The kid had dirty blonde hair with two parts of his bangs beside his eyes that stretched down to his shoulders and ended in points, but the rest of his bangs rested above his greenish blue eyes in a straight line cut with only two breaks in it. He was wearing a black coat that contrasted greatly against his pale skin and some old, worn out Converse.
"What happened?" Spike's voice came from the side, interrupting my studies.
"I... I... I have no idea!" Azuro said, completely befuddled.
"Interesting..." Luna remarked. The guy just looked utterly confused.
"Where the hell am I and why are there talking ponies?" He asked.
"I'll fill you in when we figure out everything." I said, being the only one to address him directly. "But for now, all you need to know is that you're in a war torn land called Equestria and... You might want to move away from that portal." I warned.
"Portal? What por..." He turned around to view the massive gateway, and quickly stumbled back and fell on his backside.
"This is so awesome!" Twilight squealed with glee as the kid got back up and brushed himself off, "I will have to take him back to my lab and run some tests and maybe even some experiments! Oh, so much to learn!" She showed a side that I had yet to see. Maybe back from her years before the war. It incited a cute little giggle from Luna.
"Whoa, whoa! Experiments? I don't think so, purple butt." He remarked.
"How did this even happen?" Flynn asked.
"Who are you guys?" The guy asked. "What is going on?" His frustrated tone becoming apparent.
"He must have come from that hair!" Flynn exclaimed.
"Hair? What hair?" The guys exasperated voice said.
"It's a possibility..." Azuro said, scratching his chin with his hoof. "Your molecular construct could have mixed with the transdimensional aura and either transported the guy here, or created him..."
"Will somebody please just answer my questions?" The guy asked.
"I have a theory..." Twilight said, "Hey, human. What is your name?" She asked.
"Aiden... Aiden Stein Warlick." He said.
"Azuro, if he was created, wouldn't he not have, or not remember, his name?"
"Hmmm." Azuro paused, "That's a pretty accurate analysis... Let's go with the bookworms theory!" He said.
"The only problem that we don't have a clue as to who he is." Rarity commented.
"You know my name, now I want some answers!" Aiden demanded.
"I'll fill you in on everything later." I said calmly. Just then, the portal began to crackle as the red finally met. For real this time.
"Aiden. Run. There is a town about a kilometer behind us. Find it and tell everypony there what happened and to prepare themselves. You have to trust us." Azuro took charge as the portal rippled and shuddered. We all took defensive positions and aimed our weapons at the crackling portal as Aiden nodded and ran back to Ponyville.
A moment of silence ensued, only our tensed breathes broke it. Then, like a nightmare, a long claw broke through the portal. Slowly at first, finding its way into the world. As half of its twisted, chitin arm was through, it stopped. The claw quickly retreated back into the portal, then an Imp shot out at full speed. Its horrific form speeding at us caused us all to hesitate. Luckily, Flynn had enough experience and quickly gunned down the demon, his resounding shotgun boom echoing through the hills.
There was another moment of silence, then, the head of a 'Pinky' demon emerged and charged. This time, we were prepared and were able to gun the thing down. Though it did take a considerable amount of ammunition.
"If they keep coming one by one, this'll hardly be a challenge!" Rainbow Dash proclaimed.
"Don't jinx us, Dash." I said, keeping a steady bead on the portal. A Wraith teleported behind us, but Spike's ears caught the sound and whipped around. He smacked the Wraith in the face with his claws, causing it to stagger. He took advantage of this and brought his gun up, planting a few bullets in its skull. Two Imps and three Maggots charged out of the portal straight at us.
"Break!" Flynn shouted as two Maggots fell, but the other got through only to swipe at thin air. I aimed at the head and fired, causing it to explode. A fire ball sailed over my head and singed my eyebrows before Flynn managed to gun down the offending Imp. Rarity screamed out in terror, causing me to whip my head around to the sound. An Imp was standing over her, about to maul her, but a certain purple and green blur tackled the Imp to the ground and began to rip it apart.
"Stay! Away! From! My! Rarity!" He yelled as body parts flew.
"Spike!" Twilight's voice called, breaking him out of his rage. He sat there for a second, panting as he tried to catch is breath.
"Yeah... Sorry." He said and got up, brushing himself off. He walked back over to a taken aback Rarity, giving her a once over. "Are you alright?"
"Y-Yes... I'm quite alright, Spikey Wikey." She said, still shocked by his actions. "I never knew you were so... Protective of me." She said. He chuckled lightly, then gave a smirk.
"You should know better, my gem." He said.
"Hate to kill the moment... Actually, I kinda like it, but we have a problem." Azuro said, then pointed towards the portal, which shuddered again. A small, transparent, floating skull of fire floated from the aura. I looked over to Flynn, who was standing beside Luna. Both were pale.
"Don't let it touch you!" They both yelled simultaneously and stood stock still. We followed in suit as it floated past, when it was gone, I shot Flynn a glance.
"What the hell was that?" I asked.
"It turns humans... Ponies into the Zombies." He explained.
"Can we kill it?" Spike asked.
"Unfortunately, no. Not with conventional weapons, at least. But, upon study of them, I figure a simple EMP should disrupt them and cause them to fall apart." Luna stated.
"That's helpful." Flynn said.
"Anypony got an EMP on hoof?" Dash asked. All shook their heads, save for Rarity.
"Darling, you should know that I never leave home without one. They scrambled the Changelings hive mind prospect, after all. Pity most soldiers didn't use them for the fact that they would have to go without helmets." She said and pulled out a small, round object that had a single cyan line across it and a button on top.
"Don't use it here. It could disrupt the portal." Azuro warned. Rarity shrugged and put the EMP back into her bag.
"Wait..." I said.
"What?" Dinky asked.
"Why did it stop?" I asked. Noticing that they did not pick up on my meaning, I added, "The demons crossing into our dimension, I mean."
"Not sure..." Azuro said and we all focused back onto the portal. Suddenly, it shuddered and emitted a large flash and yet another shock wave. I was really getting sick of getting knocked on my ass. When I touched down, my head whipped back and struck against something hard, causing my brain to go fuzzy. I lost track of time and saw jumbled images swimming through my eyes. Skulls of fire surging from the portal, Dinky trying to shake me back to the world of the living, and, finally, an Imp stepping over me. I eventually blacked out.
~~~
"Jack! I'm getting tired of waking your ass up!" Dinky's distant, but clearly annoyed voice hit my right before a hoof did. The thought that she was alive renewed me enough to let my eyelids open. Actually, it was probably more of the hoof smack to the face. Dinky was standing over me and we were in a room that I recognized as the Headquarters map room.
"What? What happened?" I asked, rubbing my aching head.
"You got knocked the fuck out! That's what happened." I heard Flynn chuckle.
"How long?" I asked.
"Few hours, not really a big deal." Azuro stated from across the room.
"Not a big deal?! What about the demons? And the flaming skull things that turn ponies into Zombies?!" I said, starting to get a little worked up.
"When we got back to town with you, Rarity discharged her EMP and they all evaporated. The skulls, I mean. The others are holding the demons off as we speak." Azuro said.
"Why is the only one with any experience in here waiting for me? And were is that kid?" I asked.
"That 'Kid' is twenty one." Aiden's voice said as he strolled into the room. He was now wearing the battle armor and carrying a standard machine gun. I also noticed that Flynn had dodged my question, but I wasn't able to ask again because another bombshell was dropped.
"That 'Kid' is also your grandson, Jack." Twilight made her presence apparent.
"Really? Why is all of my family getting caught up in this shit storm?!" I asked.
"How did he get here?" Flynn asked, completely ignoring me.
"The genetic material in your hair mixed with the transdimensional aura, causing a rip in subspace and transporting Aiden here." Twilight explained. While everyone else was gawking at her explanation, she blushed. "You can learn a lot from a few tests..." She said.
"How about we not stand around while ponies are dying at the claws of demons?" I asked rhetorically and jumped up from my place on the floor.
"We were waiting on you..." Flynn commented as we all grabbed our weapons and headed outside. What we saw was pure carnage. Blood was everywhere and ponies were getting thrown around like toys. Innards hung on buildings and pikes as well as a few bodies. Some ponies were fighting hoof to... Claw and some of them were shooting from a distance or even point blank. The worst thing I saw was that there were no demon bodies.
"The demons bodies disintegrate when they die." Flynn informed, reading my mind. It set my slightly at ease to know that we might have been doing something.
"Good to know. Now, let's get out there and save this town." I said, steeling my nerves and letting my helmet fall onto my face.
"Right." The five beside me answered and readied their weapons before charging into the fray, guns ablaze. I drew my handgun and my sword before extending my wings. With a little shove off from them, I decapitated an Imp that was standing over a scared filly. Its body disintegrated like Flynn said it would, starting in the middle with red embers and expanding outwards, letting the remnant ashes float away in the wind.
"Get out of here and to your family!" I shouted at the terrified filly. She nodded and ran off quickly. I turned around to find a Maggot in my face. I responded with three handgun shells and a sword in the stomach. With another boost from my wings, I sliced an Imp in half and planted a few bullets into two pesky Wraiths. I heard a pony cry out in pain followed by an explosion and a really loud roar that sent chills down my spine.
"Mancubus!" I heard a pony shout in warning. Remembering, but not really heeding, Flynn's warnings, I charged at the grotesque creature. It noticed me about the time that I sunk my blade into its fatty exterior.
"You ponies handle the lesser demons! I got this one!" I yelled. The Mancubus's hand/cannon thing came down and almost clipped my right wing. And it would have if not for my reflexes. I boosted up into the air with my wings and planted a few bullets into it, but this only seemed to enrage the thing farther. It roared in annoyance and tried to swat me down with one hand and shoot fireballs at me with the other. I evaded all of its attacks, occasionally slicing it or getting a shot in. Finally, it got so pissed, that it roared as loud as it could, dropping its arms back to do so. I deadpanned at it at first, until I realized how serious the creature was. I gave a rather large pump from my wings and then tucked them in while putting my sword on a collision course for his throat to gain maximum speed. When I hit the Mancubus, I barely felt it, but I traveled straight through it! It gurgled and sputtered a few times, then fell to the ground and disintegrated, leaving only floating ashes. I looked up and found myself face to face with a sickly looking pony that was coated in blood.
"Are you okay?" I asked and reached my hand out. He responded with a grunt and then lunged at me. My reflexes allowed me to quickly dodge and decapitate the offending pony... Zombie. "Whew, that was close." I looked around to see if I could find some more ponies in trouble. My eyes landed on ten ponies that just finished their battles and were all cheering in victory.
Suddenly, the ground opened up and a pale white, humanoid demon crawled out of the fiery place. The ten instantly went back to their fighting stances. They opened fire, but only a few of the bullets got past while the rest were disintegrated. It roared in hate and then raised its hands up, inciting fire to erupt from the ground and consume the screaming ponies. I guess Flynn was right about its power. It was clear that I would have to stay off the ground. With a quick pump of my wings, I was in the air. I fired a few bullets at it when it was trying to attack some more of the ponies, and that got its attention rather quickly. It hissed and pointed its bloated, fiery hands at me, expelling a wave of fire that I dodged easily.
"You'll have to do better than that if you want to kill me!" I yelled to taunt it. It roared in aggravation and smacked the ground with its hands. Six demon pentacles appeared in perfect symmetry across the ground in front of it and spawned an Imp from each.
"Fuuuuck." I groaned, cursing my big mouth. I sheathed the sword and pulled the sniper of off my back, proceeding to blow the heads off of two of the vile demons. I fired the third round at the Arch Vile, but it was destroyed by its flames. Multiple fireballs and waves of flame raced towards me. I flew above the first wave of fire and ducked under the other one, but a fireball struck me dead in the chest, sending me reeling. Suit Error. Armor at 87 percent. The message ran across my screen as the breath was knocked from my lungs.
"Damn it." I muttered and spun around, dodging another fireball. I magnetized the sniper to my back and drew my assault rifle. I fired a few rounds into another Imp's face, downing it effectively, but at the price of loosing another 45 percent of my armor to a fire wave. Now a few parts of my skin were showing through the cracks and breaks in my armor. I heard a shotgun crack from below and snapped my attention to Flynn standing over a headless Arch Vile. It was distracting enough to the Imps for me kill the last of the ones that were summoned.
"Thanks!" I shouted down to him, earning a wave. I looked around and noticed that the only demons coming in were the ones coming through our defenses in the front of Ponyville.
"Um, Rarity?" I asked through my speakers.
"Yes, darling?" She answered.
"I noticed that the demons are no longer spawning inside of Ponyville. What happened? Not that I'm complaining, but it is a little confusing." I said.
"Well the pony's here prepared and, along with a special team of high level Unicorns, they studied the patterns of magic that were used to summon the hellspawn and devised a counter spell for it. They only recently finished and were able to cast it along with a counter spell for the Skulls. A few of them are actually here with me." Rarity said.
"Hey there, pretty boy! Thanks for the little speech!" I heard Vinyl's voice call.
"Quite." Answered a stallion who's voice I had not heard yet.
"Yes, well, that was the answer to your question. If you would be so kind as to clear out the rest of those demons..." She said.
"Right." I said and shot down, dodging fireballs, firing shots, and slicing demons into pieces. Finally, I was able to dispatch the last Imp and sheath my weapons. I flew down to the center fortification of defense that was at the edge of the town and met with my friends.
"Jack. Good to see you made it." Octavia said and retracted her helmet from her head.
"You too, 'Tavi." I said.
"Hey! Jacky boy! Whatsup?" Vinyl said as she walked out from a small tent.
"I thought you were with Rarity?" I asked.
"I was. But I'm a Unicorn, that means I can teleport." She explained slowly, like she was teaching a toddler. Then she laughed, "I'm just messing with ya." She said.
"Quit horsing around." Aiden's voice came from behind me before he chuckled.
"Good to see that you're adapting." I said with a laugh.
"The puns are the only thing keeping me alive here, man. I mean, have you seen what they named their towns?!" He joked.
"What's wrong with Baltimare?" Luna asked as she came in from the side. Aiden burst into laughing. Rolling her eyes, Luna trotted up to us and said her greetings.
"Jack!" I heard a good familiar voice before getting tackle hugged to the ground.
"Good to see you too." I said and retracted my helmet. I gave her a quick peck on the lips and we both got up, dusting ourselves off.
"Um, General?" I heard a small voice call to me. I turned around to see the same small filly that I had saved before timidly shuffle her hooves.
"Yes, little one?" I said.
"Thank you!" She said and ran off. I smiled a little and shook my head.
"Kids." I said under my breath.
"General." I heard a deep voice call my name. I turned around to face a Pegasus stallion that was taller than most, but fully clad in battle armor that prevented me from seeing his features. I raised an eyebrow in question.
"We may have a problem." He said and pointed his hoof in the direction of the hill. What I saw, scared the ever-living hell out of me. It was a massive, tank-like creature with the treads and bottom half. It carried a rather large gun that was morphed into his arm like a cannon and the other arm was an enormous claw. It was barreling down the hill, firing its weapon at our fortifications and breaking through the magic shields with ease.
"God damn it..." I said and unsheathed my sword and unclipped my handgun. I lowered my helmet and signaled the others while unfurling my wings and shot off to meet my target. I avoided a downward swing from its massive claw and did a barrel roll to dodge a shot from his cannon. It was hit in the chest with a magical blast from Luna and roared more in anger that we got a shot through than in pain that we hit it.
"That should have blown right through it!" Luna exclaimed in shock. I fired multiple shots from my handgun, but they all seemed to bounce off! I would have to take this a degree higher. Flynn ran over and hopped on top of the treads, planting three shells at point blank into the things abdomen. They caused a small amount of blood to splatter, and a swat from the beast, sending Flynn flying back into the town. He was caught by a random, sparkling aura.
"Don't worry, darling. I have him." Rarity said.
"Thanks." I said and whipped the sniper off of my back while the others distracted the thing. I planted a bullet in its spine, causing it to roar in pain this time.
"It must be impervious to magic! Use your guns!" I shouted down at Luna and Twilight, who had been pelting the thing with unsuccessful magic blasts. I gained the things full attention with that sniper bullet though, and had to dodge quite a few shots from his cannon. He was assaulted from the side by Dinky's massive sniper and quickly turned his attention towards her.
"Oh fuck the hell you don't." I said and, before he could make a move towards Dinky, buried my last sniper round in the back of its head. It stopped moving completely and went limp, inciting me to go and inspect the corpse. I flew down, only for it to jerk up with a roar and smack me with a claw. I flew, and not by choice this time, to the ground and skidded to a stop. The beast roared as a message saying Error. Armor compromised. scrolled across my screen.
"Jack. Take it easy. If a blow from that thing hits you this time, you may need stitches." Rarity's warning came through my coms. I nodded and took an air of security. Mainly because I hated needles. I tried to fly back into the air, but quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. As it turns out, I had landed on my wings. I cursed my luck and ran into the battle, drawing my sword while doing so.
The monster took notice and fired a shot at me, then turned around, hoping that the explosion would kill me so he could tend to my friends. I put my strength into my legs and pushed off of the ground, throwing my body forward into a flip. Halfway through doing this, I realized that I could fly without wings. The shot exploded under me and propelled my body forward. I was still flipping, so I was able to do quite a few of them before my feet landed on its chest. Momentum allowed me to stay there long enough to plunge my sword into its heart. It gurgled and slowed to the stop, dropping its head down.
I yanked the sword free, and, quite ungracefully, landed on my back. Making the epic move I just did a little less epic. I got up and brushed myself off.
"Rarity?" I asked, looking at my battered armor as a sliver fell off of the main body piece, "I think I'm going to need some new armor."