> Prototype: Equestrian Menace
>  by Blitz Habanera Tuscania
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Black box 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Checking checking anybody out there, over?"

"This is Raptor four-six who is this, over?"

"Call sign Raven seven-one, do you have any eyes on other survivors, over?"

"Negative, I am picking up several signals though... I'm currently on some rooftop you, over?"

"Same. I'm picking up some signals too, how about we gather those we can and rendezvous later, over?"

"Agreed, over."
> Awakening *Edited*
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rubble around him stirred as consciousness slowly returned to him. Pebbles and loose gravel fell onto his head, rousing his senses and with it the headache that had been lying in wait for its moment to strike. It pounded within his skull, like a thousand jungle drums banging to a wild beat, each accompanied by a jagged ice pick.

He laid there in his crater, his senses trying to catch up with perhaps the twelfth, maybe eleventh, worst experience he’s felt in his life. His nerve endings were screaming, his body felt like someone had pushed him through a woodchipper and put him back together with crazy glue. Through the daze he commanded the pain to end, and in less time than it took to blink his nerve endings went dead. He sighed, Just another day in the day in the office.

Sunlight shined through his eyelids, adding on to the pounding that persisted within his skull. He haphazardly tried covering his eyes. Protected from the harsh light, his eyes snapped open and he sat straight up. For a second he could feel the cold steel under him and the scalpel drag across his chest. For a second he could see the men in biohazard suits, standing over him, treating him as nothing more than another specimen in their petri dish. And then, they were gone. The dissection table was replaced with a concrete crater, that at one time had been a busy street. The smell of disinfectant was replaced with the raw sewage pouring out of the broken pipelines, not ten feet from him. And the sounds of Manhattan: the traffic, the construction, the people, had all gone silent. 

Alex looked up at the blue sky with a scowl. The headache that had pained him since he regained consciousness had subsided and his memories had returned. Well, for the most part. When trying to think of how he got here, or where here was, he came up blank. I have to stop waking up like this. He pushed himself off the ground, wiping off the sewage that had reached his impromptu bed.

His arms reached out, above his head, stretching more out of habit than out any actual need. Grabbing his wrist, he pulled his right arm across his chest as he walked up the steep slope, his mind trying to wrap around what had happened earlier.

While he was doing all this, tendrils of jet-black flesh snaked up and down his body as they healed any injury he happened to acquire getting to here--wherever here was. The black flesh, or biomass as he called it, made up his body and made his all his inhuman abilities possible. 

Alex had infected Heller a few months ago, Heller derailed his plans with the Whitelight. And then ‘Alex’ died fighting Heller and caused Heller to use the devastators to end all devastators, absorbing every piece of infected tissue in all the red zone. All according to plan, with Heller none the wiser. 

The last thing he remembered, was swinging on a swing set in the backyard of Heller’s new house, waiting for him to come home. Maybe that was why; Heller might have been an idiot, but he was also a herculean brute. If anything had the power to knock me down hard enough to lose a memory or two, it’d be him.

As Alex walked up the steep incline, his gaze became fixated on the skyscrapers surrounding him. The buildings around him were familiar, but... seemed off.  After spending so long running along them, above them, through them, he knew a thing or two about the buildings of Manhattan. He peaked over the mouth of the crater and knew that wherever he was, it definitely wasn’t New York... Or at least not the New York he was used to. Unless someone used the Blacklight virus, or Mercer virus as they had renamed it, to replace all the infected zombies with cartoon ponies of every colour of the rainbow. He stared at the crowd that had formed a few dozen feet from the edge, a line of ponies in police uniforms pushing back civilian ponies.

None of them seemed to have noticed his head peeking over the edge, judging by their relatively calm voices, or as calm as one would expect with a giant crater appearing in the middle of the street. He looked to his right and saw a massive gaping hole that went straight through one of the skyscrapers. Apparently he had a rough landing. Naturally.

Even for him, a sociopathic bioweapon terrorist, the embodiment of the deadliest virus to ever exist and a genius in every sense of the word, this was unexpected. If I didn’t already kill off the evolved, I’d think this was some elaborate joke, before skinning whoever did this and feeding what was left to a goliath. Shaking his head, he grabbed the lip of the crater and vaulted over the edge, their voices rising to a feverish pitch as he stood straight and looked over them all.

He smirked, turning his back to them as he surveyed the rest of this place. At first glance, it looked like he traveled back to before the first outbreak. But the longer he looked the more differences he found between the two. The most notable being the fact that anything that had to do with humans was replaced with ponies. Bronze statues of famous philanthropists and celebrities from American history were now of ponies with an extremely eerie likeness to their counterparts.

Billboards strewn across the rooftops had ads with pony models in a language he and the hundreds of people he had consumed had never seen before. Even the graffiti was of ponies, one catching his eye being of pale ponies standing side by side wearing black suits, sunglasses and holding what was unmistakably a neuralizer.

He took a deep breath in, the air clear of the smog he traveled through while running through the streets. But there was still one constant. In a slow exaggerated movement, he spread his arms to his sides and took another deep breath, the sweet intoxicating scent of fear permeating the air. Lowering his arms back down, he smiled. Just like New York.

Glancing back at the crowd, the question of how he got here resurfaced. As great a mind as he was, he wasn’t infallible. Maybe he’s just imagining all this, and he’s actually standing in the middle of the street, like some madman. Maybe consuming the minds of the craziest people the world could spawn, finally caught up with me. At that moment a small pink unicorn  with large blue eyes, lighter pink freckles, a curly blonde mane and bright white teeth, sneezed in such away that several people he consumed off the street felt their no longer existent hearts explode within their imaginary chests. Highly unlikely, he thought, his scowl returning.

Turning his head back forward, he stuffed his hands into his coat pockets as he mused to himself about how any of this made sense. Maybe all of this is an adverse effect to splitting myself into two? A thought that made his scowl deepen. He absentmindedly grabbed his chin, while thinking of other theories that didn’t include his mind conjuring a world where he could dance around on magical rainbows with pink fluffy unicorns.

A slight clopping noise alerted him to one of the ponies coming up behind him. Turning around, yet again, he was surprised to see it within only a few feet of him, barely able to keep itself from shaking as it stared up at him with nervous eyes peering out from under the brim of its police hat. It squeaked as he looked at it with vague disinterest and looked back to its comrades, as if to ask for advice and one of them motioned it forward.

Gulping, the little thing took another step forward its eyes running up and down Alex’s body. He didn't know whether to call it cute or pathetic, so he just remained silent. It muttered a few unintelligible words under its breath as it raised its hoof and held it there as he stared at it.

Was it asking for a handshake? Was he being treated with both respect and fear? Alex stared at its hoof for a good few seconds that felt like a number of hours for both involved before he responded.


It’s kind of cute how it thinks we’re equals. Snorting he pulled out his hand and pushed the pony’s hoof down with a forceful shove and walked past it. As he walked closer, all the little freaks started shouting amongst themselves while one of the police ponies stepped forward, a spear twice its length held in its teeth. Why did a cop have a spear? Better yet, why did a pony have a spear? That seems incredibly impractical.

He stood still, head cocked, his mouth held slight smirk. The yellow pony knit his eyebrows and glowered at Alex. Aww, They’re even cuter when they think they’re a threat. This’ll be good for a laugh at least. They shouted a few more unintelligible words at him before saying something to the one holding the spear. The spearpony screamed something unintelligible  through the spear and charged him. The entire time Alex was smiling, until it disappeared in a brilliant flash of green light. He had only a moment to register what happened before he was knocked head over heels and landed on his face as a metal object slammed into the back of his head. The spearpony smirked through the spear while his comrades marveled at the head shaped dent in the head of the spear. Mercer laid there, more out surprise than any actual pain, after all he didn't shrug a nuke for nothing. 

The yellow pony laughed through the spear held in its mouth, unaware of his gawking comrades or the hell brought upon himself.  Is this eighties cartoon reject mocking me?

He slowly stood, giving the pony a dirty look that morphed into a manic grin. Whatever that thing just did… it would be useful, very useful. So would its body, and its memories, like what he knows on how I got here. Yes, everything about this pony would be unbelievably useful. Tendrils of biomass jumped from one part of his body to another, like a sick dance of shadows, as he let the Blacklight virus go wild, let himself go wild.

Half a second later a large tendril sprung out of his body, impaling the yellow pony through its barrel and out the other end. Offshoots grew out of the tendril and latched onto the pony from the inside, shredding his organs into a bloody visceral pulp. His eyes were glazed over before the large black tendril returned to Alex and the body ragdolled to the floor. The pony didn’t even have time to let out another breath before it died; the crowd more than made up for it as they all screamed bloody murder at the Monster of Manehattan before running away in the opposite direction, including a good half of their police force. The half that didn't run, quaked in fear of the beast before them. Exceptions being the one or two brave, or foolish, individuals screaming at him in what was without a doubt, absolute hatred. 

One bystander, of questionable intelligence, made a move to try and help the dead pony but joined the majority as the tendrils reached back out and dragged the body across the pavement, a bloody trail left behind. Soon that trail was all that was left of the downed pony as the body was pulled into his chest, the tendrils cocooning the body before it disappeared within.

Name: Grease Lightning, born in Hornlem, Manehattan… why? Why is everything a pun? Greased Lightning? Hornlem? Manehattan? Ponyville? I’m not even sure if that’s a pun of Humansville or if they were just being lazy? Subspecies: Unicorn, specializes in controllable magic. As if I wasn’t already unstoppable. He paused at the term cutie mark. Definitely not a term I will be using anytime soon. Oh now here's something, specialization with teleportation, now that is going to be handy.

Alex closed his eyes, relishing the momentary flood of memories going through his mind. He ignored those that served no purpose: first steps, kiss, date, other nonsense and instead focused on his classes on magic, spending hours each day perfecting teleportation, joining the force and hoping against hope to grab the attention of the the most powerful ponies of them all, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. How they could raise the sun and moon on a daily basis, kept a being of pure chaos on a leash, were mentors to the bearers of the Elements of harmony. The list went on and on, each accomplishment more impressive than the last. 

He turned his attention back to the police, the officers words had become recognizable. In less than a minute, he was a fluent native that knew each one of the officers standing before him his whole life. Including the fact that here stood the best the Manehattan police force had to offer. Each one quick on their hooves, highly educated, and no slouch in a fight. Not to mention the wings and horns that a good amount of them had. His grin grew wider than any smile had any right to be before he slammed his fists into the ground.

A wave of spikes being their only warning before they found themselves violently suspended in the air. Their bodies hung there, impaled, as bodily fluids flowed down the bony protrusions jutting out of the ground. To the naked eye, the attack was finished, but on a microscopic level the Blacklight virus poured from the syringe like spikes. It flooded their systems consuming their bodies from the inside out.

By the time he had exhausted each and every memory of Grease, the rest had been fully consumed, not even their blood remained on the wave of spikes. Each of them with a valuable piece of information regarding his arrival… he'd came down like a flameless meteorite, just one of many. He had no idea why he was falling out of the sky earlier, but he’d bet his claws he wasn't alone.

Gazing upwards, his eyes skimmed the skyscrapers, the evidence of the storm being evident. All up and down the streets, buildings were littered with smoking craters where the debris had crashed into them. His eyes flashed red as he turned on his infected vision, a little something he’d taken from a Lead Hunter. The world changed colour, everything becoming a shade of orange or red, and sure enough one of the craters glowed orange with infected material.

His evolved were dead, and the infected were gone, but if it was one of them, he would’ve felt it. He was Blacklight incarnate, one of the two, maybe three, Hive Minds left in existence. By that leaves one man left. The man who had ‘killed’ him only a few months earlier. The man who’d sooner die than see a slight against him go unpunished.    

“James Heller… this is just too perfect,” He hissed with a smile as he stalked towards the glowing crater. “Hope you’re ready, James, cause you’re getting no mercy from Mercer.”
> Black Box 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Sir I don't agree wit--"

"I don't give a damn what you agree with! All I need you to do is serve your country jarhead!"

"They ain't infected!"

"And they aren't human either! If we don't end this on this planet what do you think will happen if Mercer gets back to Earth with this god-damn shit!"

"Bu-" *Gunshot followed by a thud*

"Enough of that any of you have a problem with shooting fucking horses? No? Alright then mow the fuckers down!"
> Heller Isn't In Hell *Edited*
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A A distant voice pierced his muddled mind, its meaning lost as a thousand echoes followed it, only serving to worsen his pain. Electricity jumped between the wires surrounding him, shocking him awake, his warmest welcome back to the land of the living in a long time. He groaned as he tried moving under the several tons of debris pinning him to the floor. With a snarl, he pulled himself from under the debris enough to get a look at his surroundings.

After a few seconds of struggling, he calmed down enough to at least recognize the ceiling. A plain white panel ceiling, just like in any generic office building in existence. Except for the gigantic hole in it. With a grunt, he twisted his head to the right and saw nothing but more debris, the same sight on his left. With little else to look at, he stared at plain ceiling and the – oddly him shaped – hole in the middle of it. The voice repeated itself, no longer a canyon away, but still unintelligible.

He lay still, flexing his fingers. Minute pieces of dust crumbled off the pile on top of him as the voice grew closer and louder, ever so slowly, its cautious tone bypassing the language barrier. His glower softened and did his best to patiently wait, afraid that if he threw the debris off of himself, he'd end up killing whoever it was in the room. He’d rather not kill a civy and if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t matter. After all anything they did to him wouldn't do much. Besides hurt a little bit, to which he’d probably respond with ripping their spines out through their mouths.

He waited a full minute before something new edged into the very side of his vision, something minty-green. Whoever it is better hurry the fuck up, I don’t plan on staying still for the next fucking hour. He was about to say something when it fully enveloped his field of vision and the noise died in his throat. Above him stood a character straight out of his daughter's favorite cartoon. A pastel-colored pony looked down at him with huge, curious eyes that engulfed half of its face, its mouth set in a frown.

He stared up at it in silence as it looked down at him, cocking its head this way and that. It said something over its shoulder and gestured with a hoof to come. Stunned into silence, he watched as it laid down next to him; squirming to fix itself into a comfortable position while shouting a few more words at some unknown person. Another object came into his sights, one he recognized, an old camera. But instead of somebody walking it over, the camera flew over in a dark blue aura.

The pony next to his head said something else and the camera moved to the right a few inches from where it hovered. The lens zoomed in on him, his own eyes widening as he tried to make sense of this, the camera flashed. He went blind, making him spit out a string of curses, to which the pony next his head reacted by kicking him in the face as it ran away screaming, obviously thinking he was dead.

"What the fucking fuck is this shit," he grumbled as he ripped his arm out from under the pile of debris, a shower of dust and rocks going up into the air as he did. His left arm followed suit, then his upper torso and both his legs, red biomass running up and down his body as he tightened his knuckles.

Dusting off his black jacket and jeans then a final brush at his dark-skinned face he let his gaze travel around the room he found himself in – his eyes meeting the dozens looking out from where they hid behind the cubicles and doors – fear practically oozing out every pair. He took an initial survey of the room and noticed nothing unusual, besides the cartoon ponies from his daughter’s favorite show, it was just a typical  office building with hundreds of cubicles smashed together; albeit they only reached his chest, not meant for a being as tall as him. Ignoring the ponies he noticed the hole in the wall and strode towards it, this being more of his area of expertise.

Grabbing the edge of the wall he leaned out, the noticeable absence of smoke and gunpowder evident in the air. If there was any doubt, it was now gone. This wasn't the New York he knew. He glanced over his shoulder, Definitely not New York. He turned back to the city around him. No infected. No helicopters. No fuckton of soldiers dying in a war against those they were supposed to protect. No Blackwatch motherfuckers aiming to weaponize the virus. No people diving off the edge of buildings. Where the hell am I?

Pursing his lips he stepped back inside and turned around towards the crowd of eyes hiding behind the cubicles, every color of the rainbow present and then some. "Any of you fuckers mind telling me where the hell I am?" he shouted, hoping for a response.

Instead of an answer, a group of eyes disappeared around the walls as he waited for an answer. He tried again, bit less forceful, "Do any of you know where I am?" Again silence, but at least this time none of them ran away.

A thought came to him as he realized he didn't understand what one said earlier. "None of you freaks know English, do you?" Their silence answered him as he huffed in annoyance. Of course they wouldn't know English.

THEY'RE FUCKING HORSES FROM A FUCKING CARTOON!

Growling he plopped down on his rear and cradled his head in his arms trying to figure out just what the hell was going on. His mind flashed through several scenarios, from Blackwatch and some failed experiment to Mercer and— 

Mercer... He’s still alive damn it! Shooting up from his sitting position he turned back around to hole in the wall, startling a pony that had walked closer to him as he was sitting. Ignoring that pony he stared out the hole wondering where would be the best spot to get a view of Mercer.

As his eyes settled upon a massive skyscraper in the distance he felt something wrap around his ankle. Confused,he looked down to see a glowing orange tendril wrapped around it. Before he could react, it jerked and flung him out the window, pulling the chunk of building he was holding with him. Flailing his arms he looked down at the ground, to see a swarm of ponies below and if they didn't move he'd crush them on landing. Straightening out in the air, he was falling eagle style, arms and legs spread out to the side. His descent slowed down as biomass was released into the air, pushing him away from the ground, and the ponies on it.

Near the ground, he pulled his arms in and smashed down with a massive plume of dust thrown into the air, an earthquake on impact. He slowly stood straight and he smirked. At least I won't have to look far to find Mercer. Rotating his shoulders he turned around and strode out of the crater, the literal sea of ponies parting as he walked out. Screaming into the crowd he said, "Come on out Mercer! I know you're here! So quit being a fucking pussyshit and fight me!"

A few moments passed before a voice answered back right in his ear. "My my, you've grown quite confident since we last met, Heller."

He whipped around and punched, only hitting empty air. Thrusting his right arm to his side, waves of biomass shooting down and wrapping around his arm. A silver blade grew out of the writhing mass extending past his kneecaps and above his head. The crowd screamed at the demonstration of power and scattered, a roll of thunder following the crowds escape. "Show yourself, Mercer!"

His eyes fell upon the one pony who wasn't running, its mouth held in a smirk set in stone as it stared at him with dark orange eyes. Its mane a thing of blood-red seeming to pulse with otherworldly light and its coat a deep gun-metal grey. The mouth moved, "Why must you forgo subtlety? I'm not asking you to be an assassin but at least try and spare the locals the little horror show we both are, hmm?"

He ran at it, blade held high in the air, a war cry sounding off. It stood still as he rushed it – its head cocked to the side – watching him with the same smug smirk. Swinging the blade down, he nearly fell over when he hit nothing. The arm blade dug into the ground, anchoring him to the concrete. He slid for a good few feet before he came to a stop. He was looking about for the disappearing pony, when he heard the sound of hooves clapping. 

Behind him, sitting on the steps of an apartment building, was the ponified Alex Mercer. "I suppose it's good you haven't lost your touch yet, Heller. Though you do seem a bit slower than last time," it paused to shrug its shoulders and shook its head. "But what would one expect from a halfwit brute?"

"How about you stop running you damn fuck and die like a man!" he shouted at Mercer, who had apparently consumed a pony. 

Mercer shrugged as a wave of biomass traveled up and down his form, turning him back into his familiar self: a white pale man in his late twenties wearing a black hooded jacket, a grey hoodie and a white long-sleeved shirt with jeans. Mercer threw his hands up in front of himself as if to surrender. "Mainly, because I'm not human. Now, Heller, I take it you're still sore about you wife and everything?" Mercer asked, his smile still tugging at his lips.

Snarling at him, Heller strode towards him. "The fucking hell you mean am I still mad! You killed my wife! Are you just asking me to skullfuck your corpse again, Mercer!" His biomass swarmed around his blade and turned it back into his arm as he lifted Mercer up into the air by his collar.

"I'm asking because I'm thinking it'd be beneficial for us to just keep to our separate ways. You go wander off and do black people things and I'll go do my thing." 

His response was in the form of four sharpened claws ripping through his face. Well, that was the intent anyway. Mercer disappeared again, this time in a bright flash of orange light. Whipping around again he spotted Mercer standing in the middle of the street, hands in his pockets. "How'd you do that? Make a pact with the devil?" He growled at Mercer as one of his sharpened claws pointed at him.

Mercer pulled a hand out of his pocket and gestured at the crowds down the street who were watching this exchange between the two. "Consume one of them you'll learn how to do it too. Truth be told, Heller, I made you what you are for one purpose," he said, an orange aura outlining his arms. " I made you for something special... But here... Here!" he exclaimed, one hand held up to the sky. "The possibilities of this world are endless. I can already shape flesh and mind on a whim," – Strings of biomass moving throughout his body as evidence – ",but to manipulate the very skies? The earth? Even time itself! I wouldn't need to fear anything nor bow to anyone! And you could do... Well like I said, whatever a black guy does," he finished with a shrug.

"You have to be fucking kidding me, Mercer! Last time you did anything you fucked up all of New York and killed my wife! If you think I'm just going to let you do whatever the fucking hell you want, you got another thing coming!" Heller screamed at him as the biomass in his body started to writhe, ready to fight Mercer again.

Alex sighed and looked away, disinterested. "So we're going to ‘fight to the death’?" he asked, using air quotes.

Heller answered with a lunge, claws shining in the setting sun's light. He rolled his eyes as he slammed his fists together, biomass jutting out of every piece of skin, wrapping around him and covering him in a boney exoskeleton, his clothes and face disappearing as it was replaced by the uniform grey. 

As Heller’s claws met Alex’s armor, sparks flew accompanying the sound of nails on a chalkboard through a megaphone set to high. Mercer grabbed Heller’s arm and slammed him to the ground. Heller bounced off the concrete before Mercer spiked him down the street, thunder crashed as Mercer’s foot made contact.

"If we're doing this again, I'm going to be one doing the skullfucking, Heller."
> Black Box 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Yes sir, the operation was a failure the black hole generator didn't work according to the eggheads we have here, acted more like a how'd you fucks say it was?"

"The weapon acted more like a hole into another reality, so in essence for you imbeciles just call it a portal."

"According to them it acted more like a portal to another planet. Zeus's status? Alive and well sir, both he and Heller just went at it, though we don't know what happened none of our men saw the whole fight. No sir, they haven't noticed us we've been very careful about that. Sir? Of course sir understood."

"Well what'd he say?"

"They said you three Gen-Tek freaks are going to analyze this planet and see if it's suitable for experiments and to see how the fuck Zeus used the damn force on Heller. After we, or better yet you, find that out orders are to find any type of artifacts, specimens and the like and bring them back to H.Q."

"Me and my team will still have time to run a few tests here correct?"

"Well it'll be a while before Red-Crown can reactivate the portal and evac us, so after we set up a base of operations yes you all can run your Frankenstein experiments."
> But It Sure Isn't Heaven
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heller glared at Mercer as he crouched low to the ground, his sharpened claws glistening in the setting sunlight, trying to figure out how to kill Mercer this time because obviously consuming him didn't work all that well. His biomass shifted as he watched Mercer who was waiting patiently down the street.

Mercer on the other hand wasn't up for wasting time and playing around, he had a world to explore, so in an explosion of concrete he launched himself at Heller, a massive blade hovering barely an inch above the ground as his armored body picked up speed. Twisting his body around he slashed down at Heller, who caught the blade in his clawed talons, the metal clash sending sparks flying everywhere.  The ground cracked under Heller's feet as he refused to give an inch as Mercer steadily kept pushing with all his might.

Growling Heller grabbed his arm and pushed up and away, the blade and the claw still connected to it, both raising high above their heads as they struggled against each other, Heller's arms visibly shaking from the strain while Mercer's one arm was barely moving. He was using only one hand that arrogant son of a bitch, at least he thought that until he saw the gleam of a claw come rushing up to his abdomen. In a flash Heller lifted one of his legs and used Mercer as a springboard, the edges of Mercer's claw grazing his legs as he kicked away. 

With a wave of biomass going down his arms again his left arm returned to normal while the other one grew metal spikes that jutted out at regular intervals up and down the entire arm before ending in one massive triangular point. Letting that arm hanged limp at his side he crouched down in preparation, the setting sun finally going down and the moon coming up on the other side, bathing both of them in foreboding dark light. Mercer looked up towards the moon and shook his head before he started changing back to his original self, no weapons or armor at all noticeable on him.

Mercer started pacing back and forth looking at him, each step a stomp sending cracks spreading outwards. "Heller come on now I don't have much time to dilly-dally so hurry up if you're going to kill me. So hurry up. Hurry up!" Mercer lifted a foot and held it there, suspended in the air for a moment before slamming it down into the ground, a clear series of cracks snaking towards him. Rolling to the side Heller dodged the glowing red and black spikes of pure biomass that erupted where he had been only moments ago and sent his whipfist, the equivalent of a bladed whip capable of cutting through tanks, flying towards Mercer's head.

Mercer simply leaned to the right while the spikes kept growing up into the skies above before they paused and seemed to turn and point down at him. Swearing under his breath he stood back up and yanked his arm back, the blades little more than a blur as the pointed end smashed into the back of  Mercer's head, knocking him off balance and stopping the avalanche of biomass that was about to hit him.

Seizing his chance he dashed towards Mercer, arms shifting back into that of the claws as he ran past the tower of biomass, and leaped at Mercer, arms raised high above his head the blades glinting in the light of the night, who only just then regained his footing. Bringing them down he sliced deep into Mercer’s shoulders lines of red appearing where his claws had sliced deep into Mercer’s skin. 

Ripping his claws back out he again used Mercer as a springboard to jump away, his foot meeting jaw with over a thousand pounds of force, giving the audible and quite noticeable sound of a neck cracking. With a grin Heller backflipped away but was impaled by hundreds of small knifes of pure biomass, which proceeded to carry him into one of the buildings and slam him through the first wall, second and out back into the alley before the knifes left his body and retreated back through the holes.

“You know Heller I have to admit you’re not as stupid as I thought, or maybe I’m just getting too cocky?” Taunted Mercer as he calmly walked towards the hole, his arm straightening his head back into place. He smirked as no answer came, then the smirk disappeared as a series of rocks flew out of the hole, his hands flashing up to protect his face as the rocks kept coming, one of them actually managing to cut his cheek. 

Rolling his eyes Mercer straightened his hand and gestured at the hole, a orange aura encompassing the hand, causing all of the rocks to stop in midair even as more came out to slice him. “You’re joking right Heller? I survived a fucking nuke and you’re throwing rocks at me?”

At the end of his sentence as if to add insult to injury instead of a rock, a dumpster flew out tumbling end over end towards him. Growling he smacked the dumpster away as it came within reach and noticed the black man clad in his black jacket and red lining on the inside, right behind the dumpster already swinging his blade.

Surprised slightly he ducked underneath the blade, his own blade forming as he sliced up and through Heller’s arm severing the blade off of his body, and caught him by the back leg. Pulling back on it he slammed Heller’s face into the ground before flipping him back up into the air heels over head, his blade ready to slice and dice Heller into tiny bits. But before he could get his chance, Heller’s bloodied stump of an arm shifted back into that of a whip and grabbed the edge of one of the windowsills above and catapulted himself up.

“Where are you running now Heller!? What happened to skullfucking my corpse, eh?” Screamed Mercer with a smile as Heller landed on top of the roof, who was glaring at him in turn. Heller squatted slightly before leaping high up into the air, an easy twenty stories high, his left arm shifting to match his right and shooting them both out, the ends of his whipfists latching onto the edge of the roof. His arms stretched as he kept going and as he reached the apex of his jump he used his arms to slingshot himself back down into the earth, a distinct whistling sound in the air as he flew back at Mercer.

“Shit.” Was all Mercer said as he jumped away, his hands brought up in front of his face to keep himself from being blinded as Heller slammed into the ground, a tangible wave of earth shooting up and away from Heller’s position. Coming near the ground again he kicked up and away as the wave died off, but not before Heller charged out his blade swinging at Mercer, the end somehow seeming even sharped under the moonlight.

Cursing, Mercer forced a quick wave of biomass down his arms, as he caught the blade another shower of sparks coming to life as Heller continued with his swing and forced Mercer back, in a flash bringing his blade back up. Like a angry black storm of fury he sent barrage after barrage at Mercer not letting up for a moment, knowing that if he did Mercer would somehow teleport or send him floating into the air like he just did with the rocks he had thrown.

It didn’t take long for them to head up the street to where the ponies had taken up residence to watch their fight, all of them panicking and running away even before they closed halfway distance, obviously smart enough to run when they came closer. 

But not smart enough to run as far away as they could. Mercer ducked underneath one of Heller’s blade swipes ran him through with both of his claws, all eight of the razor-sharp talons going straight through his abdomen and threw him into the crowd a few ponies getting crushed and cut by Heller’s blade. 

Rolling to a stop Heller slammed his free unchanged hand into the ground, the concrete easily giving way to his momentum, his blade held at the ready behind him as Mercer glowered at him. “Come on now Heller you can’t beat me, so just give up, already you brute.”

“Really, because I killed you once before, I can do it again!” He yelled as he stabbed the earth with his blade, his own series of spikes shooting through the ground towards Mercer. With a jerk of his legs Mercer hopped out of the way of the spikes and sprinted towards Heller. Heller looked up to see Mercer closing in on him and in a rush the biomass flooded back into his arm, all evidence besides the holes in the earth gone, as he brought his blade up to bear, the pounding of pony hooves sounding like the drums of war.

Without a word Mercer slammed into Heller, his right claw forcing Heller’s blade down the sparks lighting up the light while Heller’s left arm grabbed his left arm and held it there, the both of them shaking with effort to kill the other. As their faces were centimeters apart, Mercer wondered where Heller had gotten this new-found strength then dispelled that thought as he slowly lost ground against Heller.

With a growl his body started to glow a dim orange, erratic bolts rippling up and down his body and as the glow grew brighter and brighter he pushed harder and harder, Heller slowly, but steadily faster, forced further and further back before Heller headbutted him. Using that moment, while Mercer was caught off-guard and retreated, the crowds out of the way thankfully and by the sound of it completely gone.

“You know what Heller? I’m bored with you.” Muttered Mercer as he lifted both of his arms up, and suddenly Heller found himself floating in mid-air the laws of gravity gone. He flailed his arms as he was spun around in circles, the dizzying pastel colors and regular street colors making him nauseous.

Mercer looked on with glee as he twirled a single claw around in a circle, with the massive black man following suit, before pointing down. Not a second later Heller smashed into the ground, the magic pinning him to the ground. His arms shifted back to normal as he held his open palm down to the ground and kept pushing, as Heller tried desperately to get up.

“You see Heller let me give you a little lecture on genes, the Blacklight virus and my intentions.” Announced Mercer as he walked past Heller and threw him up into the air, his stolen magic holding him steady behind him. As Heller opened his mouth to interrupt, it was slammed shut as the magic closed around it.

“Uh uh uh, let me finish. Now do you know what’s special about your DNA Heller?” Asked Mercer nonchalantly as he float/dragged Heller behind him. “With every virus and each person, their DNA reacts differently, especially with the Blacklight virus.”

Mercer paused to throw Heller through a few buildings while he looked at a street sign. “Which way is it? Ah right down Emberton lane.” Mercer continued walking down said street. “Now with Elizabeth Greene the virus more or less turned her into a factory to produce new strains.”

“Sabrina Galloway, I think her name was, was able to manipulate my infected beasts to obey her instead of me. I didn’t mind but when you took that ability from her when you killed her, well that just didn’t go well with my plan. A few of the Evolved all had different reactions with the virus, giving each of them special abilities from the Bio-bomb to the Whipfist and so on.”

Mercer gestured and Heller floated in front of him. “You though, you were special. Your DNA literally resisted the virus’s ability to change so I had to infect you with a strain made just for you. That same DNA kept me from consuming you on the roof, you were going to be the perfect weapon for dealing with my little problem.”

Flicking Heller’s nose he continued. “At the same time I was both fascinated and scared by that development that I, I couldn’t consume you despite being the virus incarnate. But it was all for naught because you were too stupid to realize that I can’t be wholly consumed.”

Lifting both hands now he started playing Ping-pong with Heller and the walls of the buildings as he kept walking down the streets, one particular area in mind. “You see while you have some advantages over me, I have some over you. For example I’m the virus incarnate which means anything designed to kill Redlight or Blacklight viruses can kill me if I’m exposed to it for too long without first building up an immunity.”

“You are still part human which means it won’t have as quick of an effect, nor as serious of a one for you.” Mercer smelled the air and smiled as he detected a faint hint of salt and picked up his pace, crossing his arms behind his head as he studied the stars above. “I cannot tire as long as I can absorb more beings and more biomass. You can tire but you don’t need biomass to get energy back, you will need biomass to get one hundred percent back to normal but I’m sure even you get my point.”

“Now there’s some things I haven’t tried myself, because it could very well result in my death, so I’m stuck with only my hypotheses. I’ve thought of many ways to make myself die, because if I can find a way to die I can surely kill the only thing that is truly able to kill me.” Mercer stopped as he saw the edge of what he was looking for. He took a deep breath in as he tasted the salt in the air, Heller floating right behind him.

“One thing I thought of is what all humans have in common, they need to sleep, eat, reproduce and most important of all they need to breathe.” He finished with a lazy gesture of his hand and brought Heller in front of him, the clash of the waves sending sprays of water up over the edge of the docks.

“So let’s test it by seeing how long you struggle without air, hmm Heller?” Heller’s eyes widened at that and without further ceremony, Mercer flicked a finger and Heller shot out away from the edge of the docks and splashed into the water.

Mercer started whistling as he sat on the edge of the docks, swinging his legs over the edge and kicking them. He felt a slight presence on the back of his mind and realized it was Heller resisting his magic, with a roll of his eyes he slammed both his hands into the pier, forcing Heller back against the seafloor. As Heller struggled against him he thought of what he’d do now that Heller’s out of the way.

Beings of god-like power all in a place called Canterlot, Celestia the one who ruled over the sun, Luna the one who controlled the moon and succumbed to black magic, Discord a being of unmatched power. All wonderful targets to add to his collection of power and would finally let him achieve his goal and let him live out his dream.

But the bearers of the ‘Elements of Harmony’, or whatever they called themselves now. Six friends that somehow beat the corrupted version of Luna, imprisoned Discord, beat a tyrant named Tirek and countless other tasks all while living out a semi-normal life? Now that was true power and not all that far from Canterlot either since it was common knowledge that Celestia and her student regularly met with each other.

Then there were the countless other beings out there that could add little upgrades to his powers, however insignificant they might be. Yes this would be a perfect planet, then he might figure out how he got here and travel somewhere else. Satisfied with his plan Mercer stood back up and noticed that Heller had stopped struggling and shook his hand free of the magic, before turning around and walking towards the train station.

After all this place could be compared to Rome, just replace Rome with Canterlot and the expression all roads lead to Rome was perfect.

This was just going to be too much fun.

> Black Box 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Look man I don't care what your rank is, it's survival here until we reopen the portal! And if we let these colorful cuddly ponies die and the infected swarm the place, Earth WILL be fucked too!"

"If we interfere and let them notice us Mercer and Heller will realize we're here and it won't matter what we do we'll die by their hands!"

"According to you we die either way so fuck you, fuck this, fuck me, fuck it allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!" *Series of rapid footsteps, akin to that of running, followed by semi-distant gunshots*

"Did Jeremy just jump into the middle of that rapefest?"

"Yeah."

"Mercer and Heller gonna know we're here now ain't they?"

"Mmmhmmm."

"We're going to have to risk our asses to save him now aren't we?"

"I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO GETS TO SCARE THE CUDDLY MIDGETS SHITLESS!!" *Several more gunshots followed by an explosion*

"Yes, we're going to have to drag his ass out after we kill all the infected. But one of you remind me this."

"Remind you what sir?"

"To beat him senseless for jumping headfirst into a fight again."

"I'll be happy to sir."

"We all would be happy to. Now come on let's save the dipshit."
> Mobilization
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luna smiled as she took a sip of tea, her eyes reading a letter from one of the many ponies she had helped with their night-terrors. Ever since she had taken up the hobby of happily resolving ponies dreams they’d been happily writing her letters, saying thank you, praising her and even one letter that was written while drunk that was quite straightforward in what they were asking. Needless to say she didn’t bother reading that one.

Despite the odd letter that came in every once in a while she always delighted in reading these, made her feel like she was making a difference, since with the council her sister had made regarding all legislative matters always argued… well things never were done quick or right. As she finished reading that letter she set it down and grabbed another one from the pile at her bedside, wiggling on her bed to try and make herself more comfortable, feeling the lack of blood in her hind legs.

Satisfied she continued reading. As she reached halfway through her letter, her alarm rung on her night table. She glanced over at it and noticed it was time for her to walk through dreams again. Setting the letter down she closed her eyes and let her magic flow through her, the ends of her coat hairs standing up with the sheer amount of magic coursing through her.

Sighing she opened her eyes again to find her room gone, the floor gone, the only thing tangible was the cold nothingness on her coat. Humming a tune she picked up from Pinkie a while back, she aimlessly floated in a direction, not needing to flap her wings as there was no air for them to push against.

A minute into her aimless flight she saw a pinprick of light in the distance, shortly joined by another and another, then another. Rapidly, as she kept floating ahead, the featureless darkness was populated by an innumerable amount of specks of light. Nearing the first one she came close to it, the glow throwing her face into light. Cupping it in her hooves she raised it up to her eye inspecting the glowing orb.

Inside she could see a pony dreaming a dream about ruling Equestria and eating the Canterlot Castle, which was incidentally made out of chocolate… eh she’d seen weirder ones. Letting go of it she floated on, eyes checking each orb and speck to make sure they were fine.

On and on this went until she came across a different orb, one that instead of glowing brightly, was wavering and dim. With a frown she floated towards it and grabbed the orb. Looking into it she saw a mucked up dream, likely the dream of somepony on drugs judging by how blurred everything was. Still though they were having a night-terror and regardless of it being drug-induced or not she still needed to help them.

Lowering her head she tapped her horn against the orb, and closed her eyes before the magnificent white light burned her eyes. 

When she felt a slight breeze against her back she opened her eyes and found herself in what looked like Manehattan, except there weren’t any crowds around. Confused she turned her head, just for the world to turn into little more than a blur bringing her to her knees as her sense of balance was gone. Okay, how was this pony still alive? This was equal to a coma dream…. how was this pony having a night-terror in a coma.

Confused she slowly inched her head around to see what was going on, then saw the pony having the night-terror. A small mint-colored filly was curled up in a ball sobbing. Slowly approaching her, Luna kept her eyes locked on her to keep the blurring world from messing with her head as much. 

She tripped slightly and that alerted the filly to her presence, who looked back at her with big wet eyes and a pout. The pout turned into a smile as the filly saw her. “L-l-luna?”

“Why art thou crying little one?” The filly didn’t reply and instead stared over her shoulder. She froze as she felt a cold metallic object trace the curve of her spine before resting in the middle of her back, right in between the wings. Gritting her teeth she spun around, falling to her knees again thanks to the blur. 

With a shake of her head her vision cleared and she saw nothing, nothing at all. “What was that?”

“It was the demon from today!” Screamed the filly as she resumed her sobbing. Confused Luna glanced back at her, making sure not to move her head to fast. She couldn’t resolve her night-terror if she couldn’t even walk straight. Slowly moving back to the filly she got onto her knees so she’d be more or less eye level with her.

“We need thee to look into our eyes little one.” She whispered as delicately as she could to the obviously traumatized filly. Obeying her the filly looked up into Luna’s eyes, the tears slowly dying off. With a smile she lowered her horn to the filly’s forehead and cast a spell that would put the pony into a dreamless sleep.

The filly slowly closed her eyes and went limp as the world around them slowly disappeared. But not before Luna heard a set of footsteps coming up from her right. Twisting her head slightly she saw the demon that the filly was so scared off, looking down at the two of them with a grin.

Demonic red eyes glared out from under its hood as it stood there, the black outer jacket almost blending in with the darkness closing in around them. Sharp claws that almost reached the ground despite it being as tall if not taller than her, then the arms that looked deformed with spikes coming out at irregular intervals and it bending inwards on itself at multiple points. What type of filly would dream this?

As the last of the world disappeared the demon waved goodbye with it’s massive claws the grin never going away.

Once the world fell away and she was back into the abyss of dreams she was flabbergasted. What type of thing was that? It almost looked like a changeling with those arms, but yet those eyes seemed so realistic, almost like it wasn’t a dream… but something more.

She shook her head before floating away from that spot and on through the fields of dreams, eyes alert for any other night-terrors, but she didn’t have to float for even five seconds when she saw another one. Okay maybe she could deal with something she was a bit more used to, or at least a pony who wasn’t drugged.

Grabbing it in her hooves she looked at it and gave a sigh of relief after verifying it was in fact, not another drugged dream. Stabbing her horn into it, she was bathed in another brilliant white light as she was transported into the dream.

The instant she was inside she was met by screaming mobs of ponies who almost trampled her, before she teleported up and away from them all. What was this dream? Another one about a giant fire-breathing lizard, oh that’d just make her night. Flapping her wings she stayed in the air and looked towards where all the ponies were running from, her breath catching in her throat as she saw it again.

The same thing from the filly’s night-terror only this time it was ripping through policeponies and the like, blood being splattered everywhere as the demonic hurricane of blades traveled down the street. Then just as she got her breath back it looked up at her and smiled a sadistic smile, a orange light engulfing it before it literally disappeared.

Right before it re-appeared in front of her, screaming with rage as it slashed at her, her instincts making her flap backwards and out of the dream, smashing straight through the dream barrier and back out into the nothingness, it stopping at the tear before frowning and letting itself fall back into the dream.

“What the buck.” Was all she muttered under her breath. Two ponies dreaming of the same exact thing on the same night, no way was that a coincidence. She was about to travel back into that dream when she floated by another dream, it easily visible due to it being eye level and within spitting distance.

What she saw was another horror, the same exact demon holding a pony by the throat, its claws digging into its neck and drawing blood as it screamed in terror. Her eyes widened at that, yet another instance of the same exact monstrosity terrorizing her subjects. She was staring at the dream so long she didn’t notice all of the dreams around her growing dim as they all turned into night-terrors.

Looking away from that dream she gathered all of the bad dreams she could see in her immediate view and held them up to her eyes for inspection. In all of them more demons surfaced, devastating Manehattan, murdering dozens of innocents, sometimes they changed slightly. Some of them had glowing blue eyes and what seemed to be daggers on their arms, others had the same demon she had met already and others had a darker version of the demon fighting it, then there were a few with yellow bipeds dragging loved ones away.

There wasn’t any way this was all a coincidence, with a grimace she raised one of the less violent dreams to her horn and transported herself inside of it. The dream itself was a standard night-terror where the pony was running away from the monster, memory,  co-worker etc., but tonight it was yet another one about the demon chasing them.

With a flash of her magic she dispelled the dream around her in place of just her and the red-green stallion who was now flailing his hooves as he tumbled end over end, a stream of swears coming out of his mouth about what was going on.

Her magic dragged the stallion towards her as she stood there on nothing. “Tell us, our dear subject what it is you were running from?”

The stallion looked relieved as he came to a stop in front of her, a goofy grin plastered onto his face. “Oh thank you Princess, that things been chasing me in here fore--” He stopped as she held up a hoof.

“Yes we are glad we helped thou, but tell us what IT is. We have found dozens of other ponies having the same thing hunting them in their dreams.” She said with dissatisfaction.

The stallion’s ears drooped slightly as his face looked as if it were in pain remembering it. The stallion took in a deep breath and stated matter-of-factly. “That thing was in Manehattan today, killing ponies.”

For a second Luna thought she misheard him. “Say that again please?”

The stallion cringed, hearing the icy tone in her voice. “It, and another freak were in Manehattan fighting, killing dozens of ponies in the process. Nopony knows where they disappeared to but they all think they’re both still in the city.”

He kept cringing as Luna lowered her head, her mane covering her face. She stayed like that for a minute before turning around without a word and left the dream, the stallion quivering as he could just feel the coldness emanating from her.

Once she left the dream she didn’t bother with the others she had clustered around her and instead returned herself to reality. She clambered off her bed and walked to the door, her teeth grinding at this development. It was one thing to hurt her ponies, but to kill them for no reason?

Pulling the doors open with her magic she walked past her two guards who looked on puzzledly as she strode with a purpose down the hallway. They both looked at each other before galloping after her, her long strides too much for them to keep up just by walking. “Uh Princess what’s the matter?”

“Wake up my sister. NOW.” She said coldly, without looking at either of them. The guard on her left nodded and dashed away while the one her right kept pace with her.

“Your highness can I ask what’s going on?” She paused slightly giving the guard a moment to catch his breath, a distant look in her eyes as she looked him over.

“We’re going to war, now go fetch the captains of both guards. Time is of the essence.” Determination set into his face as he saluted and ran off to follow her orders, while she kept walking to her destination.

_____________
Meanwhile
_____________

All was quiet in the massive countryside of Equestria, the rolling hills going as far as the eye could see, almost nothing stirring in the night. Even the predators were slow to move this evening as a quiet calm was over the land.

Well all except one predator, who was blurring across the landscape, his head held low and his legs pumping faster than possible for any normal beast, as it followed the train tracks. Only one goal was present in its mind as a storm of dust followed close behind it, clouding the night sky.

In the distance he could see the light of a train and he moved off of the rails, not wanting to waste precious time by jumping over it and losing some of his hard-earned momentum against the train’s wind.

When he first saw the train’s light in the distance he guessed it was about four-five miles away and two minutes later he could hear it pumping, its engine spewing smoke into the air. Not slowing down he kept running and as the two speeding objects passed each other, one was knocked back and forth by the other’s speed so much that it fell onto its side, the earth shattering under its weight.

But he didn’t slow down as the passengers screamed, for he was on a mission. If he didn’t grab and absorb these god-like beings powers the other monster could. The one thing that he truly had left to fear in either of the two worlds. The only true thing that could kill him, and he knew for a fact that when it learned he was in fact not dead and just in a new land…. it would come find him. If he didn’t kill it then it would kill him… for even all the horrors he had committed it would be worse than him, all his acts to draw it out, it had just watched with glee knowing he couldnt touch it.

But he’d fix that when he absorbed those ponies and stole their magic.

> Black Box 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"That thing is starting to creep me out dude."

"What our lil' guest? Jeremy dude... please tell me you're joking."

"The fucking midget horse has been staring at me for the past five minutes, it hasn't even blinked yet!"

"Maybe it wants your chocolate bar."

"Fuck that, it was hard enough stealing this chocolate when I'm from a different fucking planet and I'm twice the size of these things. It can go steal it's own!"

"Then deal with it staring at you for the next twenty-five minutes."

"....Fucking cute cuddly midget. Here half the bar."

"Seems to be enjoying it, or its having an orgasm or something."

"Why is everything about sex with you Andrew? It obviously has good taste in chocolate."

"Since when the fuck does any species have that wide a smile when it eats chocolate? Swear it reminds me of the fucking Joker right before he kills somebody."

"Nonsense the Joker isn't cuddly like this thing here.... aw fuck I think it wants the rest of my chocolate."

"Ha! Oh what do ya know, it's making puppy dog eyes. You gonna give the widdle puppy its bone?"

"Ah shut up you fuck. Here damn midget, I'ma go grab some MREs. Hopefully it won't want those."

"I think it'd be funny if it has some, love to see its reaction to the shit the government feeds us."
> The Blue-eyed Ones
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was raining aliens today it seemed to her as she galloped away from the crater, where a being had just slammed into the ground. While most ponies would be curious or at the very least stunned, she was downright scared her hammering heart reflecting that as she shoved her way past the ponies who had started joining the crowd.

A few of them yelled at her as she pushed them onto their flanks in her hurry to get away. But she didn't care, she already had trouble with zebras and griffons, otherworldly things that appear out of a hole in the sky? No way was she staying near that, nope not even if Celestia herself offered her the throne would she stay near that. The bad thing was, even if she ran to her house it wouldn't be much because the thing of course landed on her street.

Still though it was safer to be inside her house than outside, she thought to herself as her horn lit up, pulling her key out of its expertly hidden spot, inside the flower pot. With a turn of the key she walked inside, peeked out momentarily to see how many ponies had gathered around the crater and then slammed the door. Her home in Manehattan was a simple little house that was 600X400 hooves on each of its three floors, with a few sparse materials to keep herself busy. There was the surround sound system on the first floor, along with her stack of books in the corner and a small loveseat to make herself comfortable in.

She had always liked how she had everything put it was so nice and simple and let her move around with ease, even though her staircase was a walking circle thingy-majiggy. Well not anymore as she walked behind the loveseat and barricaded her front door with it, followed shortly by her pushing her surround sound and books also in front of the door. With that done she trotted up her stairs, her indigo coat standing up in spots just from her nervousness.

Reaching her second floor she came into her kitchen, which was really just drawers full of junk food, a tea pot for boiling ramen and a small refrigerator in the corner. Pulling a few of the cabinets open she yanked out a package of chip and cookies along with several sodas before heading back to her staircase again, but paused as she looked out her window, right beside her stair case and noticed it wasn't locked. Frowning she locked it, briefly wondered why it was unlocked and so big, before remembering why she was panicking and trotted upstairs.

Reaching the top of her little house, the only place that had a door and that was to her bathroom, she jumped into her bed, all of her stuffed animals bouncing into the air. Gathering her blanket around her in her magic she rolled off the bed and proceeded to her bathroom, her black blanket trailing behind her along with her floating snacks. She shoved her door open, shut it behind her and then curled up into a ball in her tub.

Popping the top of one her sodas she sat there thinking about nothing, just taking sips every now and then. After waiting for several minutes she thought about her pile of books downstairs and stood up to get one of her favorites when she heard a mob of screams, followed shortly by a stampede. Yeah buck that.

Ripping a bag of chips open she started munching, waiting for the crowds to stop screaming, which would mean one of two things. They're all dead and she would need to start running, or the alien's dead in which case she needed to start running before its mothership came to rain vengeance upon them all. In the meantime it would be a good idea to learn what she'd been using as shampoo, so she grabbed her several soaps and conditioners and started reading them while everpony kept screaming.

As she started reading her last bottle, she heard the sound of glass breaking and her heart caught in her throat. It was coming for her, to probe her! A little yelp escaped her lips, before her hooves could cover it. Thankfully by the sounds of the hoofsteps below it didn't notice her, but it did notice her food judging by the sounds of her cabinets being ripped open. It was stealing her food... oh well as long as it didn't come for her.

Teeth chattering she picked up one of her sodas and tried opening it, magic failing her as she was too fidgety. When she finally did manage to open it she yelped again, the soda spraying her entire face with sugary goodness. At that the aliens hooves going through her food stopped, more than likely having heard her yelp.

Her entire body shook, as her mind went over every scenario her mind could think of, while the alien's hooves calmly walked up her stairs, each step a sound of authority and determination. Tightening her grip on the blanket she closed herself off from the rest of the world, hoping she'd wake up any second now.

But as the steps reached her floor and went to her bed she knew for a fact she wouldn't be waking up any time soon. It was going to take her regardless of what she did, but she could fight back. With what though? The steps stopped at her bed, pausing for a moment as it probably wondered where she was. Then they walked towards the door of her bathroom.

Untangling herself from the blanket she stood up, legs shaking in fear, two soda cans suspended in the air, more or less at her face level. As the doorknob slowly turned, without a sound she heard it mumble something. Well it wasn't probing her today, regardless of what it said.

The door swung open on its hinges, revealing the alien clad in all grey with a shoulderplate on its right shoulder, and a stabbing instrument on its left arm, while it stood on two legs towering over her. It had four glowing blue eyes, one massive one on the left side of its face then three smaller ones going in a circle on its right. The worst thing about it though... was the fact it didn't have a mouth, it did have some type of weapon leveled at her face though, almost shaped like a L.

Screaming through her fear she sent her sodas flying in between its legs instantly sending it to the ground as it to screamed, but more so in pain than in fear like her. Running over its body, not caring if her hooves crushed its back she dashed to her staircase and practically flew down it. She made it past the alien, the thing that sent the mobs of ponies screaming down the street. She would be jumping with joy if it weren't for the fact two more of them were staring at her, frozen midway through searching her cupboards, one of them its arms laden with snacks and the other in the process of stealing her milk.

Upon seeing her though they dropped their respective stolen goods and tackled her, not expecting the two more aliens. With all her might she kicked the aliens and screamed, "Get off me I don't wanna be probed!!"

She landed a successful buck against one of their chins while the other held her forehooves still, doing its best to keep her from doing the same to it. The one she kicked rubbed its chin before raising a foot and swinging it at her. She didn't have time to scream before her world went dark.
> Black Box 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey Gentekie, got a minute?"

"Well considering I can't do shit without a lab to work in and the commander doesn't trust me to take care of myself out there."

"Any theories on how we're still alive and the others aren't?"

"There's thousands of variables to account for in how we weren't ripped to shreds, splattered against the sidewalk from  appearing so high in the sky, to even the fact we haven't been noticed yet. All I can say is we're lucky."

"Real insightful doc. You got any medical experience?"

"I've dissected a few infected why?"

"I think we're going to need you to be a medic, Blackwatch didn't give us much medical training."

"Wait aren't you guys supposed to be the best of the best? Super trained asskicking soldiers?"

"We were recruited to deal with the infection doc, and when you're injured by one of them you're as good as dead."

"All too true.... I suppose I do have some experience in stitching people up. Why one of you injured?"

"Commander's currently extracting a member from downtown, has a huge gash in his leg, they've stopped the bleeding but we need him back on duty, and none of us know any more than how to give basic first aid."

"Fuck me... they're coming now aren't they? Come on help me clear this table we're gonna need a place for me to operate."
> Mercer's Sprint
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mercer had ran for two hours straight, going far beyond the speed of mortals, little more than a blur on the landscape, never tiring his mind set on his goal. He had ran through towns, leaving a few craters and crushed carriages in his wake, even a pony, which he had smacked inside when it had gotten in his way. 

When he had finally slowed down it was because he had finally arrived at one of his two destinations; his run coming to a light jog as he came up alongside the train station, nothing more than a dull light over a bench accompanying him there. The sun had yet to inch over the horizon but just by glancing at the moon he could tell it wouldn’t be all that long before the night would be over, and despite being almost all-powerful he’d rather not fight literal gods toe to toe.

He’d much rather get the jump on them, he was still a novice compared to them even with a few dozen lifetimes worth of memories all about magic in his head. Vaulting up onto the platform his form changed into that of an equine with a grey coat and a light orangish mane. Continuing at a brisk trot he hopped off the platform and continued on into the town, which had yet to wake up to the nightmare that was stalking their streets.

As he passed the first couple of houses he realized he had no idea exactly where these Elements of Harmony lived, sure he knew the town but it was still a whole town and he couldn’t just consume everybody… well he could, but he didn’t feel like it today. Shrugging his shoulders he walked up to one of the houses on his right and raised himself onto his hind legs to kick it down when he heard an odd whistling sound.

Craning his head towards it his eyes grew as wide as saucers as a grey pegasus flailed her hooves in the middle of falling from the sky. He could’ve and would’ve avoided her if he had expected, besides who in their right mind wakes up this early in the morning.

Without a sound she slammed into him and bounced off his side almost comically, rolling several times before coming to a stop. With a raised eyebrow he thought about maybe consuming this one, but as she sat upright and he saw her derp eyes he thought otherwise.

“Hey how’ya doing?” She asked innocently, apparently unfazed by slamming into him at easily fifty miles an hour. He stared at it for a moment before replying.

“What’s wrong with your eyes?” He asked warily turned around, still posed to kick the door open.

“Medical condition.” She said with a smile as she stared back at him, albeit one eye rolled around in a circle.

“Uhuh…. do you know where any of the Elements of Harmony live?” Better to just ask then risk contracting whatever she had, sure he was a virus and could alter his genetic structure at whim, but… magic so far seemed to have a way of fucking things up.

To his surprise she nodded. “Yup sure do! I’m friends with Dash, the Element of Loyalty!”

Lowering himself back down to the ground he raised an eyebrow at that statement. “Do you know where she lives, I have some uhhhh….” Come on dammit he had the minds of some of the smartest people from Earth, shouldn’t be that hard to come up with a lie on the spot. “Urgent world-threatening news to give her.”

Her mouth gaped open and she sprang to her feet, making him jump slightly at her sudden movement. “Come on then what are we waiting for!” With that she blasted off into the night sky.

Swearing under his breath he grew his own set of wings and chased after her, surprised at the speed the mare showed, right after she had slammed into him. He shook his head of that thought and kept chasing her through the sky and noticed they were heading to what looked like… a fucking cloud house.

Yeah just ignore that and focus on the mare who was busy trying to beat the front door down. How can she not beat down a door made of literal clouds, it was nothing but air! By the time he touched down on the outer edge of the cloud the grey mare had wised up to jumping through a window… also made of clouds. Just… just why? 

He stood outside waiting while the mare flew around inside knocking over, including but not limited to, a sofa, a bed, what sounded like a dresser, fridge, part of a wall, eggs. He gave up counting what she hit and waited outside, knowing that if this Dash pony was home whoever it was a deep sleeper. “Come on Dash you home?”

A minute later the grey mare stepped outside and gave him a sheepish grin. “I think she’s away for the moment.”

Yeah, no shit. Clearing his throat he looked at her and back through the door she had just stepped through, pretty sure he saw the hints of a fire there. “Umm… thanks, can you point me to where the Princesses live?”

“Yeah sure! Which one? You have Princess Twilight’s castle over there!” She pointed to a castle he had somehow managed to not notice on his fly through town… even though it was fucking crystalique. “And then there’s  Princess Luna and Celestia’s castle up there on the mountain!” She finished with another gesture towards said mountain.

He looked her over once again, focusing on the eye that bounced around everywhere before shivering. Something about it just creeped him out, and he more or less made a zombie apocalypse. “Err, thanks.” With that he shot up and away from her and rocketed towards the farther castle, because it’d be better to get the ones farther away done with. Especially if there’s going to be two of them.

As the wind rushed across his form he thought about the Royal Twins. Luna, practical goddess of the night, traversed through dreams, raised the moon and lowered it, and was in charge of night court. Celestia, the opposite was the one who handled the sun, day court and managed to handle a country over a thousand years. If he was thinking this right and these memories weren’t just opinions, then that’d mean Celestia should be sleeping and recharging her magic.

So she’d be the first one to die naturally. Followed by Luna, then the Elements of Harmony because he had no idea where the hell one of them was and it’d be best to get them all together so they wouldn’t have a chance to hide. Smiling at the ease of this he continued flying, the air whistling in his ears as his wings flapped once every few seconds to keep his speed going.

Nearing the outcropping of the castle’s ground he slowed down and perched on the edge of a railing, staring at the many windows, a few of which were lit up this night, the shadows of ponies walking across them every so often. His eyes went to a little balcony set into one of the tower like parts of the castle, then to another that was more or less on the opposite side.

Safe bet that those were the Royal Chambers. Dropping off of the railing he sprinted across the castle grounds, head kept low as he heard the sound of metal clanking against metal in the distance. Nearing the wall he leapt upwards and used his wings to give himself even more of a boost and landed on the balcony, his front hooves transformed back into claws.

Silently stepping forward his claws traced the individual crack in the stone floor, as his magic creaked the door open slightly. Peeking through the hole he didn’t see anything, or to be more specific anybody. Edging the door open he took a step inside and looked around.

The walls were painted a light blue, a massive bed big enough for a dragon to sleep in took up the middle, which was covered in stuffed animals and pillows, a dresser took up another side of the room and then there was what looked like a stereo. Glancing up he saw a moon painted onto the ceiling, radiating a almost unnoticeable light. Well this was probably Luna’s room then.

Pulling the door shut behind him he flew over to the other balcony, and pushed on the door slightly and was surprised when he felt resistance. Quirking his lips he looked at the lock and rolled his eyes before sticking a single claw in and started fiddling with the locking mechanism. Five short seconds later he was rewarded with a satisfying click as he unlocked the door.

Edging it open he peeked into a room similar to Luna’s minus all the blue which was replaced with a goldish color, and the moon in the ceiling was replaced with a sun. That and the stereo was replaced with a stack of books that went to the ceiling. Ignoring that he turned his attention to the bed and to his dismay found it to be similarly unoccupied.

Where the fuck would they be? Growling he stepped into the room and strode towards the door, his form changing back into that of Mercer. Well if he had no idea where the Royal twins were then maybe their guard would. With a thought his eyes turned to that of thermal vision, where he could see any living being’s body outline in terms of heat and looked at the two ponies standing outside the doors.

Raising his claws up, he slammed them into the ground, and both of their heat signatures jumped up into the air as his spikes impaled every part of their body. It took a moment for him to start consuming the duo but as their memories flooded into his mind he snarled, cutting off his link to them and letting what was left of their bodies drop to the floor.

They all left! Luna somehow learned of his fucking presence and took them all down to Manehattan! “Damn it all to hell!” He yelled as he ran back to the balcony and jumped off of it, ignoring the screams of a guard he landed next to. A wave of biomass across his back and a jump off the castle grounds and he was flying back towards Manehattan.

There was more to them than meets the eye it seemed, for Luna already knew of his existence, albeit only barely referring to him as a demon when she told the guards why they were all leaving. Was she a mind reader? Wouldn’t put it past a being that could walk through dreams.

Well regardless of whether or not they knew he was here now, they still needed to be consumed. Only other person that could have ever helped him with his plan was now dead at the bottom of the sea, so he’d just have to finish it by himself and kill the perfect being.

> Black Box 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So Mercer.... what'cha gonna do now? You're outnumbered, outgunned and outmagicked."

"That's what you think grunt."

"Well let's count down what we have. Entire pony army? Check. Heller? Check-a-like-a-ding-dong. Pony god things. Yup. The best soldiers of the entire planet Earth aka American soldiers, imbued with superpowers? Checkerino. Elements of Harmony? Check that too."

"....How do you know what the Elements are? You can't communicate with them."

"Ya'see it's the voices. They tell us what we need to know to kill ya. They brought Jeremy back from the dead, they helped us contain the infestation you started."

"One problem... I didn't start this one."

"Regardless of whoever's fault it is for unleashing the virus, you still killed millions for your fucked up version of Earth... me and my buddies here are just going to pay you back ten-fold."

"Hah, I've killed Blackwatch before, this shouldn't be too hard."

"You ever killed ones with the power of gods?"
> .....Not That.... Impressive Really....
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Owww my head…” She muttered to herself as she woke up, head throbbing right above her left eye. Raising a hoof she poked it and hissed when the pain hit her like a freight train. Dropping her hoof back to the ground she noticed that her head wasn’t on her comfortable tempurrrrpedic pillow, nor was this her cloud-like bed. 

Inching her eyes open she didn’t see her room either, instead she saw a warehouse full of crates, lights hanging down from the ceiling high above her throwing a slight amount of light into the dark warehouse. Bolting upright, she grunted in pain as a before-unnoticed object around her neck made itself known. A collar, with a long iron chain attach to it the end of which was currently held in the hands of an alien who was sitting across from another one, both of whom were staring at her.

She jumped back at that, the alien giving her some leeway as her flank hit one of the many crates. Getting over her shock at that she growled and lowered her horn towards the duo, her signature azure colored magic lighting up along the length of it. The duo glanced at each other before one of them lowered its hand to its side and pulled out the same L shaped object from below. “Let. Me. Go. Now.” 

She heard it before she saw it, a massive thunderclap, deafening to her ears so much so that she flinched straight back into the crate. But not before the crate exploded into a million tiny splinters, all of them somehow missing her as they ricocheted off the floor and the armored thighs of the two aliens as they watched her. Her magic glow gone and her face pale she stared at the two of them as they started talking to each other in their alien language, the L shaped weapon now smoking from its end.

Shrinking back into the crate, her entire body shaking with fear at what they would do to her now she heard a muffled screaming coming from her left, down an isle of crates. Looking that way she saw another one of the aliens, clad in a yellow suit, a blank visor where its face was and a black tube running from its mouth all the way around to its back. As it neared them it slowed down and glanced at her before looking at the two sitting.

It jabbed a finger at the duo, to which the one holding her chain started laughing and slapping its knee. It pointed at the one holding the smoking L and then at her, all the while a rapid series of sounds coming from its hidden mouth. The yellow one looked at her and shook its head before making cupping its hands around an invisible throat and pretended to throttle the duo.

The one with the L stuck up its middle finger in response to which the yellow one waved its hand and walked away, back down the way it came. Raising her eyebrow at the exchange she went back to watching the duo, her breathing slowing down as the L was set back down on the spool they  were using as a table. Mr. Chain, aka the one who was holding her chain and she guessed it was a male judging by its deep voice, leaned forward his free hand waving wildly in the air as it spoke, his accomplice Mr.L nodding as Mr. Chain spoke.

This went on for a while, the only difference as time passed was who was waving their hands and who was talking. At first she was scared when they had been raining out of the sky, then almost piss herself scared when they broke into her house… but now? Mr. L reached over to smack Mr. Chains who promptly returned the smack, the two of them glaring at each other through their four blue eyes.

Now she wasn’t sure what to think, sure they made a wooden crate explode next to her face but… what alien species came to conquer a planet and just ended up smacking each other in the face? Mask? She was about to add skull to the list when she heard the odd scraping noise sounding in the distance. Her ears perked up at that noise and both of the aliens noticed it too, Mr. L deciding to pick up his L object and pointing it towards the origin of the noise.

It took a full ten seconds before she saw what was making the noise, it was the yellow one, dragging a metal chair behind it with one hand and walking confidently towards them. Mr. L lowered his weapon and put it back on the table, while the yellow one kept dragging his chair over.

Lowering her head onto her forehooves she watched the duo, soon made a triple as the yellow one finally arrived and set his seat up beside Mr. L. Soon all three of them were talking, Mr. Y’s words somehow less obstructed than the other two, who then grabbed something off of a belt she didn’t notice at first. Curious she raised her head slightly to see a deck of cards held in between two of its claw-fingers.

With a twist of its fingers the deck spread apart and it started shuffling with just one hand, its dexterity matching and surpassing that of many a magic users. Ignoring their conversation her eyes trailed after the deck of cards as it started flipping, throwing, shuffling and mixing the deck together as its head implied it was paying more attention to the other two than the deck.

The deck was split into a half and then into fourths, the top-most one being switched with the bottom one and then smashed back together. Its hand held the deck outwards and started bending the cards, sending them all flying into its other hand, before repeating the process again. After a minute of that it gently placed the deck in the middle of the table out of her view.

Grunting she laid her head back down and watched as the Mr. Y’s arms made movements like it was dealing cards. Their conversation resumed as they all held five cards in their hands, all of them holding it close to their chests. Mr. Chain threw his free hand, the one with the cards, up into the air and said something to which Mr. Y and Mr. L looked at each other and shrugged.

At their shrugging both of them pulled something from their belts and put it on the table, Mr. Y grabbing some square and Mr. L grabbing another one of his favorite letters! L! Curious now she stood up slightly to which Mr. Chain glanced at her and shook his head, quickly looking back at the other two and placed a long rectangle on the table. They were betting, she thought to herself with a smile as they started placing their cards down on the table.

WIth a cheer signalling his win Mr. Chain grabbed all the items off the table and put them down beside him, to which a familiar booing sound came from the other two.

They really weren’t all that… scary. If anything they seemed like a bunch of idiots, just judging by their interactions with each other. Gulping she stood up in one swift motion, drawing attention from all three of them, to which Mr. L reached for his L shaped object. Ignoring him she slowly walked over to the free spot at the table and sat on her haunches, her head just barely clearing the edge and letting her see the cards.

Mr. Chain laughed and pointed his finger at Mr. L, who she swore was frowning under that mask, who slowly put the object back on the table. Mr. Y just went back to shuffling his cards in his hands.

> Black Box 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD DRIVE FASTER!!!" *Massive roar, followed shortly by the sound of wheels screeching*

"Hey ho, let's go! Hey ho, let's go! Hey ho, let's go!" *Chorus of gunshots*

"Shut up damn it! It's already hard enough driving without you screaming and HIM singing, I mean how the fuck are we getting a radio signal!" *Sounds of magazines being slammed into guns, followed shortly by more gunshots*

"They're forming in a stra--" *Smack* "What the fuck is wrong with you! I love this song!" *More screeching wheels*

"SHOOT THE DAMN DRAGON THING BEHIND US!"

"I am, just while singing!"

"Don't one of you idiots have the sword artifact? Cut the damn thing in half!" *Sound of metal being unsheathed*

"Err that's a no-go, it's outta juice I think. No idea how the fuck this thing works."

"Who's got the fucking rocke- gimme that you idiot." *Grunt, followed shortly by explosion*

*Long roar, echoing back and forth as if in a canyon* "You just pissed it off ya dumbass."

"Shut up you Texan."

"Can we all just agree that we need to kill the damn giant demon thing chasing us throughout the city? And agree that nobody like Brett's singing?"

"Heyyyyy. D'OH SHIT!" *Massive smash*

"Drive faster man I don't wanna dieeee."
> Things to Come *Full edited version*
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

 “I’m just 
saying we shouldn’t have used Project Eclipse in the capital, regardless of whether or not we finally got Mercer,” muttered one of seven people inside the room. The sparse items of furniture consisted of a table, a swivel chair behind it, two seats in front of it, a wall of one-way glass making up a massive window and a row of filing cabinets lined against the far side of the room, one of the mentioned sitting on top of the middle cabinet, kicking his feet back and forth.

The two front seats were occupied by blackwatch soldiers, both of whom wore standard uniforms sans the masks. The seat behind the desk was occupied by their glowering commander, also forgoing his mask, and the last three were standing against the window. Everyone in the room had a uniform on, exceptions being: the commander, who was dressed in a much less elaborate version, just plain black with one red star on each of his shoulders, and the man sitting on the filing cabinet, wearing simple blue jeans and a white wifebeater, the only other colours in the room besides black, grey and red.

“Well, we sure as hell weren’t going to use Project Godzilla in the capital. We’d end up incinerating all the VIP’s in the area with the plan you had,” said the one sitting on top of the filing cabinets, one of his hands going up to graze the ceiling as he passed the time. “Project Eclipse was the best one we had that promised a complete wipe of Mercer.”

One of the soldiers turned around, gazing through the one-way window set up over the nerve center of their operation. They crossed their arms as they looked over the army of loyal soldiers, working on their computers, doing their best to direct their forces across the country. A distinctly female voice sounded through the mask, “I’m starting to think we should have activated Project Crusade.”

At her admission, all the heads in the room turned towards her, only one associate did not glare at her with varying degrees of disapproval. The man sitting on top of the filing cabinets instead, smiled at her idea.  The commander was the first to speak up. “No offense meant, but take as much offense as you want, you’re a fucking idiot to suggest activating Project Crusade. We’ve been fine without using it this far. Honestly, why the hell would we activate, Project Crusade? And you-” pointing at the one sitting on the filing cabinets “-keep your damn mouth shut.”

The one on the filing cabinets threw his hands up in mock surrender as he glanced over at the woman Blackwatch trooper, waiting for her to elaborate on her idea. “What I’m saying is, our intel points to Mercer trying to chase down Pariah, correct? We could have just dangled, Crusade in his face and he would’ve followed to the ends of the earth. Not to mention we don’t have any idea of how well Crusade would fare, our simulations just don’t do some of our projects justice.”

“Regardless, it’d be too risky to activate Project Crusade. Better to risk ripping the president apart molecule by molecule with the Eclipse, than have Mercer get access to our nuclear armaments,” said the man sitting in the right chair. Looking over his shoulder, a nice peach fuzz showing on his chin. “Sure we kind of lost our secrecy factor with every world government and we’re more or less traitors now, but it was worth it to wipe both Heller and Mercer off the face of the planet once and for all.”

The Blackwatch lady trooper turned around and jabbed a finger at him, “Exactly! If we had activated Project Crusade we could have lured the both of them away, and still maintained our sec--”

“Lure doesn’t translate to kill. All we would’ve done is give them a chance at weapons that are much more useful against us than they are against them, or do you not remember Mercer shrugging off our first attempt to cleanse Manhattan. Project Eclipse-”

“Project Eclipse was a fucking black hole. Give the politicians some credit, even they’d notice if all their scientists told them a fucking space anomaly was on the planet,” said the one on the filing cabinets, picking at his fingernails in disinterest. “What’s done is done, the real question is what are we going to do now? We’re wanted in practically every country that could do something about it?”

The one sitting in the left chair spoke next, taking a moment to brush at his blonde hair that grew long past regulation, madness leaking through his words, “Set loose the rest of the Projects on them. If they want to fuck with us, we have plenty country busters on call. Not to mention the weaponized Redlight we have hidden in spades. It’s not like if it ever grew out of hand we couldn’t just nuke it. It’s so much easier to burn than Blacklight was.”

All seven of them grew quiet as they contemplated that. They’d never had much of a plan besides end the virus and protect the US under any circumstances. But now, after wiping out a good portion of Washington D.C? What he just said could very well be a their best option, but before any of them could think any further, the man on the filing cabinet tipped his head back.

“We got incoming,” Was all the warning given before he disintegrated into black dust, completely disappearing from view. All the others in the room sprinted back to their positions, the two sitting down pulled their masks back on. Shoving the chairs back in place, they took up positions on either side of the door while the remaining three went behind the commander, standing behind his desk.

No sooner had they taken their positions, then doors slammed open, a dark-skinned scientist running through, her hair unkempt from days without sleep. The two by the doors brought up their guns as she slid to a stop in front of them. “What is your business here?”

She struggled for air as she frantically pointed to the nerve center, before saying it all in one quick breath. “Wehavepossiblereportsofsurvivorsfromgroundzero!”

The commander cocked his head as he inspected the woman. “You mean from Washington? The place where we quite literally wiped half of the White House off the face of earth? Now why would you think that?”

“We’re currently communicating with them right now, special task force Mercury, assigned to guard Project Eclipse! Their last known position had been right by the device as we set it off!” At that the commander bolted upright from his seat.

“Show me now.” The woman nodded quickly before sprinting out from the room, followed shortly by all of the room’s occupants even an almost imperceptible cloud of black dust floating close the ceiling. As they left the room and ran down the stairs, none of the men and women manning their stations glancing up from their computers, for they were already staring at one station in particular. The woman who’d just come to deliver the news, slid into her station and began a rapid-fire series of clicking.

She’d apparently finished entering what was needed as she immediately pulled out her headphones while the speakers hissed to life, a steady stream of static coming through. The room fell silent, waiting for some form of feedback. Eventually a voice came through, even set to max, it was barely audible. 

“Thi–” – shkt – ”Lieutenant Christopher “ – shkt – “–earence level” – shkt – “Eclipse was a fai–” – shkt – “–repeat Pro–” – shkt – “Eyes on Mer–” – shkt – “wrec–” – shkt – “Heller and Mercer” – shkt – “all out. Orders” – shkt – “–ir?”

The commander looked around at all of his subordinates before gesturing for the woman to move aside so he could take over. Nodding, she retreated back into the crowd as he took her seat, leaning forward into the console, he spoke, “You’re speaking to Hydra of Redcrown, identify yourself, soldier.”

“Com–” – shkt – “–ir? Too mu–” – shkt – “–ference.”

“I said identify yourself, soldier, squad name and ID number, I repeat ID, now!” He turned away from the computer and looked out to the crowd around him. “One of you imbeciles stop gawking and find a way to boost the signal! And somebody, get me this man’s records. We need to verify this is genuine.”

Five scientists ran out to boost the signal while the scientist closest to the console on his left jumped into the chair, his fingers a blur, a list of every Christopher in Blackwatch scrolled down his monitor. “Blackwatch spec–” – shkt – “–orce Guardi–” – shkt – “with defending Project Ecli–” – shkt – “Christ–” – shkt – “–3826. Repeat Bla–” – shkt – “task force Gu–” – shkt – “tasked wit–” – shkt – “Eclipse while it is p–” – shkt – “743826 over.”

The commander glanced to the technician beside him who was busy looking through the soldier’s record. “Do we have any troopers with those credentials?” The man held up a finger and kept typing for a full twenty more seconds, before staring intently at the screen.

“Lieutenant Christopher, survived four months in the Red Zone, hand picked to guard Project Eclipse. Prior military experience until recruitment into Blackwatch includes three tours in Afghanistan. His ID number is 743286 and his last known position was, quite literally, next to the Eclipse. I do believe this is legitimately the lieutenant.”

With a nod he turned back to the console. “Hold your position soldier, I repeat hold your position we are boosting the signal. Etc five mikes.”

“Ack–” – shkt – “, sir.”

He drummed his fingers on the table in front of him, his already waning patience running dangerously thin. The technicians that had run off earlier came back, all of them panting. 

“Well? Did you boost the signal?”

“As much as we could, sir.”

Nodding, he turned back to the console. “Are you still there, soldier?”

“Rog–” – shkt – “, sir. You’re coming in a lot” – shkt – “–tter.”

One of his ‘guards’ leaned in to whisper into his ear. “Was it just me, or did he mention something about Mercer?”

Catching the hint, the commander spoke again, “Soldier, did you say you had a confirmed Mercer sighting?”

“Yes sir, we had” – shkt – “–yes on him just a short while ago. Him and Heller were just going head-to-head, rip–” – shkt – “each other apart. We also have eyes on some… things.” The soldier said, a cautious tone evident in his voice.

The commander’s brow arched at that. “What do you mean things? Are there infected at your location?”

“Well, sir…” – shkt – “–netly not human. Not infected as far as any of us can tell either. In fact they lo–” – shkt – “like cartoon horses.”

“What?” The commander did a double-take at that and turned around to those gathered behind him. “You all just heard him right?”

“Something about cartoons horses… yeah we heard him.”

“We also ha–” – shkt – “–veral Blackwatch troopers, at least ten marines and even a secret service member still alive. We also h–” – shkt – “a Gentek member on the radio.”

“Hold one second,” muttered the commander as he clasped his hand over the microphone. “Somebody mind telling me why the fuck Project Eclipse didn’t work as intended?”

The same ‘guard’ whispered, “My guess is that nobody bothered to put a camera or radio through to the other end. We just tested it on infected, a couple of buildings, and a few people who went ‘missing’ during the first crisis.”

The commander’s palm met his face, with a resounding smack echoing throughout the chamber they were all housed in, many of the technicians grimacing at the sound. “We’re going to have a fucking serious talk, after we get this sorted out.”

Giving them all one last glare, the commander turned back to the console one last time. “As of now soldier, consider yourself in hostile territory. Do whatever you feel is necessary to keep yourselves alive and do your best to keep eyes on Mercer. If he doesn’t know you’re there then try and keep it a secret.”

“Yes s–” – shkt – ”Anything else?”

“You said something about cartoon horses? Are you all encountering alien life-forms?”

“Errr…” – shkt – “that’s a yes sir. What?… one second sir. Oh about time you three showed up here… is that a horse you’re carrying on your back? Oh for fucks sakes. Well sir we can dissect one if we want now because three of my men just showed up with one of them.”

The commander shook his head at that. “Well I guess we can throw secrecy out the window, hold your position regardless while the technicians over here figure out what the hell Project Eclipse actually did.”

“Roger that, sir, over and out.” The other end of the comlink clicked off and the commander stood up from the seat. He strode back up to his office, his ‘guards’ trailing close behind. The whole room watched them in silence, the only noises being the click of their heels against the tile floors, up until the part he reached his carpeted office.

In his seat sat the same man from earlier – the one that had been residing upon the filing cabinets – his feet propped up on the table. “Well it seems we have royally fucked up huh? Just managed to trap the two men capable of derailing our plans, in a world that we have no idea is even capable of.”

One of the ‘guards’ closed the doors behind the group as they took off their masks. The woman was the first to speak up. “I do have to agree with our… ‘friend’,” she stated sarcastically. “If Project Eclipse just managed to throw them into another dimension, then there’s no telling what the two of them could manage to do there.”

“Well we might be lucky enough that they can’t find their way back, right?” Asked the same man who had suggested fighting the entire world just a few minutes earlier.

Getting up from the seat, the man laughed while giving a mock bow to the commander. “You’re an imbecile if you think he can’t find his way back. Mercer’s the smartest being in existence, he did absorb the greatest minds Gentek and Blackwatch had to offer. If there’s a way back, he’ll find it.”

The commander held his hand up for silence. “How many subjects do we have for Project Crusade?”

The man looked down at the commander, his left brow raised in question. “Forty-seven if I remember correctly, why?”

“As of now, I’m authorizing all Projects to be brought up to full-speed, keep the Project Crusade subjects in semi-cryostasis. Don’t want them loose until we’ve exhausted all other options.”

The man snapped a salute before he dissolved into a black cloud again and disappeared under the doorframe, while everyone else stared at the commander. Peach fuzz was the first to speak up, “A–Are you seriously thinking of activating all of Project Crusade? One should be more than enough, hell we don’t even need to unfreeze any of them, he’s more than capable of doing it himself!”

He clasped his hands and sighed. “Mercer and Heller are gods among men, as of right now we have one being on our side that could match up to one of the them, not both. And you know as well as I do he can’t be trusted, or have you forgotten about the incident? Couple that with a completely alien territory, and we’re looking at a suicide mission that a kamikaze would turn down.

“For all we know, those two could be on a world where they’re among equals, a utopia with technology so advanced that our ultimate weapons are children’s play toys, a hell that even they would beg to escape, maybe all three. The important thing is, whether we like it or not, we’ve made contact. If we could get there, than they can get back here. Our job is to stop all viral threats to the US and this other world is just as much a threat as Mercer or Heller. I don’t want Heller here, I don’t want Mercer here, and unless we can use this new world to our advantage I don’t want a single hoof on this planet. The red line has moved and we will defend it, even if we have to take annihilate the whole planet to do so. All projects are to be activated, immediately.”

“Does that mean I can go through with the final phase of Project Terminator?” asked the one man who’d said nothing so far, his mask kept on the entire time.

The commander looked through the lashes of his eyes. “All projects are to be activated. Immediately. I’ll handle the bureaucrats and retrieve Project Eclipse. This is our only means attack, and no one will obstruct our hold of it. Dismissed.” He finished snapping a salute to them all, the whole of them leaving as soon as they pulled their masks on.
> Black Box 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Compound [REDACTED], 10/23/78

“How are you still alive?”

“Oh you know virus, luck, magic etc., come now you expect to kill me off with a nuke? Tsk tsk Commander of I remember you wanted to use the virus to make the ultimate being. Well here I am.”

“You survived a fucking nuke.”

“And? I don't see why everyone's worried about it and when the USSR and the US go to war. I mean if you expect to kill the commies with these things, well you need to up the ante.”

“I take it you're here to kill us then? If you expect me to beg th-“

“Relax, only reason I'd kill you right now is if you try that shit again. I've told you this once and I'll repeat myself, I have no desire to spread the virus. The saying is like father, like son. Not like mother, like son. I'm more than content to spend the rest of my days in my cell. But if you so much as think of trying to kill me again, I'll rip you apart limb from limb, get me?”

“And what guarantee do I have that you won't end up spreading the virus in ten to twenty.”

“All I can give you is my word. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going back to my cell.”

> Master Race
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Takes place at same time as chapter one







“So you hear the rumor about the barrier?” asked Chaplain. “Apparently, somepony broke it and jumped through.” Chaplain, the younger of the two brothers, was walking backwards through the fields before the capital. Physically, he was the everything a good guard should be. His barrel broad and legs strong. He wore his blonde mane in a military crewcut, his white coat pristine and armor positively shining. His cutie mark, a glimmering gilded goldenrod, displayed proudly on his haunches and his large, immaculate wings twitching in excitement.

Semper Para on the other hoof was a shadow. His legs longs and gangly, his body thin and wraith-like. His mane and coat so dark they absorbed the light around him. A trail a shadows seemed to follow him, as if he literally pulled the light out of the very air he walked through. His cutie mark, a red-lined pentagram, almost glowed in an unequisly light. His horn flashed an azure so dark it was easily mistaken for black as he twisted his brother around so he would be facing forward again. “The Great Beings themselves dedicated their lives to maintaining the barrier separating our worlds. The thought that somepony could – or even would – pierce the barrier and evade us long enough to do so is absolutely ludicrous,” muttered Semper Para. 

Continuing on, he adjusted the straps on his armor as they walked over a hill, the capital coming into view ahead of them. “Only a select few of us are capable of going through it and the only one stupid enough to do so would be Discord, though I doubt even he would disrespect the Queen like that,” his voice never going higher than a mumble.

Chaplain shrugged before trotting ahead of him again, resuming his position from earlier. “Well if you find it hard to believe that somepony could do it, you’re not going to like the rest.”

“Yet I have the distinct feeling you’re going to preach it to me anyways, so do go on,” muttered Semper, barely loud enough for Chaplain to hear. As they neared the massive gates leading into the city – majestic stone doors towering over them, a thousand hooves high – a gate guard noticing them as they came across the top of the hill. Said guard galloped towards them, Chaplain not noticing, or not caring to react, as he was too busy mischievously grinning at his brother.

Chaplain motioned for him to come closer. Semper sighed at his brother’s idiocy but indulged him. He leaned down to his level and let Chaplain whisper into his ear. His eyes, the same azure as his magic, widened in fear at what he said, “They say, it was humans.”

Chaplain immediately ducked under his brother’s wings as they flared to life from their previous non-existence, the bladed feathers slicing where his head were just a moment earlier. Chaplain was laughing up a riot while his brother gave him a death glare.

Chaplain nudged him in the ribs and got another wing swipe for his troubles. “Calm down, I just wanted to pull your strings a little.” Chaplain turned around and continued on, for the first time acknowledging the guard ahead of them, his olive-green armor clearly and proudly displaying his rank of militia captain.

“Whoever told you this rumor is going to learn not to spread propaganda garbage. Humans barely have enough magic to survive, no way could they break the barrier,” muttered Semper, looking down to the ground as they stood there waiting for the guard to reach them.

“Oh, did I say this was a rumor?” Semper’s eyes widened, “Why do you think we’re here? The Queen has requested the presence of every equestrian officer available. Something has broken through the barrier and she is not pleased,” he whispered, not looking back at the expression of horror on his brothers face. 

The captain came to a stop in front of them. The stallion bowed to each of them, his head touching the ground each time before he jumped back up. “Bishop Chaplain, Knight Semper. Welcome, the Queen’s expecting you two.” The guard turned back around and led them to the gates, his presence little more than a formality. The stallion only reached their torsos as he turned back and stared straight ahead, beginning his march.

“I hate it when they bow to us, the Queen’s blessing doesn’t make us better than them. They’re just a pair of wings and a horn,” Semper muttered darkly.

“Personally, I enjoy it. Gives us plenty perks wherever we go and I get the best grub,” remarked Chaplain, his mouth drooling from the meals he’d had for free because of his status. “Besides, who hasn’t dreamed to be an alicorn?”

Semper shook his head at his brother’s antics, before returning to their previous line of conversation. “So who’s spreading this rumor?” he said, his disbelief clear.

“If it is, I have no idea but from the way it’s spreading, it would have to be somepony in the High Council, right next to the Queen.”

Semper let out a groan. “I hope this isn’t going to end up like last time. I hated Tirek before the whole cultist debacle and I swear if this is anything like it, I’m going to personally beat whoever started it with their own legs.”

His brother giggled at that statement as they neared the gates and waited for it to open. “I’ll join you myself if it’s anything like Tirek.”

“You better,” muttered Semper, as the gates finally opened. They stepped through the one and only entrance to the capital, surrounded on all sides by walls, gleaming with a titanic amount of enchantments and embedded gems powering said enchantments. 

The duo took a deep breath as they looked over the capital. It’s crystal buildings throwing rainbows up and down the walls around them and all across the ground. Golden towers surrounding the perimeter of the city, massive ballistas standing at the ready at the top of each. “I do wish we came back home under better circumstances.”

“You and me both, Semper. Still, it’s good to be back. Besides, we should be celebrating! The younger alicorns are safe, Tirek’s gone for good, and the world is that much safer. We’ve been at this for more than a few millennia, I think we deserve the right to be arrogant once and a while.” Chaplain took a moment to look back at the empty fields behind them, taking the time to appreciate the beautiful horizon. And for just a second, he swore he could see black cracks in sky. He shook his head and looked back, the imagined fractures gone.

“What are you looking at little brother?” Semper asked, craning his head around to see what he was staring at.

Chaplain turned back with a chuckle and grin and continued on through the gates. “Nothing, I was just reminded of an old tale. Come on, if we keep her royal highness waiting, the sky won’t be the only thing falling.”
> Black Box 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Get you damn head's down, that's Mercer!" *Shuffling noises*

"You have got to be kidding me and who in the hell is that, that just body slammed Mercer?" 

"No fucking clue, I can't see that pony anymore. Wait hang on the rainbow colored one just flew off, Mercer seems like he's wanting to chase it."

"Which one?"

"The shorter blue one, the white one is still there... and it just punched him in the damn face. Fucking hell these things have more than a pair."

"Or it's on it's period." *Smack* "Will you fucking stop hitting me!?!"

"When you stop being a dipshit. Okay well as far as I can tell they're duking it out, can't see much from here."

"I told you that we should've gone onto a roo-- holy fuck you see that rainbow blur!"

"I'm not even sure I saw something, moving so fast it was there for a sec--" *Massive Thunderclap* "OH FUCKING CHRIST IT BROKE THE SOUND BARRIER WITH RAINBOWS!!"

"Quit screaming I already have to deal with the ringing in my ears!"

"Fuck that look! Mercer just got sent flying down the street!"

"Wait what?" 

"Look for yourself you damn idiot! That's him walking out of that ruined building!"

"Hot damn... do you think there's any way that little blue one... did that?"

"No way in hell a horse did that, that just defies logic."

"So does the fact that it broke the light spectrum along with the sound barrier. We're on a world full of fucking ponies, don't you dare try to apply logic to this situation."

"Then the blue horse is strong enough to break the sound barrier, karate-kicked Mercer in the face and is now next to the rest of the horses without breaking a sweat?"

"Oh that one's back with its herd? Then I guess so, yes. Mercer just got karate-kicked, by a horse, going faster than sound.... I soooo need some weed when we get back home."

"The fuck statement is that?"

"It means this shit is stressing me the fuck out! I mean what the holy fucking bloody 'ell is this! Weed helps me to relax dude! But in other seriousness we should probably move our asses, this fight's getting a bit too close for comfort and I don't think hiding behind a outhouse is gonna keep us from being skewered."
> Can't Kill the Dark Knight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

He could practically hear Mercer’s smile as he hovered in the air by some god-forsaken force, unable to do anything more than glare Mercer to death. Mercer monologued like a supervillain while his orange aura threw Heller against and through most of the buildings along their walk. Damn Mercer and this damn orange bullshit forcing me to listen to this damn torture. Bond makes this shit look easy. After being ragdolled and ping-ponged all the way down the street, Mercer stopped him in front of a pier of all things. Heller’s immediate thoughts on why were interrupted as Mercer continued his soliloquy. 

“While thinking of new ways to kill myself – and by association, you – I’ve always kept human necessities in mind. Such as their need for food, water, sleep, and the most glaring of them, the need to breathe. I’ve surpassed such trivial needs, but I’ve been wondering if you can say the same,” Mercer said, finishing his speech with a wave of his hand. Heller moved in front of Mercer, the two staring eye to eye, Mercer with his set smile and Heller with an expression of animalistic fury.

“I believe it’s time we find out, wouldn’t you agree, Heller?” finished Mercer, his smile turned menacing. Heller only just realizing what Mercer had in store, he only had enough time for his eyes to widen before a simple flick of Mercer’s finger sent him rocketing out too the sea, skipping along the waves before being shoved towards the bottom of the sea.

As he went deeper, Mercer’s grip around him lessened. By the time he slammed against the ocean floor, it was loose enough for him to finally separate his arms from his body. For the first time in a long time, Heller was cold. Growling, he dug his hands into the ocean-floor, the water pressure crushing him from all sides. I’m getting really fucking tired of getting pinned to the ground. He flipped himself around – stomach down – and tried to push against the weight of the sea. Just as he was making some progress the field to brightened and intensified, slamming him back against the sea floor.

His lungs felt like each one was under a Abram and was burning for sweet oxygen. Heller tried crawling forward, getting maybe two feet forward before the field pushed harder. Every desperate creep towards the pier, and the sweet air waiting above for him, was dealt with another shove against the ocean floor.

Panicking he turned his head every way he could until he saw something in the dark ocean, moving towards him. Whatever it was, it was alive and moving effortlessly through the water. Throwing his arm to the side, a tendril erupted through the forcefield and pierced the fish straight through and absorbed it, the strand of biomass crushing itself into his own.

Tendrils rushed up and down his body as his skin shifted. Three slits appeared on both sides of his throat. Taking a deep breath through his new gills, sweet oxygen flooding back into his lungs and brain. His mind cleared and his rage renewed, he glared at the orange field of magic surrounding him. As long as Mercer keeps this shit up, I’m stuck. So what now?

He thought back to Mercer’s words before being sent twenty thousand leagues under the sea. Most of his monologue was lost in transportation but he did catch the last part and even he could see the irony of his own plan. You want to come back from the dead, two can play that game, bitch. He tuned out the tingling feeling the aura had on his skin, and the immense pressure crushing him on all sides. James Heller relaxed.

To an outside viewer he was nothing but a lifeless corpse. Minutes afterwards the field disappeared. The water now freely rocked him back and forth on the ocean floor. Half-expecting Mercer to shove another field on top of him, he remained otherwise motionless. While floating around he took the time to reflect.

Mercer was different than before… he seemed more… coherent, more alive than before. Not to mention the damned teleportation every few seconds.

Minutes passed as he thought on his failure. He tried to think of ways to overcome Mercer’s new powers, but nothing came to him. He didn’t know what to do, but he knew he wouldn’t find his answers here. Either way it was time I stopped laying around and got back to kicking Mercer’s ass.

Opening his eyes, he let out a stream of bubbles and watched them float up to the surface, losing sight of them long before they actually made it. “Damn it.” 

He sighed, another stream of bubbles went floating upwards, crouching low. With as much strength as he could, he pushed off the ocean floor. James rocketed upwards, a torpedo in the water. He clenched his fists as the water rushed past him. He got far but not far enough. He was losing momentum and fast. He knew he what would happen if he stopped, so with a burst of speed, he dashed upwards, faster than before. But it still wasn’t enough. “One more,” another explosion and another dash, he could see the moonlight on the surface. “One more,”  so he dashed again and again. He could see the surface, “So close.” His fists tightened, “One! More!” He burst through the surface, high into the air.

Up in the air he  felt the water rushing off of him as he flew upwards, and he got a clear view of the horse city he had been in just a few minutes prior, albeit they were even smaller than earlier…. how far did Mercer throw him?

Growling he started paddling, his fingers growing webbing in between them. He would have just transformed into a fish, but over the couple of years since New York he’d ignored his powers more or less and the one time he had tried changing he’d ended up making some sort of abomination, and that had been with a whole minute of concentration. He could make a pair of fins yes, he could even grow a pair of wings out of his back, he hadn’t tried that yet, but that didn’t mean he could use them as well as the original specimen he consumed did. Blades and giant fists, shields and whips he could all make with little more than a thought but beyond that the virus wouldn’t let him do much at all unless he went in favor of a more direct route. 

So while he paddled he took the time to gaze up at the stars, a froth of water coming up behind him as he sped forward, puzzled at the sky. There wasn’t any type of constellations he recognized, but on second thought he shouldn’t be surprised, talking ponies was something that was a thing. So different sky? Sure!

Grumbling to himself he spent a good amount of time paddling, not sure of how long it took him because he didn’t have a watch on him, but all he knew is that the moon moved a decent amount above him.

By the time he had reached the shoreline the moon had moved a third of the way across the night sky. Mercer had one hell of a headstart then… time to catch up. The shoreline was nothing but a straight-up stone wall, with wooden piers going down at regular intervals. Swimming to the wall he jabbed one hand into the stone then another, and started climbing up.

“Fucking Mercer…” Was all he said as he hoisted himself back up onto dry land, shaking himself like a dog to get rid of the water. When that was done he looked down both streets to see if it looked familiar at all, which they didn’t of course. Nothing but warehouses and apartments(?) down both streets, nothing unique about any of them.

Grumbling he dashed over to the side of one the warehouses and leaped up on top of them, his feet sending a resounding boom through the metal roof, followed shortly by his thundering strides, before leaping off of that warehouse and onto the roofs of the apartments. With the wind ripping at his face he looked towards the city to see if he could find where they’d been just a little bit earlier.

He could go chasing after Mercer, with all his devilish powers that he had apparently taken from the ponies. But if he was going to kill Mercer he had to figure out exactly what Mercer was able to do and Mercer gave him a hint earlier. Mimicking his voice he said sarcastically to himself, as he leaped over a building and smashed into the roof. “Consume one of them and you’ll find out.”

So all he had to do was consume one of them and then chase down Mercer wherever the hell he ran off to. Watching the streets below, his legs easily carrying him from roof to roof, a jump across the street and then more roofs, he noticed that there wasn’t anybody out on the streets. Although with a glance to the moon he thought about it being the dead of night, the horse…. ponies… whatevers would be asleep. Or they could have a curfew in effect, if they were smart enough to build a miniature skyscraper, they should be smart enough to not go in the streets with him and Mercer running around.

Nearing the edge of another roof he slowed down then paused at the edge, his breath misting in the cold night air. Placing his foot right on the edge he looked at the city, taking it all in, before spying the one building that he had been, or at least one that looked like it. Nodding he dashed off the edge of his building and sprinted down the streets, the only sound this night being his feet cracking the earth.

With a bend of his knees and a sudden explosion he launched back up onto the roofs, ignoring the streets in favor of a more direct route. 

Before he knew it he was on the last roof until he got down to the street, where he found a few of the natives that had yet to disappear into their houses. Though there was something different about these ones compared to the ones he had seen earlier, and it wasn’t just the fact they were wearing armor or some were zipping body bags closed. He once again placed his foot on the edge and watched them, arms crossed over on his knees.

No it was the aura they seemed to have around them, their confidence and the way they grimaced and shook their heads at the carnage, but yet still doing their job without much sound. The way they held themselves and directed the police-uniformed ones around, the way they were setting up a perimeter. Then take into account a few of them looked like somebody had fun with a few bats and were dressed in full-on armor with only a few spots on their legs open, he could tell that these ones were more like the local military outpost.

Other than the two dozen or so army-like horses it was an assortment of police up and down the street, ranging maybe in the fifties with a rag-tag few medical and fireme-errr firehorses all moving bodies around and helping those that were still there. The street itself had splotches of blood up and down where a few unlucky souls had been caught in the fight between the two titans.

Across the street was the building where he had been in earlier, still with his hole in it, where they had started moving the bodies too. There were a few medical ponies gathering them in a single cart, but him and Mercer had left behind a lot more bodies than one cart could handle. Especially accounting for the fact it’d been maybe ten minutes, fifteen tops.

The final thing about the army horses were those gems and jewels a few of them had in their armor, that seemed to glow with some otherworldly force. Standing up he crossed his arms and thought for a moment on the matter. He could go down and kill these unknown military horses first and eliminate them before they knew he was here, he could simply ignore them and grab a few dead bodies which would be enough information, or consume them instead.

He shook his head before hopping off the roof and landed on the sidewalk, a decent amount of dust erupting from under his feet. They probably wouldn’t matter much to him either way, he could just consume the bodies and get on with it.

The crowd all looked as one to him when he landed, his cloud of dust obscuring his form. He stepped out of the cloud and started to run to the row of bodies on the other side, and before any of them could react he gently tossed aside the medical horses. Pointing his arm at one of the body bags he simply shifted his arm into his signature oversized, combat knife shaped blade and jabbed into it, the familiar scene of blood erupting from a body and his tentacles swarming out in a hurry to consume it, meeting his eyes, albeit this time the tentacles jumped out from the body to the ones surrounding it and started consuming those ones too.

By the time his tendrils had reached the corpses lined up on either side the natives had started to react, via screaming like little girls for those that weren’t law enforcement and screaming like men for those that were law enforcement.When his tendrils reached the fourth corpses on either side another sound besides just a few panicked screams, no instead there was the sound of blades being unsheathed, wings flapping and something that sounded like electricity. When his tendrils finally reached the end of the row he could hear them yelling something along with the sound of snorting.

He turned back to the street, his tendrils rushing back in now that their job was done to see those that hadn’t turned and ran were the ones wearing the flashy armor. As the last of the biomass swarmed into his body one of them started speaking. “Stand down whatever you are or we’ll be forced to use lethal force.”

Well at least he got the language down right now, though the information was so much more important. For example what Mercer was doing was teleportation, something that a few unicorns could do with practice and competence and the reason he was able to it so effortlessly is because those that didn’t practice were in trouble of missing a few organs when they finished teleporting, Mercer didn’t have to worry about organs. Another was that there were apparently god-like beings in charge of this country then the final piece of information but definitely not least was the closest thing these ponies had to a war was a skirmish about a year ago, to which they failed completely against insects.

That was not good news if a bunch of insects almost conquered the most-defended city in the country, because that meant there was no way they’d even slow down Mercer or him. All they would manage to do is give them both powerups, and Mercer sure as hell didn’t need anymore strength. 

But back to the matter at hand, with the military ponies surrounding him on all sides, various weapons out and at the ready to try and stop him. Twenty-five in total, five unicorns, seven earth ponies, thirteen pegasi. Huh that must mean that the rest of them are somewhere else, there was supposed to be a more or less equal amount of the three different species in each outpost. The earth ponies all seemed to wear their version of knuckle-dusters with spikes on their feet, a sword was strapped to their sides and their armor seemed a bit bulkier than the others. The unicorns had spears either slung across their backs somehow, or had them floating in front of them at the ready. A few of the pegasi had blades attached to their wings, others had swords somehow held in their hoofs and the four thestrals had claw-blade things on the end of their hoofs.

They did their best to be menacing, but instead ended up looking way too fucking cuddly for his tastes. Heller rolled his eyes and glanced down both directions of the street to see if he could figure out where Mercer went. “Hey d-don’t ignore me!” Stuttered the same voice as before, fear and anger leaking out of every syllable.

He glanced at the one who spoke, a unicorn that looked exactly like his compatriots except he was a little bit shorter and his white coat somehow seemed shinier than the rest. He growled at the pony, letting his biomass roll up and down his arms in waves as emphasis. “Believe me when I say you don’t want my attention focused on you. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to skullfuck Mercer.”

“You aren’t going anywhere bub.” And now the fucking pony is Wolverine or some shit. Oh forget it he had more important things to do. Turning away from them he jumped up and let out a burst of biomass to send himself crashing into the building, before sprinting up, he’d get a better view of where Mercer might have gone. But as he reached the fifteenth floor not even two seconds later, the wall of the building turned blue and his feet lost all traction on the wall. Before he could punch into the wall to regain his footing and stop himself from falling a familiar sense of weightlessness surrounded him, a lot like when Mercer held him aloft in the air, but this time instead of holding him up it threw him down.

Hard.

Instead of falling on his back he twisted in the air and slammed down on his feet, arms stretched out to catch the ground, all the ponies wisely backing away from where he landed, the five horns still glowing. Heller snarled as he stepped out from his half-inch deep crater, his arms shifting into massive dense blobs of biomass that sent out waves of spikes whenever he slammed them into the ground, a weapon he was proud to call Hammerfists. “You can either fuck off right now, or you’re going to go on my shit-list right under Mercer, I understand you want to protect your families and shit, but I have to avenge mine. So either fuck off or die.” With that his Hammerfists disappeared as he turned around to walk away.

He stopped as a wall of magic appeared right in front of him. “I said you’re not going anywhere. Bub.” 

Heller looked at the wall and poked it, feeling as solid as a wall to him. Scratching at it with his nail briefly, he turned around to the one who’s horn was glowing. He calmly said to the pony with a fake smile, “You have exactly three fucking seconds to take that wall down. Or, I’ma rip you a new hole.”

The ponies responded by gathering together and prowling around him, the thestrals flashing their pointed teeth at him. He flexed his fingers and spread his legs apart, shoulder-width and held his left arm out in front of him. “One.”

Four earth-ponies moved to his right along with one pegasus, and a thestral discreetly moved overhead, the night sky obscuring its darkened form. His hand flattened out into a sharp blade and dozens of spine like blades sprouted out of his arm, as it separated into flexible plates, forming his Whipfist. “Two.”

“Three!” Screamed the guard as his horn exploded in a brilliant flash of light, completely blinding Heller, right before something slammed into his head with enough force to have snapped his neck if he had one.He stumbled back momentarily before screaming with one arm in front of his eyes and the other swinging wildly about, the familiar sound of metal against pavement resounding throughout the street.

But he didn’t hear the sound of flesh being rent apart, or even metal against metal. Pinching the bridge of his nose he dropped to a knee and summoned a pillar of biomass on his free arm, a massive amount hardened enough to take a direct hit from a tank with barely a scratch, to give his self a moment to recover. It only covered his right side though, and even with him being blind he could hear the distinct sound of hooves of pavement running up to him from his left, the side that was completely open.

With a silent smile adorning his face he let go of his nose and in a blur his arm was pointing in the direction of the sound, a tendril shooting out intending to run the pony through. The feeling of cold metal bending under his psuedo-arm met him before the sound of metal crunching did, though he took a moment to wonder why he didn’t feel the warm rush of blood on his arm. That question was cut off as a distinct crackling sound, the energy in the air making his non-existent hair stand on end. He had a moment to wonder as to what it was before a blade slammed into his tendril, and lightning raced up and down his body. If it weren’t for the fact he was already down on his knees, he would have fallen to the ground twitching.

Not from the pain, no he’d felt worse before. It was from the fact he lost control over his entire body, the familiar feeling of changing his form now feeling completely foreign as his tendril completely spasmed and changed. In the span of a second its size jumped from a small half inch in diameter to something that felt like it was two feet, completely flailing around and little tendrils sprouting up and down it in irregular intervals.

A satisfying crack sounded along with a scream of pain as the individual who had stabbed him, with whatever it was, was hit several times by the flailing appendage. In the throes of his tendril’s spasm the offending object that had been electrifying his body fell off and his body stopped spazzing. Shaking his self he pulled the tendril back in and stood up, finally opening his eyes.

One earth pony laid a few dozen feet from him, its chest armor completely bent inwards, enough that it had killed him, blood leaking out of his mouth. Halfway between him and the pony lying crumpled on the ground was a thestral, whose arm looked snapped along with the fact something seemed to be protruding out from its side, more than likely one of its ribs. But the more important fact was on the ground next to it was that hoof-blade, lightning jumping back and forth between the two blades, that were bent out of fuck from his spasm.

Then there were the ponies that had just witnessed him kill one of their friends right in front of them. Well two since the thestral stopped squirming, wasn’t his fault it just tried tazing him with a hoof-blade, though they all did seem to blame him judging by their pissed off faces and practical growls. They were proving to be annoyingly persistent and were quite clear on the fact they didn’t want him leaving.

He didn’t have time for this, he had to kill Mercer. But as long as those unicorns were still around they’d drag him back, make him lose his footing again or blind him. So just kill those ones and he’d be good to go.

He turned his attention to the five unicorns, noticing the same exact one as before, the one who blinded him, horn was lighting up again. He immediately covered his eyes, just to see no hint of a bright flash. Oh so it was going to wait for him to uncover his eyes so it could blind him again…. he couldn’t use his sight, so maybe it was time to resort to something a bit more…. explosive.

His biomass shifted into into his arms, growing in size again to his hammerfists, the spikes on the back of his fists becoming more prominent. Letting his arms drop to the ground his shoulders sagging as all of his biomass migrated into his arms and he glared downwards, before letting out a mighty roar and smashing his fists into the ground beneath him.

The ground cracked in half, forming a straight line towards the unicorn responsible for blinding him and before he had time to react the ground beneath him exploded in an eruption of spikes ripping his body apart into a hundred bloody pieces, along with a few of his fellow soldiers who were too close to him. Heller took a moment to summon an array of tentacles to gather the bloody pieces and consume the pony, that blinding move would be a neat trick to get Mercer off his guard.

All in all it took him a measly ten seconds which allowed the others sufficient time to back up and for all of the pegasi to leap up into the air to avoid what had just happened to their ground-based friends. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a galloping earth pony, wielding a spear on it’s back coming towards him. He rolled his eyes before yanking his arms out of the ground and turning to the pony, his arms shifting into a more muscular version, red veins glowing through the skin, that ended in three stubby fingers and pulled his arm back to shoot tendrils at the offending pony.

The pony skidded to a stop and lifted itself onto its hind legs, sliding the spear off it’s back and letting it drop into his hoofs and held it towards him like a gun. He paused slightly to wonder what the hell it was doing then thought better of it and continued through with his tendril shot, an array of tendrils aiming right at its head. It barely managed to duck underneath and flicked an unseen switch on the spear. The tip glowed red-hot before spewing out a raging inferno at him, to which he jumped up and out of the way from, but not before feeling the scorching heat beneath him.

Okay so not only did their armor withstand a tendril shot, well it didn’t get pierced but bent completely inwards, they also have weapons which screwed with his ability to shapeshift and flamethrowers that look like regular weapons. Reaching the apex of his height he took a second to look at all the others wielding weapons and realized that half of them, all had the same thing as that tazing hoof-claw did. He couldn’t risk getting hit by one of those things again, one made him lose control of his body and the area directly affected by it spasmed in every way imaginable. If he got hit by two or more…. not something to think about.

Letting out a small amount of biomass to hasten his trip to the ground he pulled all his biomass back into his chest and landed on the ground. Just finish this with a big devastator, tanks and super soldiers couldn’t handle it, so why should a bunch of ponies?

He tucked his arms into his chest and willed his biomass to start moving, which it did as evident with the tendrils that roared across his body. Feeling he had it going fast enough he slammed his foot into the ground, making yet another crater in the street and jutted his arms out to his sides, an explosion of tendrils and small scab-like pieces of biomass all slamming into his surroundings, be it pony, building, ground or just the sky, nothing was spared. Even with his eyes closed he could feel the warm flesh being rent apart, hear the momentary screams before they were silenced and the familiar sounds of homes breaking apart.

When the tendrils stopped  slamming into objects, minus the ones heading skyward, he reeled them all back in and Heller took a moment to compose himself to survey the damage. The lucky ones were riddled with holes all across their body while the more unlucky ones were pierced by the tendrils and ripped apart as they started expanding. Well they were dead now, that was all that mattered. He moved to leave when he tripped over the hoof-blade from earlier, and stopped to pick it up.

Flipping it end over end he inspected it and found a switch on the inside. He wondered as to how the thestral turned it on before shrugging and turned it on, the blade lighting back up to life. Well half-life anyways since the blades themselves were completely bent with one seeming to have snapped at a ninety degree angle and the other only bent slightly, with the lightning jumping up and down the two blades up until the point where the blades bent away from each other.

He idly tossed it back and forth to himself as he turned around in a small circle, trying to see if he could see where Mercer went, but found no trace of him. Other than their previous fight. He dropped the hoof-blade on the ground and sprinted towards the building, smashing his foot into the cement and in a singular motion started running up the side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMX71itBnAk
Five seconds into his run he hopped up and landed on the roof, immediately turning around and looking at the city below, his vantage point giving him a good view over the short buildings. He quietly growled to himself, “Shouldn’t be so hard to fucking see where you went Mercer.” 

His tongue prodded at his cheek as his eyes scanned the city before landing on what were obviously cracks in the street and were far enough away from their fight to safely say that it wasn’t from that. Then his eyes wandered over several streets to a building with a yellow sun standing proud on its front walls, alongside a blue moon. That was the soldier’s station, along with their weapons locker. And more of those Tazerhoof-blades, flamethrower spear things and other assorted magical item things.

Might very well be worth a stop before heading after Mercer, he’d need every advantage he could get. Running back from the edge, he slammed his heel into the roof and turned around, ripping through the roof as he skidded, then blurred off the roof in the direction of the soldier’s station. With a few bursts of biomass from his body he was gliding through the air down to the station, spying a few pegasi in the skies, though they all seemed to have their attention focused on the streets below.

What were they looking for? He glanced down as he sped towards the station, his altitude starting to fall rapidly. So empty street. Empty street. Was that a cabbage cart? Another street…….. was that a tank? Yup that was a tank, that was colored blue on top…. and seemed bigger than a few buildings… it was so blue he could see it clearly in the fucking blue moonlight.

Ignoring that bit he glided the remaining distance to the station and crashed into the ground in front of it, making some filly scream in the building behind him. He took no time to start marching up to the building, the bright green bushes decorating the sides of the station and the two symbols of the Alicorn sisters, being so colorful it made him sick. With half-lidded eyes he walked up the stairs of the two-story building and kicked the wooden door open, the left door exploding off of its hinges from the sheer force.

In all three directions were open doorframes, with rooms behind them of course, the left one holding what looked like the bathrooms, straight ahead was an office like setting with dozens of desks and chairs all currently vacant, it actually reminded him of  police station, and to the right was what seemed to be a kitchen. Well the weapons locker wouldn’t have been in either of those rooms so he’d go through the office one. “Hey what was that!?” Yelled a voice shortly followed by a pony galloping through the doorframe.

Before it could say anything or do anything he flicked his wrist to the side, a glow of red magic enveloping his hand and the pony, who was respectively enveloped in a same colored aura and flew out of view and crashed into something. Heller stopped to avoid the frame before standing in the desked area and seeing more doorframes, along with a second floor blocked off only by the fact it had a railing, then there were also a few more ponies that were coming out of one of the said doorways. One of them had a spear too, and it was hard to imagine that they’d carry those around in a building, so past that doorframe was more than likely the weapons locker.

Well that meant he didn’t have to rip them all in half. He brought his hands up in front of himself and let his recently acquired magic flow through his arms, the feeling of magic like fire was coursing through his veins but at the same time filling him with life, and threw all the ponies aside in one massive push. They all piled up against the wall along with five desks and their weapons, twitching in a pile and bruised but otherwise unhurt. 

Ducking underneath that doorframe he looked around again and found more doorframes, but this time he could see the weapons locker, evidenced by the fact he could see a few spears lined up against their stands. Dashing over to it he gave all the locked lockers and containers a glance before ripping them open one by one, the sound of wrenching metal filling the silence in the building.

With each locker he ripped open he started to grow a grin, looking at all the various weapons and actually recognizing a few of them thanks to the memories he just absorbed. These would do nicely for getting the upper hand on Mercer, so he reached in and started grabbing various weapons, but turned his attention to the door as he heard the silent click clack of hoofs behind him. 

He slowed his grabbing, slinging a spear holder over his shoulder then shoving the spear home into it as he looked at the little intruder. A bright orange, almost pumpkin color, with green mane teenage mare stood in the doorway watching him. She shook slightly, like she had a cold… caused by fear, but stared at him without any other hint of fear and instead had a hint of awe in her eyes. “W-w-what are you?”

Well the teenager seemed more interested in figuring out what he was, so he probably wouldn’t have to worry about her pulling out something to try and kill him. He turned back to the cabinet and pulled out five small cylinders and let his biomass form a belt so he could put them somewhere reliable. “A freak of nature.”

“A-are you that thing that’s been killing ponies?” 

Pulling out a scimitar and inspecting it for any type of switch he responded with a half-truth, “Mercer’s the one who’s been killing your kind when we first got here. I’m busy trying to kill him.” 

He gave up on the scimitar before noticing the rack of Tazehoof-blades and grabbed two of them, growing two spikes on his back as a means of holding them. “Is Mercer a bad stallion?”

“He’s killed millions for sport, he kills them so he can become stronger, he kills to kill. I’ve managed to kill him once, this time it’s just a matter of me finding the fucker.” He walked around the small room once seeing if he missed anything that could be of importance to him.

“So you’re a good guy?” She asked hopefully.

He ignored her question until he was done sweeping the room, grabbing a shield that had anti-magic properties in it according to his memories, as he made to leave. She remained still in front of him, until he bent down on one knee and looked her in the eye. “He killed my wife, he killed my friends, he killed a friend who was like a father to me and he jokes about it. All you need to know is that I will bring him down no matter what gets in my way.”

With that he gestured with his free hand and gently made her float aside before walking to the front door. He snapped his fingers as he though of something that he should probably get the young mare to do. “Oh one last thing before I go little one.”

“What?”

He stood facing away from her and calmly said, “You have beings that can move the sun and moon right? Tell whoever is in charge here to hide them and anybody powerful like that. Me nor Mercer can ever be allowed to find them.”

He started to walk away until the mare asked, “Why would they need to hide?”

Looking over his shoulder he gave a sad smile and held his free hand up, it transforming into four razor sharp talons, sparks erupting as he brushed them against each other and let it change back into his regular hand. “Whoever we kill, we can become, we gain their memories, powers, skill, their face. You name it and we get it when we kill them. I don’t need Mercer to steal the powers of a god, he’s already enough of a pain in the ass as is.” And with that he walked out, his stolen merchandise shining bright under the moonlight.
> Black Box 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Klaxon alarm*

"Warning Project Terminator has been activated, all personnel evacuate the launch pad."

*Klaxon*

"Disengaging mech locks."

*Series of clicks*

"Running final checks. Ammo full. Fuel tanks full. AI operational. Visual systems operational. Servos manure able. Systems are a go, Project Terminator will be launched in T minus ten."
> Good news
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------