Chapter 7: The puppet
Last chapter: When they reach there, there is not the one surgical table but this time two tables, ‘Tia lifts Treacle off her back and places her onto one of the tables as Kieron lays himself on the other, he closes his eyes as ‘Tia leaves them be to rest, pushing the others out too, “They need to rest for now. We’ll see them tomorrow.” She says to Twilight and Moonshine as they leave the facility, she then heads back to Canterlot for some sleep as the other head to the library to do the same.
Kieron slowly wakes up on the surgical table, he looks about to get his bearings, as he looks none of it seems familiar as he can’t remember anything about who he is, where he is or who he knows, he seems to have temporary amnesia!
Treacle Tart is gone; she must have already woken up. She was in the main room talking to Mathis as she is still a bit woozy from the long sleep and journey.
At the main door miss Cheerilee approaches as Mathis had requested that she was to take the two of them to school after monitoring their brain activity and finding that they need to ‘start over’ for a bit while they regain their memories.
As she gets to the door, Mathis appears, thanks her for coming, disappears and opens the door for her; she enters the facility, not even bothered about seeing such a strange place.
When she reaches the main room she sees Treacle and Kieron both sat staring at the screen, she enters and they both look over to her, Kieron at first had no reaction, Mathis introduces her to them and immediately Kieron starts to babble on in a monotone as memories rush to him about her, “Miss, Cheerilee, teacher of primary school foals, goes to the night-club ‘Melody’s Midnight Mares’, caring, kind and sweet.”
She is unsure of what to make of what happened but she still decides to take them to school, they both willingly follow her as she leads them out and towards the school.
It doesn’t take them long to reach the school. Cheerilee enters and all the foals sit down as a silence falls upon them, “Morning children, I’m sorry I’m late but we have two new students for a bit.”
When she finishes, she points to the door and Treacle Tart walks in, “This is Treacle Tart. She is just with us until she regains her memory, so please be nice to her. Okay Treacle, please take a seat.” She says as she points to a spare desk at the back of the classroom next to Scootaloo.
Cheerilee stands in silence as she waits for Kieron to walk in but he never does, “Kieron, be a gentleman and get in here, Please?” she asks him, his eyes open wide and without any resistance he walks in, when he gets next to her he shakes his head, looks around in confusion and then stares at the class.
“Hay, that’s the bad man that turned into the creature and killed those ponies.” Applebloom commented
.
“Applebloom, please, I said to be nice.” Cheerilee barks at her.
Kieron’s eyes half0shut as if was bored or tired, he starts to spurt out information about her after hearing her name as he remembers about her, “Applebloom, sister of Applejack, lives at Sweet Apple acres. A little filly trying to get her cutiemark by any means along with two others, they call themselves the ‘Cutiemark Crusaders’.”
He finishes and then walks over to a desk next to Sweetie Belle and sits down, “Why do I have to sit next to him? Why can’t he sit next to Diamond Tiara?” Sweetie Belle asks scared of the person next to her.
Cheerilee just glares at her, Sweetie Belle then puts her head down knowing to just be quiet, “Right class, today we are going to learn... who could that be?” she is interrupted by a knock on the door, she walks over to it, pokes her head out only to see Celestia stood on the other side, “PRINC...” she goes to shout but ‘Tia puts a hoof against her mouth.
“Shh...Let’s make this a surprise for the foals, nopony knows I’m here. I’m only here to check on Kieron and his pony, Mathis said I could find you here.” Celestia explains as Cheerilee knods her head, turns back to the class, and walks over to her desk.
“Who was it Miss Cheerilee?” Diamond Tiara asks her.
“It would seem we have a surprise guest today children. Princess Celestia is here!” she introduces her as ‘Tia unlocks the door with her magic and walks in gracefully. The class gasps and cheers as she walks in, even Treacle cheers but only to go along with it not really knowing who she is. Kieron sat and started mumbling word to himself that nopony could here over the cheering except Sweetie Belle who stops cheering, gets out of her chair and rushes over to Cheerilee for comfort, “What’s wrong Sweetie Belle?” she asks her.
“He’s mumbling something and its scaring me.” She replies pointing to Kieron, they look over to him to see him talking away to himself among the cheering foals whilst staring at Celestia. Cheerilee then gets the class to be quiet, as they calm down Kieron can be heard.
“...ruler of Equestria, the most powerful pony that lives, seen as a goddess. She lives in Canterlot castle with her sister. She has a small magic class of her own with one pony being the top of the class, can’t remember the name. Princess Celestia, the greatest creature to live, only one creature can rival her, and he is going to return one day, THEY will return...” he continues as it turns into more of a warning and demoralising battle talk, “SKULL will return one day, and when they do they will destroy everything in their path, kill everybody and every creature that crosses their path. The Grand Master will return and take this planet for his own and there is nothing you can do to stop him...” he continues to rant as he stands up, a fire in his eyes, he rises his arms as he looks up as if praising something, “..And I will lead them to glory and I will personally destroy this world one house at a time as I am the Overseer of SKULL...” He stops ranting as all of his memories rush to him as he remembers everything about himself and everything he knew before.
He begins to shake violently as his memories continue to rush to him, he grabs at his head, and ‘Tia immediately calls all of the foals to hide behind her thinking he is about to morph into the creature again. He begins to scream as he digs his nails into his head, his eyes changing colour from a hazel-grey to a deep red, “I...I am false, I am not real, I am a weapon. I was created to kill and destroy but...but something inside says to rebel against this, but I can’t I am loyal to him, I must be LOYAL!” he shouts out as he begins to throw up chairs and desks all over the place, he roars out as he throws them away, Treacle begins to try and stops him by pushing as him to make him fall over but he pushes he back a little, she comes back to try again, his power armour unfolds around him as he stops and slowly turns to her, “Oh, crap. Sorry.” She says to him as she dashes over to Celestia who is stood staring at him hoping he doesn’t go for them.
He looks over to the scared children and Miss Cheerilee to see them all shivering with fear, he then looks at Celestia and lowers his arms, his helmet folds back to reveal him looking at her with a sorrowful face, “I’m so sorry, I...I’m a monster, I a monster meant to only kill and destroy. I don’t want to hurt any of you but something is making be like this, I don’t know what.” He cries out to them.
Just then a bleep emits from his armour, he grabs a holographic projector and places it on the floor, Mathis appears, “Sir, I found...are you okay? Never mind. I have found an embedded message from the Grand Master inside the message he sent you about Treacle Tart. I will play it now.” He then disappears. I masked figure appears, pulls the mask off to reveal the Grand Master’s face and begins to talk in an ordering voice.
“Kieron, I want you to listen carefully. I want you to kill the princess known as Celestia...” Kieron and everypony stand in shock at the image; they look at Kieron who shakes his head in disapproval.
“I will do no such thing, I would never kill her” he replies to the image even though it can’t hear him.
“...But I thought about this and knew you might refuse so I have no choice but to take forceful action. Kieron, be a gentleman and kill Princess Celestia, thank you.” The images disappears, everypony looks back at Kieron who is wide-eyed as if he is trying to battle himself.
“No, no, I mustn’t. I can’t kill her...but he ordered me to kill her, I must follow his orders...but I vowed to protect the ponies of Equestria, I VOWED!!.....death, the one thing I am best at, death to the Princess.” He argues with himself before his eyes turn to a deep red again, his helmet unfolds round his head and he begins to walk towards Celestia.
“Kieron, no, don’t do it. Don’t listen to him, fight it, you said you vowed to protect them not kill them.” Treacle Tart shouts at him but it makes no difference. He continues to walk towards ‘Tia, who uses her magic to push him back with one big magical force push, this does nothing as he begins to walk towards her from the back of the classroom. She then walks slightly to him right and he turns to walk direct at her as if following her, she then realises and to protect the foals she walks out the school with him following her, she then takes flight to hover in the sky, he stops, looks up at her and points at her.
She stares at him as he puts his arms down by his side, he then suddenly jumps up and the boosters in the bottom of his boots activate but they weren’t meant for flight so he only launches up into the sky towards her, they deactivate and he slows down as he closes in on her, her horn glows as she readies for him to get close to her.
He then suddenly activates them again, launching him straight into her, she gasps as her breath is knocked out of her, “Your life will be mine, and I will have your head as a trophy for my wall.” He threatens her as he pulls out a knife from a sheath in the armour. Her horn glows brightly as she teleports them to Canterlot, the knife being thrown away from his grasp in the process.
<On board the HLV Malevolence, earth orbit>
"The ponies of Equestria may have Kieron's heart, but his mind still belongs to me" an evil voice calls from the large chair in the middle of the room. All of the officers and him in the room then begin to laugh evilly, “Now, send a frigate to the planet to knock on their door for a bit.” He orders.
“Yes, sir.” An officer says as he goes out the room and talks over an earpiece to a SKULL captain, “Kill them all.”
<Back on Equestria>
‘Tia and Kieron suddenly appear inside of the main hall of Canterlot castle, he looks at his hand to see the knife gone, he growls at her as she looks about to think of where to go and what to do to stop him, he then puts his arm over his shoulder and pulls out a sniper rifle, not the best choice for close quarters combat and points it at her. They both stand at a stalemate.
Fortunately Mathis detected where they were and Moonshine rushed through the teleporter in the mech facility to his room and flew to the castle, she arrives at the castle doors to see him pointing the gun at her, she did even look scared by the situation, Moonshine sneakily creeps up behind him and pulls at one of his legs causing him to fall over, he pulls the trigger as an automatic reflex but the gun points to the ground and shoots, the bullet strikes the ground, deflects of it and whizzes past Celestia’s head, she gasps as this happens seeing her life flash before her eyes.
“Am I dead?” she asks herself.
“No, but you will be soon.” Kieron replies as he whacks Moonshine with the butt of his rifle and gets up onto his feet, Celestia then uses her magic to pull his guns off him and hit him with the butt of it, this does nothing, and she then uses her power to pull it to pieces.
“Why Kieron? Why can’t you just be a gentleman for once?” Moonshine calls out, Kieron then suddenly stops still with his arms out to his sides, he stands as if waiting for something.
“Awaiting you order.” He replies as the armour folds up revealing him staring straight ahead. His eyes were back to normal, no ounce of violence was in his body.
“What did you do to him?” Celestia asks interested.
“I didn’t do anything, I just asked him if could just be a gentleman for once.” She replies, Kieron’s eyes shut tight then open.
“Wha...what happened?” he asks them, “Why am I in Canterlot? Why aren’t I in the school? What happened?” he says as he begins to panic.
“Oh, I am going to have so much fun with you now, Kieron...” she responds with an evil look on her face, “Be a gentleman, and...Kiss Celestia!” she shouts out.
“What? Moonshine no.” ‘Tia calls out as Kieron dives at her knocking them to the ground. He then locks their lips together as ‘Tia tries her best to resist. After a few minutes of kissing Moonshine sat down and began to rub herself as she got excited from watching the two of them.
Finally Celestia manages to push Kieron away enough for her to get some words out, “Kieron, be a gentleman and stop what you are doing...” He suddenly stops trying to kiss at her and starts straight at her, no into her, “And just be yourself.” His eyes shut tight before opening slowly, he looks down at her not realising where he is, it doesn’t take long as his eyes open wide, his face shocked and he jumps up off her onto his back on the floor.
“What just happened? What did she make me do?” he asks as he looks over to Moonshine who is enjoying herself, rubbing furiously, “MOONSHINE! Stop that. Now, what did you make me do?” he demands.
She stops, dripping as she gets up and walks over to him, puts her head next to his and whispers, “I made you snog the princess. He he he” His eyes open as wide as they could, his cheeks blush red, “I’ll see you later then, I’m going to find somepony to be with.” She says as she trots off as if nothing happened. Kieron slowly turns to looks at ‘Tia and smiles lightly trying to hide what he heard, she gets up and sits next to him, uses her magic to sit him up, and watches Moonshine leave.
“Don’t worry about it too much Kieron. As long as you didn’t hurt any of the foals...”
“What?! Hurt the foals, what exactly happened to me?” he asks.
“You had a burst of memories come to you after hearing my name at the school, you then went a bit insane after realising who you were and what you were meant for, you then got a message from the Grand Master telling you to kill me by using a phrase that makes you do anything. Either that or you really wanted to kiss me...” She explains as he blushes more, looking at her sitting tall beside her, she looks down at him with her eyes; he then rests his head against her side.
“At least I didn’t kill you, I don’t know if you remember but I vowed to protect you and the ponies of Equestria.” He says to her.
“Yes I know. You had a little argument with yourself about it before your eyes changed colour to a deep red and set out to kill me, thankfully after I teleported us here Moonshine came to the rescue and knew the phrase or she said it by accident and stopped you from trying to kill me but at least the foals aren’t hurt and new everything is fine now.” She comforts him as she puts a hoof round him to give him a hug.
Not long afterwards a couple of guards rush in, “Princess, something is wrong with Princess Luna, she is having some sort of fit.” He comments in a panicked voice, Celestia quickly stands up, Kieron then gets up and they both follow the guard to Luna’ room.
<At Luna’s room>
Luna is laid on her bed screaming as she sees images of Equestria in ruins, flames everywhere, she is stood in the middle of Ponyville in the dark, buildings are burning around her and in the shadows in front of her is a pair of red, glowing eyes that suddenly lunge towards her.
Kieron and Celestia burst through the doors, running up to her as she screams even louder and then begins to spurt out random things, “They are coming. They’re going to kill us, all of us, all the foals, all the ponies. We can’t stop them, we can’t stop them.” She then looks up to see Celestia sat next to her comforting her, she looks round the room to see a couple of guards stood worried, she then looks over to see Kieron stood, she stares at him as his image begins to change into that of the mysterious figure in the shadows, “IT’S HIM, HE WILL KILL US!” she shouts as she cowers behind ‘Tia.
Celestia looks at him as he lowers his head is realisation, “What is she talking about Kieron? She sounds like you from earlier.” She asks him.
“I was having memories and having an evil rant, I remember what happened now but she isn’t having that, she’s having a premonition. I’ve seen them happen before to Treacle Tart, they seem to only come to unicorns...” he explains. He then sits down on the bed, puts a hand on Luna’s hoof to reassure her that he won’t hurt her, “They are normally true, what she is talking about is...She’s talking about SKULL coming back. If this is true then I am afraid that many ponies will die, but I won’t allow that, I will protect you all, for now I can only start to set up defences and begin to make...” he suddenly stops as his eyes widen after he gets a notice from Mathis that a relay network has been detected, “Oh god, no please, NO!” he shout as he rushes out the room.
<Canterlot entrance>
Kieron pushes open the doors and stares into the sky; Celestia appears behind him as she chased after him, “Kieron, what’s wrong? Why is everypony acting weird lately?” she questions.
“Luna had a premonition, I had memory flashbacks. Luna’s premonition...is about to come true, look.” He replies as he points to the sky where a bright flash is seen despite being midday, “They’re here, SKULL has returned, and I have no defences ready.”
<In orbit of the planet>
A SKULL frigate slowly approaches the planet after coming out of light travel, as it approaches the planet it releases a small satellite-like pod, it was a relay node that allows for instant communications over very large distances.
The ship comes to a stop in orbit of the planet. On the bridge the captain is sat and says to an officer, “We have a couple of Havoc mechs on boards, Yes? Deploy them, rip that small town apart.” He points to an image of Ponyville brought up on the main screen. The officer salutes, walks over to a console, presses a button and announces for the mechs to be ready for landing.
Not long afterwards a bay door on the bottom of the ship opens, three mechs are held up above the gap by a crane, one by one the crane releases them, they slowly fall towards the planet by gravity but as they fall they turn and the backs glow bright as the boosters charge up. The boosters activate and the three mechs propel towards the surface with amazing speed.
<On the surface>
Kieron sees the flashes of light and notice that they are moving, “NO, Havoc mechs, this isn’t usual, frigates never have mechs onboard, not Havoc mechs at least. Celestia get inside and get everyone to a safe place, no wait, they’re heading for Ponyville. I must get to the mech hanger now, but there’s no way of getting there quick enough, I can’t protect them, the ponies, they’re going to be killed, how can I protect them?” he asks himself frustrated. She walks up behind him and puts hoof on his shoulder, she then looks down at the mech facility, closes her eyes, puts her head down, and they both quickly teleport.
The mechs enter the atmosphere as they begin to burn up. It doesn’t take long for them to get to the surface; they slam straight into the ground, one mech lands right in the village hall, the others around it. Dust quickly covers the area, as many ponies are thrown about by the impacts; other ponies go to help them as confusion sets in.
<At the mech facility>
Kieron and Celestia suddenly appear in the main room; he quickly gets his bearings and runs off to the mech hanger, “Get the recruits to get to the hanger, now!” he shouts as he is soon out of earshot. She looks around in panic to see nopony about.
He soon reaches the mech hanger where Ambush in already waiting for him, he runs along the gang way and leaps into the core, straps himself in, the hanger doors begin to open, the core shuts, he then walks over to the doors and forcefully opens them. He then boosts over to Ponyville where the three mechs rise up out of the craters and begins to look round.
He quickly reaches Ponyville and lands in front of the three mechs who all look at him and ready for battle, “It’s the Overseer, he’s come to help.” One of the pilots calls out.
“No, he isn’t. Look he’s targeting us, be careful, this is the Overseer we’re talking about, he’s the one with the most combat experience in these mechs.” Another pilot replies.
“So what now, do we kill him” the third pilot asks.
“No, I kill you.” Kieron responds as his face appears on their screens.