"Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die." Xero philosphized.
"That's deep, bro." Scootaloo replied.
The 2 had been doing some drinking, and were in a state of emotion versus logic.
Both of them suddenly stood up and started dancing, for no reason.
It was awkward looking too, as they were doing the caramell-dansen.
Scootaloo, being a pony, had to get up on her hind legs to do this.
Xero did not have arms or legs, so it just looked really damn wierd.
They just did not give any fucks.
In fact, if it were possible, they would be giving negative fucks.
<<friendly transition>>
Scootaloo almost tripped onto her muzzle as she entered the CMC clubhouse.
"There you are, Scoot, do you know where Applebloom is?" Sweetie Belle, already there, asked the not-so-clearly-but-still-very intoxicated pegasus.
"....No." the words took a few seconds to register in the young pony's mind.
"Okay, are you alright? You seem kinda, off." Sweetie Belle was concerned for her friend, even though the white filly was tidying up the room.
"Oh, me and bro were drinking a little, it was an hour of honor, I've gotten my speed up to where I can break the sound barrier in 15 seconds, going straight up." Scootaloo explained, sobering up a little.
"That's.... great, hey, do you have any ideas on what mine and Applebloom's cutie marks could be?" the purple and pink maned pony querried.
"You're pretty fuckin' awesome at singing, and Applebloom is on par with Steve in building skills, so go on that, see how it works out." Scootaloo replied simply.
"Really? I never thought myself to be a good singer..." Sweetie thought deeply about how this would affect her.
"Just sing a little bit right now." the orange pegasus insisted.
"I, I don't know." the white unicorn replied hesitantly.
"Do it, DO IT, DO EET!" the violet maned filly prodded.
"Okay, fine, I'll do it." Sweetie lacked confidence.
The white filly sang, it was quiet, very quiet, but it was beautiful.
Scootaloo gave a 'go on' gesture.
Sweetie Belle sang a bit louder, not much, but it was something.
Another 'go on' gesture.
Sweetie sang quite a bit louder comparatively, though in actuality it was about normal volume.
'Go on' again.
Sweetie sang at a normal singing tone, it was still beautiful throughout.
"Damnit Sweetie Belle, SING LIKE YOU MEAN IT!" Scootaloo rebuked.
Sweetie Belle breathed in deep, using her magic to assist her.
A track of music filled the air as she sang this time.
It was glorious.
(Enter some epic song with female vocals here)
(I can't be bothered to find one, maybe something by Michael Jackson?)
(Roll in the transition)
<<adjective-less transition>>
Applebloom smiled sheepishly at her big sister and Twilight.
She had been jealous of Scootaloo's cutie mark acquisition, and wanted her own even more than before.
Enough to steal rare and dangerous-when-isolated plants and eat them, causing her to get the Cutie Pox.
She got read the riot act.
After that, she was let go, she learned her lesson.
Know what you're about to eat before eating it.
Severe side effects could take place.
The risk was not worth it.
Things in Ponyville went back to normal.
At least, as normal as they can get, given the fact that the 6 heroines of the land as well as the world's first and only human were living there all at once.
Stuff that helps get on to the next scene.
Herp derp.
Miracles.
<<mental complex transition>>
Rainbow Dash was being outshined by the 'Mysterious Mare Do Well', as the silent hero was known.
She went to the only place she knew could help her.
Knocking on the black painted door, a shaving stallion answered the door.
The pony in front of her was still shaving when he answered the damn door.
"Hello Miss Rainbow Dash, nice to see you, do you have business with Ponyville's quote-unquote 'Deluxe Homeless Shelter'?" the stallion asked warmly, holding a mirror in front of him to make sure he was getting all of his messy beard off.
Dash wasn't confused about how the homeless pony knew who she was, she had quite the reputation with the homeless, as many of them did not have much else better to do than watch her, her skills and reputation made her known throughout all of Ponyville.
"What? I thought this was the residence of Xero, y'know, the world's only human?" RD was confused by this development.
"Ah, right, Mister Xero donated his house to be used as a shelter for the homeless, selflessly donating about a billion bits to keep it running throughout at least a century." the stallion explained, going over his jawline again.
"Xero did that? I'm, impressed at the generosity, but I need to know where Xero is." RD got to the point.
"Oh yeah, he moved into a cloud-house, himself and his darling little sister being pegasuses and all, at least, Xero has wings and stuff." the homeless pony answered, deciding that his shave was sufficient.
"Thanks man, I need to go." the cyan mare dismissed herself, flaring her wings out and taking to the skies.
"Alright, good luck on whatever it is you're doing, Rainbow Dash." the messy stallion said in goodbye, closing the door to the house.
Rainbow Dash kept flying.
Speeding through the sky, the cyan mare watched all of the clouds, looking for the house.
There was no way Xero had building skills, he could fight, yes, and do interior decorating, she had seen that, but actually building a house was something that she doubted he could do.
Coming up on a fancy house with concrete-like cloud walls, she knocked on the door.
A stumbling mare left the home, her tail was visibly wet, the new pony took off, flying shakily away from the alabaster palace-like residence.
"Heh heh heh, thank you for choosing 'Knob Air-Lines', heeheeheehee, 'Please Come Again'." the british ninja man called out to the departing pony.
"What the? Oh, Xero? You live here?" Dash querried.
"Yeah, I even run my own at-home business, don't ask what I do, I don't like to give away information like that." Xero answered, gesturing for RD to enter his home.
The pair walked inside, Xero sat on left side of the couch, RD sat on the right.
"So, what troubles you? Ponies? Enemies? Maybe.... the temperature?" Xero prodded, getting straight to the point.
"The temperature? The fuck does that mean? Y'know what? Nevermind. I'm here because this new pony, like, like a comic book hero or something, just came into town and started saving lives and doing stuff, she, at least I think it's a she, anyway, she's doing MY job." Rainbow Dash ranted.
"So, being an attention grabber." Xero suggested.
"No, being a savior of the common-folk, a hero of the helpless." Dash exaggerated her unofficial position.
"The police, the firefighters, the doctors, soldiers, guards, civil services, THOSE are the real heroes. You just help ponies out of a jam, you're a good samaritan, not a hero of the people." Xero broke RD's mountain of self-acclaiming down to a small pillar.
"But, but, but...." the cyan mare trailed off.
"Ass, fine, I'll fucking help you if it's so bloody important." Xero complied, forgetting to suppress his british-ness and using regional slang.
"Right, so, let's go." the pegasus mare insisted, already at the door and leaving.
"Alright, LET'S ROCK!" Xero shouted his catchphrase.
The speed-demon duo took off, reaching town, which was less than a mile away, in a small amount of time.
Landing hard but steady on the cobblestone street, the pair found themselves in a mostly deserted part of town, only a few residences were in this district, mostly empty buildings waiting to be filled and businesses that had only a handful of ponies inside.
Looking around, trying to find any signs of Mare Do Well's presence, the spectral maned mare looked down an alleyway.
There she was.
Mare Do Well.
"Over there!" Dash pointed out, the pair rushed into the alleyway, Mare Do Well took a few steps forward.
6 meters away, the blue and purple clad pony stared at the 2 winged speed demons silently.
Another Mare Do Well.
And another.
And another.
4 Mare Do Wells.
Xero summoned the Joy Colts.
Oh yeah, he made a copy of the first, so he could dual-wield, also he made them double-action, for semi-auto firing.
Why?
Because FUCK YOU and FUCK THE ENEMY.
"Shoot and Ask or Ask and Shoot?" Xero demanded anxiously, aiming both revolvers carefully
"What?" Dash was more than a little startled by the sudden change of pace, and was beginning to panic.
"Shoot first and Ask later? Or Ask first and Shoot later?" Xero demanded with higher detail.
"I don't know!" the cyan pony was panicking, the Mare Do Wells looked nervous, shifting their weights and getting a bit jumpy, ready to flee, no matter how useless it would be.
"Fuck it!" Xero took the shot, fortunately for all parties involved, the Joy Colts may have been large, but the distance between the barrels was small enough to miss all 4 of the Mare Do Wells, it was surprising none of them shit their suits.
"Take off your masks or I swear to Luna I will not miss the second shot." Xero threatened.
The 4 mares removed their masks immediately.
Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie were behind them.
"Oh shit... I almost shot the 4 of the 6 ponies single-hoofedly protecting all of Equestria from powerful evil beings." Xero stated the obvious.
"Where's Rarity?" the cyan of the 5 mares querried, confused by many things.
"Who d'ya think made tha fancy costumes?" Applejack asked back rhetorically.
"I see, okay, now then, what are you 4 doing?" Dash got to the point immediately.
"To teach you a lesson about being a glory-hound." Twilight informed.
"And pulling her aside to just tell her that never came to mind?" Xero piped up.
"I, uh, no, that did not occur to us." Twilight was stumped, she really did not think about that.
"I don't think Dashie would have listened, she really likes to not listen to other ponies." Pinkie chimed, resuming her normal routine of bouncing while doing anything she felt like doing.
"You could have at least TRIED, fucking twats, that's the kind of shit that makes my knob a pretzel, when people don't even TRY, they just go for the 'Nuke it from orbit' option, which, in case you couldn't tell already, IS A BLOODY BAD IDEA!" Xero criticized the group.
"At least I tried, I gave her a chance, I'm loyal like that, I'm kind enough to, even a month after she went PMSing crazy on me, come and defend her honor like this, I'm honest enough to say that yes, I was more than a little pissed off at her for what she did prior, but I forgave her, I'm generous enough to offer my valuable services to her without any knowledge of what she truly needed them for, and I'm laughing at the fact that I, a human, the most corrupt and vile thing on this whole bloody PLANET, possess a more concentrated dosage of friendship and magic to help her in her time of need, no matter how arbitrary and pointless that need is, where as YOU, ponies, the most friendly and rigidly charactered beings that I've ever met, did bugger-all about this, all you did was piss her off, and all I did was give her someone to trust." Xero ranted, criticizing each of the 4 of the Mane 6 one by one.
If he wasn't so good at hiding physical signs of emotion, his face would have been completely reddened, his breathing erratic and almost heart-attack-like, and breaking things with every few words.
He kept physically calm, though his emotions were shitting a furious storm at the 4 ponies.
"All of you can go and be haunted by your worthless, inequine, and downright stupid twatty decisions." Xero spat, he was pissed off at an Omega level, and Omega didn't get pissed off easily, but when he did, it was a storm.
The older man broke bodies and sometimes buildings when he was pissed off, the fact that his name was Omega and that the greek word Omega meant 'the greatest/most powerful of a set of things' was painfully well descriptive of the red color-schemed cyborg.
Xero flared his wings, grabbed Rainbow Dash, and flew off at several hundred mph.
The quartet of other ponies were shocked silent.
Xero still flew, releasing RD so she could fly as well.
They flew far and fast.
<<unsteady transition>>
It had been a few months, Xero had apologized for his insane rage, the ponies were happy to accept, not smug, but hopeful that the human would not rage like that again, any more, even a simple response during his red-hot banter would set him to 'kill mode'.
Xero at least had good sense of humour about his state of alive-ness, and jokes about this aspect were good-spiritedly laughed at.
Life had returned to normal, though 'normal' was a relative term, and life always got complicated again at some point.
Twilight and Spike had gone through their birthdays, it was over with, end of story.
Xero had his own birthday, mostly random stuff that the mare's though he might want.
Twilight gave him a glowing blue crystal in a silver bead necklace, he appreciated the swag.
Rarity gave him a black gi, made special for him, he greatly appreciated the style
Applejack gifted a wooden crown-type thing, imagine the gold tiara thing RD won at the Best Young Flier's Competition, but brown, and wood, and having an X instead of a lightning bolt.
Pinkie Pie threw the party, and baked a black and blue cupcake.
Fluttershy gave him a candle, it was nice, it smelled like berries.
Rainbow Dash had the best gift, in his opinion, a black and blue katana handled tanto, the blade was made of a silver colored metal, treated with special chemicals to make it iridescent, it wasn't a heavy-duty battle knife, but it was 9 inches long and beautiful.
The rainbow coloring of the iridescence got more than a few laughs, and a suggestive joke from Xero (only he understood the hilarity of 'rainbow juices', though).
Sheathing it in the hard plastic black sheath, Xero carried it like one would a pistol, concealed, of course, and he was deadlier with a knife than the average punk armed with a pistol
The CMC got him a plushie of himself, complete with monocle, he thanked them for the gift shortly before having an intelligent conversation with the copy over a cup of tea.
But that was all months ago, though.
It's winter, the 'Dead of Winter', as Xero called it, the middle, called so because it was when things were so cold that people died.
Now, it was Hearth's Warming Eve.
Lighting the boiling water fireplace, which was odd in and of itself.
Imagine a wide-but-not-tall pile of dark blue crystals with water shooting upwards like it was fire.
It was boiling hot water, which spread warmth, but the moisture was trapped inside the area of the water-flames, giving it and unlimited burn-time.
Xero and Scootaloo exchanged gifts.
Scootaloo got a set of wing-blades, which would not only protect the feathery appendages, but make them more streamlined, and they were still as flexible as the normal wings.
Of course, they had a luster-less treated copper coating, to blend in with her coat.
Xero got a sapphire bladed wakizashi, about 18 inches in length, the special part was that it was imbued with endo-thermic technology assisted magic, making it, in simple terms, an ice sword.
With the Darktic, as he called his new sapphire shortsword, and the Emperor, as he called the iridescant dagger, Xero felt good.
Visiting their friends, with more generic bullshit involving gift giving, Xero made special gifts for everypony
Hoof-sleeves for AJ, to protect her from defect trees that might hurt her.
Wasabi prank on Pinkie, the pink mare went red-faced and chugged a gallon of milk, throwing up the dairy liquid and the green paste in one go.
Twilight got a tablet, essentially the ultimate gift he could give her, able to store over 9,000 books on it, with the weight of 1-2 books.
Rarity recieved traditional silk, a rare and expensive product,
Fluttershy got tea, tea and wing-blades.
Rainbow Dash got wing-blades as well, and a set of weights, she needed to train more, her softcore training she commited to, as hardcore training would be quote-unquote 'too hard to commit to', had ended with poor results.
As it stood currently, Scootaloo was the greatest mortal flying pony in all of Equestria.
I say 'mortal', because the princesses are better.
I say 'pony' because Xero is much faster, being a selfish asshole pays off when dealing with pure skill, but Scootaloo was just awesome.
Hell, the 12 year old could break the sound barrier in 5 seconds, which was insane acceleration, and could perform extremely accurate tricks at such speeds.
If the motto applied, 'the more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle', then the orange pegasus filly would burst from the force of extreme negative bleeding if she ever fought someone or something.
It all took positive thinking and determination, that, and a powerful controller circuit, turning anything useless into something useful.
Enough about Scoots's epic skills, more about everypony else.
Yeah. not much else to say, Hearth's Warming Day is over.
The 7 ponies, 1 man, and 1 dragon partied hard in the library, dancing and drinking and eating and even singing.
It was hell for anypony else, it was bliss for them.
AAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWW YEEEEEEEAAAAAHHH.
PARTY.
Derp.
*/chapter*