We landed just as the moon started to rise up beyond the horizon, though at the moment we couldn’t really see it. We were deep within a small forested meadow outside the deer territory. Sacred Glade had long passed out from her constant scream though it made her easy to carry around at the very least. She weighed very little.
I allowed myself some rudimentary scans noting only minute movement of small animals hidden in the underbrush. The deer hadn’t gotten to marching out against other races just yet. The alternative was that they had bunkered in because they were consolidating power. There was no way that someone could have told them that I was on the way.
Then I remembered that Discord was a threat here and that I was his mortal enemy. I was glad Glade was passed out, otherwise, she would have seen the sheer disappointment on my face at losing the element of surprise.
“Am I dead?” Glade snorted out as she regained her senses.
“No. I told you we were gonna make it within the day. We have a small hike to get closer but I did that on purpose.” I mentioned. I had an ulterior motive at the moment. I don’t know what she took that as but she started blushing.
“I don’t feel that way - “ She started only for me to put my hand over her mouth to stop her.
“I thought we already got over that. I’m not interested. I’m basically a golem.” I quickly amended and while my human mind could see the need for companionship… my robotic mind quickly quashed that since I didn’t have those kind of needs anymore. I wasn’t sure if I liked that or not but that was neither here nor there.
“Then what did you want to do?” She quietly coughed quickly embarrassed about what she started to say.
“We get to know each other… through words. I take it that you got hit on a lot?” I started as we walked forward. Nana was already preparing her Biometal form ready.
“It was something that happened a lot during the last week… a lot of fellow thestrals died during her reign.” Glade mentioned darkly as her gaze lowered.
“I’m sorry it came to that…” I didn’t know what else to say. I hated saying sorry… it wasn’t something I enjoyed saying but not because I wasn’t sympathetic. It’s because most of the time when someone said sorry it was because they were sorry that they were caught. At least that was how it felt with me.
“No… don’t. I knew what was going to happen. I could tell the moment that those crystals started glowing. It got worse the moment that that pegasus showed up out of nowhere.” Glade admitted. She scowled at the ground before she looked back up. “She and I use the word lightly after what I saw… wasn’t an ally at all.”
“Corundum is truly a sick pony. Splitting his soul into every gem he found using his abilities. The moment he became what he was he probably wanted to make sure to keep himself alive as possible. There’s no better way to do so then make your phylactery something valuable and corrupting. Most of the time.” I postulated though it didn’t really fit.
The problem with Corundum wasn’t that he was still alive in some twisted form. It was what he became through his actions. He was, for lack of a better term, a lich. A creature of magic and death, yet his transformation into an Umbrum seemed to overwrite the more damaging effects of being a lich. He didn’t absorb the life out of the very particles of air around him. He was perfectly contained within each jewel perfectly content to drag whatever body was using his soul jar into becoming his new host. Crystallizing the poor unsuspecting fool into another pseudo body to use until death.
Crystal Shears wasn’t the only being that had been missing from the Crystal Empire, if the communique that Platinum delivered was true. Two other ponies had disappeared during the five days I had been working on creating a base. An Earth Pony and a Unicorn, both of the crystal variant, had trekked out into the snow never to be seen again. Each held a strange scent of death of them as well which was unfortunately ignored with all the repairs being done on the city.
“What kind of pony would do that? I mean, I get it, we’re the dark brooding type based on our looks but that’s something beyond wrong.” Glade’s voice broke my musings and Nana quickly relayed the important bits.
“Yes. It’s even worse that he has such a perverse interest in me.” I groaned when I said that out loud.
“Uh… what do you mean?” Glade stopped looked highly confused.
“He wants to capture and use my body as his own. Remember what he did to all the thestrals who had gems embedded in them. Think what he could do if he had my body instead.” I stated quietly which elicited a shudder from her.
“I don’t even want to think about that.” Glade admitted.
I didn’t say anything else after that. We walked in silence until the forest ending into another clearing. We were already on the border of what could be considered Deer country. Before I could initiate our mission Nana immediately started to beep.
‘X, we’ve detected a pod nearby. It was difficult to find but something has moved it. If only slightly. I’ve pinpointed a direction now.’ Nana informed me sending me into indecisiveness.
‘What does the thaumic sensor indicate?’ I questioned silently while Glade stood by looked all over the field before we made any move.
“X are we moving now?” Glade spoke up.
“Not yet. Something important has come to my attention. This might be paramount to our continued survival.” I mentioned quietly as I ducked a bit more behind the brush.
I wasn’t going to be winning any hiding competition anytime soon. I was a blue and cyan colored reploid in a completely green forest. Even if I used the Chameleon Sting or Spike Ball weapon to change my color palette, they would be too bright to actually blend in well here. Especially at night.
“Is it that important?” Glade questioned not completely convinced when I stated that.
“Yes… come on we need to figure out where it is while I still have the right direction locked.” I complained slightly. I wanted my abilities back and this particular one would unlock another of my cyber elf companions. Without waiting for her to accept I picked her up and dashed east of where the Deer Village was location. I didn’t know the name of what they called their home and I may have ignored Glade’s complaints as I followed the faint signal Nana had found.
“You’re fucking kidding me…” Glade let out as we stood on the edge of a very large swamp. It wasn’t as big as most swamps like I once saw when I went to the Everglades but it was a decent size.
I ignored Glade’s remark since I was busy scanning the area for any sign of what I was searching for. Sure enough… there on one of the smaller islands was the familiar metal disc of a capsule. Still… the thaumic sensor didn’t lie. Something overly filled with magic must have been in the area.
“What’s in this area?” I quietly asked my fear struckpartner who still hadn’t moved from her spot.
“This is a hydra nest…” Her teeth chattered from fear most likely.
I switched over to Boomerang Cutter and charged up my weapon before switching over to my Falcon Armor. I shouldn’t have.
The moment my jets came to life the entire swamp rumbled in excitement. A long head zoomed out of the swamp… followed by a second and then a third. They eyed me before the middle head attempted to snap down on me.
I punched the closest tooth I could reach using the impact to knock me out of reach of the swamp. The moment my fist made impact I chipped the tooth, albeit, only slightly. The other two heads looked over the damage. The slight undertones of worry flared over their visage. I don’t think they were used to dealing with something that could fight back so directly. Glade immediately backed off hiding in the shadows of whatever tree she could find. Even with her pale coat, a thestral was still a master of stealth it seemed.
The other two heads lunged forth as I switched back to the First Armor. I released Boomerang Cutter allowing the charge shot to go off. They stopped a hairbreadth from the range of the energy blades seeing them tearing through stone and earth in the process.
I readied my arm cannon once more as they scowled down at me. I was small and dangerous to them most likely and they seemed smart enough to realize that. The three heads looked around seeing the metallic object I had tried flying to. The leftmost head from my position grabbed it in its maw and left it near me. It glared furiously in my direction before forcing the other two heads to return to the swamp.
That was something I enjoyed about predators. They knew when a meal was more trouble than it was worth. With their size it would cost them too much energy to eat me and if I was inside them there was no guarantee I wouldn’t cut my way out. It was a logical choice in the long term.
“Are you insane or something!? I mean, what am I even talking about. Of course you’re insane. I have to be insane to be working willingly with you.” Glade ranted as she soared back down to my side.
“Pretty much. I knew what I was doing.” I lied though my tone was even and calm. I didn’t know what I was doing. Honestly, I was preparing Boomerang Cutter to cut my way out of its body.
“Was this thing even worth it!? It’s a big metal disc thingie.” She muttered slowly under her breathe. She realized that we found something I wanted. Something I was looking for.
“Yup. Give me a second to get my prize.” I stated as the tube opened up.
Still no Dr. Light appeared before me. I stepped into the light and I waited for the information to be downloaded into my brain.
=Weapon Archive Unlocked=
=Releasing Series Four Seal: Eight Armaments Unlocked=
-Lightning Web: Web Spider Module Unlocked
-Soul Body: Split Mushroom Module Unlocked
-Aiming Laser: Cyber Peacock Module Unlocked
-Double Cyclone: Storm Owl Module Unlocked
-Rising Fire: Magma Dragoon Module Unlocked
-Frost Tower: Frost Walrus Module Unlocked
-Ground Hunter: Jet Stingray Module Unlocked
-Twin Slasher: Slash Beast Module Unlocked
=Archive Pod Sigma War Reploid Invasion Number Four Package=
-Downloading Force Armor-
=ETA 24 Hours=
-Cinnamon Module Active-
-25%-
-50%-
-75%-
-...done.-
=Activating Cyber Elf Program “Cinnamon”=
‘Oh my… my oh my oh my… X? Why are we in a swamp? In these conditions any patients might become infected. We need to get… that pony? Why is there a pony?’ Cinnamon squealed slightly from the sudden shift away from the remnants of the Maverick Hunter Base after the events in Giga City. Her father Gaudile had reluctantly joined with the Hunters after Epsilon and Redips had been both dealt with and retired.
‘Allow me Cinnamon. We have been translocated to another reality it seems. From my calculations and the assistance of Fefnir and Harpuia we think we have come up with a plausible theory.’ Nana presented the Two Guardians which Cinnamon quickly waved to. ‘Some time between our battle against Omega and the creation of Arcadia a select few of us were turned into small modules and outfitted into Commander X’s armor. We each provide powers to him and he can create modules for us to attach to another being for simple use. Most likely it was a transporter malfunction or something of the sort. Unfortunately whatever reality we ended up on doesn’t have the technology to assist us in return.’
‘My word! What about our other friends? Where are Marino, Massimo, Leviathan, Axl, Phantom, and Zero?’ Cinnamon stopped her explanation. Cinnamon had been the bubbliest of all the reploids who joined the hunters… even if only reluctantly due to the machinations of Redips and his desire for the Supra-force Metal.
‘They can communicate with us but until X finds our coinciding modules we can’t manifest within his psyche. We can’t manifest outside his body for the moment. An enemy force has proven itself to be quite hostile to our leader as of late. As it is at the moment we are the only reploid forces in this world.’ Nana explained while Harpuia an Fefnir remained quiet.
‘At least we aren’t alone I suppose…’ Cinnamon mentioned off handedly.
‘Damn right! As soon as we find the other two modules for Master X the Four Guardians shall specifically lead the vanguard for our trek to find a way home and should we not find one then we shall create a new Hunter Base for our organization to grow!’ Fefnir exclaimed getting pumped up. Had he not been in my mind, in cyber elf form, he would have shot fire out everywhere around him in jubilation.
‘So long as none of you decide that killing yourself in a suicide attack is worth it then I’m okay with you helping in building with the base I’m already making for us.’ I chimed in before they could get too far into planning.
‘Yes Master X. I trust you’ve already laid the groundwork.’ Harpuia bowed, even in my mind he was unerringly polite, making me feel a bit sad I couldn’t get him to help more.
‘The tunnel was created but I need you all to look over my designs until I can find a way to procure metal… more metal at the very least.’ I mentally commanded.
What felt like an hour long conversation ended only a few seconds later. Our shared connection through my internal systems made it easy enough to handle these small asides. I also needed them to make better designs. We didn’t have the means to actually topographically scan the entirety of the planet and we probably never would. Unless I could actually create and launch a satellite into orbit in a way that would never let it fall back into the atmosphere we weren’t going to have that. Besides, even if I did there would always be the chance that some unicorn was going to see it in a telescope and find a way to bring it back down to the planet like an idiot.
“What…what was that?” Glade spoke up making me acknowledge her once again. I could tell she had a whole lot of questions since I did just punch a hydra’s teeth in making it stop it’s rampage long before it started. Another shining example of might being right in this day and age.
Though that was how it went. Wild animals are territorial and predators will hunt you if they think you’re easy. Make them work too hard and they’ll decide against hunting you for the most part. It’s not always a guarantee and only works if you’ve actually got the power to do so. It worked so far against the manticore and the flying spider creatures and it seemed that my luck held out even against the hydras of this world as well.
“Something I’m looking for. Keep it to yourself for now and never say anything to anyone. I have an enemy who likes to shapeshift into regular beings just to trick others into his twisted games.” I quietly knelt down to her placing my hand against her cheek just to make sure she keeps eye contact with me. “Understand?”
“Yes. I don’t really get it but if you’re willing to do something stupid like tame a hydra then it must be worth it.” Glade nodded as I pulled my hand away.
“I didn’t tame it though. I just made it realize who was more dangerous here.” I admitted and quickly led her as far away from the swamp as possible.
Discord had quickly sown the seeds of chaos around the camp and in doing so cut off a few strings that Corundum had been using to watch the action. This was his playground for the foreseeable future and he didn’t need a stick in the mud stopping his fun. He did note that one of the more muscle-ly deer had been dragged away by a crystal pegasus. It followed willingly but he did note that his name was Cedar. It wasn’t that important.
Corundum could have his plaything so long as he didn’t try anything else here. The remnants of his soul left in the other deer played along the moment Discord touched their foreheads discording them into much more fun puppets.
From the movement and trajectory of the sun and moon and the constant shifting of the giant mayonnaise jar he placed in the sky, Discord was confident that he would be having fun. A few warped parts, maybe add some chocolate decorations and he would be all set to go against whatever happened today. Besides… he didn’t need genocide to happen today.
Discord was all for the natural order of the world. The natural order of course being all chaotic. Nature was where it was at… at least for the moment. It would give him a good chuckle to see the chaos that ensued.
There was only one problem though. A small teensy itsy bitty problem. One iota of a snag that seemed to be out of his control or better said lack of control. X wasn’t here yet. He wanted to have some more fun before he went off to do other things… maybe get into a small tussle just to mix it up a bit but there were other things he needed to do.
Another mass of shadows was getting too big for its britches and needed to be spanked back into submission. It was getting too close to dragon lands and he didn’t need it causing too many problems for his eventual playground. That would just be too rude after all. With a snap he disappeared into the aether leaving Sequoia back in charge… though with all the suggestions Discord stuffed into his head… who’s to say whose in charge here anymore.