"Seriously? You blew up some talking dragon statue by having him connect with your Eezo? That's bullshit, man," Jayce said, walking with Orion up to the pedestal where Discord's statue once stood.
"No, seriously. The way I see, you know how the Reapers are all about bringing order and stuff, right? Well, they've been using Eezo as long as anyone could remember. So, maybe, by chance, they created it? And the Reapers are all obsessed with order, so taking the theory to it's logical conclusion, that means Eezo is an 'ordered' element. So this guy who's all about chaos, ends up blowing himself up."
"If he's so powerful, why didn't he just stop bitching and break out of his prison? Or put himself back together? Dick ain't so powerful if he can't resurrect himself from the dead."
"You try finding something that can outclass Reaper tech. Everything they make is twisted and insane, there's no possible way that using it against them would work."
"No shit to that, man. And now the Illusive Man's crazy about trying to control Reapers. Well, they pushed humanity up against the wall. I say we should just kill all the fuckers. And maybe the Illusive Man, too, while we're at it. Two birds, one stone." Jayce kicked a small chunk of rock that didn't seem to match the grounds; he figured it was probably from the statue.
"Yeah, well, I think I should go talk to Celestia about this whole Nightmare Moon shit."
"Think I should sit in?"
"Probably worth it. Having an extra gun never hurt when it came to defeating ancient evils."
They both made for Celestia's throne room.
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"Greetings, you two," Celestia said. "What brings you before me?"
"I'd like more information on Nightmare Moon."
"Of course. What would what you like to know?"
"How'd she come about?"
Celestia closed her eyes for a moment. "She was my sister, for a time."
Jayce snorted. "Your sister became an ancient evil? A supervillain or something? See, Orion, I told you we couldn't trust her."
"No. We had... disagreements for a time, and she fell prey to the offers that Nightmare Moon promised her."
"Oh. Well, thanks for airing your dirty laundry, we appreciate it."
Celestia blinked, the meaning lost on her. Jayce sighed. "Thank you for letting us know about something that was probably unpleasant for you to recall," he said slowly. He should just let Orion do all the damn talking.
"So, anyway, Princess, I thought that we should..." Jayce simply walked over to a nearby wall and leaned against it, listening in on the conversation. It didn't take long before Jayce found himself slightly more distracted than he normally should be.
"You." Jayce blinked. Who said that?
"You... will do. Do you wish to return home?" asked the strange female voice.
"And what's it to ya?" he shot back. Orion was still in the middle of saying something, and Celestia seemed to have not noticed.
"I can give you power. To defeat your evil. To save your planet."
Jayce thought. He thought for the longest time, his gaze unwavering. This offer was tempting. He could get all this power and go back and kick some serious Reaper ass. And then he'd kick the Illusive Man in the nuts and throw him out of that window he's always sitting in front of. Yeah, that would be nice. But then he had an idea, one that threw Nightmare Moon off-guard...
"Yo, Orion."
"...so that's why I--huh? What is it, Jayce?" Orion turned to him.
"There's some bitch talking to me in my head. I think it's Nightmare Moon."
"You FOOL!"
Jayce was wearing a shit-eating grin from cheek-to-cheek. "Oh, yeah. It's definitely her." Celestia stood up, her horn charging up with magical energy.
"Oops. I guess she noticed," he said, his smile still holding. "Eat shit, bitch. I don't take orders from anybody."
"You will regret doing this! I will return, and you will pay for your transgressions!"
"And I'll be waiting to rip your spleen out through your ass. Beat it, asshole."
Celestia shot a beam of light directly onto Jayce. He could feel the presence leaving his head.
"Huh. I wonder if that's how indoctrination works," Jayce shrugged.
"Was it truly Nightmare Moon who spoke with you?" asked Celestia.
"You tell me. She breaks into my head and starts offering all these promises of power. I say she can go fuck herself." Celestia was taken aback by the language. "The last time I followed anything that resembled promises of power, I ended up in N-School surrounded by by-the-book soldiers with broomsticks up their asses."
Orion had a look of shock. "You went to N-School?" Then he shook his head. "No, wait, more important things first. You sure that was her talking in your head?"
"Of course. You see any other psychic ponies around here?" Granted, Jayce didn't know the answer to that question, but if it was on his mind, fuck it, he was saying it.
Celestia's horn stopped glowing. "I have put up a protective spell on your mind. She shall not be able to harm you for a period of time, but I cannot say what will happen once the spell wears off."
"I'll tell you what's gonna happen, Princess. I'm gonna find her, and I'm gonna kick her ass. In my head or otherwise," Jayce said, folding his arms. "You know her, Princess? Where the hell you keeping her locked up?"
"I do not know. The Elements of Harmony banished her presence from my sister many months ago, but I could not ascertain her location."
"Hmph. Guess we'll just have to have our guns ready when she shows up." He looked at Orion. "And when she does, she can have a grenade cupcake straight down her fucking gullet, courtesy of me."
"Right. Well. Whoa, wait," Orion said, holding a hand to his head in confusion. "You went to N-School."
"I did. Dropped out when I got N1 and joined Cerberus instead."
"Oh. How'd that end up?" Orion smiled.
"Better than I thought it would," Jayce deflected. "More credits per mission than you probably ever made in your entire career."
The two began arguing when Celestia cleared her throat.
"Aside from that, you two, I have plans in mind for both of you."
"What do you have in mind, Princess?" asked Orion.
"You will go to Ponyville to live with the Elements of Harmony, and work with them to defeat Nightmare Moon when she decides to show herself."
"Er, pff." Jayce suppressed a laugh. "Right, Ponyville. And just where is that, exactly?"
"That town near where I crashed my fighter."
"Oh. That's Ponyville? Great, now we have to walk all the way back down the hill."
"No, you won't," said Celestia. Jayce turned to her.
"And why is that?"
"Gather your belongings, then meet me here again."
================================================================================
Wearing their equipment again, the duo returned to the throne room, bags in tow.
"Please stand in the center of the room," Celestia asked. The two did so, their faces obscured by their helmets.
"What about the Elements?" asked Orion.
"I sent them back earlier today. They will meet you at Ponyville when you arrive. Now stand still, I don't want an accident to happen."
"So, how the fuck does this work?" asked Jayce. "Is this some sort of crazy magic teleport shi--"
================================================================================
"-IIIIIIIIIIITTTTTT!" he screamed, materializing out of thin air and slamming into the ground with a thud, his bags flopping down next to him.
"There they are!" Twilight said. "Welcome back to Ponyville, you two!"
"Oh. So that's what this town was?" asked Jayce, dusting himself off as he got up. He looked around. "Peachy."
"Just who is he?" asked Rarity.
"Oh, we haven't introduced you to the other ponies yet," said Twilight. "Everypony, this is Wade Jayce. We can call him Jayce for short."
"Hey." He waved.
"Is he a f-friendly human?" asked Fluttershy, hiding behind Dash.
"Friendly enough, I guess," he said. "Nice to meet ya, er..."
"F-Fluttershy," she whispered. "N-Nice to meet you, too... um... Jayce..."
"I'm Rainbow Dash!" Dash quickly closed the distance to Jayce's hand, shaking it quickly with her hooves. "Man, this is awesome, now we have two humans here!" She flew back to Fluttershy and began talking tall stories about what awesome stuff she could do with them.
Rarity walked up to Jayce and gave his armor a look. "Your armor certainly has some style, dear. I love the colors. Oh, I am Rarity. I own the designer clothing store here in Ponyville. If you ever need to update your wardrobe, you know who to find."
"An honor to make your acquaintance, Miss Rarity." She giggled.
"Why, another human with manners! If only every stallion were so sophisticated."
He turned to a small purple dragon eyeing him cautiously. "And you?"
"I'm Spike. I'm, uh, Twilight's assistant. Help her with stuff and keep the books in order."
"Hmm. Nice to meet you, Spike."
"Likewise. Hey, nice duds."
"Thanks."
Jayce noticed an orange pony looking at his boots. She broke out of her observation as he approached her.
"Oh, I'm Applejack. Nice to meet ya, Mister Jayce." She tipped her hat at him.
"A pleasure," he nodded back. "Er, you work on a farm?"
"Yep," she glowed.
"Nice. I know what that's like, myself."
"You're a farm human?"
"Well, I grew up on one."
"Well, shoot. Nice to meet a fellow farmer!" They began on having a conversation on seasonal farming when Orion grabbed their attention.
"Now that we've got the introductions aside, it's nice to see you all again," Orion said. "So how is this whole thing being set up? Are we staying with one of you?"
"Well, that's what we're here to talk about," Twilight responds. "Since there's only two of you, we should figure out where each one of you would be best suited to staying with."
"I'll go with you, Twlight," Orion follows. "I still need to do more research, and it looks like your library has got plenty of space. Well, on the ground floor, anyway. Definitely can't fit through those stairways." Twilight gave a nod in response.
Then everyone... or rather, everypony and Orion turned to Jayce.
"What?" his voice buzzed through his helmet. "You do something about it, I'm not good with this shit."
"You got some bulk on you, Jayce. Maybe Applejack can make some use of you?"
"With what, exactly?"
"She has an apple farm."
"Oh. Sounds good. At least I can do an honest day's worth of work." Orion gave him a strange look. "You know, honest work? The thing batarians have never heard of?"
Orion shook his head. "Bad jokes, man."
"Pff, shut up." Jayce grabbed his bags and followed Applejack out of Ponyville.
Orion turned to Twilight and the others. "Well, looks like I'm staying in town then."
================================================================================
"And you can just drop yer bags here, sugarcube." Applejack and Jayce were standing in a spare guest room in Applejack's house. It was a little cramped, but Jayce could still walk around, so it wasn't all bad.
"Er, nice place you got here." He looked around. The room definitely captured the old rustic farm feel.
"Aw, shucks, don't flatter me! Here's your bed, and you can lay your bags over there. As fer your metal suit... well, I guess you can fit it in the corner when yer not wearin' it, that is."
"And, uh..."
"Hmm?" Applejack had just turned to leave the room.
"Er. Fine. I'm not good with this stuff. But thanks for putting up with me. And Orion."
"Don't mention' it. You're our friends, after all," she smiled, walking out the door.
After locking the door, Jayce began to disassemble his armor. In a matter of short moments, he was down to his combat fatigues again. He set the armor carefully in the corner. He left all his weapons in another lockbox that Jayce had provided for him, this one a generic black-colored one that came from Orion's left side of the cockpit. There was nothing in there save for combat rations, which Orion had taken with him, and so left the lockbox available for Jayce.
He closed the lockbox and sealed it with his omnitool.
There was a knock at the door. "You ready, sugarcube? I'm headin' out to work on the farm now, feel free to help whenever you'd like." He heard her hoofs tapping down the hallway. He opened the door, and headed outside.
"That's a lot of trees," Jayce said.
Applejack smiled. "Our trees produce some of the best apples in all of Equestria! You won't find a better apple anywhere."
"Applejack! You're back!" said another voice. Jayce wheeled around to see a smaller pony standing in the doorway. He hadn't seen her walking out of the house. "And who's that with you?" the pony asked in a suspicious voice.
"Hey, Applebloom! This here's Jayce. He's helpin' me with work on the farm!"
"Really?" she asked, her suspicious gaze locking on to Jayce.
"Yeah. Really. I won't cause any trouble, don't worry. Nice to meet you, Applebloom."
"Nice to meet ya, too, Jayce. Have you met Big Macintosh yet?"
"Who?"
"That'd be me." Jayce turned around to find himself staring at a red stallion as tall as he was.
"You gonna do work on the farm?" Mac asked.
"Uh, yeah. I think it's an equal trade for letting me stay with you guys."
"Can you buck a tree?"
"What?"
"Buck a tree. We kick the trees to knock the apples down so we can harvest 'em." Harvest. Jayce mentally flinched after hearing the favorite love-verb of the Reapers used on him, but returned to his senses quickly.
"Uh, yeah, I guess. Doesn't seem too hard. You don't kick the trees that hard, do you?"
"Nope. Just hard enough so the apples fall off."
Jayce walked over to a tree and gave it a light kick; nothing too hard, just like kicking a soccer ball. He found himself being showered by ripe apples.
"That's how ya do it!" shouted Applebloom.
"It doesn't seem too hard at all," Jayce said, picking up the apples. He neatly gathered them into a basket and left it next to the tree.
"Well, that's mighty fine, then! Well, let's get to it! We got a whole day o' work ahead of us!" cheered Applejack.
================================================================================
"Yeah, this'll do. Plenty of room to sleep and work in." Orion dropped his bags next to the newly-placed bed on the first floor. His armor and weapons was locked away in this N7 lockbox, itself already absurdly heavy enough at it was. Magic or not, Orion was pretty sure that no one could steal it, or open it. The ponies on this world definitely didn't have omnitools, and for that he was thankful; he shuddered at the thought of Rainbow Dash being able to fly around with the Cain.
"I'll start digging up some books for you," Twilight said, her horn glowing as a multitude of books began flying off the shelves and piling up neatly on a table next to Orion's bed. They were a variety of them, but mostly dealing with pony history or culture. He figured that Twilight must really want him to learn about their people. He would read them, but now he was more interested in the strange Eezo on this planet.
"Uh, Twilight."
"Yes?" She stopped and turned to look at him.
"Do you have any books on substances? Like alchemical ingredients or magical substances of sorts?"
"I think I have a few. Why do you ask?"
"I'm curious about something that I learned about this planet."
Twilight stopped pulling out books again and looked at him. "And what would that be?"
Orion sat down, motioning for Twilight to do the same. "There's this substance back where I came from, used a lot in our ships for travel, that also acts as the substances that can activate my powers. It's called Element Zero, and it looks very much like a radiating dark energy that activates when it comes into contact with electricity."
Twilight pondered for a few moments, before shaking her head. "I don't think we have anything like that here."
"You've never seen it before?"
"I don't think so."
"Then you might be surprised to know that we're breathing it right now."
"What?"
"Yep. This planet, from what my scans show on my omnitool," the device powered up on his wrist, flashing data on a screen," that this planet has a special type of Element Zero that's extremely advanced. It's so potent, that if I could harness it, it could supercharge my abilities to near ludicrous amounts of power."
"Wow. This is the first that I've ever heard of it."
"And I also have reason to believe that it's strange affinity with other Element Zero types is what brought me here."
"That's... really interesting. But I'm afraid I don't know of any such texts on the subject."
Orion had expected that. "Then I guess I'll have to go do some research myself."
================================================================================
"Jayce." Orion's voice came in over Jayce's omnitool. They'd linked up their devices to a local network after they'd met to keep in touch.
"What... is... it...?" he said, in between kicks at an apple tree. "Kind... of... busy..."
"I'm heading off to the forest to where I landed. I'm gonna go do some scans to see if I can dig up any more info on this Eezo stuff. Bringing the gear just in case. Meet up with me when you can."
"You watch yourself out there," Jayce huffed, picking up apples around him, and tossing them into the wagon that Big Macintosh had brought along.
"You can head on back to town, sugarcube. We can handle the rest from here. It looks like you should go meet up with Orion, he could probably use yer help." With Jayce's help, they'd gotten through the farm in less than half the time it took for their last applebucking season.
"Yeah... I think I will." He broke into a light jog as he headed up into his room, gearing up in his equipment, before walking off into the Everfree forest to meet up with Jayce.
================================================================================
"Orion. You get anything yet?" Jayce said, walking out into the clearing. Orion was kneeling, holding his omnitool close to the ground.
"Yeah... it's... strange. The Eezo's giving off different readings now."
"What? How is the fuck is that possible? Can Eezo just change it's own properties on the fly now?"
"Normally it doesn't, but it looks like this one does."
"Is it dangerous to us now?" Jayce was glad he was wearing his helmet.
"No. Well, not yet. Given how much exposure we've already had to it back home and here, I don't think we'll be dying from an Eezo overdose anytime soon." The omnitool beeped a few times, returning another negative scan for Orion. "Damn. Looks like nothing we'll get here."
"We can search the rest of the forest." Jayce nodded towards the treeline. "Maybe there's more of that shit just waiting in there."
"Wouldn't surprise me if there were. I killed some monster in there, though. That place is serious business. The damn thing was twice as big as a damn elcor, but thankfully, that's what I had the guns for."
"Think we should just head in now?" Jayce looked towards the treeline now.
"Nah. We should take a bit to prep. Say what, we'll head in about a week or two, then we can see just what kind of shit this forest hiding."
"Sounds good to me." He pulled out his Talon and inspected it. "I could do with some big game hunting."
"Don't be too eager. I'm not exactly looking forward to seeing what other kinds of shit is waiting for us in there."
================================================================================
A week passed by. Jayce killed time by helping the Apples work their farm, Orion by studying up on pony history and culture, with visits from the other ponies in between: Rarity was constantly trying to design new outfits for the both of them, Dash never seemed to cease her interest in Orion and Jayce's war stories, Fluttershy usually kept to her house, or stayed with Dash. It was fairly uneventful, aside from the occasional Pinkie Pie antics and helping the Cutie Mark Crusaders with their mad stunts in an attempt to get their cutie marks.
Strangely enough, Jayce had stopped receiving messages from Nightmare Moon, and Orion hadn't been contacted by her at all.
Then the day came. "Jayce, it's time to move out. I'll meet you at the forest edge." Orion flipped off his omnitool, fully equipped, Crusader in hand. He made for the door.
"Oh? Going somewhere?" asked Twilight.
"Yep. Going into the Everfree Forest to try to dig up more info on the Eezo."
"It'll be dangerous. Are you sure?"
"I think we'll be fine, we're both well-trained and heavily armed. If we don't come back, don't come looking for us."
"Oh. Okay." Twilight couldn't think of anything to say towards the sudden grim statement, as Orion walked out the door.
================================================================================
"About damn time." Jayce was leaning against a tree when Orion showed up. He tapped his Cerberus helmet. "You know where we're going?"
"Wherever the damn thing points us at." Orion detached his helmet from his strap, and locked it on his head with a hiss.
"Then let's head on in and fuck some shit up."
True enough, they weren't more than 100 meters into the forest when they encountered a manticore.
"What the fuck?" Jayce started firing his Mattock at it, his shots doing moderate damage, the hits hissing off the skin as it burned.
"Get back!" Orion charged the beast, slamming into it with force and staggering it. He sharply aimed his Crusader at the manticore's head, and the beast's body went limp as the shot rang through the forest.
"Sheesh. What other fucked up shit do they got in here?"
"Just keep walking, the reading's getting stronger this way."
"Sure..."
More walking, more killing. Jayce found it hilarious when he managed to blow off a cockatrice's head from long range.
"There's more this way... keep going..." Orion walked ahead, following the waypoint the omnitool charted out.
"You sure about this, man? It's getting really fucking dark now. I don't even think we've been in here that long, unless these treetops are as dense as shit."
"Uh... there! I can see some ruins up ahead. That's where the Eezo signature's the highest."
They carefully traversed a hollow log, which had fallen over a large chasm. The path on the opposite side led up to the ruins.
"Damn. The scan's going nuts. There must be some fucking good Eezo up there," Jayce said, landing with a thud as he hopped off the log.
They carefully walk towards the ruins, and notice a destroyed doorway. They carefully take up position on both sides. Orion gives a nod, and they both charge in, weapons sweeping the destroyed room.
"...there's nothing here." Jayce lowered his Mattock. "Get to scanning. I don't want to see what kind of shit comes out when the sun goes down." He started patrolling the area.
Orion walked around, scanning various rocks, but turning up nothing. When he walked over the center of the room, his boots made a scratching noise. Curious, he looked down to see that the entire floor was covered in small vines. He kneeled down, sweeping away the fading vines, and revealed a strange symbol. A crescent moon of some sorts.
"Jayce, I found something."
Jayce walked over and looked over his shoulder. "Isn't that the same symbol that Luna has?"
"Yeah. But we know how the story went. Nightmare Moon has a symbol very similar to hers."
"So maybe we should take a hint and just beat it. This place is giving me the creeps. That symbol might represent her prison or some shit. We should just leave it alone."
"Fools. You have fallen into my trap."
Jayce and Orion exchanged a look. "Find cover!" Jayce shouted.
The symbol started glowing as they ran outside, taking up their original positions at the door.
"Looks like she was expecting us!" Orion shouted, the shadowy cloud and wailing noise coming from within the ruins growing increasingly bigger and louder.
"Yeah, no shit! At least I can make good on my promise!"
"What's that?"
"I'm gonna rip her fucking spleen out through her fucking ass!" He peeked around and snapped off a few rounds with his Mattock, which didn't seem to do anything as it looked like the shots were seemingly absorbed by the darkness. The noise stopped, and the two noticed a new alicorn was standing in the center.
"Yes! After all this time, I, Nightmare Moon, have returned! And now I shall bring eternal night to the land! But, first, to deal with you two nuisances..."
"Fuck you, bitch!" Jayce stared firing in earnest now. His shots only seemed to ping off of some magic shield that Nightmare had up. He groaned. "Aw, seriously, fuck you."
She laughed. "Foolish mortal, your weapons have no effect on someone as powerful as I. I have seen what happened to Discord, and I assure you, I will not allow myself to be so naive." She walked towards the door, Jayce's continued shots doing nothing to damage her, slowing backing away.
She was halfway when Jayce stopped firing, his Mattock in cooldown.
"It would seem that your weapon is out of commission, human."
"Then I guess it's a good thing I have more," he said, drawing his Talon. "And one more thing, you bitch."
"What would that be? Last words?"
"You should really pay attention to your surroundings sometimes," he laughed.
"Wha--" She was cut off as Orion's fist slammed into the back of her head with a biotic strike. She went flying out the door and down the hill.
"Damn!" Jayce narrowly avoided being hit with her mass, firing a few shots of his Talon into her as she rolled down the hill someways. The shots connected and seemed to do damage to her, thankfully. But the realization was cut short as the wounds quickly regenerated.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me." He wheeled out his Mattock again. "She can regenerate faster than a fucking krogan?!" He ran inside, and took position again, firing off more shots.
Her laugh roared through the forest. "Lessers like you could never possibly hope to kill one as powerful as I am!" She opened her wings, the clouds blotting out the sky overhead, rain showering the trees, and lightning breaking behind her.
"Any ideas?" Jayce asked Orion, who was opposite him, who was looking at his omnitool.
"I don't know. Maybe... maybe there's something we can use against her... maybe I can spike the Eezo around her and destabilize gravity or something."
"Don't give a shit! Just do something! She's walking this way!" Jayce said, firing.
A purple explosion of energy manifested behind them. The Elements of Harmony stepped out.
"Twilight!"
"No time to talk! Celestia sent us! We need to use the Elements to seal off Nightmare Moon!"
They noticed that all the Elements were wearing an accessory of sorts, figuring that they were the Elements they used. Orion turned back to Jayce.
"Jayce! You and me pull her attention! Kick, punch, whatever, just keep them safe until they can activate the Elements!" shouted Orion.
"Don't need to tell me twice!" he said, his voice sounding like a krogan's through the helmet's voice filters. Jayce shouted back, pulling out his Talon, now dual-wielding it alongside his Mattock. "Ladies first!" He nodded his head towards the door.
"Real funny!" Orion immediately lunged into a biotic charge as he left the door, knocking Nightmare back down the hill again. Jayce had activated Incendiary Ammo, and ran out the door firing at her as she rolled. His shots made a hissing noise, barely heard over the roaring rainstorm.
Orion raised his fist, about to strike her on the ground, when another blast of dark-purple energy slammed him in the chest, throwing him back. He gave out a grunt before disappearing into the trees.
"Orion! You're gonna pay for that, you bitch!" Jayce shouted, running at her, guns blazing. All of his shots made contact, but they did nothing. The Talon hissed as it ran into overheat, and Jayce cursed, quickly holstering it as he moved his full attention to aiming his Mattock at her head, firing a Concussive Shot.
It seemed to work, as Nightmare Moon again stumbled, and wheeled around, slightly disoriented.
Orion came running out of the woods again, firing his Crusader. Twilight and the other Elements were floating in the air, with white light surrounding them, beginning the final stages of their ritual.
"Keep it up, Jayce! We almost have her!"
"Yeah, that's nice!" Jayce said, dodging bolts. He jumped to her side and fired.
"I tire of these games!" roared Nightmare Moon, her horn beginning to charge with unholy energy.
"Orion!" Jayce shouted. Orion, knowing what was about to happen, crouched down, preparing for another biotic charge. The light coming from the Elements was near blinding now. Jayce was knocked to the floor, his ominblade attack failed, as Nightmare Moon reared into the air, about to bring her hooves down on him, as she started to glow. Jayce pulled out his Talon again, and fired futilely into her underside.
A beam of light shot towards Nightmare Moon, connecting just as her aura reached full power... and just as Orion slammed into her with his charge. Jayce couldn't tell what happened next, but the resulting energy from all three of them impacting together produced a huge explosion.
Then everything went dark.
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"Ugh... that makes twice now... fuck," Jayce moaned, picking himself up from the floor. He helped the disoriented Orion up, and looked around the spartan server room. It was clean, and definitely something from their world.
"So... back again," said Orion. His head shot up. "What about the ponies?"
"I don't know, man, we can't do shit about that now. No way back."
Orion sighed. "So where the hell are we, then?"
Jayce noticed a terminal sitting in the middle of all the servers. "Let me check, maybe I can--" He closed his mouth. "...shit."
"Jayce? What's wrong?" Orion asked, looking at the screen.
The Cerberus logo was floating on the screen, and underneath, it said:
WELCOME TO NIGHTINGALE STATION, CERBERUS NEMEAN ABYSS COMMAND POST.