with the crazy pony hot on your tail.
>In a panic, you started hitting buttons and started reversing to her instead of away.
>Coming up with an idea, you parked it to block the hall way and have everyone pile out the front.
>Applejack didn’t make it.
>Ran with the other back to the BIO section and tore through the lab, trying to find anything helpful.
>A giant machine with a bunch of robots plugged into it caught your eye. Twilight voiced her concern that it's probably dangerous when it started talking.
>It turned out that Celestia was imprisoned inside computer somehow and needed your help.
>Pinkie went to get some schematics to help you out, but the ceiling exploded on top of her.
You are Rusty Shackleford, a human with no memory who has found himself lost in Equestria.
Currently, you have deep underground in some strange human metropolis full of the dead. You are in a lab with Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and what you guess is Celestia's mind in a machine. You are holding two large industrial wires hooked up to the machine, trying to figure out how to put her in a robot and are completely at a loss how.
The ceiling has just explosively collapsed on top of Pinkie Pie as she was flying over to give you a schematic of the machine. In the dust and debris, you can see a figure barely visible in the billowing clouds. She's laughing manically.
"Girls," You whisper to the others. "Try to help Pinkie. I have an idea."
You set the wires aside and slowly stalk over to the settling cloud of debris, hands help up defensively. Nightmare Moon, inhabiting Trixie's body, giggles softly and gently trots over the rubble. Pinkie is no where to be seen.
"Why are you doing this?" You ask her. You're heart is beating in your ears. In the corner of your vision, you can see Rarity and Twilight trying to circles around the lab discreetly to the pile of junk.
"We've been over this, my little pet," The dark pony coos mockingly. "One way or another, revenge is mine. And it's all thanks to you."
"What are you talking about?"
"With out you, none of this would have been possible." Her smile is a mile wide this close to you. Luckily, she doesn’t seem to nothing the others sneaking around her. "Of course, you don't remember any of it, ahaha!"
"Leave him alone you big jerk!"
Pinkie suddenly blasts out from the rubble, legs extended as she hurtles into the crazy pony from behind! Magical wings damaged, they are still able to carry her drunkenly through the air. The Pink pony slams on to the unicorn's back, trying to wrestle her.
You leap forward, seeing the opportunity!
Leaping over a turned over chair, you rush the dark unicorn while she tries to buck Pinkie off her back. You go for her horn, knowing if she starts using magic it'll be over before it even begins. Swinging your fist forward, knuckles cracking from how tight your fist is, you try to hit the horn but miss and end up connecting with the side of her face.
She snarls in fury, staring flaming daggers at you and snorting hot breath through her nostrils. Behind her, Rarity and Twilight also charge into the fray.
"Insolent FOOLS!"
You try to lay in more blows, but there's the sound of a build up of energy as her horn grows too bright to look at. Force explodes outward, knocking you in the face and chest, sending you flying backwards. Your back slams into something hard and land on your face. Ear's ringing, vision swimming, you try to get up, unable to get a breath.
The evil unicorn is standing where she was. You can see Pinkie's legs sticking out from over the edge of a table from your spot on the ground, but not any of the others.
Slowly, painfully, you try to drag yourself forward, trying to reach the table with the test tubes. Your back hurts really bad and there are spots dancing in your eyes, but you push through it. Gripping the table edge, you pull yourself up, the rack of vials jangling from the movement.
The dark pony is staring at you from across the table, that terrible smile on her face again.
"It's amusing how you keep going like this. Always such fun."
"What are you talking about?" You're having trouble breathing. Your speech comes out hoarse. "I don't remember anything you did to me."
"Did to you?! Ahaha!" She hops up on the table, laughing and stopping her head down low to you. Face to face. "Taking away your memory is fun, but this is getting tiring."
The tip of her horn glows with a circular white ball of light and she drives int to your head, giving you a horrifying sense of deja vu.
"No!"
Suddenly everything melts away. You're sitting in front of a large, complicated electronic console. There's a number of screens depicting different scenes, mostly of people coming or going with their daily lives. The voice in your head has given everything you need now.
You know exactly what you need to do.
You press the buttons in their proper sequence. Alarms buzz and and red lights flash, displaying warning. You turn them off. They're annoying. When you're done the console shuts down. It's out of your hands now, giving you plenty of time where you need to be.
Gasping a breath, you're back in the, still half laying on the table. The crazy pony is standing over you.
"Starting to see now, 'Rusty?'" You says softly, looking down at you with a coy smile and a glowing horn. "No? How about more?"
"Stop!"
The horn descends on you again. You're standing over someone who's badly hurt. They're crawling away from you, leaving a trail of blood the way a snail leaves slime. Listening to the voice in your mind, you casually kick them onto their back and put your weight down on them with your knees on their chest.
"Stop!" He's an old man. Too weak to fight back, even if he wasn't bleeding. "Why are you doing this?!"
You don't say anything as you shove your thumbs in his eyes. His screams are drowned out by the voice's approvals and praises.
Gasping for breath, you're back in the lab. Nightmare Moon is practically standing on top of you now, giggling like a lunatic.
"It was you," You say, each word clipping as you try to breath through the panic and the pain.
"Of course," She says, her expressing oozing smugness. "But I couldn't have done it without you, 'Rusty.'"
"Why? Why me?"
"You were so willing to let me in. So weak. Just like this little show pony," She says, placing a hoof to her chest. "So upset, so full of spite. She was like a magnet. So long as there are those like you two, I'll always be around."
You nod, following along with Nightmare Moon and trying to remain as passive as possible emotionally. Hands sifting through your pockets, you find what you've been looking for and don the sunglasses you found on one of the dead. The moment you do....a little light comes on inside them, followed by a little image of a battery crossed out.
The dark pony looks at you, bemused.
"Those silly things won't help you."
"Oh, you know me. Lost my suit. Still need to go out with style."
"Go out? Ahaha. You idiot, I'm not going to kill you."
"Wh-"
A beam of light as thick around as your waist strikes Nightmare Moon on the side, sending her flying off of you and across the room. Your ears are ringing , but you're OK.
You hop up off the table, knees buckling weakly a little when you get to your feet. Following the ionized trail that was almost burnt into your cornea, you see Twilight leaning against the rubble, her horn actually smoking some. She looks dead on her hooves, but has the fierce look of determination of someone who isn't going to just give up.
You quickly spin around the other way. Nightmare Moon has been blasted only a few feet away, having collided roughly through a few tables and taking out a huge chunk of the robot machine containing Celestia. Seeing her sprawled to the ground dazed, you rush over. Sliding to a stop on your knees, you latch onto her horn with both your hands.
The dark pony shake her head slightly, then looks up, noticing you holding onto her horn.
"What do you think you're doing?"
You go at the horn with everything you have left in you, slapping, hitting, fiddling. You get a few satisfying vibrating TAWNGs from it in response. Nightmare Moon isn't using any magic!
Though she looks very annoyed.
"Are you quite finished?" She says, rolling her eyes are you keep assaulting you magical appendage.
"Rusty!" You hear Rarity call from behind you somewhere, followed by the clipty clop of hooves running.
You continue your assault like nerds having a sissy slap fight against a school yard bully, her horn sounding like a flicked wall spring. Nightmare Moon isn't even flinching away, simply watching you keep at it for a few second.
"You are beginning to annoy me, you know."
She suddenly stand up onto her hooves, shouldering hard as she does. The blow was surprisingly strong, sending you sliding backwards on your knees and colliding into something. You fall over backwards, fining yourself in a heap with Rarity and Twilight. The three of you scramble to get back up as the crazy pony stalks over to you on the ground.
"No more games."
The three of you bolt up and in different directions.
Twilight scrambles over to the machine with Celestia in it. The thing looks partially totaled after the evil pony slammed into it; several of the robots that were hooked up to it are in pieces on the ground, mimicking the dead bodies present everywhere.
Rarity grits her teeth and holds her ground, horn glowing fiercely against the darkness slowly approaching her. She buy's you enough time.
You rush to the closest table you can see with chemicals on it. There's dozens of them, in every color of the rainbow and in every shaped container imaginable; vials, test tubes, beakers, funny looking flasks, sealed cups.
And none of them are labeled! They only have some kind of code on them of letters and numbers. G - 8, H - 14, EF - 2. None of them make any sense to you!
Knocking stuff over with trembling hands, you grab a good sized glass container with the biggest number on it. Big must mean good. Or bad. Whatever.
AS you turn around you see Rarity and Nightmare Moon fighting with magic. Each are shooting a continuous beam of energy at one another, connecting and stopping each other between the two of them. Rarity's legs are shaking violently, but by sheer doggedness she's holding her own against the torrent.
"Hey!" You shout. The evil pony looks up at you without turning her head away from her work. "S-shut up!"
Luckily, your aim is a touch better then your word play. Glass vessel flies through the air and strikes the blue black pony in the side of the face, unable to dodge or move away while dealing with Rarity. She cries out in pain and anger as white smoke boils up around her head. Distracted, she's unable to keep the pressure on Rarity, who redoubles her effort and strikes her in the face with her own magic!
Nightmare Moon backs away, screaming in pain and fury, covering her face with a hoof.
It's life or death.
You run and slide dive into the side of the evil pony. She falls over on top of you, which works in your favor. You wrap one arm around her and grab her horn with the other, giving you complete leverage. As the two of you struggle, she's shouting endless fury and trying to kick you. You take a few blows and whatever you threw at her is burning the side of your arm, but you refuse to let go.
"You little worm!" She screams at you as the two of you go tumbling into a chair, breaking it into pieces. "You can't stop me! I've already won! You're all dead!"
"Just. Shut. UP!" You grit every fiber of your being, trying desperately to keep your grasp on her. She's so strong. But you can't give up.
The two of you struggle. She does her best to hit you with glancing blows. You try your best to keep your tentative hold, tightening your grip around her vitals as best you can. The world exists only as bouts of pain, suddenly force and movement and the beating of both your hearts. Al sense of time and your surroundings become meaningless. It's just you and her.
Gradually, despite your exhaustion and injuries, she begins to slow. Her movements become more desperate, trying to slam you into objects. But you don't give an inch. Not now. Not this time.
As the last ounces of your strength disappears, she finally goes limp in your grasp.