//------------------------------//
// Chapter Twenty-one: Bulletproof Paint 
// Story: A Red and Green brush 
// by Netherweaver 
//------------------------------//

Chapter Twenty-one...

"Max, did you just feel that?" Luna asked. We had been out all morning, and the day had been going so well...
"Yes, what was it?" I responded, slightly unnerved by the feeling. I took her hand in mine for comfort.
"Whatever it was, it's stopped now... It was coming from over there." Luna said, pointing in a seemingly random direction. "We'd better go see what it was." She sighed, starting towards the source of the sensation, and I followed behind. Skye was in Canterlot with Vinyl, getting some desperately needed time away from everything. We walked for about half an hour, and finally came across what had caused the sensation. In the middle of a field sat a tall blue box, with two ponies stood outside arguing. One I recognised as Twilight's research buddy, and the other was a small green unicorn. There was a large ring of scorched grass around the box. We walked over to see what was happening.
"I told you not to use that thing in the TARDIS River!" Said the earth pony.
"Sorry Doctor, but I had to stop you eating that pear!" The unicorn mare exclaimed. They looked over and saw us. They panicked and ran back inside the blue box. We stood, our mouths agape, as the box disappeared with an odd "vworp vworp" sound. After we had recovered from the shock of such an out-of-place occurrence, we walked to the centre of the crater where the box had been. As we stood in the middle of the crater, a rumbling sound started to come over one of the hills one the other side of the field. A boxy black shape appeared over the crest of the hill, and I knew exactly what it was, even after fifteen years of development. An armoured police van, probably housing a squad of armed police. Shit. The van rolled to a stop as the driver saw us, and the squad piled out of the van. They were holding unrecognisable rifles, evidently the trusty H&K MP5 had been replaced in the last 15 years. They all focused their aim on Luna, as she was casting several barrier spells. She was throwing up barriers as fast as she could so the bullets didn't get through even if they broke a barrier.
"Stop what you're doing and get on the ground now!" The captain demanded. She was a bit shorter than me, but the breaching shotgun she was aiming at me definitely levelled the playing field. Luna didn't stop, she sped up instead. The power radiating from the bubble of barriers was almost like a solid wave. The captain finally snapped. "Fire!" She yelled. The noise was deafening, but the look on the squad's faces when we were still stood, unharmed, after they had fired their entire magazines into us was priceless.
"I wish I didn't have to do this..." I sighed, launching myself forwards before they could reload. I swung my fist in an arc, catching the captain just under her chin. Because of my inhuman strength, she was launched backwards. She landed heavily, going limp. The rest of the squad had reloaded by now, so I put my wings in front of me, hoping that the crystal was strong enough to hold. It was, and I lashed out at one of the officers with my wing, knocking the gun out of his hand. Another officer had pulled out a Taser, and as it connected with my skin I grabbed his throat, allowing the current to pass through him too. He shuddered and hit the ground, but I stood through it by simply killing my body for a few seconds. I brought it back just in time to block a punch from a huge bear of a man, slugging him in the chest as he lunged into the punch. Four down, three to go. I turned to run at the last trio of officers, but a blast of energy caught them off guard and they ended up in a heap. I walked over to where the captain was unconscious, and roused her. "Now, you either come with us peacefully or you come with us in shackles, understand?" She nodded. I pulled her onto her feet, and pulled her helmet off. Her face was familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it...
"Max?" She asked, looking like she had seen a ghost. Which I technically am, but that's besides the point. "Is that really you, Max?" I still didn't recognise her. "You don't recognise me?"
"I haven't seen any humans other than Elliott, Luna and my daughter for 15 years." I said, because she obviously knew me.
"Fifteen years? That was when you started acting weird..." She said. Obviously my clone wasn't a true copy. "Max, I don't know how to say this, but you collapsed 15 years ago. You got a bit better, but then, a week ago, you collapsed again. You've been in a coma since. How are you here?" She explained. All the dates corresponded to when I had been fatally wounded. It clicked. My mind here was linked to my cloned mind on Earth. the connection had been severed when I had died, and my mind was feeling much less... constricted.
"I've been here the whole time. That wasn't me." I said, breaking the news to the stunned captain. "I don't know who you are, or why you're here, but you're just going to have to get used to it, because there's no going back now." I said, trying to comfort the panicking woman.
"But... You don't know who I am?" She said, tearing up. I nodded, hoping that she wasn't someone too close. "Max, please..." She pleaded, but I could do no more than shrug.
"I'm sorry, but I just don't know..." I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She collapsed, sobbing to herself. As she laid on the floor, I saw a small mark on the back of her neck. "No... Not you... Why did you have to get dragged into this..." I said, reeling with shock. Luna caught me before I fell. I staggered back to my feet and picked the sobbing woman up in a protective hug. "I'm so sorry Ali... I'm so, so sorry..." My sister smiled up at me when I realised who she was. "You've grown up so fast..." I sighed, cuddling her. Luna had been walking around, waking the officers and informing them of their new predicament. The squad had given up their weapons with very little argument, and Luna destroyed them completely. We called the royal guard to come and take the officers for re-training in the barracks, but Alison didn't want to be an officer of the law any more, she just wanted to be with her big brother again. We walked home, and as we had just got Alison something to eat, Skye arrived home.
"Daddy, I'm home!" She said in a sing-song voice, bouncing through the door.
"C'mere, we've got someone for you to meet sweetie." I said back, sticking my head around the kitchen door. Skye skipped over, and I let her into the kitchen. "Skye, this is my little sister Alison. Ali, this is my daughter, Skye." I said, hoping the introductions would go well.
"You look a lot older than dad, how are you his little sister?" Skye said, smiling at her aunt.
"I have no idea. Why do you look so young Max?" Alison asked, munching on a carrot thoughtfully.
"This is going to be hard to explain... I'm not a normal human here, as the wings and other stuff shows. Here, there are four immortals. The Celestial sisters, princesses of the land and controllers of the Sun and Moon. Then there is the avatar of Life, who is in control of the life force flowing around him. Then there is the Heir, inheritor of all three powers, a very powerful person. Celestia is the Sun princess. Luna, my wife, is the Moon princess. Skye, my daughter, is the Heir. The avatar of life is my title." I said, barely pausing for breath. "Because we are immortal, we age incredibly slowly until our bodies hit about 25, then we stop ageing completely. But all that is just part of the story. My sister-in-law's mistake when I arrived here turned my age back to 15 years old." Ali looked at me mischievously.
"You're an immortal? You're just a big softie really!" She said, tickling me out of the blue. I managed to get her back. "Wait... If you're immortal, and I'm a direct relative..." I could hear the cogs whirring in her head. "I'm immortal and powerful too!" She squealed.
"Just immortal for now Ali, you won't get any more powerful until you find the one thing you're the best at." She shrugged and went back to her carrots. We filled her in on all the events that had happened while I had been in Equestria. We decided to leave me dying out try and keep Alison calm, as she had always been very easy to move to tears. She had joined the police force about a year after I had been transported, and had worked her way through the ranks quickly. Her emotions had become blunted by her time in the force, and today was the first day she had felt anything strong enough to move her to tears. We decided to leave it a couple of days before we introduced her to Tia, so that Alison could get used to her new life.