“Don’t say a single word, Mordecai.” Roland told the hunter as he, Mordecai, and Zer0 were held at spearpoint from guards. They appeared shortly after the pink alicorn, named Cadence, with what looked to be the Captain of the guard with them and were told to not resist.
“We were the ones telling you not to jinx it-” The hunter spoke, just before noticing a spearhead getting closer to his throat.
“Cadance, this is completely unnecessary,” Twilight spoke to the princess of love and tried to get her to call off the guards. “They’re not a threat-”
“How would you know if they are a threat or not?” Cadance then asked. “The last time that somepony had seen a creature like them, the locals heard some hooligan screaming about wanting to surf on an ocean of blood and entrails.”
That just lead to the one who wasn’t having a weapon pointed at their throat to speak as she stood next to Twilight. “Dammit… of course Krieg gives them the wrong impression…”
“And who are you exactly?” Cadance then asked.
“You really don’t know?” Maya then asked. “Because if I recall correctly, my companions and I were just talking with both you and your husband in your castle no less than an hour ago before you had a Varkid problem that we needed to take care of,” Then, the siren got an idea. She still had the bangle on her wrist as she took it off. Letting the energy from it turn her back into a pony as she looked back at the Princess. “Does this ring any bells?”
“W-what? B-but you’re… h-how-?”
“How about this… You have your soldiers stop pointing their weapons at my companions like they want to slit their throats and then in exchange, we can explain everything. Besides, your aunt already knows about us and if you give us three minutes in order to explain everything, then we won’t have to have things escalate,” That was followed by Maya glaring towards Cadance right now as she looked back at her. “And fair warning, you do not want to piss me off.”
“W-what makes you think that you can-?” Before she could finish though, that was when Maya pointed to the dead Varkid that was outside of the castle walls.
“Maybe it’s the fact that I killed that with my bare hands… Or perhaps you need a demonstration,” With her arm glowing blue, Maya began to phaselock what remained of the corpse of the varkid and crushed it with utter force like if somepony were to crumble up a piece of paper. “Well?”
At first, she was shocked by all of this. But that was before Cadance gave off a nod. A sign for all the guards to slowly back off from the other hunters. As for Maya though, she looked back to Twilight and sighed. “Well, that definitely played out a lot differently in my head.”
“You think?” Twilight then asked. “You do realize some ponies would consider that as you threatening her, right?”
“I call it… encouraging her not to do anything stupid.”
“That’s exactly what a threat would be!!” Twilight retorted. Though, as she was talking, all Maya did was turn to Spike as she asked him something.
“Spike… Could you please write a letter to Celestia? I feel that things would go a lot smoother if we have her helping us with explanations.”
The young dragon did not need to be told twice as he got ink, quill and a piece of parchment and began to write.
“Well, I think you maybe went a little overboard with the explanation there.” Roland said as he walked forward. “But at least this situation is a bit better.”
“Personally, I just thought that the best way to get them to listen was to not try and provoke us,” The siren told the soldier as they were now returning to Cadance’s castle. The vault hunters were with Cadance, Thorax and Twilight as the guards from earlier were re-assigned elsewhere. Spike and Shining Armor also happened to be with them too. “If Lilith were here, she would approve of what I did.”
“Knowing Lilith, I can agree with her on that.” Mordecai then added on.
“Can’t exactly argue with you there.” Roland added as well. “I mean that is the fastest way to diffuse a situation… for a siren anyway.”
“Yeah, Twilight told me a bit about the ‘sirens’ that they know of…” Maya replied back, folding both of her arms as they were walking. “And after hearing about them, honestly, those bitches got nothing on me.”
“Why do I feel that someone just insulted us?”
“Well, considering there are only six ever sirens, I think that speaks volumes of how little they are.” Roland then shook his head. “Just don’t do anything too harsh if you ever meet them.”
“If we meet them… they’ll wish they haven’t.” The siren emphasized, just as she noticed the other ponies stop walking and they were in the center of the crystallized throne room.
“Fair enough, though for their sake they better stay away.” Roland then took a look around before asking a question. “So, what do you all want to talk about now?”
“Honestly,” They now heard Twilight speak up as she trotted to the four of them, with Cadance and Thorax behind her as well as her brother. “I think the one thing that’s needed is an explanation. I know that you had Spike send a letter to Celestia, but-”
“But?” Maya then asked.
“But we want to hear it from you first,” Shining then asked. “If it is true that Princess Celestia knows about you, then she can verify whatever you tell us right now. That and I believe my wife and I have a few questions for you.”
That in turn, had each one of the vault hunters that was there looking at each other for a couple of moments. That was, until one of the vault hunters that had been mostly silent up to this point, spoke. “A valid reason/What questions do you want to/have answered captain?” A question mark began to light up on Zer0’s face shortly afterwards. But all that did was just have Shining look back at Cadance with a puzzled look on his face. Just before Twilight said something.
“Don’t worry… that’s how he normally speaks.”
The face on the guard captain flinched a bit, before shaking his head. Taking Twilight’s word for it, he then decided to ask his first question. “So, let’s start with the simplest one. What exactly are you supposed to be? I believe you already told us your names, but that doesn’t explain your appearance.”
“Well, that’s one way to ask about it,” Mordecai mumbled to himself.
“You are going to/have to be a little more/specific captain.” Zer0 added on.
“Shiny, I think the question you asked might have come off a bit vague,” Cadance interjected, before looking back at them. “Here, let me try… What kind of creature are you? The only ones that ponykind have seen that are bipedal are either minotaurs or dragons. Yet, I don’t think your either of those.”
“And of course that’s how it starts,” Maya now took a turn to mumble, before actually answering the question. “We’re human… well, mostly,” At the last part, she turned to Zer0, who just had the number 0 on his face mask now. “We kind of don’t know what Zer0 is, but it’s not really that important.”
“Okay, and what exactly are you… occupation wise I mean.” Cadance clarified herself.
“We’re Vault Hunters,” She said, before turning to Roland and Mordecai. “Do either of you guys want to help explain? I feel like I’ve been doing most of the talking here.”
“I can take over for a little bit.” Roland stated before taking a moment to begin. “Maya and Zer0 here are the second generation of Vault Hunters, while myself and Mordecai here are the first generation. Now Vault Hunters are those who seek the challenge of the vault. The vault is a place that holds many treasures, and is also guarded by a very dangerous creature. The one myself, Mordecai, Brick, and Lilith faced off against was called the Destroyer. When we aren’t looting the vault of it’s treasures and weapons, we go around and do odd jobs for the people of Pandora so we can make a living there somewhat easier. However after we defeated the Destroyer, things decided to take a turn for the worse… in the form of a man called Handsome Jack.”
That just got Thorax, Shining and Cadance to all stare at him with wide eyes as their pupils shrunk down to the size of raisins. All while Twilight facehooved herself and Mordecai let out a sigh. “You forgot to mention that all of this happened on Pandora, our planet… not this one.”
“Yeah, that might’ve helped,” Twilight herself added on, before looking back at Roland. “Perhaps you should start back from the beginning. If I recall correctly from what Brick said, it all started five years ago…”
That just had Mordecai smile a bit in response as he looked back at the princess of friendship. “Heh… clever girl.”
The ensuing conversation lasted roughly about an hour or so. Roland recalled as much as he could from everything regarding the first vault being opened and the destroyer while Maya and Mordecai both took turns in order to explain the events of everything afterwards.
Of course, finding out that Roland had been ‘killed’ by Handsome Jack was a bit of a stir for Shining Armor… And part of him was resisting the urge to use a ‘life scan’ spell to see if his heart was still beating. Though, that just made Twilight think that her brother had seen one too many zombie movies, and unknowingly reminded both Roland and Mordecai of the ‘zombie island’ that was once owned by Dr. Ned.
After explaining the context behind what had happened on Pandora, they soon began to explain their reasons for being in Equestria. “So… let me see if I understand this correctly,” Thorax now spoke up. “This… Discord, brought you all here to search for one of these vaults your kind hunt… and to unlock it, you need six pieces of a key?”
“That’s right,” Maya told them, now pointing to the piece on her arm. “Two of my fellow Vault Hunters back in Ponyville already have a piece and that makes this one number three.”
“And what is it exactly that you hope to find in there?” Cadance’s question was one that Maya could not exactly reply too immediately. Mostly because of the fact that it was rather unknown as to what exactly was inside this particular vault.
“Well, that we are a bit unsure about right now… though, if anything, it won’t hurt just to try and find out.” Mordecai then added on, before looking around the room as a new question began to appear in his mind. “By the way, didn’t Princess Celestia say she was coming-” He was momentarily cut off when a bright flash of light filled the room as the alicorn he was referring too soon made her presence known. “-here?”
“Indeed I did,” Celestia said in response. “I apologize for the delay. I had to prematurely finish Day Court for the day in order to come here as quickly as I could. Now, what seems to be-”
Yet, in the moment that she was looking around the room, her eyes soon locked onto Spike and the changeling that stood next to him. Which, made Thorax quiver a bit in fear as he hid behind Spike. But before Princess Celestia could say or do anything, that was when her former student spoke up.
“Princess, let me be the first to say that Thorax here is not harmful. He’s a defector from Chrysalis’ Hive.”
“A defector?” Celestia then asked.
“Y-yes,” Thorax told her in response. “I-i wanted to learn what it was like to not have to steal emotion and joy from anypony else. That there was a better way in order to survive than what Chrysalis was doing now… I-i’m nothing like her.”
“He means it,” Spike added on. “He saved my life and in turn, I was able to help him be accepted into the Crystal Empire. Hopefully, you… could potentially give him a chance like we have.”
Celestia looked around the room for a moment, before looking back at her student, niece and the captain of the guard as she let out a sigh. “Alright… I guess. Though, if I recall correctly, I don’t think that this was what Spike’s letter was talking about when he said my presence was needed.”
“Oh right… That might have to do with us,” Maya added. “We kind of had to explain everything because when some of the hostile species from our planet tried to head for the crystal empire, we needed to change forms… though, after we did, Cadance kind of got hostile and I had to ‘convince’ her to not try anything and let us explain.”
“You mean intimidate?” Spike asked.
“More like threaten.”
“Twilight-”
Twilight’s subtle correction and Mordecai’s attempt in order to cut her off came as a shock to one unicorn in the room. Who, up until now, was rather suspicious of her. But on the revelation of that, Shining Armor was not just angry, but he was absolutely livid. “You threatened Cadance!?!!”
“Shining, no-!!”
Twilight and Cadance’s plea, along with Spike trying to hold him down did not stop the unicorn from trying to rush at Maya. However, all the other Vault Hunters did was just back up and give her some space. The siren herself, just smirked. She didn’t need any weapons for this. After all, she had other ways in order to try and knock some sense into him.
Of course, Shining himself had tried to rush directly at her, only for Maya to just dodge effortlessly as she looked back at her opponent. Their back facing the door as he tried to rush again. Then, the tattoos on her arm began to glow and shimmer, looking back at her opponent with what sounded like a bored tone as she said two words.
“Please stop.”
Shortly after saying that, the unicorn felt himself being suspended in midair in the middle of the hall. But with a motion to Maya’s arm, he was sent flying out through the main doors of the palace. The unicorn cursing as he fell down the steps.
Everybody in the room, including the vault hunters that were with her, just stared in shock. Maya though, just seemed genuinely surprised. “Hunh… well that never happened before,” She said to herself, before looking back at everypony else. “So where were we?”
Roland just facepalmed “Explaining to Celestia how we weren’t hostile towards the ponies here.” He then lets out a sigh as he drags his hand down his face. “But then again, he did try to attack you.” He then looks towards Celestia. “It’s been a, shall we say, wild ride since we got here.”
“I can tell,” Celestia replied. “My apologies on behalf of the Captain. Shining’s known to be very… defensive towards those that he cares for.”
“Well… why don’t we just explain to you what happened since we arrived here in the crystal empire then-?” Mordecai offered to the princess. However, it was as he was speaking that the armband that Discord gave him seemed to… fizzle a bit. Smoke was coming out as all eyes were on him. In a panic, he tried to take it off. But before he could, a flash of light went off. Blinding everyone in the room.
However, when the light began to simmer down, Mordecai wasn’t exactly human anymore. Somehow… for some reason, the band turned him into the last thing anyone expected. The hooves that he would have in his Equestrian form were now claws and talons. His muzzle was replaced with a beak as he looked back towards everyone.
“Uh… W-what just hit me?”
“Mordecai… I don’t want you to panic…” Spike now said, looking back at the hunter as the dragon tried to calm him down. “But you turned into a griffon.”
“I’m a what-?” Before he could say anymore, Mordecai looked down, only to see his reflection in the crystalline floor. And a few moments after seeing it, he did the only thing that would see logical.
He fainted.
Meanwhile…
“Lilith, I know that you wanted to just take a break and have a walk outside,” Gaige spoke to the siren as both her and Lilith were coming back inside from a stroll they had around Ponyville. “But was that really necessary?”
“What? I was just trying to show that I wasn’t interested in that guy.”
“You pushed him away and in turn, it set his mane on fire.” The Mechromancer deadpanned as they soon saw Axton in the middle of the castle of friendship.
“That was an accident.”
“He was lucky not to be liquified-” She said, just before the three of them had an unexpected visitor as Discord just popped in out of nowhere. “Hunh… Why hello, Discord. Any reason why you’re dropping by this afternoon?”
“Well, actually yes… I’m going to need you to give me the bands I gave you.” That statement alone had all three vault hunters looking at one another. Puzzled by his statement.
“Um… may I ask ‘why’?” Lilith asked.
“Well, I just got a letter from Twilight that some kind of complication involving the band your friend Mordecai was wearing turned him into that of a griffon,” Discord told them, before showing a projection of what appeared to be Mordecai’s transformation and him fainting a few seconds later. “Therefore, as a precaution, I’m taking the bands back temporarily so that the same thing doesn’t exactly happen to you. I rather not have one of you turn into a dragon, Yak or something else. And dear chaos, I rather not think about if this instance happened to your psycho friend, Krieg.”
Gaige herself willingly agreed to give hers up. Lilith shortly did the same as well. Yet, the commando in the room was not thrilled with the current predicament and was downright refusing to cooperate. Yet, Discord was not exactly one for wanting to ‘convince’ Axton to listen and with a snap of his talon, the commando’s band was back in his hand as he was forced back into his equine form.
“OH YOU MOTHERF*CKER!! GIVE ME THAT BAND BACK IMMEDIATELY!!”
“Nope. Sorry. Not until I put in the proper patches for it,” Discord said. At that point, Gaige was already trying to have Deathtrap told Axton down in order to prevent him from pouncing onto the draconequus. But it was as they were trying to restrain him that something else happened. Axton’s body began to glow and change. The fur on his body becoming scales and his quadruped form now becoming something more bipedal.
And when the light simmered down, Lilith herself was even surprised by it. “Uh… Axton? How exactly did you turn into a dragon?”
“H-Hold on a sec-” He started only to burp and breath a bluish fire in response. For a few seconds he stood there wide-eyed, until slowly a wide grin was forming on his face. “F*CK YEAH, I CAN BREATH FIRE BITCHES!!” Then, he turned towards the Siren. “Also I have no idea.”
Lilith could only let out a sigh as she looked back to Discord. Who only was there for two seconds before disappearing out of the room as she let out a sigh. “Well brilliant… what’s going to happen next?”
“Oh MY GOD, DID DISCORD LEAVE ME A NEW PRESENT!?!!” The voice of Tiny Tina shouted out as she proceeded to leap onto Axton. “BEST ASSISTANT EVER!!!”
That… just had Gaige begin to laugh her ass off as she looked back at Axton. “Oh god yes, she thinks your her version of Spike!!”
Before he could even think of a response, he felt a weird sensation on his back that wasn’t Tina. As looked back he noticed that he also has wings. “Before that, how do I use these?” Pointing to said wings.
“I have no idea bucko, but learning’s going to completely BUCKING AWESOME!!”
“F*CK YEAH IT IS!!”
All Lilith did now was just let out a groan. With all these recent events, she was beginning to realize that this was going to be a huge migraine just waiting to happen.
“I know what to do… Where do we find Rainbow Dash?” The Commando asked to those around.
“Somepony called my name?”
“Oh god no…”