Nopony ever went walking around Ponyville at night. Nopony knew why they didn’t, they just…didn’t. At least, Minty didn’t know why. She didn’t get it, either, the pink-maned green earth pony. Ponyville at night sure seemed like a pretty nice place to be. No, not at all because there was no one around to clumsily mess something up for…or any witnesses in case she accidentally did anyway…again…nope, not that at all.
She took a deep breath and looked around the empty town. The moon was glowing rather brightly, so it’s not like it was too dark. The streetlamps were off, though. That was odd. I mean, why have streetlamps if they weren’t on at night?
Minty stood pondering this while staring up at the light fixture atop one of the lamp poles. Come to think of it, they’ve really only been used as another place to hang decorations on. It’d been forever since she’d seen one of them actually lit up. Wait a second, maybe the reason nopony went outside at night…was because all the streetlamps were broken! That had to be it, right? Hmm, maybe there was something wrong with the wiring? Maybe she should try to fix them! Yeah, that’d be a real—
There was a hoofstep in the darkness, giving Minty a jump. So, she wasn’t the only pony out at night. They could’ve at least given her a heads-up! She looked up and down the street but found it empty. Then she thought to turn and look down the alley the streetlamp was next to. She saw a pony standing in the darkness of the alley, hidden from the moonlight. The pony looked a pale color, but she couldn’t see them too well.
“Hello?” she said into the darkness.
“Life is frail,” said the pony, a young stallion by the sound of his—eeyikes, that voice. Something was just too unsettling about how flat it was, how…lifeless. “Life is limited,” he continued. The words weren’t helping, either. He stared right at her. “So why don’t you think about…true life?” Outlines of a gray pattern appeared on his face.
Minty took a cautious step back. “Uh, whatever you’re selling, I don’t think I’m buying, so…”
There was a hollow humming sound a second before the pony’s outline started glowing white, and he grew and morphed into a bipedal figure a good half over again as tall as her. Minty stumbled back as the figure stepped forward from the alley, the streetlamp suddenly flashing to life with a bright blue light, illuminating the figure. It was a uniform shiny gray, with the head of a horned horse’s integrated onto a knight’s helmet topped by a white tuft of mane, another pair of horned horse heads adorning its shoulders, and a horseshoe decoration at the center of its chest.
Minty backed out into the center of the street. “W-wha…st…stay…,” was all she could mumble. Her little brain had given up. The horse monster approached, its shadow morphing into a blue-tinted projection of the pony it had just been.
“Be smart,” his shadow continued in a monotone, mildly distorted. “True life is your sta—”
The air rang with gunshots as a series of spark spits burst from the monster, forcing it to stumble sideways a few step. It turned right, Minty following its gaze. {Stranger in the dark}
About thirty feet up the street was a smoking gun barrel, the black weapon held in the extended right hoof of an equine figure silhouetted in the moonlight. Round orange bug eyes glowed on a face topped with three upward-pointing spines, and dark blue metal armor plates outlined in silver adorning the figure’s body and limbs. It stood staring silently at them.
The gray horse monster’s breathing began speeding up. “Yyyyou!” it growled, its voice suddenly flush with passion. It gave a shout as it forgot about Minty and rushed at the newcomer. The armored figure turned its head slightly to watch the monster, pulling its gun back. It clicked its weapon onto the plate on its right thigh before reaching down and clicking something on its belt buckle, holding its right foreleg out to the side.
As the monster reached it, the armored figure ducked down and swung, glancing a hit across the monster’s gut with a flash. The monster stopped in its tracks, the figure pulling back for another swing, punching forward for a center mass hit that knocked the monster back a few steps. The figure reached down and clicked its belt again.
Minty watched the fight in shock. What were these things? Where did they come from? How the heck had either one of them been in Ponyville of all places, much less both! Then something else odd rose to her attention. That pony—probably a pony, at least—the one with the armor…they were only using their one hoof to fight with. They hadn’t even taken a step forward yet.
The armored pony stood back and readied for another swing instead of advancing on their opponent. The horse monster charged again, the pony swinging, but the monster stopped a step short and grabbed the pony’s wrist in its hand, bringing it to a stop. It reached over with its left hand to grab the back of the pony’s collar, pushing down and slamming them face-first into the ground with minimal effort, hoisting them back up before delivering a punch of its own to their chest. The armored pony folded at the impact.
Minty gasped. Oh, no! If only there was something…
The monster half-dropped, half-tossed the now-limp armored pony onto the ground, their armor clanking. It stood for a second, staring at the armored pony, its heavy breathing beginning to die down. It took a step forward and reached down, but then stopped. It turned to look back at Minty.
Its gaze switched her legs back on. She backed away before turning and breaking into a run. Sorry, but I… there’s nothing I… The monster turned back to the armored pony, but quickly turned again and started chasing after Minty.
Laying on the ground, the armored pony looked up to see the pursuit. They didn’t have much time. They reached up and pulled a large pack attachment off of their back, with a handle on top and a ring of silver tubes folded up at the bottom, dropping it down in front of them. They reached up to a row of four red buttons, inputting the code “1-3-2-Enter”. “Releasing safety,” said an automated voice.
Minty’s heart was pounding in her ears, but she soon heard another pounding: the sound of a thundering gallop gaining on her. She almost dared a glance back, but a large shadow sailed over her, a large centaur figure landing a short distance in front of her before its back section burst apart into dust and the horse monster staggered to a stop. He turned back to face Minty with renewed vigor. They had never mentioned that he could have a power like that, and he wanted more.
Minty tried stopping, but as she planted her front hooves, her back hoof came forward and kicked her front legs out from under her, and she crashed to the ground, skidding to a stop in a dust cloud. Just her luck.
Minty slowly looked up to see the horse monster staring down at her. A glow from its right hand drew her attention as a wide sword appeared in its grasp in a flash of light. She looked back up at its face. Its expressionless visage kept staring back like a mask on a shelf. She heard a hollow hum as its shadow again turned to a glowing blue image of a pony.
“Don’t run,” it said calmly.
A blue-green x-ray view focused in on the rapidly beating heart of the pony lying before it.
The Horse Orphnoch stepped closer, holding up its sword. It reached out with its left hand as Minty cowered back farther, hiding her face.
“This will be a good thing,” it continued, trying to sound excited.
Back where they had been left, the pony in the blue armor slid the top of its handgun sideways onto the left side of the unfolded armament before it, and then reached over to the back of it and popped up a panel, revealing the top of something red.
Minty counted the seconds to the end, somehow feeling even more uneasy as the number kept climbing. Cautiously, she looked up to see the monster standing over her, sword drawn back, statue still…except for its mildly trembling right hand. It wasn’t sure? M-maybe she could—
It saw her looking. “It’ll work… this time…,” it said in a hush, as if for itself, “i-it’ll work…”
“N-no…please,” Minty tried saying, but she only managed to stutter silently. Five seconds to save your life. Could you think of something to say?
After an eternity lasting two and a half breaths, the monster’s hand gripped the sword tighter and stopped shaking. Minty stared at its blank silver eyes as it spoke. “Welcome to true life.” The sword moved forward.
Looking on, the armored pony looked down and shook its head. “I’m sorry, Bon Bon,” came a mare’s voice from inside the suit’s helmet. “I couldn’t save him.”
She looked up, aiming the GX-05 Cerberus Gatling gun she was propped up on, a red rocket canister loaded at the center of the ring of silver barrels. She fired.
The canister shot off in a burst of smoke, streaking down the street. Minty only heard it. The horse monster looked up and saw it. Something small, loud, and fast flew over Minty’s head, and her view of the monster was immediately replaced by a bright explosion, a second burst of blue flames seeping through it from inside.
As Minty’s sight and hearing faded back to normal, she saw the Horse Orphnoch standing statue still in front of her again, but dust was falling from it and blue flames were leaking from cracks running across its almost stonelike body. Though its face hadn’t changed, she could see something on it now: surprise. The monster dropped its sword, the blade shattering to dust upon hitting the ground. Its blue shadow projection was as still as its body and held the same expression as it slowly faded back into a normal shadow. There was the sound of cracking stone, and its arms tilted down and disintegrated, its head turned to dust, and its body collapsed into a pile of gray dust as the blue flames extinguished.
Back up the street, the armored pony let go of their weapon, rolling off it and over onto their back with a clank from their armor, giving a long sigh.
Minty stared down at the pile of dust, not knowing what to think. The clanking of metal drew her attention back over to the armored pony. Maybe not what to think, but she knew what to do. She took a step towards them.
The pony reached up and took hold of their helmet, a strip at the back sliding up into the mask before the back of the helmet split into two halves that also retracted in. She slowly lifted it off her face, dropping it to the ground over her shoulder.
“Heh…and they all thought that I’d be the first,” muttered the mare, a pale peach color with an unkempt darkish pink mane. “Funny…so did I. And I said that this would break after day one.” She looked down at her armor suit, hitting the blue chest plate. “Bright Eyes, your little toy outlasted us all. How many of us would’ve thought to expect to make it this far…”
The mare reached down to the armor’s silver belt, its buckle featuring a red bar with the right half lit up, and pressed a hidden button on its underside. With a mechanical whir and a small cloud of steam, the suit’s blue torso shell split open at the front as a pair of silver shoulder straps sprung up, and the two silver-bordered blue pads on each limb spontaneously let go and fell to the ground, leaving the pony in a black leathery undersuit. She lay there and took a deep breath, closing her eyes.
Hearing hoofsteps nearing her, the mare tilted her head back to see Minty cautiously approaching. She breathed a chuckle and smiled. “Well at least you’re fine,” she called over, causing Minty to stop. “Go, run. Tell everyone,” the pony said casually, waving her off and looking straight up again, “or don’t. Probably won’t matter.”
“That didn’t look like it hurt that bad,” Minty replied, stepping closer. “D-don’t worry, I’ll get help. You’ll be fine.”
“No,” the mare said, “don’t bother. This is from more than just tonight. I got beat up pretty bad a while back. This suit’s all that’s kept me going for a few days, now.”
“Don’t talk like that,” said Minty. “T-there must be something I can do to help.”
“Nope,” she again brushed off. “This is it for me.” She adjusted her position in the open armor shell and closed her eyes as if for a nap.
Minty looked down and stood silent a second. She never was very good at thinking things through. She always just acted. Minty looked back up. “Too bad, I’m helping anyway,” she said firmly.
The door to Minty’s house opened and the once-armored mare staggered in, wincing with every step. Minty helped her to the middle of the front room before returning to shut the door.
“Ahhh,” sighed the peach-colored mare, looking up as Minty came back. “Aren’t you gonna pester me with questions about what that thing was, or what I was wearing or doing?”
“Let’s just focus on helping you right now,” said Minty. “If I let my mind wander to other things, it’s not coming back.”
The pony’s undersuit zipped open down the front, and Minty immediately saw that the area around her neck, shoulders, and chest appeared to be fading into colorless transparency, looking almost like glass. She suddenly winced and grabbed at the left side of her neck.
“Never did get the tip out,” she said as nonchalantly as she could through the obvious pain. “It’s been slowly draining me ever since.”
Minty held up the undersuit, seeing a pair of puncture holes on the neck, one on each side. “I-I think I could fix this,” she tried to say with confidence. “Or at least, find somepony who could. M-maybe Rainbow Dash, or—” Minty ran her hoof along the suit, when it suddenly poked right through a previously hidden arm-wide slit on the left side of the chest. She looked up at them with surprise. “I-I didn’t…”
“Nah, that’s what happened the while back,” the peach pony brushed off. She shrugged, adding, “They mostly missed.”
The pony suddenly jolted forward, wrapping a hoof around her chest as she held back a choke. Minty saw what appears to be a blue light flickering from inside her chest through the glasslike area.
“Looks like the past is finally catching up with me,” she continued. “Heh, somepony long ago once told me to be careful on my adventures. Guess I’m just bad at taking advice.”
“I-I…,” Minty stuttered, a realization of reality setting in, “wish there was something I could do.”
“Y’know?” the mare said. “I like your attitude. We coulda used you.” She held back another choke. “What was your name? You never said.”
“Minty,” she said, looking at the pony she couldn’t help.
“Patch,” the mare replied, looking at the last pony she’d ever save. “It was nice meeting you…Minty.”
A teal-tinted x-ray view of a slowly beating heart, its lower tip with a small patch of blue flame burning on it. The flame suddenly flared, consuming the entire heart in a surge of blue fire that dissipated to leave nothing.
The blue glow inside Patch’s chest flared brighter, lighting up the glassy area, and then quickly faded out. Patch stood there, shaking slightly as the expression drained from her face. Gray dust fell from her mane. She looked at Minty, trying to stay standing, and gave as complete a smile as she could. Her entire body faded to gray, disintegrating and collapsing into a pile of dust on the floor.
Soon to be seen, on “Kamen Rider Gr3en”…
In Minty’s memory, she relived the rocket flying over her head and hitting the gray horse monster, followed by a large explosion with a second burst of blue flames.
“Did no one hear that?” Minty asked herself, seeing ponies going about their daily lives around her.
At nighttime, a violin played as a black figure with a spiky back waved its hand in front of a house. A transparent red layer over the house glowed and then dissipated.
Minty picked up the armor’s helmet and looked into its eyes.
Danger, Socks, and the Mysterious Armor
