//------------------------------// // Xero is old as the "Masamune" and wise as shit // Story: Xero's After-the-Final Fight // by The P Co //------------------------------// Xero woke up falling. Apparently, he had been moving in his sleep, and broke through his bed. Taking into a hover, he flew back up and patched in the hole in the clouds. Dressing in his blue jacket, with his white shirt and grey circle underneath, his boots and gloves from his armor would be fine. It looked out of place, his gloves and boots, he had a thought, imagining Omega, wearing a red hoodie, with his full metal plate boots and Ballistic Gloves. His mind wandered a bit, Omega's gloves with Kary's blades on them. THAT would be a sight. Taking off, wishing to find some entertainment, otherwise it would be another day with the old Xbox 360(tm). Doing whatever manuevers he pleased, he did a high flying check of each area (which is about 100 meters here), coming back at half the altitude, and again at half of that. He found a hilarious sight, Spike trying to help Applejack. Watching the pair, he suddenly found Spike stacking up a giant pile of rocks, with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash standing near Applejack, the latter was hovering. He saw his lover take in a big gulp of fear, he knew where this was going. *CRACK CLACKA CLACKA CLACKA* "AAAAOOOOOOWWWW, SHIT!" the mare shouted in pain. Xero cracked up in laughter. Everyone looked up at the boisterous man. "WOW, THAT, *continued laughter*" he couldn't muster anything more. Rainbow Dash flew up to him with a blushing, frowny pouty face on. "Awwww, come here, I'm sorry for making fun of you because you got owned by a pile of rocks." the various parts of his personality conspired against his mind, reducing the conveyed feelings significantly. The cyan pegasus only frowned more and hugged him, there in midair. Xero was not shocked, the 2 had developed a strong emotional bond, despite their own personalities making it harder. He ran a hand through her mane, sneakily injecting some painkillers as he passed. "Oohhhh, you don't have to pretend to be sad." the black-and-white haired human assured, comforting her. "Eeehhhh, alright." the spectral maned pony replied, detaching from him after a few more seconds. Xero gave a wave to the other 2 mares and flew off. He felt like going to the clothing shop. <<'not really' transition>> Arriving at the library, where he REALLY wanted to be, he pushed the door open, finding it oddly open. It was a public library, so the door being unlocked was not wierd at all, actually. The sign said CLOSED, and the door was unlocked, usually Twilight would lock the door when she closed, she had probably forgotten, it was understandable with her busy life, but nopony was in the main room. Walking inside anyways, he found that all of the lights were on. Strange, nopony was here, as far as he could tell, he looked around, the main room, all of the side rooms, the kitchen, and finally, upstairs. Carefully strolling up the carved wooden stairs, the curious man found himself in the loft, another flight of steps and he was in Twilight's bedroom. "Hmmm, okay, carry the 2, subtract the 17, and multipy the whole thing by 5, aaaaand, done, alright, time to send it." the studious pony monologued. "I could send it there, if you want?" Xero piped up. "AH, oh, Xero, it's just you, have you seen Spike? No offense, but I think he's a lot more qualified for the job." the lavender unicorn said, turning fully around to look at her friend. "Spike is over at Sweet Apple Acres, doing chores for Applejack, and from what I could tell, AJ did not want him doing anything. I'm thinking, and this is from years of experience in the 2 most dragon-heavy countries in the world, Great Brimain and Japone, I'm thinking that she may have accidentally triggered his honor code." the wise young man philosophized. "Honor code?" Twilight was not aware that dragons had such a thing. "Yes, the code of honor for dragons, they are mighty, deadly, powerful creatures, so, in a lasting act of benevolence, they created a Code of Honor for those who are more mighty, deadly, and powerful than they are." the cyborg paced as he recalled the memories. The words came back to him, the 6 steps of the dragon code of honor; 1: Be saved from a fatal threat or be bested in battle, and be spared, this kindness will oblige the dragon to not kill their victor, returning the kindness on a basic level. 2: If offered generosity from the victor, and the victor does not attempt to threaten the dragon, the dragon will trust the victor even more, and return generosity. 3: Should the victor repeatedly seek out the dragon and offer generosity and honesty of brotherhood, then the dragon will be honest and speak only the truth, extending and strengthening the bond. 4: The point when the victor shares their past with the dragon, the dragon will also share their own past and their emotions, sad moments evoke sympathy, not pity, and jokes request laughter, not marring the victor's name 5: Weakened, whether by hunger, pain, or whatever, should the victor arrive upon the location of the dragon, and not use this opportunity to kill them easily, and rather will help the dragon in their time of need, then loyalty will be established, and the dragon must not attempt anything against their friend without being explicitly threatened. 6: At this point, little will matter as long as no true threats are made, the end result is a pair of best friends, a dragon and a rider, the magic of their bond will allow them to move as 1 unit should they be called to battle. "Wow, I didn't know any of that, so, what phase is Applejack on?" the dark blue-with-pink and purple streaks maned archmage querried, she needed to analyze the situation to formulate a plan. "She's on the start of phase 3, and she's not going anywhere." Xero answered, summoning the Lunar Zanbato and giving the flat a quick stroke with a finger. "And because I know you want to ask, you're in the middle of step 6 of 6, enough bonding to become best friends and be a rider of the dragon. Spike is too young for his wings to grow in, but if you live long enough, he will no doubt allow you to be his rider." the soldier assured, strapping Twilight's papers and reports to the Lunar Zanbato and sending both the blade and the book-knowledge to Luna. "AAAAAAHHH, what did you just do?!?!" Twilight was worried now, Spike could wait 5 minutes, but her reports had taken her 3 straight days to complete. "I just sent them off to Luna, don't worry, my faith stat is high enough for something like that to be perfectly well and accepted." the gamer in him did not let the chance slip by. "What do you mean 'faith stat', Xero?" Twilight was now more confused than worried. "My faith stat, I am close enough to Luna for me to be blessed with her disciple-only armaments, the Lunar Zanbato, and probably some armor that I haven't found yet, so me sending her the work from her student is okay, I could probably even do a prayer and get some invigorating blessing or something." Xero explained. "Oh, I guess that makes sense, sort of, anyways, let's get back to recovering Spike." the archmage got back on track. "Alright then, Twi, I'll go do some recon, I'll be back in a few minutes." the soldier slipped into tactile skills at this point, gently opening the window, then violently taking off at extreme speeds away, sending blank pieces of parchment and loose quills to the floor. Twilight sighed and used her magic to clean up and re-sort her haphazardly tossed materials. Xero could be a real gun-jumper sometimes. <> Gliding down to the young dragon he was looking for, he started a casual walking conversation. "What's up, dude? What are you doing?" the ninja started, easily sliding out of 'intelligent' mode and into 'casual' mode. "Just helping Applejack with whatever she needs, I owe her my life." the purple dragon replied simply, picking up a tuft of hay, turning around, and walking to a pile he was making. "What did she do?" the soldier asked, curious. "She saved my life when I was being attacked by a trio of timberwolves." Spike sounded a bit solemn, but he tossed the tuft of hay into the receiving pile, and walked back to the dealing pile. "Timberwolves, like, literally, wolves made of timber?" the brit was a bit incredulous. "Yes, exactly what it says on the box, 'timber wolves', dude, it's obvious." the green and purple youngling continued talking while performing his monotonous task. "So, timber, which is wood, and wood is flammable, no?" Xero was getting onto something here. "Yes." Spike replied dully. "And you're a dragon, no?" Xero was definately getting somewhere here. "Yes......" Spike replied dully again, though a hint of offense was present. "Yes, you're a dragon, and dragons breathe fire, right?" the brit was putting off his point. "Right." the small purple dragon wasn't sure where the cyborg was going with this. "So, you're a dragon, who breathes fire, and you needed to be saved from timberwolves, who are made of timber, which is wood, which is flammable." the soldier assessed. "Correct, your point?" Spike was getting a bit annoyed at his friend's constant delay of a point to this. "YOU COULD HAVE JUST TORCHED THE BLOODY THINGS, THEY'RE MADE OF WOOD, AND YOU CAN BREATHE FIRE, YOU IDIOT, YOU FORGOT TO CHECK YOURSELF, SO YOU WRECKED YOURSELF, YOU STUPID TWAT!" Xero screamed like a drill sergeant. "Calm your balls, dude, I made a mistake, and now I'm paying for it." Spike already knew that he could have saved himself, but he stopped brooding and took his punishment like a man. "Well, damn, I'll just go then." Xero lifted off into a hover, and blasted off in some direction. The speedster did what he did best. Go fast. <> Touching down next to Applejack, the human turned into pony form, mask absent, and decided to throw in some free help, seeing his orange friend working so hard made him feel bad for distracting her. Bucking a tree, the brit started. "So, you and me, forest, find a timberwolf, run from it like little babbies, have Spike torch the fucker, and you'll be free from his help for as long as you don't have to save his life again, deal?" Xero's inner conspirator helped in this situation. "I'm not sure if that would work, sugarcube, I'm not one for the damsel in distress act." AJ replied. "LUNA-DAMNIT AJ, YOU'RE RUNNING AWAY NOT BEING IN DISTRESS!" Xero wasn't particularly angry and his friend, his tourettes was just acting up again. "Calm down, Xe, I'm not sure iffin I can just 'run away' neither." the orange farmer reworded. "Hold out both of you forehooves." Xero commanded. The farmer pony did as instructed, though not sure why. Xero grabbed both of her hooves and flew her up into the air, about 2 miles high. "AAAAAAAHHHH, XERO, PUT ME DOWN!" Applejack was genuinely in distress. "Here's a parachute." the cyborg ignored her pleas and put a parachute onto the squirming mare. "I SAID PUT ME DOWN!" Applejack screamed. "CALM YOUR TITS, I'm going to put you down know, 1 piece of advice before I do though." the brit insisted. "WHAT IS IT?" Applejack was still yelling. "Okay, pull the cord to deploy your parachute, that's all you have to do, but one last piece of advice." the soldier insisted further. "WHAT?" the apple family worker demanded. "If your parachute fails to deploy, don't worry, you have the rest of your life to figure out what to do." he was a gigantic jackass for this, but he let her go. The 'advice' Xero had given only registered fully the second before he let go of her. Applejack screeched in fear, desperately pulling the cord, only to have the 'parachute' deploy a small, thin napkin, which broke instantly. "So, will you help me find a timberwolf and get Spike the hell off of your back?" Xero descended to eye level with the scared mare. "Can he get offa mah front? I like his back scratches." Applejack was calmed by the fact that Xero would not let her fall to her death. "Fine, fuck, I'll save your ass then." the cyborg was not happy with the orange mare making suggestions for his plan. Nonetheless, he still saved her, and flew the pair to the Everfree forest. <> Xero, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight trotted through the forest. Applejack was there to do the running part. RD would be able to see the timberwolf. Twilight would be able to identify if it was, indeed, a timberwolf. Xero was there to manage everything. A loud, deep growl was heard. Giant beast, it's some sort of 'Super Timberwolf' Xero was pretty sure that wolves were NOT FUCKING 20 FEET TALL. "Whelp, you 3 know what this means?" he was met with silence, except for the stench of rotting wood and plant matter from the timberwolf's heavy breathing. "Initiate Operation: RUN LIKE HELL!" the ninja cyborg soldier had already turned around and was know using all of his speed skills to, well, run like hell. The 3 mares took their own approach, Applejack turned and sprinted away, Rainbow Dash flew away, and Twilight teleported. Xero and Applejack ran, and ran, rushing and sprinting and barreling towards the farm, right now, speed and direction was the only thing that mattered. Xero turned into human form again and equipped his full armor, mask and all, and shouted back to the pony and the beast. "HA, YOU CAN'T OUTRUN ME, I'M BLACK!" it was racist, yes, but it was hilarious, and he was kinda literally black, well, grey is close enough, and it IS a medium grey, which IS technically close enough to the actual color black. "I DUNNO HOW TA RESPOND TA THAT, SO I'LL JUST KEEP RUNNIN', THANKS!" Applejack yelled to him. Xero responded by going even faster, he felt like when he used the effects command in Minecraft to give his avatar swiftness 127 (it's a real thing, too, the highest number you can effectively get without the effect inverting, it makes you go 26.4x normal speed). Breaching the treeline with at least half a minute to spare, he saw Spike conveniently having moved on to a different pile of hay, one about 50 meters from the forest. "SPIKE, GET READY TO FIGHT!" he shouted, skidding to a halt. "AAAAHH, WHAT, I don't know what you mean!" Spike was panicking, having an elite warrior run up to you and say 'prepare to fight' would easily inspire fear. "There is a GIANT ASS TIMBERWOLF running here RIGHT NOW, I only have swords, no axes or smashing weapons, I'm actually kind of screwed, but YOU, YOU CAN TORCH THAT FUCKER!" Xero had actually not been startled from the massive beast, it was purely an act. "I don't know if I can!" the small purple dragon was a bit doubtful of his abilities. "CHECK YOURSELF MAN, you've got these scales of toughness, you have these spines of coolness, and, most immediately important, you CAN BREATHE FIRE!" Xero was running out of time, the booming of the attackers heavy running was getting ever so nearer. "Get into a fighting stance and USE THAT DRACONIC POWER!" Xero instructed, spreading his wings and flying high into the air. Watching the scene unfold, Xero waited for the epics, the lols, and more. Applejack sprinted through the treeline, barreling towards Spike at high speeds. "SPIKE, HELP ME!" she screamed, she was starting to get tired, but she managed to get past Spike without staggering her speed. The humble mare promptly collapsed. Spike turned to the treeline, a giant timberwolf, about 25 times larger than a normal one, stalked out of the forest. The small dragon faced the beast, which looked down upon him with a predatorial visage. Spike breathed in deep, focused his fire energy, and let loose. A solid 10 foot long blast of orangey-red fire, the flames were color coded (for your convenience), orangey-red was fire fire, the thing that swallowed forests and purged towns, yellowy-green fire was messenger fire, the thing that sent objects to a target person, and purpley-blue fire, one he did not have the power to summon at this time, was healing fire, it could burn away disease and seal wounds with its comforting warm feeling, despite the fact that it was FIRE, SO IT SHOULD BE REALLY FUCKING HOT, BUT PURPLEY-BLUE FIRE IS LIKE WARM BLANKETS. The timberwolf was reduced to charcoal. Xero descended onto the pile of blackened pieces of wood, taking one, he knocked his fist against it. "Excellent quality, this will be great for what I'm working on, at least, the fire." the strange (to say the least) man gathered the charcoal up and flew off with them. Applejack thanked Spike for his help. Spike was free to leave, his servitude repayed. Xero was doing..... something. <> Xero was making whiskey. Good ol' Jack Daniel's, a bit of hops, plenty of sugar and yeast, fermented for a whole year now, sped up by yesterday's acquisition of some low quality charcoal.. The last step was to filter it through 10 feet of charcoal. Not just any wood could be used for his fine, expensive tastes, no, it had to be something of HIGH quality. Mahogany charcoal, bitch. His whiskey was filtered through 10 feet of mahogany charcoal. It was some really expensive shit. Since there was not a 'Jack Daniel' to patent the whiskey in Equestria, Xero was free to use his own name. His own name.... He frowned in concentration. What was his name? It was....... He had been going by 'Xero' for so long, and recently lengthened to 'Xero Termvelo', but that wasn't his real name. He was quickly becoming sad, he couldn't remember his original name. 'Xero' was having an identity crisis, not one like the middle aged, who try to find their place in life. No, he legitimately did not know who the hell he was. "I..... am..... Luna-damnit it all to hell! I don't KNOW, I just don't know..." he was silent, it seemed like something a bit silly to get tear-dripping-upset about, but for the one afflicted, it was maddening. "Am I even british?" he had quickly reached the part where he questioned the whole of his life. Flying to his base, he ran his fingers over each piece of equipment. "Am I even a human?" the cyborg asked himself. He quickly reached down his pants. "Wait, yeah, I am." with that assurance out of the way, he moved on to the next question. "Who am I?" he looked at the mirror. It seemed like a whole minute passed, he saw himself in the mirror, lit by the lab's lights. In that minute, his seemed that his beard grew very fast. He stood there, feeling weak, he collapsed and sent out an emergency signal to his medical ward. What was wrong with him? Whatever it was, 'Xero' knew that it would be taken care of. He blacked out. In his mind, he prayed. 'Our mother, who art ruler of the sky, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on the ground, as it is in heaven, blessed be thou and us, and forgive our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, deliver us from evil, disperse the kingdom, for the power, and the glory, and shine down upon us thy glorious light of life.' it went. He felt at peace in his unconsciousness. Drifting into sleep, he laid there, unmoving, with the needles in his body. 'Xero' let himself be healed.