The train arrived in Canterlot and waiting to help escort our intrepid heroes was a squad of royal guards clad in gold armour with chariots attached to pegasi ready to take them to the princesses. The look on their faces when they saw Mathias was priceless, complete shock and awe at the massive, armoured figure before them. They mounted the chariots and the humans, aside from Megumi (having watched My Little Pony) were completely stunned when the chariots took off into the sky (and Mike would have fallen off had he not had his magnetic powers to keep him attached to the golden chariot). The trip took mere minutes thanks to the whole flying chariot thing, though how they supported the 1000+ pounds of Mathias Grek is anyone’s guess. Arriving at the castle shorty the group was led inside and after quickly navigating the maze of corridors they came to a set of large, ornately decorated double doors. As they prepared to enter one of the guards stopped them, he was an earth pony with white fur and a black mane. He was also holding a spear to Mike’s neck.
“Halt, you will not take weapons in when you see the princesses.” The guard stated through clenched teeth that were holding his spear.
“Not sure you’ve noticed” Mike began, placing a finger on the tip of the spear and gently directing it away from his flesh “but I don’t have any weapons, unless you count the broken bone in my arm.”
“But your friends do.” the guard said with impatience.
“Aye, that we do” Mathias said, leaning down so the piercing red eyes of his helm were staring directly into the guard’s. “but what if we choose not to relinquish them, xenos?” sweat was pouring down the guard’s face as he averted his eyes from Mathias’s gaze.
“Th-then we w-will take them b-by force.” he stuttered. To the guard’s credit he at least didn’t run from the Space Marine. Fortunately before the little conflict could escalate the doors opened behind him and they heard a rather motherly voice speak.
“It’s alright, Luna and I are quite capable of taking care of ourselves. Let them pass.” it said and the guard, with a begrudging look in his eye, complied. The group of ten entered the throne room and saw, well, the princesses and beautiful stained-glass windows, the largest of which was situated behind the two alicorns sitting at the far end of the room. Once the group was closer the ponies and Megumi bowed while Dante, Mike, and Mathias looked at them questioningly. “Greetings my little ponies and…er…strangers. I am Princess Celestia and this” she said motioning a hoof towards the other alicorn “is my sister, Princess Luna.” Luna gave a slight nod and a smile that seemed less forced than Celestia’s.
“So then, you’re the humans that slew an Ursa Major then caused the commotion in Ponyville?” Luna asked in an almost rhetorical tone.
“Wait, you KILLED an Ursa Major?!” Twilight exclaimed in a horrified voice.
“Well, yeah but it would’ve killed us if we didn’t. You did see what happened to Mike right?” Dante explained and motioned to the still battered mutant who was trying desperately to resist his urge to run up and grab Luna’s magically flowing mane. Mike finally got a hold of himself and joined the conversation.
“Can we move on to the part where someone starts explaining what in the hell’s going on?” he asked, wanting to figure out why that damned old man sent them here.
“Okay, why don’t you start by explaining how you got here?” Celestia said, hoping the humans would have answers for her as well. They explained everything that you presumably read in chapter one and at the end, Luna asked the question I bet all you readers are asking yourselves.
“Who is this old man that kept appearing?” she asked but was met with looks from the humans that told her they didn’t know either, except for Mike who looked to be in unusually deep thought.
“I have an idea” he said tapping his chin with his left index finger “he could be Mephistopheles.” But the ponies merely looked to one another then back at him with no idea who that is. Mike sighed then continued “You know, the devil, the guy in red with the pitchfork?” but the ponies still gave him a look of complete lack of understanding. Mike face-palmed then added “he’s basically the ultimate bad guy.” He really didn’t feel like explaining the entirety of the Judaeo-Christian religion so he decided to leave it at that.
“If that is who sent you here then I must take pre-cautions to be sure you want harm any ponies.” Celestia said sternly. “I will use my magic to look into your past and be sure you won’t harm any of my little ponies.” Mike just shrugged, he’d done a lot of terrible things in his past but he tried to start doing right by others. He also hoped his recent actions would be redeeming enough to save him from being labelled a threat.
“I won’t object but I think it’s only fair to warn you” Dante said walking closer to the princesses “I doubt you’re prepared to see some of the demons I’ve fought.” Celestia nodded then walked over to Dante and lowered her horn to his head. It began glowing and she could see everything that happened to him, which I doubt I have to explain and if I do then go play Devil May Cry. She stepped back with a warm smile.
“You fight evil and protect innocent lives, you won’t harm my subjects.” she said, giving Dante her final verdict. She then moved to Megumi and repeated what she had done with Dante. Celestia saw Megumi’s life, the life of a Dyclonius, being locked in some god forsaken lab, enduring inhuman tests. Then she saw Megumi escape and live on the street, scrounging for food and the betrayal she felt from “friends”. Finally she saw that day she met Mike, how he had helped and stood by her despite barely knowing her. Celestia stepped back with tears in her eyes, unable to believe the cruelty of her world. “You’ve been through so much…” she began but stopped, unsure how to continue. Even during Discord’s rule Equestrians had not seen the kind of suffering Megumi had endured. “I insist you stay, child.” She said giving a motherly smile. Celestia next moved to Mike. She peered into his mind to find his troubling past. She saw him commit atrocities, murder and slaughter part of his daily routine. But just when she was about to come to a decision she saw his life drastically change. For a reason she could not see Mike’s life did a complete 180. He took on the roll of other heroes of his world, though still taking jobs as a mercenary. She saw him do something she would not have thought possible, turn what might be termed a bloodlust into a tool of justice. Celestia stepped away and pondered momentarily. She was unsure of what to do but then she saw Megumi look at her with those pink, tortured eyes and sighed. “You may stay.” Hearing this Mike did a mock jump for joy then hunched over in pain, clutching his injured ribs. Celestia rolled her eyes then moved on to Mathias but he held up his hand.
“You will not be using your power on me.” He stated flatly, friendly place or not he was a Space Marine.
“But…” she began but trailed off after making eye contact with him.
“I have an idea.” Megumi spoke up getting the attention of everyone/everypony in the room. “You can ask Mathias questions and Applejack can tell if he’s lying. Would you be willing to answer Princess Celestia’s questions?” she asked turning to Mathias. After a dreadful 5 minute pause he answered.
“Aye.”
“Hmmm, I suppose that could work. Applejack?” Celestia said turning to the farmpony.
“Ah don’t know if Ah can tell when a human’s lying though.” She said, with innocence.
“Then let’s test it.” Dante said then held up two fingers “I’ll say two things, one true, one false and we’ll see if you tell which is which.” he explained and Applejack nodded. He then placed his hand on his chin, contemplating what to say. “I have a brother named Vergil and I’m married.”
“You ain’ never been married and yall really do have a brother.” Applejack said with confidence.
“Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner.” Dante said with a smirk “Okay, he’s all yours.”
“Will you harm my little ponies?” Celestia asked in the sternest voice she could muster.
“They do not pose a threat to the Imperium so no.” Mathias answered simply. Celestia looked to Applejack who nodded, showing he was telling the truth. She readied her next question but before she could ask it a guard burst through the doors. She was gravely injured and panting.
“We are under attack! There’s a monster in Canterlot!” she exclaimed before coughing up blood. Mike turned to ask about this monster but the next thing he knew he was bombarded by shards of glass from the large stained glass window located behind the princesses as something burst through it. The monster was a red and black humanoid with a monstrous mouth.
“Carnage?!” Mike exclaimed in shock “Oh, fuck me.” Fortunately for everyone else Mathias charged forward and tackled it back out the window, down into a sort of town square and in doing so became the focus of his rage. The remainder of the group approached the window to see what was happening. Mathias drew his power sword and tried to cut his foe down but was unsuccessful as the blade and his bolter were knocked from his hands by whip-like tendrils and he was knocked back by a blow from Carnage’s hand which had morphed into a rather large hammer.
“Impossible” Mathias muttered to himself before he was grabbed by the head. Carnage planted Mathias into the ground head first then drove a clawed hand into the Space Marine’s backpack and tore it off.
“We have to help him!” Megumi exclaimed, pulling on Mike’s uninjured arm.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m working on it.” He responded with no particular rush in his voice and made his way out of the throne room. Dante, not one to stand idly by jumped down and attempted to strike Carnage with a helm breaker but the psycho caught his sword with one hand and laughed manically before throwing Dante into a large stone building with such force it crumbled down on top of him, entombing him in ruble. Next the ever brazen Rainbow Dash charged Carnage who merely swept her aside and into a lamp post where she fell to the ground. Rainbow Dash shakily stood up and once again charged towards the psychopathic villain who caught her in one clawed hand and smashed her into the ground where she lay unmoving. Carnage turned back to finish off his initial opponent but became distracted by a cry from a nearby filly. With a sadistic grin he approached the young pony who stood frozen in fear and raised a hand to strike her down. She let out a horrified scream as Carnage brought his hand down on her head and the remaining five of the main six could only close their eyes to avoid the sight of the young girl’s death. But her scream did not end abruptly as it would were she killed but instead it slowly died out as she ran out of breath. The main six opened their eyes to see Carnage’s hand stopped by the armoured hand of Mathias, preventing the death of the child.
“I swear by the Emperor you will harm no more innocents this day!”