• Published 30th Dec 2011
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Human - DannyJ



The Human of legend has been released, and the Brotherhood makes its move.

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Chapter 12: Taking a Third Option

Howard coughed into his handkerchief as he made his way towards his chair. Lauren Faust gave him an encouraging smile, which he returned. To her right, he spotted John de Lancie conversing with another of the voice actors. He didn't recall her name, but she voiced some popular recurring background ponies.

He sat down in his chair, between Daniel Ingram and another of the writers, a new guy they hired for the production of season four. With his arrival, everyone was finally present, so the announcer declared the question and answer session open. Lauren took questions first, and then Jayson. A few of the other writers who had been around since season one followed after. When Amy was finished, it was his turn. He took his first question.

"So, what can you tell us about the new villain for season four?"

Howard leaned in.

"Well, not much beyond what we've already released. His name is Sliske, and he's another of Celestia's old enemies from a thousand years ago, and his thing is that he actually has a way to stop Twilight and friends from using the Elements of Harmony. Can't say anything more for now, sorry."

The bronies in the crowd began to mutter. The revelation that Sliske could stop the main six from using the Elements was one of the few pieces of information he had been given the all-clear to reveal. Otherwise, he was instructed to be as evasive as possible, which was more fun than he thought it would be. It was rather funny seeing the fans get excited over every little detail released about the new episode. Or new season rather.

A brony in a blue t-shirt and glasses raised his hand at the back of the room. Second pointed him out.

"Yes. You sir."

"In your last episode you wrote for season three, I noticed you actually included a cameo from uh, Doctor Whooves, and you actually showed him and Derpy entering the TARDIS in the background of that one scene at the castle. Did you run into any legal issues when you wanted to include that, and if I may ask, are you a big fan of the original Doctor Who show?"

"Uh, well of course we didn't use the TARDIS verbatim. We used basically a look-alike. Bronies and Who fans recognised it as the TARDIS because it was Doctor Whooves, but we used a blue barn instead of a police box, so it wasn't really the same, and it passed legal. We just thought, that since Doctor Who threw in a pony reference in their last season, we should return the favour, and I have heard that the Moff saw it and had a good laugh at that.

"And as for your other question, yes I am a fan of the Doctor Who show. I started watching it when Tennant took over, and have followed it ever since. I went back and watched season one later, and a few episodes of the classic series, mostly Tom Baker episodes though some others obviously. To answer some follow-up questions I know some of you will have, favourite Doctor is the Eleventh, my favourite episode is Vampires of Venice, favourite classic episode is the Twin Dilemma, not even trolling, and yes I have seen Torchwood. Didn't think much of it, except Miracle Day because Lancie was in that."

John was clearly amused by that last comment. The bronies meanwhile had broken into groans and the occasional angry shout at the mention of the Twin Dilemma. Howard could only raise his hands in surrender.

"I know, I know! Don't shoot me! Please, just, next question."

Thousands of hands shot into the air.

"Not related to my taste in Doctor Who episodes preferably."

Most of the hands lowered again.

"Yes, you in the hoodie."

The man in the hoodie lowered it, revealing a familiar face underneath. He held up a cell phone.

"Mom wants to know when you'll be home."

Howard's face flushed red.

"...Three hours. Don't interrupt my Q&A again Anthony."

The crowd laughed at that.

"She also wants to know what you want for dinner."

"I don't know! Tell her to get creative! I'm trying to answer questions here! Fluttershy cosplay girl in front. Your question?"

"Ever read Fallout Equestria?"

"No. We're not allowed to read fan fiction, but I have heard of it. I have listened to some of the brony musicians' work though."

"Any favourites?"

"Tombstone and Aviators. Last question for now, and then we'll hand it over to Nathan. Yes, you?"

"Are you going to be writing anything more for season five?"

Howard considered that for a moment.

"No."

***

In Sliske's head, something snapped. One minute, he was trying to comprehend the idea that Broad Sword could be dead. Then, there was acceptance. Acceptance lasted but a millisecond, and was immediately replaced by rage. More rage than any being should conceivably be able to feel. The other ponies still stood in shock, staring at either their friend's body, or at the also furious human who was now pointing the Reaper's Horn at them.

Sliske however, was not looking at anything. He was spasming erratically, eyes twitching, stomping his hooves and trying to restrain a scream. Second turned his attention to the alien. At first he thought to try and threaten him into submission, but he knew better than that. He created Sliske. He knew what this being was capable of more than anyone.

And for the first time in a very long time, Second showed genuine fear.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!"

Mystic Chant's body burst with a sudden explosion of raw magic, and Sliske let loose a primal roar. His coat went stark white and his mane and tail were set alight. It was a transformation that the human had indirectly witnessed in a pony before, and the fact that Sliske was in such a state right now did not bode well.

"I WILL TEAR THE FLESH FROM YOUR BONES, HUMAN!"

He wasn't even hissing. That was bad. In a panic Second turned to the tiny little red man standing on his shoulder.

"Don't look at me, idiot!" Ambition shouted, "Open fire!"

Second shot Sliske at point blank range with the shotgun, but Sliske raised a bubble shield around him and his friends. The shotgun shells which had killed Gods bounced off harmlessly, and the possessed colt readied another spell. A light blue glow surrounded his body, and it suddenly grew to a massive size. The human was now staring at a fully grown, alicorn-sized Mystic Chant with a fire mane and shark teeth.

This was the stuff nightmares were made of.

Sliske rushed forward and slammed into Second. He sunk his teeth into his chest and punctured the skin, slamming his hooves into the human as he ripped a large chunk of skin off him, along with most of his shirt. Second screamed in pain and scrambled back to get away from the murderous alien, and began to run away through one of the many holes in the wall behind him. Sliske spat out the human flesh and stomped so hard that the ground cracked on impact. With another cry of vengeance, he charged after the fleeing Elder God, leaving a trail of fire in his wake.

In the dust left behind, Gold Coin, Soft Spoken, Captain Chain Mail and Explodey could only continue to stare.

"Do you think he needs any help?" asked Gold Coin.

Surprisingly, it was Explodey who took command here.

"No! Leave him to his job! Sliske can handle it. Our goal should be destroying this monstrous place and taking Second and all his sick experiments with it!"

"Explodey-" the captain began.

The unicorn levitated out the small metal ring that he had shown Soft Spoken and the others earlier, and clipped it onto his own horn.

"This is the magic enhancer from earlier," he explained, "I'm going to use it to give myself a power boost and make an explosion so big that it'll take out the entire Mages' Guild! NOPONY gets away with killing my friends!"

"Explodey, please be reasonable!" Soft Spoken interrupted, "We can't fall into disarray right now! We're all together at last! We should get out and locate Spike and have him take us back to Equestria at once! We need to help Sliske get away from Second and take him with us, and we need to take Broad Sword's body back too, so that his family can at least bury him. I'm upset too, but we can't fall apart and go crazy with revenge schemes! It isn't the way!"

The unicorn and the earth pony stared each other down, but trying to win a staring contest against the Element of Kindness, no matter who bore that title, seemed to be futile. Eventually, Explodey yielded and sighed.

"We will need a way of contacting Spike," he said, "He has no idea where we are or what we've been doing. Somepony will need to get to wherever he is and tell him the whole plan."

"Even if he stayed near the embassy, that's still a good distance across the city," Gold Coin pointed out, "Or even worse, what if he's airborne?"

"We'd need a pegasus," Soft Spoken agreed, "Too bad that unlike the original Elements of Harmony, there is no balance between the races in our group. We have two unicorns, an alien and the rest of us are all earth ponies. Seriously, what the hell?"

"Hey Chains," said Explodey, "Do those wings on your suit still work?"

"Fuck no! I could clip them back on and turn them into wings again if everything was working, but that last explosion of yours completely wrecked the mechanism, and even if we fixed it the software that helps me operate this thing is shot. I can walk, but you can't reasonably expect anything beyond that from me in my current state."

He tapped his chin with a hoof.

"Although..."

"What?"

"Explodey, remember when we were fighting and I led you and Private Broad Sword through that lab area near the balcony? You'll recall there was a suit of cyan coloured armour designed for pegasus use in there."

The unicorn raised an eyebrow.

"Can you use that?" he asked.

"No. I can't. It's too small for me to wear it on top of my current armour, and as we've established, this isn't coming off ever again. However, those mechanical wings on there are powerful enough to allow flight without actual pegasus wings underneath. Softy or Gold Coin could probably pilot it, at least temporarily. It even has an in-built tutorial program, just like my suit."

The two other earth ponies exchanged a look.

"I'll do it," said the old stallion, "Goldie has already done enough for us today with taking down the alicorn."

Gold Coin nodded, and looked over to the minigun.

"Hey captain? Do you think you can help me carry that thing out with us?"

"...What are you planning?"

The business pony gave him an evil grin.

***

Spike rammed his fist through the wall of the cathedral again and sent more stone crashing down. The whole building's eastern wall was devastated, and many rooms beyond were damaged. Still, he didn't let up. Even as the Knights of Man inside scrambled and shot at him with tiny little bolts and arrows and spells, he continued to tear it apart, hoping that Second was inside so that he could destroy him once and for all.

He couldn't help it. He was angry. Far angrier than he ever should have been. Memories flashed before his eyes. Recent memories of his humiliating imprisonment inside that huge metal room interspersed with others from thousands of years ago.

Nightmare Moon attacked, and he slept through it! Twilight went and risked her life while he stayed back at home in the library! He recalled Discord's takeover. Twilight tried to make him the new Element of Loyalty and hoped he could stand in for Rainbow Dash, but he failed. That was probably more the fault of the others being discorded at the time, but it was still a pathetic affair.

Not just them either. He remembered when Sliske had burst out of that meteor and possessed Twilight's body right in front of him. How he had ran screaming and crying back to Ponyville to get the others to come help. He remembered the same thing happening when Rarity was captured by Diamond Dogs and he couldn't stop them, even though he tried his best.

He remembered running off after he first met Owlowiscious, and running in terror from that big green dragon afterwards. He remembered the time he tried to join the Great Dragon Migration, and it turned out most of his race were just inherently jerks, and they all pushed him around because he was smaller. He remembered the other great evils he had failed to stop. How he had watched helplessly from the Spider Legion's lair as they used the False Elements to drown Equestria's coastal cities. He remembered the sight of Hkrxyl, King of Atlantis, marching up the beach with his army of fish creatures to lay waste to the land.

Other failures. The Time Worm ripping apart the universe while he just stood and watched. The Nameless One disintegrating innocent ponies with a stare. Those damned humans.

"NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!" he screamed as he continued to smash the cathedral.

He let out a powerful roar and drenched the cathedral in fire, incinerating Second's minions who continued to shoot at him.

No more! He would NOT be the helpless victim ever again! Those days were OVER! He was meant to be better now! He was the Light in the Sky! The Demon's Match! The Sea Wall! The Aspect! The Sword and Shield! How dare Second try to take that away?! He was the hero now! He was the one who did the rescuing!

More knights rushed out on the upper floors and ran over to the destroyed wall to continue to pepper him spells. They bounced off his scales harmlessly, as they should. Some of these spells could drop an Ursa Major, but there was no way they were going to lay a scratch on the Eternal!

And yet, even though he shrug off damage like that, walk through magma and toss Hydras like baseballs, he still felt that helplessness. He wasn't stronger. He was just better at hiding his weaknesses.

***

"Good job Howard, you absolute fucking genius!" Conscience shouted angrily, "You've really gone and done it now, haven't you?! You murdered an innocent pony, broke the story, and now you have an alien made of fire and several pissed off Elder Gods after your skin!"

Second raised the shotgun and fired, and the wall in front of him exploded. Thank Jesus for cartoon physics, or he'd have been trapped in a dead end corridor and roasted alive and/or eaten by Sliske. He jumped through the new hole and ran around a corner into a block of office cubicles.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I don't care! Leave me alone!"

There was an explosion behind Second, and he heard the distant sound of falling rubble. Presumably, that was Sliske carving his own path through the building to get to him.

"You know," Conscience interrupted, "Since I'm the closest thing you have to an avatar for reasoning and logic, I should point out that this building has already endured heavy structural damage from the Elements of Harmony battling it out here. Host and Gold Coin already went through a number of walls here on the lower floor, as have you now, and the upper levels were blasted apart by Explodey and his friends a while ago. If you keep destroying the walls to create a pathway to escape, this place is going to come down on you."

"Conscience is still a faggot, but he has a point," Ambition agreed, "Second, buddy, I think you should focus on escaping now. They already killed Host, and that's the mid-story boss over. You'll have your chance at them when the final showdown occurs in Canterlot. Remember that. The zombie apocalypse is still yet to happen. You've got all that ahead of you."

Second looked at the little man in red on his left shoulder and nodded.

"Alright," he said, "I'll keep heading in one direction until we're out of the building, and then I'll run and hide somewhere. We can cause some chaos later."

***

"Uncle Tomey!"

Ancient Tome smiled as a little dark blue unicorn filly ran over and hugged his legs. On the other side of the spacious living quarters, Frosty Morning jumped up off the sofa and stretched her wings as she made her way over. Iron Hoof emerged from the hallway at the same time, and the filly gave an equally affectionate "Uncle Iron!" and hugged him too.

"Hey Tomey, good to see you didn't go insane and kill Bullseye yet."

"I came close, believe me."

The filly interrupted them.

"Is cousin Mystic here Uncle Tomey?" she asked.

The adults exchanged an awkward look.

"Yeah, but I don't think he'll be able to see you for a while," Tome answered, "He's got a lot of homework to catch up on, so he's very busy. Maybe you'll see him later."

"Awww..."

He crouched down so that he was level with his niece.

"So how old are you now then Star? You've gotten big since I last saw you! I remember when you were only this tall."

"I'm six!"

"Six! Six already! Doesn't time fly?"

"Uncle Tomey, do you know why mommy moved us here?"

Another awkward look.

"Yes, but that's up to your mother to explain. I'm sure you'll understand when you're older."

"But why didn't grandpa come with us?"

"Because he had things to do back in Canterlot, dear," Frosty replied, "He just doesn't like moving, so he's going to stay behind and take care of the old house. You'll see him again Star. We'll go to visit."

"Alright..."

"So kid," said Iron Hoof, "Look at what I got! Is this cool or what?!"

"Wowwwwwww!"

As Iron distracted the filly with his shiny new cybernetics, Frosty and her brother-in-law moved aside to the next room to converse in private.

"Your dad didn't come?" the unicorn asked in concern.

"No," Frosty sighed, "Star just listens to me and does what I say, but my father wanted an explanation for everything. I ended up coming out and telling him everything. About Second, about the Brotherhood of Man, and everything I did for it. He...didn't take it well..."

"...How bad?"

Frosty gave him a pained look.

"...He disowned me," she murmured.

"No way!"

"...He called me a traitor, and a murderer, and said I wasn't his daughter anymore. I tried to explain everything to him, but then he called the police and said to get out before they showed up. I put Star on my back and just flew away. I think he wanted to chase after me and take her back, but with his age and his poor wing, I don't think he could."

Tome gave her a sympathetic look.

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault Tomey. Nothing anypony could have done."

"Still...It's never too late to fix it. He might still come around. Second's going to march on Canterlot eventually, right? Once he shows Equestria how the world should be run and everything becomes better, he'll understand."

"...I sure hope so Tomey."

***

Soft Spoken raised an eyebrow at the sight of the cyan blue armour with the number six on the flank. It was sleek and streamlined, as befitting something that would be expected to fly and high speeds, but it was also weird looking. That helmet and visor could not be much of a help to visibility. He turned his head to look back at the rest of the group, at the forefront of which was Captain Chain Mail carrying Gold Coin's minigun.

"And you said I can fly this?" he asked.

"You should be able to," the captain replied, "Those are some powerful wings on that thing. They should be able to lift off without flesh wings underneath, as long as you use the telepathic circuits to control it mentally."

"Tele-what?"

"Telepathic circuits."

"Okay, you're just making things up now."

"I swear they're real. They shouldn't be, but they are. Some kind of multi-dimensional Elder God bullshit that Second willed into existence. He can create anything, even stuff that could not realistically function. If you think telepathic circuits are stupid and implausible, you should see his blueprints for the space colony."

The older pony shrugged.

"Fine. Just help me suit up."

Four minutes of struggling later, the earth pony was finally inside the sky-blue suit and moving around in it. He tried to control the wings, but no luck.

"Hey, it's not working. Am I not connected?" he asked, voice muffled by the helmet.

"The computers are off. Just hit the power switch," the captain replied.

"...Where is the power switch?"

"On the inside of the helmet. You switch it with your tongue."

"That's incredibly impractical."

"This suit was designed by Second while off his meds, what do you expect?"

Soft Spoken did as instructed and felt around for the switch with his tongue. Upon locating it, he flipped the position, and the armour began to hum. His vision cleared up again, having been previously dulled by the helmet's visor, and statistics began to flash before his eyes.

RAINBOW SIX ONLINE.

"What the hell is- Agghh!"

The old butler cried out as he felt a needle jab him in the flank.

"Why did the suit just stab me?!" he demanded.

He noticed that his voice was no longer muffled, and was now being relayed to the others through a speaker that gave it an odd electronic sound.

"It's giving you a strength boosting drug. The system scanned you when it went online and determined that you're too weak to walk in that thing without it."

"Hey," Gold Coin interrupted, "Any chance we can extract some of that from the suit's reserves? I could use a strength booster to carry the minigun."

"Sorry. The reserve supplies are very well protected. You can't drain the drug supplies without ripping the whole thing apart."

"How do you know so much about this suit?" Soft Spoken asked.

"That type is the precursor to my own armour. This information was put in my head when they were giving me the mental conditioning. I remember all sorts of things that I never actually experienced."

Explodey patted him on the shoulder.

"I know that feel bro."

"So what's 'Rainbow Six'?" the butler continued.

"It's the name. 'Rainbow' because it's sky blue like Rainbow Dash and 'Six' because it's the sixth one of these things made. So there are at least five other Rainbows around somewhere. The armoured suits are all named differently depending on colour. The black ones like I wear are called the Vaders. I don't know why. Mine's the Vader One. I'm not sure if there are any others."

Soft Spoken lifted a hoof, and found that movement in the armour was indeed much easier now. That drug acted fast. Following earlier prompts, he focused his thoughts, hoping he was already connected to these 'telepathic circuits', and successfully flexed his wings. He couldn't feel them at all, but it was the function that counted.

"Alright, I think I'm good to go."

WARNING! AMMUNITION LEVELS MINIMAL!

"Or not."

"What's wrong Softy?"

"There's a flashing red light in my field of vision. It's telling me I've got low ammunition."

"I wouldn't worry about it. That's only a problem if you plan on shooting a lot of ponies. Since you seem like the pacifist type, you can just set it to nonlethal rounds anyway. They should still be well stocked."

"It has nonlethal rounds?"

"There's a dart gun built into the front. Be warned though, it's basically useless against anything bigger than a griffin, and even most ponies if they're armoured too. And they're small, so you've got to be scary accurate with them."

"...Does this have any targeting software?"

"Yes. A great little thing that slows down time for you personally and allows you to line up your shots. It even highlights whatever body part you're aiming for in green and tells you what chance you have to hit, and the condition of what you're aiming at. It's called the Target Watching And Tracking System."

Soft Spoken tilted his head at the captain.

"...Or T.W.A.T.S." Gold Coin pointed out.

Chain Mail just stared at the yellow pony for a moment. Somehow, he hadn't actually noticed the acronym until now. There was no way that was unintentional. Second had planned that.

"Woah!"

The captain turned his attention back to Soft Spoken, who was now hovering a little way above the ground.

"Celestia's sun! Look at this! I'm flying! I'm actually flying!"

Explodey stepped forward to address the stallion.

"You know what to do, right Softy?"

Soft Spoken nodded.

"So what do we do now?"

"Goldie, you and Chain Mail get out of the building and head for the Secopolis Historical Museum. We'll all meet there later. Explodey, I want you to go find Sliske and get him to come with you. He knows where the museum is and he'll take you there. I'll get Spike, and once we meet up again, we can get out of the city."

Gold Coin saluted in response.

"SIR YES SIR!"

Had Softy not been wearing a helmet, the other ponies would have seen him roll his eyes. Shortly afterwards, he flew out of the room towards the destroyed remains of the balcony that Explodey, Broad Sword and Chain Mail had fought along, heading out towards the rest of the city. Once they were alone, the other ponies all turned to each other again.

"So, what's our real plan then?" asked Explodey.

"What you suggested," Gold Coin replied, "Put on that magic ring and blow the fuck out of this place."

***

Sliske took a flew slow steps forward, breathing heavily. He had run out of energy. His rage was not enough to push him anymore. Mystic Chant's body went back to blue again, though left with black marks and singes in his mane. The alien sighed deeply and slumped on the floor. He had no more hate left in him. In defeat, he retreated back into the recesses of the colt's mind, leaving Mystic Chant back in control.

Mystic at first paid attention to his now much larger adult body, but did not dwell on it. Not even bothering to climb up again, he instead talked to the voice in his head.

"Sliske, are you alright?" he asked in a much deeper voice than he was used to.

A toneless voice replied mentally.

"...He's dead Mystic. Broad Sword is gone. Ponies always die. That human...He destroyed him. Why did that have to happen? I...I actually liked him. He amused me."

Mystic had no advice to offer.

"...I...I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault. I should have done something. I could have put up a shield, or hit Second with a spell. I could have done something!"

"...Well, getting angry won't help. My mom always said that being angry just makes your problems worse, and stops you from thinking about how to solve them."

"There's no thinking my way out of this. This problem can't be solved. Death is as final as it gets."

Without any way to really comfort the creature in his brain, Mystic settled for just standing up again and trying to remember the way they came so he could get back to the others. A quick check to see if he was still on fire anywhere, and he set off through the blasted remains of the lower level of the building to find the others.

On the way, he stumbled several times, and frequently tripping over his now much longer legs.

"Hey, Sliske, is this permanent?" he asked.

"No. It'll wear off in a few minutes, or you can kill the spell now if you want."

Mystic wasn't even aware at first that he was in control of the spell, but upon having it pointed out to him, it became obvious in hindsight. He felt the magical connection, and severed it. Immediately, he returned to his regular form. He was expecting to shrink to the floor. Instead, he just suddenly snapped to normal size, temporarily suspended in the air before falling to the ground in a heap.

"Ow..." he groaned, climbing to his hooves again.

"Sorry."

"Hey, can you teach me that growth spell?"

"Later. Right now, I just want to sleep."

"Sleep?" Mystic questioned.

He received no answers though. The other presence in his mind had gone silent. Sliske was dormant, and Mystic was now all alone.

***

Flying. That was a new experience. Soft Spoken kept his focus on making the wings flap. As far as he could tell, telepathic circuits basically meant that he could control the suit through thought. He would continue to fly as long as he kept on thinking about flying. Fortunately, he didn't seem to need much concentration, so he could inspect other aspects of the system while in flight.

The weapons system was a confusing mess. For some reason, everything was referred to by ammo type rather than what the weapon actually was, so he had to deduce what each meant. Darts was easy enough to figure out, as was missiles, but then when he got to the list of different millimetre lengths of something or other, he was completely lost. Still, he didn't plan on ever using anything other than maybe the dart gun, so it mattered very little.

And then there was the chemical supplies management system. The Rainbow Six seemed to carry a large supply of different drugs made for all kinds of functions. Strength boosters, painkillers, healing supplies, and one which the description claimed was able to make his mind 'sharper', whatever that meant.

System diagnostics also caught his attention. He could access it while in flight, but it looked more like it was meant for the technician's use than anything. It commented on all the mechanical problems the suit was suffering, and there were hundreds of them, but they were all labelled as minor. And when it said minor, it meant minor. Four out of five of them were just a lack of proper greasing on some meaningless small part.

Soft Spoken kept pushing ahead, the Secopolis Cathedral and the dragon ripping it apart near the top level coming ever closer.

"Just a little way now..."

Suddenly, there was a rush of wind, and two yellow pegasi flew by him and blocked his path ahead. They fluttered in place, and both carried weapons in their hooves. While stationary, Softy got a better look at them, and realised that they weren't yellow pegasi, but just two ponies in yellow armour, much like his.

The design was similar, though their helmets seemed to feature gas masks as well as the regular features, and unlike his suit which had openings allowing his white mane and tail freedom from the armour, theirs were completely enclosed. They still had tails, but they were spiked, scorpion-like tails. Their manes though were just stuffed inside the helmet, making the two ponies look bald.

The two ponies both had numbers on their flanks as well, just like his suit did. The one on his left was number five, and the one on his right and was number three. Both of them had weird extensions on their fore hooves which allowed them to carry their odd looking weapons, seemingly modelled after human hands.

"Halt!" ordered number five, "Rainbow Six, you are not cleared for combat. Return to your post immediately."

Though her voice was synthesized, it was quite clear that number five was a mare. He really had no desire to get into an aerial battle with a pegasus, especially since there were two of them and they could very well have superior hardware to him. Plus, they were actually trained to use it. He was just, for lack of a better term, winging it.

Obviously persuasion was the way to go.

"I must be allowed through though!" he protested, "Can't you see the dragon attacking the palace? I've been sent to deal with him."

"Sent?" asked number three, also a mare, "Who sent you?"

"Second."

"The Emperor sent you? Personally?" three said sceptically.

"Can we get that in writing?" asked five.

"...My instructions are top secret," the earth pony improvised, "Second gave me explicit instructions that they are not to be shared with anypony without clearance level...alpha."

"What the hay is clearance level alpha? I thought clearance level was numerical?"

Unlucky. Best try again.

"...It is for all levels except alpha, which is special. Level alpha is just Second and me. I'm very important you see."

"Really? Just who exactly are you under that Rainbow model then?" asked three.

"That's classified information, rookie."

"ROOKIE?! WHY YOU-"

Soft Spoken stopped her in the middle of raising her weapon.

"Attack me and I'll have you court-martialled! American style!"

Three backed away fearfully.

"No! Not that! Anything but that!"

"That's what I thought! Now get out of here, and let the professionals handle this."

Obediently, the two mares flew away towards the ground, leaving Soft Spoken hovering idly above the city. Damn, he was on a roll today.

"I still got it."

***

Mystic trudged through the ruined hallways of the Mages' Guild nervously. Every few steps, he kept looking over his shoulder for potential enemies. Lord Second was probably still somewhere around here, and possibly several Knights of Man too. He could be ambushed at any second.

"Come on! He's got to be around here somewhere!"

Wait. That was Mr. Gold Coin!

The little unicorn smiled and charged in the direction of the voice. He turned a corner and ran through a hole in the wall created by one of the many recent fights that had taken place here, and emerged into another corridor where he could see Gold Coin, Explodey and Chain Mail walking towards him. They all saw him too, and immediately broke into a gallop.

"Mystic! There you are!" said Chain Mail, "We don't have much time left. Where is Second? Is Sliske still with you? What happened after you left?"

"Umm...Second got away....I think. Sliske's sleeping right now. At least, that's what he told me. He put me back in control and just went quiet. I don't know what's happened to him, but I can't hear him anymore."

The older ponies shared a concerned look.

"Well...Be that as it may, we all have to leave immediately," Chain Mail explained, "Soft Spoken went to summon Spike to take us back to Equestria, and meanwhile, we've decided to destroy the Mages' Guild. Explodey's gonna take it out for us, but we needed to find you first."

Mystic nodded along for most of the plan, but stopped and stared in horror when they announced their intentions to destroy the guild.

"Wait!" he cried, "You can't do that! There are four unicorns still in here! They're asleep in the physics lab, and they can't get away! If you destroy the building now, they'll all die!"

Gold Coin sighed loudly and rubbed his forehead.

"Fine. Chains, you take all our equipment and Mystic, and get outside. Me and Explodey will go find these unicorns and rescue them, and THEN we'll destroy the place."

The captain saluted.

"Aye sir."

***

Second ran into another room and looked around.

"Okay, I'm lost," he said to himself.

"Wow. Considering you built this place, that is quite an accomplishment," Ambition replied.

Creativity jumped down off the human's head and clung to his nose. The goblin-like creature stared right into his eyes, and Second suddenly felt very uncomfortable.

"Couldn't you just use your amazing powers to jump straight up, smash through the ceiling, get to the roof, and then jump off it?"

"That is a terrible idea!" Conscience snapped, "Do I even have to list all the ways that could go wrong?!"

"Guys!" Second shouted, "Would you all please just shut up?! I don't have to do any of this bullshit. I can just use off-screen teleportation to escape, right?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," said Conscience.

"I doubt the scene will be focused on me right now. I'm not doing anything interesting other than talking to myself. Without the audience watching me, this should still work, even if I'm technically breaking a few rules."

Second closed his eyes and focused. In his mind, he pictured the outside of the Mages' Guild. He imagined himself standing just outside the building on the grassy patch by the main entrance. He raised a hand and clicked his fingers. And...

...Nothing.

Second's eyes snapped open. He snapped his fingers again. Still nothing. He tried a third time. A fourth. A fifth. Nothing.

"What the hell?!" he shouted, "Why isn't it working?!"

"Oh...fuck..." Ambition muttered.

"What? What is it?!" Second demanded.

"I think I may know what your problem is."

"What?! What's the problem?!"

"Friendship is Magic just went meta."

"What? Meta? What does that word even mean?"

"I don't know, but what's important is what I'm trying to explain to you. I think something sinister is happening here. You are not being just portrayed as a villain, and they aren't doing the scene cut thing to remove references to the outside world and your swearing, and other such things. I think they just decided to reveal everything.

"Think about it. You just blew a main character's head off. Not even 4kids could show that scene without blood considering it splattered everywhere and got on everyone, and Broad Sword's prominence in the story so far would mean they couldn't just skip it. The show you're in now, the continuation, is way darker that the original FIM, and now the writers think they can get away with showing the full story behind you and Anthony."

Second stared at Ambition for a moment, and looked down at his hands.

"...It...So...No wait. I think I get it now. There's no way me being Second was unintentional! Some sick fuck back in the human world planned this from the very beginning! I was set up!"

Conscience looked at him sympathetically.

"Howard, listen to me-" he began.

"Nathan!" Second shouted, "It was Nathan! It must have been him!"

"Howard, you're jumping to conclusions," Conscience interrupted, "You don't want to go down this path without proof."

"Fuck proof! This isn't going to end with me! I'm not going to LET them take me down! Just watch me! I'm going to get back to Earth, and the first thing I'm going to do is stick this shotgun in Nathan's mouth and pull the trigger!"

***

"Spike! Spiiiiiiiiiike! Over here!"

The dragon pulled his fist out of a pile of rubble on the upper levels of the Cathedral and turned around to see a cyan blue pegasus hovering behind him. Something was off about it, but he couldn't tell what. He stared blankly for a few seconds, before realising that the pegasus was made of metal.

"Huh?"

"Spike, it's me! Soft Spoken!" the metal pony replied.

"Soft Spoken? Since when did you have wings? And since when were you made of metal? Where are the others? What happened with the negotiations?"

"It's an armoured suit. The artificial wings allow me to fly. I stole it from the Mages' Guild. The negotiations went sour and we barely escaped alive. Sliske's previous host is dead and he's now in Mystic, Broad Sword was killed by Second, and Chain Mail was captured and experimented on in the guild until we freed him. We need to get out of this city fast!"

The old dragon blinked.

"Broad Sword is dead?" he repeated.

Soft Spoken nodded. Spike sighed.

"My condolences to you. He was a fine pony. He will be missed."

"Spike, we want to get out of here. Follow me back to the Secopolis Museum. We're going to meet up with everypony else there, and you can fly us back to Equestria."

"Lead the way."

***

Chain Mail heard grunting, and turned around to see Gold Coin and Explodey coming out the front door to the guild. Explodey was using telekinesis to hover out two unconscious unicorns, while Gold Coin was almost crawling along with the other two laying on his back. He finally collapsed in front of the captain, and let the bodies roll off.

"Is that everything accounted for?" Gold Coin asked.

"Yep. I got all our weapons and equipment, and you got everypony out safely. All that's left is to do the deed."

The business pony looked over their inventory to make sure everything was present. There was the minigun, the two lightsabers, the wings and helmet that attached to Chains' suit, and-

"What's this?"

Gold Coin held up a sword. It didn't look like the one the captain used.

"Is this...?"

"Yeah. That's Broad Sword's. It's not the standard weapon of the royal guards. He brought his own. I think it was a gift from somepony. Take a look at the handle."

The earth pony did so.

For Swordy, from Skies.

"'Skies'. Who do you think that is?"

"I don't know. Sounds like a pegasus name to me."

"You know, Broad Sword mentioned his father was a pegasus," Explodey commented.

"I don't think it's from his dad, otherwise he wouldn't call himself by name," said Gold Coin.

"Actually..."

The group turned to Mystic.

"I...I can sort of see some of Sliske's memories...And...He met Broad Sword's mother. She was a pegasus too."

The adult ponies all looked confused.

"...Curious," said Chain Mail, "The only earth pony in a family of pegasi. That's something to think about."

"...We can talk about it later," Explodey interrupted, "Right now, we've got a job to do. I'm going to head inside and deal with this. Once I do, I'll need one of you guys to quickly go over the wreckage and scoop up as much of me as you can, so that when I regenerate I'll be with you guys instead of surrounded by pissed off Secopolitans."

"Give 'em hell, soldier," Chain Mail replied.

Explodey smiled wryly at the captain, and then ran back towards the guild.

***

Second leaned against a nearby wall, panting in exhaustion. He had been running around this place for ages now, and he was getting nowhere.

"What is even...the point anymore?" he gasped, "Why the hell can't I get out?! There has to be some exit here somewhere!"

The human's imaginary friends laid around lazily. They had long ago gotten bored of just standing around as he ran in circles, and were now doing their own thing. Creativity was asleep in his hair, some of which he was using as a blanket. Anger was doing push-ups on his right shoulder, and Ambition and Conscience were both laying on his left shoulder sharing a bottle of scotch. No sign of Sexuality, but Second had a fairly good idea of what he was doing right now, wherever he was.

"You know..." Ambition slurred, "I think....that you should...should....shtart shmashing the wallsh down again. I mean...what if there is no exit? Like...you could be stuck here forever!"

"No, don't listen to him, he doesn't know what he's talking about," Conscience replied, "That'll just bring the place down on you. Keep looking for a proper exit."

"I'm going with Conscience on this one," said Second, "Sorry Ambition, but I'm just not ready to believe this whole building is one giant fucking mobius strip."

Contrary to what he just said though, Second found himself once again emerging into the room he had crashed his car into. The bodies of Host and Broad Sword still lay nearby, though the other ponies were gone now. For a moment, Second stopped to take in his surroundings.

"Why didn't I make a map of this place?" he said to himself.

A voice answered him.

"Because you're an idiot. Now shut up and die you hairless, two-legged freak!"

Second couldn't react in time. A unicorn rammed into his back before he could turn to face it, and he felt the tip of the horn stabbing him directly in the spine. In his world, that would have either killed or at least paralyzed him for life. Here, it was a brief flash of pain and a yell, and then it closed up again.

The human turned to face Explodey McGee, who looked about ready to skin him alive.

"You're going to pay Second! Nopony gets away with hurting my friends! And I'll stop you from ever hurting anypony else again!"

In spite of everything, all Second could do was smirk at his creation's bravado.

"Well, I know I'm scared shitless. Please, please don't hurt me, oh mighty Explodey McGee! Hahaha! I'm sorry, but with a name like that, I am never going to take you seriously. Don't you get it yet? You're a joke! You were a one-off joke about a pony with a silly name! You're on the same level as Commander Throatfuck! That's how little you matter!"

Explodey horn burst with light, and a magical glow surrounded the Ferrari that Second had driven in on. He lifted the whole thing into the air and tossed it across the room at his creator. The human didn't flinch. Instead, he kicked out and sent the car flying back at Explodey. The unicorn reacted in turn and caught it in his magic again, and once again flung it in Second's direction.

This time though, Second caught the car as it flew towards him with both hands, and held it up so that the rear of the car was pointing at the ceiling. He grinned, and ran at Explodey.

Yes, he ran while carrying a car.

Explodey was too stunned by the sight to move out of the way, and once Second was in range, he swung the car around like a giant golf club and smashed Explodey against the wall with it. For a moment, the pony was in agony. He winced in pain, but on opening his eyes again he saw that he was actually in several pieces, and most of his lower body had been smeared against the wall. The car was still pressing him against it. He groaned.

Second walked over, a sadistic smile on his face, and he placed a foot on the other side of the car and pushed it, squashing his victim against the wall even more. Explodey didn't scream this time, but his eyes began to water.

"You know," Second said idly, "You would think I'd regret a lot of my decisions in life that led me to this point, but really, right now the only regret I have is that I was not more specific when creating you. If I hadn't been so careless, if I had just thought of an explanation of why you could explode and survive it on my own, instead of expecting the universe to come up with one for me, maybe you wouldn't have this healing factor."

He grinned.

"I bet you're really wishing that too right now."

Explodey glared up at Second and spat at him, hitting him right between the eyes. The human stared at the crushed unicorn for a moment, before wiping the spit off on the sleeve of his coat.

"Well, that was a mistake."

Second lunged forward over the car and grabbed Explodey's mane. With a sharp motion, he twisted his head around and snapped his neck. Explodey screamed again, and Second slammed his face onto the car bonnet.

"How dare you spit on me! I created you, you ungrateful little shit!"

Explodey's horn began to glow again. Second immediately realised what was about to happen and tried to turn and run, but a field of telekinesis wrapped around him and dragged him back towards the unicorn.

What?! No! Impossible! Magic didn't work on him! How could he-

Oh right. Dramatic Convenience.

Fuck the writers.

And then the world exploded.

***

"I don't get it," said Softy, "I told them to meet us back here, and we've been waiting for several minutes now. Why are they-"

BOOM!

The flying earth pony and the dragon both turned around to look across the landscape behind them. In the dark of the night, a gigantic fiery mushroom cloud lit up most of the city, and the sound of the cataclysm had no doubt woken up anypony trying to sleep for miles around. In the face of this awesome spectacle though, Soft Spoken could only sigh.

"Nopony ever listens to me," he complained, "I said they shouldn't destroy the Mages' Guild, and what's the first thing they do once I leave? Honestly, sometimes I really hate youngsters."

"Tell me about it," Spike replied, "You'd think a thousand years experience would make ponies respect your opinion a bit more, but noooooooooo. It's always, 'we know what we're doing', and 'things have changed since your time', and 'we do things differently now, you wouldn't understand!' Jerks."

For a moment, the two just hovered in place and watched the explosion.

"We should really go over there and see if we can find them."

"Yeah..." Spike said absently, "...I mean, yeah! Sorry. Got distracted for a moment there. Come on, let's go save your friends."

***

"AGGGHHH!" Gold Coin moaned as he clutched his ears, "SWEET FUCKING MOTHER OF SECOND THAT HURT!"

Chain Mail looked around him and saw that Mystic was similarly affected, rolling around on the grass and holding his ears with his face scrunched up in pain. Really, he didn't know what they were going on about. His ears were fine. What was their problem?

Shrugging it off, the captain cantered over towards the ruins of the Mages Guild. What little rubble was left was still on fire, but that wasn't exactly a problem for him in his armour. Heat conducted through metal, but hey, this suit regularly injected him with painkillers. He'd be fine.

Gold Coin and Mystic continued to stumble around and occasionally scream for several minutes, before it eventually got better and their hearing gradually returned. Just in time too, because a pony in winged sky blue armour landed down near them shortly afterwards.

"Okay, what do you think you were doing?" Softy demanded.

"We did it...for Broad Sword..." Gold Coin replied, "Maybe you can let it go, but not us. There was no way we were leaving this place still standing after what Second did here. You take a life, you pay for it."

"By that logic, you should be executed for what you did when you were still in the Brotherhood."

"I never killed anypony! I was in the Brotherhood, but I didn't take part in their operations. What they did sickened me as much as it does you. All I did was provide financial support."

"That still makes you an accessory to murder, Goldie. You have no right to get high and mighty over what Second did."

"Look, I was only a part of the order because I believed Second was a force of good, and I left them the moment he was released. I made my mistakes, and believe me, I am paying for it. Isn't the fact that I'm trying to stop him now enough for you?"

Soft Spoken reached up with his hooves and pulled off his helmet. He tossed it aside and marched up to Gold Coin to press his face right against his and stare him in the eye.

"You think that excuses everything?! Do you think you're somehow absolved of everything you did just because you follow us around?!"

The younger pony shrunk back under Soft Spoken's gaze.

"Are you even sorry that Princess Celestia is dead? Or do you still believe that conspiracy theory bullshit that the Brotherhood fed you? What about Luna? Huh? What would you do with her? Do you still believe she's some tyrant that needs to be destroyed?"

Gold Coin flared up again and shouted back at Softy.

"You know what?! Shut up! You have no idea what I'm going through right now! I spent my entire life believing that the thing in there that just killed Broad Sword was the ultimate saviour of ponykind, and that the best thing I could do for the world was letting him free from his statue! I learned, just today, that everything I ever thought I knew was a lie! I only wanted to help, and look what I unleashed! Do you think I don't feel guilty?! Of course I do! Stop making me think about it!"

Softy was a bit taken aback by Gold Coin's response, and was quiet for a moment.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I shouldn't have said that. I just figured...No. This needs answering. Goldie, what do you think about the princesses now? How much of that do you still believe?"

The business pony scraped a hoof against the ground in shame.

"I don't know. I really have no earthly clue what to think anymore. I thought I knew what to believe about the princesses and about Second, but it was all wrong. Maybe Celestia was a tyrant, or maybe she was everything you ever said she was. I don't know anymore, and I'm trying not to think about it."

"Well, that's a slight improvement."

Gold Coin jumped in surprise. He turned around to see Spike waiting behind him, casually leaning on the burning remains of the Mages' Guild.

"You know, I can't honestly say I'm not still disgusted with you for buying into the Brotherhood's idiocy in the first place, but I am proud of you for acknowledging that you were wrong. Even if it did take Second cackling like a pantomime villain and murdering ponies in cold blood before you realised that. You're on the path to redemption Gold Coin. Keep at it."

Captain Chain Mail emerged from behind one of Spike's legs carrying a plastic bucket. He trotted over to them and set it down before the two earth ponies, showing them that it was filled with green goo.

"This is all I could find of Explodey," he reported, "He said he should be able to regenerate from this, as long as it is the biggest concentration of him. I think it should be, but if it isn't then he'll just regenerate from the rest of the goo spread across this area and catch up with us."

"Well, that seems to be everypony accounted for..." said Soft Spoken, "...Except for Broad Sword. Did anypony collect his body?"

"No sir, we didn't," Chain Mail responded.

"What?! Why not?! Don't you realise his family will want his remains to-"

"Mr. Spoken, with all due respect, you saw what Second did to him, right? Do you really think anypony really needs to see him missing most of his head? Maybe it's not my call, but if anypony who I loved had that happen to them, I wouldn't want to know, and I wouldn't want to see the body. I'd prefer to remember them as they were before."

The old stallion sighed.

"Maybe you're right, but I still think we should have saved the body. His family have a right to make that decision themselves."

"Maybe."

Chain Mail looked over to Spike.

"Are we all ready to go then?" he asked.

"Yes," said Gold Coin, "We're all ready. Everypony get your stuff. Come on Mystic."

Spike laid down low on the ground and stretched out a wing to make a ramp for the ponies to climb onto his back. They left behind the four unicorns they had rescued and let them continue to sleep on the grass outside the Mages Guild. They'd wake up in a few hours unharmed. They weren't a problem anymore.

"Everypony on board? Good. Setting off for Equestria!"

Spike beat his wings, and the group began to ascend. Mystic looked down in wonder at Secopolis as it became smaller and smaller as they continued to rise. Chain Mail sat tight and tried to keep ahold of everything. And Soft Spoken just stared at the pile of rubble that used to be the Mages' Guild, and sighed once again.

***

A fist burst out through a pile of smashed stone and dust. A nearby pony, one of the Knights of Man, galloped over once he saw it and grabbed the hand in his teeth to try and help pull his master out from underneath the rubble. To his surprise though, Second just pulled his hand out of the pony's mouth and punched him in the nose. The knight staggered back, and Second's hand felt around for a substantially large stone.

He found one, and grabbed ahold. With a mighty pull, the human dragged himself up from underneath the rubble. The knight looked at Second, and backed away in fear.

He was an absolute wreck. Most of his skin had been burned off by the explosion, leaving only burned red flesh. His signature long coat, and for that matter most of his clothes were nothing but rags now. He had lost his moustache and most of his hair. And where before he had two eyes, now he just had one, and it was a sickly yellow colour now, like what your teeth looked like if you didn't brush for weeks.

"Well...." he said in a deep, raspy voice, "That sucked..."

The human coughed and climbed to his feet again, groaning loudly as he did. Every move he made was absolute agony.

"...You there...What's your name...?"

"...R-Racket sir."

"Racket. Go find me Dr. Apocalypse. He should be up at Fort First. Tell him I'm ready for the serum."

"Y-Yes sir!"

The knight saluted and galloped away as fast he possibly could. Left alone, Second limped out of the wreckage and over to the nearby road. Laying there were the remains of his Ferrari. He didn't know how it got from the room where he was in before to the roadside, but that wasn't important anymore. It was just a burnt out shell now. There was no saving this thing. But it did still have the rear view mirror.

He reached in and grabbed it, tearing it off and bringing it up to look at his face. He saw the disgusting image of a creature straight out of a horror movie looking back up at him with one glaring yellow eye. He grinned back at it.

"And I thought I looked ugly before..."

***

Broad Sword gasped suddenly, sucking in a large breath of air like he had been drowning underwater and had just breached the surface. He looked around him at the featureless landscape. Nothing but a stone floor and some mist and fog as far as the eye could see. He leapt up, and looked around him in a panic.

"No!" he cried, "I can't! Please tell me I didn't..."

He heard the sound of footsteps behind him. He turned around to see a human standing there. Not Second, but a different one. This new human just stood there, completely still, looking very sombre.

"I...I'm dead! I'm dead, aren't I?!"

The human nodded. Broad Sword began to cry.

"I can't though! I can't die now! My friends need me! They're still down there with Second! He has the Reaper's Horn! I can't die! We're the Elements of Harmony! What if it doesn't work without me! How can we save the world?! I CAN'T DIE!"

"I'm sorry," the human replied.

"NO! I DON'T WANT TO DIE! THEY STILL NEED ME! MY FRIENDS NEED ME!"

He ran up to the human and tried to beat him with his hooves pathetically, and continued to cry.

"SEND ME BACK! BRING ME BACK TO LIFE SO I CAN HELP THEM!"

First just stood still and looked down sadly at the pony as he kept hitting him. Eventually, Broad Sword stopped trying and just collapsed into the strange human, and continued blubbering. Awkwardly, First sat down and hugged the sobbing pony.

"You've got no body left. There's nothing I can do. I'm sorry."

END




















Author's notes:

Sorry for the lateness. There were exam-related problems coming up. I'm sure you all know the kind I'm referring to. Anyway, not a problem anymore.

I've also taken to playing Fallout 3 a lot more recently. I've got to extend my thanks to the brony fandom, because it was you guys that got me into the series, via Fallout Equestria. I saw it, and I thought, "Fuck it, it's six stars and it has a LEGENDARY tag in rainbow colours. It must be awesome!" Several months later, I've read it through completely, done the same for Horizons, am halfway through Pink Eyes, just finished the actual Fallout 3, and now I'm going through Operation Anchorage and the other DLCs. After this, it's clear sailing to New Vegas, and Fallout Equestria Heroes once I finish Pink Eyes.

My God. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME KKAT?!

Also, for those who didn't see my blog post, you can see Second in a crossover with other HIE stories here, if you're into that sort of thing.

Next Chapter: GRIFFINS! AND! MIDGETS!

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