Celestia blinked. “What was that?”
Getting up, Mecha made his way out of the room, all three mares and the soldier following him. “There's a giant Wrath forsaken army of soulless creatures approaching,” he started, “and, stop me if I'm wrong,” he said to the soldier, “but we should have good news and bad news.”
“Okay...” Cheerilee started, “how about you lighten this up with the good news?”
“The good news is,” Mecha replied, “they shouldn't be here for another three or four days.” Hearing a sigh of relief from Luna, Mecha continued, “The bad news is, is that their pace is being set by the two aboleths with them.”
This caused the group to freeze, only to snap out of it when Mecha kicked a door open and shouted, “Get your Sloth forsaken butts out of here! We've got an emergency to deal with!”
At which point the classroom filled with students left, their teacher following shortly after. Walking up to the chalkboard, Mecha grabbed a piece and started writing some calculations up on the board. “All right,” Celestia started, shaking her head, “How the hey do you know all this?”
“Lust's curse must've backfired or something,” Mecha replied, never looking away from the board. “Instead of doing any damage that I can tell, she instead left me an imprint of her last few day's worth of memories. Me passing out was most likely from either the mental overload or the stress her 'death' had.”
Both princesses nodded their heads, before Luna asked, “Then what are we up against?”
“A giant menagerie of the deadliest creatures in the world,” Mecha replied. “And to make it worse, they all lack souls, removing any sense of self preservation they should have.”
The soldier flinched lightly, but was still somehow caught by Mecha. “Don't worry though, they still lack upper tier thought that most ponies have.”
“Most ponies?” Cheerilee asked.
“Yeah,” Mecha replied, continuing his work on the board. “You'll find a distinct lack of it in 90% of the noble population. Anyways, back to work- have Shining and Cadence left for their honeymoon yet?”
“No,” Celestia answered, “they were going to stick around another day or two in case you woke up. Also gave them the chance to iron out the details.”
“Good,” Mecha said, nodding to himself. “You-” he suddenly shouted, pointing at the soldier, “Go get Shining Armor and Solaris, tell them we have an invasion to counter and bring them here!”
“Sir yes sir!” was the soldier's reply, saluting Mecha before running out the room.
“Celestia, find Twilight and tell her that I need her to go grab Rainbow Dash, Nimbus, and another Pegasus named Kickback*, and if you or her see my brother at any time, send him this way as well!” Mecha continued, still writing on the board.
“Got it!” Celestia replied, quickly exiting.
“Cheerilee, you go find the girls and get them back to Ponyville, it won't be safe here once that army gets within three miles of the wall,” here, Mecha did stop for a moment, before shaking his head.
“Understood,” Cheerilee replied, before giving Mecha a quick peck on the cheek and leaving.
“And what about me?” Luna inquired.
“I need you to get me a giant room with hollow walls, and fill it with smelting equipment,” Mecha told her.
Blinking, Luna didn't ask about the odd specifications, deciding to trust Mecha as she left.
LINEBREAKER
Mecha took in a deep breath, before setting down the piece of chalk that he'd been using. Turning, he saw that everypony he'd asked for had been brought to the room, before he nodded and started, “Who here hasn't been informed about what's happening?”
When nopony said anything, he continued, “Then let's cut to the chase.” He took out some paper and a few quills, and started writing as he said, “Shining Armor, Solaris, you two and I will be staying here to plan out the actual defense force when we're done here, otherwise please wait until the end to say anything.”
Getting a grim nod from both, Mecha folded the two notes he'd written, before handing the first to Rainbow Dash, and said, “Get that to my aunt in Ponyville ASAP- I don't care how many windows you break going Sonic Rainboom to do so, just get this to her.”
Nodding her head, Rainbow took the letter and took off through the window, a soft boom being heard shortly after. Turning to Nimbus, he handed him the other note, saying, “You have a bit further to go. You remember those two fellows that owe me a favor out of country?”
“The ones staying with the Zebra family whose daughter you saved?” Nimbus asked.
“There very same,” Mecha replied. “This letter goes to that family, and they'll get it to them. I'd normally have you go to Ponyville and Rainbow take this letter, but...”
“She can't maintain her speeds over long distances,” Nimbus finished, “while I can.”
“Eeyup,” Mecha replied, signaling his friend to go. “Godspeed.”
Nodding, Nimbus took off through the same window Rainbow Dash had.
“Kickback, can you still learn any weapon in two days?” Mecha asked.
“If I put my mind to it, sure,” Kickback replied. “Why though?”
“Because you're going to learn how to use a weapon I invented that should be quite effective against the hydras,” Mecha replied, as he turned to face his brother. “My order of Discordant metal arrive?”
“Yeah,” Shine Sight replied. “It's waiting at the warehouse for ya.”
“Good,” Mecha started, “I need you to-”
“Could you explain what the hey Discordant metal is?” Celestia asked, “And why it's in Canterlot?”
Sighing, Mecha replied, “Because it's one of the Royal Metals, and I need it.”
Eyebrow quirked, Luna asked, “Royal Metals? I've never heard of those before. Would you mind explaining?”
Taking in a deep breath, Mecha closed his eyes, before saying, “Royal Metals, named so after the fact that most of them come about due to the influence of some member of royalty, with few exceptions. They are basically the magical metals of this world, that come about due to the influence that magically powerful creatures, such as yourselves and Discord, release. Each metal takes on a property that seems to match up with they influencer- Nightmare metal causes nightmares, Celestial metal counters it, Lunar metal causes a relaxing drowsy feeling, and Discordant metal randomly changes colors. Furthermore, each reacts with magic in various ways, from either absorbing it to channeling it.”
“Oh,” was Celestia's reply.
“Yes, oh,” Mecha shot back. “Anyways, Discordant metal repels magic, which is why it'll be lining the walls of the forge room I had you prepare Luna.”
“Got it,” she replied, before walking with Shining Armor to grab the metal.
“Wait, why do you need a magic repelling room?” Twilight inquired.
“Because when Rainbow Dash gets back here with my Hydra scale, I don't want it reacting with anything while melting it down,” Mecha informed. “And yes, I'll be melting a lot of it, so unless you want me to blow the town up for the army, you won't be entering that room until I say it's clear.”
Nodding her head, Twilight sat back down. “Now that that's dealt with,” Mecha said, turning towards Solaris and Shining Armor, “Let's get down to the nitty gritty of our defenses.”
LINEBREAKER
Several hours later, Mecha was double checking the metal lined walls of his new workspace, before nodding his head. “It'll do,” he said, as the last of the supplies he needed were dropped off. “When the Hydra scale gets here, I'll be able to-”
“Delivery!” Rainbow Dash shouted, directing four ponies carrying two heavy chests towards Mecha. “Fresh from Ponyville.”
“Good! Bring them in and get out! I'm going to need every second possible if I want this done right!” Mecha hollered, pointing to where he wanted the chests placed. When they were on the floor, Mecha all but pushed them out of the room, before shutting the door and sealing himself in. Taking in a deep breath, Mecha got the furnace running, and started the tedious process of melting down the treated scales.
LINEBREAKER
Several hours later, Mecha was sitting down as the last of the first batch of scale melted, recalling his introduction of a gun to Kickback. Grinning, he recalled the gleam in his friend's eyes when he showed him what it was and how it worked, before all but yanking it from his hooves. Needless to say, Mecha was expecting some interesting results from his training before the final showdown.
Noticing that the scale had finished melting, Mecha got up, and started pouring the large amount of molten scale into the mold. When he finished, he nodded to himself before rapidly turning himself around, him mechanical leg shifting into it's gunblade form, clicking as a bullet was chambered.
Normally, a pony locked in a room by himself would be considered insane for doing this. Normally, that'd be true. However, instead of pointing at nothing, Mecha was instead pointing at a glowing figure.
Said figure had clear, but feathered, wings, which it was slowly flapping to stay about an inch off the ground. It's appearance was slightly startling, as it appeared to be of a female angelic... human, if Lyra's rantings about the subject were to be believed, Mecha figured. Frowning, Mecha asked, “What are you doing here?”
Tilting her head slightly, the figure asked, “Come now, is this how you treat angels?”
Without moving a muscle, Mecha replied, “No, it's not.”
“Then why do you treat me this way?” she asked, he voice sounding like bells on a Sunday service.
“Because you're not an angel,” Mecha said.
Frowning, the figure replied, “You don't believe in angels? Even after fighting demons in Hell? Are you so cynical that you don't believe in Heaven?”
“What I believe means nothing,” Mecha started, “For you're not an angel. You're a fey.”
Startled, the lady stared at Mecha, before she started to giggle, slowly shrinking in size until she could easily have hidden behind a tennis ball. “How'd you know?” she asked, her voice now sounding more like a child's than the angelic melody it was earlier.
“An angel would shift to the form most comfortable visually to the guest- most often of their species. A fey, however, would never stoop that 'low', but are willing to change their size,” Mecha replied. “And I highly doubt a human- and I'm guessing here based on Lyra's rant- would be all that comforting to me. So what are you doing here?”
Sighing, the fey replied, “Yeah, my form is similar to that of a human. But I'm here to offer-”
“Not interested,” Mecha cut off, his frown deepening. “So unless you want to be trapped in cold iron...”
“Don't you even want to hear my offer?” she asked, a panicked look on her face.
“Eenope. Fey cause nothing but trouble,” Mecha replied.
Licking her lips, they little fey started to head back towards the wall, saying, “Very well. But this won't be the last you hear from us...”
As she slipped through the wall, Mecha sighed before collapsing on the floor. “No, it won't be,” he said to himself, before shivering. “Demons, fey, and soulless creations... what's next, and actual angel coming through the roof?”
Letting out another sigh, Mecha stood back up. “Well, if one does show up, he or she better have some experience with a smelter or else they're getting the boot!” he said, as he got back to work.
LINEBREAKER
It had taken him a total of two days to get his second mold poured, as well as for them both to cool. With a final inspection, Mecha nodded his head before walking out, making his way towards the field where everypony was training.
Stopping only to glance at Kickback's training with his new weapon, Mecha smirked when he managed to hit a bull's eye from over 50 yards. Deciding not to interrupt, he continued on, making his way towards Celestia and Luna, who were talking to a familiar figure...
Eyes widening, Mecha heard Celestia say, “I'd like to tha-”
“STOP!” Mecha shouted, a look of rage upon his face as he startled everypony nearby. Turning to face him, Celestia was about to question him when he seemed to disappear, reappearing in front of the person she'd been talking to, sword extended and at her throat. “I thought I told you we didn't want help from the fey.”
Gulping, the fey from earlier replied, “You'd only said you weren't interested... you never mentioned the rest of the army.”
“It was implied,” Mecha told her, pushing his blade against her, causing a slight hiss as the metal touched her skin.
Nodding her head, the fey slowly back away before disappearing in a flash of light.
Taking in a deep breath, Mecha turned to Celestia and said, “You're lucky I stopped you. If you'd finished thanking her, she'd have had the chance to claim your soul as payment.”
Celestia went pale, before asking, “What do you mean?”
Sighing, Mecha replied, “The fey are a bunch of tricksters. Neither moral or amoral, they only aid others for a heavy price. And if you manage to negotiate the deal without a heavy price, you still need to be careful, for if you thank them it implies that you owe them, and the only thing they'll accept at that point is your soul. Or, at least that's true of the fey that demons dealt with. They may not be that bad as a whole, but better safe than sorry.”
“I... see,” Celestia said, nodding her head. “Thank you for that then.”
Groaning, Mecha made his way towards Shining Armor and Solaris, muttering to himself, “Did she learn nothing...?”
“Mecha! Good timing, we were just about to start laying out the plans,” Shining Armor greeted.
“Yeah, that intel you gave us is definitely helping,” Solaris added, not looking away from the map on the table.
“Good to hear,” Mecha replied, before looking at the map as well. “I've got the bombs for the aboleths taken care of, just need a delivery team to drop them down the beasties' throats.”
“Good, that'll take care of the biggest threats...” Shining Armor started, “what about the hydra's though? They can't deal as much damage as fast, but we only have so many fire specialists...”
“You forget though,” Solaris started, “a blow to the heart will kill them just as well.”
“Yes, but how do we get close enough to do so?” Shining Armor countered.
“We don't,” Mecha replied, before pointing over to Kickback. “He'll be taking them out from outside their range.”
Nodding their heads, Shining Armor and Solaris turned back to the map, as the trio continued to plan.
LINEBREAKER
It was time. The plans had been laid, the counters in place, and the back-ups ready. Canterlot had been evacuated, the army was at attention, and everypony waited with baited breath for their commanders to show themselves to lead them to victory.
In the commander's tent, one last discussion was taking place. “No,” Mecha said flatly. “You two aren't participating in this fight.”
Luna of course was upset about this, and yelled, “Do you expect us not to join as our subjects go out their and die for us?!?”
“No,” Mecha replied, “But I do expect your presence to be a major morale boost than would quickly turn into a morale killer if you are harmed. You are to stay here in the back, and if you absolutely must do something, try to snipe them with your magic. Otherwise, stay back.”
Frowning, Luna was about to comment when Celestia cut her off, saying, “Sister, he's right. Furthermore, how long has it been since we actually participated in combat ourselves?”
Luna's frown deepened for a bit, before she sighed, and replied, “You're right again sister.”
Turning to Mecha, Celestia said, “You have our word that we will stay back and out of danger.”
“Good,” Mecha replied, “But to be safe, I have a bodyguard for you.”
At this point, Diable walked in. “Just to be clear,” he started, “if I do this, you'll allow me to roam without constraint, no suddenly falling unconscious whenever I end up a mile away from you, only restriction is I have to listen to your daughter's commands?”
“Eeyup,” Mecha replied.
“Good,” Diable nodded, before he brought his fists together, letting out a grunt of concentration. A few moments later, his body started to bulge, muscles rippling as he grew, expanding until he was about the size of a manticore. Grunting, he told the princesses in a deeper than normal voice, “You're safe with me.”
Blinking, the two sisters nodded their heads as Mecha chuckled before walking out. Taking a quick glance around, he found Wolfgang nearby, staring at a large pile of wood. “You ready for this?” Mecha asked.
Sighing, Wolfgang replied, “As I'll ever be. I'm worried though...”
“About what?” Mecha inquired.
“That the moment I take form, I'll forget who I am,” Wolfgang said.
Letting out a light chuckle, Mecha said, “Don't worry about that- you'll still be your same sarcastic self.”
Wolfgang didn't reply, before nodding his head. “Do it.”
Without a word, Mecha turned around and bucked Wolfgang as hard as possible, shattering him. After a few moments, a green glow from where Wolfgang originally stood began to expand, grabbing the nearby wood in its grasp, before it slowly began to assemble as a giant timberwolf.
Walking away, Mecha made his towards Shining Armor and Solaris, stopping only to grab his gear. As he slung his sashes on, he asked, “Are we ready to go?”
Nodding their heads, the trio looked over the army as Mecha donned his cloak with a flourish, catching Solaris's eye. Frowning, he asked, “Isn't that the cloak for the Order?”
Chuckling, Mecha replied, “It is. They took me in shortly before my stint in Hell, was part of why I was assigned to a specialist squad.”
Shining Armor blinked, before asking, “Order? What are you guys talking about?”
“The Order is a secretive group that acts as the black ops of Equestria,” Solaris started.
“Basically, if there's a threat to the country that needs to be dealt with in an unfriendly manner, we deal with it,” Mecha continued. “Mostly assassination of high class criminals that would likely kill their captors in a heartbeat.”
“Granted, neither Luna nor Celestia know they exist,” Solaris finished. “In fact, the only way to identify them is their cloaks.”
“Cloaks that seem to repel light itself,” Mecha added, seeing the confusion on Shining Armor's face. “These things actually repel everything but light,” he said, chuckling. “Anyways, it's showtime.”
Nodding their heads, the two Captains turned to face the army before them, their enemy just visible from were they stood. “Ponies of Equestria, we've gathered today to fight an enemy that seems to think we're nothing!”
At the army's cheer, Mecha chuckled, before sneaking away. While this speech was sure to be great, he had to make sure his allies had arrived. Walking behind a patch of trees, Mecha asked, “Sköll, Hati, you two here?”
The two giant wolves stepped out from behind the trees they were hiding behind, Sköll saying, “Yeah, we're here. Now why'd you call for us?”
“I'm calling in what you owe me,” Mecha replied. “There's an army of soulless creatures on their way here, and you two are going to help me.”
Hati frowned, and asked, “How do you know they're soulless?”
“Simple,” Mecha replied, “Lust had them created from the very fires of Hell. There isn't a way for them to have a soul.”
Nodding their heads, the two wolves went back into the forest, Sköll saying, “We'll see you on the battle field.”
Nodding his own head, Mecha snuck back to the ongoing speech, arriving just in time to hear, “So let's prove these soulless beings wrong!”
A loud cheer rang out from the assembled, as they moved into place. Mecha watched for another three seconds, before walking over to where his bombs had been set up, the eight Pegasi that were carrying them standing at the ready. “Right then,” Mecha started, getting their attention as Shining Armor and Solaris started attaching the bombs to their harnesses. “You lot have a crucial job. You're the ones who are going to deal with those aboleths. You're to fly in close, and the moment they open their mouths to roar, you deploy the bombs and bolt. You'll be protected by our best squadron, so ignore everything else. Understood?”
“SIR YES SIR!” came their reply, all quickly saluting him.
Nodding his head, Mecha walked over towards the squadron he'd mentioned earlier, and asked, “You ready Nimbus?”
“As I'll ever be,” he said, adjusting his weapons, two retractable blades, on his leg. “Should be a cakewalk. Get in, protect them bombers, get out.”
“Don't get cocky,” Mecha said, before sighing, “and be safe.”
“You too,” Nimbus said, before turning to his squad. “Ten hut! Into formation, we take off in three!”
Taking a deep breath, Mecha walked over towards Big Macintosh, asking, “Plan B ready?”
“Eeyup,” Big Macintosh replied. “Primed and ready.” The two stared at the other for a minute, before he added, “And if ah don't make it through this...”
“Big M, you'll make it,” Mecha replied. “But if ya don't, I'll do my best.”
“That's all ah ask of ya,” the large stallion said, nodding his head.
At that point, the Pegasi took off, heading towards their targets. Solaris and Shining Armor made their way over, Shining Armor asking, “Are you sure this will work?”
Eyes on the bombs, Mecha replied, “About eighty-five percent. I used powdered hydra scale in the calculations, but since this is melted and solidified scale here, it should work.”
They watched in silence as the escort squadron started to take out the harpies and hippogriffs that had tried to intercept them. When the two aboleths opened their mouths to roar, they leaned forward, watching as the bombs fell. The first one went down the aboleths throat, although the second was struck by the tentacle coming from the second.
“WRATH'S ARMORY!” Mecha swore, even as the first bomb went off, causing the aboleth that had swallowed it to explode.
Frowning, Shining Armor asked, “What now?”
“Now?” Mecha started, heading back towards Big Macintosh, “Now we use plan B.”
At this point he pulled the cloth off the project he'd hidden from them, revealing a cannon. Stepping in, the two realized what he was planning, with Solaris yelling, “Are you crazy!”
“Eeyup,” came from inside the cannon, followed by, “Fire when ready!”
Shining Armor and Solaris turned to face Big Macintosh, and started to yell at him to stop, only for him to light the cannon and fire Mecha... straight into the aboleth's open mouth. Seeing the two stare at him in shock, he shrugged and said, “If we don't get that thing taken care, we already lost.”
The assembled army all stared in shock as Mecha flew overhead, and straight into the aboleth's mouth. Stunned, they shook themselves out of it, knowing that he could take care of himself, and got ready for the charge.
Inside the aboleth, Mecha started channeling magic into his eyes, allowing him to see in the pitch blackness that was the aboleth's throat, before he shifted his leg into a blade and created another blade out of magic, and stabbed into the creatures throat. Ignoring the yell that passed him, he used his magical blade to cut a hole in the throat, before slipping through it and falling onto... it's lung if he were to guess. Taking in a deep breath, he ran down it's length, before he slipped and began to fall. Stabbing his sword into the organ, he slowed down before he let go and landed and the liver. Giving a quick shudder as the creature he was trapped inside roared, he made his way over to the other side of the lung, before stabbing into it and making his way back up.
When he finished climbing the organ, he made his way back towards the center, finally able to see the being heart from there. With another deep breath, he toke a running start before leaping onto it, slipping until he brought his blade into the pulsating muscle. Frowning when that didn't kill the beast, he looked around until he found the aorta, and smirked. Making his way over, he brought his sword down on it, only to frown when he barely cut into it. Channeling his magic away from his eyes and to his sword, he ignored the fact that he couldn't see as he swung, smirking when he felt the vessel give way to his blade.
Grabbing the nearest vein, he started channeling magic to his eyes again as the aboleth started shaking in its death spasms.
Outside the beast, the army was beginning to worry. They were missing one of their best fighters, and the beast he'd leapt into was still moving, roaring in pain every five minutes. If he didn't finish this soon, they'd be in trouble. When the beast finally collapsed, a cheer went up, especially when a pair of swords burst through the flesh of the creature's underbelly.
Mecha took a step out, his blades covered in blood, his cloak showing that it did repel most substances as the blood rolled off it. Flicking his blades to clear the blades, he watched as all eyes were on him, enemy and ally alike. With an expressionless face, he brought his hood up, the runes on his ankles glowing as he released them.
Suddenly, he disappeared with a crack, as he broke the sound barrier by pushing magic into his limbs while moving, reappearing above one of the manitcores, his magical blade lodged in its skull while his mechanical gunblade was pointing at another, smoke coming out of its end, the bullet he'd fired lodged in the second manticore's brain.
With another crack, he moved once more, another two soulless creatures dead. Crack, dead. Crack, slain. Crack, more corpses. His speed and efficiency caused the army to roar once more, before charging, engaging the creatures that Mecha couldn't deal with by himself.
Big Macintosh was brutally striking the larger creatures in their chests, using the range of his meteor hammer to deliver powerful strikes without getting into their range, while Shining Armor used his magic to provide barriers from projectiles as he speared dive-bombing harpies and slung them back at the horde of creatures.
Solaris was also busy, as he moved through the hoard, a tornado of death as he spun his scythe and burned his opponents with magic, literally carving a path of death and destruction in his wake, while simultaneously preventing anyone of the creatures from getting close to Kickback, who was slowly picking off the hydras that were approaching the army.
Suddenly, a loud roar stopped all combat, as a giant timberwolf jumped from behind the Equestrian army, two smaller, but still large, wolves jumping with him, before they started mauling their enemies. Startled, the army quickly started to renew its attack before their opponents did the same.
LINEBREAKER
After a few hours of fighting, Mecha had retreated back to the command line, breathing hard. Normally, he'd be able to keep up his speed when either boosting his speed with magic or removing the runes for days on end, but doing both? His body was beginning to rip itself apart, especially since he was doing this in bursts instead of constantly. Stumbling over to the medical station, he collapsed, blood dripping from his mouth. The nurse's quickly ran over to him, as he began to black out, snapping out of it when he heard a scream.
Struggling to his feet, Mecha pushed the medics away as he ran back out, rushing to see what had caused the scream. What he saw wasn't what he expected. Solaris was laying on the ground, bleeding out from the giant wound from his chest. Rushing forward, Mecha yelled, “What happened?!?”
Spitfire stood by Solaris, a glazed look upon her face. “He... he pushed me out of the way. That attack would've taken my head straight off...”
At this point, Luna ran up, before stopping at the sight. Solaris, hearing her arrival, turned her head, before coughing, saying, “Hey mom... don't... worry about me...” as he grinned at her. “I'll just... catch ya later...” he added, the light in his eyes fading.
Luna started to cry, muttering, “No... no... NO!” as she started to get hysterical. “IT CAN'T BE TRUE! HE CAN'T BE DEAD!!! He can't be... he... can't...”
At this point, her tears started to dry up, as she said, “No... I won't let him die... I WON'T ALLOW IT!” as she started to glow, magic surrounding her and Solaris.
Eyes widening, Mecha yelled out, “By Lucifer's lake-bed! She's going Nightmare!” Grabbing Spitfire, he shook her out of her funk, yelling, “Get everypony outta here- if what I do doesn't work we've got bigger problems than the remnants of that attacking army!”
Nodding, Spitfire started to round up stray ponies standing nearby.
Coughing, he grimaced at the blood on his hooves, before sighing. “It's not the best material for this, but it'll have to due.”
Using the blood on his hoof, Mecha started to draw with his blood... in midair. He was using his magic to power the rune he was drawing in midair, suspending it in midair. This was one of the lesser known runes in Hell, simply because they had almost no use for a purification rune. As it was, he'd need to time this right, for if he used it early, the taint of Nightmare Moon wouldn't be completely present to be eradicated to be destroyed, but to late and it'd have too much of a hold on her mind.
Finishing the runes, Mecha 'grabbed' it with his real hoof, and slowly started to twist it, waiting... almost there... NOW!
With a blast of light, the Rune flashed, as a beam of pure light flashed and impacted Luna. When everything cleared, Mecha let out a sigh when he saw that she was back to her normal self. Solaris, on the other hoof, was not. In fact, he was standing up, laughing... evilly. His coat was now as black as his mane, his eyes a cold blue. With a flash of magic, he brought his scythe into his hooves, before rushing forward, blasting his targets with blue flames, freezing his opponents instead of burning them. Frowning, Mecha sighed, before muttering to himself, “Of course. Hopefully his bloodlust will die down by the end of this battle...”
At this point, the stress of battle had caught up, and he collapsed.
LINEBREAKER
Mecha woke up a few hours latter, the battle finished. Grunting, he sat up to find himself in a room with Cheerilee. “I assume we won?” he inquired.
“Yeah, and you should be up and running soon,” Cheerilee stated, before letting silence fall for a bit. “...you're planning on something,” Cheerilee said.
“Yeah... and you're not going to like it,” Mecha replied.
Letting out a sigh, Cheerilee asked, “Lust wasn't the only one to escape, was she?”
“...no. The other six are loose as well,” Mecha explained. “And I need to deal with them before they do too much damage.”
Cheerilee said nothing, opting to stare Mecha straight in the eyes instead. “You're not doing this alone,” she told him.
“Didn't intend to,” Mecha said. “I'm hoping Kickback would be willing to go- help with the language barrier in the countries I'll be traveling through. Solaris is coming as well, willing or not. He needs professional help after being killed and brought back. Help that isn't available in Equestria.”
Nodding, Cheerilee asked, “How long?”
Shrugging, Mecha replied, “A year, maybe two. Gluttony will be coming here for a rematch, and then Greed is in the next country over. After that though, it'll be a long journey.”
Eyes closing, Cheerilee let out a single tear, before whispering, “Why?”
“Because I'm one of the few who knows their weaknesses,” Mecha replied. “Simple things that add up, but obscure and unknown to most. You know I don't want to leave you or the girls alone, but I don't see an alternative.”
Opening her eyes, Cheerilee walked over and embraced Mecha, whispering, “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Mecha whispered back.
*So, I screwed up last chapter- his name isn't Kickstarter, it's Kickback, who is owned by Lt Mc. Muffin