This desire was one he was very well familiar with, and could respect. Had they been in a different situation he would feel a kinship with this equinoid if that was her primary concern now. However, as much as he wanted to show this, he would not, could not go outside Blacklight protocol in this situation, just as any other. Such a pity that was.
Staring at him, she narrowed her eyes, and asked “Who are you?” It was easy to feel the tension in the air grow as she asked him this, as the room seemingly becoming slightly hotter.
“I am an Agent of the Blacklight organization by the codename of Deadman,” he responded, using a carefully measured answer. “In order to preempt likely future questions, I, due to rather unfortunate circumstances, have been transported to this castle by mysterious means during a direct confrontation with The Order,” he continued, deciding to leave out the fact he was supposed to be blown up by the airstrike, and this whole situation gave his name a very indicative new meaning.
“Who is this... Order, is that blood from them?” she questioned, motioning with one of her regalia covered front hooves towards his bloody arm.
Deadman nodded, before stating, "Although I can confirm that the biological matter is from The Order, I am not authorized to give out the details on their organization except over secure channels, meaning there must be no potential for leaks," he glanced towards the open door, as well as the original guards who were now standing outside of it, leaving only the personal guard of this figure in the room, who stood motionless and silent.
"Very well," she agreed. Both the door and her horn was then wrapped in a golden glow, before the door slowly closed. He would never get used to that.
Wasting no time, he cleared his throat for a second before starting his explanation "The Order is an insurgent organization whose goals are to tear down society in order to install their ideal government. They use biological weaponry and advanced technology in order to further this goal. My organization was undergoing an operation code named 'Siege' against them before I was transported here."
A look of what he guessed was distrust crossed her muzzle, before she said "I have not heard of any such organization before and I have been around for quite a long time. Do you have any documentation of them and their activities?"
Deadman smiled, before saying "That may be because my current hypothesis is that this is another world." It was the only one which made sense to him.
"And what makes you think this?" She said, her voice and eyes slightly softening with a bit of empathy becoming apparent.
"Not only is there no land mass with talking equinoids on my planet, I am not getting messages from HQ, and they have global coverage. In addition, my HRV would have picked up any other Agent here. Therefore, I am the only Blacklight Agent on this world, and likely the only one of my species, human," he simply stated.
The sympathy became even clearer in her voice as she said "I'm sorry."
He did not see what she was so sorry about, he was just another Agent, and he was going to die fighting back home anyways; him being here did not change anything in the long run.
Deadman raised his arm, and began typing on a small keyboard as a holographic screen appeared. As he had it search his archives for a video, he heard her say "What are you doing?"
"Getting documentation, as you requested," he stated, as he found the link and opened it, before pressing another button to start the recording, and a third to flip the video before him.
Looking at her to gauge her reactions, he kept careful watch on her. It was not needed for him to see the video, he knew this video by heart at this point. It started off as security camera videos of Order Operatives distributing an aerosol in a public area. After a minute or so it switched to videos and images of the sick as they lay in pain in hospital beds and makeshift cots as they writhe and make faces showing their ghastly pain.
Her breath caught as what as the attempted medical care of the sick showed up on the screen. Deadman had a feeling that she wouldn’t like what happened next, as the second stage of the disease began.
He remembered the next section well, the very sick same sick rose, attacking those very same doctors and nurses who were taking care of them not a night before with savagery and enhanced strength. The screams from the video he remembered well and he elected to not play the audio over the external speakers for this very reason. It had not gone over so well when he had done so with a civilian last time.
It did not stop her from letting out a small gasp as the images appeared on the screen. Then, she gasped again as it shifted to the next screen, the first conflicts.
The videos were of the police and other such units being called in to suppress a riot, and summarily being set upon by the victims of the Q-Fever, which would eventually become known as the SIVs.
The police held the line, of course, considering they were equipped to deal with riots, and they had experience doing so. Then, The Order themselves shown up. As well prepared as they were for rioters acting as wild animals, they were not prepared for such monsters in human form, using Blacklight-like technology to cut their their lines like paper, and then simply letting the SIVs do the rest in a flurry of blood, teeth, claws, and crude weapons.
He closed down the video down with a single press of a button before it progressed even further into the spiral of events that happened next; his point had been made.
Lowering his arm, he turned his gaze back towards the equinoid, saying “I have provided the proof you requested of my hypothesis.”
“Let us just move off of that... subject for a second,” the leader said, “How exactly did your agency respond to these attacks?” It seems she had managed to regain her composure, as the same protective tone of voice returned.
“Simple,” Deadman said, “we did what our protocol told us to do. Primary objective, protect civilian populations; Secondary objective, eliminate threats to the civilian population through any means necessary.” The guards at the back of the room made their first move since they started the meeting, shivering slightly.
“I must admit, you are taking this trapped on another world situation a fair deal better than I would expect anyone in your situation to,” the leader said.
In response, he dryly stated, “I am a very calm person.” He decided to omit that he was not particularly afraid of the end coming for him anyhow.
The figure nodded, and said “I, Princess Celestia, would like to extend the hoof of friendship on the behalf of pony civilization, and welcome you into Canterlot up until the time which you are able to return home. I hope that you will accept this offer, and that a friendship between our species can be forged which will stand the test of time.”
Deadman’s eyes widened underneath his helmet at this princess’ offer. He had just admitted that he was a soldier which would incapacitate threats through any means necessary, and this member of royalty decided to not only not put as many doors, walls, and continents between the two of them as possible, she invited him into a place where he would be within range to do major damage if he were to go berserk. It did not make any sense at all to him
Something had to be up, but what other options did he have? “I accept your offer of accommodations as we go onwards towards a brighter future,” he said, and snapped his right hand up to his head in a salute. Truly, he hoped he was making a good choice here.
Princess Celestia smiled, and said “Shall we go for a walk? I would very much like to know more about you and your home.” That was code for ‘socialize with me for a while so it is clear to everyone you mean no harm’ he was fairly sure.
Deadman nodded and said, “I believe that I can accommodate that request,” before making his way towards the door, careful to keep his eyes on the princess the entire way, and swung the door open, without regard for the guards standing right beside it which could have done this simple task exactly as well. “Ladies first,” he said.
Nodding, Princess Celestia walked forward, exiting the door with her guards following quickly behind. Outside he heard her say “Stand down!” followed by the mass shuffling of hooves.
He flicked on his HRV for a brief second, and saw a rather impressive amount of guards waiting outside the room quickly scurrying away from sight down various hallway. Yeah, real clever way to hide a large police presence, ponies. Turning his HRV back off, he walked outside the door, to notice several things; One, they toned down the guard presence rather impressively despite their previous numbers and their short time to do so, two, that it was approaching the sunset, and three, that the guards standing guard outside of the door were beginning to look rather tired and weary. They appeared to snap back to a fully upright and awake position as soon as they saw a large armour mass splashed with blood, though
Deadman smiled to himself as he looked to Celestia, and walked in an area to her side, although affording her a slight lead and with a two meter space in between them. It was imperative he remained respectful, after all, especially with the guards marching silently right behind them.
As they begun walking, he asked, “So, what do you want to know?”
Celestia appeared to consider this for a second, before saying “You mentioned your codename was Deadman, what is your regular name?”
“It is irrelevant,” he simply stated.
“Very well then, what did you as a hobby before you joined your agency?” Celestia asked, likely trying to keep the conversation going without it degenerating into awkward question after awkward question.
“I tinkered with things;” Deadman said, “most of them ended up either breaking or lighting themselves on fire through some circumstance I forgot to plan for, but it was still fun.” He chuckled a tiny bit under his helmet, remembering one particular time in which he had managed to get behind the fridge and ended up taping the coils on the back together through long strands of tape to see what happened. That was how he almost got his first arson charge at the young age of thirteen.
“I see, was anyone ever hurt?” she inquired, perhaps attempting to gauge whether or not he was going to go to something horrible pursuing the hobby any time soon.
“Only one over-enthusiastic youth you can possibly already guess the identity of,” he replied, leaving out the crucial fact that this youth was his younger brother, who kept on going along with his stupid plans for years. It was beyond his comprehension as to why, that kid never learned. “Now, Princess, may I ask you a question?” he inquired.
“Ask away, Deadman,” she said, maintaining her regal tone of voice as they turned a corner, down into a hallway with a view of a courtyard as the sun crept its way towards the horizon,. Although he could not see the sun itself from here, he could tell by the orange glow coming from below that it would soon be night.
Deadman asked, “Is there any way that you could have the bedroom I am to inhabit be along one of the outside walls of the castle?”
“I am sure that I am able to accommodate that request, but may I ask you why?” Celestia turned to look at him as she asked, as her purple eyes stared into his curved faceplate.
“I want to be able to see the outside world, familiarize myself with it. I can not do this from the inside,” he stated. This was only a half truth, however, he really wanted to be able to see the whole castle in one HRV sweep.
She nodded, and said, “Perfectly reasonable.”
It was that moment a presence from behind took this time to make itself known, a female voice from behind that yelling at a near incomprehensible volume, “Sister, who art this daemon that thou meets with?”
Deadman turned around to see yet another equinoi- pony with both wings and a horn.
This one, however, was a deep blue colour and a tiny bit shorter, but this was accompanied by a mane like a starring at the Milky Way on an otherwise starless night which made her appearance just as impressive as her apparent sister’s.
However, the obvious mix of anger, confusion, and distrust in her eyes seemed to rather offset this.