> Warframe:Gun And Blade (Under Rewrite) > by DracoBrony > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The Fallen And The Rage Fueled Avenger > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Planet: Jupiter: Location: Zanuka Labs "Ah Excalibur, Zanuka and I have been expecting you" The twisted voice of Alad V resonated around the medium sized room. His damn monstrosity of a pet Zanuka standing beside him. Just seeing the result of the torturous experiments on my loved one made my blood boil. "Have you come for that wretch of a tenno you call Valkyr? If so I must say your a bit late." he taunted, the fake pity in his voice fueling my anger even more. "Yes, she made the most wonderful scream when she finally gave out and died." At that I finally snapped, I placed my hands on the dark red and black colored hilt of my beloved Galatine. Placing it at my side, I let out a primal roar as I rushed him. My frame's circuits surging with void energy I used the sword's ridiculous weight and brought it down on on his head, effortlessly splitting him in half down the middle showering the ground in blood, then using the momentum to my advantage I swung the gigantic sword across Zanuka's body, cutting the monstrosity in half length wise, the oil and piston fluid spraying in every direction. I spent the next hour and a half talking out my anger on the nearby environment, by the time I was done the entire walkways were collapsed into the abyss and support beams were nearly cut in half. I collapsed in the dead center of the room, my galatine laying on the ground beside me my arms by my side "FUUUUUUUUUUCK!" my scream echoed throughout the room. My heart was broken and my love was dead. My sobs finally subsided and I picked up my claymore, putting it on my back and got ready to leave so I could report Valkyr's death to the others. Upon reaching the extraction site, I was meet with the site of something from my nightmares. On the wall just above the exit to outside platform was Valkyr's body. Her throat was slit and her body had several energy burns likely from a Lecta and practically as an insult to her honor, her Sunika Kubrow was strung up beside her but in four pieces... Other than her kubrow's corpse being with her, she also had her weapons still on her body, her Dual Ether swords were impaled into her chest in a V formation, her Sancti Tigris on her back and her Synoid Gammacor on her wrist. I dropped to my knees as I took in the sight, my mind went blank with rage and sadness. At that moment I noticed that Ordis was contacting me as was the Lotus or Natah which was her birth name. I had hated her ever since I had found out that she was a sentient, as had many of the other tenno. It was weird as since that day about a year ago, she had only contacted me once and that was to inform me of Valkyr's capture by the Corpus 2 months ago. I knew she still had the power to see through my suit's external cameras. With a heavy sigh I let her speak first. "Excalibur have you lo..ca.. oh my god. Why would they do this to her?" Lotus spoke, choosing her words very carefully as not to upset me anymore then I already was. It was strange for a moment I thought she was actually being sincere, but then quickly dismissed that as impossible. "Don't pretend like you care, you sentient piece of crap!" I screened at the top of my lungs, some of the nearby glass flexing from the sound generated. My rage was starting to boil over at this point and I didn't want to deal with her at the moment. I cut her transmission and started to get Valkyr's body down, along with what was left of her kubrow. Carrying her body bridal style, I went to my extraction point were Ordis was waiting. Boarding the Linset, I set the coordinates for the tenno base in the asteroid belt, stupidly nicknamed The Rock. After setting the coordinates I went into the lower portion of the ship and went to the room in the back which was my room and cried myself to sleep. After setting down in the hanger, I steeled myself for the inevitable shit storm that was about to occur. My Sunika Kubrow, Thunder came with me, taking her kubrow's body which had been his mate for about 20 years. Draping his mate's body on his back he began to walk beside me. Taking Valkyr's body and weapons, carrying her bridal style to the command center. I had set my frame's speakers to play a song, one that I thought was appropriate for the occasion. She had always said she wanted this played at her funeral and so I have honored her request I ignored the gasps of horror that arose from the tenno in the hallway and kept right on walking. Everyone gave us a wide berth, allowing us to move unhindered. When I reached the Tenno burial site I was greeted by the Nekrotic, elite Nekros warframes that looked over the fallen heroes. The grand master of the Tenno, a old fucker by the name of Teshin was there visiting his fallen wife and upon noticing me and my... cargo shook his head in sadness. Pretty much everyone knew of my relationship with Val, as I liked to call her, so when teshin shook his head he sent for master of the ritual of release, a sacred ritual that involved most of the tenno who knew her to say something about her and to the her body a gift. He also sent for the kubrow ritual master for a similar ritual just replacing the tenno with kubrows. Later that day the rest of the tenno in the sol system were informed of her passing and were all mourning her death. Her funeral began and it wasn't a very extravagant ceremony or anything but she never wanted it to be. there were 2 tenno in front of us and 2 tenno behind us all carrying the same flag. The flag was a royal blue with blood red edges and had a silver colored symbol in the center, this was the seal of honoring. The march went from my linset to the burial grounds. Her body looked at peace, her hands were on top of each other and positioned on her stomach, the anti-gravity casket was laid with flowers from earth The body of her kubrow was behind her in the same sort of casket. When we got to the burial grounds we were finally able to put her body to rest. Almost everyone brought a gift for the fallen tenno. Rhino gave her a equilibrium mod in hopes that her spirit could utilize it. Ember gave 100 platinum in hopes that her spirit could trade it for whatever she may need in the afterlife. Loki's gift was very surprising, he gave her a set of prime edition Spira throwing knives with the words ut saecula lumen, et luna tua deducet, which meant may moon light forever guide your spirit in Latin, engraved on one side. In fact he gave me a set as well with the same inscription as the other one but on the holding pouch for the throwing daggers, the words ut vestra vera esse intentio, et gladium acutum Tenno, which meant may your aim be true and your blade sharp tenno again in Latin. Other gifts were given but the one I gave shocked everyone, I had given her two dragon nikanas to be her weapons in the after life, I had also made two for myself a few weeks back. But there was one more gift one that Limbo gave to Valkyr, using his power over the void he returned her tor her original appearance from before the torture. After everyone had said their piece it was time for me to do so as well. I stepped up to the podium and cleared my throat. "We are all here to mourn the death of a comrade and dear friend Valkyr, who was killed by Alad V in his twisted experiments as you all know." my voice projecting with an almost unnatural aura of power and authority. "While I personally cut him and that monstrous pet of his Zanuka in half, I feel that is a very small action in easing her spirit. She is my wife previously in life and now..... now in death." my throat burned and my heart was heavy, I couldn't talk for much longer without breaking down yet I kept on with the speech. "I...I.. no we must avenge her. I will not rest until the entire Zanuka research facility is in shambles and nothing else is alive in that accursed place!" my voice began to crack, I was starting to become light headed and weak in the knees. "Now! Who wants to kick some corpus ass?" I asked and just as the war cries of all the tenno present resonated through the room my mind went blank and everything went black. I woke up in the station's medical bay the following day. After the doctor explained what happened and I was released, I went back to my linset and started up the engines. As I neared the exit to the I was stopped by the voice of my lifelong friend and adopted sister Nyx. "Excalibur come back here and talk to me!" She yelled after me before growling in anger as I ignored her and continued to walk towards my ship. "Excalibur come back here right now damn it! That is it! If you don't want to listen to reason then I'm going to have to make you!" She gave ear splitting screech before rocketing forwards in an insane burst of speed while her melee weapon, the Dakra Prime, was pulled from sub-atomic storage and materialized in her right hand. When she was only a few feet away she started the final combo of the Rising Steel fighting style, the Blade Wipe. Nyx Slashed down diagonally then using the momentum of her first swing the closed the distance between us in one jump before bringing her sword down in another downward slash, she then finished the combo by immediately switching the direction of her blade slashing at me in an upwards slash that had large amounts of momentum behind the Ivory white and gold blade. I had barely registered the attack when she yelled and was only just able to materialize a weapon of my own, my Prisma Skana a jet black sword with dark blue highlights, made of pure Prisma crystals and filled with the energy of the void. I parried Nyx's blade but only just and I was staggered Nyx saw this opportunity to strike and took it she started to channel the void energy in her warframe into her Dakra which gained a black colored aura around it, Nyx then started to randomize her stance making it near impossible for me to get a bead on her blade. She let this go on for a few seconds before she feinted left and then attacked with a stab, I felt the blade hit my shields before it shattered with a sound akin to a bullet hitting glass. I grabbed the blade and pushed her backwards, she was about to charge again when I held up my hand to stop her. "Come on now that was a cheap trick Nexus" Nyx visibly flinched as I called her by her full name. "Now if you really want to fight that bad how about we put some music to it shall we?" Not waiting for her answer I materialized a music player from storage and placed it over on the side before setting the song to an old favorite of mine. "Now listen to the song that describes me at this point in time and cower in fear... in fear of THE SOUND OF MADNESS!" As I spoke I heard my voice start to become warped and distorted, it was because of the void energy in my warframe starting to absorb the negative emotions that flowed from me, this wasn't the first time this had happened and it wouldn't be the last. I then felt my warframe start to fill with void energy before I raised my head to the sky and unleashed a sound of pure anguish, sorrow and of rage. The entire hallway we were in started to shake from the vibration of the sound but before I could stop my body started to move on its own, my inner subconscious and my feelings were the ones in control now not me, I had fallen into a deep rage that was hard to rise out of. My body then lunged at Nyx with a cry of pain and anger... Something was wrong, brother's stance had shifted and he was letting loose a wail of pain and anger, the very walls began to shake from the vibrations of his cry alone and then he fell silent. What is going on? I've never brother like this before... something is very wrong here. I thought to myself before being taken by surprise by brother's blade impaling me in the stomach, somehow completely ignoring my shields and taking my health to near zero. Before he could do anything else however brother was sent flying by a punch from a tall, brown robed frame. The frame then proceeded to apply enough healing gel to stop the bleeding for now. I then realized who my savior was, Atlas the immovable titan of stone. "Excalibur! Control yourself! I know you are in pain but you must get a grip on your mind! Do not let your rage over Valkyr's death control you. If you cannot do that then you are only dishonoring her memory!" His extremely deep and rough voice resonated throughout the hallway, not even a gasp could be heard from any of the tenno and the other frames that had gathered to watch the altercation because they were at a loss for words. Atlas had spoken! When Atlas first joined the ranks of the tenno he quickly became known by the name the Titan Of Stone but that was only part of it, his other name was The Silent Titan. Atlas had never spoken to anyone not even to Master Teshin. Before Atlas could say anything else however. Brother started to get up crimson energy still radiating off of him, he then let out another wail but this one was different than the others, this one had echoes of pain and sadness. He then collapsed where he stood the crimson energy dispersing... I woke with a start once again I found myself in the medical bay however this time it wasn't just me and the doctor there, Nyx, my best friend who I call Change as could never decide on a warframe (he was currently in an Ash warfame), and surprisingly Atlas were there. "Ugg My head is throbbing. What happened?" I asked in a groggy and pain filled voice. What came next shocked me not so much as to what was said but who said it. "Void Rage Excalibur, you went into a deep rage over Valkyr's death shortly after you began your duel with Nyx thankfully I stopped you before you could do anymore damage." Atlas explained, the deep voice of the titan was so surprising I nearly jumped out of the bed I was in. "Atlas! You spoke?!" I questioned in disbelief as he had never spoken to anyone so most tenno just assumed he was mute. "Yes my friend I spoke though it is not the first time I first did so only hours ago when I attempted to breakthrough your rage." He stated. Before he or I could say anything else the base doctor Trinity walked in and informed me that I was fit to return to duty. Before anyone one could say anything else I lept out of bed and darted to my linset leaving without a word. Over the next 2 weeks I led vicious raids on the corpus, taking out key leaders and the like. I was now returning from destroying the entire Zanuka research facility. I was almost out of the atmosphere when I noticed a grenier formarian battle cruiser coming into the planet's orbit and heading straight for me. Quickly I tried to engage my cloak as the linset wasn't equipped with any weapons at all. But before I could, the ship took a direct hit to the void stabilizer, which kept the void energy from distorting or causing a rift into the void. Fearing the worst would happen I attempted to start the self-destruct program. It would take twenty seconds to overload the ship's engines, making them explode and that was time that I unfortunately didn't have. Just before I was about to start it however the entire ship started to shake violently, some of the wall panels that were welded together were torn from the wall. I was thrown against the glass as the whole ship lurched forward all of a sudden and then I felt as though my body was being stretched and thinned out. After a few minutes the feeling subsided and I fell against the floor. But it seems that lady luck seems to want to fuck with me today and so before I could gather myself, I heard a siren warning resounding throughout the small craft. I looked at the instrument panel, only to find out that both of my out of atmosphere engines had exploded. Panicking I threw the atmospheric thrusters in reverse to slow myself down. But I was still coming down too fast, I stared as the mach cone that had formed around the ship set fire almost like a meteor and to top it all of the music player was glitching out and playing a song that was an almost impossible level off ironic. It was not only one of my all time favorites, but I also felt it described my life up to that point. Seeing a small lake near what appeared to be a castle of some sort in the middle of a forest, I aimed for it hoping to soften the landing. We were coming in fast but I had managed to slow it down enough so it wouldn't just explode on impact with the water. I almost blacked out just from the impact on the water but managed to stay conscious... barely. I knew that the linset automatically sealed any hole with an air tight seal so the it wouldn't fill up with water. After making Ordis and more importantly Thunder were ok, I decided to look around the area for that castle so I could try and get any form of help from the locals. Luckily it wasn't very far away only about 100 feet away, I also found that even if the seal had failed to close up the hole that I still wouldn't have to worry about water getting in as the landing had evaporated it all. While I was inspecting everything and making sure my gear was in working order, I noticed that there were 6 pings on my minimap and that they were moving my way. Quickly I activated the linsets cloaking device and waited... and waited... until I finally said fuck it and went out to investigate. As I was waiting in a nearby tree, I started to hear voices talking about random things and then I saw something that shocked me to the core. Ponies? Yes that is right, 6 ponies, one purple with varying hues of purple in her mane, one orange with a blond mane, one sky blue with a rainbow mane, one pure pink, one yellow with a pink mane, and one alabaster with a blue mane that just seemed to scream to the fucking sky diva for some reason. Dumbfounded by this I also noticed something else about them the purple one and the diva had horns, while the yellow colored one and the one with the rainbow mane both had wings. I had heard of unicorns and Pegasi in old texts, but they weren't real. Where the hell am I? After they were done talking they had finally gotten to a sort of river in the middle of which was.. a sea serpent? Any ways he was throwing a tantrum over his cut mustache, after he had splashed the entire group of ponies with water the diva cut her tail off (with his own scale) and gave it to the serpent as a replacement. Having been given such a gift of generosity he helped them across. After this happened I decided to leave to avoid being seen. I then felt an odd feeling... I was... cold. It was weird seeing how this area was quite warm, I tried to shake the feeling but I still couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was gonna happen. "I've got a bad feeling about this." I whispered aloud as I kept trying to shake the feeling but still couldn't. Deciding to investigate, I went from the tree top to tree top as I advanced on the castle. Entering the castle I felt the temperature drop a few degrees and the sinister presence felt much stronger. I knew I was close to the source, but when I rounded the bend and went into what appeared to be the throne room, I was dumbfounded yet again as there sitting on the throne was a much larger pony then the ones I saw earlier, but two other things really stood out to me one was that her mane looked like a clear night sky, that was blowing in a practically nonexistent wind and two she had both a horn and wings. She hadn't seen me yet so I still had the element of surprise, so I waited to see what would happen... > Spectral Lasers Of Friendship? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After some time I got bored so I thought I'd strike the next chance I got, which as it turns out wasn't long as just as I thought that the strange horned and winged pony looked away as if she was lost in thought and I say she since she sighed right after that in a higher pitch then any male I know. Anyways I drew my dual nikanas from their place on my back and decided to make this a bit more fun. "Hey Ordis turn on the suits inside music player would you?" I asked the A.I. as I got into position. His reply however... "Please specify song from the four hundred thousand available" I nearly fell over laughing even though this wasn't the first time he had ever said this since I have asked him to do this before. "Alright then how about... track 40103?" He didn't respond for a few seconds then with a beep he informed me that the track was selected I told him to put on repeat and cut him off soon the music was playing in my ears and I couldn't have been happier. Track 40103 Ah nothing like the classics! Taking my nikanas I jumped out from behind the corner and let out a thundering war cry before I charged at her. Her mind barely registered that I was there until I had already given her several cuts across her chest, I landed on the other side of her as she roared in pain. "WHO DARES ATTACK THE MIGHTY NIGHTMARE MOON!" She screamed at me in a blind rage until she saw what she was facing. "Hmmmm well you are certainly a strong one why do you appose one who could give you anything?" She questioned as I rolled my eyes at her for trying this stupid overused tactic that never works. She walked up close to me before whispering in my ear "You know I might even let you have the honor of being my mate if you only join me." She smirked like she had me... only to be completely stunned when I gave her a hearty push sending her backwards about twenty feet. She was even more surprised when I shot forward garbed her by the throat and held her up of the ground. "Listen here you stuck up pony bitch, I protect the innocent and slay the corrupt. I would die in the most painful of ways before I ever join someone like you!" With a roar I sent her flying and chasing into the wall beside us with enough force to make an indent in the stone of her form. But it was my time to be caught off guard as her horn began to glow and she teleported behind me, before I even had time to react I felt a searing pain in my chest. Looking down I saw a pulsing blade of energy, similar to my own exalted blade, sticking out of my chest. Before everything went dark I thought I heard the ponies from before enter the castle... As I regained consciousness and opened my eyes I noticed I was in the shadows off to the side but other than that I saw that the six ponies from before were... floating? Yes they were floating in mid air as some kind of jewelry giving off a nearly blinding glow as my energy sensors were going off the fucking charts. The lavender one was spouting something about something called the Elements Of Harmony, which I assumed were the jewelry. My sensors when absolute ape shit after a few seconds when the lavender one's eyes started to glow pure white, for some reason I felt like I should know their names and that I had seen this before but I couldn't remember were from. Anyway the six ponies then began to... shoot a rainbow energy beam at the pony I was fighting before. Nightmare moon, if I remember correctly she called herself that, just sort of stood there screaming. When the rainbow beam hit her there was a big flash of light, that thankfully my helmet filtered out. When the other ponies seemed to be recovering I decided to make myself known and stepped out of the shadows. The lavender one was the first to spot me and told the others to get back which they did but before I could say anything I started to read another presence entering the room. Whipping out one of the two Vastos I had cloaked on my hip and pointed it at the window. When I saw it was another alicorn I tensed but only for a second as the other ponies, particularly the lavender one, seemed extremely relieved to see her. Putting the Vasto back on my hip and taking another look around I saw yet another alicorn this one in the place Nightmare moon was but with shards of the former's armor catered around the latter. The white alicorn when over to the new one and helped her up before talking to her like a loved one or family member long lost, something that I hadn't had the pleasure of for some time now. My thoughts were interrupted when the white alicorn spoke, her voice had a motherly quality to it that put even at ease. "Excuse me but I think I should introduce myself, I am Princess Celestia leader of Equestria and just who or what are you creature? How did you get here?" She asked calmly though her body language said that she was quite scared. "I am what is known as a Tenno madam, protector of the innocent and guardian to the solar system I call home." I stated giving the quick and well lets call it the "clean" version. "As for why I am here well I don't actually know myself last thing I can remember before coming here was having my ship's void stabilizer rupturing and sending me into well I guess this reality. Speaking of my ship let me get it real quick." I said with anticipation as I couldn't wait to see their faces. I turned on my communicator and signed Ordis to land in the area outside the old decrepit castle. I motioned for them to follow me as I made my way outside, I sited my red and black ship racing towards us over the tree line. When it landed I heard gasps of shock and surprise from the ponies behind me, telling Ordis to open up the ramp so that I could show them around I turned around and told them to follow me inside. I had only just turned back around to head inside when I was tackled to the ground by a gold colored blur. "Hehehe Yeah its me Thunder and I brought some friends with me for you to play with too." I chuckled as I slowly stood up and patted his head, Thunder made a mad dash inside, his tail waging like hell all the way. Looking back at the ponies I saw pretty much the faces I expected namely confusion, fear and curiosity. "What? Oh him he's my pet Kubrow, see their genetically modified animals with DNA from all sorts of creatures from my solar system the most prevalent of which were dog DNA for loyalty, tiger DNA for aggression and a bit of cat DNA for night vision." I stated like it was one of the most normal things in the world which, for me anyways, it was. "Anyways come on in and I'll show you around. Oh one more thing. Don't. Touch. Anything. Got it?" Making our way up the ramp we came to a small chamber with a DNA locked door leading to the rest of the ship. I entered the code for the door which registered me put started to beep when the scanner sensed the others in the room. Putting in the override code I stepped back and watched as the door slid up to reveal a small hallway like space in the middle of which was a small medical area in case of any medical emergency. Going past the station and coming to a door I pressed another code in to which the door then opened revealing. a small ramp up to the main area of the ship. Going up the ramp I stopped remembering that I didn't know any of their names nor did they know my own. "I'm sorry were are my manners you don't even know my name, I am Excalibur. Now if you don't mind may I have the pleasure of knowing the names of the seven lovely mares I have the honor of having in my home, excluding you of course Princess Celestia." I inquired as the white diva spoke about what a gentleman I was or something, I may be a trained killer but that doesn't mean I didn't know how to act chivalrous in front of a lady. "My name is Twilight Sparkle and its a pleasure to meat you Excalibur" The lavender one spoke with a slight curtsy. "I'm Rainbow Dash fastest flyer in all of Equestria!" The rainbow mane one half shouted with foolish pride and arrogance in her voice. The ivory white unicorn was the one who spoke next. "I am Rarity and I must say you have quite charming manners." She said with one of those "high society" kind of voices. The pink one practically jumped in my face next. "HiyaI'mPinkiePiedoyoulikepartiescuaseIlikepartieshaveyoueverbeentoapartybeforemister?" The pink one shouted at such speed that made an auction speaker feel slow. The orange one went next. "Howdy ma names Applejack! Nice ta meet ya!." She said in an accent that for some reason made me think of apples for whatever reason. The light yellow one was next speaking in voice that made even a fly sound loud. "Umm I'm Fluttershy." Luckily my hearing had been enhanced quite a bit over the years so I heard her just fine. The last mare, the other alicorn, however had decided not to speak so Celestia decided to speak for her. "This is my long lost sister, Princess Luna." She stated which then made a lot of sense since she had a moon tattoo on her ass and Celestia had a sun one on hers. But when I listed all of their names again in my head something clicked and I remembered why I felt deja vu earlier. Many years ago me and... Valkyr were looking in some of the old archives because it had been quite the slow week, when she talked me into watching this old animated show from many many years ago that she had gotten in to, it was called and I quote, 'My Little Pony Friendship is magic' (Yeah go figure that the crazed killing machine was into the 'magic of friendship') which when it was completed had a staggering twenty seasons of which I really only watch six because well alerts started to pick up after that week and I just kinda forgot about it after that. I then knew why this all seemed familiar to me, all of this was what happens in the season one two parter. Only thing that could make this anymore awkward would be if he was here and found out that I actually watched the show jeez he'd never let me live it down. Anyways after that mind fuck of a revaluation I shook my head to clear my thoughts and headed up to the cockpit and walked over to the codex interface and started to make a new entry for this planet. "Hey ladies what do you call your planet? I'm keeping a record of what I know of this place." I asked the mares that I now knew as some of my most loved characters, Celestia was the one to respond. "We call our planet Equis, its been that way for as long as I can remember though to who first called the planet such I am not sure." Tia, as I'm going to call her from now on, explained. Anyways I was about to say something in return but then Ordis spoke up. "Operator! You should have informed me you were bringing BZZZT filthy creatures aboard so that I could BZZZT clean up the place." He spoke once again going into one of his, as he called it, fragmented relapses. It had something to do with the mind he was based on being rather... violent. Before any of my guests could missunderstand what was going on I spoke up. "That is Ordis my ships Artificial Intelagence sorry about what he said see the mind he was bassed on was rather violent and rude so he slips back into that state of mind every now and again. Anyways how about I fly you girls back to town what do you say?" I questiond, trying to be chivalrous. Tia then stepped forward and cleared her throat before speaking. "We would be honnored Excalibur now shall we be off?" She accepted, not wanting to trek back through the Everfree with her power so drained from using the escape into sun spell only a few hours ago. Then with that we set off towards the town I spotted on my way through the planet's atmosphere... > Songs Of Kindness And More > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As we started the journey to town I noticed the shy yellow one was kinda standing awkwardly like she wanted to say something, if I remember correctly her name was Fluttershy. "Yes Fluttershy? Did you want to say something?" I asked startling the poor mare half to death. She hesitated for a second before speaking. "Well... I was wondering what you do in your spare time when your not protecting others... if you don't mind me asking that is..." She finally asked, it was a good question as while I didn't have a ton of free time on my hands I had some. "Well Flutters, is it ok if I call you that?" I asked, when she nodded I continued. "Well Flutters, generally I either spend my spare time with my adopted sister Nyx or with Thunder but if I'm at earth and I don't have anything better to do I like to sit and listen to the sounds of nature or if they let me I play with some of the wild kubrow that live all over the planet. Though if I can't do any of those things I generally meditate or train with other Tenno." "Oh that's um very nice." She said as she started to give Thunder who had taken to the shy mare rather quickly a belly rub. It was weird she reminded me so much of Nyx, when she wasn't mad that is. Nyx was a rather shy girl, which was one of the reason I was so protective of her in the first place. She never really had someone to look up to when she was younger though I guess she had Tenshi and I guess to a lesser extent me as I was one of the first Tenno released from cryo sleep as well as being one of the first Tenno created. I suddenly had an idea that might help the mare get over her anxiety. I signaled to Ordis to start taking us in a circle so that I would have enough time to do this. I also had him load up a very quaint song one that was an old favorite of Nyx and one of my favorites as well. "Hey Flutters you wanna hear a song from my home?" I asked her hoping she would say yes which she did. I then had Ordis boot up an old song from the my little pony fandom funny enough. Track:20130 Category:MLP After the song started playing Fluttershy surprised all of us by actually swaying to the beat with a giant smile on her face. She further surprised us by actually singing along with it like she knew it word for word. By the time the song was over she was even asking she could listen to it again. I was more than happy to allow her to take home a small mp3 player with ear buds and a solar charger for it. However I was far from done with the songs, next was Rarity. Once again having Ordis load up another song I asked her if she wanted to hear more music to to which she agreed. Track:20131 Category:MLP Once the song started Rarity started to sway and sing along with it just like Fluttershy. Once again when the song was over she wanted the song to take home like Fluttershy, which I did giving her the same things I gave Flutters. Moving on to Rainbow Dash it was very much the same thing. Track:20132 Category:MLP By the end Rainbow was bobbing her head to the beat like the others. Giving her the same things as the others I moved on to Pinkie. Track:20133 Category:MLP Once again giving Pinkie what I gave the others I moved on to Applejack. I had a rather special song for her something different then the others. Hey author! This is getting kind of monotonous isn't it? GA! PINKIE WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL IN THE MIDDLE OF AN IMPORTANT PART! Sorry I couldn't resist! BYE! Track:20134 Category:MLP Her eyes started to tear up during the first fifty seconds or so and by halfway through the song she was fully crying. The others had started to comfort her asking her whats wrong she just looked up staring at me intently. "How? How did you know they were gone?" Was all she asked before she went back to crying. I crouched down beside her and started to gently hug her telling her that it didn't matter just that she was able to get it out of her system. I asked her if she wanted to have a mp3 player like the others already getting it out of storage and before the others could object she snatched it out of my hand faster then the others could see. "Thank you." Was all she said and that was the end of it. Deciding to move on I next stopped at Twilight. While I wasn't sure if she would totally like the song or not, it was the first thing I thought of for some reason. Track:42195 Category:Lord Of The Rings She had started to sway to the beat about halfway through but it was clear she was enjoying it. Giving her the same things as the others I finally came to Celestia and Luna, I decided to start with Luna. Track:321396 Category:MLP Luna just kinda stood there not really commenting on the song only moving her hoof so she could take the mp3 player. After giving Luna l the mp3 player I finally came to Celestia. "We need to talk in private do you understand?" I whispered to her, she nodded and I went ahead on with the song. Track:20296 Category:MLP After the song had finished and I had given Celestia her music player and solar charger I told Ordis to take us to the town... POV: 3rd person It had taken only five more minutes for them to get to Ponyville but when they landed it was completely deserted which kinda freaked the others out. The group had just gotten out of the Liset and Excalibur was about to say something before he was thrown on his ass by the magic of a certain mint colored unicorn. "GET BACK! DON'T YOU HARM THEM!" Lyra shouted at the top of her lungs, she had focused all of her magic into keeping the creature down for as long as possible so that the others could get away quickly. "Hurry get over here now!" "Lyra! What are you doing!" Rainbow exclaimed. "He helped us!" Excalibur had quickly gotten to his feet and was watching the situation with curiosity. It was strange to him, to see someone or in this case somepony who had only met him about half an hour ago defend him so quickly, it was truly mind boggling to him. The others had also been rather quick to defend him as well yelling at this newly named "Lyra". It was getting rather tiresome however and while he would normally not do this with in the first hour of meeting a new alien race, he decided fuck it why not. Without the others noticing he materialized a ginormous revolver, about the size of his forearm in total length, from storage, he had found the plans for it hidden in an old data bank on earth it was an extremely powerful sidearm, even though it only had a clip size of five its stopping power far out weighed that rather small inconvenience in his opinion. Raising the gun into the air Excalibur squeezed off one round into the air and all was silent. "Thank you for your attention." He said while dematerializing the revolver back into storage. "Now then, if you all would be so kind as to listen and not be so judgmental. First things first I want to congratulate the young mare that knocked me on my ass, that is quite an achievement considering how experienced I am. Now if Lyra would be so kind as to apologize then we can get on with our day." Excalibur finished waiting for the others to respond. "Um sorry mister I thought you were going to hurt them sorry." Lyra spoke, suddenly gaining a very large interest in the ground beneath her. Excalibur chuckled lightly at this before walking over to the unicorn and crouching down on one knee before lifting her head to be level with him. "Hey now don't beat yourself up about it I'm fine see? Now you did a good job you acted quickly and very efficiently there you have to have quite the good reflexes to catch me off guard, have you had self-defense training before?" He asked her, his curiosity getting the better of him. She nodded saying that her father had pressured her to take some self defense classes when she was younger. Now that everything was more or less back to normal they could all finally rest from their journey though what would happen in the coming days could not be anticipated, the heroes would need their strength in the near future. > A Legend Is Called Forth, The Sword Cracks And A Warning > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It had been about a week since Excalibur had crash landed in Equestria and in that time he had mostly kept to himself and had spent most of his time tending to his ship which he had moved to an old part of the apple farm that Applejack had provided him. He only really went into town when Twilight, who had now moved to Ponyville officially and was acting as the local librarian, wanted to ask him some questions about his life as a Tenno and such. Today, however, he had wanted to go for a nice stroll through the town to clear his head. He noted how barren the town was today, on the rare occasion he did leave his ship and went into town it had always been a bustling with life. Something was different today. Thinking back to his knowledge of the episodes of season one he thought of episode six "Boast Busters" thinking that was probably the answer he decided to go to the town square to check up on everyone. He had gotten there shortly after the show was done and the towns ponies had started to disperse. Upon seeing the traveling carriage that belonged to Trixie and seeing that his suspicions were correct, he decided to go to Twilight and see how she was doing. After meeting Spike at the door and going inside Excalibur found Twilight in her room studying as usual. She was completely oblivious to his presence in the room not even noticing him until he had placed his hand firmly on her shoulder at which point she jumped ten feet in the air and shot a stun spell out of reflex. The spell slammed into Excalibur's chest forcing him back a few feet. "Jeeze Excalibur! You scared the living daylights out of me!" Twilight screamed before quickly realizing she had just launched a rather powerful spell at him at which point she ran over to Excalibur and checked him over to see if he was ok or not. Excalibur looked at his HUD and was surprised to see that Twilight had actually taken off about two hundred and fifty shields off of him though he had almost one thousand it was still quite impressive. That mare Lyra had only managed to take off one hundred. Must have some pretty fucking potent magic in her. Though it makes sense considering she is the Element Of Magic I suppose. He thought. "Damn Twilight you actually managed to put a dent in my shields, good job! Quite the feat I assure you." Excalibur assured her as he got back up. He looked over at his HUD to make sure that his shields were recharging at their normal rate, which they were, then looked back to Twilight. It was painfully obvious (to Excalibur anyways) that something was gnawing at her, apparently enough that she was quite unfocused as she hadn't noticed him entering the room. "It's obvious you need to get something off your chest so why don't you come out and say it?" he asked trying to get her to open up and tell him what he already knew. Twilight hesitated before she sighed and answered him. "It's that new show pony that's in town Trixie. She just humiliated my friends on stage and I don't want to try and take her on cause I think everypony are gonna think I'm like her and that I think that I am better than everypony else" Twilight answered him again confirming what he already knew but something was nagging him he had forgotten something about the episode but he didn't have the faintest clue as to what he had forgotten, thinking that if it was important he wouldn't have forgotten it he quickly shook his head before responding to the lavender mare. "Look Twilight just because you have the courage and power to defend your friends does not mean that you think your better than everyone else, it simply means that you are defending what you think is right there is a big difference between the two you know" He said it in a way that gave Twilight the impression that he had dealt with something like this before. Deciding it was best to just wait for this whole thing to blow over, Excalibur leapt out of Twilight's window and hit the ground running so he could get on back to his Liset. When he had gotten back to his home he had decided it was about time for him to take a well-deserved nap and so he went over to his meditation room and kneeled down clearing his mind of all distractions and thoughts. He stayed in this meditative state for several hours so much so that it was starting to get dark out, he would have stayed like that if not for the fact that he felt a sudden urge to check on something, something that he hadn't thought about in a very long time. He made his way into the deepest parts of the craft before finding himself at the transference chamber, he stepped into the spacious room seeing his real body sitting there in the somatic link. "Hehe forgot how good looking I am" He joked to himself before walking over to a hidden armory he had set up in the rightmost wall. Though he had a few of these hidden around the ship this one in particular was special it had more shielding than Rhino did and it was equipped with two backup generators and laser defense system, so even if his entire ship was destroyed as unlikely as that may be, this one piece would remain with enough power to keep the laser grid up for almost ten years, these weapons were very special and very old thus he took no chances with their safety. Popping the fake cover off of it, he was met with the sight of various weapons ranging from spears and swords to a few hammers and axes his focus, however, was primarily turned towards something wrapped in a long white cloth in the dead center of the armory. He carefully, as if holding a newborn, retrieved the cloth and what lay inside of it, he checked it over to make sure it hadn't been tampered with. He was about to unwrap it when he heard Ordis call for him. "Operator? Miss Sparkle is here and she seems rather distressed about something. Oh, and my sensors detected a large ~BZZT!~ GLORIOUS MONSTER FOR US TO SLAY! ~BZZT!~ unidentified energy signature not too long ago" The AI stated once again slipping back into that old personality of his. "Large energy signature? Well; that can't be good" He mused in his mind before putting the cloth and its contents back in their original place and putting the cover back into place. He walked over to the entrance opening it up and seeing Twilight hyperventilating on the other side. "Woah woah, Twilight what's the problem?" Excalibur asked genuinely concerned for the young lavender mare's well being. "SPIKE! URSA! TOWN DANGER!" She screamed before promptly passing out from exhaustion. Excalibur caught her before she hit the ground and looked her over to make sure she was ok, satisfied that she was alright he placed her in one of the makeshift hammocks he had placed in the meditation room. The hammock was normally for hostages that he would sometimes come across in his missions from time to time so it was comfy enough. Quickly dashing out the door he immediately materialized his deadly Sentient energy infused War and deciding to forgo a secondary and just go heavy he summoned his bullet hell weapon the Surpa. Now Excalibur was never much for spray and pray weapons but when said spray and pray weapon has a one thousand and eighty round total magazine? Then, then he was okay with it. Rushing onto the scene Excalibur found himself facing off what appeared to be a twenty-five foot tall or so bear that looked like it was made of the night sky. Quickly raising his Surpa Excalibur let the gun wind up before unleashing a venerable hell fire of energy bolts at the bear, each one of nearly two hundred bolts that he sent towards it slamming into the beast staggering it and drawing its attention away from the civilian ponies and onto the new challenger. The Ursa roared at Excalibur before charging headlong at him with a great amount of speed for something of its size. The Ursa slammed into Excalibur throwing him back and through a nearby building, quickly getting back up Excalibur looked at his HUD and was rather surprised that the Ursa had managed to take around three hundred of his shields. "Damn thing hits like a freight train" He thought to himself getting up before feeling a sharp pain in his lower back. "Shit I'm gonna feel that in the morning". Quickly dodging out of the way of the Ursa's second charge Excalibur let loose another flurry of energy rounds staggering the beast again, taking the opportunity to get in close he quickly leaped forward with his slash dash ability and slammed into the side of the Ursa, his two-handed War materializing in his hands he channeled the raw, unbridled energy of the void into the sword and swiftly slashed downwards and the bear's mid-section. The bear roared out in pain collapsing to the ground calling out for something but for what Excalibur wasn't sure. Before Excalibur could react he was slammed to the ground by a yellow blur that knocked the wind out of him. Looking up he was met with the eyes of someone he didn't expect... Fluttershy. "HOW DARE YOU! How dare you hurt this poor Ursa Minor! He was just cranky because somepony woke him up! Do you have any idea what you've done! Do you? He is calling his mother here now! He is calling for an Ursa Major and its mother will destroy this city to get its child back!" She screamed with a volume that Excalibur didn't believe she had, he lay there on the ground shell-shocked at this. Unsure of how to respond he just sat there confused staring at the yellow equine. Before he could respond, however... ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAR! A primordial roar sounded out throughout the town causing the very foundation of buildings to shake, glass to shatter and causing mass panic among the town. Excalibur quickly leaped up getting Fluttershy off him as a titanic ethereal bear came tromping through the Everfree forest towering over the tr breaking some with its paws while others its body simply fazed around. The thing was massive Excalibur estimated it to be around eighty feet or so though he fairly sure he was off on that. "I'm gonna need a bigger gun" Excalibur thought to himself. The giant bear looked around the area and saw Excalibur next to her child, she roared again before charging at him. Excalibur attempted to use his sword to block but the Ursa Major's paw just passed through it before it sent him flying backwards some thirty or forty feet. "Damn its ethereal, this isn't good if its ethereal then the only thing I have that can even touch it is" Excalibur thought to himself quickly. "Shit. Girls hold her off I need to go grab something!" He yelled to the mane six before sprinting towards his Liset. At top speed it took him mere seconds to get there when he did Excalibur quickly sped his way inside and into the Transference Chamber. Excalibur practically ripped the cover off of the hidden armory and grabbed the cloth and its contents before he just as quickly raced back to the Ursa. Upon his return Excalibur saw the Mane Six, including Twilight who had apparently woken up and returned to the town square via teleportation he assumed, strewn across the ground with various bruises. As Excalibur's eyes flickered between each of them his mind become more and more frayed the image of the mane six being replaced with that of Valkyr, a deep red started to engulf his vision and a back energy coursed through his frame's circuits. Excalibur's hand jumped to the hilt of the cloths contents, pulling the object out in one fluid motion revealed a sword. It was a ornate longsword about his arms length maybe a little longer, the hilt was a deep royal blue along with gold inlays. The guard was painted gold and just above it where the blade began was an engraving in some unknown language, its meaning a mystery even to Excalibur himself. the blade itself glowed gold like honey in the moonlight and at the end of the blade was a strange symbol of a deep blue color. Excalibur lowered his head and griped the hilt in his hands, the sword balanced perfectly. He took rigid stance and with a hollow howl charged at the Ursa Major who had been trying to process what she was seeing before she howled in pain a large gash of light blue energy forming in her right forepaw. The Ursa jumped back in pain looking around to see her attacker but she was met with another gash forming this time on her upper left leg. The massive bear quickly whirled around looking for her attacker but with little success. She whined as yet another cut formed on her ethereal body this time on her side. A hollow laughter sounded from around the town seemingly from all directions. Whimpering the Ursa started to back slowly away into the forest only to be slammed back to her original position from a heavy blow to the back of her head. Laying prone on the ground she saw her attacker, he was right in front of her eye the blade in his hands dripping with her blood. The figure chuckled before he raised his sword ready to blind her left eye but something stopped him. He suddenly griped his head shouting something about how he was in control. Meanwhile Excalibur's mind was in a state of flux, frayed to the end of his wits. He didn't see an Ursa Major, he saw Alad V. Excalibur screeched stepping back and swinging the sword wildly, before he dropped it the blade slicing into the ground. Excalibur fell to his knees laughing maniacally. The Main Six had all looked on in horror at this, mortified by what they saw. Their eyes snapped from Excalibur to the forest as they heard something. In a flash of black and crimson a figure stood before Excalibur, it looked similar to him yet it was somewhat bulkier and more armored. Excalibur looked up and his hand immediately went for the sword which was swiftly kicked from his hands clattering against the stone wall of a building. "How... How are you here you bastard! Your supposed to be dead! You and that damn sentient took enough away from me! What more do you want!" Excalibur screamed his voice dripping with hate. He was taken aback though, when the figure spoke back to him its own voice slurring and echoing sounding like voices in the wind. "What do I want?... Thisss I can not tell you. You mussst find that out for yourssselfff. But I can ssshare thisss you little whelp. All isss not asss it ssseemss here. A ssstorm iss brewing. Trussst me The dark figure started to fragment splitting apart and scattering to the wind. "Fffind the letter" It finished its body fully disintegrating. Excalibur jumped up to his feet and screamed at the top of his lungs "COME BACK YOU BASTARD! I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU!" Excalibur dropped to his knees slumping down exhausted. He jumped as he felt a hoof on his shoulder turning he saw it was Twilight. "You seem tired. Come on lets get you inside and rest." She spoke in a calming tone. Excalibur slowly nodded but before he could take a step he saw something out of the corner of his eye, a color. This color was very familiar to him and Excalibur instantly pivoted, his head spinning, and he saw her there. "Valkyr" And with that darkness overtook him and he was sent to the realm of dreams.