//------------------------------//
// 40- Knockin' on Heaven's Door 
// Story: Bound by Scales 
// by FrostTheWolf 
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Bound by Scales- Knocking on Heaven’s Door




Ponyville

        Saying that any day in Ponyville is a normal day is considered a rather big stretch… and today was no exception. Not only did the chaos in the badlands have Twilight almost forget a meeting that was set up today at the castle… but because of a scheduling mistake, she happened to have a meeting with King Thorax and Dragon Lord Ember on the same exact day. The mistake was… something that Spike thought would be a bit of a disaster because he thought that the two of them would extremely dislike one another.

        Instead, things… actually turned out a lot better than originally anticipated. Not only did both Thorax and Ember meet one another… but they actually seemed to get along rather well, unlike what Spike was originally thinking. Because of that, Twilight thought that things would go along rather smoothly. Yet… there was one question from the Dragon Lord that she did not anticipate. “So Princess Twilight… I happened to notice some sort of big metal fortress in the badlands on my flight over here. What is that exactly?”

        Hearing the question almost had Twilight drop her teacup and almost spill on her as she looked back at the dragoness. “W-well… Do you remember Ken?”

        “The Scalebound that came during the Gauntlet of Fire? Yes, I remember him,” Ember replied, before asking a simple question. “Why?”

        “Well… His uncle happened to come upon some ancient ‘vault’ or something in the badlands and decided to hold some kind of tournament to see who would get what’s inside,” Twilight replied, before looking back at her. “Think of it like a competition… yet the winner is the last one standing and it’s a free for all…”

        “And… he is somehow monitoring all of this on his own?” Thorax then asked as he looked back at Ember for a moment. “Forgive me, but from what I could vaguely recall, he was the one that was a furless minotaur who considers shouting as normal speech correct?”

        The princess nodded her head at that, before looking at both of them as Spike brought over some more tea for them. “Ken’s family is weird, let me just make that clear… BUT, Ken himself is the one that’s trying to make sure that what happens there stays there and doesn’t spin out of control.”

        “I see…” Thorax nodded his head, before clearing his throat and then speaking up. “Speaking of families though, would you mind if I ask you something? I need some advice.”

        Twilight nodded her head, but it was Spike that took it the extra mile and got up on the cutie map so he could join in on the conversation. “Sure. What is it?”

        “Well…” Thorax said, before using his magic to drink some tea first, before setting his glass down. “It regards one particular changeling that’s a part of the hive that’s… rather close to me. My brother, Pharynx.”

        Twilight and Spike were both thrown off guard by that statement, but Ember just raised an eyebrow. It was the alicorn though that was the first one to speak. “Wait a minute… you have a brother?”

        “Indeed, I do,” The Changeling King nodded his head. “However, unlike all the other members of the hive, he’s the only one who… hasn’t changed after the incident with Chrysalis. In fact, he’s been insistent that he wants to still use the old ways of Changelings taking love from others. However… He’s been acting a lot stranger recently to the point where’s he’s been hostile against members of the hive. I’m not sure if it’s because of him trying to find love has pushed him to this point or it’s something else, but I’m not sure how to handle this. I want him to be like the rest of us, but he’s really narrow minded on the subject.”

        “That… does seem a bit concerning,” Ember added on. “But I’m not really sure what I can add to the subject. However, I can tell from… experience that those who might have a similar mindset like that of your brother might join him. Spike and I saw this during the Gauntlet of Fire with the dragons that were on Garble’s…… oh… right.”

        Thorax raised an eyebrow at that as he noticed Ember lowering her head for a moment. “Um… forgive me for asking, but who is this ‘Garble’?”

        Instead of letting Ember explain, Spike decided to jump in and tell Thorax the summarized version. “Garble was a dragon that competed in the Gauntlet of Fire alongside fellow like minded dragons. However… when it was near the end of the Gauntlet… one of the Aspects, like the one that tried to take over Chrysalis, took over him and… ended up killing the previous dragon lord.”

        Thorax himself, looking at Ember with wide eyes, gasped for a moment as he looked back at her. “I-i’m sorry to hear about that. I didn’t-”

        “It’s fine… even though I wish that he was here to guide me on being a Dragon Lord, I know that he still watches over me from where my ancestors are,” Ember said, looking back up as she looked back at them. “But I think you understand my point, correct?”

        “Y-yes I do,” Thorax replied, before looking back at Twilight for a moment. “Do you have any ideas on how to help?”

        The princess of friendship took a moment to think things over… shortly before looking back at the changeling king. “I don’t exactly know how I can help…” Before Thorax can speak though, that was when he noticed her grin for a moment as she looked back at him. “But I have an idea as to who may be able to help… Spike, can you go find Starlight and Trixie for me? I think I have a perfect friendship assignment for the two of them… If you are okay with it, Thorax.”

        “I really appreciate you doing this,” Thorax told Twilight in response, before the two of them noticed Ember get up from her seat and walking towards the door. “Ember? Where are you going?”

        “Well, I think that since we have no further business to discuss, it would be best for me to take my leave,” Ember replied back to both of them. “After all, I may need to plan a new flight course to avoid the chaos that’s going on in the badlands. I do hope that your Scalebound friend is doing okay out there.”

        “Hey, he’s got allies to back him up out there…” Twilight replied, just as Spike was returning back to the main room, where Trixie and Starlight were just coming in. “What’s the worst thing that could happen?”




Point of View: Ken




        Twenty minutes… Twenty minutes was the only amount of time that we had in order to get what some would consider a ‘decent’ break. For one thing, Asphyxious was waking up… which was a good sign. On the other hand though, so was Orendi… which wasn’t entirely a good sign depending on how you looked at it. There was also the fact that the longer we were recooperating, the more that it was likely for sh*t to hit the fan. Especially when Orendi tried blowing up some of the slot machines.

        In the meantime though, I thought that this… was a better time for me to talk with Moxxi. Especially since dad was still out cold and he was asleep on the counter. “I know this sounds hard to believe, but I didn’t think that he was capable of something like that, Sugar.”

        “I know… I’m personally surprised by that as well,” I told her, finishing a glass of water and setting it down on the counter. “But there are a lot of things that we still don’t understand right now. So, maybe we should focus on ‘that’ another time…” Clearing my throat, that was when I asked another question as I noticed Aaron sit down right next to me. “Right now though, did you find out anything about the guy who’s number two on the leaderboards?”

        “Well, when I was out running… side jobs, so to speak,” Aaron then spoke up to add to the conversation. “All I saw on the leaderboards was something by the name of Flycolt. Of course, I’m not really sure how exactly that helps.”

        “It’s a good way to start,” Moxxi told the two of us. “Fortunately though, while you and your friends here were taking down Coal Momma, I found out some more information on him. Turns out, he’s a earth pony colt who’s a mechanic and likes to work with machines. Even made himself his own flying copter based on a similar design he saw once in Ponyville. There’s also the fact that he turned 16 recently, so… he pretty much thinks he’s invincible.” That had both of us raise an eyebrow for a moment as we looked back at her. Hearing her tell us this reminded me of the same series of events that occurred in the actual campaign of carnage back when were playing online co-op back before coming to Equestria. Now that we’re here though, it feels weird having to relive through this in real time.

        With a few exceptions. “WHERE’S TINA!? I WANNA SNUGGLE HER FACE OFF!!!”

        Just as Aaron and I were beginning to turn around after being thrown off guard by Orendi shouting out of nowhere, that was when the meister asked something. “So… where exactly are we going to find him?”

        “He’s in an area of the crater known as the Forge. It’s where Torgue has been mass producing everything that is here at the tournament from the arena, weapons, aircraft and… pretty much everything else,” Moxxi answered his question. “He’s been hiding out there like Coal Momma and waiting for the other gladiators to kill each other off. But he’s also been using the forge to make his own lair just in case someone tries anything while also building personal aircraft called ‘buzzards’ for everyone in his group to use to kill trespassers.”

        “AJ, what is she talking about?” Wait… did I just hear Applebloom?

        “Applebloom, what have ah told you about wandering off like that!” I heard Applejack ask, before hearing her mutter something to herself. “Geez, ah try to suggest an alternative plan for camping because of what’s going on and now this…” I’m… not even going to ask about that. Instead, I redirect my attention back to Moxxi as she cleared her throat. We could still hear Hunter and his brothers drinking what looked like whiskey… but not a lot. Their Night Sentinels were also talking among themselves, or playing on the slot machines, while Visilia kept her eyes on her boyfriend and that.

        As for Asphyxious though… he looked to still be trying to wrap his head around things. “Why do I feel half dead and what’s going on?” He asked staggering around as if the world was spinning.

        Then Orendi tackled him to the floor. “WHEE!! EXPLODING HUG!!” Asphyxious fell to the floor while Orendi was hugging him, he wasn’t getting up any time soon.

        “Both of you take that somewhere else…” Moxxi sighed, before looking back at me. “After trying to blow up my slot machines, I don’t think blowing each other up has rather good… entertainment value. Then again, that’s literally the business model of this whole tournament.”

        “It’s also a part of a damned Displaced lifestyle, whether we like it or not, something’s bound to blow up.” Berserker commented with a snort. That… was sort of ironic consider what happened ten minutes ago, but I rather not point it out to him at the moment.

        So, instead, I decided to get up from the bar and walk towards the door in order to get some air. Yet… just as I stepped out the door… the twenty minutes that I had mentioned before went up in smoke. Mostly because of one particular person that’s hosting all of this. “WATCH IN SUSPENSE AS TEAM CHROMA PREPARES TO TAKE ON THE NUMBER TWO BADASS!! NOTHING CAN STOP THEM NOW!! NOTHING!!”

        Then… we heard the voice of a mechanical robot. “Door locked.”

        “PLOT TWIST!!” …… okay, I was just stepping out here to get some fresh air. Did he seriously needed to do that now of all times?!

        “Ugh. The doors locked? Great……” I could hear Moxxi grumble for a moment before she suggested something. “Um… Torgue security should have the keys-”

        “FOUR EYES SHOULD BREAK IN THERE AND GRAB THAT BOOTY!!!” Oh god, why Orendi? Why?!

        However, the next person to respond… was not Asphyxious, but Aaron. “ … Oh sure, have the black guy break into a maximum security compound. Nothing racist about that at all…”

        “Dude, we’re in a world full of colors, not just black and white. So, your argument is pretty invalid to what happened back on Earth at this point.” Runner told him.

        “Sure, but you’ve never been seen as a security threat to a Daring Do convention because of a superstition amongst some of the ponies doing security-” Aaron tried to say, before he was cut off by a different voice.

        “In ANY case…” I now heard Shayne take the chance of speaking up, “We should have a couple of us break in to get the keys while the rest of us are ready for the forge. I would recommend Ken, since he’s already outside… and Asphyxious, since he has nothing better to do.” Wait, how exactly does that make sense? “All in favor, say Aye.”

        “Aye.” I heard Moxxi say, followed by hearing Aaron and Aurox say the same thing shortly afterwards.

        “I WANT HIS BABIES!!” God dammit Orendi. Why did you have to make that sound completely creepy? “Whoops, I mean AYE!!!”

        “As long as it keeps the useless, undead prick away from us. Aye.” Oh wow, Berserker, really? You’re gonna sell me out like that, just to keep Asphyxious some few feet away from you? Thanks a lot, you ass.

        “I’m all for it, more Chaos to be had! Aye!” God...damn you, Runner. Soon enough everyone else agreed to this and Berserker literally punched Asphyxious right out of Moxxi’s bar.

        “TAKE THE BUNNY WITH YOU!!” Wait… Oh god, Orendi! Don’t you dare throw my dad like a football- Oh, too late. That had me use my arm to catch him mid flight and pull him towards me so that way he did not have to land on the shiny baldness that is Asphyxious’ battered skull.

        “Ow… They have to just ASKED! But nooo, everyone wants to punch the lich.” Asphyxious complained as he get up and dusts himself off.

         “SHUT YOUR F*CKING FACE UP AND GET A MOVE ON!!!!!” Berserker shouted out before slamming the door shut. Wow… talk about Karma coming back to bite you. What exactly did Asphyxious do in some other life in order to get this kind of treatment?

        … On second thought, I rather not know the answer to that. Turning back to Asphyxious, I extended a hand to him in order to help him off the ground. “So, are you fully awake yet?”

        “Yes thank you, last thing I remember was drinking something. Next thing I know I feel like I’ve had ten rounds with the deathjack.” Asphyxious replied. “Why did that guy punch me? Did I do something wrong?”

        “No it’s just… well, one of the allies that decided to come here brought his brothers with him, along with some of their soldiers… and one of them doesn’t exactly get along with people well,” I gave him the rough summary as I placed dad on my shoulder and helped him up. “To sum things up, someone… and I have a likely idea of who it might be, locked us out of the forge and is preventing us from getting to number two on the leaderboards. So, we do this, take down the guy at number two, beat the champ and then we don’t need to worry about any other crazy stuff from happening… Does that sum things up?”

        “Yeah I’d say so, so do we need a key or can I just use ghostwalk to get us inside?” Asphyxious asked, shortly before looking at where dad was right now. “Why do you have a rabbit on your shoulder? Is he one of Angel’s friends?”

        Oh boy… where do I begin with this? “To answer your first question, I believe the key is required. For your second question, that rabbit is actually a tiny dragon. And third, he’s not one of Angel’s friends. That’s my father.” Asphyxious stared at me for a long time before he said anything.

        “Groovy, I thought I was going more insane for a moment there, let’s go!” The lich said before taking two steps and stopped. “Ummm, which way do we go?” All I did was sigh and have him follow me. If I remembered correctly, the same place where Tina had me do that ‘training session’ might be where we can find the key we need. Also… did Asphyxious really need to say ‘Groovy’? Hearing a lich like him say that was like hearing it from a backup dancer on the production set for Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ video.

        That thought aside… it was a few minutes later that dad was beginning to wake up. But unfortunately for him, the first thing that he woke up to was seeing Asphyxious. “Ugh god… did anyone get the license plate on tha-. Oh God, what the HELL IS THAT?!”

        “Hey dad,” I said, having him look back at me this time. “Don’t mind him. He’s just a lich that is a friend to us, but some people hate him for… reasons.”

        “... If he’s supposed to be the reaper, then please tell the devil that it’s too early for him to be taking my soul.” I heard him say, just as I facepalmed myself.

        “That’s a load of bullsh*t. He’s too stupid looking to be a Reaper.” We both heard Berserker interject, making me question how the hell was he speaking through my ECHO right now. “Speaking of the Devil, if you do end up in Hell, I’ll drag your sorry-ass out and tell him to f*ck off and die.” That made dad look at me, as if asking ‘Is he for real?’

        “I don’t really look stupid do I?” Asphyxious asked looking to me.

        “YOU LOOK BEAUTIFUL, SNUGGLY WUGGLY-!!” And that’s the cue to mute my ECHO right now. Especially since anything random coming out of Orendi’s mouth is making one of us question their life choices.

        “Yeah… Let me explain to you who that was since Dad and I already met them,” I took in a deep breath. “That’s Berserker… he’s part of a group of Doom Marines that are here and he… well, to put this lightly, he would not give a damn about a lot of things… and he doesn’t really like new people, or get along with others all that well. Hence… why he punched you… Think of him like a pissed off bouncer at a nightclub called ‘Hell on Earth’.”

        “Oh, well I guess I can understand that… I think I’ll wait outside once we get back just to be safe.” Asphyxious looked a little more worried but then looked at his own ECHO. “Hope no one has my number on this thing… I still don’t know how it works.” I was genuinely surprised to hear that, but then again… it was all the more likely that Runner might’ve done some tinkering with his ECHO while Asphyxious was knocked out cold. I’m not saying that he did… it just seems likely-.

        “Hey, Kenny, were you trying to mute us?” Oh god, he DID mess with Asphyxious’ ECHO. “Nice try, but I’ve already hacked into the systems.”

        That had me immediately flip the switch and set the ECHO back on my waist. “My bad, Runner. Dad woke up and Asphyxious was asking about who Berserker was, so I thought that it would be easier to process everything without Orendi shouting over the other end of the line.”

        “Don’t worry, I gagged her. Anyway, how about I just tell the Undeath one our full titles? I mean, you don’t need that much brain power to figure out why.” Runner suggested

        “I just told him that Berserker was like a pissed off bouncer at a nightclub called ‘Hell on Earth’ and Asphyxious seemed to get what I was meaning,” I deadpanned, sliding down a steep hill and walking up to the entrance that I remembered from before. Followed by suggesting a different idea to Runner. “But if you want, you two can talk while I go grab the key. We are approaching the entrance to the security ring and once we get the key, we can enter the forge.”

        “... I wonder who’s more stupid; you or that Soulless moronic tw*t.” Berserker spoke up. “Because comparing me to a Nightclub Bouncer, is an understatement.”

        I’m… just gonna take his word for it on that one. No need to get in an argument with him over it. “Runner, can you give Asphyxious a quick rundown about you guys? I’m going to go grab that key and be right back.” Asphyxious was shaking his head no for me to leave. “Asphyxious, it’s only going to take three minutes. You’re looking at me like a cat with separation anxiety.”

        “They scare me….” The Lich whimpered. I… could not think of any other way to respond than just facepalming myself in that moment.

        “Would you prefer to have Orendi here right now-?” Before I could even finish my question, Asphyxious was already going out of his way… to do something completely reckless and stupid.

        “On to battle!” He yelled before running inside.

        “Wow… I would say that’s a failed Leeroy Jenkins battle cry if I’ve ever heard one.” Shayne, don’t you have something better to do than sit around and be side commentary?

        “Say Ken, was someone meant to be guarding the door?” Asphyxious asked from inside.

        “No…” I told him… yet, just as Asphyxious stepped forward and around the ring, that was when several Torgue Security Bots digistructed out of nowhere and began shooting at him. Even though they weren’t completely based of loader bots… and one of them had a bumper sticker that said ‘SUCK IT, HYPERION!!’ on the front. “But there is security…”

        “Sonya is going to be so pissed when she finds out about those.” Asphyxious said before finding his own cover. I personally decided a different tactic. Running up, I used my dragon arm to pull off the arm of one of the loaders and shot at the others. Though, it was also around then that when the ammo ran out, I threw it at an explosive barrel that went off and hit everything else.

        While also setting Asphyxious head on fire and making him look like a Ghost Rider lich. That when the lich pulled out a shotgun, it was the Butcher, the Pearlescent shotgun from both Borderlands and Borderlands 2. This one being the Borderlands 2 variant. One blast had already spread one bot in buckshot and acid. “This is so much fun!”

        That lead to me thinking of something… Now, does my ECHO have that… Oh my god, it does! Thank you Tina!! With a few button presses, my ECHO began to digistruct the one thing that I thought it could not do because it was something I acquired when we did the Bunkers and Badasses game.

        Turns out, I was wrong. Completely. And when I started to use it, that was when my dad began to question it. “Wait… How the hell do you have a weapon… that shoots swords?”

        “BECAUSE I MOTHERF*CKING SAID SO!!! THAT’S WHY!!!”

        “Better yet, it shoots sword that EXPLODES!!!” Runner added.

        “I’m going to dance on your robot souls and use your CPU’s as a hat!” Asphyxious screamed after more gun fire… and I was beginning to think that he may be having a little bit too much fun with this. Asphyxious was acting like a Lich version of a Gunzerker right now and I was really not wanting to see what the end result would be like.

        Yet, it was as Asphyxious was charging in like a raging lunatic that I felt dad tap my shoulder. And when I turned around… I saw him with the key in his mouth. “Dad? How did you get this?”

        “I flew in the other direction you guys were going. Turns out, it was on the other side of that wall over there…” He explained, before looking back at me. “Should… you be concerned about your friend having too much fun over there? He’s starting to act like that crazy lady in the witches hat.”

        “Well, they are siblings…” I sighed for a moment, before looking back at the Lich. “There may be some similarities.”

        “Feed the void until it stop screaming!!” We heard Asphyxious yell before a explosion went off followed by maniacal laughter. “Make the endless pain stop singing to me!”

        “Too bad, you’re cursed to forever hear its’ insufferable melodys until the end of time~!” Oh my god, Runner, stop it!

        “Oh my heart has already plastered all over the floor! Let us all dance in the guts and gore~” Asphyxious started to sing. Is this supposed to be a tournament or somehow a horror musical on Broadway that I don’t know about.

        “Hey… do you think they’ll not notice us if we just… well, leave?” Dad whispered to me. To which, I honestly thought that would be the case. Then again, with how crazy things are, I’m not entirely sure if leaving was pretty much a good idea.

        Though… it could be possible that I would ask about trading places with someone else. Case in point… the co-star of the murderous musical. “Hey, Runner? I got the key… but I don’t want to have to break it to Asphyxious that the fun’s about to end… You wanna come here and take my place so the two of you can do that deadly duet of yours?”

         “Yay~! Let Death due us part!” He said and before I knew it, he was already here singing along with the lich. Of course, one of his Night Sentinels was also here, as she picked me up and took us back to Moxxi’s bar really fast.

        “Thanks,” I told the Sentinel, before I looked to everyone else. “I got the key… and both Asphyxious and Runner will be occupied for sometime… so what’s next?”

         “Who wants to go kill Flyboy?” Berserker asked sarcastically.

        “Flycolt,” Moxxi corrected. “But yes… judging by what you did though, it won’t take him long for him to respond to you going into the Forge. In fact, he’s been trying to blast the airwaves right now.”

        “While also using completely weird ass slang that no one understands,” Shayne sighed. “So yes, once we get to him, this won’t take long.”

        “I’m having so much fun I can’t stand it!” Asphyxious voice was heard over the ECHO. “Also save Orendi some cake, we’re having a party~”

        “WHAT DO YOU THINK FANS?” Oh god, why now Torgue? “WILL TEAM CHROMA’S EXPERIENCE AND BAND OF BADASSES BE ABLE TO TAKE DOWN FLYCOLT AND HIS QUIVER FILLED WITH WEIRD ASS SLANG?! ALMOST CERTAINLY… BUT I’LL PRETEND OTHERWISE TO MAINTAIN DRAMATIC TEN- WAIT, WHO THE F**K IS SETTING FIRE TO THE SECURITY RING?! THAT IS BONAFIDE BALLSY OF YOU BONY F**KERS!!!”

        Well… that escalated quickly.

         “Hey, Torgue, remember this beauty?” Berserker asked as he pull out… Oh f*ck me, I forgot they had that. Not to mention how HUGE the thing was in person!

        “OH YOU’RE GODDAMN RIGHT I DO!!!”

        “In ANY case…” Oh thank god, Moxxi’s stepping in… and I honestly did not think I would be relieved in actually saying that sentence. “The path to the forge is cleared now. Go take him down and then we can deal with the cheating coward.”

        “Oh, that’s right, Piss-ant.” Berserker commented, putting away the BFG. “Well, I won’t waste the Big-F*cking-Gun on Flyboy, since we really don’t need to.” Why do I get the feeling he’s not gonna be calling people by their actual name?

        “Right… We should get going. Because I think I’m hearing a singing John De Lancie at the other end of the ECHO, so we should probably run.” Shayne then added… which lead me to the question… what the hell was she talking about.

        “Sorry for being late,” Oh now you show up Twilight? Where were you? “I had to meet Thorax and Ember… but can someone please explain why Discord raced through the castle and referred to himself as… and I quote… Claude Frollo?”

        Oh… hell no…

        “Nothing you need to worry about, he’s just being himself.” Really Berserker? One, how were you even able to hear Twilight? She was communicating by magic, not by ECHO. Two… well, there really is no two. But still… how? “If you’re wondering, or in this case; forgotten. Runner’s doing.”

        “She’s not using tech though,” I told him. “She’s using a scrying spell.”

        “I know, and I wasn’t referring to anything tech-related.” He rebuked, which made my brain shut itself down and rebooted… At least Asphyxious may be having more fun and understanding what’s going on than I am. “Runner can now hack his way through magic as well.”

        Now that made much more sense than before.

         “Let’s be on our way, now. I don’t think Ken’s mind can handle the strain.” Pillar said, before we heard Asphyxious singing again.

        “I agree.” I told him. “The quicker we finish this, the quicker I can feel like I’m actually sane.”

        “There is no such thing as sane! Only degrees of madness! And cake, the cake is never a lie!” Asphyxious screamed over the echo, as Orendi laughed at this. “I… I need to lay down…”

        “Okay!” Runner laughed until we heard a thump of something heavy dropping to the ground on his end. “Alright, he’s asleep. I’m just gonna leave him here and come back later.” He said before regrouping with us.

        “Um… did you just leave Asphyxious passed out there? Or did you at least set him somewhere where he won’t get shot at in his sleep?” I asked.

         “I left him where he fell asleep.” He quickly answered. “Of course, if you want, I could just drag him back here.”

        “You could always just drop him off by Tina’s trailer.” Oh god, Shayne. Why did you have to suggest something like that. That sounds like setting him to sleep on top of a mine of all things… Oh please don’t tell me he’s actually thinking of that.

          “That sounds like a wonderful idea. I’ll set him down on a bed made of dynamites, created by The World's Deadliest Teenager herself.” Runner said with a mad cackle, which made Shayne regret her suggestion... I think?

        “Just don’t light the fuse and it’ll work out just fine,” I… could only facepalm myself as I saw the grin on Shayne’s face widen immensely.

         “I’m not sure if neither Tina, or myself, could keep ourselves from lighting the fuses.” Right… let me just hope that those explosives are somehow damp and nothing more than a wet set of firecrackers while we move on to some of the bigger goals right now.

         “Let’s just get a move on.” Berserker huffed out.

        For once… I could actually agree with Berserker. Besides, we were about to approach the door to the forge. And shortly after placing the key in the door, the whole thing just… fell backwards. Almost as if they forgot to set it up properly for when someone was going to lock the place.

        “Well… that was quite anti-climatic.” I heard Moxxi say over the ECHO device. “I expected a bit more of a boom given that Torgue was the one who had this place set up originally.”

        “Whatever.” Berserker shrugged as we walked on through. Runner wasn’t with us this time, opting to move Asphyxious back to Tina’s place. But for the time being, we still have three of the Doom Marines here, Aaron, myself and lastly, Shayne and Aurox. I say that’s a rag tag crew if anything. And by the time we got inside, we began to feel the intense heat from the metalworks that was set up here.

        That and we could hear some of the commentary from around the forge’s PA system. “The Torgue Corporation is HAPPY as Hell to have you at our forge! BONUS POINTS: If you can knock somepony into some molten steel and as they sink down, they give you a ‘thumbs up’ sign, causing you to cry a single manly tear!”

          “There’s too much scrap metal lying about.” Pillar said, and he wasn’t wrong. There were many piles of scrap metal scattered around here. “This would be the perfect place to set up traps and ambushes.”

        “Or this part of the place had used up too much of their budget on materials.” Aaron replied back, causing me to look back at him with a raised eyebrow. “What? It’s basic business skills. You need materials to make products, but the cheaper you make it for, the more you can make a profit on it.”

        “I think we get it, Mr. Daymond John,” Shayne rolled her eyes. “This isn’t Shark Tank though. So let’s focus less on that and more on kicking some ass.”

         “Careful what you wish for… Incoming! Up high! Buzzards!” Berserker called out, as a flock of Buzzards came in from the air. “Find cover!” To which I immediately rolled over to my right and knelt down behind what looked like a scrapped carriage.

         Everyone else also found cover as those Buzzards starting firing down at us, flying overhead as some of them dropped off their reinforcements.

         “Ken, you and your friends deal with the troops on the ground! We’ll handle those Buzzards in the air!” Berserker shouted out to me, as he and his brothers started climbing up the scrap piles and made short work of those Buzzards. Leaving the three of us to proceed forward as we heard Flycolt sending a direct message to the three of us.

        “Listen up, you Chromatic Noobsauces. You might have teamwork on your side, but the forge is MINE. And my lair is friggin’ inpenetrable. No dre!”

        “He may talk tough, but I’ve located three access points that you can activate to grant you access to the factory being used to make all those buzzards. Blowing it up should really grind his gears, sugar. I’ll send the coordinates to your ECHO now.” A few seconds later, we got what Moxxi sent us… to which, gave me an idea.

        “Hey Berserker… How big is the range on your BFG?” I asked him… however, he and his looked too busy tearing apart buzzards with their hulking weapons of mass destruction.

          “Why!?” He questioned, shooting another Buzzard within another barrage of Micro Missiles. “You want something blown up!?”

        “Moxxi told us that if we hit three access points, we can be able to storm the factory where all these Buzzards are being built,” Aaron then told him this time. “I think Ken wants us to hit those points and when we do, it will be open for you to blow up the living sh*t out of it.” That was followed by him turning to me and asking a question. “That’s the plan, right?”

        All I could do was nod my head as I looked back at him with a smile. “Yeah, what Aaron said!”

        “Alright! Hunter, Pillar, help them out!” He ordered them. “Just tell me where I need to shoot, but you better be behind cover when I do!” He told us as Pillar and Hunter regrouped with us.

        “I call dibs on the first point!” I heard Shayne declare, taking off in one direction and bringing out Aurox to support her. Leaving Hunter and Pillar with us as we went in the opposite direction to find the panels we were looking for. When Aaron went off in a direction that lead to him being closer to a scaffold not far from where Shayne first departed, Pillar went with him in order to provide decent cover fire. Leaving Hunter with me as we needed to find the second point. Which, to my surprise, was much farther into the scrapyard than what I first thought it would be.

        However, with Hunter with me, he seemed to have found some shortcuts for us to take, shortening the trip through the scrapyard. Not to mention, sneaking pass some of Flycolt’s goons. Of course, he also improvise along the way, diverting these guys’ attention to somewhere else, into a trap no less. Hunter made it look like an accident, and a pretty convincing one, too. I mean, anything could happen in a scrapyard. Something that was… different compared to the ‘run and gun’ sort of thing that I had been seeing with everyone else. Besides that, we reached our access point out in an abandoned shack that was not far from one of the main scrap metal plants.

        “Alright, is everyone at their marker?” I asked over my ECHO.

        “Set!” I heard Shayne reply.

        “All clear!” Aaron told me.

        “Alright, light them up!” I activated my panel around the same time they did the same thing. And that was also the cue for Berserker to light up the entire buzzard plant with his BFG. Soon enough we heard a huge explosion go off, seeing a fiery red and green rising as the entire forge shook from it, even the blastwave blew most things around. No wonder why he wanted us to take cover fast, he knew something like this would happen.

        “Mum I’m awake and ready for school!?!” Asphyxious yelled over the ECHO before groaning in pain.

         “Ugh… Is everyone okay?” We heard Berserker asked. “If so, haul your asses back here so we can get a move on! We got a B*tchboy to kill and be done with!” And he’s still not using the actual name, just calling people by other names… Although, to be fair, he kind of does have a point about Flycolt. Because he’s just sending his boys to try and kill us.

        And quite a lot of them. He must be throwing some kind of a fit for us wrecking his stuff right now. “HOLY SH*TNUGGETS!! THAT WAS THE MOST BADASS EXPLOSION I’VE SEEN IN THE TOURNAMENT SO FAR!! SOMEONE GIVE THAT MOTHERF*CKER A PRIZE FOR THAT!!! I BETCHA FLYCOLT WILL LEARN THAT PRIDE GOETH BEFORE A FALL...” Wait for it…

        “ICARUS SYMBOLISM!!!” Yep. Knew something like that was going to happen eventually. “ANYWAYS, BECAUSE OF TEAM CHROMA’S BADASSERY, NOTHING CAN STOP THEM FROM TAKING ON THE NUMBER TWO RANKED BADASS!! THIS IS GONNA BE SIIIICK!!!”

        Anyway, we all made our way back to Berserker, who was killing off the last few remaining bad guys who’d survived. Something Flycolt didn’t like, or understand how one guy could waste dozens of his own… well, as he referred to it… ‘Prisoners with Jobs’. “GO F*CK YOURSELF, B*TCHBOY!!! YOU AND ALL OF YOUR USELESS C*NTBAG FRIENDS!!!” Berserker growled out to Flycolt, before curb stomping the last guy’s face into oblivion. “BECAUSE YOU SURE AS HELL DON’T GOT ANY BALLS ON YOU ANYMORE!!!”

        It was on that note that Moxxi also chimed in. “The path to Flycolt’s lair is open. Get in there and bring the pain!” Doing what she suggested, we stormed into Flycolt’s lair and started climbing up some stairs. Surprisingly enough, there were a LOT of guys that were trying to swarm most of us. But were primarily focusing on Berserker and the others. Probably in retaliation for destroying the buzzard production facility.

        “Berserker, we’re gonna try and get up there as quick as possible before that dumbass tries anything. Think you can teach these jerks a lesson?” I asked, looking back towards Shayne and Aaron as we proceeded up another set of stairs.

        “Sure! Just be careful, he might have some Buzzards left in reserves! Hunter, go with them! Pillar and I got this!” He said as Hunter quickly joined us, jumping over each head just to catch up.

        And things were going well for the most part… until Shayne said something just as we were about halfway up the tower. “Um guys… not to sound like a downer… but that Ironhide douche is blasting the airwaves. Claiming that ‘No matter what happens to that piss ant Flycolt, you ain’t leaving the Forge alive’... I have a bad feeling of what he could possibly mean by that.”

        “Remember what happened in the game itself, how Flyboy really died?” Hunter texted us his question.

        “Oh… OH!! Oh, I get it now,” Shayne replied back as we continued to keep going. “This is really going to suck… for him that is.”

        “Good going, durche! You worked real hard to get your sheeze pushed in this close to the end,” Flycolt taunted us. “Once I’m in a Buzzard, Bahamut himself could not stop me! I’m going to show you what a real badass is.”

        Yeah, good luck with that.

        “Ladies and Gentlecolts, Team Chroma and Flycolt are about to face off!” Oh hey, Moxxi’s commentating now… when did that-?

        “HEY!! GET OFF MY ECHO, LADY!! I ONLY LET YOU CO-HOST AS A ONE TIME DEAL!!”

        “Sorry Torgue,” I heard Moxxi giggle for a moment. “But I do much better with the blow by blow commentary for these fights.”

        “Rainbow, what does she mean by that?” Oh great. I almost forgot that the Cutie Mark Crusaders were somehow watching this! This isn’t foal friendly for god’s sake!!

        “BIG DEAL!! I CAN USE INNUENDO’S TOO!!” Oh no… please don’t say it. Please don’t say it. Please, DON’T SAY IT!! “TONIGHT’S FIGHT IS BETWEEN FLYCOLT AND TEAM CHROMA!! …… BLOWJOBS!!” Oh god DAMNIT, Torgue. You have no one to blame but yourself if the Cutie Mark Crusaders dare ask about that later.

        “Well… There goes their innocence.” Hunter texted, shaking his head. At least now we’re approaching the elevator… Though, as we were going up, it felt like Aaron, Shayne and I were in the same elevator as the Hulk given how much space Hunter was taking up.

        By the time we got off… and Flycolt gave us some more of his ‘colorful’ language, it looked like things were finally beginning to settle in. “WE’RE READY TO START! FLYCOLT VS. TEAM CHROMA!! FIGHT-!”

        BOOM!

        Okay… that happened much faster than before. “HOLY F*CKSH*T!! SOME HUGE GODDAMN AIRSHIP JUST MURDERED FLYCOLT!!!” With that… we all turned to the left and saw the biggest blimp I’ve personally seen. One that was armed with lethal Torgue weapons as Cannons.

        “That is completely against the rules?! I DEMAND to know where the ref is!” Moxxi shouted, as all of us were beginning to spread out.

        “WHAT THE F*CK IS A REF?!” Seriously? Coming from the guy who was asking the same question that Moxxi was asking when we were facing the Horde of Horrors, hearing that from him made me wanna hit my head against a wall.

        “To be fair, Moxxi, the ref would had died a lot more quicker-.” Runner started before Tina jumped in.

        “Some turret’s are coming out of the blimp! Hold onto your butts!!!” Leave it to Tina to be the one to interrupt Runner while he’s talking. All the while Moxxi soon had something else to be yelling at.

        “God DAMMIT, Ironhide!! You know that you’re not allowed to interfere with Ranked Matches!”

        “Rules don’t apply to the champ, b*tch!” … Okay, now I want to personally kill that guy myself… Because no one who dares to insult someone of my family is going to get away with it. 

        “Once my nephew’s team destroys your airship, they’re going to stomp your cheating ass in the DIRT!!”

        “I AM NOT A CHEATER!! THIS IS TACTICS!!”

        “Yeah, cheating tactics,” Shayne snickered. “Well, time to ground that ship for good!”

        “Oh SNAP! You got more Buzzards incoming!” Well, thanks for telling us that NOW Tina! It’s a little too late to be warning us about it.

        “HEY, P*SSYLIPS PISSANT!!!” Berserker called out to Ironhide. “GET YOUR USELESS CHEATING ASS DOWN HERE, SO THAT I CAN STOMP YOUR SMALL BALLS INTO THE F*CKING RED!!!” Well, that’s one way to get his attention… because the blimp was now firing at them instead of us. Also, damn man!

        Aaron himself, noticed that there was what looked like some kind of turret nearby and raced over to take control of it while Shayne took up another one that was close by. Given how Berserker was drawing it’s attention away from us, there was no better time to capitalize on destroying it than right now.

        If only Torgue didn’t need to add onto the conversation while we were fighting. “FANS, I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT I’M SO CLOSE TO THE EDGE OF MY SEAT THAT THE CHAIR IS PRACTICALLY IRRELEVANT AT THIS POINT!! THIS IS TAKING BONAFIDE BADASS SAVAGERY TO ANOTHER F*CKING DEGREE!!!”

        Which… left me wondering something else. Mostly because I was noticing something as I looked at Hunter. “Hey, you got anything that might serve as a Shock kind of weapon? That Blimp’s got a shield that’s making it hard for my shots to connect.”

           “Better.” He texted before running and jumping off the edge. I was shocked, but was even more shocked that a Banshee from the Halo series came into view. It looked new, too. 

        “Oh DAYUM GIRL!!! AERIAL DOGFIGHT!!!” Tina cheered. “IT’S ON LIKE DONKEY KONG!!”

        “Um… I may not be the first to ask… but how did he do that?” I heard Dad ask from on my shoulder.

        “Just… don’t ask. It’s probably better that way.” I sighed.

        As for Hunter, he was dive bombing the blimp. His shots seem to give off plasma explosions, which didn’t take much to drain the energy shields. Even the secondary he fired off kept on exploding for a few seconds, doing some serious damage to the armor. Soon enough he break off from the blimp and focused on the Buzzards.

        Leading Aaron to sound off. “Shield’s down. OPEN FIRE!!”

        “Waste that cheating scumbag!!” Shayne roared, both of them beginning to open fire with the turrets while I took out my swordsplosion shotgun and began rapidly firing at it too. Doing anything I can to make that blimp crash to the ground.

        It took a while to do this… but eventually, after a few more shots and more air support from Hunter, our efforts paid off as the blimp exploded and crashed down. Leading to Torgue to do one more guitar solo in response while making another announcement. “LADIES AND GENTLECOLTS, TEAM CHROMA HAS NOW REACHED NUMBER TWO ON THE BADASS LEADERBOARDS!!!”

        “That’s my girl!! WOO!!!” Did… Tina just…? You know what, nevermind. By now, we’ve already handled way too much of this to make someone go crazy… so instead, I took in a deep breath and enjoyed this victory.

        Well… almost. “Rrgh… I’m still alive, COWARD!! You couldn’t stop me!!” Oh great, it’s him again. “Listen up. You better stay the buck away from me! I don’t want to see any of you within a country mile of the champ… or things are going to get messy.”

        “Ignore him for now… Come on back to the bar, you deserve a chance to regroup. Free drinks on the house as well for those who are interested~” I have a feeling that Hunter and the others aren’t exactly going to refuse to something like that.

        As for me… unlike the others, who just decided to take the elevator down… I decided to do something different. “Uh… Ken? Your friends are over there. Aren’t you going to go down with them?”

        “Oh, I’m getting down a different way…” I told him. The instant I told him that, his eyes went wide. Just as I jumped off and landed directly on the ground. Using my arm to grapple us over to where there was a place for us to land as I heard Torgue commentating about how ‘PARACHUTES ARE FOR PANSIES!!’ or something along those lines. And by the time I was back on the ground, Dad was holding onto me for dear life.

        Oh right… I should’ve told him about what I was doing. Ah well, no harm done. Asphyxious then teleported into the middle of the party. “Okay I’m here what did I miss? And is that a AIRSHIP ON FIRE!? ...That so BADASS! Who killed it?”

         “Shut up, you lazy ass!” Berserker yelled at him, as he and Pillar came out with Shayne and Aaron...all covered in blood. “If you weren’t taking a damn power nap, you would have been here to help out!”

         “Okay, so we off to fight this bull guy now?”Asphyxious Asked, making sure that he was a good five feet away from Berserker.

           “Soon… Hey, what is-?” Pillar started, but then things started blowing up in our faces. Apparently, the Buzzards did a bombing run on us, before buggering off, with Hunter still on them.

           However, just as we survived the bombardment, thanks to Pillar’s shield protecting us, Hunter’s text brought bad news. “They’re going to bomb Moxxi’s bar!” Seeing this, we all started running like Hell to try and get to Moxxi and that.

         “Damn that prick!” Berserker growled as we saw Hunter picking off as much of them as possible, Asphyxious fired off a few spells of his own one pilot neck even snapted, before the Buzzard did a nose dive and crashed.

           “Hunter, get clear! I brought the Tanks!” Runner shouted, as we saw three of their Tanks parked outside. Hunter broke off as the Tanks’... Oh god, the main guns are like that of that big machine gun with the nine barrels, only bigger! Once they lined up and split into three tri-barrels, they started revving up before firing, the sky lit up as all the Buzzards were shot down within seconds. They were loud, too. Every Buzzard came crashing down in a pile of flaming scrap metal.

         “Nice work, Runner. Is everyone alright inside?” Berserker asked, while the rest of us were still gawking at what just happened.

          “Yeah. A little shaken, but still breathing.” Runner replied. “So, did the kids like the show our Bullet Stormers put up?” That’s what they named these Tanks? They certainly live up to their name.

            “They’re staring in awe.” Berserker answered him.

           “Wow, that would look cool on my Kraken.” Said Asphyxious as he watched the Buzzards falling out of the sky one by one.

             “F*ck off!” Berserker growled at him. “You’re not getting anything from us! The past thing we need is some loony idiot running amuck with our weapons!” Images of Asphyxious wielding their weapons was a scary thought…

          “Well, at least the skies are clear.” Pillar pointed out, as there were no more Buzzards, the Tanks stopped firing and stood down. Then a portal opened up behind them, as they backed into it and disappeared. More than likely returning to the Doom Marines’ world… or they’re just dropping something off and coming back later. 

        “Well… that was something…” Moxxi spoke up. “Still, good work out there. Get back here so we can end that cheating bastard for good this time.”

         “Good.” Berserker snorted as we made it back to the bar. The Night Sentinels were armed again, wanting to end this sh*t as well, with Runner here, too. “How are things looking?” He asked him as we all headed out towards the arena.

         “Bad. Ken, remember all of the enemies you have faced up until now? All of the grunts and cannon fodders? Well, Piston made some deals with them and they’re all gathered at the arena.” Runner told me. “Even if you were to kill them, that’s not all of them. Once Piston comes out to fight, you’re on your own. The rest of us will hold off any and all uninvited guests.”

        “I want to meet this bull and turn him into a Bane Theall, maybe a Brute Theall?” Asphyxious said as he started to follow after Ken. “I’ll decide after what left of him.”

          “Dumbass, we need his blood to open the vault.” Berserker retorted. “And no, as much as I wouldn’t mind, but he’s not worth a damn thing. We might as well sh*t stomp the prick to death.” Okay…that’s brutal. Then again, he’s all about brutality.

        “I didn’t say he had to be alive, I can wait until his dead first.” Asphyxious replied.

         “And I still said no, he’s not worth the effort. Just let him die.” Berserker argued back, but before it could go on, Moxxi butted in.

        “So… just to give some advice. Knock ‘em Dead, sugar… Make your kids proud.” She encouraged me, before going off to ask Torgue about his plans for the arena. Yet, as I was going in… Dad was looking at me with wide eyes like I threw him for a loop.

        “You… have kids?”

        “Two actually… two dragon ponies, brother and sister and they’re just as big as you…” I said, before looking back at him. “It’s a long story…”

        “I’ll just… take your word for it.” He told me, just as I was entering the ring. The door to the arena closed behind me on the way in. Personally… I had some kind of idea as to what to expect when it came to what I was going to be facing… but it could be possible that it was the same thing as before.

        “I told you to stay away coward… but now we will have to face each other in single combat…” As he’s saying this, I was hearing metal begin to grind in… yeah, it’s definitely going to be what I thought it was… only question was how did this guy happen to get his hands on one. “Gladiator vs Gladiator… VERSUS!!!”





        “A GIANT GODDESS DAMNED METAL T-REX!!!”

        “Ironhide, you CHEATING BASTARD!!!”

        “I am NOT A CHEATER!!!” Says the guy in the oversized Metal T-Rex trying to kill me… The guy who only has weapons, my abilities and what not. Plus, the door was shut, so I couldn’t get backup.

        Except backup in the insult department from someone on the team. “F*CK YOUR FALSEHOOD AND DEAD GODDESS, P*SSY F*GGOT!!!” Berserker growled, as I could hear the fighting happening outside, since it’s only me, Shayne, and Aaron in here. The Doom Marines, their Night Sentinels and Asphyxious were holding off the uninvited guests. “YOU AIN’T GETTING ANY BACKUP FROM OUTSIDE, EITHER! NOW DO US ALL A FAVOUR AND DIE ALREADY, LIKE THE GOOD LITTLE CHEATING COWARDLY B*TCH YOU ARE!!!”

        “Yeah, what he said!!” Shayne shouted.

         “Oh sh*t! Guys, you got Buzzards coming in!” Runner warned us, as we saw them flying in through the open roof. “The good news is that their isn’t so much. The bad news is that they got heavy armor and more firepower, you can’t even kill the pilot.” Oh great...

        ROAR!!!!!

        Wait… No… it can’t be… Don’t tell me. “Hey Ken… Is it just me… or does that sound like…” Before Aaron could even finish her question, the entire roof was torn off and one familiar face crashed through the ceiling, destroying the Buzzards, tearing the mech in half and throwing Ironhide across the room.

        “Is that-?” 

        “Revaan!!” I called out before dad could even finish asking his question, surprised to see he was here.

        “HOLY SH*T!!! THAT DRAGON JUST F*CKING ANNIHILATED THAT GIANT GODDESS DAMNED METAL T-REX!! THAT WAS AWESOME!!”

        “Ken, are you alright?” He asked me, shortly before looking around the room and looking at dad for a moment. “You have… a little dragon with you?”

        “FINALLY! Someone doesn’t mistake me for a rabbit!!” I heard dad let out a gasp of relief. Though, I was focused on something… else.

        “Revaan, what are you doing here? I thought everything was going fine at the Temple…”

        “It was… Until Princess Celestia got wind of what was going on…” Oh no… That was definitely not good. “Whatever it is you’re doing, you need to end it quickly before she finds the big mess that all of you have made. Otherwise, she’s gonna flip… and send Torgue to the moon for this.”

        “Hey, we’re not done, COWARD!!” Ironhide shouted, shortly before we were hearing the whole crowd boo at the minotaur and calling him out for being a cheater. “Shut up… SHUT UP!!!”

        That… lead to me looking at Revaan for a moment as I took a deep breath. “So… Who wants first crack at Cheater over here-”

        “Dibs!!” Shayne shouted, pointing to the ground at Ironhide’s feet and doing a finger gun motion with her hands. “Get EM AUROX!!”

        “I HEAR THE BELL FOR DINNER!!!” Aurox shouted, erupting from under Ironhide, burning off the hairs on his body. But in doing so, he did not anticipate Aaron coming at him from his blind spot. So when Ironhide tried to shoot at him with his arm cannons, Aaron did a tactic that caught even me off guard.

        Activate his Soul Resonance. “Apex… TWIN!!!” By charging up energy from both Fire and Thunder respectively, he fired off an explosive energy blast that tore through Ironhide’s metal cannons and blew off both of his arms, causing his blood to be spread out all over the center of the arena. “Ken, finish this!!!”

        “Don’t need to tell me twice,” I smirked, having dad get off of me and activating my dragon armor form. Using my arm, I yanked the minotaur over to me before grabbing his head and slamming him into the ground. Then, I backstepped for a moment as I fired off several arrows that surrounded him. Then, firing one last one, it caused all the other explosive arrows to detonate. Killing off Ironhide with an explosive grand finale.

        “LADIES AND GENTLECOLTS, THEY’VE DONE IT!! TEAM CHROMA HAVE BECOME THE NUMBER ONE BADASS ON PANDORA AND HAVE SPILLED THE BLOOD OF THE COWARD!!” That had the center of the room glow to the point that it looked like a volcanic eruption was about to go off. “THE VAULT!! IT’S OPENING!! IT’S TIME FOR A LOOOOOOOTSPOLSION!!!”

        “Hunter, get in here!! It’s time for the grand finale!!!” I shouted, just as the door to the arena shot open, allowing for the Doom Marines, the Night Sentinels and Asphyxious to storm in quickly.

        “Just in time! Every last one of those bandits are dead, so you don’t have to worry about future repercussions.” Runner told me, which really was a relief. Even though I rather not get my hopes up on the ‘future repercussions part’. “Now then, shower us in that loot!” And to which, the explosion of loot went off. Showering the whole arena in bits, weapons and even more loot as we were taking the chance to get ahold of everything.

        Though, as we were doing so… that’s when we heard another loud voice… much different from Torgue’s. “WHAT IN THE NAME OF EQUESTRIA IS GOING ON HERE?!!”

         “F*CK OFF, TIA!!! YOU SELF-RIGHTEOUS, LAZY, CAKE-GOBBLING, SUNNY-ASS B*TCH!!!!!” Oh my god! Berserker why would you tell her off like that!? Do you actually have a grudge against her or something!?

        “IRRELEVANT!!!”

        “Right… This is probably the part where I should mention that offer I had,” Moxxi replied. “You know… the one where you give me your arena so that way nopony had to find out about this little tournament.”

        “HOW THE F*CK WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT ILLEGAL INTERDIMENSIONAL DEATHMATCHES ARE ILLEGAL!!!!?!”

         “BECAUSE F*CK AUTHORITY!!!” Damn it Runner, why do you do this!?

        “Run along now Ken… I believe this is the part where your uncle and I do some… heated negotiations,” Moxxi proclaimed. “Your friends can help themselves to all the loot they want. Besides, I think it’s time for you to introduce your father to Athena and everyone else.”

        “Ken, we’ll grab as much as we can, then haul ass back to your place. Also, Ken’s father, we’ll talk about that incident from before.” Berserker said as they started collecting most of what they can get their hands on. Of course, both Runner and his Night Sentinel collected all of the bits.

        Though, I’m not really sure if having them come to the Hollow is a good idea. After all, based on size, they might terrify those who are living there. Especially since Chrysalis is in recovery. But… I didn’t just want to tell them no. “Sure… I’m gonna get a head start and head back.”

        And when I shifted back to my normal form and Revaan looked back at me, that was when Dad joined back at him… before asking something. “So… I’m guessing you’re the dragon bound to my son?”

        That… had Revaan look back at me for a moment, seeming a bit puzzled. “The little hatchling here is your father?”

        “It’s… complicated,” I told him before taking a deep breath. “Let’s get back to the hollow and tell AJ that we’re going to be having visitors.”



        “You’re kidding me…” She said, facehoofing herself as I was talking to her. “So Hunter and them… are coming here? Great, now ah’m regretting having Apple Bloom and her friends staying here for the night since the campgrounds were closed.”

        “And with everything that had happened already, I’m not sure if I can get a break.” I sighed for a moment, looking at dad as he looked back at AJ. 

        “Hmm…” She replied back, scratching her chin with her hoof. “How about this… Shayne and I can handle them when they come here. You can take a break and get the chance to see Pinkis.”

        Oh right… I almost forgot about that. But, before I could say anything, that was when dad asked me something. “Who’s Pinkis?”

        That had me sigh for a moment before asking something to him. “Remember that one friend that I had when I was 5?” That had Dad’s eyes widen for a minute, telling me that he definitely remembered her. “Well, you’ll be surprised to meet her.”




End Chapter 40