//------------------------------// // Sometimes, the past haunts, sometimes, it hunts // Story: Xero's After-the-Final Fight // by The P Co //------------------------------// Xero woke up to a rumbling sound. The soldier merely kept his eyes shut and continued sleeping. "XE, THE HOUSE IS COLLAPSING!" Rainbow Dash sounded hysterical. "What......" the brit slowly got up and into a standing position. The rumbling sound got louder. A spike of adrenalin shot through his system when he realized that something was deeply wrong. Quickly equipping his speed suit, he shot out of the door faster than a speeding bullet. The house was indeed collapsing, falling out of the sky in large chunks. Speedily taking stock, RD was okay, Scootaloo was flying up onto the scene, the house had stopped collapsing, and a strange pony was fleeing. Soaring off and tackling the strange pony out of the sky, Xero held him aloft with one hand, using his other to break his suspect's wings. "WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU HERE!" he shouted the interrogation. "AH, I, I was sent here to kill you, by MBORF, from Neigh York, please, just make it quick!" the poor, nameless sod knew what to say. Xero merely crushed the agent's neck with a one handed squeeze. "Okay, we've a problem, my old employers are back, and trying to kill me, AGAIN." he debriefed rather abruptly. "I don't get it." both of his fellow-ponies were confused. "Listen, you 2 just stay here, don't follow me, I'll be back in a day's time." the cyborg was NOT going to risk danger to his spouse OR sister. "Hey, I can hold my own against a few creeps." Rainbow Dash wasn't having this. "Dashie, follow me to the forest, I need to explain something to you." the soldier half-heartedly commanded. With a bit of reluctance, the cyan pegasus followed the ninja through the sky. <> The pair flew down to a clearing in the oppressive plant-life. "Okay, listen to me closely, Rainbow, watch carefully at what I'm about to demonstrate." the brit prepared steel targets and a few guns chambered in various cartridges. Demonstrating the ballistics involved, each bullet, 9x19 parabola, .45acp, .357 magnum, .44S&W, .460 Rowland, .50AE, .500S&W, 5.56 NATO, 7.62 NATO, .50BMG, and even 90mm HVSBC. "These various projectiles will be coming at you at speeds higher than the speed of sound, and at intervals as high as 1/10 of a second, and as low as 1/100 of a second." the cyborg punctuated his statement with another volley of bullets to the steel targets. Each of the targets, even being whole 1 inch thick plates of solid steel, had several holes in them. "I'm not so sure about this anymore." Rainbow Dash admitted, looking a bit downtrodden. "Well don't worry, I'll be back in a day's time." the ninja assured. "You can't just go up against that! You can't just show me that and then expect me to think it's okay for you to go out to find them and get KILLED." the spectral maned mare was extremely worried about her husband's mental health, more-so than usual. "I'm going to go and do this, I have to, IF I DON'T STOP THEM, THEY'LL CONSUME THE WORLD IN A FRENZY OF VIOLENCE AND TECHNOLOGY! I've done it before, AND I'LL DO IT AGAIN!" the soldier knew he was the only one who could do this. Flying off at Mach 5 speed, Xero knew he needed to get to Neigh York, and fast. <> He had to stop for directions, as he had lost the data files for the world map. Entering a pub, as his experience led him to the knowledge that pubs held ponies that knew their way around Equestria. Willing himself into pony form a mere second before he opened the door, he trotted inside, his kimono over his hoodie, hood up. Sitting at a booth near a group of ponies, he listened in on their conversation. "So, Ten, my stallion, howitzer been going." one of the strange ponies said to another. "Fuck off, Shade, with your cannons and what-not, I'm not in the mood to talk." another pony, presumably the stallion named Ten, replied. Xero changed positions to a table in the middle of the room to observe the group. A lime green coated unicorn stallion with a shaggy orange mane. A murky yellow coated pegasus stallion with a short dark blue mane. An orange coated unicorn stallion with a dirt brown mane that had toxic green highlights. A light purple coated pegasus stallion with a leafy green mane. "But seriously, how's it been going with you, Ten Cages." the yellow stallion repeated, sitting nearest the wall, further away from everypony else, he occasionally fidgeted in place, like something was bothering him. "Ugh, fine, Shade, if you must know, my ethereal wings spell has been improving drastically, soon I'll be able to fly like someone like you." the orange stallion, Ten, answered. "So.... delete-star-dot-star, international-mob-tournament, band-of-anime-yakuza, from scythes to shotguns." the purple stallion said suddenly, it was obvious that he had some sort of speaking disorder. "Violin C.E., I swear if you don't shut your mouth, I'll use a healing spell as an attack." Ten demanded. "I see, wealth-and-common-folk-pitchforks, pray-the-game-away, roses are bad for your health." Violin continued. "So, besides Ten being a combat pragmatist, and Violin being really fucking stupid, where's Blotty?" the green unicorn asked. "Fishy, Blotty is off doing weather shit, she's not coming today." Shade informed with a slightly shaky voice, still fidgeting every 5-6 seconds "And what about Crystal?" Fishy continued. Shade, rather than saying anything, merely pointed downwards, still fidgeting. "And here I thought your shivers were cancer." Ten crudely remarked. Shade merely slapped Ten upside the head, shivered and fidgeted again, and stayed silent, snorting a couple of times. Ten recovered and jabbed Shade in the face. Several seconds later, a pale blue coated pegasus mare with a long, straight indigo mane appeared from under the table, sitting next to Shade. "Okay, so, let's get to the real business." the newly arrived pony insisted, wiping her mouth with a napkin and then proceeding to eat said napkin, this was obviously Crystal. Xero was a bit disturbed at the lack of decency displayed by the odd group, as astronomically hard as it was to believe, even XERO had standards. "Alright, sesquipedalian-missionary-position-neighing-in-the-yard, local-phone-calls-identity-theft, one-minus-one-plus-why, It's for the Omnilord." Violin stated, taking in another breath. "First-and-last-movie-in-the-villa. Electrical-outlet-suit-jacket-masquerade. Beware-of-skateboard. Sky-colors-in-the-pages-with-arteries. Ex-plus-why-equals-negative-division-sign-stop-in-the-road. Dark-skies-of-string-instruments-with-bleached-screws. Straight-up-gee-in-the-tree. Cutlery-on-the-grill-of-magical-shiny-shiny-shiny. Warehouse-common-folk-curtains-middle-of-the-cocaine. Muzzle-not-flashing-in-azure-and-darkness. Gang-pony-leg-warmers-in-the-pool-of-time-passing-like-reversed-sand. Saucers-on-the-floor-31. Ex-why-zee. Reverberating-line-of-atlas-victorious-golden-vanity-mirror. Avalanche-tidal-wave-tornado-wine-and-blood. The scout hasn't returned." Violin explained. Whatever modicum of revealed information that 'explanation' offered, it was apparently understood by his fellows. "I see, so the target is probably looking for the Omnilord, assuming that he killed the agent, and knows that we're in Neigh York." Ten reworded. "Mirror-punk-flanks-and-eyes-yar-over-the-hills." Violin quickly noted, pointing to Xero suddenly. Xero tensed, staying calm and finishing his mug of ale, standing up, he looked at the group. The ninja calmly trotted over to the group. "Greetings filly and gentlecolts, how are you doing on this fine manehattanite day." the brit cheerfully greeted, placing a hoof on the back of Ten's head. "Hello trottinghammer, what brings you to our table?" Fishy greeted. "I was over yonder and happened to overhear that all of you are looking for a chap named Xero, no?" the cyborg held one fore-hoof on the back of Ten's head, lifting the other several inches off of the floor. "We were looking for a pony, A pony, we never said any names." Fishy could smell that something was..... well, fishy. "Five-sign-on-the-shoe-for-4-hearts-of-stardom-warm-pastries-yell-checkers-on-your-flag." Violin warned as best he could. "Okay, well, in that case..." the soldier was prepared for a battle. He quickly willed himself into human form, slamming Ten's head through the table, effectively killing the unicorn via multiple vital bones breaking. Summoning the Joy Colt, he shot Fishy through the head, the 2 bullets splattering his brain backwards. Using the Justice to electrocute Violin, and the Le-Lob to jab Shade in the jugular, blowing his neck up, he turned to the pegasus mare, Crystal. "Where is Neigh York, relative to here?" he demanded, holding the blade of the Shadow of Tears inches from her muzzle. "North by Northeast!" the blue pegasus quickly revealed. "Alright, now suck it." the ninja commanded, gesturing to the tip of the sword. She obliged with tears in her eyes, her lips latching onto the tip of the Shadow of Tears, the insanely sharp edge sliced the skin of her mouth open with ease, the poisonous mercury melting and entering her bloodstream and quickly reaching her brain. She was dead in 4 seconds. Turning invisible as to not cause further panic than A FUCKING QUINTUPLE HOMICIDE IN THE MIDDLE OF A PUB! He left with great haste. <> He was getting closer, he could tell, the bad omens had ascended from whispers, to mumbles, to rambles, and finally shouting and yelling. Turning to pony form the second he saw the giant buildings in the distance, he continued galloping like a bat out of tartarus towards the city. [Neigh York City] Population: 9,876,543 1,300,037 500,000 100,337 90,210 40,000 9,001 1,337 City soon to be abandoned and rebuilt Apparently MBORF had been killing off several ass-loads of ponies in either kidnappings, attempts at finding Xero, or releasing soldiers and/or diseases into the air. The tinge of green in the air was a (rather stereotypical) sign of airborne disease. Getting about 50 meters into the town, a loud series of whirs and zaps filled the air. The diseases would only effect true-born ponies, so his increased ventilation would have no effect. Turning back around, he found himself dressed up in the wrong ends of many laser sights, like the people in the 'Predator' movies. A few breathless moments only added the horrid sounds of more loading rifles and more laser sights. Willing himself into human form again, he summoned the Justice and the Hand of Death, a proper melee dual wielding, sword in one hand and a dagger in the other. Bullets flew at him like a hard rain, both figuratively and literally. It wasn't hard at all, he blocked each and every one of the AP projectiles. Another volley, this time with FMJs Another, APFSDS. And another, Full Steel rounds. Xero was getting bored, another volley came, this time Advanced AP, steel jackets with tungsten cores The cyborg hadn't taken a single hit and his enemies were out of ammunition, he charged into the group before the call for mounting bayonets could be issued. Slashing and smashing and slicing and dicing and hacking and attacking all at once, he was a beast, and he was hungry for murder. Grabbing the radio from one of his fallen foes, he heard a worried recon voice coming from it. "Squadron 99 Leader, are you there? REPEAT, Squadron 99 Leader, are you there?" the man on the other end demanded the information. "Yeah, I'm here, sorry about the delays, had a bit of a problem." the ninja imitated a gruff soldier's voice. "Civilians?" the recon receiver guessed. "No, target Xero, he's here, don't worry, it was surprisingly easy to deal with." the brit falsely assured. "Target Xero is in the city? Good thing we caught him before the night-time forcefield came up, alright, head back to HQ in the northernmost point of town." the recon receiver instructed. "Okay, after Xero came in and killed all of us, that would be a valuable piece of information." the soldier subtly revealed. "Wait, killed.... all of you.... who is this? You better not be playing a prank, or you'll be executed, soldier." the angered desk jockey warned. "Don't worry, it's not a joke." Xero purposefully slipped a bit of his accent into his statement. "... wat?" the recon receiver delivered his question quite flatly. "Make peace with your god now, BECAUSE I'M COMING FOR YOUR HEADS!" Xero shouted into the com-link with his normal voice. Smashing the device on the ground and stomping on it for good measure, the ninja ran further into the city. Running the calculations, he had to go another 30 miles. Turning on a good song, he went full speed. He was struck, suddenly and very hard. Falling and skidding along the asphalt for about 500 feet, he stood up with chunks of skin missing and a shit-load of holes in his wings. "Well, good thing I never abandon any of my abilities." he was lucky, if he had dedicated all of his time to leisure and flying, he would be rightly fucked at this moment. Summoning the Justice and the Shadow Tears, he prepared to fight his way through. Stumbling in pain and a sudden onslaught of exhaustion, he looked over his wounds. He was bleeding very heavily, he would die within a minute. Painfully cauterizing his abrasions and lacerations, applying pressure to his avulsions and incisions, and plugging up his punctures, he summoned some medical supplies and injected himself with a large dosage of key blood components. His wings were beyond repair, a shotgun blast had torn dozens of holes in the feathers, and most of the undamaged feathers had been forcefully plucked with his humorously long tumble. Trudging at the (relative to normal) slow speed of about 40mph, he slashed at his enemies as they came. The GPS pathfinder came up again with a notice. 10 miles to go. Even going at 60mph, it would still take him 10 minutes to get there, 10 minutes that he did not have. Forced to go slowly at the risk of sensory overload, he went along at only 10mph, which would get him to his destination in an hour. Keeping the Lunar Zanbato out, the faithful soldier power-walked along the way, dragging the massive sword along the ground behind him, too weak to haul it on his shoulder, but too cautious to have it dismissed. Half an hour later, he could feel his body repairing itself, skin growing back, blood producing again, he was feeling better, better enough to haul the LZ on his shoulder. The blade of the LZ was both ridiculously sharp to his enemies, and, being a goddess-forged tier weapon (at least that's how he classified it), completely indestructible, to the point that dragging it across cobblestone and dirt roads for 30 minutes had not dulled the edge. 29 inch long handle, wrapped in royal blue leather, Xero had theorized that these wrappings were made from Luna's own hide, being the same color as her coat, but it was just a theory. Emblazoned in silver ink was a message written japonese kanjis, which read 'Eternal Death before dishonor'. The pommel was a 4 inch diameter sphere that looked exactly like the full moon, complete with craters and everything. A full 1 inch thick crossbar, which was little more than a horizontal black square prism, 1 inch tall by 1 inch wide, and 6 inches long, the 2 ends each held a crescent moon, both facing outwards, the whole 'theme' of the weapon was liberally plastered all over it. The blade itself was 4 inches wide at the base, going out for about 4 inches before the back-side tapered into the edge-side, making it 2 inches thick. The wide base area contained a strange symbol. The size was something to fear, a whole 90 inches long, 2 inches thick, the flat of the blade was black, as to be expected, but it was so dark black that it seemed to emit darkness, the brit could have sworn that the weapon was not this powerful looking when he first got it. Engraved vertically down the length of the flat, from tip to base, were more kanjis than before, filled in with a pale light blue tinged cobalt, the symbols read: 'Her highness, the mighty and majestic Luna, goddess of the night, commander the moon, creator the stars, and mistress of magic, darkness, power, strength. and peace, blessed be those protected by her power.' A thin silver line divided the base from the rest of the blade, effectively dividing the point where the symbol was and where the kanjis were. A whole 10 feet long, and forged by a vengeful horse goddess, it was the epitome of concept of a Zanbato, which, as a bilingual bonus, literally translated into 'Horse-killing sword'. Oh what delicious irony, or maybe it was intentional, either way, it was a bit funny, despite the fact that the original use was an offense against cavalry, not just horses. Using his prized possession to impale 6 enemies' heads at once, the ninja used the equine shish-kabob to kill the rest of the squadron, feeling much better and more powerful. Speeding up a lot, he could feel some of the scabs tearing off, he had landed above the front door to the HQ of MBORF, fatigued by his wounds, he collapsed and blacked out on top of the overhang-door-type-umbrella-thing. Laying there, his last conscious thought was a prayer that he would not be found. <> Waking up in pitch black, Xero quickly lashed out, only to knock off a blanket thing that had concealed him. Standing and picking up the silky sheet, he looked it over, it was pitch black except for a white lettering which read: 'Dear Luna, I hope that nopony bloody finds me here.' The phrase confused him at first, but then he realized it... This was an answer to his prayer! Chalking it up to a 'high enough faith stat', he figured he could acquire things simply by praying for them, as the black sheet had concealed him for an entire day. Looking up, it was night again, looking down, business was boring. He recalled his dream, it was simple, he was in a dark void, and he was cold, his halo had enveloped him in a pillar of white light, accompanied by a comforting warmth. Looking over, he saw a large puddle of dry blood, his own blood, enough of his own blood for him to have bled to death. Banishing the morbid thought, he jumped to the ground, turning into pony form. He went to enter the building, preparing to retaliate in case the sound of galloping in the distance was some sort of poor attempt at an ambush. It was time for a slaughter