Fires of the Past

by burner181

Remnants of the Ancients

After a few hours I collect myself and weakly get up, putting my helmet back on. I open the door and ask the guards if they could have someone come here and clean my armor. Getting a positive reply, I strip down, go into the bathroom, and start up the bath. After locking the door, I climb in, trying to relax more than get clean. Once the water starts to get cold, I decide to climb out and dry off. I hear someone call out that my outfit has been cleaned then the sound of the bedroom door closing. Peeking out of the bathroom, I see the bedroom is empty so I step out, make my way over to my gear, and put it back on. As I finish putting everything back on, I put my helmet on and get static through my radio.

A familiar, though less raspy, voice can be heard, “Hello again, Pilot.” I go to say something but the voice interrupts, "This is a one way call, so I won't be able to hear you." I move over to the bed as the voice continues, "First, fate has decided for you to come here, no idea why. Second, you are not the only one for this to happen to, though they are on their own versions of Equestria." Blinking, I lie on the bed with some relief that I'm not completely alone in this. "I'm only giving you this information since you were kind enough to give me some water, good luck out there Pilot." And with that the transmission ended. There's a beep from my computer with instructions on how to make something called a token, a question I’ll worry about later.

Standing back up, I take in my armor in the mirror, the purple armor plates have gained some wear and tear, but the underarmor with blue and silver flames looks fine. I look out the window at the rising sun. "How long was I in the bath for?" Noticing the red dawn, I sigh. "I killed, but it doesn't mean I liked it."

An alarm triggers in my helmet and I rush out of my room, surprising the guards as I make my way towards the hangar. ‘Thank you onboard GPS.’ I enter Hanger Two and see three ponies messing with Scorch, the lavender unicorn with wings, the blue pegasus, and the orange pony, with the last looking at the other two in disappointment. Stomping my foot to get their attention, I march towards them. "What are you two doing?"

The lavender one is startled and the blue one is trying to play it off like nothing happened. I shake my head and look at the orange one. She sighs and starts talking, "Twi there figured since you parked it here she could take a look at it." Smiling like it's an achievement, she continues, "Ah did convince her not to take it apart though."

The room physically gets colder as I snap my head to the lavender pony. "Excuse me?!" I stomp towards her, "You thought you had the right to take my Titan apart, do you think everything belongs to you or something, that you have the right to take them apart?!"

Twilight looks to her friends for help. "Well, I figured I could put it back together." She shrinks down some, "or you could call for a new one?"

I freeze in anger. "A new one?" I point to the Scorch, "That is the only known one in existence and you wanted to take it apart like it's your property."

Before I can continue my tirade or the other two ponies can intervene we hear a motherly voice from the door. "Twilight Sparkle, what do you think you're doing!?"

We all look towards the voice which comes from a mare coming from a head taller than everyone else, ivory-white fur and wings, long pastel multicolor mane broken only by the horn on her brow, and garbed in a long white dress with golden bracelets, flanked by guards in golden armor, as well as what look like differently armored officers. The mares gasp out, “Princess Celestia.” I turn back to the pony named Twilight and she looks like she was wishing she was invisible.

The Princess and her guards walk over to me as I step away from Twilight. She gives a polite bow before speaking again, "I am sorry for what my fellow Princess has done, she has a habit of putting science before permission, though she has improved."

I cross my arms as I look at her, "Apology not accepted." Everyone goes wide-eyed as I turn towards Twilight. "As you are not the one that wronged me."

Celestia nods to Twilight and she stands up straight and gives an apologetic bow. "I am sorry for messing with your Titan without permission, can you forgive me?"

I move over to inspect my Titan, "I won't forgive you, but I am willing to move on."

While most of the ponies accept that, a certain cyan pegasus does not, "What the Tartarus!? She apologized, and you're not going to forgive her?"

I turn to look at her. "Correct, as someone in authority she needs to be aware that there will be some entities that won't accept apologies and will ask for compensation." I check a beep that comes from my wrist computer and continue, "If you are concerned about something like that I would accept compensation in the form of showing me around." My focus goes to my wrist computer, "Now what the hell is the sterilization process."

The ponies blink, confused at my statement with Twilight being the one to speak up. "Sterilization process?"

I look over at her, "Huh? Oh I found a vault in the forest by the village I helped, and my computer says there are five more here but one triggered the sterilization process." Twilight grows a big grin and takes a breath then I grab her muzzle keeping it shut. "Just show me where they are, okay?" She nods and I let go, hearing two quiet breaths of relief from her friends.

As we walk I hear the southern voice of the orange mare come up to me, "Howdy, ah’m Applejack or AJ to mah friends and the hot-headed pegasus there is Rainbow Dash." I look over at Rainbow and she nods then I turn back to Applejack as she continues, "Ah realized we haven't been properly introduced."

We hear an apologetic gasp and Twilight turns around. I say, "Focus on the path ahead of you Twilight, you can do a formal introduction later." She pouts and turns back.

AJ chuckles then continues talking, "How did you know Twi was gonna start a lecture back there?"

I look over at her, "First: past experiences with people after bringing up a topic they like, second: personal experience of doing it myself."

Rainbow sighs, "Oh great, another egghead."

I snap my head to her. "Is there something wrong with that?"

She shakes her head. "Of course not, if you're a nerd that enjoys books."

I put my hands behind my head. "I'll take my life as a bookworm over a musclehead who can't tell when they are in the wrong." I smirk under my helmet noticing her small chest, "Random fact: breasts are mostly composed of fat and not muscle."

Rainbow stops and looks down at herself. She notices we keep walking and catches up, smirking like she thinks she’s being clever, "Okay egghead, do you know of any way to make them bigger?"

I shrug. "Nothing with hard evidence, only old wives tales and hearsay." We arrive at a big room that is holding the vaults and tables with scattered tools and equipment as I continue, "I wasn't too concerned about it myself as a male." Ignoring the frustrated look at her failed attempt to fluster me, I walk up to a vault that seems to have a hole burnt through it.

A familiar mechanical voice pipes up for all to hear, "Welcome home, Child of Man." The voice drops to a synthesized sorrowful tone, "It is with great regret that I must inform you that with the damage to the outer casing I had to proceed with sterilization protocols on the contents of this vault." The door opens and all we see is an ash-filled vault.

As I silently download the digital contents to my wrist computer, I look around. "So this is the sterilization process, a termination of all contents in the vault."

Turning her focus from the vault, Celestia approaches me. "What did that voice mean by ‘Child of Man’?"

I look up at her. "Just that, I'm human, and as this is the second vault I have opened I believe it scans for human DNA or biology before opening." Turning away from Celestia, I look through the vault’s contents on my wrist computer. "This appears to have been an agricultural vault."

Rainbow asks, "What do you mean by agricultural?"

I turn to Rainbow, "To summarize, it contained crossbred plants that could have grown in nearly any environment." I turn to my wrist computer, realizing something. "Computer, when a vault scans me please also send a signal to not automatically open, unless the contents can save my life in an emergency situation." Getting an affirmative beep, I look up to a confused Celestia and some annoyed scientists. "These belonged to my people, so I am rightfully claiming them, as such I'll decide whether or not I share its contents."

Celestia gives an understanding nod while the scientists gripe about being unfair. "Is there a particular reason why?"

Going over to the second vault, I review the contents. "There are some things that would mess up the world if released too early or at all." Nodding to this vault, I order it open and it reveals tools and hunting supplies.

Twilight grows concerned. "Why would humans preserve such weapons?"

I blink and look at her. "Well, I guess they could be used as weapons, but these are tools for farming and hunting." Twilight and the scientists notably recoil in surprise at that. "Humans are omnivores, so we eat plants and meat." Putting my hand to my chin, I continue, "Well, it actually depended on the particular human, I can confirm I'm an omnivore." I chuckle as the scientists and Twilight put aside their shock as they write down a finding on a long extinct species. The information in the first vault showed me that humans here went extinct millions of years ago.

Rainbow gets in my face. "Where's all the cool stuff, is it in the other vaults?"

I lightly headbutt Rainbow to get her to back up. "I don't know which vault contains what, but if I could guess, what you want won't be in these vaults." Walking over, I check its contents and open it. "Medical supplies and details on an average human, useful if I'll have to visit a doctor." Some of the scientists break off from the tool vault and go to check it out.

Rainbow groans, "These vaults are filled with nothing but boring things."

Walking to the next vault, I say, "Scorch came out of a vault, so there’s that." Noticing Rainbow grumble at the comment, I look over the contents then quickly move onto the next.

Twilight twitches at the lack of explanation but calms herself. “What was in that one?”

I turn to her as we arrive at the last vault. “I’m not gonna say because every fiber of my being is telling me not to say it out loud.” Beginning to search through the contents, I find something unexpected, "Wait, did they include--yes they did." I turn to the others with some excitement in my voice, "This one contains board games and card games." I open the vault letting Twilight and her friends look at the contents then motion Celestia aside for a private chat. "So the one I did not say is full of my race’s books, whether it be textbooks or stories it's in there."

I notice a pair of guards smirk as Celestia chuckles to herself. The stallion of the pair claps his hand on my shoulder. "Smart idea not letting our sister know."

The mare snickers and nods, "We would have lost her in there for hours."

I blink at the statement and sigh. "I'm gonna have to set limitations on that vault aren't I?" I get a nod from all three ponies then something crosses my mind. "Are you two twins?" The two higher-ranked guards, on closer inspection, appear nearly identical. White furred, blue maned unicorns, differentiated by armor and gender.

The stallion chuckles and nods. "Most ponies don't realize but yes we are. I'm Shining Armor and my twin there is Gleaming Shield."

I nod and shake their hands. "Pleasure to meet you both." Looking over Shining Armor, I realize how different his armor is from the other guards. "I'm just gonna take a wild guess here, you're from a different kingdom or empire, but you came to support allies and learn the situation."

Gleaming pipes up this time, "How did you know that?"

I give her a deadpan look then realize I'm still wearing my helmet. "His armor is different, in color and design." They hear me take a deep breath leading to a heavy sigh then call Twilight over.

Twilight comes over with a scroll, rolling it up. "Yes, did you need something… uhm?"

"Sky, call me Sky." She gives me a nod. "I'll tell you what is in the other vault, but I have some stipulations." Intrigued, she pays even more attention. "You are only allowed in there for an hour, and none of the contents are allowed to be removed by anyone." I cross my arms and look at her. "The moment either one of those are broken I shut the vault for anyone that is not me, save for special circumstances, understood?"

Twilight sighs and nods as her friends join us at this point, "What's in there?"

I look at her and say one word, "Books." Given the older princess’s amusement and the other ponies’ embarrassment, I can only hazard a guess what her wings shooting up like that mean. "Twilight, I'm trusting you with this you bibliophile, don't make me regret it. Also, go take a cold shower."

She puts her wings down in embarrassment and leaves the room. Gleaming grins and looks at me. "So you seem to have a handle on our sister, is there anything going on between you two?"

Before Shining can pull his protective big brother routine I promptly respond, "Nope." I go and open the vault letting the scientists know of the stipulations then return. "Gleaming, I just arrived here, I have barely had time to get to know anyone, and ponies are probably already spreading rumors of me fighting off griffons for four hours."

Gleaming and Shining’s eyes go wide and their jaws drop. "That report was about you?"

I go into the game vault and come out with a box the size of my chest that reads Sentinels on the top. "Yep, first time I have ever seen combat, period, but I wasn't going to stand by in a situation like that with how well-armed I am."

The Princess and the twins drop their air of authority and Celestia asks, "Are you okay?"

I just look at her, "Before or after I had my mental breakdown after the adrenaline wore off?" Rainbow takes the box, confusing me, and sets it on a table right before I get pulled into a big hug from everyone around me.

Eventually, everypony lets go of me and I stretch my arms after being squished. Applejack looks at me confusedly. “From what I knew of humans being in a hug with the lot of us would have required more than a stretch to fix.” I motion for her to continue. “Why are you more durable then?”

Before I can say anything we hear a robotic voice come from the entertainment vault. “Nano-machines, son!”

I snap to the vault, firing a shot from my Wingman at the vault speaker. “Fuck off!”

================================================================

A cloaked figure with a scythe on their back approaches a table of various creatures with files in their hand. The figure turns to a heavily armored dragon, “War, did the sisters petition you to send one of your avatars to help them?”

All the creatures snap towards the dragon in confusion, “No… why?”

The figure looks at the files which causes everyone else to look at them as well, “I just spent the last four hours sorting out the souls of dead griffons, without stopping.”

War coughs up their drink. “I swear on my seat that I did not send any of my avatars to fight in their war.” War cleans up their mess. “I may be the Embodiment of War, but I do hold true to pacts we all make as a pantheon.”

A cloaked figure with no discernible features speaks up from the side after looking into a crystal ball, “Death, it looks like one of yours.”

Death tilts their head. “My avatar doesn’t get involved in fights, only collecting souls of the dead.”

The seer shakes their head. “Not avatar, what you are.”

Death slams the files down onto the table. “Fate, show us.”

Fate nods and pulls what they saw up on a screen. They see a lone human fighting off thousands of griffons by themself.

Death slumps into their chair and puts their hand to their head. “Where was that one hiding?”

An elderly deer sets an hourglass on the table. “They weren’t hiding, they belonged before the events that wiped out humanity.”

Death removes their hand from their face. “Thanks for that info, Time.” Getting a nod from the deer, Death continues, “With what I have here, maybe they can help with the rogue ones.”

War stands up with surprise. “You can’t mean to send them against our brethren by themself.”

Death looks at War. “They bear no allegiance to us or the rogues; they are the only ones we could turn to to deal with them.”

Fate speaks up again from their seat, “If we do that, you’ll need to make contact with them to give them something to destroy the rogue ones’ physical forms.”

Death nods to Fate then looks at the files again. “When they aren’t so busy as to be helping in a war between two nations, I will make contact with them.”

War scratches their chin. “Hey Death, if you don’t want them--” War ducks a boot thrown at their head, getting a chuckle from everyone around the table. “I’m joking!”

Comments

[Orderly Disassembly]

the paragraphs are way too blocky for me, and the main character seems overly nonchalant. Try breaking things up more in the future please, it makes thing easier to read.

[Spc jacko]

I read a lot of HFY and Humans Are Space Orks. It would amuse me greatly if Deaths life become hell, weather or not the OC agrees to help.

[burner181]

11453478
I don't know how I would even start going about doing that