• Published 1st Jan 2014
  • 5,156 Views, 506 Comments

64 vs. The Underground - Jman9877



Now in the employ of Princess Celestia, Project 64 must come to terms with his new life and what it will bring, but how will he do that with the visions and memories of the past coming to haunt him at every corner? What new enemies will he face?

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Chapter 11

Chapter 11

64 POV






Cadence went back to her guest room when she forgot something she wanted to show Celestia. If had to guess I would say it was something she found in the Crystal Tundra, but my guess was a good as anypony else’s.



“So… How are you feeling?” Shining asked me, as I finished the remainder of my breakfast. I honestly didn’t know how I was feeling. I was angry that the Slava’s had managed to escape, but I was also semi-pissed that Celestia was arranging this vacation for me. Another part of me was actually excited that I was going to get a break, finally being able to kick my feet up and tell anybody who tried to order me around to fuck off.



“I’m feeling… tired… Marcus was the diversion in everything and I chased him like a mouse would chase cheese. He had fucking Alicorn Magic, that’s why he was immune to the Treasury. I woke up today and I felt like my hands were on fire, not because I was casting a magic spell, but because the magic nerve endings in my hands were fried to hell after all the exposure to that harmful magic. I pray for the ponies that have to clean up the mess I left in the Treasury.” I said, grabbing the glass of milk I had and taking a gulp.



Shining Armor nodded and brought a piece of toast to his mouth taking a bite. “Well from what I heard, you ought to be excited for that vacation Princess Celestia is sending you on. Finally gives you time to stretch your legs and relax for a while, right? With all the running around you’ve been doing lately I think you deserve it.”



I smirked and stood up. “Thanks Shining. I’m gonna go see what I can go do about the Treasury. I threw Chaos out the window when I killed off Marcus. I think the body was disposed of last night by a few guards, but I want to make sure I didn’t cause any serious damage to the sword. Celestia would have me by the neck if I destroyed that artifact.”



I threw my plate and cup into the sinks and walked up to the Treasury, this time opting for the stairs rather than climbing up the side of the Palace. I saw several ponies in radiation suits, but I knew the magic wouldn’t be too harmful to me unless I was continuously using magic and had prolonged exposure. A few of the ponies walking in and out of the Treasury were giving me harsh glares, but that was to be expected for wrecking the entire place and destroying weeks of organization. I walked inside and saw an attendant holding a clipboard and pen, picking up artifacts one by one with her magic, then writing a serial number down so they could identify it later.



“Umm, excuse me. I was wondering what I could help with.” I said, trying not to sound too much like an asshole. She looked up at me and sighed, obviously a bit peeved at my unexpected appearance.



“If you want to try and make up for all of this destruction, you can help by levitating some of the heavier debris up off the ground. The unicorn instruction entail not using large amounts of magic at one time, yet you seem strangely unaffected by the magical radiation in this room. Please make yourself useful won’t you?” the Mare asked, to which I slowly started to rub the back of my head.



Umm… I’m not sure how to put this… but I can’t levitate objects…” I said sheepishly, a bit embarrassed at the confession. The attendant did a double take and stared at me, nearly slamming her hoof into her forehead.



“How in the name of Celestia are you unable to perform one of the most basic magical spells known to ponykind? I’ve seen you set the entire kitchen on fire with a single spell, and then put it out a few seconds later. So how are you not able to perform levitation?” The attendant asked, making me shrug.



“I never got around to perfecting it. Whenever I did try I could never focus enough to keep the magic constantly flowing. It feels as if there’s some sort of blockage in me whenever I try finer spells like levitation or teleportation, so eventually I decided to drop those spells when they became too troublesome to learn.” I answered making the attendant sigh once again.



“Well can you just lift the damn thing then? Do something than just stand there and take up space.”



I grunted and walked over to one of the overturned desks in the room, grabbing the sides and lifting it up with ease, allowing a few other attendants to look underneath and retrieve any hidden artifacts. I heard the *clink clink* of something falling out from underneath the desk.



“Hey boss, we got this stupid Arrow Amulet. This is what caused all of the mess up here isn’t it?” a stallion’s voice asked, making me set the desk down and take a look at what they were talking about. Sure enough, the stallion was holding the Reverse Gravity Amulet; it’s arrow a deep blue and pointing down.



“Yes it is. Give it here.” The attendant in charge said, her horn glowing for a second as she made to grab it out of the air. I quickly jumped forward and swiped it from the stallions hoof before she could get any magic into it.



“Hey! Give that back before you do anything stupid!” The mare yelled, making me glare at her.



“Are you daft?! Channel any magic into this thing and you’re gonna make everything go upside down again!” I yelled back, making her back off a bit. She walked up to me and swiped it out of my hand with her hoof, scowling at me as she went to look at another part of the Treasury. I decided that my services weren’t really needed after that little spat, so I decided to walk out of there and went to go meet up with Celestia.



As I walked to the Throne Room, I started to see a lot of trash still strewn around from the Gala, and I wondered why they still hadn’t cleaned up. I’ve seen as little as one unicorn attendant clean entire hallways in a matter of seconds.



I saw one of the attendants running by, and I quickly flagged them down really quick.



“Hey, not trying to sound rude or anything, but why is there still a bunch of trash everywhere?” I asked, to which the attendant yawned.



“Whoever’s not working up in the Treasury was given the day off to recover from the Gala. Got to say, I love it.” The stallion said, yawning at the end of his sentence.



“Ok I guess…”



The stallion continued down the hallway, turning a corner and leaving my sight. I looked towards some of the discarded napkins in the corner and held out my hand towards them. I focused on creating the beam of invisible magic on the napkins, then tried to connect that beam to my hand. I saw a thin sheen of red magic surround the napkins, and I eagerly lifted up my arm to lift it up.



As soon as my arm moved, my connection to the napkins was lost, and they fell unceremoniously to the ground.



“For fucks sake…” I muttered, disregarding the trash on the ground and making my way to Celestia. I wanted to talk about taking Blusa with me on my little vacation. I wanted to take her to Manehatten so she could see her brother Grey Streak, but I needed to clear it with her first.



I pushed the doors to the Throne Room open, stepping inside to see Celestia and Luna sitting in their respective thrones.



“Princesses.” I said, bowing my head a bit respectively. “I came here to talk about another term of my vacation.”



“And what term would this be 64?” Celestia asked me, making me grin a bit.



“I want to take Blusa with me for a small detour to Manehatten so she could see her brother. I might even want to take Applejack there for as well to see if she wants to visit her cousin’s grave.”



Princess Luna smiled at suggestion, and Princess Celestia nodded.



“Very well, I will inform Ms. Blusa Streak to meet you at the Train Station at Noon. She will accompany you to Ponyville to see if the Element of Honesty would like to join you on your detour to Manehatten.”



I nodded back at the princess. “All right, sounds like a plan. I’ll be seeing you.”



They waved back, but Princess Luna came down from her Throne to walk up to me.



“We may receive word from Ghost at the end of your vacation. Hopefully he will be making progress in tracking down the Crystal Dust and you will be able to assist in the assault on the smugglers.” Luna said, to which I gave a thumbs up.



“Perfect. I hope he’s not having too much trouble over there. He’s a tough little Changeling, but I can’t help but feel a bit worried.” I said back. I turned on my heel and left the Throne Room, planning on making some last second preparations before leaving for Ponyville.





3rd Person POV





64 arrived at the Train Station exactly at Noon, and saw Blusa already standing at the platform, bouncing up and down, barely able to hold her excitement. She saw 64 and immediately jumped at him to glomp him, wrapping her legs around his shoulders and flashing her horn green over and over.



“Glad to know you’re happy Blu. I just wanted to make up for my shortness with you last night. There were a few complications that are gonna make my job a lot harder now, and I really want to get them out of the way sooner than later.” 64 said, as Blusa let go of 64.



Blusa nodded and waved her hoof, telling 64 that she understood. Her horn blinked a few times in Morse, spelling out the word ‘brother’.
“You’re excited to see him again huh. I heard Grey is doing pretty well for himself last time I checked. He gets a lot of higher class ponies up there in Manehatten to commission him for things like metal sculptures and some blacksmith jobs for decorative weapons. He should be really surprised when I show up with you at the doorstep.”



Blusa quickly nodded yes, holding her hoof to her mouth to simulate if she were giggling. The two both heard the sound of a horn incoming and looked in the distance, seeing the train quickly make its way into the station. Blusa jumped in the air in excitement, biting 64’s sleeve and telling him to hurry up and get on the train.



“Ok! Ok! Let me grab my duffel.” 64 said, grabbing his bag and slinging over his back. The two stepped onto the train and showed their tickets to the conductor. He gave a split second look at 64, but shook it off, letting the passenger onto the train.
Blusa made her way to the first class cabin Celestia had arranged for her and 64, immediately leaping up and taking the top bunk of the beds.



“Hey, I wanted top bunk.” 64 said, playfully scolding Blusa who just kicked at him and rolled over into the pillow, obviously wanting to skip past the train ride by sleeping. 64 didn’t see this as a bad idea, but knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep due to his nervousness.
The Slava’s were still nipping at the back of his head, their escape still baffling him. Their voices taunting him, saying that he could try over and over again, but he’d never find them. 64 lay in the lower bunk shaking his head, trying not to think too hard about the problems he had.



He had Ghost overseas, the Slava’s escaping from their prison, and to top it all off, now he was feeling insecure about him not being able to perform the most elementary of spells. That last one was a bit insignificant, but it still bothered 64 nonetheless.
He found himself finding the vibrations of the train leaving the station incredibly relaxing, and began to forget about all of those problems. All he had to do right now was get to Ponyville, see if Applejack wanted to go to Manehatten with him and Blusa, then it was another long train ride there. 64 wanted to run there, knowing with his speed augmentation would get him there faster than this train, but he didn’t want to scare the ever-loving hell out of Blusa.



He remembered Ghost’s reaction to the super speed, saying it nearly made him pass out.

-------------FLASHBACK 4 MONTHS-----------------

Celestia had finally left the interrogation room, both her and 64 exchanging glares as they passed each other. 64 had waited for Celestia and Shining Armor to finish interrogating the Changeling, wanting to talk to him afterward.



Shining Armor stepped out of the room next, and saw the guard that was standing post slightly shaking as he looked at 64, having trouble keeping his composure.



“You guys done in there?” 64 asked, leaning back against a wall nonchalantly. Shining Armor nodded.



“Yeah, after you barged in there I told Celestia to let me do the talking, and things stated to go a bit smoother. Apparently he was the runt of the Hive, still affected by the hive mind of Clovercloud, who you said was dead, right?” Shining asked.



“Yep. Crushed by a falling stalactite. And with her dead, the effects of the hive mind should slowly wear off, right?”
“Should be right. We have reports of many Changelings unable to feed themselves after the death of a Queen, the lack of leadership killing them off slowly. When we asked the name of the Changeling, he said he was never assigned one. Apparently they had tags, not names. No close relatives, no friends, left to die. Sad to say this, but I don’t think this Changeling was meant to live.



64 looked down contemplatively, wondering what kind of life he lived day to day.



“I want to talk to him a bit.” 64 said, not waiting for permission from Shining Armor. He walked back inside and saw through the two way mirror that the Changeling had his head on the table, and was crying softly. He grabbed his stomach and rocked back and forward, obviously suffering from starvation.



64 walked into the small room quietly, noticing the perfectly repaired door that now stood.



“Hey there.”



The Changeling suddenly looked up, icy blue eyes widened at the new voice. 64 took a seat across from the Changeling, giving a small smile to show that he wasn’t going to try and hurt him.



“The large one gave me that smile too.” He said, making 64 drop his smile.



“Then I’m sorry she tricked you like that. Did she hurt you?” 64 asked, making the Changeling shake his head no.



“No… not after you came in… She just said a lot of mean things… but I heard a lot of those things from the caves…”. 64 saw his icy blue eyes being to flutter open and close, obviously close to exhaustion.



“I’m sorry if I scared you from how fast I was going. I just wanted to get here as fast as I could.” 64 said sheepishly, making the Changeling laugh a bit. As he laughed he suddenly lurched forward, making an awful coughing and wheezing sound. He fell from his chair and landed hard on the floor, making 64 get up and rush to the Changeling’s side.



“What’s going on? What’s wrong?” 64 asked frantically, noticing the Changeling was now hacking up his neon green blood. The Changeling frantically pointed to his stomach, telling 64 that he was now dying from starvation, his body now running out of sustenance to continue to function.



64 thought frantically, wondering how in the hell he would be able to save this small Changeling pup. There was only one way he knew, and if Celestia found out, he would be dead.



“Feed then. Feed!” 64 yelled, bringing the happiest emotions he had to the surface of his mind. The Changeling’s horn began to glow green, and a torrent of red mist started to flow from 64’s body.



“Argh!” 64 grunted loudly, nearly collapsing at the new sensation shooting through his body. The Changeling continued to keep feeding, and 64 began to get angry.



“That’s enough!” He yelled, scaring the Changeling enough to stop feeding. The Changeling looked up at 64, his big blue eyes having small tears at the edges. He started to cry and sent himself into 64’s chest, wrapping him in hug as 64 still had trouble regaining his breath.



“T-Thank you…” The Changeling said, still crying tears of joy.



“Don’t… Don’t mention it… you saved me… why can’t I return the favor?” 64 asked, making the Changeling’s wings flutter a bit.



“I feel full now! I feel I could fly around the world!”



“Yeah, let’s not push it…”



64 thought about something really quick, and kind wanted to see it.



“Hey, back at the caves… You changed into me. Mind doing it again?” 64 asked, now giving the Changeling permission to do so. The reason he was so unnerved by the Changeling last time was because he had just seen a vision of her.



The Changeling nodded his head really fast and hopped onto the table, concentrating on 64’s form to imitate it. Green flames surrounded the Changeling as he suddenly turned into an exact replica of Project 64, making the original 64 give a small grin.



“Didn’t you say you didn’t have a name?”



The Changeling nodded slowly once again.



“Hmm… I think I have the perfect one…”

----------------FLASHBACK OVER-------------------

After that, 64 proposed that the newly named Ghost would assist him in his more stealthy missions, where being inconspicuous was the way to find the target. At first Celestia had tried sending Ghost on what could only be described as suicide missions, but luckily with 64’s help, the two of them would get out relatively unscathed.



64 trained Ghost in the art of combat, all the way from assassination to demolition. Due to 64 not having any ability to fly, Ghost developed his own techniques, learning how to use his ability of flight to launch himself towards the enemy.



“Ah… good memories…” 64 chuckled to himself, before a small voice on an intercom rang throughout the cabin he and Blusa were in.



“Ponyville station ahead. All passengers prepare to station.”



“Damn… how long was I reminiscing? Whatever. Blusa! C’mon wake up! First stop to Manehatten.”

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