//------------------------------// // Let in the light from the crystal window // Story: Xero's After-the-Final Fight // by The P Co //------------------------------// Xero and Scootaloo sighed in defeat. Twilight had not calmed her tits. Or her mind, more importantly. She walked towards the castle looking like she was about to have a heart attack. Xero was only there to escort her, being Luna's personal guard. The military was divided into 2 halves, Lunar and Solar, under the rule of Luna and Celestia equally. The 2 halves were further divided into 3 areas, for the 3 races. Aviation, Ground Support, and Arcane Forces. Xero would be a part of Aviation, who typically used ranged weapons because of their distance from the enemies on the ground. The Ground Support would be something Omega would love, the dirty and gritty job of pummeling the enemy into the ground, or to whatever level of physical harm was specified, and they did not stop until all of the specified hostiles were brought to the same level. Arcane Forces would come in behind them and clean up the bodies, trained to purge and burn the corpse, if it was one, to ensure that an especially hostile enemy was dead and would not get up again. However, Xero was a Class 4 General, so he didn't have to do any of that shit, he would stand back and watched the blood fly, or whatever would be flung into the air at that mission. He and Mogar commanded the Aviation directly, the other 2 CG4s were allowed to make suggestions, but it was ultimately up to the ninja and the scythe wielder. At least, that's what Xero did at first. After being put into the position of 'Royal Personnel Guardian', the one who would protect Luna should any dangers rear their ugly head, he was allowed to form a small squad of no more than 4 people. The leader of the squad, Xero could not stop himself from thinking about what would have happened if he had commanded Bolverk. <> Kary walked into the main lobby of Bio Int., under Xero's orders, she would appear normal, then slash that bugger of a desk jockey to pieces. She did so, which was the signal for the others to enter. Xero immediately used the Honor, his personalized katana, with a horizontal X for the crossbar, 50 inches of blade, 10 inches of handle, and a small rectangular prism printed with the British flag, all of that, just to slice some guy in half. Omega came in next, using the Capper, a .44 magnum Deagle modified for extreme energy output and somewhat lighter recoil, to blast some poor sap's head off. Askad came in and ripped somebody's head open. Xero made sure everyone in the room was killed before starting his log. "Begin Log, we've spent a total of 1 minute in Bio Int.'s HQ, and we've killed a total of 30 guards, stats aside, we are here to eliminate the XV alien, like a Genova with no wings, is what I could get from the images we could acquire. We will kill it, and anyone who gets in our way will die, no exceptions. End of Log." Xero spoke to the recorder. "Alright, Askad, cut off their bloody radio communications, if they have secure lines, they don't anymore, sever every possible connection. Askad held his UI section on his glasses for a few moments, then spoke. "Alright, done." he assured, preparing a grenade. "Good, looks like we were too late though, here come the reinforcements." the blue clad cyborg shouted. They came storming down the hall. "15 terabytes to whoever ices the most." Xero challenged, his Honor and Slicer were already prepared. They fought. The fought soldiers, machines, and the infected. Xero fought XV. "Omega, get Kary out of here, I'll deal with this cunt." the ninja commanded his gun-toting subordinate. Omega complied wordlessly, rushing past XV as Xero distracted it with his chainsaw shuriken. The fight was on. Using the Honor, the Slicer, the Red Hill, and the mighty 7 part Buster Blade, combining the Honor with several other swords to create a weapon of mass incision. Again, the Buster Blade. XV summoned the Judgement Blade, it laughed, and the battle began. Omega hooked Kary up to the reactor and cleared out the other enemy soldiers, sniping the helicopters down and blasting the fuck out of the infected beings. The mission was a success. Kary betrayed them. They escaped, Xero reached the train station first and drank from his flask, Omega arrived a few minutes later. "You lost." Xero half-heartedly mocked. "Well, man, I wasn't aware that it actually was a race." Omega replied, lighting up a cigarette. "How can you enjoy those things?" Xero did not understand tobacco and its products. Omega, rather than replying, grabbed Xero's flask and waved it in front of the ex-C.O.'s face, placing it back in his hand after a few seconds. "Bloody fair enough, I suppose." the ninja responded, taking another swig. The fight with the cyborgs. The fight with Kary. Xero... he would end up dead. Taken over by XV virus. "Really now, Xero? You've talked a game bigger than the sun, and right as we were, RIGHT as we were about to get away alive, you can't handle a cold? Come on, pull it together." Omega was backing up from the beast that used to be his CO and his only friend. The beast only came at him more. "I said... *deep breath*... KNOCK IT OFF!" Omega gathered his voice and shouted, reaching behind him and pulling up the Light Arrow, XV-Xero had been coming at him with a broken Joy .75 cal pistol, the slide broken and barrel chipped, it wouldn't be able to chamber any more rounds without major repairs. Xero mustered up enough strength to lock away the XV for a short time. Omega ended up shooting the only good bullet into Xero's skull, killing the infected blue-skinned man instantly Omega would live on to be an old man. Training Enid like a soldier, he would keep the Light Arrow as a memento from his past. He would die in the heat of a glorious battle. He would.... Would he end up in Equestria, just like Xero? The thought snapped Xero back to reality. <> "Luna, you will NOT teach Twilight Sparkle, she is to be excommunicated for assaulting royalty." Celestia was pissed off, her wings had healed as much as a pair of stubs would, sawed and filed down to only small bumps on her coat. Luna would NOT have any of this. "I will do WHAT I WISH TO! Because I, for one, think that Twilight Sparkle has too much potential to just throw away." Luna was not going to stand for her sister trying to tell her what to do. "She is a criminal, she is to be deported ASAP." the white alicorn insisted. "Think, for a moment, sister, what if she came back?" the blue alicorn posed the ugly question. "What do you mean?" the goddess of the sun demanded the information. "Xero has influenced all of us but you, and Twilight Sparkle is obviously one of the most changed. I am asking, what if she came back to Equestria, and she attacked you again, only this time, she would actually want to hurt you. Face it, you have brought her to a delicate point, ponies fear the day that the hero turns on them, that the hero, rather than saving lives, would take them instead, I wish to cement her to the side of good, and that is what I will do!" the goddess of the moon argued. "If you do this, if you try to change the way I have things, I will have to banish you." the light royal's tone was grave. "You will banish me... over my dead body..." Luna fired up her magic, she had desperately hoped that things would go well, but she had hoped too much, and fate practically shat on her. Celestia's eye glimmered in fear before she flared up her own magic. Luna shot first, Celestia was too slow to react, and that costed her dearly. It costed her her power. The windows were draped currently, so none of the starry light shined out into the city, it was sunset, after all, and the light would make it look like noon. This time, there was not a chance for compromise, no, this time, Luna took it all. Celestia was reduced to a little filly, Luna stood taller and prouder, her dark, space-like mane glittering with a dense field of stars, their colors fading from one to another constantly. The air stirred into a weak tornado of wind from the power. Her coat was a rich, lightish blue, royal blue. Celestia was small now, weak, with only a horn, her wing bones were too small to poke out from her skin, her mane was a light pink. Luna teleported her now-little-sister away, wiping her memories and sending her to be raised by a good family in Trottingham. Taking her place on the throne, on HER throne, she waited for her student to arrive. <> Twilight was a bit worried, she knew a new spell to reveal the dark state of things, she was trusted almost completely by Luna, almost, because Luna recognized the archmages (incredibly low amount of) limits. Xero was flying there via motorcycle, with added jet function to boost it with the helicoptor propellors. Landing inside the city, he found himself on top of a tall-ass tower. A heart made of crystal was floating there. He knew better than to disturb glowing artifacts. Non-glowing artifacts were perfectly safe, like levers, swords, scrolls, and the like. The others arrived at the train station. A brief bout of running, and the Mane 6 knew what they had to do. Make the crystal ponies happy. Twilight would look for the Crystal Heart, a glowing artifact of power that would save the crystal kingdom. Cadance chose this moment to black out, right as Twilight reached to top of the stairs. Xero was still standing there, waiting. "Xero, you found it already, why didn't you take it?" Twilight querried. "Something's up, it lacks guards, traps, or anything that would protect it from somepony just waltzing up and grabbing it." the ninja "I'm sure it's fine," Twilight approached the floating relic. Using the magnet-like grip hooves were capable of, she grabbed it out of the air. Black crystal spikes shot up from the ground, trapping her in the circle marked on the ground. "Twilight!" Xero was shocked by this development. Twilight barely avoided peeing herself in shock. The guardsman tried everything he could, everything he HAD, to break the lavender archmage free. Nothing, not even the Judgement Blades, would break them, it was a magical lock that one could not simply shoot out. He turned to see the shield around the Crystal Kingdom fading. Sombra charged into the air. The brit took to the sky, silencing the roaring abomination with a punch to the snout. The black-with-white-highlights haired man got ALL up in King Sombra's grill. "If you open your mouth again, I swear I'm gonna break it." his tone was grave, he did NOT like loud-as-hell roaring. Sombra was about to roar again when Xero slammed his fist into the monster's jaw. "If you open your mouth again, dear Luna I cannot take it." the cyborg brought out the Sephiroth and the Wolverines. A brief flash, a horrible image, a white, featureless face, a mirror, the soldier nearly threw up for a reason he could not decipher. The black-clad human attacked Sombra at full speed, the Sword of Weakness to Swords was invaluable, all of his weapons were. Completely demolishing the demonic figure's head before it was blasted away by Twilight doing the smart thing and teleporting out of the crystal prison via the open space above them. The crystal ponies were happy, Cadence was well again, Shining Armor regained control over his magic. It was a good time now. It might change in the future, but right now, it was good. <> Xero woke up slowly, it was nighttime, his head hurt, one foot was broken, he was EMPed, his wings where plucked of enough feathers to keep him from flying. Standing up painfully, he found himself only able to limp slowly, he looked around, the sun was setting, but he could see many tall, thin trees surrounding him on all sides. He found a small card and a flashlight in front of him, grabbing both slowly, he turned on the light and read the card. It read 'Find all 8 pages' He cursed his luck and set off, determined to not fail this time. Failure this time would mean death. The hunt was on, both for the pages.... ... and the light grey bipedal prey.