//------------------------------// // Aftermath (Or, Chapter: Matt and friends get cool stuff) // Story: Tales of Epic Fantasy // by Krokorokok //------------------------------// The cast of the 'Epic Battle Fantasy' series, Matt, Natz, Lance and Anna do not belong to me. They all belong to Kupo707, also known as Matt Roszak. The job was done. With the Praetorian now dead, Lance, Natalie and Anna gave a huge sigh of relief. Silence soon followed as all that could be heard was the sizzling of burnt computer parts and sparks from the electronics. The battle that seemed to last for hours had finally ceased and the entire battlefield was filled with nothing but scrap metal and broken robot pieces, with the Praetorian still in relative shape. Standing up, Matt blew a strand of his blonde hair away from his face as he placed the sword on his shoulders and walked to the his teammates with a small smile, receiving smiles back from his friends. Turning to his left, he saw the many ponies were staring at him with a wide eyed expression and opened jaws, with a couple of the female guards grinning while a others fainted. Chuckling, he casted his eyes over the two princesses and the six new ponies, all of which were gawking at him. He gave them a small smirk before he turned back to face his friends. "Well now...That's that I supposed" Matt said, impaling his sword on the ground and placing a hand on his, causing him to tilt slightly to the right. "Only thing is, how did they manage to get here? I mean, Lance did hack it and we used it for our benefit. So why did it turn against us once again?" Scratching the back of his head, Lance faced away for a mere moment softly saying in an embarrassed tone, "Hehehe...Yea...Hacked it pretty good..." "I'm not too sure. I've never been good at this computer robot thing that you guys know how to do" Natalie commented, leaning forward slightly with the help of her staff. "Don't ask me! I've never been an IT person" Anna said, waving her hands defensively. "...Hmmm...Hey Lance, do you think you could fix it and program it to help us instead?" Matt asked, scratching his chin. Lance rubbed his chin and thought. "Well....Based on the damages we have done to it, it would probably take about a couple of weeks by the least. From what I see, it looks like you fried it's motherboard. I could try and remake it but it take more time. The hacking park shouldn't be too much of a hassle" Lance said. "Ehh...Better than nothing I supposed" Matt said. He then picked up his sword and placed it behind his back. "Anyways, we should probably help out cleaning those dead slingers out. From the looks of our fight....We did quite a number to this garden" Matt whistled as he surveyed the place, only finding small traces of what used to be a garden. Broken statue pieces here, hedges destroyed, flowers burned. Among other stuff. "*Sigh* We're going to be here for a while..." Lance replied, placing his cap back on. As the two males walked towards the, still shaken ponies, Natalie placed a hand on Anna's shoulder. "Anna...This is what it feels like to do housework...Need to start early if you're going to marry Lance" Natalie said, the last part more joking. "H-Hey!!" Anna yelled. However, Natalie was already on her feet and was now quite distant from her. After many, many hours of intense work, most of the Royal Gardens were back to it's original state, the only few places that were not yet back in complete shape were the places that were burnt to crisp by the many missiles that both the Praetorian and the Gunsligers fired. The huge wall that god demolished when Matt was sent flying, was mostly back to original, only with a couple of holes that needs patching up here and there. Matt wiped his forehead and gave a huge sigh of relief, seeing as how the job was now done. You see, as he and most of the guards were helping with the walls, his friends went and helped various other things. Lance was in charge of trashing the robotic beings as well as fixing up the Praetorian so that it would help them instead of kill them. However, due to Lance's rather creative nature, he would be using most of the salvageable scrap metal for components to upgrade the guards armor and weaponry, as he told Matt that with their rather primitive metal armor and weapons, they wouldn't be able to pierce or slash through any creatures that came from their world, seeing as though they could. Natalie and Anna were in charge with tending to the wounded at the medical wing of the castle. Most specifically, Natalie would be tending to those whom are magically hurt, such as a backlash of magic pulses and/or any form of radiation from the Praetorian, which Anna tended to those whom were more physically hurt, such as broken jaws, arms and stuff like that. Which left him and most of the guards to do the physical labour, with the unicorns using their magics if needed and the pegasi using their wings if they needed to reach something up high. 'To be honest, I'm not surprised they chose me for the heavy work. Heh...A meat shield after all' Matt joked, chuckling a little. "Um..Sir? You're presence is required" A female voice called out, causing Matt to turn around. There he found a pearl white earth pony with a lush golden mane with a pair of blue streaks down the middle. "Oh! I'm needed?" Matt asked, causing the mare to nod. "Well alright then Miss..." He trailed on with an ushering hand, causing the mare to tell met name. "Sapphire Dust, sir" The mare said, causing Matt to nod. "Alright. And please, cut with the 'sir' crap. Feel old when I'm called that" Matt chuckled, causing the mare to blush a little and giggle. She turned around and ushered Matt to follow alongside her as the both headed their way. "So...Umm...What do you girls actually do here for fun?" Matt asked, trying to dispel the awkwardness. "Oh. Well, we often play card games and board games for fun most of the time. Then, if were on our free time, we would sometimes go prancing ponies. Either in the castle or in Canterlot. Thankfully we're not restricted to only the castle" Sapphire said, waving a hand as she told him. Matt nodded. "I see..." He trailed off for a while. He was then tapped by her, causing him to look at her confusingly. "So what do you call those sword techniques of yours?" Sapphire asked, curiosity overwhelming her. "Ah! Well, their called my 'Bushido' which basically means a code of honor and morals that my father taught me. All the things that you've seen me do we're just a couple of them, among many others. And what makes them special is that my sword also plays an important role in them" Matt somewhat summarized, causing the mare to look at him confusingly. "Your sword? How?" she asked. "Well, you see this sword at my back?" He asked, pointing a thumb at his Heavens Gate. Sapphire then nodded, "Well, every weapon I wield contains. And element along with it which would either inflict more pain against my foes or do nothing at all if their elements are the same. For example, my Heavens Gate is a Holy elemental weapon. This causes more harm against those with an element of evil or darkness and would hardly anything against those that are Holy elemental as well" Matt told her, sounding well rehearsed. "Wow...Well that's cool" She said with a smile, causing Matt to chuckle. "Not only that, but if I use one of my Bushido techniques, named 'Seiken' which basically means 'Holy Blade' in a different language, the sword technique will be significantly stronger. If you want to learn more abou them, you should to ask Natalie. She's the one with the orange hair and a staff" Matt said, causing the mare to nod in understanding. After a couple more moments of the two talking, they had reached a large red metallic door, where two guards were standing. Sapphire said that "This is it" before telling him that she needed to check on her guard mates. Nodding, Matt said farewell for now and went up, causing the guards to nod at him before pushing the door. Once opened, Matt saw Lance with the Praetorian fully functioning, standing at attention as Princess Celestia and Luna went up and inspected it. However, something was off with the robot. The main difference was that it had a more dark tone with a couple of flashing red lines and orbs. In the middle, where the huge open hole was at before, was still there, but, from what, Matt thought, Lance had some help from a unicorn or Natalie as the two seperate halfs were floating as a small red orb hang in the middle, with teeth like metal blades around the rim of the two halves. His eyes then trailed upwards and found that The Praetorian was now wielding a weapon that resembled a butchers knife, with its shield being relatively the same. On it's back were two ruby red metal 'wings' that supported the entire robot via upward thrust. Matt usually called it 'wings' due to its design being more wing-like. He walked nearer, causing him to hear the conversation they were currently having. "...-his is truly a masterwork, Sir Lance. We must ask though. This behemoth will not hurt any of our little ponies?" Luna asked, causing Lance to chuckle. "Don't worry Princess. The Praetorian will not harm anything unless told to. I made sure to recalibrate everything since something or someone had messed up my defense mechanism for this thing" Lance said, patting the bottom side of the robot where a small red glow was being emitted. It was then that Matt decided to make his presence known. "Yup. Ol' Lancy Pants knows his stuff when it comes to mechanics and robots and stuff like that" Mat said, chuckling slightly when he saw the three flinch slightly. The two royal sisters regained their composure and welcomed Matt into the throne room. Lance then ushered Matt to come nearer, which he complied with a grin. Once he was close, Lance gave him a firm slap before giving him an unamused face. "Real funny Matt. Real funny" Lance said, before smiling a little. "Anyways, I think you may like this" he said before going behind the Praetorian, causing Matt and the Princesses to be confused. Matt turned his head to look at the two monarch, hoping to get an answer. In the end, all he received was a shrug. Sighing slightly, Matt turned back and found Lance holding some sort of black metallic rectangle with a hilt protruding it. Giving Lance a confused look, Lance chuckled. "Anyways, I found the thing that had corrupted the data banks of the Praetorian and found out that it could be altered using a bit of help from the princesses best mages. Apparently, the material that had caused the Praetorian to go haywire is also the same from a certain foe we have encountered before. That being the Cosmic Monolith" Lance told him, causing Matt's eyes to widen in shock. "Yea...Apparently the material that came from the Monolith was too powerful for the Praetorian to handle and it corrupted it, causing the thing to go nuts on us. Luckily for us, I managed to painstakingly remove all the alloy and reshaped the Praetorian. Hadn't really thought of a good name, so I just went with the 'Praetorian Mk II'. The one thing that weird's me out the most is that once everything was assembled, the damn thing suddenly changed color, having a much more darker tone with them red glowing lines that you see" Matt nodded in acknowledgement. "Yea....But pretty cool nonetheless". He then heard the two princesses usher Lance to continue, seeing as that he wasn't finished yet. "Anyways, I actually had more spare alloy's to work with when I was done. At first, I thought of scrapping them, but then I thought, 'Why don't I make some weapons out of these?'. And so, I did. To keep things simple, it took me a heck of a load of time, but they're done. A weapon for all three of you guys, with my Shadow Blaster upgraded. I only have yours at the moment. The rest are still back at the castle's personal smithy" Lance grinned, causing Matt to grin in return. "Oh? Pray tell what does Sir Matthew's sword looks like?" Luna asked as both she and her sister walked up to the two humans. "Glad you asked Princess" Lance said. He then grabbed the hilt before unsheathing a black two handed sword and dropping the metal container onto the floor with a loud 'CLANG'. Matt gingerly grabbed the sword with his hands, his right hand gripping the hilt as his left one slowly grazed the blade. The sword itself was as black as the night, with the hilt being red. It was an odd looking one, probably one of the oddest looking blade Matt has ever seen. The blade was split into two sides with a nice clean cut in the middle, the outline of the blade glowing slightly red. On the blade itself, however, were the same designs as the Cosmic Monolith he had faced before, red glowing lines and a two bright red glowing orbs near the tip of the two bladed sword. Then, after a while, he felt a sudden surge of energy flow from his hands and through his body, energizing him. Grinning, he turned his attention to his friend for a moment and stared back at his sword. Needless to say, Matt was grateful. "I..Just...Wow dude...This is really amazing" Matt said slightly breathlessly as he continued to grinned at his new sword. Lance laughed. "No problem. But to be honest, I really think those red orbs may be the center of this certain type of alloy. It always appears first before all those red glowing lines start to appear from it and spread out in different directions" Lance told him, chewing on the inside of his cheek. Matt laughed when his friend said that, his eyes never peeling off from the magnificent creation he made. "...and we should be done now!" Natalie gave a relieved sigh as she sat down on one of the spare beds. "Oh man! I'm so tired!" Anna groaned, lying down on the same bed as Natalie. After many hours of intense doctor work, the two females were finally done tending to any of the guards that were injured before they and fought or were caught in the crossfire. Anna, with her 'pro-as-heck' survival skills, tended to those with physical pain while Natalie nursed on those who were more magically injured as well as helping Anna. Needless to say, it took them quite some time to get every guard in tip top shape once again. "On behalf on the rest of the guards, we thank you" a mare known as Starburst, said with a small bow and a smile. Apparently, from what they've learned, she was also the same mare that fought against Matt, and lost, although the girls were not that surprised when she told them how he survived her most powerful magical attack. "Hey, its no problem really. I was trained by white mages who specialized in this sort of stuff. Although...can't say I ever healed this many" Natalie said, panting as she was still tired. "You girls should teach us unicorns how to cast such a powerful healing spell like that" a mare with a deep purple mane, whose name they found out is Cosmic Shard, said with a small smile. This in turn caused both of the human females to chuckle. "If you all want to learn healing spells, go ask Natalie. Most of my healing directly comes from the earth itself" Anna said, trailing her eyes upwards to see a group of three upside down mares. A light silver-grey maned pegasus mare rolled her eyes. "Yea we know. You told us that like...an hour ago if I'm not wrong" the mare, named Silver Gleam, said in a slightly sarcastic tone. This caused the entire group of five females to erupt in laughter. After a while, once the laughter ceased, Natalie stood back up and grabbed her staff that was lying next to the bed, which Anna did the same. "Anyways, it was fun talking to you girls. But we need to go now. Your two Princesses wants to see us in the throne room" Natalie said. She started walking but then stopped as something registered in her mind. "Um...Do any of you know where the throne room is exactly? The rest of the girls laughed as Natalie blushed crimson. After a solid few minutes of walking and talking, the five females arrived at a huge red door. "Here we are!" Startburst announced. "Oh! Well, thanks girls! See you then!" Natalie said with a smile as she and Anna waved goodbye at the three mares. Looking at one another, they nodded simultaneously before walking inside, finding the Praetorian standing at attention as its thrusters at the bottom were faintly giving off light. Lance was the first to notice their arrival. "Ah! Natalie! Anna! Good! You're just in time!" Lance said out loud as the two females walked towards the group of four. "Ah! Afternoon Natalie. Afternoon Anna" Celestia said with a warm smile as her sister smiled as well. "So...Why are we here for Princess?" Anna asked in a curious tone. This caused the two princesses to chuckle as they both told the two of what had happened and why the both of them and Matt were requested to be seen. Needless to say, Anna and Natalie were shocked to find out that Lance had, all on his own, completely reworked the Praetorian and created a weapon for the three of them each, using the same material that could be found on a Cosmic Monolith. "And so, here are yours!" Lance said, as he appeared from behind the Praetorian, holding a staff and a bow. The staff was had a simple black metal framework with four claw like metal at the tip, surrounding a glowing red sphere. What was interesting about it was that it was seemingly bending time and space around it, creating a black haze like affect around the red sphere. The metal body of the staff was filled with straight, red glowing lines as the bottom tip of the staff had a small red glowing sphere as well. The bow, on the other hand, had a metal framework almost like Anna's 'Black Widow' bow. The two metal pieces, that was connected to each other, had two spikes near the handle of the bow. On the two opposite sides of the handle piece had the same glowing red orb as red glowing lines were surrounding the frame. What really surprised Anna was the fact that, the bow did not have some sort of metal string on it. Instead, there was a red, thin, glowing line, which Anna assumed to be where she would fire her arrows. "Let me tell ma...These two were a bitch to make" Lance said with a small frown. Needless to say, both of the girls were surprised and very much elated at the sight of a new equipment piece. Lance handed out the two weapons to its respective owners, in which, when they touched it, felt a massive influx of energy. For Natalie, she could feel her ability to cast more was increasing as well as feeling that her spells could cause more harm now. For Anna, she could feel her pupils shrink and her senses sharpened. Whenever she looked around, she could feel her eyes pinpointing different items, such as vases. The two girls grinned at Lance before seeming yelled, "Group Hug!", before the four friends embraced one another in a celebration of a huge success. A small distance away, the two princesses stared the four humans, turning to each other before smiling. As silently as they could, they exited the throne room, leaving the four as they could hear laughter when they left.