Guy gets sent to Equestria as a Spartan from Halo 4. Let the shitstorm commence.
So, where to start? Well, My name's Josh. I was just a normal brony at Comicon, dressed as my Spartan from Halo 4, when I bought something from a guy dressed as Xur from Destiny, and now, I'm a general of an army of traitors and deserters in the middle of a fucking war. Now, we're just trying to live. I'm General Joshua Miller of the Rogue Army. Spartan, and maybe Equis' last hope.
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK!!!" I yelled as I avoided- actually, I'm getting ahead of myself. This all started- for me, anyway- a few months ago. Before I go to the beginning, my name's Josh, and I'm a Spartan(from Halo 4) General.
Okay, it all started a few months ago when I was at Comicon, dressed as my Spartan from Halo 4 with my usual load out, which I called, "Hunter". The armor had a Raider helmet, soldier chest piece, air assault shoulder piece for the right, scout for left, and bulk greaves and legs, the color being cyan for the primary with brick red as the accenting color. The primary was a standard skin battle rifle with a fracture plasma pistol for the secondary. Two model Plasma grenades were on the belt at my waist, and, though the armor ability was the usual Forerunner one(seriously, they couldn't get creative?), it was Promethean vision. I also took something from Escalation and added an Active camo module, as it was seen in one of the later issues that Spartans could have two armor abilities. The visor for the helmet was legendary, the one you get for completing Halo 4 on legendary. I did it solo, and damn was it a bitch! No as much as Reach, but I digress.
So, anyway, there I was, waiting in line to get an autograph from Nathan Fillion. Mostly for his work as Cayde-6 from Destiny, but still. I was a few people away when I saw a guy dressed similar to Xur from said game, and he was selling, I shit you all not, an energy sword with black and red blades. Holy shit is that badass. I waited in line, thinking some asshole would get it before me.
I got lucky, and, as soon as i got my autograph, nearly fanboying twice(I doubt anywhere near Halo Canon, one of my favorite halo related channels on Youtube, but again, I digress.) I made my way to the guy, and asked how much for the sword, and he said twenty dollars. Curse my intense want for a replica energy sword, as I should have known something was wrong with that price, and when the thing began to glow, with me noticing just before a portal opened beneath me. I face palmed just as I fell and blacked out.
I came back to the world of the living as I was falling. To the ground. From, according to the armor, which it working didn't hit me entirely until after I had safely landed, ten thousand feet. I remembered the opening cutscene from Halo 4, and took the position the Spartans there took. When my armor read I was about a thousand feet above, thank god for power armor being able to keep you awake under extreme pressure, I did a back flip until I was vertical like a column, and, as if I had been trained to use this armor, activated the thruster pack located n the back, landing, quite safely, I might add thanks to the shields, in a kneeling pose with my right fist on the ground and the other by my thigh. You know, like a bad ass.
I looked around, noting I was in a clearing. When I was sure I was alone, I freaked out due to the fact my armor now worked. It was along the lines of, "HOLY SHIT, WHAT THE HELL!! WHY DID THIS HAPPEN? HOW DID IT HAPPEN? WHERE THE FUCK AM I!?" Yeah. That went on for half an hour. I had no idea where I was, no idea if I could breath the goddamned air, and was all around pretty pissed. That was just the start of it. Once i had gotten my shit together, I decided I might as well make sure I could survive as long as possible, so I checked out my loadout. I reached across to my back and pulled away a halo 4 model battle rifle, the ammo counter, fortunately, reading infinity. I put it back and reached to my thigh and pulled up the plasma pistol. I decided to have some fun, and fired off enough rounds that would ordinarily make them overheat, so I just guessed it had bottomless clip too. I then put it back and reached lower on both thighs, and came back with two energy swords. I activated them both, and each had the red and black coloration. I smiled like a maniac under my helmet.
"Oh, if an army tries to stop me," I said, "They'd better hope these don't have infinite charge, other wise, I'm going Fel 'Chavamee on their asses." For those who don't know, this is Fel, the one in that familiar armor:
Favorite short next to package, right there. Any way, i put those two away and drew my BR. I looked down my sights, and noticed the motion tracker was still visible. Useful. I also saw that both icons for Promethean vision and active camo were active. Scary image, isn't it? A Spartan with Active camo, Promethean vision, and two energy swords. I know I'd piss my pants if I weren't the aforementioned Spartan.
Anyway, with my Battle rifle in hand, I set out to see where I was, not noticing the shapes in the bushes behind me.
I walked for an hour before I reached what I guessed was the edge of the forest. I hadn't encountered any wild life, so that didn't help me. What I saw once I was out of the forest, though, told me.
"And I'm in Equestria," I said, facepalming. It was then I realized their was something different about the place, and decided to check it out, going invisible as I made my way.
When I got closer, I saw a whole contingent of Guards, these guys not wearing the usual armor, at the perimeter of the place, with a lavender dome over the place. Okay, call me curious. I made my way to a blind spot in the guard perimeter, using Promethean vision to make sure I was alone, as I would be able to their outlines if invisible, and checked to see if i could go through the shield. When my left palm touched it, it was like a brick wall. "Looks like i need to get creative," I mumbled to myself before putting my left hand to my chin. Now, if only I knew how to hook, line, and sinker guards.
Okay, going off of knowledge from MLP up to this point, most guards aren't really appreciated, so any thing in that domain could work. I also know that just about all of them are stupid. Seriously, you idiots didn't think of doing back ground checks during the wedding? Regardless, I know I can work that into it, but I'd need more intel before proceeding. Fortunately, I saw a hill on my way here that gave a good line of sight on Ponyville while protecting me. On my way there, I noticed the air patrols, or lack thereof. Could definitely use that to my advantage. Good thing I took Military history and that one of the first things we covered was Sun Tzu, because they'd be stupid enough to attack me while I was on the high ground, a huge Sun Tzu no-no, not to mention tech, which off set the numbers, so long as Celestia and Luna weren't here.
So, I made camp, and waited for the sun to set.
A few hours later, I was trying to sleep, and failing. I don't know, must have been my new metabolism. Guess it was a good thing, seeing as how, just as the moon was at its high point, I heard foot, or hoof, given the circumstance, steps behind me. I faked being asleep, which is easy with a helmet, and kept my eye on the motion tracker until the contact, which showed up as a gray dot, with three others behind it, each behind me. Whoever they are, I gotta give 'em credit, the don't talk. Hell, if it wasn't for the motion tracker, I probably wouldn't even know.
Just as they reached me, I said, "Why are you here?" I assume they jumped, as the dots moved back a little, but they didn't flee. "If it's for food, I don't have any, and if you try to take my weapons, you'll get them."
"We just want a place to rest," one of them said.
"Why?" I asked as I sat up and looked at the four, and I was definitely surprised by the make up of the group.
Fortunately, with the star and moon light combined with my helmet, I saw them. One had a black coat, or skin, I don't know, they're anthro, a horn from just above his forehead, with black being the main color for his mane and tail, with red and orange accents that gave it a flame like appearance. Funny thing is that he had the same look as my pony OC. He wore what looked like guard armor, but it was dinged and dirty. The one next to him was a female Griffon, one that looked, weirdly enough, like she was related to Gilda due to the fact her head looked like an eagle's, and had on old, knight like armor that had the same wear and tear as the unicorn's.
It was the next two that confounded me a little, in all honesty. The third of the group was a changeling. Far as I could tell, he had green skin/chitin, though what surprised me was the fact he was alive, given, well, you know, the wedding. He had black and green armor, minus the helmet, and was badly dented, even missing some pieces. The last one looked like a crystal pony, but his skin was dark, so it was hard to tell, though his armor looked as if it was from a nightmare, what with the open mouth on the chest piece.
The one that looked like my OC said, "Because the armies are after us."
"What armies? I asked. "I thought this planet was peaceful."
"Up until two months ago it was," the Griffon said.
"Well, if you tell me what exactly is going on," I said, "I'll let you stay here. Fair enough?"
As I looked at the four individuals, I was able to see signs of rank on their armor. All of them, far as I could tell, were high ranking, which simply made more and more curious.
The lead one sighed and said, "Yeah, I guess."
"Then take a seat," I said. "I have a feeling this is going to be a long one, but first: names?"
The four of them took a seat on the grass in a way that we made a pentagon. "Well," the unicorn said, "I'm Lone Shadow," weird, as that's my OC's name, but I'm going to chalk that up to the multiple worlds theory, "this is Quick Wing," he said motioning to the Griffon. "We don't her real name. Amnesia."
"i can tell my own story, Lone," Quick said. "What I remember about it, anyway."
"I know, Quick," Lone said. "The changeling is Green Mist, while the Crystal pony is Onyx." Wow, talk about unoriginality.
"Okay, so, what exactly is with the armor you're wearing?" I asked,
"That has to do with about a year ago," Quick said. "You see about a year ago, Nightmare, who, somehow, was a separate entity from Princess Luna, returned. The Element bearers defeated her, but she went into hiding. A few months later, King Sombra somehow returned, and, while he had his army distracting the bearers, Celestia, and Luna, he snuck into the Crystal Palace."
"Once in," Onyx continued, "he killed Prince Armor, and, the last I saw her, made Cadence his sex toy." He sighed. "I was a guard on duty then, and should have at least been able to warn them, but, instead, Sombra took over the Empire, and the Entire guard force was forced to serve him, with any who said no getting publicly executed if they were a stallion, and bought by the few nobles for what ever they wanted if they were mares." He shuddered. "My sister was one of those, and I haven't seen her for months."
"And just a week after that," Green Mist said, "Queen Chrysalis, along with most other changeling hives, attacked Equestria. I was in Chrysalis' personal guard up until a month ago, which is when Onyx and I deserted to go to the Minotaur homeland, where we met Lone and Quick."
"Okay. So, why did you all desert?"
"Well," Onyx said, "I did so because I got word from one of my, ahem, contacts, that the bastard who bought my sister was there, and I was ordered to sty with the army, but disobeyed. Green Mist left because he was sick and tired of the conditions for even changeling bodyguards. So, we took some supplies, and went to the Minotaur home land, the only place neutral."
"So the entire planet's at war?" I asked, to which Quick nodded.
"Yeah," she said. "Sombra and the hives are on one side, along with renegade thestrals under Nightmare Moon, who came out of hiding a month ago, with Equestria and its allies on the other. As for why I left, it's because of the fact I was under command of Blueblood. I tried ot leave, he tried to stop me, and i ripped his guts out and fled. Though I doubt any miss him, they still want me so I can pay. Believe me, just about any one would want to kill him. I just did it because they were going to come after me anyway."
"Well, could be worse," I said to her. "You could have massacred a shit ton of people, and, really, of what I know of that guy, one of the Elements would have helped you if she wasn't so uptight." This got a laugh out of all of us.
"What about you, Lone?" I asked once I stopped laughing. "Why'd you leave?"
He shrugged. "Sick and tired of the Nobles wanting war because they were afraid they'd lose their wealth if we tried to reach a peace agreement with them, and the princesses being to cowardly to do otherwise. Quick killed Blueblood a week before, and we met up in the Everfree a week after mine, as ponies in general are cowards, and made our way to the same place as Onyx and Green Mist, which is where we met up. Actually, most of those we met with their were deserters from one of the two groups."
"Then why is it you four are here now?"
"Sombra's army, which had been brainwashed since I deserted," Onyx said, "invaded, and everyone that could fled, scattering to the ends of the world in groups like ours. Most of us are able to stay in contact, but don't for fear of them having been found and brainwashed. Really, we're just trying to survive."
"But what about you?" Lone asked me, getting my attention. "Who are you, and just what race are you?"
"Well," I said, "my name's Josh. As for my race, it's called humanity, or, sometimes, human kind."
"So, Josh, what are your plans?" Quick asked.
"Just to survive," I said. "I came here because some asshole from where I live could use magic and did so to send me here, and I have no idea how to get back."
"And what if they, meaning one of the two alliances, tried to recruit or kill you?" Green Mist asked.
"Simple," I said with a chuckle. "I become their worst fucking nightmare, even Nightmare will want to change her name so she isn't even remotely associated with me by reputation."
"Well, if that happens," Quick said, "count us in."
"But why were you at Ponyville?" Lone asked.
"To see what's been going on," I said, as I had no idea what season this was taking place in. "Maybe see if the Elements can help me find a way home."
"I doubt it," Lone said. "I heard they moved to Canterlot, which has become the brain of Equestria and its ally's military , and they only let military leaders and guards that have been checked thoroughly."
"So we can only get in there by being a military leader with that group, or a well checked out guard?"
"Bingo," Quick said.
Under my helmet, I began to smile. "What if we took the place over?" I asked, getting looks from the others.
"Your kidding, right," Onyx said. "We'd need an army to even have a chance, and its only five of us."
"What would it take for others to see there's a true third faction that wants to end this war, a, I guess, peace corps, or, dare I say, a rogue army?"
"I don't know," Lone said a worried look on his face before it got a smile of him understanding. "I guess all it would take is a group of ponies, or a mixed group," he said as the others got smiles on their faces, "of individuals showing they aren't afraid of being labeled as traitors if, in the long run, peace happens."
"But it'd mean attacking someplace important to both places that is thought to be unconquerable, but, at the same time, not the capital," I said. "You guys know any place like that?"
"Well, Ponyville, home of the Elements of Harmony, is right there," Quick said as she pointed a thumb to the aforementioned town.
"And we happen to know a well fortified changeling outpost not even Celestia's willing to attack," Onyx said with a grin.
I stood up, as did the other four. "So, it looks like we're working to end the war, then," I said, putting my hand in the center of the pentagon. "If we get caught by either side, we'll most likely be killed or enslaved. But, if it means bringing peace, I'm willing to take that risk."
"Same here," Lone said as he put his hand over mine, followed by Quick nodding and putting her hand(?) over Lone's.
"And we get to stop families being ripped apart," Onyx added as he put his hand over Quick's.
"I'm in," Green Mist said as he put his hand over the rest of ours. "So, what to call our alliance?"
"I think Josh already said it," Quick said. "The 'Rogue Army.'"
"Good thing I've been working on intel for Ponyville then," I said. "Because tomorrow, we reveal ourselves to the world, and I already have a battle cry."
"What's that?" Onyx said.
"Ooh wah naria," I said. "It's something I came up with when I was a kid. "It means, to me, at least, 'We will not surrender.'"
"I like it," Green Mist said.
"Same here," Quick said. "Sounds ancient, too."
"And cool," Lone added.
I nodded. "Then it's decided," I said, to which the others, now my comrades in arms, nodded. "On three. One. . . Two. . . Three!" On three, the five of us threw the hand in the center up and shouted, "OOH WAH NARIA!"
Look out, Celestia, Luna, Sombra, Chrysalis, Nightmare; the Rouge army has just formed, and we're coming for you all.
Over the rest of the night, the five of us tried to come up with a plan to get into Ponyville, both to reveal ourselves to the world and for supplies, and get out like a wind, hence the operation name.
The plan was simple: Lone would walk right in front of them, and note, he came up with this part, and since he was wanted for desertion, the guards would try to arrest him. While that was going on and he kicked their ass with Onyx helping him, Green Mist would sneak in disguised as a royal guard from the west of the town, Quick on the east, and me from the north. Lone had told us during the plannng stages that Twilight had cast a shield spell before she and the other Elements had departed, and, because of the distance, it would break easily from a powered up spell or, in my case, a plasma grenade to weaken it, and an energy sword to cut my way in. You know, I wonder if the elites ever tried using energy swords of any model to cut their way into a ship.
Oh well, doesn't matter now.
Just as Celestia rose her sun, or, at least, she pretended to raise it, we overlooked Ponyville from where we made camp.(1)
"One more time, just to make sure we got it," Lone said, to which I nodded.
"Lone, Onyx, you'll be the diversion in the south, drawing as many guards as you can away from the town, which will allow Quick, Green Mist, and myself to get in there, myself first due to what's needed to get in, who would then get the others in. We'd grab what supplies we could carry. If any civilians see us, we either knock them out and leave them, or knock them out and take them with us to make sure they don't capture us. Remember, if we do take some, we don't harm them."
"Right," Onyx said as he drew a black sword from its scabbard on his waist. "What about the guards."
"Kill if unavoidable, I said. "If it can be, knock them out or injure them."
"Right," the other said.
"Then let's go," I said as I activated Active camo. I had given the others standard headsets that, somehow, came from my armor so that we could more easily coordinate our efforts.
It took us a while to get in position, but, thirty minutes later, we were ready, myself being with the shield in arms reach. "Everyone in position?" I asked over the radio.
"Distraction team is ready," Lone said.
"Same here," Quick said, followed by Green Mist.
"Then let's start the party," I said. "Hit it."
A few seconds later, magical explosions could be heard from the opposite side of town. Have to give those two credit, they know how to make a distraction. I reached down to where the plasma grenades were and grabbed one. "Fire in the hole," I said as I triggered it and backed away quickly. Once it had reached it's brightest point, I moved in, timing it to where I'd reach the shield just after detonation, and activated the energy sword in my left hand. Just as the grenade detonated, the cloud of Plasma still in the air, my shields just barely going, I thrust the sword forward, and, fortunately, it penetrated the bubble. I smiled to myself as I thrust the sword up, then down, which gave me a template ot the hole I was going to carve. With that, I turned the sword ninety degrees, and began to carve a circle out of the shield, making sure the top and bottom met with the cut I had made.
Once it was one, the parts of the dome that had been cut out disappeared in a flash of light, and I simply stepped inside. "I'm in," I reported. "Green Mist, see if you can use your magic to get in. Quick, I'm on my way to get you in."
"Right," she replied over the radio. For me, it was a short run to where she was waiting, as there were few guards on the way, and, apparently, my camo was enhanced to work at the same level it does for Elites in game, meaning it doesn't fade when you move quickly.
When I made it there, I decloaked and repeated the process that got me inside, with Quick stepping in as soon as I was done.
"Cool sword, Josh," she said. "So, where are we meeting Mist at?"
"Town square would be best," I said before activating my radio. "Green Mist, you there?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Quick and I are heading to the town square. Meet us there."
"Right," he said.
I nodded to Quick. "Let's go," I said, and we began to make our way to the town square. "Lone, Onyx, how are you two doing?"
"Fine," Lone replied. "Hit and run attacks, keeping them off balance."
"Keep it going, then, and wait for my signal," I said.
"Copy," Lone said.
"So, how are they doing?" Quick asked.
"Good," I replied. "Now come on, we need to meet up with Green Mist."
"Right," she said.
Ten minutes later, we arrived at the town square, Green Mist having already arrived. "About time," he said. "I've already checked the shops nearby while invisible. We can get what we need, but what about the civilians that are bound to try and stop us?""
"Knock them out if they try anything," I said. "Otherwise, take only what we need, and nothing else, got it?"
Both the Griffoness and changeling nodded. "Good. Lead the way, Mist."
"Right," he said before he led us to a food stand that sold apples. Huh. Go figure.
"Okay, any one got bags?" I asked. No one held a bag up, and I facepalmed. "Why didn't I ask before this?" I asked my self before walking over to nearby sugarcube corner. I walked in, they didn't even try to barricade the thing and walked to the counter. "I don't want to hurt any of you, I just need some bags!" I shouted, tapping my foot on the floor. I was in there for a minute before some bags came falling down the stairs. I walked over to them and picked them up. "Thank you," I shouted as I walked back over to the counter and put some bits on the counter. Lone and the others had taken all of their savings before they deserted, and they gave me a fifth of their pool, some of which I put on the counter. "Money's on front counter," I yelled as I walked out.
I made my way back to Green Mist and Quick, handing them each a bag. "Here you go, guys. Compliments of Sugarcube corner. Oh, and don't worry about needing to return them once we're done, I paid."
"Seriously?" Quick asked.
"Hey, we may be starting our own army, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't steal," I said. "That is one line I refuse to cross."
"Yeah, you, not us," Quick said.
"Actually, there is one family I'm willing to steal from but let's save them for last," I said. "Now, lets get some food." From there, the three of us took what food, whether it be fruits, vegetables, meat(I blame the fact some of the animals Fluttershy has for that due to diet.), and even some sweets, with me paying for it, not certain if the others were doing the same. Once we were done, we met in front of the building that the mayor, under normal circumstances, would be doing her job.
"So, who is it you'd be okay from stealing from, Josh," Quick asked.
"You'll see," I said as I knocked on the door.
"GO AWAY!!" I heard inside.
"We will, but we need something. Just give it to us, and nothing'll happen," I say. "We need directions to the Rich household."
"If i tell you, you'll leave me alone." Okay, now that I listen to it, is sounds like the mayor. God is she a terrible leader.
"Yes," I say.
"Turn around, take a right, fifth house on the right!"
"Thanks!" I yell. "By the way, you're a terrible mayor!" What? The only thing she ever did was episode one hundred, and even then, it wasn't special. "Come on, guys," I say, and the three of us follow the directions.
"Isn't the Rich family one of the wealthiest families in Equestria?" Quick asked.
"Yep, and they keep it for themselves," I say. Not to mention the mother's a grade-A plothole who deserves to be killed. I hope she gives me a reason.
Anyway, we made it there, and i decided to go badass for the entry. "Quick, hold this," I said as i handed my bag to her, which she took.
I grabbed my battle rifle from off my back, put it up to my shoulder, and kicked the door to the house down, sweeping the living room. "Clear," I said, and I moved in, Quick and Green Mist following behind me. I put the battle rifle on my back and drew the plasma pistol as I took the bag I had given Quick. "Thanks," I said.
"No problem," she said. "Now, where are they?"
"I sense something, probably them, upstairs. " Good thing changelings can sense any emotion apparently, huh?
I nodded. "Let's get them, then," I say. "Oh, and if the mother fights, you can kill her."
"Right," Quick said. With that, we made our way upstairs, Mist in the lead, and we made our way to what I guessed was the master bedroom.
Green Mist held up three fingers, indicating three ponies were in there. I nodded, and him and I traded positions. "We know you're in there," I say. "Come out, and we won't harm you. Or attack us, for that matter."
"How do we know you won't just kill us," I hear Tiara's mom, who I shall simply call bitch, as I do not know her name, say.
"Because, if I wanted to do anything, I could have just busted down this door and kill the lot of you," I say.
"What do you want?" I hear Filthy Rich ask.
"All we want are bits. The reason why it's you lot is because of the fact you're the wealthiest family here. Just give us a portion of what you have on you, or in this house, and we'll leave."
They were silent for a while, though I did hear Bitch complaining about giving us money instead of trying to escape. It was a few minutes before I heard Rich say, "Downstairs behind a portrait. Combonation three five two two six. Take what ever you want." I could hear the fear in his voice.
"Thanks," I said. "Come on guys," I said, walking away from the door. Shame, I was hoping to kill Tiara's mom. Anyway, we made our way downstairs. More specifically, the living room, where there were a few portraits.
"Okay, split up and find the safe, guys," I said. "Open it, and take only what we need. Leave the rest."
"Right, killjoy," Quick said, getting a laugh out of us. So, from there, we took the paintings off the wall, carefully, so they could be put back on, but, even after a few minutes of searching, nothing."
I sighed and activated my radio. "Lone, how are you guys doing?"
"Could be better," he replied. "Guards are getting smart. What about you guys?"
"Right now, we're in the Rich household, trying find their safe, but nothing."
"What about that ability of your's, Josh," Onyx said as I heard a magical explosion in the background. "What's you call it, Promethean vision."
I facepalmed. I'm beginning to see mom's point about me not having common sense. "I'll try that now. Let us know if something happens."
"Right," Onyx said. "Onyx out."
I sighed. How did I forget about Promethean vision. Ah, well. Stuff happens. Anyway, I activated it, and looked around the room. "There," I said, pointing to a small painting above an actually pretty nice fire place Have to give this family credit, they know how to hide shit. Fortunately, both for me and Filthy, he was vague enough, so no death for him.
"You sure, Josh," Green Mist asked. "That's kinda small for a safe."
"Which is why no one would think it's there," Quick said as she put the painting she had just taken off the wall back on the wall before she went to the one I had pointed at. She took the portrait off the wall, and there was a safe. She put the combanation in, and the safe unlocked. She opened it, and damn, were there a lot of bits in there.
I nodded to Green Mist, who took a portion of the bits in his magic, and divided it between us and put them in the bags. "Lets go," I said, and we stepped out.
Only to be met with a large royal guard force. Only one word came to mind.
So, there we were. Surrounded by a whole contingent of guards, and I saw two of them holding Lone and Onyx. But what really got my attention was the asshole in front. He had extremely ornate armor, but it looked durable at the same time.
"Just who are you?" I asked.
"It doesn't matter, you animal," he said. I already hate the guy. "But if you must know, I am General Sharp Wit of the Royal Guard, in charge of the regiment of Ponyville. And don't think of trying to run, we have all of your accomplices, and I already had a message sent to Princess Twilight and the Elements, who are on their way here as we speak. You can't get away."
"Lone?" I asked, putting my hands in the air after mentally disengaging the magnetic holders on my armor and letting the weapons fall to the ground. "What do you know about him?"
"One of Celestia's best generals," Lone said, still held by the guard. "But he was moved here because he was too blood thirsty. Let a lot og guards under his command die."
"Shut it," Sharp said. "I know of you, Lone Shadow. And I know what you did before you betrayed Celestia." He chuckled. "I do have ways of knowing what each of the princesses have done. That's why I'm still a General- I blackmailed those two to keep me at my rank, and I still have dirt I haven't revealed to them yet. If I tell them to kill you, they will.
"So just make it easy, and kill yourself. I doubt Ponyville would miss you."
Just before I could say anything, a small, gray dot appeared on my motion tracker, and I saw a faint shimmer in the air. If it was faint for me, with my VISR, then there was no way for them to see it. Under my helmet, I smiled. I just hope it'll help, what ever it is.
"How about no," I said as I reached my left hand up, and felt something hit it. I brought it back down, and was a little surprised to see the first weapon from Destiny every player gets. I forget the name, but you know what I mean. I saw it glow a little, so I guessed it was a token. "Some help would be nice," I said as I fired disabling shots at leg levels, and a few guards, including those holding Lone and Onyx, fell to the ground. Just as the magazine emptied, a portal opened up in the air above us, and three armored beings, each one looking like a class from Destiny.
I also noted they looked just like my guardians from said game. "So, who summoned us," the Hunter said.
"That'd be me," I said as I picked up my weapons.
"Josh, is it just me," the Titan asked in a robotic voice, "or does he look like the Spartan we made in Halo 4 before we were split like this?"
"That's funny, you three look like my guardians," I say. "Let me guess, you bought something from a merchant and were sent to some version of Equis, and were split into three people, with the identity you had before being a single person, with his name also being the Hunter's, as well as mine?"
"I guess," the Warlock said. "Cybis, by the way."
"Rhino," the Titan said.
"Well, we know each other's names," I said as I brought my battle rifle out. "Disabling shots."
"Right," my Hunter self said as he and the other Guardians brought their own weapons to the ready.
"Mist, Quick, same goes for you two. Lone, Onyx," I said, "get a spell ready to get us out of here."
"Right," they said. "Come on, guys," Quick said. "But we are going to talk about this later, Josh."
"I know," I said as she took Onxy in her hands and flew up, Mist doing the same for Lone. "So, guardians," I said, a smile under my helmet, "time to have some fun."
I fired off a burst from my rifle that went through stallion's arm, then switch targets to a pegasus in the air, firing at the tip of his wing so he could at least slow his fall. I then bent down while spinning, putting my rifle on my back and drawing my pistol, firing off grazing shots just above their heads, which caused many of them to duck. But I saw a unicorn rushing towards me, and fired on his leg. He had some kind of heat shield over his body, and he got close enough to bring his sword down. I jumped to the side, and hit him in the gut with my fist, making him double over.
I looked at the three Guardians, and each was delivering either disabling shots or knocking ponies out with hand to hand. I think I even saw Josh, the other one, with one of the exotic swords, but I couldn't tell before I had to dodge another sword and elbow the guard who tried to kill me, knocking him out. I fired off more plasma pistol shots, making sure they were near misses.
I then made my way to Sharp, knocking guards out if they were in my way, and man did he look pissed. I put my pistol away, grabbed one of my sword hilts, and activated it before raising it up and slicing downward. I know I said no killing, but no one gets dirt on the princesses, not even worst one, Celestia, and sure as hell not best pony, Luna.
But it seems he had a sword that protected against heat, as it stopped the energy sword. "Guess I should have mentioned," he said, "that I blackmailed Celestia to make this thing immune to heat."
"Go to hell," I said before raising my sword and trying to execute a diagonal slash, which he blocked.
"And that I'm good at swordsman ship."
I snarled, and begun to swing wildly, hoping to get lucky. "You'll have to do better," he taunted. "A mind beats reckless swinging." To emphasize his point, he swung at my arm. Somehow, he took the shields out, and cut my under suit, or what ever it's called, and a small trail of blood began to flow from the cut. "Huh, so you are alive," he said. "I'll have to fix it."
He thrust his sword at me, but Rhino grabbed it before it hit me. "Nice knife," he said before snapping the sword in half like Armstrong dd to Raiden's in MGR: Revengeance.
"Now how about you run back to Canterlot," Cybis said, pointing his rifle, which I recognized as the Warlock exclusive scout rifle, "before we kill you."
He chuckled. "That isn't going to happen," he said just as a lavender blast of magic hit close to us. We jumped back and looked up.
"Shit," I said as I saw Twilight and the others closing in. "Uh, Lone," I said over the radio. "How's it coming?"
"Nearly done," he said. "Why?"
"Elements," I said.
"Never mind."
"So, you guys ready to run," I asked the Guardians.
"Yep," Rhino said. "Now?"
"Now," I said, and the three of us stowed our weapons and began to run in the opposite direction the Elements were coming from. "So, what do you guys have to deal with?" I asked them as we ran.
"Well," Josh said, "we pissed off our worlds Celestia, who just happens to be Oryx's daughter, make peace with changelings, and kick Crota's ass like he was a Ray."
"Nice," I say. "So, how do I send you guys back."
"Just say we can go back," Rhino said.
"Right," I said. "And if you need help with you know who, I'm in."
"Thanks," Cybis said.
"No problem. You can go home, now."
With that, the three of them just disappeared. Nothing fancy, they were just there one second, and gone the next. Fortunate, as a lander beam of magic hit right where Cybis would have been. I turned a corner, and saw the others. "Josh, come on," Lone yelled, making a come on gesture. As I appraoched, I jumped and did a three-sixty rotation on the horizontal axis. In layman's terms, I now faced the sky as I dove down. I brought my rifle to my shoulder from my back, and sighted. I saw all six of the mane six, those that couldn't fly being held by Twilight's magic or Fluttershy as I saw two blades in Rainbow Dash's hands. All of them wore ornate armor. I aimed for Rainbow. More accurately, one of her wings around the middle.
. . .
What? She is least favorite mane six to me, and barely top ten ponies with an actual personality, and I figured that I might as well teach her that those who fly always have to crash at some. I fired a burst, and everything slowed. I saw the bullets leave the barrel of my BR, traveling towards their target. They hit, making a triangle pattern on impact before the exit wounds nearly destroyed her wing. Damn. Much as I don't like her, I didn't mean to ground her for the rest of her life. Still, it got the needed effect, and diverted the attention of the others away from me. The last thing I saw was Rainbow falling as a bright flash enveloped me.
For me, the world started out black. Eventually, shapes came into sight. I knew I was in a dream, first teleportation coupled with slight combat exhaustion and my wounds, even if I was a Spartan, and all.
Anyway, what I saw was, actually, a map I had made on Impact in Halo four's forge. Basically, it was a ship made using map exclusive pieces and two kill balls, the latter acting like the light from the thrusters. It was in between both of the asteroids there, and It was a map I was proud of.
Currently, I was standing in the bridge of the place, which took a bit of inspiration from the Pillar of Autumn, as it was a little below the rest of the body and had a good frontal view with two station consoles. "Sure, why not? I asked myself. Might as well train in zero gee, as, when I designed the map, I had two hanger bays with Banshees made, with teleporters for them to get out. So, I made my way there and turned into the left one. Both had four of the covenant fighter craft. I got in one, as if through instinct, and activated it's thrusters and anti-grav generator, and had it go through the teleporter, which sent me and the banshee about twenty fee outside the ship. I made my way to the top of the hanger the banshee had come out of, and set down, getting out as I did so.
I stretched and, thanks to my brain thinking of actual physics, when I jumped up a little, I went up, and kept going. Fortunately, my armor did have Halo five thruster packs on. Ooh, time for some fun. I smiled, and imagined, simply for the hell of it, an army of Promethean Knights, Ranger Sangheili, and, because why the fuck not, this is a dream, a Kraken. Stopping here, a Kraken is a covenant assault vehicle that's larger then a scarab. In mission one of Guardians actually. Think a walking fortress. Oh, and I imagined a Guardian too. Because fuck logic!
"Time for some fun," I say, activating an energy sword in my left hand, and drawing a fracture plasma pistol in my right. "COME AT ME, ASSHOLES!!"
With that, the Knights and Rangers charged en masse, with the Kraken firing off Plasma volleys, the Guardian grabbing rocks I had made just for it and threw them at me. I grinned under my helmet, and used the thrusters to avoid the rocks as I made my way to meet with the two forces.
Just before I met them head on, I thrusted up a little, putting me above them, and all I did was bring my sword down, which resulted in cutting quite a lot of them in half (thank you, dream logic for giving me bottemless clip.) and made my way to where the Guardian was.
It kept trying to fling rocks at me, but I avoided them. Just before I impacted on the thing, I used counter thrusters as I went from horizontal to vertical, and went full power up. Funnily enough, the rocks it had thrown at me were pulled back, and hit the Guardian. Oh, the irony in that.
I landed on the thing's head and said, in a voice similar to the RCV, thank you suit speakers, "I CLAIM THIS GUARDIAN IN THE NAME OF THE ROGUE ARMY!! KILL THEM ALL!" I planted my sword in the Guardian's head, and it began to kill literally everything but me.
Ten seconds later, nothing but me, the ship, and the Guardian were left. "Ah, so much fun," I said.
"Only a monster would find killing fun," I heard behind me. I turned and saw Princess Luna in armor that was reminiscent of knight armor.
Think that in anthro. "This is a dream," I said. "They aren't real."
"Still, it is good I am here," Luna said. "If you find killing fun in the dream world, it is only a matter of time until you do so in the real world."
"Says who," I asked. "The only pony who truly knows dreams would be you, and ponies are capable of lying. Who's to say it isn't a way to remove potential threats to you and your sister, or just, no pun intended, by the way, nay-sayers, or just a grudge?"
"You would think I would do something so petty?!" Luna nearly yelled. "I have worked hard to get ponies to accept me, and would do nothing to lose that."
"Then why not try to make peace with Nightmare when she returned," I asked. "Doing so could have saved numerous lives, maybe even shortened this war. Maybe because you thought you still had something to prove to yourself? You thought Nightmare was, is, a monster, and couldn't stand the thought of her actually helping? Seems pretty damned petty to me."
Luna snarled. Now, before anything happens, I should let you know I'm doing this for a reason, that reason being that I am trying to make her made enough to get information. That, and I love being a smart ass. "I will make sure you will suffer," she said as her horn lit up, and restraints the same color as her magic appeared on my wrists and ankles. She used her own skill in dream control to summon, I shit you not, the most terrifying thing ever that could make even Chuck Norris piss his pants in fear! A feather! Yeah, pretty pathetic, I know. Seriously, did a three year old come up with the ideas for torture devices or something?
"Yeah, um, what the hell is a feather supposed to do?" I asked.
"Silence," Luna said as she began using the feather to tickle me. I looked out in space, literally, with a Are you fucking kidding with me? look. After a few minutes, she growled in frustration. "Why isn't this working? My dream magic should make this painful."
"No idea," I said as I brought my left wrist to my face as if I was looking at a watch. Yeah, while she was busy, I found out I can manipulate even stuff she made consciously, if that can be applied here. "But can you hurry up, I got to get back to kicking imaginary ass."
H-how are you able to break the bonds?" Luna asked, backing away.
"My dream," I said. "My rules. Here are a few: One," I said, snapping my fingers, which changed the scenery to a halo reach map I had made that involved a tower made up of dish parts, building blocks, sniper towers, landing pads, and curved walls, "none imprison me. Two." Another snap, and now we were in the cauldron. "I am unstoppable. Three." Another snap.
"Epic music. And four." Another snap, which returned us to where we had started, me standing on the Guardian, only I now had an army of Promethean Knights at my back. "I am fucking god, and none are as powerful as I."
"We shall see," Luna said, and, not really to my surprise, the mane six faded in. "You can not face the most powerful ponies in this world you-"
"Get them," I said, and the Knights charged at the six. Wait, six? Luna, Twilight, Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack- oh fuck.
"Hiya, Josh," I heard beside me, and I saw Pinkie as I turned.
"Hello, Pinkie. I'm surprised you aren't trying to kill me?"
"Why? We are in a dream, after all. It wouldn't have any effects on you. Besides," she said, shrugging. "The author, an alternate you, by the way, would just have you beat us." As if to punctuate, I heard an incineration cannon explosion, and some cussing, though I couldn't tell from who.
"Fair enough," I said, dreaming up two chairs and a popcorn machine. "Popcorn?"I asked, sitting down.
"Thanks," Pinkie said as she took a seat, and we watched the show. "Oh, and when you wake up, you'll have something from the three from earlier."
"Right," I said.
"PINKIE WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Twilight yelled from below.
"Dream, Twilight," the pink mare yelled. "We can't get killed, remember?"
"Plus, I could have sent in a lot worse," I yell. Seriously, they should thank Harmony I didn't bring in the Flood. Anyway, I snapped my fingers, and, with out the Forerunner machines, we all were in Ponyville. I got up from my seat with Pinkie doing the same before appearing with her friends. I imagined up my loadout, and said, "So, Princess," I say to Luna, "still want to try to bring me in?" Please say yes.
"Indeed I do." Oh, time to go Kaze no Stigma on their asses.
"Then come and get me," I said, crossing my arms, no weapon in my hands, a grin on my helmeted face.
Rainbow was first, and just as she came close, I blasted her back with a blast of wind, not even moving. "Next."
"Why you," Applejack said before she charged me with a hammer. Just as she reached me and brought her hammer down, I used the wind, not my thrusters, to hover slightly and sidestep before sending the farmer flying "Woaaaahhhhhh!" she yelled as she was sent flying.
"Seriously, I thought you were supposed to be a challenge. You all are worse at planning than a stupid fish." Hello Rageshy, who charged at me, trying to slice at me with, I shit you all not, butterfly knives, which I promptly blew out of her hands before knocking her on her face with a blast of wind. "Like I said." Honestly, this is, technically, a shared dream. They have slight control over it to. Someone get me the idiot in charge of pony evolution, I think he put too much stupid in it. Or she, if it's Celestia, I'm very equality minded. Not, Starlight Glimmer, levels (what happened to her in this timeline, anyway?), but equality minded nonetheless.
Needless to say, aside from Pinkie, the rest of the Elements attacked, and I quickly stopped them with out having to move my arms.
"How is it you defeated all of the Elements, except Pinkie, without raising a hand," Luna asked, pointing her sword at me, to which I replied:
"Dream. I control the world, or did it slip your mind." Wow, I am acting like Felix from RvB. Mwa hahahaha, fun!
"It matters not," Luna said. "I will defeat you." She then charged. Her first attack, a downward slice, I blocked with the air. I pushed her attack back, and went on the offensive, striking with precision on her armor, using a fake one to draw her sword, the second being the actual attack, which weakened it. The few times she was able to get in an attack, hello shields! In other words, I'm the only one who actually hit anything.
"Try looking at more then just me," I said. "Unless you find me attractive, that is." This got Luna to pause to process hat I said, which allowed me to finish the fight with a strong gust, which, on her weakened armor, blew away just about all of it. "You know, I don't see why so many ponies are enamored with Celestia," I said. "You have a much bigger ass and chest."
Luna, with just pieces of chain mail covering her sex and assets, covered herself and blushed in embarrassment.
She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, I snapped my fingers. "I just did three things," I said. "One is making sure you, and only you, can enter my dreams. Second is that, when you are in here, you'll dressed in what I want you in." To prove the point, I snapped, and Luna now stood there in, well, this:
"And third, I trapped a small part of your mind here that stays in contact with the main you, which I can use to bring the full you here whenever I want." It was here the world began to black out. "Huh, I'm waking up. "Buh-bye," I said to the seven mare before blacking out entirely.
As I woke up, I saw what looked to be old ruins, and two thrones with banners behind them. Well, at least I know where we are. I was lying on my back in the old throne room. I sat up, rubbing my head, which is when I realized my helmet had been taken off. It was nearby, and I looked at it, and, to my surprise, I looked as I had before this whole thing started. I had short, brown hair, a somewhat chubby face, a normal shaped nose, and olive eyes. All in all, I'd say I looked average.
"You're finally up," I heard to my left. I turned and saw Green Mist looking at me, his arms crossed, with a smile. "We thought you had died from the teleporation."
I chuckled. "You'd need to try harder than that to kill me," I say. "So, how long was I out?"
"A day," he said. "During which, something came for you." At this, a Ghost appeared behind him. "No idea what he wants."
"I think I know," I say as I stand up and the Ghost comes over to me. "So, whose Ghost are you?" I ask.
"Cybis'," he says "You forgot to give us a way to summon you."
"Oh, right," I say, rubbing the back of my head in embarrassment. "Sorry." I reached down to my fracture skin plasma pistol and held it out, butt first. "This do?"
"You sure," the Ghost says. "That's one less weapon for you."
"Yeah, I am," I say. "I got a battle rifle and two swords, after all."
The Ghost took a hold of the pistol through what I can only assume in manipulation of gravity fields. "Well, if we can, we'll make another for you."
"Make it a few," I say. "That way, if i encounter others of. . . our kind, they can summon me for help, too."
"Right," he said. "See ya." With that, he just disappeared.
"You still owe us an explanation, you know," Green Mist said.
"Then get the others," I say as I knelt down and grabbed my helmet. "Thirty minutes," I say. "I need to check some stuff."
"What?"
"Stuff," I say before putting my helmet on and walking out of the room. I made my way out of the ruined castle. The Everfree forest was around us, the gorge there. Okay, why were the sisters stupid enough to build their castle where only a fucking bridge or pegasai can get to?
Regardless, I walked to the edge of the cliff above where the Tree of Harmony was. The reason why is to help find out where in the show's timeline I am. I'm definitely after season three premiere, but no idea past that. I stepped over the edge, and fell to the entrance of the cave, activating the thrusters to slow my fall just before impact. Once I landed, I landed and saw that the tree had all the Elements. I walked closer, and saw that the mystery box was also gone. So, after Tirek. Noted. Wonder how I missed the castle. I walked towards the tree and put a hand on it, noting it felt like normal tree bark, even though it was made out of crystal.
Who are you?
I jumped back, not expecting to hear a voice. The voice itself sounded like a mother's. calming, but it also sounded ancient and knowledgeable. Weird. Anyway, I walked around the back, and saw the one thing I hadn't expected to see.
My emblem, in shape. Two energy swords crossed over an octagon. I looked at my scout shoulder piece, and there it was. One sword was white, the other orange, and they were crossed over a red octagon. I looked back at the tree, and placed a hand on it again.
Who are you? I heard again, and jumped back before realizing it came from the tree. I placed my hand on it again. Who are you?
My name is Josh Miller I replied. I assume that you're. . . whatever resides in the Tree?
Indeed I am, the intelligence said. My name is Harmony, though I imagine that is obvious. I do not know what you are, though.
I'm a Spartan of the UNSC, I say.
No, you are not, Harmony said. I am well aware of other dimensions, as the tree's strength and presence allow it to exist in multiple dimensions. As such, I know of your origins. Though, I can see why you told me otherwise. Other versions of myself have encountered others have you sub-race, no offense meant, and know that the travel alters your mind slightly.
I kind guess that myself, I say. But why is it my emblem in on the tree?
That, if I had to guess, is because of the lost seventh Element. Luna and Celestia were the first after me to wield the Elements, Twilight was the one to discover how the Element of Magic is made. I can only assume you are connected to the Elements, though I do not know how.
Well, guess I'll find out eventually, I say.
Indeed you will, Harmony said. Before you go, I must ask: Why are you involved in this war? A third faction will simply lead to more bloodshed.
I guess to make sure someone's looking out for the civilians. It's been an honor to speak with you, Harmony.
As it has been for me, Spartan, Harmony said before I felt something, I assume her consciousness, receding.
With that, I took my hand off the tree. Things just got interesting, I'm sure. Anyway, I made my way to the entrance of the cave, and up the rock stairs. Once I made my way to the to. I walked to this end of the ravine that separated the castle from the rest of the forest. I turned around, and jogged into the forest, making sure my armor thrusters were functioning. Once I had gotten to where there was no sunlight, I turned back around, and got into a running stance. Once I was sure everything was ready, I took off running, hitting max speed pretty quickly.. I used my back thrusters to kick it up even more. Once I hit the ravine edge, I jumped, using my thrusters to gain as much altitude as I could. I then used the ground slam move to clear the rest of the way, and landed just on the other edge of the ravine.
"Now that's a solid ten," I heard Quick say before I heard clapping. I stood up and looked in the direction I heard her voice in, and saw her, Onyx, Lone, and Mist.
"Thanks," I say. "Now come on, I owe you guys an explanation."
We had made our way to the throne room, and sat on the ground. "So, questions first," I say.
"Who were those three that you summoned," Lone asked.
"Guardians, most likely from another version of Equis, who are in the same boat as I am, which would be us not being in our home dimension. Hence the name our predecessors came up with. "The Displaced"."
"And how did you get here?" Quick asked.
"I bought one of these," I say, patting an energy sword, "a portal opened under me, and here I am."
"So you aren't trying to get home?" Mist asked.
"Nope," I say, shaking my head. "Yeah, it'd be a nice bonus, but I'm here for a reason. If I'm gonna help you guys, I need to be focused.
"What about your family?" Onyx asked.
"That, I wish I could say something about," I say. "I mean, yeah, I want to see them, but if they knew what I was doing, they'd want me to help."
"What were you like before this," Lone asked.
I shrugged. "Personality wise, the same," I say. "Physically, I was weaker, and this," I say, tapping the chest of my armor, "was just a costume. A lot of shit happens to a person that gets displaced."
"Apparently," Quick said. "So, what exactly why did you give that robotic thing one of your guns?"
"The beauty and curse of being a displaced," I say. "We give other displaced something of ours, called a token, that allows them to summon us, and vice versa." I pulled the Destiny gun from the floor nearby, as it had appeared there. "This is the one for those three. Any thing else, guys?"
"Not right now," Mist said. "Aside from what's our next play?"
"Well, we made a name for ourselves with Princess and the others, who I'm going to call the allies for simplicity, now we just need to so the same with the other side, which I'll call the Shadow empire."
"Seems appropriate," Lone said. "I actually have an idea as to that plan."
"What?
"We take back the Minotaur lands," he said, leaning forward. "Most of our friend's are still there, and, believe it or not, Mist here got very friendly with the Minotaur queen, so we would have her as an ally if we can do this."
"I see a few problems already," I say. "One is there's only five of us, and we don't know if your friends there have been captured. Second is we don't know if Sombra killed the Queen, and finally, and note this is connected to the last one, we don't know if the Minotaurs will want to go to war."
"Oh, they'll want to," Mist said. "They have a very violent version of the term "help" in times of war. And when they're homeland is invaded, they just love to help the ones who save them."
"You sure?" I ask.
"Without a doubt."
I smiled under my helmet. "Then it looks like our next objective is clear."
"Then what are we gonna call this op?" Lone asked.
"Operation: Jagged Blade," I say. "With teleportation, how long would it take us to get there?" I ask Lone and Mist.
"About three days, at best," Mist said. "At worst? That'll depend on what we have to go against."
I nodded. "Rest up then, people. We move out tomorrow."
Me and the others were standing outside of the Castle of the sisters, two days having passed since my arrival. "Everything ready?" I ask.
"Yeah," Mist, wearing his armor like the others, said. "We got enough supplies to last the three days, and if something happens, we plotted the route to take us close to a few towns, and we still have the bits we got from the Rich family, and since most of those towns are neutral, we can pay for what we need."
"Right," I said, nodding. "Anything else?"
"Yeah," Quick said. "One of those towns is on my list of places that might have a connection to my past," she said. "Even if you guys keep going, I'll be staying there until I know for certain if it has anything or not."
"Well, if you plan on staying there," Lone said. "So do I. We've stuck together this long, haven't we?"
"I'll stay behind, too," Onyx said. "We need to stick together, after all."
"Same here," Mist said.
"Third that," I say. "So, when will we get there?"
"Tomorrow," Lone says. "Of course, that's not taking any complication into account."
"And should there be anything else I need to know?"
"Yeah," Mist said. "Even before we left our respective armies, there's been word of spells not going right in the Everfree, and of patrols disappearing."
"I'll keep that in mind," I say. "Lone, how long will it take you to get the spell ready, and in what direction are we going?"
"Just need to get some concentration, not much, and due west."
I nodded. "Then do what you need to do."
"Right," Lone said before a green glow appeared on his horn, and then a flash of light that signaled teleportation. A teleportation that I was left out of. (Sigh) Go fucking figure.
I put a waypoint on my HUD's compass on the "E", and began to make my way there, drawing my BR. "Helljumper Helljumper, where ya been. . ."
A few hours later, I was at the edge of a clearing when I saw a small camp of tents. I stopped, and hid in nearby bushes, activating my armor abilities. As my armor began to blend in, the Promethean vision wave hit the camp, and I saw a total of twelve unicorn guards, I imagine invisible, as I only saw them with Promethean vision. What I saw, well, how best to describe it.
. . .
. . .
. . . Oh. It was, for it's size, a fucking fortress. The twelve guards were positioned behind rocks and other natural cover pieces. Behind them were a total of forty guards with swords and spears. The strange part was, though, that they had on a mix of Royal Guard armor, the type of Griffon armor that Quick wore, the same type of armor that Mist wore, as well as the type of armor Onyx wore. I think I found what happened to those patrols. Now, I could have easily just bypassed it, but what I saw next? Weeelll. . . let's just say that what it made me want to do would make, and I mean to disrespect to those who lost their lives or family members during this, D-Day look like a tea party. Yeah. That bad.
Specifically, what I saw was a group of mares, griffonesses, and female changelings, all nude, tied to poles being played with, among other activities, by damned Caribou. Looks like I'll be sending some individuals to hell while I'm here, after all. Thank god it's Caribou I'll be killing. Maybe the male guards, too, just to make it clear I could easily kill this many myself. All I need is a song.
A list of songs popped up on my HUD. So this thing has songs in the data storage. I can live with that. Okay, let's see. Rules of Nature? No, only in a sword fight. The Touch. No, only for the final fight. Wake up, by Story of the year. Maybe. Strength of a Thousand Men, by Two steps from hell? Nah. Not until an epic, climactic fight that is not the final one. Protectors of the Earth? Only if the fucking Covenant show up and I'm engaged in a hundred to one dogfight, me being the one. Oh, He's a pirate. May be for the Pirates of the Caribbean but a damned good action song. Unfortunately, no. Revival, from the Halo 4 soundtrack. No, this isn't the best moment for it. Oh, wait, I fucking know what song is perfect for this.
I got to my feet, and deactivated my camouflage, but kept my other ability going so that I could see the invisible guards, put my BR on my back, and drew my two swords, the black and red blades flashing into existence. Hit it.
As I approached the small fortress, the invisible guards fired off arrows, also invisible, as there was no color to them, pretty smart, I'll admit, but no match for a Predator grade Spartan. I sliced each arrow in half as it approached, or just plain dodged them, if they didn't bounce off my shields. Just before I hit the impromptu wall, I jumped over it, and sliced both swords downward in an X fashion, killing two of the guards. Once i landed, I spun around, and stabbed two more through their chests. Two bad you can't duel wield swords in-game, huh?
Four down on the archers, eight to go, along with thirty six melee guards, and an unknown amount of Caribou. The guards with melee weapons surrounded me, those with spears, half of their number, pointed their weapons at me. "By order of King, Dainn, cease and desist!" one yelled.
"How about," I said, deactivating my energy swords and tossing them up in the air, as high as I can, and drew my battle rifle. "No."
(00:59) I fired off a burst from my rifle, the bullets being a deadly mix of Armor piercing and High Explosive. The first bullet of the burst would clear the way for the second, an explosive, to hit what's behind. If it was organic, it'd be blown to bits, and the third, the second Armor piercing, would kill a third individual. And that's exactly what happened twelve times over before I dropped my BR, and grabbed the knifes in my forearm compartments, throwing them at two of the guards, hitting them in the head.
I then reached up and grabbed my energy swords, putting the left tone away as I ignited the right and began to do a dance of death. I sliced to the left after pulling my arm to the right, spun to keep the momentum, bent my back backwards on the fourth spin, and stopped with the sword across and just above my chest plate, myself on a knee before I activated the thrusters in the front to propel myself back wards into a group of guards, but I didn't stick around long, as I reached down, activated a plasma grenade, and stuck it to guard holding a spear before grabbing him by the throat and throwing him into the air just above another small cluster, leaving just two sword guards left. One charged me, but I simply held my sword up to where it hit him in the face while I just pulled out my BR and shot the other guy in the brain.
That's why you don't mess with a Raider. But I wasn't done yet, as I had simply killed the forty eight guards I saw from the outside, and still had to deal with who knows how many Caribou. I drew my other sword and ignited it, and made my way to the center of the camp, where the females were being held.
Once I arrived,I saw only three Caribou in, I'll admit, pretty ornate armor. All three were fashioned like that kind of armor that Winters from the TMNT movie a few years back wore.
But the one in the center had a shot load of glyphs carved onto his armor, and had a huge ass war hammer. "King Dainn, I assume?"
"You would be correct," he said. "And you are trespassing on Caribou lands."
"No, you're trespassing on Equestrian lands," I say. "Not that I'm not, but I'm being honest about it."
"Well, even if we are, we will soon overthrow those pathetic females called Princesses, and put all females in their place."
"Then you'll have to get through me, asshole," I say, dropping my weapons. "I'm in a good mood, so I'll give you the advantage." I got into a fighting stance, and I can imagine the asshole grinned under his helmet.
"You will regret that," he said, hefting his hammer up, and rushing at me. Okay, no weapons but my hands, and I'm facing what is, essentially, a Brute. What can I use? Before I could answer, I had to boost to the left to avoid his hammer strike. I landed with a slide, and used my boost to the right to amplify a punch I delivered, but he easily caught. "Weaker than even these mares," he said before he swung his hammer.
"Oh, fu-" I say before his hammer hit me in the head, causing me to go flying. I hit one of the tents, which, a sit turns out, had a steel skeleton. Yeah, even with the augments, that hurt. A lot. Good thing my shields took most of the impact. "You will regret facing me alone, what ever you are," Dainn snarled at me, walking over to me, raising his hammer. "Now die!"
He brought the hammer down, but, somehow, I raised both hands, and stopped it, though with a shit ton of effort. "I. . . don't think so," I say strained as I pushed his hammer to the side, and then using my thrusters to slide on my back away from him, which allowed me to get back on my feet, and get into a fighting stance again. "You want to beat me, you're gonna have to kill me.
"Bitch."
"You dare to call me a female!" Dainn yells angrily. Perfect. "You will suffer!" He swung his hammer horizontally, but I ducked to avoid it, which allowed me to deliver a boosted punch to his chin, sending him flying.
"Try again," I say, making him even madder.
He roared as he got back up, and charged at me yet again, and I avoided each hammer swing of his, sometimes barely, even with my boost. Gotta give this guy credit, he keeps his opponent on the deffensive. The other two hadn't moved, but they did have their weapons drawn.
Lightbulb.
After one of his vertical hammer swings, I jumped onto Dainn's head, and leaped off of it, activating my boosters towards on of the two Caribou to deliver a punch to this face, shattering his helmet, and making him go flying, but not before I grab his sword, and spin to cut off the head of his companion, ending on the spin by facing Dainn. "Time to die," I say as I get up on both feet, sword in hand.
"No, it isn't," Dainn said in the absolutely most contrived villain voice ever before he charged me again, his hammer raised. I smiled under my helmet as I out both hands on the sword and pointed it behind me before activating my thrusters. Once we were close o one another, he brought his hammer down, and I swung. When we stopped moving, I saw an impact crater behind me, and heard something heavy hit the ground.
"Too fucking easy," I say before I dropped the sword, and limped over to where the females were. "You ladies okay, considering the circumstances?"
They didn't answer, but I did see that they were still breathing. "Can you hear me?" Still no reply, so I walked over to where they were, and that's when I saw that each of them had ball gags in their mouth, and, I don't know, but something in their ears I will not describe for my own sanity.
I removed the gags and the devices, with each one getting the attention of the one who wore them. Once I had removed everything, I said, "Are you all alright?"
"What do you think?" a mare with- oh god. It's Starlight. Answers my question as to what happened to her, at least. "Those animals raped us, and even the stallions!"
"I'm surprised you aren't complaining about the fact your with changelings, or whatever belongs to the opposite army you were in from before this," I say.
"We've been in this position for a few months," a female changeling said. "We've learned to live with one another."
"And besides," a unicorn mare with white skin and a steel black mane and tail said, "most of us were deserters, anyway."
I raised my eyebrows under my helmet. "Well, do you want to help end the war?"
Just about all of them said yes. "Then grab some armor and weapons," I say as I move to rip the knots holding them to the poles apart. Before you say I'm too trusting- would you, even if you were numbered about forty, try to take out a Spartan, even a wounded one, that took out fifty-one, including one who was probably on magic steroids? As they did that, I limped over to the western end, but my side flared in pain. I clutched it, grinding my teeth.
Fucking hammers, I think to myself, limping much slower to the western edge of the camp just as my radio activated. I face palmed with my available hand.
"Josh, you alive," Lone asked over the radio.
"Yeah," I say, "but that teleportation spell left me out, and I had to hoof it, no pun intended, that's just an expression where I come from, and I encountered a camp that was guarded by those missing guards. The male ones, anyway. The female ones were stripped and tied to a pole to be sex toys, and there were three Caribou here, including their king."
"Well, that's good," Lone said. "The Caribou were a third party in this war, but only three survived the first three way battle. It seems like you fixed that little problem."
"Where are you?" Mist asked.
"Clearing directly west of the castle," I say. "A few hours away on foot, or hoof."
"Can you do anything to help us get there," Onyx asked.
"Not that I can think of, unless you know of a spell that can help you guys find certain metals."
"No good," Lone said.
"Wait, Lone," Qucik said. "Can't you use your magic to trace the. . . Josh, you mind helping me out?"
"Trace the radio's signature?"
"Yeah, that," she said. "That, and use it to pinpoint his location, then teleport there?"
Lone was silent for a time over the radio before he eventually said, "Maybe. According to what you told us about these things, they work similar to telepathic spells. Not the best in those, but I can make do."
"We'll be waiting, then," I said.
"Copy that," Lone said. "See ya soon," he said before the radio went out, and my side flared up again.
"Damn it," I said in a near growl. "I'd prefer a Brute to Dainn. They at least use varied weapons I know how to counter."
Anyway, I stood at the edge of the camp for about ten minutes before I heard hoofsteps behind me. "So, what exactly are you?"
"Hello, Starlight," I say. "And before you ask, one of my companions told me of you, and what you did. To answer your question, I'm a human, and that's all you're getting out of me."
"I'm actually surprised you told me that," she said, wearing guard armor. "I guess you want to know what I'm doing, if you know my history."
"More why," I say. "Which is to say: why are you with, or, rather, why were in Celestia's guard when it was her student that revealed you?"
"I guess it's because I met somepony," she said. "He helped me see the benefits to being different. I still think equality is best, but he helped me see there's more than one way for that to happen." She sighed. "He went missing a week before I was captured. A reason I left was to find him."
"Anyway I can help," I ask.
"Not that I know of," she replied.
"So, what do you plan on doing?"
"Head to the Minotaur home country. I heard that place is nice this time of year," she said, which made me chuckle, which lit my side up. "You okay?"
"Yeah," I lied. "You know, me and the rest of my group are on our way there, too, but to free it from Sombra's forces."
"It was taken over," she asked, shocked, which made me turn to face her. You know, she does have a sort of appeal in guard armor, but in an ironic way for me.
"Yeah," I say.
"How many do you have with you?" she asked.
"Four," I say. "How many females here, including you?"
"Ten times your group, which is fifty," she said. "Just about all of us had left the armies we were in for reasons personal, and to help stop the war, which is what I assume you want?"
"Bingo," I say. "How many of you wanted to go to the Minotaur homeland?"
"Right now, all of us," she said. "So, what do you think of getting fifty mares in your group.
"If you want to," I say. "Though, with that, the plan will be set off. By how much, I don't know."
"I'm sure we can manage," she said as a green flash of light appeared. I turned to face it, and saw Lone and the others.
"About time you got here, Lone," I say before I hear Starlight gasp.
"Lone?" I heard her say in a near whisper.
"Starlight," the stallion said in a similar tone before walking to her, stopping just in arms reach. "That really you?"
"It is, Lone," she said before she put her arms across his back, her head resting on his shoulder. "I thought you went missing."
"I left the guard, babe," he said, putting his hands on her waist and pulling back to look in her eyes as she put her arms around his neck. Jeez, this is romance novel sappy. 'Least it isn't Twilight. "What are you doing here?"
"If you mean away from the guard," she said, "to find you. Only reason I didn't try to kill myself when the Caribou captured me is because I knew you were still alive, and I didn't want to leave you alone."
"Good thing Josh got here, then," he said. "After all, it's thanks to him we're back together."
"Then how about our next date is to the Minotuar homeland?"
"Think it can be arranged," he said. "Josh?"
"You guys are the ones who know our supplies, not me," I say. "But I say we wait until tomorrow to move out, so that you two can get some, ahem, personal time."
"Thanks," Lone said.
"No problem," I say. "Come on, guys."
Me, Mist, Quick, and Onyx then made our way into the camp, me hiding my injuries well, letting the two reunited lovers have some time together.
I stood on a hill, overlooking the Minotaur capitol, my BR in hand. It had been a week since I killed the last three Caribou, and me and the others, now including fifty women, you know what I mean, had gotten here the night before. It had been an. . . interesting week, let me tell you.
The night after I had killed the last three Caribou, I had a dream discussion with Luna. Well, it was more me muting her and telling her what had transpired. I then un-muted her, and she said that the Caribou had been the one thing that got both armies to stop fighting one another. Yeah, the Caribou were that bad. Anyway, after that, I said that the mares they had captured had decided to join me and the others. Not so surprisingly, she thought I had threatened them with death, which I guess I kinda did, unintentionally, now that I think about it. I then said they had chosen willingly. After that, I went the direction of small talk, which surprised her. In fact, we were now able to have conversations without yelling at each other, a real step up, I'd say.
The second thing, actually, had to do with the Tree, who, apparently, is able to be fucking psychic. You see, the third night after the whole camp thing, she spoke to me while we were resting from the teleportation, and said that I myself would not be the one to end this war. Like I didn't already know that, bitch, and I told her that, to which she replied that I would need help from two others, one of whom I had already met. That got my intrigue, but she said no more.
The third was related to Quick, and took place a few days after the second convo. I had with the Tree. We arrived at the town, and Quick, myself, and Mist, disguised, we aren't that stupid, walked in. We didn't find that much, but we did discover a piece of Quick's history. Turns out, she was one of the best Griffon soldiers in what counted as their military. That's not even relative, she was a goddamn terror, or she would be, if ponies knew of her.
The fourth and final thing, so far, would be that Lone had proposed to Starlight. She had practically become Rarity at a fashion convention, hopping up and down, screaming, "YES, YES, YES, YES!" who knows how many times over. The wedding had been planned for after Jagged Blade. In fact, one thing we had learned on the way here was that any and all soldiers caught by Sombra and his allies forces were sent here, and, by fortune, most were deserters. Jeez, we are lucky as hell.
The capitol itself resembled Washington D.C., in shape. It had a sort of wheel and spoke design, with numerous residential buildings on the edge, with museums closer to the center, memorials dotted around, and the equivalent of the White House in the center. Of what I saw of the place, it was built to resemble a castle, with cannons on top in the battlements, high, stone walls surrounded by a moat of fire. Have to give them credit, they know how to put a spin on shit. Patrolling it were crystal constructs. Looks like Sombra upped his game. Oh, this is going to be fun. Oh, if only I had myself a Mantis with the weaponry of the Prototype suit, that would be (to quote one of my favorite bosses) FUCKIN' INVINCIBLE! Guess I'll just have to settle with good ol', reliable Mjolnir armor.
The plan was this: the group would split into five teams of eleven, and infiltrate the city. Starlight led one team, consisting of herself, two changelings, two pegasus mares, two earth pony mares, and the rest being griffoness, codenamed: Echo. The second team was led by a changeling named Amber, her team consisting of herself, two unicorn mares, two griffonesses, and two earth pony mares, and the rest being fellow changelings. Team name: Shadow. The third team was led by a Griffoness that had seen action against Sombra's forces the most, her name being Greta. Her team was herself, three pegasus mares, and one changeling, the rest fellow griffonesses. Team name: Raptor. Team four was led my a unicorn mare named Azure Shadow, her team being all unicorn. Team Name: Mage. I led the last team , which consisted of me, Lone, Quick, Onyx, and Mist, as well as the remainder of the forces, which were two changelings, one earth pony, one unicorn mare, and two griffonesses other than Quick. Team Name: Blue. Yeah, yeah, hate that decision all you want, but here, I'm the only Spartan, so thus, here, I am the Chief.
Right now, the five team leaders were in one of the tents we took from the Caribou camp, going over the specifics.
"Team Raptor will be pulling support detail," I say. "You guys are the fliers, and can get every where pretty quick, and get us intel on any enemy positions."
"And if we need the support?" Greta, a griffoness with the head of a bald eagle and the anthro body of a lion, asked.
"That's why the teams will be close together," Starlight said, voicing her contribution to how we were going in. "In case you guys need the support, or another team needs help, and you guys can't get there."
"I guess it's a good thing they don't have any way to neutralize magic," Azure, who had once been a part of Sombra's forces who had azure skin with black hair, said. "Then we'd be pretty screwed."
"Agreed," Amber, a changeling who, as it turns out in an interesting twist of fate, was one of Chrysalis' family member, and I mean sister, not like how all bee workers are related to the queen bee, which, as it turns out, is not true for changelings, as they work like you and I, but I digress, with, go figure, amber colored chitin or skin, who the hell knows. "Besides, just about each of our teams relies on magic to a degree. Hell, the only one in this entire group that doesn't rely on magic is Josh."
"Which gives us an advantage I'm glad for," Starlight said. "Plus, unless they have spies in the Guard, Sombra and his allies haven't heard of Josh yet."
"Still, we need to pretend as if they do," I say. "Just to be on the safe side."
"Sounds about right," Amber said. "Which is why I think Blue team," I fan squealed on the inside just hearing that, "should be the arrow head of the attack, with Josh at the tip of it, like the rest of us are going to be with our squads."
"Makes sense," Azure said. "If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be here."
I chuckled. "All we need now is a speech I'll most likely have to give."
"Oh, you will be," Greta said with a smirk, which how is that even possible with a damned beak?!
"Good thing I got something ready for that already," I say. "And now for when we move in."
"I say tomorrow night," Azure said, to which the others agreed.
"Then it's tomorrow night," I say. "Until then, we enjoy ourselves, and get our squads ready. Ooh wah naria."
"Ooh wah naria," they reply, that having become the creedo for our army. With that, we left the tent, and went our separate ways. I myself went to a small, secluded hill just a little north of our camp. I had always been an introvert, and even as a general of an army, I still had that.
Once I was at the top of the hill, a ten minute walk for me, I took off my helmet, and sat down, laying my weapons down. I sure have come a long way. I mean, a week ago, I was just some random kid at a convention. Now, I'm a Spartan leading an army. Oh, the twists fate can hand you, am I right?
I put a hand on my side. The impact from Dainn's hammer a week ago had broken a few ribs, which Lone and a few of the other unicorns had fixed, but they told me that, if I ever took my armor off, I would have one hell of a scar. Not sure if I like that or not.
I sighed, and put a hand on one of my thigh compartments, which opened up, and I reached inside to bring out the one thing that was in there. What I pulled out was probably the last thing I had of my old life, and that was an olive green survival bracelet, but keep in mind I wasn't a camper before, I kept it just because I liked it. I wore it while at the convention, and din't find out it came with me until a day ago. I clenched my fist around it, not afraid of breaking it, as it was made of some durable shit, then put it back in the compartment, which then closed.
I then looked at the sky, which was in dusk, the moon slightly high than the sun. I smiled to myself. I had always enjoyed the night. The mystery and the thrill of the unknown, I guess. Watching MLP simply made me more of one because of Luna, my favorite pony. I guess a reason why I trapped part of her mind in mine that would be able to somehow converse with the real one was because I wanted to get to know her. I'd say that plan, unconsciously made to not, is blown to hell now, eh?
I took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, enjoying the fresh air. Over the past week, this was only the third chance I had to take off my helmet, and I was going to enjoy it. I heard rustling behind me, and turned to see Lone. "Hey, Lone," I said as he approached.
"Hey, Josh," he replied. "Mind if I take a seat?"
"Not at all," I say, and he sat down next to me. "So, how's Starlight?"
"Last I saw, well," he said. "I still can't believe she said yes to me."
"Be glad she did," I say. "I'm not exactly one for romance advice, Lone, but I do know this: enjoy every moment with your loved ones, because you never know which might be your last. You and Starlight, getting married? Definitely the right step. Congrats."
"Thanks, Josh," he said. "What about you? Anyone from your home you had an eye for?"
"What are you, a mare," I asked jokingly. "No, not really. I was always a bit of an introvert, preferring to stay inside and write fan fictions or play games."
"And here?" he asked.
"I'm not sure whether or not I should break your face for that," I say with a light hearted smile. "Back where I come from, being in a relation ship with anything that resembles an animal, which you guys do, believe me, would be considered bestiality. I personally don't think it would be, seeing as how the ponies of this world are as intelligent as my kind, if not more so, but lacking in common sense. But, yeah, I guess you could say that," I say, looking at the moon. "But she is way outta my league. Hell, she hates me."
He was about to ask, but then he saw where I was looking. "Seriously," he said. "You're interested in Princess Luna?"
I shrugged. "Yeah, I am. I mean, I saw her in my dreams, she used her magic to get in, which is when I discovered, in dreams, at least, I was a hell of a lot more powerful than her. And yes, that surprised me, too. I sealed a part of her mind in mine, enough to where it and the real her can communicate, how, I don't know, and, well, that's about it."
"So-"
"No, I haven't done anything sexual to her in the dreams," I say. "There is a line I won't cross, and rape is something that crosses that line."
"I was going to ask what you were gonna do tonight?"
"Probably just stay here. You?"
"Spend time with Starlight."
"Then go to her," I say. "I will kick you off this mountain if I have to."
Lone chuckled before getting up. "Yeah, yeah," he said, going to walk off the hill. "See ya tomorrow."
"See ya," I say before looking back at the moon. I smiled to myself once more before I laid down on my back, and closed my eyes to grab what rest I could.
My dreamscape had changed a lot since I imprisoned part of Luna's mind in it. A few days after, I had set a part of it aside for her, for her to design it to he will. I may be a guy who incarcerates ponies, but I'm not cruel. Her part of my mind was designed like a castle made from Onyx. In fact, it looked like Night Stone Castle from Past Sins, by Pen Stroke, which I highly recommend reading it if you haven't, albeit smaller, and the stain glass windows had lunar designs, of course, but nothing that resembled Celestia being overthrown.
I appeared in the main court room, which was designed similar to one of the court rooms you'd find in our world, which had Luna, wearing the same dress I had made appear on her the first time, sitting where the judge would be, with nopony else, and myself wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of similarly colored shorts. "Hello, Josh," she said in a bored tone, but I also heard something else I couldn't pinpoint.
"Hello, Princess," I say, bowing. "And how are you, this fine evening?"
"Well, you are speaking with the full version of my mind, as I am asleep in the physical realm," she said. "It has been a slow day."
"How so," I ask, sitting on one of the benches.
"State secrets," she said. "Something I'm certain you understand, seeing as how you are practically leading a nation of your own."
"Yeah," I say, leaning back and putting my hands behind my head. "A pain in the ass to keep."
"That is something we can agree on without argument," she said, sighing.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Matters of the past," she said. "Then again, I suppose it wouldn't hurt, seeing as how it is just the two of us." She sighed again. "I have been thinking on what you said the first time, all those dream years ago," she said. Yeah, quick note, a week in real life is about, I kid you not, a hundred years in here. Which meant that, for her and I, we had been having dream conversations for about a millennium. Anyway, back to the story. "About what you said relating to Nightmare and I."
"What do you mean," I ask, surprised.
"Against my better judgement, I have been speaking with her, when I am not speaking with you, and, surprisingly, we have come to an agreement."
"About what?" I asked, suddenly curious.
"Well," she said, sitting up straight and resting her arms on the judge bench, "since ponies these days no longer fear the night, and Nightmare has learned what Eternal Night would bring, so we have come to an agreement. If we do pull off what we are planning, we will both most likely be seen as traitors." A tear came to her eye. "Even with the Thestrals, we- I- would still be alone, Celestia not being able to call off the war."
"Because of a stallion named Slharp Wit?" I asked.
"Yes," she said. "In fact, during my talks with Nightmare, we discovered that he is playing both sides." Okay, should have seen that coming. "He revived Sombra with a spell that could kill him if Sharp wishes, brought Nightmare back in a magical body only he can sustain, and has been sending a steady stream of prostitutes to changeling hives, giving them love to feed on. He has something on everypony involved in this war," she said.
"Not me," I say, standing up and dreaming my armor on, and it appeared. "He has nothing on me, knows nothing of me, and I have more than he could have by actually trying. I can beat him, but not for a while," I say. "I need to make it look like I don't know anything abut this."
"I can not ask this of you," she said.
"Who says you need to," I say. "I'll do this willingly. But still, what do you plan on doing with Nightmare?"
"Joining back into one mare," Luna said. "The form I have now is but an illusion that has become solid, and Nightmare is the same. That is why I am shorter than my sister."
"What do you need," I ask, surprising her.
"You're willing to help us," she asked, to which I nodded.
"Yeah," I said. Oh, I just know I'm going to regret what I'm about to do. "Luna, ever since I first saw you, I felt something for you, and it was last night in the physical realm, you know what I mean, that I realized what it is." I take a deep breath, and say, "Luna, I have feelings for you. Every night, I look at your moon and the night, which are as beautiful as anything I have seen, and I would be honored if you would have me by your side," I said, bowing and offering my hand.
She was silent for a time, during which, I began to fear, before I heard hoofsteps, and she said, "Rise."
I did so, glad I had imagined my helmet on. She had a soft smile on her face, but it also had something else on it. Sadness, maybe. I don't know. After all, as The Librarian once said, some smile in shared pain. She sighed. "I am surprised that you feel this way," she said, and my hopes plummeted deeper than the Marinas trench, which, for reference, is ten thousand, eight hundred and nine miles deep. "You are a soldier. True, such relationships have happened before, but not between a princess and an alien, even if hey are similar to our kind. What you have shown me of your personality, Josh, is one of a kind soul, one who puts others in front of himself, if what you did a week ago is any indication. You never give up, a trait to be admired under circumstances such as those we now find ourselves in."
She walked over to me, silent, that smile still on her face, and I saw her dress change. She had thigh high, pure black stockings leggings, along with gloves that stopped just below her shoulder. The dress itself became fully black, albeit with a silver stripe down both sides with the emblem for nightmare night near the bottom, which did not end in a skirt, but, rather, curved inward to cover her sex before widening out along her back, that part stopping just blow her wing joints before going across her chest, holding her assets in with little difficultly, a single piece of fabric along her neck to hold it up.
"Please, remove your helmet," she said, to which I obliged. Then, to my surprise, she softly placed a hand on my cheek, and smiled, and I knew it was one of happiness. "I would be honored to have you at my side, Josh," she said before she leaned up and kissed me, nothing more than a small peck on the lips before she leaned back, a smile on her face, then she dove into a full kiss, catching me by surprise, as I had never french kissed anyone before, but I tried my best, wrestling her tongue with mine, wrapping my arms around Luna as she did so with hers.
She eventually pulled back, slowly, and we looked each other in the eyes, and we both smiled. "So, what do you need," I asked her gently.
"Just to be with you, right now," she said. "If you mean when Nightmare and I merge, simply enough space."
"Well, tell her that I'm willing to give the two of you that space," I say. "We're just outside the old Minotaur capitol." This got a look of surprise from Luna.
"But that was taken by Sombra's army."
"And we're going to free it," I say. "Tell her to come to our camp after tomorrow night, as that's when we're moving."
"I will," she said. "We still have time until you wake up,so what do you wish to do?"
"What ever you want to do," I say. "We are in the part of my mind I gave you, after all."
"If that is the case," she said as she slipped over to my side, her arm in mine. "I would like just to sit."
"If that's what you want," I say, going back to civilian clothes, and we sat on the bench in the front row.
We were quiet foe some time, until I eventually said. "Luna, do you wonder why Sharp's doing what he is?"
"I must admit, I am curious," Luna said. "He could easily just take the throne of each kingdom in the war for himself, but he's letting it play out. It makes no sense."
"What happened to him after Ponyville, which I do still feel sorry for, anyway?"
"He requested, or, rather, demanded, he be put in charge of a battalion of guards. They call themselves, 'The Blind Legion', as they are almost always searching for ancient artifacts."
Okay, ignoring the weird coincidence with Destiny right there, I find it interesting he's searching for artifacts. I mean, most of them probably don't have any power, and the only ones that do that I know of, as well as the library in the Castle of the two sisters, for that matter, would be the Elements, ad the Tree by extension, the Crystal Heart, I suppose you could call Starswirl's journal an artifact, the siren gems, which are either destroyed or stuck in the human world, which makes them not a threat,, the control brace, which, according to the Royal sister's library, is shaped like an anti-magic ring that goes around one's horn, but allows the owner to control whoever the ring was placed on, and the-. . . . . . . . Fuck. The Alicorn Amulet.
"Luna, please tell me you and Celestia have the Control ring and Alicorn Amulet in Canterlot," I say, fear in my voice.
She shook her head. "No, the ring was lost long ago, before Nightmare became my dominant personality, and the Amulet went missing a week before we first encountered you."
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK! This is not good. If he plans on doing what I think he is, Sharp will be unstoppable. Why do I have to be the displaced here? That settles it, next time I see a merchant, I'm putting a bullet through his brain. And if I become one, I'm putting one in my head.
"Luna, I know this is a lot to ask, but I need you to stay with the others, and for Nightmare to do the same. I think I know what Sharp is panning," I say, "but I need ponies on the inside."
"But Josh-"
"Luna, please. This may very well have the fate of everypony in this war involved, and, if I'm right, which I pray I am not, Steel's at the center of it."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"It's just a hunch, one I don't want to risk him finding out from any source, even by a slip of the tongue. I swear, once I know for certain, you can join me, but for your own safety, stay with the others, and tell Nightmare to do the same."
She was silent for a time before she said. "If you are certain, Josh, but Nightmare will see it as an act of betrayal."
"Can't you merge minds, but keep the bodies separate?" I asked, which got a look of surprise in response.
"Yes, actually," she said. "That is actually the first stage in what we were planning on doing, and we don't need to do the rest."
"Then do it while my allies and I are taking the Minotaur capitol back," I say. "I'll see you tomorrow night," I say, pulling her into a hug. "I swear it on my life."
Equestrian-Griffon border; nine hundred and twelve miles south of Canterlot
Sharpl Wit, wearing the most bare armor in the guard's armory due to the current nature of the group he was commanding, stood over a trench of earth pony guards and his own personal slaves he had acquired from years helping the few criminal governments of Equestria prosper. Before he betrayed them to the guard, that is, so that he would have less competitors when his plan had come to fruition. He had made a deal with Dainn that the Caribou would invade, and he would be promised a seat of power. Of course, being the intelligent villain, a true rarity in Equis' history, he was, he let off an anonymous tip to both sides, which ended in the devastation of the Caribou army and nation, which that Spartan had finished the job for.
Steel grimaced. That Spartan was the one important person in this war he had nothing on, and was a threat to his plans. Well, for now. Soon, not even the Elements at full power would be able to stop him.
After all, they would be under his control.
But back on the subject of that Spartan, as well as his allies, Sharpl knew extra-dimensional beings when he saw them. After all, he had once talked with the being those other three were from, and even reached an agreement he would keep. They were no threat to him, nor his ally.
He smiled. Celestia, Luna, the Elements, Sombra, Chrysalis, and Nightmare would all bow to him eventually.
"Sir!" he heard, and looked in the direction of the stallion who called, who held up an ancient ring between his fingers that seemed to glow with power. "We found it!"
"Good," he said, taking it in his magic, bringing it to his face, smiling. He then lit that stallion, and ever other stallion near him, aflame. They would especially bow easily once he could duplicate the control brace to have one for each of them, and put the alicorn amulet, which he had stolen two weeks ago, on, giving him more than enough power to kill the Spartan, and burn his soul.
I woke up from my dream date, quite literally, with Luna, the sun in the sky, and descending. The time is almost here for Jagged blade. I sat up and put on my helmet. I can honestly say I did not expect this to happen to me at all. That's to say, I didn't expect to be in a relationship with a princess. Unfortunately, I think I know what Steel's going to do, and I don't like it one bit. May need to enlist Guardian help there.
Still, once I checked my weapons, they may have bottomless clip, but my BR could still jam, I made my way down to the camp, where the others were preparing to take the city back from Sombra. Oh, tonight will be fun. I don't have to hold back either, as the guards are all crystal constructs. You know, I'm tempted to pull off a Locke from the trailer that was a pre-order thing, and just wipe the floor with them. But I would need a Pelican, and I don't have one. Shame.
Oh, well, still got epic music for the battle. As I entered the camp, the groups I came across, doubles to groups of five, stopped what they were doing to salute me, then returned to what they were doing. I made my way to the command tent, where the other team leaders were waiting for me.
"About time," Greta said. "We thought you'd died up on the hill."
"Please, it'd take a lot to kill me," I say, and we all knew it, seeing as how I was able to non-lethally fight off the Royal Guard and kill the last three Caribou, who were the strongest of their race before they were the last three. Yes, the first one was with help, and I barely killed Dainn, but still. "Everyone ready?"
"Just about," Amber said. "Just waiting for nightfall, really."
"What about you, Josh," Azure asked. "How's your little project going?"
Ah, that. You see, not long after we arrived, I began to work on something secret for this fight. "Just need to combat test it," I say. "Don't worry, if it works, it'll take care of the crystals."
"I hope so," Starlight said. "Because we might need whatever it is."
"I hope we don't need it," I say. "We don't need to tip any of them off as to what we are capable of." Me, especially, towards Steel knowing what I can do. "And remember, we need to throw these things off. Act random, deceive them in combat, don't be predictable. Predictable in battle means they cna anticipate your actions, and counter them."
"We know," Greta said. "You told us that during our first session just after we got here. Don't need to repeat it."
I shrugged. "Sue me when we're done with the war, I like making sure people know what to do." This got laughs out of the others, and a small chuckle out of me. "In any case, guys, rest up. Who knows how long this fight will go on for."
"Right," the four females said, nodding, and, with that, the four of us went to head to our squads. My squad was at the norther edge of the camp, overlooking the city. We were the tip of the spear, after all.
"How are things going? I ask once I reach them.
"Good," Violet Glow, the unicorn mare of the team with, how oh so unoriginal, violet skin with dark blue hair and tail who wore armor I had associated with the deserters from Sombra's army, said. "We've got a few possible routes to the capitol building, but we also saw what we think are new crystal constructs in the air."
"You sure about that?" I ask.
"Nope," Elegance, one of the changelings on my team with gray skin and/or chitin with blue hair and tail, said. Something interesting about changeling hives, they each have different ways of naming their nymphs. Chrysalis' and Amber's hive, and remember, the two are sisters, go for insect related names, while Elegance's goes for abstract terms. "But still, probably best to play it safe."
"Agreed," Elegance's sister, the other changeling in my squad, Beauty, who had pink skin and/or chitin with white hair and, like her sister and every other changeling here, wore a female variant of what Mist wore.
Shadow Flower, the earth pony, remained silent. In my time of getting to know her, I discovered she had, quite unfortunately, lost her vocal cords when she and her old group that the Caribou took over were captured. She tapped the shoulder of one of the griffons in the squad that wasn't Quick, and signed. Turns out the two griffonesses, twins, actually, named, simply, Talon and Feather, were a part of said squad.
"Shadow says she thinks they may be new constructs meant to make sure prisoners don't escape," Talon said. "Can't really help but agree with her."
"Same, Feather said. "And since this place holds a lot of prisoners, it's safe to say there's a lot of them, if they aren't extremely powerful."
"What do they look like?" I ask.
"Dragons," Violet said. "We're going to have fun tonight."
"Yep," I say, crossing my arms. Really wish I had bought a rocket launcher now. Guess I'll have to make do with what I got. "Which reminds me, for the other two sides, which are the dragons allied with?"
"Both," Quick said.
"Yeah, they went with whoever offered them something valuable enough for what they were wanted," Lone said.
"So, mercenaries?" I ask.
"Just about," Mist said.
"And each of the one's from Sombra's side of the war are complete jackasses," Onyx said. "Hell, one of them nearly killed me just for bumping into him by accident."
"Try that for the ones Celestia and Luna brought in to their side," Talon said. "Only reason my sister and I are here is because, well, my talons are the sharpest in the world." She wasn't exaggerating there, those claws are able to cut through solid rock.
"That's enough chatter about our past dealings with dragons, guys," I say. "We need to make sure our gear's ready for this."
"Right," they all said, Shadow nodding, and we got to the final checks, which included the radio equipment, which I seemed to have an endless supply of, for some reason.
That night
The Rogue army stood ready in a pyramid like formation, each squad also having their own version of it as well. My team stood at the front of the formation, myself at the head of them. I stepped forward onto the ridge that overlooked the Minotaur capitol city, and turned to face everyone.
"I know that some of you don't wish to attack, for fear of getting caught, or killed," I started. "That's only natural in battle. Even I have a little fear about what might happen. But all of us are here, today, because we want to end this war as soon as possible, and this is the first step: showing both sides that, even if we are afraid of what they can do to us, we will overcome that fear. Today, we show them that fear, though powerful, can be overcome, because Sombra and his allies use fear to control their subjects. Today, we show that how they control others won't work on us, that we stand for none but ourselves, and the end of this war. If you want to leave now, I will not hold it against you. Be warned, though, this will be the last chance to do so."
As I had hoped, none of them backed away. I nodded, and grabbed one of my energy swords, pointed it to the air, and activated it. "THEN LET THIS BATTLE BEGIN!"
They cheered, and raised their own weapons. "MOVE OUT!" I yelled, and I turned around, and we began our march to the city. As we neared, I used my helmet magnification, and saw multiple crystal constructs at the edge of the city, more appearing. I grabbed my other energy sword, and ignited it, both swords now down by my side.
"KILL THEM!" I heard from the constructs, I imagine it was their commander. Let the fun begin.
The constructs charged us, while me and the army kept walking, though the others did bring their shields up. Everything seemed to slow. I saw the flicker of energy between the blades of my swords in slow motion, the constructs running toward us, and even their weapons, made of crystal, go figure. seeming to flicker with energy in the blades, as well as shields that looked to be made up of diamonds. Whelp. Good thing I had Lone, Starlight, and the unicorns use a spell to make the swords more like HF blades from Metal Gear, huh? Let the fun. . . commence, my friends.
Anyway, time went out of Spartan and back into normal as I leaped up, both swords across my chest pointing to the left, and I sliced them, cutting off the head of a few of the things, which were crystal, and I'm really serious here, dogs and cats. Sombra, what the actual fuck? I mean, I know you're being blackmailed here, but still, your goddamn pony Sauron. Dogs and Cats aren't terrifying. At most, they are simply scary to those with phobias and those attacked by some breed of them. What are the flying things, anthro eagles? What the fuck? Aaaaaand I sound like Nostalgia Critic right now. Well, back to the story.
I landed in a kneeling position, swords by my side. The crystal constructs and my army clashed, and, our weapons countered, so we were on a mostly even playing field. I say mostly because, well, me.
I stood up, and crossed the blades. Three crystal constructs charged at me, and, just before they reached me, I used my thrusters to boost to the left, and then to the right back as they hit where I stood before, slicing their heads off as I did so, the heads falling to the ground. From there, me and the others went to town, but they kept coming.
Eventually, the squads, far as I could tell, were isolated from each other, islands in a sea of Sombra's forces. "This isn't going well," Lone said.
"No fucking duh, Lone," I say. "Still, I thought we would have gone further than this before we got surrounded to this degree."
"Same," Talon said.
"So," I asked. "Go out with a bang if we don't succeed?"
"Yep," Mist said.
"Then let's go," I say, before boosting into the constructs in front of me, and began to slice and dice left and right, but still, no sizable dent was made in the size of their forces. I was eventually stopped by the one actually looked somewhat terrifying. Said construct was, basically, a crystal dragon, with sharp, almost diamond like teeth, his, I don't know what to call it, so carapace was- and this is an anthro Blue Eyes-white Dragon. Okay, who's the idiot who gave Sombra access to Yu-gi-oh cards?
"Sorry, LoneShadow."
PINKIE! WHAT THE HELL?! THIS ISN'T A YU-GI-OH CROSSOVER!
"Yeah, I know. Got stories mixed up."
I sighed. Too late to fix it now, anyways. Just. . . make sure you don't do this anymore. Please.
"Right."
Ugh. Damn it, Pinkie. Seriously, why must this happen to me?
Anyway, the thing glared down at me, and I tried to cut its head off, but the crystal seemed to be heat resistant, and my sword bounced off. The thing, somehow, grinned, and backhanded me with enough force to send me back to the others, spinning as I did so, and I saw more of the tings had my friends surrounded too. I landed on my back, and saw the crystal Blue Eyes that had sent me flying approaching me.
"Take all but this one," it said in a growl, pointing at me. "King Sombra wants him exterminated."
Sombra, or Wit, I wonder, I mentally said. "Go ahead," I say, leaning up, using an arm for support. "Kill me. It won't change the fact there are those who want the war on stop on both sides. And if you do kill me, tell Sombra I know the truth."
"Silence," he said. "It won't matter. All of your allies have been captured, and even if you had won, the Equestrians would be here soon after, and you would be outed then and there." He looked to his comrades. "Take them to the citadel. The General wishes them to be there so he can personally."
The others bowed, and, with surprising speed, grabbed my allies, and flew of with them. "No!" I yelled, but as I tried to get up, I fell to the ground, and was then grabbed by the neck. "I don't see how you beat the Equestrians and the Caribou when you fall even to me." It let a sinister grin loose. "Maybe you simply got lucky."
"G-go to hell," I say through my throat, which was getting crushed.
"Only when you find a weapon that can kill me," he said as I began to get tunnel vision. "Shame I have to kill you right there," he said. "i would have enjoyed torturing you simply for the fun of it." His claws tightened more so, and my vision became darker. "Don't worry. The princesses of Equestria will join you soon enough." It was then a voice I was quite surprised to hear spoke up.
"Loosen your grip, dragon," a female voice said, the the crystal constructs parted, and, walking up to me and the crystal dragon, was Cadence in dark pink armor that resembled the armor on the members from Sombra's army that had joined me, albeit, it looked regal, much as it could, anyway, clean, and, well, the color was goddamn pink.
Cadence herself strode with the kind of walk you'd see supermodels on the runway walk, but with an air of authority, someone you wouldn't want to mess with. Her hair was also somewhat darker, and went just past her shoulders, about half way down her upper arms. Actually looked better than all the way down her back, in my opinion. Her face was much the same, but she now had small scars adorning her face. I am assuming they are from combat or something. But her eyes got my attention the most. the pupils, the colored part, were the same, but the whites were now green.
"But Empress," he said before Cadence cut him off.
"I said loosen your grip," she repeated in a more authoritative tone. So that armor isn't because of a fetish. Okay, I am curious as to how you are no longer a sex slave, if you weren't one to begin with. The dragon did so, but still held me by the throat.
Cadence walked up to me, and studied me with her eyes. "So this is the one who got away from Twilight and the Elements?" she rhetorically asked. 'I must admit, my husband and the others were surprised when they heard about a small group being able to get away from the home of the Elements at all. Then there's the Caribou. Not even Celestia and Luna could defeat them by themselves. But you did, which, by the way, the others wish to send their thanks, seeing as even we had trouble defeating them. Now, why are you here?"
"To remove Sombra's forces from here," I say, "this was one of the only neutral places in the war, and he took it. How about you answer one of my questions?"
"I suppose that's fair," she replied. "What do you want to know?"
"Lone, one of my allies, told me Sombra killed Shining Armor, and made you his sex slave. So how are you leading Sombra's army?"
Cadence chuckled. "I guess it makes sense the official story would be that," she said. "Sombra didn't kill Shining, I did, You see, when the Empire was first under siege, I did help Shining defend the it, but after just a few days, I saw it was hopeless, and Nightmare visited me in my dreams. At first, I tried to fight her off, and not listen to what she said, but, eventually, I did, and it was then I learned that, aside from this war, Celestia planned everything, regardless of the danger to Twilight or me, or even her individual subjects. So, I arranged a deal with her and Sombra, I would help them take the Empire, and I would get to kill Celestia, and Sombra would teach me the dark magic I would need to do so. The next morning, while Shining and I were at the front lines, I slipped a dagger into his back, and Sombra and his allies took the city. I didn't want to kill him, but it was the only way. Sombra took his throne, and I began to learn under him." She chuckled again. "As for the sex slave thing, that did start after a while, but because I asked him to do so. Shining never was any good in bed, but Sombra-"
"No info on that, please," I say.
"Well, you're no fun," she said. "But still, eventually, we discovered that we had feelings for one another, and, thanks to Nightmare, had our dates in our dreams, which meant we had years of knowing one another, and we eventually wed a month ago, and I became his wife, and Empress of the Empire. That answer your question?"
"Yeah," I say. "So, what do you plan on doing with me?"
"Simple," Cadence said. "Kill you, and throw your corpse into the woods where Luna and the others will be arriving so that they see not even you can beat us." She looked at the dragon, and nodded. "Finish him."
"Yes, Empress," the dragon said before his claw closed on my throat, making my vision go entirely black, but I was still awake.
"And of you do survive," Cadence said, "well, it won't matter, as, with your weakened state, the Equestrians will kill you with ease."
With that, I guess I fully blacked out, as the next thing I remember was hearing voices as I lay in a tent on what I'm guessing was a magically strengthened cot, as it didn't collapse.
"Ma'am, it's a wonder he survived," one voice, a female one, said. "His throat was almost entirely collapsed. The fact he was simply unconscious is a wonder."
"I am aware of that, Miss Red Heart," another female voice said, muffled by the cloth, "but what I want to know is when he will wake up."
"I don't know Princess," Red Heart said. "He may recover faster than ponies, or slower. One of my friends, Lyra Heartstrings, is obsessed with humans, and, with Princess Sparkles help, has made strides in that regard, but even they admit he is unlike those from the world Princess Sparkle went to."
"Well, what do you know?"
"Just that he seems to have something in his system that makes him stronger than even most earth ponies, seeing as how he can carry that armor of his when our earth ponies needed unicorn help to lift it."
"Then what ever it was that injured him must have had quite a bit of strength to it."
"It would seem that way, Highness."
"You know," I said, sitting up from the cot, which got me a headache, "you could just ask me what happened?" I tried to rub my head, which is when I found out my hands had been cuffed. Not gonna work if I wanna break out, morons.
There was a bit of rustling outside before a white mare in a nurses outfit, the white dress with black pants, with pink hair walked in, and I noticed, on her back, was a small dagger. "And just where the hell am I?" I asked.
"The main Equestrian Camp," she said. "You're lucky, you know. We found you nearly a week ago, and everyone wanted to make sure you were dead for what you did to the Element of Loyalty in Ponyville, but her Highness said no, and ordered you were cared for."
"And who might that be?" I ask before the voice that I should have guessed from what Cadence said spoke in, it's owner walking in.
"I thought you'd know," Luna said. "After all, we battle in your dreams nearly every night. Now, human, what are you doing here?"
"Nurse Red Heart, leave us," Luna said to Red Heart. "Now."
"But your Highness-"
"I said leave," Luna said in a tone that had the undertone of Don't disobey me unless you want to be six feet under. And it got through, as Red Heart bowed.
"Of course, Highness," she said before leaving.
Once she was gone, I said, "I thought we agreed you would stay in Canterlot."
"I lied," Luna said with a chuckle. "Besides, we were already on our way here when you said that." She then sighed. "I imagine you want to know how long it's been?"
"A little, yeah," I said. "Not to mention what you've been doing in that time."
Luna chuckled. "I can imagine why," she said before sighing again. "Best as I can tell, it's been a week since you and your allies tried to liberate the Minotaur capitol. We found you nearly dead a day after we arrived, four days ago. Most wanted to make sure you were dead with a sword through the throat, but I was able to convince them that, if we kept you restrained, we could gain intelligence as to the city's defenses to use in our attack on it. Of course, I had my own reason, too."
"Why does that not surprise me," I say.
"Perhaps because we know each other so well," Luna said. "And as for what I've been doing, I gave Nightmare your idea, saying it was mine, and we joined minds last night. Her body still exists, but it now has me as the mind, albeit with its autonomy from before, so that Steel does not grow suspicious."
"I suppose that's good," I said, standing up and jerking my arms to break the cuffs. "And by the way, Red Heart was right in that I'm stronger than most Earth ponies."
"I can see that," Luna. "If you are curious as to your weapons, they are being held and guarded."
"I'm fine with that," I say. After all, I am a weapon. "I imagine once I give you the intel, the other soldiers here will try to kill me?"
"Most likely," Luna said. "You may need to engineer a breakout of yourself."
I chuckled. "No problem there." I then reach down to my thigh compartment, which pops out, and grab an ear piece, tossing it to Luna. "So we can keep in touch," I say as sh catches it. "Goes in your ear."
"I don't remember you having these when we searched you, and we did find those compartments," Luna said, examining the ear piece before her eyes widened. "How did you get it?"
"I. . . just think of one, and I reach for one, and there it is," I say. "Why?"
"Impossible," Luna muttered, though I could hear it with my helmet. "There is only three in recorded history."
"Three what," I ask. "If I'm a danger, I ought to know, and I do mean an actual danger, not to one faction, but the entire planet."
"It is a danger depending only on who has the gift," Luna said. "As you heard, there are only three in recorded history," she said. "The three would be what I call dream masters, and it explains how you are able to equal me in the dream world."
"And just what are dream masters?" I ask
"Individuals who are capable of, quite literally, making their dreams come true," the lunar alicorn said. "I am one, Starswirl the Bearded was the second, and, hard as it is to believe, Discord is the third. There are more, I should know, it is my job to monitor their numbers, but we are the three most powerful and well known, even if not for that ability. It is a rare talent. There being one made always coincides with a great threat to the world. Whether they are the threat or not depends on them. They are able to make anything a reality, but the larger it is, or the more of something there is, the more exhausted the individual becomes. Discord and I, though, are the exception to that rule for obvious reasons."
"I can see that," I say, "but doesn't there need to be training or something?"
"No, all one needs is imagination," Luna said.
"In total, just how many dream masters have there been," I ask, curious as to just how rare this is.
"In the past thousand years that I know of, ten," she said in a tone that suggested she knew something else.
"There's something else there, isn't there," I ask. "In regards to the ten, I mean."
Luna sighed and, in a sorrowful tone, said, "Yes. Two of them are my daughters. They were but young fillies, not even able to talk yet, before I was banished, and I know not what happened to them. I left them in the care of two families before my battle with Celestia, making sure that even if I lost, they would have someone to care for them. I know not what happened to those two families, and Celestia didn't know she was an aunt."
"What were the family names," I ask. "I can easily search for them after this whole thing."
"If I remember correctly," Luna said, "they were the Light and Gem family."
I nodded. "I'll see what I can find on them," I say. "Now, don't we have a war council to attend?"
"Thank you, Josh," she said. "And you are correct. We do have a council to attend."
"Then I'll need my weapons back," I say. "I'm going to help take the capitol, and if I'm kept under guard, even if it's a ruse for the guards, I will crack some heads."
"I thought you might, which is why I have the ones guarding your weapons at the command tent," Luna said. "Come." With that, she left the medical tenet, me close behind. Upon coming out, every guard in the area stopped what they were doing to stare at me with hate, so I decided to be a wise ass and give them the bird. Ah, how I love pissing people off.
"Back to what you were doing, all of you," Luna said. "He is not a threat."
"Right now," I mutter and heard a few guards say. Luna began to walk again, and I followed her to the largest tent in the camp. It was colored the same color as Luna's skin, and was as tall and long as two normal tents. And I don't mean in the perverted way.
Four guards stood outside, and stood at attention as we approached, throwing looks of hate at me. "Give the human his weapons back," Luna said as we got to the entrance. "It has agreed to help us in taking the minotaur Capitol from Sombra's forces."
"But Princess-" one of the guard started before I took a knife out of the hidden compartment in my gantlet and pointed it at his throat.
"Your leader gave you an order," I say. "Where I come from, that could mean insubordination for not following. So is killing a fellow soldier, but we aren't on the same side, so I have no qualms there," I lied. At worst, I'd just knock him out. "Now, unless you want this knife in your throat, you'll obey her order. Besides, if I wanted all of you dead, you four couldn't do shit against me." That was true.
It was a staring match, and, to the guys credit, he didn't shrink, even when his fellows did. "Put your knife on the ground, human," Luna said from behind me. "And give him his projectile weapon and energy weapons back. If he wished me dead, he would have done so already."
"You got it," I say, dropping the knife, but keeping my other one hidden. Apparently, they didn't search everything. Or it was just quick thinking plus the whole dream master thing, I don't know, and honestly don't give a shit right now.
"Yes, Highness," one of the guard's fellows said, and the other three handed me my weapons, which I took, not taking my eyes off the one I had threatened, and put them in their respective magnetic holding areas.
"And as for you," she said, glaring at the other guard, who flinched there, "are to follow his advice. I ma your leader, and you could have been court martial-ed if I wished it. Understood?"
"Yes, Ma'am," the guard said.
"Good. Follow me, human," Luna said before walking into the tent, me close behind.
But not before I said, "I win," to the guard.
When I stepped inside, there was a large rustling of weapons, mine included. "Before you say anything, they raised their weapons first, this is just in defense of myself."
"I saw," Luna said. "Twilight Sparkle, put your weapon down. The same goes for the rest of you. He is our ally for now, and he will be treated as such, regardless of his past actions against you."
"But Princess," I heard Rainbow, who I saw had prosthetic wings on. Metal, too. Cool. "he shot me!"
"Yeah, but A: I didn't kill you. B: You were ahead of your friends, so you were the closest, which meant you were going to get targeted. Finally, C: You look a hell of a lot cooler with the metal wings instead of the organic ones, in my opinion."
"Told ya, Dashie," Pinkie said, her weapons, a pair of flintlock pistols, why does that not surprise me, being the only ones that didn't rise up.
"I still say we should take care of this ourselves," Rainbow said.
I lowered my BR. "Then come and get me," I say, to which Rainbow took the bait and charged. Just before she hit me, I side stepped and grabbed her arm with as little force as possible, considering, and spun her around into a position where I had an arm around her throat. "This is why I shot you," I say. "You need to learn self control. "You're the Element of Loyalty, not Sacrifice. Hell, that one doesn't even exist, so stop trying to be it." I then released her and pushed her to her friends. "You'll see the only injury for her is her ego, which I think we can agree needed to be knocked down a few pegs. Now, can we start this god damned council, or am I going to have to threaten more of you that invariably makes me tell you something the others have said before but your just too stupid to actually listen to?" When none of them attacked, though I did see the anger in all but Pinkie's eyes, I said, "Good. Princess, care to start it off?"
"You're lucky we have need of what you know, human," Luna said. "What we know is that Sombra's forces are being led by an unknown general-"
"I can fill that intel blank in right now," I say, my arms crossed. "If you don't believe me, check my memories. It's Cadence." I grab a sword and ignite it before pointing to my left and a slowly moving Rainbow. "Don't even try it. My helmet has a motion tracker, and I can see you moving."
"But it can't be Cadence," Twilight exclaimed. "There's no way she'd help Sombra!"
"Then look at my memories," I say. "I Pinkie Promise that as long as you look for and find what is related only to hat I just said, I will not eviscerate anyone in this tent."
"Then let's see if you're telling the truth," Luna said, lighting her horn as my head was encircled by the same glow as her light blue magic. It was this way for a few seconds before the glow faded and she said, "His mind tells the truth. It is indeed Cadence, or a near perfect replica of her, that leads this army. As for her reasons, she told him it is because of you, Twilight Sparkle."
"What?!"
"She said it was because my sister manipulated you and put you into situations there was a low chance of success at, such as Sombra, whom even my sister and I had trouble with."
"Nor did she try to distract Discord," I said. I then turned to Rainbow, who I had seen moving on my tracker. "Do you want to lose your head?"
"Is there anything else we might not know, or something known only from first hand?" Luna asked.
"Yeah," I said, keeping an eye on Rainbow. "There are dragon shaped crystal constructs that are resistant to even these," I say, tilting my sword a bit. "It was one of those things that strangled me into unconsciousness. They also captured my allies and are holding them in a citadel, and I would say Cadence's second in command is a torturer. The reports we had also indicated they had a lot of prisoners that were deserters. Whether or not that's true, I don't know. We didn't even get into the city."
"Then I don't see what chance we have," Twilight said.
I smiled. "Give me a day. I'll have something."
With that, I turned around, and made my way out of the tent, but not before turning my head and saying, "Don't follow me." I then left the tent, and I made sure any guard that got close was threatened by my sword's tip. I made my way to the nearby forest, and found a clearing.
I sat down crosslegged, and set my hands on my knees, and began to concentrate on a certain. . . item I knew well. I imagine an hour or so passed, but, near that hour's end, I felt light headed, and I heard an object hit he ground in front of me. I opened my eyes, and saw a sniper rifle pained brown with a wolf's head near the mag. Nornfang, Linda's sniper.
"Practicing," I heard Luna say behind me.
"Yeah," I said. "Decided to go with a weapon that's a legend in and of itself where I come from. It's longer range then this," I say gesturing to my BR, "and what it shoots explodes upon hitting targets," I say with a grin under my helmet. "So, what can you tell me about your daughters? Might help me find them."
"Well, I named them Artemis and Selene," Luna said, making me chuckle.
"Sorry, it's just, where I come from, your name and your daughters are all related to the moon. Your's and Selene's name, different language for moon. Artemis is the name of an ancient goddess," I say. "Hell, where I come from, most of the names I've heard here so far are puns."
"Well, compared to pony names, your's is quite strange too, Josh."
"Touche," I say. "Continue."
"Well, they were both unicorns, and were dream masters. It's mostly that that I fear for what happened to them."
"Why," I asked.
"Because my sister sees the creation part of it as dark magic. The ability to make anything one wishes for is, admittedly, a lure for the more. . . corrupt ponies. She even believes being a dream master means to you can unmake reality," Luna said. "Though it is true in the respect you create something out of nothing, she thinks that means you can will a pony out of existence, and I shamefully speak from personal experience when I say that is not true. If it were, Celestia would have lost to me when I first rebelled against her. But still, any child of an alicorn, I word it like that as both Selene and Artemis were unicorns, has the ability to teleport objects when they are young, and it is easy to hide them being a dream master then, but, when they became older, even after I was unable to watch over them, I ma afraid they were revealed ot my sister by her loyalists, and she brought them in for execution. But even if they are dead, I would still like to know."
"I'll find what I can, Luna," I say. "I swear it, even if I have to go to the gates of tartarus itself and kill every demon there."
"I doubt you'll need to be that extreme," Luna said with a small smile. "Is it true that Cadence captured all of your friends?"
"Yeah," I say. "Lone, Quick, Onyx, Mist. Hell, I even made friends with Starlight Glimmer of all ponies."
"Ah, I had heard that you found Starlight Glimmer," Luna said. "Twilight Sparkle wanted to hunt you down for being connected to her. She still holds a grudge against her, after all." Both of us shared a chuckle there.
"I wonder why," I say sarcastically. "You know, I'm curious, Luna. What does Celestia, or you, for that matter, plan on doing with Sombra and Chrysalis if Steel is taken down?"
"Honestly, I plan on giving them a chance," Luna said. "With Nightmare and I mentally one again, I know that Steel is playing both sides. To what end, I think only he knows for sure. Chrysalis is doing this so her people don't starve, and Sombra so he can live. Though, we would need a way for that to happen, first, let alone my sister and the Elements to agree with it."
"Hey, better Steel than those Caribou," I say. "Where I come from, actually, you guys are, for lack of a better term, a show meant for fillies with an adult fanbase, with, well, let's just say an interesting part of it having made through fan fictions that don't reflect their actual feeling on those subjects where the Caribou did take over. On their first try, too."
"Then I suppose it is a good thing you fond where they were located," Luna said. "And compared to what I have seen through the centuries, what you've told me is not the most surprising."
"I imagine," I say. "Shame our first physical meeting is because of this war," I say.
"Maybe," Luna said. "But hopefully, this war will not last much longer."
"Yeah," I say. "Same. So, when is the attack going to happen?"
"In a few days," Luna said. "Why?"
"No reason," I said, smirking under the helmet. "Just make sure I'm not disturbed for that time, and I'll get what needed to take the place."
Taking the rook(yeah. Chess references. What has my life become?)
It's been a few days since Josh had awoken, and subsequently threatened each of the Elements, and the Equestrian army was preparing to march on the minotaur capitol. Luna and the Elements stood at the front of the army. Luna was the one most, if not the only one, worried about Josh.
He had rarely left the clearing, and when ever a pony, whether of their own will or under an order, approached, they fled from the clearing, citing strange sounds like those from nightmares coming from the clearing, and a strange, green glow coming from there at night, and most of the camp, including the Elements, were weary of this, as green was the color most commonly associated with evil.
Regardless, Luna stood atop a hill, overlooking the city. None of those constructs could be seen, but Luna knew they were waiting. She could feel the magic in the air.
"Do you think he abandoned us," Twilight asked. She had on a lavender armor, matching the color of her skin, with her cutie mark in the center of the chest plate. Her weapon was a custom short sword that only the best of weaponsmiths could make that allowed her to focus her magic through it. The strange thing was that the way to make those types of swords was lost to the ages, but it could have easily been found. Quite a few relics of magic had been found since the war began, after all.
"I doubt that, Twilight Sparkle," Luna replied. "Even if he would do so, he himself said that his friends had been captured, and he would risk us imprisoning him than leaving his friends."
"Yeah, but how do we know he isn't lying there," Rainbow, wearing a cyan blue armor with two steel short swords, asked. "I mean, come on. He attacked Ponyville."
"But, um, he didn't really hurt anypony who lived there," Fluttershy, wearing a butterscotch yellow armor with a single, small dagger, said. "Really, they all said that he just took stuff from them, and actually put bits as compensation for the goods."
"But they also stole from Diamond Tiara!"
This got looks from Rarity, wearing a white and purple, as she called it, 'combat skirt', with a rapier and Applejack, wearing an orange armor with a medium sized war hammer on her back. "An' ya don't think she migh' 'ave had that comin' jus'a bit from how she tormented Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, an' Scootaloo?"
". . .I guess you have a point," Rainbow grudgingly said.
"And besides," Rarity said, "he could have left any previous day, bu he always came to the camp, if only for a short while."
"And I use my magic to sense when and where he's sleeping," Luna said. "Every night since he woke up, it has been in the clearing."
"Can we just get this battle over with so he can leave?"
"If that is what you wish," Luna said. She then turned back to the Equestrian army. "Ponies! Today, we free the minotaur capitol from Sombra's forces, and bring the planet one step closer to the peace it knew before!" A short speech, but the army cheered at it. "Charge!"
As the army charged., on a hill that overlooked the camp they were at, a single, shadowed figure stood, with seven objects hovering near it. "Follow them," the figure said. "Make sure nothing happens."
One of the seven made a noise before they went invisible, vanishing form sight.
At the front of the army, Luna and the Elements led the charge, still none of the constructs in sight, which only made the seven of them more weary of the city. The army itself, though, was not organized. They spread out during the charge, staying only in groups of two. This was mostly out of confidence, mostly because they thought the princess and the Elements would do most of the fighting. Lazy assholes.
Even when they crossed the threshold into the city, there was no resistance, no physical trace of the constructs. "Anypony else thinking he lied and is working with Sombra," Rainbow asked as they slowed down to a careful walk.
"Rainbow, you can be an idiot sometimes," Rarity said. "Why would they try to kill him if he was working with them. Princess Luna showed us what she saw, and he let us know about those dragon constructs."
"Could have been an act and false memories he had planted in him."
"Oh, if only it were that easy," a voice said, one the seven recognized, causing them to stop. Cadence, wearing the same armor she had when her forces had captured the Rogue army, stepped into view from the top of a small building, along with ten of the dragon constructs. "After all," she said, "we then could have easily killed or abducted each of you."
"Cadence," Luna growled. "So it really is you, and not one of Chrysalis' drones."
"Of course it is, Luna," Cadence said before she spread her wings and hovered down to the ground. "Why would you think it wasn't?"
"Because you killed my brother!" Twilight yelled, tears in her eyes. "Why, Cadence!?"
"I didn't want to, Twilight," Cadence said, the dragons coming down and encircling the seven. "But I did it for my subjects, and I made his death painless as possible. And for you."
"Cadence, why would you wish to join SOmbra," Luna asked. "You despise him."
Cadence took on a more. . . dark look here as she glared at Luna. "No, I love him. The only reason I used to is because Celestia indoctrinated me to fear shadows. You of all ponies should know that, Luna. After all," she said, "it is why you were banished to begin with. Abandon Celestia, and join with the ones who know what you go through."
"You know not what I go through, Cadenza," Luna said. "Unlike you and your current comrades, I have moved past my history, and made amends with my sister, and would not betray her for something so long ago."
"Then it seems you'll have to die," Cadence said. "But just so you know you had no chance of winning," she said before lighting her horn, it being the same color it normally was, and revealing an army of constructs, as well as the sound of battle once hidden. "I hid the constructs from view so that I could ambush you all, and so they could easily pick off your troops, almost all of which are already dead, by the way. Now you'll join them."
With that, the fallen princess teleported away, along with three of the dragons, leaving one dragon for each of them. The seven opened their maws, and blue orbs crackling with lightning could be seen.
"We can't get away, can we," Twilight said in hopelessness and sorrow. "It'd take to long to get a teleportation spell ready."
"Aye it would," Luna said. "But I will not go down like a coward, " she said before she began to run to one of them, only for an invisible field to send her flying back. "But it seems I have no choice but to," she said.
With that, the dragons let loose their attack, kicking up a dust cloud that obstructed the view of all, and smirked, only for that to fall when they saw the seven targets alive behind seven, dark blue, see through shields, ones the ponies were surprised to see. From the top of them was a small, orange beam that led to a strange being, one for each shield.
The seemed like strange, metal insects, with two, green and glowing, circular wings. "And here I thought you would wait for me," a voice said getting all heads to turn. One one of the smaller buildings, in his cyan and brick armor, with a strange, gray weapon in his hands with a blue and orange strip near the back, and two similar weapons, similar in shape and color, though with one having an orange stripe, on his thighs above his swords, was Josh.
"You," one of the constructs growled at me.
"Me," I say, smirking under my helmet. "Watcher Wing Alpha, good work. Return to Knight Lance Alpha, and tell them I will need assistance."
The lead watcher, the one above Luna, beeped in response, and the seven flew back to the clearing where my small, but formidable, Promethean army waited. What I had been doing in the days since I woke up was making one thing that could harm the constructs. An army that could use Hardlight. I stepped off the building, and used my thrusters to slow my fall as I hit the ground. In my hand was the Didact's Signet, a scattershot that fired fast moving, long range projectiles that had better tracking after ricochets. On my left thigh above my sword was the closed fist, a boltshot that fired at a faster rate and had a higher clip size. On my right was the open hand, a boltshot that fired swarms of tracking bolts with each trigger pull. "So, are we going to get this party started, or what?" I ask.
"Kill him," the dragon from near a week ago said to one of his companions, who charged at me, claws out. I didn't move, only stood where I was. Just before he reached me, I pointed my weapon at him, hip fire form, and fired, the Hardlight projectiles doing what I had hoped they would, which was rip through the thing. I fired an entire clip into it to ensure it was dead, which was confirmed with the last shot as it began to disintegrate.
I then flipped the main part of the gun down, and reloaded. "Wanna try again?" I ask once I had fully reloaded before I placed the scattershot on my back and grabbing the two boltshot variants, closed fist in my left, the open hand in my right.
"How are you able to harm us?" the lead dragon growled.
"Simple," I say, grinning like a psycho. "Light can pass through you, which means something can harm you. My weapons use a little something I like to call hardlight, which results in them being able to harm you. And they aren't even the best of what I thought up since I woke up," I say as seven Knights, two standard form Halo 4, one battle wagon form same game, two standard from Guardians, one bannerman, from same, and one Halo 4 commander, teleport behind me. "Meet the best of what I thought up, Knight Lance Alpha."
The seven knights shook a little, not out of fear, but of preparation. One major difference between them and the games:they had green light, and not blue or orange. "And the blades they have or hardlight," I say with a maniac grin under my helmet.
"You are still out numbered."
"Don't be so sure," I say before broadcasting on the radio "Knight Lances Bravo through Zulu, move in. Crawler packs Alpha through Zulu, move in." Each group had seven in them, and there were twenty six, so there's. . . uh, hold on, let me check. Okay seven times twenty is one hundred and forty. Seven times six is forty two, so that would be one hundred and eighty two Prometheans in an alphabet group, and there's three groups, so one hundred and eighty two times three? Okay, three times one hundred is three hundred. Three times eighty is two hundred and forty, and three times two is six. Add three hundred, two forty, and six to get-holy shit. Five hundred and forty six. Dear god.
Anyway, from the Equestrian camp, multiple mechanical howls and roars could be heard. "Activate AR mode, hostiles may be invisible, and stick to hardlight weapons. Only thing that'll harm them," I order over the radio. "And as for you," I say over suit speakers, pointing my boltshots at the construct that strangled me, "time to die. Take 'em down, Alpha!"
The seven Knights roared, their face plates splitting apart to reveal the skulls, and they charged, shrugging off the physical attacks, while shooting and slicing as I made my way to the one who got me, shooting the entire time. Bottomless clip, bitch. When I reached him, none of my shots hitting him due to him using his non dragon comrades as shields, he tried to bring his arm out to knock me in the head using my own momentum against me, but I dropped down to my knees and slid under his arm, firing at him as I did so, damaging him slightly, but nothing major.
Once I had slid entirely past him, I spun around and used my left leg to stop my sliding, amd pointed my open hand (weapon) at him.
The dragon growled as he turned to face me. "You will pay for that," he said.
I stood up, and pointed both my guns at him as I stood sideways. "How much?" I reply like the asshole I like to be. "I got a few hardlight shots for ya."
He growled. "You will die!" He then charged at me. Time to deploy one of my. . . modified projects from before the others were captured. I dropped my two weapons, and got into a position to give additional energy to a punch from my right hand. "Checkmate, bitch," I say as I send a mental signal to that particular gauntlet, and a hardlight blade projector popped up, and a blade appeared. I then used the thruster in my left gauntlet and the one in my right back, which, together, propelled my arm blade into the face of the dragon construct. I then use my right arm and left back thruster to spin around quickly, and take the head off, finishing in a kneeling position.
Note, my original projects were those energy wrist blades Elites use in Halo: Reach, just so you guys know. I then stand up, saying over the radio, "All Knight Lances and Crawler Packs, once finished with current engagement, make way to capitol building, and surround. Watcher Wings Alpha through Zulu, deploy and spread out, find where Cadence is keeping the rest of the Rogue army. Once they are found, transmit to Knight Lances November through Zulu and Crawler Packs Alpha through Mike. Designated groups, once done, infiltrate, and get them out of there. Knight Lance Alpha, your with me."
I got the response from them, as my helmet translated their beeps and such, though I did give the Knights normal speech capability, as well as names. "And as for you seven," I say, looking at Luna and the Elements, "Cadence lied. Her forces had already killed your troops before I got here. Those shouts were just the constructs simulating them to break your spirit. If you don't want to join your forces, you'll stay with me and Knight Lance Alpha, are we clear," I ask as I pick up my two boltshot variants.
"Indeed you are," Luna said.
"Then stay behind me," I say without waiting for a second response before walking to the capitol building, ready to kick some ass.
As the fifteen of us, me, Luna, the Knights, and the Elements were making out way to the capitol building, we were silent form each other, for the most part. I issued orders to the Promethean groups via radio, suit speakers off, and the Elements and Luna talked with one another. For the most part, anyway.
Ten minutes into the walk, I heard Twilight ask, "So, why are you helping us?"
I looked ta her as I turned on my speakers. "Because it is the right thing to do right now," I say. "You and your friends may not know it now, but I am trying to help you all."
"How," the lavender alicorn asked.
"Let's juts say there are more secretive and manipulative individuals than changelings," I say. "Anything else you wanna know before we get into another fight?"
"Yes, actually." Oh god I have awakened the beast. "How did you make all these. . .-"
"Machines?"
"Yeah. "How did you make all of them in just a few days?"
"Let's just say," I say, "it's a talent of mine I share with few others." This is where it got weird. Not 'Twilight turned into Cathulu' strange, but strange. I expected her to ask either what my ability did, or who else had it. You know, ask shit about it like she normally would.
She didn't.
I activated Promethean vision, and looked at her. I had found through testing with Mist and other changelings that I could see through a changeling's disguise. It was Twilight I saw, which made it only weirder, but that is not the weirdest part of it. Her sword had a magical glow around it. One similar to the Signet and the Promethean forces. Meaning it was made by a dream master's ability, but it also seemed to fit with her. Two explanations.
"Twilight, do you mind if I ask a question?"
"Not at all," she replied.
"How did you get that sword," I ask. "And don't say it was forged, my helmet is showing me a similar glow around it as my weapons do. I'll know if your lying." Time to see what she answers.
"Princess Luna made it for me," she said, and I smirked. She knows just what I can do, but I won't push it, not yet. Also, interesting. I know Luna said ten had been born in the past thousand years, but still, what are the odds an Element would be one. Looks like I'll need to do some research.
"Right," I say. "So, what do you want to happen to Cadence?"
"What do you mean," she asked.
"Exactly what I said," I say. "What do you want ot happen to Cadence. Not what you think your friends want, not what the other two princesses want, but what you want done to her."
Twilight was silent for a time before she replied. "I don't know," she said. "I mean, I want her to pay for killing Shining and betraying Princess Celestia, but at the same time, she wouldn't have done that for her subjects."
"A bit of advice, then," I say. "One leader to another. Sometimes, the greatest punishment is to let one live with what they have done. I'm not saying you should punish her, but if you do, you wouldn't have to kill her."
"Why are you helping," she asked again.
"Joshua Miller," I reply, taking a cue from a book character from Contact Harvest. To her credit, she understood what I meant.
"It's who you are."
"Yeah," I say. "And I doubt she'll care, but would you mind telling Rainbow Dash I'm sorry. I honestly didn't want to shoot her, but I wasn't sure how much more time Lone needed to finish his teleportation spell."
Twilight chuckled. "I'll see what I can do," she said. "You know, you're different than I thought you'd be."
"How so," I ask.
"Well, just about everypony sees you as some kind of conqueror that would love to kill my friends and the princesses and take the throne for yourself," she said. "But you seem more like Princess Luna, seeing as how you take active steps to help those under you in combat and you seem to care for them too."
"Don't believe everything you hear, Twilight," I say. "And don't make opinions on something unless you speak from first hand experience. Look at me. Do I look like what the guard say I am, which is to say a monster?"
"No, I guess not," she said.
The Knights in front stopped then. "We are here," one of them said, and I saw that just about every ground based Promethean was here, a large building in the center of the ring.
I nodded. "Watcher Wings, anything to report?"
"That your other allies are inside the structure, sir," one of the Watchers said. "Waiting on your word to breach."
"Understood," I say. "All Promethean groups, listen up. The rest of the Rogue army is inside that structure. That makes our job much more complicated. Destroy any and all constructs, but leave the ponies, friendly or hostile, alive. Cripple hostiles, but leave friendlies unharmed." As I said this, I strode to the front, the Knights and Crawlers parting for me. "Knight Lance Charlie, Watcher Wing Bravo, and Crawler Pack Alpha, protect the Elements and Princess. Lance Alpha, Pack Bravo, and Wing Charlie, with me."
I strode up to the front door, which were large, steel doors that were the size of a normal door back home, height wise. I then grabbed the sword on my left thigh, and ignited it before plunging it into the steel door and melting off the hinges on each. The doors then fell back. "Move in," I say before walking in, the three groups I had designated following me, followed by every other one.
One of the Watchers of my group came down and hovered next to my head. "Scans indicate your allies are being held in a singular room, and that hostile designate Cadenza is there as well," it said in a robotic voice. "What do you wish to do?"
"Free the rest of the army, and kick Cadenza's ass into next millennium," I say. "Where are they?"
"Go to the end of this hall, turn left. Only doors."
"Right," I say, and we follow those instructions, and we made our way to said doors.
"Any thing else in there?" I ask the Watcher.
"Negative, General," it said. "Only the rest of the army and Cadenza."
"Well, then," I say. "Normal people knock, but the badasses breach," I say delivering a kick to the door, which opened them up before pointing my weapon up.
What I saw utterly surprised me to the point I still swear to this day I thought I had somehow gotten high.
I saw a large room, expected, but also the kinds of chairs one would see at a church. Okay, cold have been re-purposed. Or so I thought until I saw what was at the front of the room.
What I saw was Starlight in an elegant, white bridal dress, the veil, (side note, why do we still have that shit in modern day? The way I see it, it's outdated.) covering her face and Lone, in an immaculate Tuxedo, their hands in the others, and, between them with a book, Cadence. "What the fuck is going on here?"
There was silence for a few seconds, as I slowly lowered my weapon. "Lone, Starlight, mind explaining what's going on, aside from the obvious fact your getting wed? But please explain the Cadence angle."
"Well, you see," Lone started before I cut him off.
"Actually, later," I say. "And if my timing happened to coincide with the usual cliche moment, I have no objections."
With that, I walked out, and sat on the floor, weapon by my side. Jeez, talk about timing, am I right? Anyway, a few minutes later, Lone and Starlight came out, and sat beside. "So," I said. "This happened."
"Yeah," Lone said. "Guess we owe an explanation, huh?"
"Oh yeah," I say. "But first," activate radio, "all Promethean groups, stand down, for now. Lance Charlie, Wing Bravo, and Pack Alpha, inform Elements and Princess as to what I just discovered. Lance Alpha will transmit data." I then looked at the two newlyweds. "Clear."
"We'll ask later," Lone said. "So, the whole thing started just after whatever happened to you happened. We, as in all of us, were brought here and put in the dungeons, where Cadence would visit just to gloat. Three days ago, she found me and Starlight sleeping, and I do mean sleeping, and saw the rings. Shen then procedded to ask if we were engaged, we said yes, and she got his whole thing going. Gotta give her credit, they don't call her the alicorn of love for nothing, seeing as how we couldn't have planned a better wedding."
"Except for the war not going on," Starlight said.
"Yeah, but still, in our control, I meant."
"I know, Lone," she said. "You know, Josh, you're just in time for the reception."
"I kinda guessed that," I said, "and I'm in, but I'm not sure if those I brought with me are."
"The Elements and one of the Princesses, I assume," Lone asked.
"Yep," I say. I then look to one of the Knights. "Void, send a message to Charlie Lance. Tell them to bring their escorts here."
"Yes sir," Void, the Knight Commander, replied. Full name was Spirit-of-Black-Void, and I gave Void a female personality.
"I'll ask when they get here," I say.
"So, what have you been up to, Josh," Starlight asked.
"Well, I was unconscious for about a week," I say. "One of those dragons strangled me. I was found by Princess Luna and the Royal guard, and woke up a few days ago. I found out I have a rare gift, being able to essentially think of something and it become real, and used that to make the Prometheans, the machines you see now. So, how's everyone else?"
"Good, considering," Lone said. "All of them were let out of the dungeons for this, and we made sure the reception would have actual food, so they won't be starving for a while."
"Well, once the reception's over, guys, we're busting out of here. No position to fight right now."
"And what about the Prometheans," Starlight asked.
"First combat scenario," I say. "Still trying to find the best weapons for them."
"Even though it doesn't look like they need them," Lone said, eyeing the blades.
"True," I say, "but there's more than one way to win a war then just brute force," I say. "And I learned that there's someone else a hell of a lot more dangerous." Hello, Steel Wit.
It was here that Luna and the others arrived, and I got up, hand on my Open Hand, eyes on Rainbow. Sue me for being cautious with her. "Princess," I say with a bow of the head. "Elements. Rainbow." Rainbow growled. Point: Assholes. "I'm guessing one of my allies informed you as to what I saw?"
"Indeed they did," Luna said before looking at the two. "Hello, Lieutenant," she said to Lone. "Corporal," she said to Starlight.
"Princess," Lone said. "I'm a little surprised you aren't trying to arrest us right now."
"I don't see why I should," Luna said. "We met in combat, and the armies were allied. As far as the official story is, that clears you of the crimes. For now." She then leaned in closer and, to the surprise of all others, grabbed both Lone and Starlight by their collars, and brought their face to hers. "But regardless of this war's outcome, you are to apologize to my sister, who cried herself to sleep when the both of you left, or I will turn you both into frogs, and boil you."
The Elements and I looked at one another, and I shrugged, palms out. "News to me," I say. "Wait a minute," I say before looking at the two. "Explain now."
Both blushed, and, having gotten to know me, they could tell I was glaring at them. "Well, you see," Lone said, "it was one of the few days Starlight and I were guarding Celestia's chambers when we heard yells coming from inside. We rushed in, and, believe me, it surprised us both at the time and still a little now, saw Celestia masturbating."
Twilight had a look of horror on her face, I guess from the mental image of "The most perfect pony in Equestria" doing herself, but I also saw a hint of a laughing smile, which, to be fair, Rainbow, Luna, and I had on as well, while Pinkie just went, well, Pinkie, Fluttershy blushed, and Rarity looked appalled- is that a smug smile, or the hint of one, I see on her face- at that.
"So, yeah. When we tried to leave," Starlight continued, "she stopped us, and said the reason she was doing that was, and I wish I was kidding here, because she had seen how happy the two of us were, and she wanted to know that kind of pleasure, but didn't want to use the Guard, and asked us to kept it a secret, which we did, but a week later, she called us, and said she wanted to try a herd with the two of us."
"We decided we may as well try so," Lone said. "Things essentially snowballed, and the three of us became a herd, though I left a few weeks after that started because I was just fed up with the nobles wanting her to keep the war going. That dick Steel Wit, especially."
"Wait a minute," Rainbow said. "You know him?"
"He was my CO before I left," Lone said. "Hated him then, hate him even more now that I know he's got something on Celly."
"That what he meant in Ponyville," I asked.
"Probably."
"Well," I say. "I think we can all agree on someone who needs to die." I then activate my radio. "Zulu groups, you are to find and shadow Steel Wit, and keep me informed on his movements. Do not kill unless I say so."
"Affirmative," the lead Knight of Zulu said before they teleported away. I think.
It was then that Cadence decided to join in. I ignited a hardlight blade on my right arm and held it out. I turned to face Rainbow. "Are we going to keep doing this, or are you actually going to grow the hell up?"
Rainbow and I glared at one another as Cadence said. "I imagine htis is a surprise for you all?"
"Definitely here," I say. "Now, as a wedding gift, how about you let them all go? And I do mean everyone, not just these two."
"Yeah, that's be the perfect gift," Lone said, putting a little more pressure on. Just to make sure, though.
"Look, we're both exhausted, Cadence, and I imagine neither of us want to fight right now," I say. "All we ask is that you let the others go, and we'll leave."
"As will we," Luna said, getting looks of surprise from the Elements.
"I thought you came to try to free this place."
"Which is why I propose this," I say. "You pull out as well, saying it isn't tactically or strategically feasible to hold this location, as it is miles away from any Equestrian base, and there are no natural resources nearby. As for the prisoners, let them go. They came here to get away from the war, and the mark of a good ruler, even a tyrant, is sometimes submitting to their subjects." Plus, seeing as how you set that wedding up, there still is some part of the old you left.
She was silent for a time before saying, "You'll both owe Sombra and me."
"I plan on repaying it already," I say. "But for now, time for the reception."
A few hours later
Well, that was interesting wasn't it. Anyway, the Rogue army was on a hill, preparing to leave, when I heard hoofsteps behind me. I turned, and saw Luna walking up. "Hey, Luna," I say. "Thought you'd be with the Elements."
"I decided on something else, Josh," she said.
"What," I ask.
"To join you and the others."
"What," I ask. "Why? I thought you'd stay with Celestia."
"I said I wouldn't leave her for something so ancient. You and I meeting is not ancient. And besides, I gave Twilight Sparkle a letter detailing why I did so, as well as a letter Lone and Starlight gave to to give to my sister. She will be glad to know that three of the more important ponies in her life are alright."
"Sure you want to, Luna," I ask. "I mean, I do want to spend more time with you, but we both know the nobles, especially the sun loving assholes who hate you simply because you're the alicorn of the night, will call you a traitor and want your execution."
"I know, but there is another reason," she said. "I wish to be there when you discover what happened to my daughters, so that I may know first hand."
Oh. "I see," I say. "Then if you're certain," I say.
She nodded. "I am."
I took off my helmet, and smiled at her. "Then it looks like we'll be spending a lot of time together," I say.
"Indeed it does, Josh," she said. "You know, it is rare for one to show me their true face in dreams when they know they're dreaming, but rather something much more attractive."
"What can I say," I said with a shrug. It was then that Lone and Starlight walked up, arm in arm. "I enjoy being different."
"Hey, Josh," Lone said before he saw Luna. "Princess? What are you doing here?"
"I decided to join Josh," she said. "You two are not the only lovers brought together by this war."
And here, a portal opened up. Looks like Hunter Josh and the Guardians finished my token. About damn time. "Then I say it's time for our first real world date," I say before turning to the newlyweds. "You guys coming?"
"Don't see why not," Lone said. "What about you, honey?"
"Sure," Starlight said. "Might be fun."
"Then let's go," I say, before grabbing Luna's hand, as well as Starlight's, who held Lone's with her other, and jumped into the portal, dragging the, behind me.
I made my way to the unused, I'm not kidding, Rhino, Cybis, and I had never used it, throne room, with the Fracture pistol in one hand and the energy sword in another. Upon reaching it, I opened the door, and walked in before closing it.
"Okay, guys, I hope you like parties," I say to the two tokens, and the same amount of portals opening, one on my left, one on my right. On my left, Church came out, along with a guest that really surprised me. Church had his armor on, with his trademark sniper rifle on his back. His guest was, I shit you not, Cadence, albeit with an alabaster coat and longer mane. "What the fuck?"
"Oh, hey," Church said. "What's going on, Josh?"
"Um, why do you have Cadence with you," was all I could say.
"Oh, you mean Amor," he asked. "My adoptive daughter from a different displaced universe." Over a radio frequency I can only assume his A.I. mind made in the second before saying, "Also reverse aged and mind wiped."
". . .Fair enough," I say. "Hello, Amor. My name's Josh. I'm a friend of your dad's."
"Hi, Josh," Amor said, and the voice was most definitely Cadence's. "What are you?"
"Me," I asked. "I'm just a badass Guardian. So, what have you been up to, Church?"
"Meh, not much," he said, shrugging. "You?"
"Well," I say, putting a hand on my chin. "Since we last saw you, made an alliance with the changelings, or at least Chrysalis' hive, discovered that this universe's Rarity is said queen's daughter, killed a god, not our Celestia, brought Sunset Shimmer here form the human version of it after fighting off Celestia's father's forces, and gave Chrysalis, Rarity, whose changeling name in Chitinia, and Chrysalis' new stallionfriend, Shade, positions as Guardians in training, as well as going to another displaced, who should be arriving in three, two one."
"Talk about busy," Church said as Spartan Josh came through the right one, which caused both portals to close. Spartan, just to avoid confusion between me and Josh when the others take their turn with telling the story, also had a few guests. One was-and it's his worlds version of Lone. Oh, this is going to be awkward for Nightmare, I just know it. He wore a black tux, which made sense, seeing as how the mare holding his hand, who was, I shit ye all not, Starlight Glimmer, who wore a bridal gown minus the trail and veil, so I guess the two were recently wed. Hello interesting. The other guest was one that surprised me, and held Josh's hand. Well, much as it was possible with him being a Spartan. The guest was his world's Luna wearing silver armor that had her cutie mark on the portion of the armor that covered that part of her. Hey, this thing has a gore tag, not a sex tag.
"Hey, Josh," I say.
"Hey, Josh," he replied. Oh, the looks are hilarious.
"You guys can just call me Hunter when we're in close proximity," I say. "That is my Guardian class, after all."
"Guess that'll do," Josh said. "Oh ,this would be Lone and Starlight. Yes, they are a couple recently married. And yes, it surprised me too."
I shrugged. "Not the weirdest thing I've seen," I say. "A pleasure to meet the both of you. And you, Princess Luna."
"Aren't you one of the guys from Ponyville," Lone asked.
"Yeah, I am," I say. "Don't worry, we'll get a chance to get to know one another later."
"Why," Church asked.
"Simple," I reply. "It's party time in a few hours. Now, if you'll excuse me," I say, heading to the door, "I need to find a particular pony."
Ponyville-a few minutes later
I walked through the town, and I definitely had mixed looks. Some were of hate, gee, I wonder why, some were neutral, expected, and some, were, well, I have no way to describe it, but it was something that said, You need help, I'll be there. Though those last ones were the rarest. Anyway, I was walking, when I encountered a familiar white unicorn. I accidentally tripped over her, and she fell to her side. "Sorry," I say. "Wasn't watching where I was going."
"Oh, no, it's alright," the unicorn said, and my eyes widened. I turned around, and, lo and behold, was Rarity.
"Josh," Chitinia said. "What are you doing here?"
"Looking for one of the ponies here. I could ask the same of you," I say.
"I run a fashion shop here in Ponyville," she replied. "Who are you looking for?"
"Party planner. Party tonight."
"Oh," Chitinia said. "I think I know who you want."
"Then show me the way."
"Of course," Chitinia said with a small smile as we got up. "Follow me."
"Copy that," I say, and she lead the way to Sugarcube corner.
"Just. . . wait here a bit, Josh," the disguised changeling said. "Even before the. . . incident earlier today, most of the customers here never liked you and the others."
"Right," I say before going over beside the door, and sitting down on the ground. "But first, what's your name in that form?" Just so it isn't odd if i need to call her later on while she's inside.
"Rarity, darling," she said. "I won't take long." And with that, she stepped inside. After a few minutes of her inside, I looked up-oh, come on!
One, no, two royal carriages with the only pegasai guards that could fight escorting, heading towards the Tower.
"Guys," I say over the radio, "Guests inbound. I'd say our Cadence, and probably a few actually competent guards. Keep 'em busy, try to get them away if you can."
"Copy that, Josh," Rhino replied. "And we just met up with the others. Yeah, you should have seen Nightmare's reaction to both Luna and Lone. Hilarious."
"Just make sure if it is Cadence, prevent them from doing anything. I have a feeling this has to do with earlier."
"Still can't believe all that shit happened in just one day," Cybis said.
"Same," I say. "I'll get Chitinia." I stood up. "Rarity, we need to go!"
"Coming," I heard her say from inside before she came running out, along with a familiar pink pony. "What's going on?"
"Possibly Cadence," I say. "Also, hello, Pinkie."
"Hi, Josh," Pinkie said waving. "Don't worry, I'll help with the party."
"Thank you," I say. "Now come on, let's go before shit hits the fan at the Tower."
"Right," Chitinia said, and both of us rushed off to the Tower. Pinkie, fourth wall break?
Just that the readers should comment more.
. . . Not what I had thought, but it'll do. Thanks, by the way, Pinks.
"You got it, Josh."
Yeah, fourth wall breaks can be helpful sometimes, am I right? Anyway, we got to the Tower, and saw Rhino and Cybis arguing with Cadence(called it. Unfortunately.) and Shining.
"I told the both of you already," Rhino said, "we didn't kidnap Celestia. We were up north when that happened."
"You're the only ones who could beat her," Shining retorted.
"Her," Cybis said. "Please, she's a moron, and that's coming from me. She didn't plan for that Empire to come back, apparently, she attacked us first-"
"Because you brought back Nightmare Moon," Cadence yelled.
"Who is her sister," Rhino said. "And before you say anything, shut it and listen, heart-ass. Put yourself in Nightmare's position. You do most of the work, raising the moon and creating the constellations, but your elder sister, who is so self centered she thinks a simple apology form her fixes everything, takes all the praise, not even trying to direct any of it to you. Wouldn't you go crazy trying to get the attention you deserved?"
"No, I wouldn't," Cadence said. "That's why we're here. To arrest all of you, and find out where my aunt is."
"Good fucking luck," Rhino said. "You may be a pretty pink princess, but we're the Elements, and if you attack, we can claim self-defense. Besides, do you really want to arrest Twilight?"
"Arrest, no," Shining said, "Take her back to Canterlot and free her form what ever it is you used to indoctrinate her!"
"Wow," I say, getting the attention of everyone. "You ponies sure are perfectionists, aren't you? I mean, the first thing that goes against your view of a perfect world is dark magic, even if it's an overall good thing. Us, for instance. I mean, we killed a king who used actual dark magic, saved an entire Empire, and gave it to a race that we know would do well with it, and sent a chaos god to a place that's already pretty fucked up."
"Great," Shining said. "You. The Warlock and Titan, I can stand. They at least take things seriously. You don't." Is he seriously going this way? Okay, let's see, how much bullshit is in that statement. There's the fact I came up with the plan to bring Nightmare back, the one who led those dragon things away, the one to deliver the kill shot to Crota. Oh, and there's the fact we Guardians actually are fully competent because of us three. Then there's him, who barely does shit, and does so while being in a relationship with the Princess of love. Hey, uh, Noland, do the Nobles know of this?
No. Why?
Just a little leverage. "Look," I say to them, "we're throwing a party later tonight, simply to unwind. You two, and only you two, are invited. I swear on my honor as a Hunter that no brainwashing or assassination attempts will occur for either of you. So, want to come?"
"No. Way," Shining said, though Cadence seemed to consider it. "Right, your Highness?"
"I don't know, Captain," Cadence said. "Seeing as how I'm a princess, I ma required to meet other leaders, and these three are leaders."
"WHAT?!"
"You heard me, Shining," Cadence said. "I may not like them anymore the you, but still, it's required with the title."
"Then I guess we'll see you tonight, Princess," I say. "Oh, and, word of warning," I said as Rhino, Cybis, and I made our way inside. "We have a few non-dimensional, meaning they aren't from this universe, visiting, including an alternate you, so don't be surprised."
With that, and the look on Cadence's face in my memory, the three of us entered, and decided to get ready.
That night
"Right. . . there, perfect," I say to two guardians as they got the table set up. "Hit it, Pinks."
BOOM!!
"Nice one," I say as Pinkie's party cannon put a table cloth on the rectangular table, as well as plenty of snacks, and even a punch bowl. "Were you able to get a DJ, Pinkie?"
"You know it," the party pony said with her usual smile.
"Right," I reply. "So, Pinkie, which song do you think we should do first," I ask, bringing up a holographic list of the songs I had picked out for the party.
"Hmm, the first one," she said.
"You're the party expert," I say, the hologram collapsing. "God, we need this party."
"That's why I decided to bring some help," Pinkie said with her usual smile.
"Who," I asked cautiously.
"The me from Josh's universe." Damn it! Two Pinkie's. No contingency for that.
In fact, as soon as she said that, an anthro version of her in, I swear to god I am not joking, a pirate outfit with ridiculously oversized flint locks. "Hey, Josh," she said, and yes, that will be so you guys can tell which one's speaking. My world's will be the normal black, while Josh's will be that color.
"Hey, Pinkie," I say, sighing. "How did you get here?"
"I have my own portal to other worlds, she said.
"Yeah, for some reason, that isn't very surprising," I say before my fellow displaced came in. "Hey guys," I say to them.
"Hey, Josh," Cybis said. "Almost ready?"
"Nearly," I say. "And yes, Josh, that's your worlds Pinkie here."
"Meh," he said, shrugging. "With Pinkie, it's hard to be surprised with some of her stuff. So, need anything else?"
"Yeah," I say. "A stage. Got something planned."
"A stage," he said. "Simple." He was quiet fo ra few seconds, and a stage appeared behind me.
"What the fuck," Church exclaimed, getting a glare from Amor.
"In my world, there's a magic called 'dream mastery', which includes thinking physical shit up, and, with enough concentration, the larger the object, the more concentration and time I need."
"So, could you make the Infinity," Rhino asked.
"With enough time, yeah," he said. "Of course, wouldn't be the exact game version. It'd have a few differences, seeing as how I would probably, and have to, add some stuff from my imagination."
"Makes sense," I say. "So, still need this," I ask as Nolandroid transmats the Fracture pistol into my hand.
"Probably not," he said. "Can always make a new one. Which means," he said before a Didact's Signet (one thing I had done with the portal in off time is watch youtube videos for Halo 5.), appeared in his hands. "You know the drill. You need help, or just want to talk, summon me. If you're a new displaced, just speak to this thing, and if you need this thing, it works, and has a bottomless clip." With that, the weapon vanished. "And there's my token."
"Then let's get this shit started," I say. "Ghosts, you know what to do."
"On it," Nolandroid said as he, Dinkle, and Tara appeared. "Be back as soon as possible."
One hour later
Rhino, Cybis, and I were backstage, believe me, the fact in Josh's world there was a magic where you cold essentially think up an intelligent nuke that would harm only your enemies, even if your allies were in range, still freaked me out, and the three of us were getting ready.
"So, is Cadence here," Cybis asked.
"Yep," Dinklebot said in response, the three Ghosts hovering next to us. "Right now, party's just waiting for you guys to start it."
"I'll take care of that," I say before walking to the front of the stage, parting curtains that had hidden us, and the few conversations that had been going on slowly stopped.
"First off, I want to thank each of you, Guardian, civilian close to us, royal, or extra-dimensional visitor," that one got a few chuckles, "for coming to the party. This is simply meant to help each of us relax. My team especially, seeing as how we've done a shit load of stuff in literally a day, needs it, but each of you have most likely earned. So, as such, I say that, for the duration of the party, no ranks or titles. All equals. And now, Vinyl, track one!"
Said white and blue unicorn nodded, before getting the song going.
"Let the party start!" And with that, shit got fun. Some of those started dancing, others continued to mingle while some watched from the sidelines. Hell, even the Ghosts were getting involved.
Rhino, Cybis, and I stepped off the stage, and went to have some fun.
I walked over to where Josh and Church were, near the table with the punch bowl on it, which was near the door. "So, what do you guys plan on doing when you get back?"
"Well, I got a war to stop," Josh said.
"And I plan on just doing stuff as it comes," Church said.
"Well, regardless, good luck. Now, though, let's have fun," I say before we split up.
Spartan 1st person
As Church and the other Josh and I went our separate ways, I made my way to where Guardian-verse, to help distinguish our worlds with events like this, Twilight was talking with my world's, which I'll call the Spartan-verse, Starlight.
"Wait," Twilight said, "so in your universe, you made an entire town based on everypony having no talent?"
"Yeah, I kinda ashamed of it now," Starlight said, rubbing the back of her neck. "Funny thing is is that you had a part in that. Well, the one from home, anyway."
"Then it must be little awkward for you right now, isn't, Starlight?"
"A little, yeah, she said/
"Hey, look on the bright side," I say, getting their attention. "New first impressions."
"Yeah, I guess," she said. "I didn't think you had friends from other versions of Equis, Josh."
"Comes with being a displaced," I say, shrugging. "Just be glad I haven't met any one psychotic enough I haven't met anyone who can destroy the world with a thought, which I'm sure there are a few."
Both mares chuckled. "Fair enough," Twilight said. "So, Starlight's been telling me about what you guys have done. Is it true that the Cadence for you guys is with Sombra and his allies?"
"Yep," I say, crossing my arms. "I was surprised too."
"Even Crystals that acted like Ghosts?"
"If you mean they had their own intelligence, yes," I sa-helllllllooooooo, idea. Wonder how long that would take, and if it would work.
"Josh, you got the 'maniacal grin' that says you're planning something," Starlight said.
"There's a look?"
"More a body stance," Starlight said. "You have your helmet on, after all."
"Noted, and yes, I'm planning something." Something along the lines of space fungus satan. Those who have seen Fiery Joker's youtube video will know what I mean. I will have fun when I get back.
"You got the stance again."
"Sorry. Well, see ya guys later," I say, before letting the two talk to each other again, and going to another interesting group.
Both lunar alicorns, Warlock Nightmare and Spartan-verse Luna, my marefriend, were looking ta each other, arms crossed, and looking at one another. Oh boy. I hope Josh has a bunker. I mean, yes, my Luna combined minds with our version of Nightmare, long story, but this is not that Nightmare.
"Please don't tell me I need to knock the both of you out before you kill the world trying to kill each other," I say, and I was being serious.
"Not at all," Luna said.
"Then why do you two look like you're about to murder one another?"
"We are simply trying to see what the differences between us are," Nightmare said. "I imagine Luna did not tell you, but there is an old magic one could use to judge a pony's personality by looking them in the eye. So far, we are mostly similar. The only notable difference so far is that I am the actual one here while in your's, Luna is the main one."
"That, and this world has no dream masters," Luna said.
"Well, can you two do this later," I ask. "I mean, come on, this is supposed to be a party, not a psychoanalysis get-together."
"I suppose," both of them said. "Just what are you, anyway," Nightmare asked. "You're human, I can tell that much, but you seem. . . different."
"That would be because I'm a Spartan. Think a Titan."
"Ah. So, Luna told me that your fighting a war, leading a third faction against both her Celestia and the Elements, along with Sombra, Chrysalis, and Cadence."
"Bingo," I say. "That, and I technically committed genocide by killing the last three of a patriarchal race that wanted to turn mares, and women in general, into sex objects."
"That is probably the one thing the others would thank you for, Josh," Luna said. "Nopony wanted them alive, not even Celestia."
"That bad," Nightmare said in surprise. "Not even my Celestia would do that. At worst, she'd, and I'm quoting my Josh, 'hit them with the friendship cannon of death'."
I chuckled at that. "That brings back memories. So, how are you two liking the party?"
"Good," Luna said. "Though I am surprised the Hunter isn't here asking that."
"He's probably talking with the other Guardians," I say. "Of what he told me earlier, this is the first time every Guardian is here, and he's probably catching up with them."
"He is correct," Nightmare said. "Only recently was he in contact with two other Guardian teams, and that was early today."
"Fair enough, then, I guess," Luna replied. "And as much as I like the party, I'd rather be somewhere a little more. . . private with you, Josh."
"I may be able to help with that," Nightmare said with a smirk. I'm not sure whether or not I should be somewhat scared, or something else. "Just go out the main door, turn to the left, and it'll be the third double door set on the right. All the privacy you'll need."
"Thanks, Nightmare," Luna said before taking my hand. Oh boy.
Church-1st
I made my way to where my adoptive daughter, Amor was. I had expected her to be talking with a few others. I did not expect her to be talking with this world's Shining and Cadence. Fuck.
"So you were raised by another one of those, what did i hear that Titan say earlier," Cadence said, "displaced?"
"Yeah," Amor replied. "Even my uncles are."
"And what exactly do they do," Shining asked.
"Dad said not to say anything about that."
"Why do I not like that," Shining said.
"Shining, just let it go," Cadence said. "I remember a lesson that Auntie Celestia gave me about different worlds. She said that, occasionally, she does get weird feelings in her horn, like when The first Guardians arrived here, so it probably meant others like them in other worlds, and that if they wanted to do us harm, they probably could have."
"She isn't wrong," I said. "I've met a lot of Displaced, and there are even a few I can meet but haven't yet, and most of them can destroy this planet." I then looked at Amor. "Hey, Amor."
"Hey, dad. Have you actually talked with anyone?"
"Both Joshs."
She rolled her eyes. "I guess that'll have to do for now." She then looked at Shining and Cadence. "So, how long have you two been together?"
The looks on both their faces were those of shock, and it was hilarious. "H-how did you guess," Shining asked, shocked.
"She's an alternate version of Cadence," I say through chuckles. "Take a fucking guess."
"Oh," he said in embarrassment. "Right. Well, that's our business."
"I guess that's fair enough. So, Cadence, why is it your full name's Mi Amor Cadenza, anyway? Even for a pony name, that's a mouthful."
"I honestly don't know," Cadence said. "I guess my mom was Prench or something."
"Makes sense, I guess," Amore said. "So, what's the guard like here?"
"They're the best," Shining said as one of the Ghosts hovered over.
"Have they actually done anything to help Equestria," it asked.
"They protect the Princess!"
"Who went missing under your watch. The Guardians, at least, have the excuse that they were busy with stopping a shadow tyrant."
"He isn't wrong," Chrysalis said as she walked up.
"Huh. So they were able to reach agreement with you," I say.
"And just what is a changeling doing here," Shining asked in a growl.
"I'm a Guardian in training, Captain," Chrysalis said. "I just started today. As such, I'm allowed to be here, and I was invited to be here."
"Why would they ally themselves with animals like you?"
"You had better watch what you say, Captain," Chrysalis said with a smirk. "My daughter is on the throne of the Crystal Empire, and I still lead my own hive, and I'm sure that the Guardian's would help us."
"And the other displaced they've met," Amor said. "Most likely, anyway."
"In other words," I said, "you guys would be fucked. Ow!" That last part was Amor hitting me in the leg.
"Dad, how many times do I have to tell you not to cuss?"
"You're not in charge of me," I snap. "So, Amor, Cadence, how are you two getting along?"
"Well, actually," Cadence said. "I guess the fact we're just different versions of each other has to do with it."
"That's still weird," Shining said. "Shouldn't there be, I don't know, some kind of world-wide implosion?"
"Only with time travel," another Ghost said as she passed over.
"Of course," Shining said in an annoyed tone. "I can't wait to get back to Canterlot."
"Just need to hold out, Shiny," Cadence said. "Oh, Church, do you know where Twilight is?"
"Yeah, I think I saw her talking with Spartan earlier."
"Guess we probably won't see you later then, Church," Cadence said as she and Shining walked away.
"That went better that I had expected."
"Yeah, I guess," Amor said. "So, dad, want to get some punch?"
"Sure," I say, and we made our way to get some punch.
Cybis-1st
I, along with my new marefriend, Forge, were talking with the other Guardians. Right now, the two of us were talking with Chitinia and Shade. "So, how are you two liking the Tower so far?"
"Good," Shade said. "So, Cybis, what's that thing you guys are going to do later?"
"Yeah, I'm a little curious to that, too, Cybis," Forge said.
"You guys'll see," I reply. "So, Chitinia, Josh, our Josh, tells me that you gave a shop in Ponyville?"
She nodded. "Indeed I do, Cybis. 'Carousal Boutique'. It's a fashion shop."
"Well, a good thing one of the best models is with us, huh. That way, you can make model dresses for anthro-ponies."
"Really," she asked, surprised.
"Yeah," I say. "I'm surprised you didn't know that."
"I had heard about it," she said, "but that was when I was just starting the shop, and i was too busy yo pay attention to that stuff then."
"Fair enough, I guess," I say. "So, after the party, want to meet Fleur De Lis?"
"Fleru De Lis?!" Chitinia gasped. "Oh my word, yes, I would love to meet her."
"Then tomorrow, or when ever the day after the party ends, it is," I say. "So, Shade, are you and Chrysalis considering this as a date?"
"Yeah, actually," he said. "Oh, and did you guys get any of the Sweet Apple Acres Cider? In my mind, can't have a party without alcohol."
"Dude, we're uncles to one of the apples, and adoptive family to them. Of course we got the cider, even if the three of us aren't, or in Rhino's case, can't drink any of it."
"Well, where is it?"
"Shade, how many times do my mother and I have to tell you at parties: Don't let your first drink be alcoholic."
Forge chuckled. "That's why they want to wait an hour before bringing it in," she said. "Most of Sight's team got drunk to celebrate getting their armor, and that pretty made it to where, unless they're in the Tower, and if a party has gone on longer than an hour, they can't have actual alcohol. Their Ghosts enforce that rule quite well, actually."
"I take it you speak from experience," Chitinia asked.
"Yeah. Birthday party, and that's all I'm gonna say."
"Finally," I say. "I swear, Josh, Rhino, and I argued over the order of the playlist earlier before deciding on random, which is to say letting Vinyl decide the order, and I did not think this would be the second one."
"I take it you like this song," Forge asked.
"Yep," I say. "There's one band that the three of us like, but they're more an action band, so they wouldn't be here in the party playlist."
"Must be an interesting group," Shade said.
"They are," I say. "Hell, we agreed we'd only use their songs when the fate of the world is at stake."
"So what would be happening in a few years, then," Chitinia asked. We had made it a point to be honest with every Guardian, and those in training after returning with Sunset, who was still out cold, as well as those Knights Josh decided to bring back. Seriously, I know we had one mind then, but why would he do something so stupid?
"Just about, yeah," I say. "Though, in all honesty, we are hoping that doesn't happen."
"I wonder why," Shade said sarcastically.
"Yeah, we know, " I replied. "But hopefully, we'll get enough Guardians and others to help us out, as well as come up with some new tactics."
"I suppose that's fair enough," Chitinia said.
"Which reminds me, I need to look over the files for the ones that'll be joining you in a Fire team."
"Well, I can't wait to meet them once you decide," Chitinia said.
"I imagine so," I say. Hey, Dinkle, isn't one of them Skittles?
I think so, yeah. Why?
Just checking. "I think you're gonna like them."
"So, after the party is when that'll happen," Shade asked.
"Yep. The reason they aren't here is because they aren't technically Guardians in training yet."
"I would've invited them," Chitinia said.
"Yeah, and I was tempted to do so under his nose," Forge said, "but then I figured it was for a reason, even if I didn't know it."
"I didn't have a reason," I said. "I just felt like doing that."
"That's a first," Forge said. "You doing something just because."
I shrugged. "Well, there's a first for everything," I say. "Now come on, time for some fun."
Rhino-1st
Sight and I were in charge of security for the party, in this case, making sure the morons who think they could take us that wanted revenge for us attacking Celestia, didn't get in. Really, it was just us and Vex Minotaurs, with every other Guardian inside. But, really, so long as I was with Sight, I didn't give a shit.
"Too bad we aren't inside, huh," Sight said, her sniper in hand while I held my Suros.
"At least it isn't freezing out here," I reply. "And if it was, and I know what I'm about to say could be considered cheesy, I could warm you up."
She chuckled. "You're right, that is cheesy," she said. "But appreciated. Thanks, Rhino."
"No problem, Sight," I say. "Thanks, by the way."
"For what?"
"For accepting to be my marefriend," I say. "What else?"
"Being on this boring patrol with you," she said, and I could hear the smirk. "I'm kidding, by the way. No problem, Rhino. Just don't merge with Josh and Cybis, that would get confusing for Forge, Nightmare, and me."
"We'll try not to," I reply. "Couldn't really be helped there. First time with that portal and all."
"Well, if you can, avoid it," She said. "I never was one for a herd."
"Noted," I say. "Well, this is a little awkward, isn't it?"
"A little, yeah." There was a few minutes of awkward silence as we walked around the edge of the Tower, easier then you'd think, by the way, until we got sight of Ponyville.
"Talk about cliche," I said. "Patrol group Bravo, this is group Alpha, we have an approaching mob from the town. Can you see what they have on them?"
"Affirmative," one of the Minotaurs replied over the radio. "Approaching group wields torches, swords, and makeshift spears. Do you wish to send them back."
"Yes," I replied. "Nothing lethal, though."
"Understood."
"Anything bad," Sight asked.
"Not really," I said. "At least, nothing hard to handle."
"That's good, I guess," she said. "So, for our next date, what do you want to do?"
"I'll tell you something I don't want to do: patrol the perimeter of the Tower while the others are having a party. Even if we volunteered."
"Oh-rah to that," Sight said. "Though don't you and the others have something planned for later tonight?"
"Yeah, but that isn't until after midnight."
"Well, I con't wait to see it," Sight said.
"Believe me," I say. "You're going to like it."
"Well, I can't wait to see it," Sight said. "Can I get a hint?"
"Just that it's something awesome."
"That all I'm going to get from you?"
"Yep."
Spartan-1st
"Lulu, what do you want," I asked as we reached the door Nightmare had pointed out. "Because if it's what I think it is, I'd rather it be back in our universe."
"i wish to give you something, Josh," Luna said as we stopped in front of the door. "And I needed silence for that." Before I could ask, she closed her eyes as she held my hands. Near a minute passed before I felt something pressing against my palm. She pulled back her left hand, which was closed, and opened her eyes, holding her hand to where the closed palm faced upwards. "I wish to give you this," she said, opening her hand, revealing a necklace, the thread being of a black material, the amulet part of it being silver, crescent moon that shone in the light. "It is something I would give to those who had, in some way or another, gained my favor before my banishment, but this particular one is special."
"How," I asked.
"Because, though I used it using my dream abilities," Luna said, "it is infused with a portion of my magic, meant to shield you from harm, so long as it is on you. But it does have limits. It can only take so much, and if I stop sending portions of my magic into it for some reason, it will be just a normal necklace."
"I'll keep that in mind," I say. "Thanks, Lulu," I say, taking the necklace and putting it on.
"Of course, Josh," she said. "It may also help you find my daughters. I put a charm that would indicate when you are near one with similar genetics to me, but not mine exactly, as that is how their genetics should be. It will see past even the best illusion magic."
"So does my Promethean vision, to an extent," I say. "Doesn't mean it's going to work." I quickly add, "But if it does, you'll be there to know at the same time as me."
She smiled. "Thank you, Josh," she said.
"Anything for you, Lulu," I say, reaching up with my right hand and removing my helmet before kissing Luna. "Besides, they are technically my family, too, or will be, at any rate."
"Yes, I imagine so," the lunar alicorn, my lunar alicorn, in a manner of speaking, said. "So, do you wish to head back to the party?"
"If you want to," I said.
"Then let's go," she said.
Hunter-1st- A few hours later.
"Everything ready," I asked Cybis and Rhino, the latter of whom had come in an hour ago.
"Yeah," Cybis said. "Nolandroid, Tara, and Dinklebot are standing by the project it, and projection screen just needs to be lowered."
"And the Vex security patrols outside are keeping any potential party crashers away," Rhino said.
"Then let's get this shit started."
With that, I stepped up onto the stage, the lights dimming, both to get attention, and because we were showing a video. "I'll skip the boring stuff," I say. "But needless to say, thanks for all of you for coming, yada yada, and the last thing we have planned is something just for the fun of it, and something the three of us find, in all honesty, pretty fucking awesome. So, with out further ado, here's the thing we want to how you guys. Ghosts, hit it."
Yeah, we decided to show them the Lex Luthor-Iron Man death battle. It's our favorite one, sue us. Anyway, most of them had no idea who they were, the only ones being Spartan and Church for obvious reasons. When it got to the part where it went into the battle, I nodded to the Ghosts, who paused the video. "Okay, those who think Luthor will win, on my right of the room. For Iron Man, the left!" Of what I could see, it was half and half for the most part. "Also, bets are being taken by the Ghosts." Now, myself, Rhibo, Cybis, Church, and the other Josh were not allowed to bet for obvious reasons.
It was a few minutes before things settled down, most of those in the room that could getting in on the betting. (I suggest watching the battle part of this at least, mostly as the next paragraph can only be understood that way.)
When it was over, the losing half, take a guess as to who, groaned, and the money they had bet was split among the winners, and I even saw a few on the winning side hand money to each other, so I assume their were some side bets. When all the movement I could see was done with, I said, "Yep, that was it. I literally have nothing to add, aside from another thanks, and that you guys can go home when you want, and that it was a pleasure to see everyone here, and I promise, there will be one next year." This was met with cheers from the other Guardians. "Which, sadly, means the party is over with right now."
"Here, maybe," one of the Hunters in the crowd said before groups began to leave, chuckling as they did so. Eventually, the only ones left were Rhino, Cybis, myself, Church, Amor, Luna, Lone, Starlight, and Spartan.
"So, did you guys enjoy the party," Cybis asked.
"Yeah, we did," Spartan said. "So, what do you guys plan on doing next?"
"Play it by ear," I say. "You guys can go back home, by the way." At that, the portals opened. "See ya next time."
"See ya," Spartan said before he walked into his portal, followed by Luna, Lone, and Starlight.
"Yeah, same," Church said before going through his portal, followed by Amor, which was then followed by the two portals closing.
"Let's just hope we have more than one day of relaxation," Rhino said, to which Cybis and I could only agree to.
It's been a few days since the party, and the entire army, organics and Prometheans, were making our way way to the south. Two reasons. One was a lead for both Silver's history and the other was a potential lead on Selene and Artemis, Luna's daughters. I was at the center of the group with my squad, which was Lone, Starlight, Mist, Quick, Onyx, and, most recently, Luna. Yeah, most of the others didn't trust her, I can see why, but they wouldn't try anything so long as I was alive.
Must you ask why?
Each night, I had been practicing the whole "making thoughts physical" thing, which reminds me of Inspiration Manifestation without the crazy factor, while awake, and going through the the dreams of the mane six as stealthy as possible to see what they knew. Through that, I learned that Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow were in the south, where we were going. That'll make things interesting, I'm sure.
"So, what do you guys think we'll find," I ask the others.
"You know what I'm looking for," Quick said.
"As with me," Luna said.
"I just hope we don't find Sharp Wit, or whatever the hell he's going by Wit," Lone said. Guess i should mention because ponies were morons in general, it simply had to change his first name, and most wouldn't recognize. Only reason I didn't remember the first one was because I'm terrible with names, and Luna because, well, she'd never actually met the guy. "And if we do, I hope we kill him."
"Same," Starlight and Onyx said.
"I just hope I get to see my sister," Mist said,
"You have a sister," I ask, surprised, to which he shrugged.
"Half-sister, but yeah," he replied. "Left the hive when we were young, but the two of us kept in touch. Was in the south near Appleloosa when the war started."
"So, which parent did you guys share," I asked.
"Father," Mist replied. "Amber's mom was, of all ponies, an Apple."
This made me stop mentally to process. When I was done a few second, all I could say was, "Heh?"
"Yeah, I can understand the reaction," he said. "Especially considering that technically makes me an Apple as well. In fact, I actually have two half sisters, each of us having my father's genes, and them having the same mom. No idea what happened to the other one, though. Don't even know her name."
"Well, maybe if you see her, Amber will say."
"No, she won't," he said. "I asked her once already, and she said only if she was dying, and if she was dead, there was a letter under her bed saying who."
"And you haven't peeked once," I asked.
"Once, but she put a spell on it, remember, she does have changeling magic, that would stop me from touching it, as well as reading it, while she was alive."
"She sure is clever," Lone said.
"Yep," Mist said. "Really, all she said was that our sister was given to another part of the family, she didn't know why, but tabs were kept on her."
"So at least you'll know both of them are alright," I said.
"More than I can say for my daughters," Luna said.
"We'll find out what happened to them, Luna," I said, putting a hand on her shoulder as gently as possible because, well, armor wight and the armor enhances reflex speed. "I swore that when I found out, and if I need to revive and kill the Caribou by myself, I will if it me and finding them."
"You'd probably die first."
"I said alone, I never said without some heavy artillery helping me out." I.E.: Freckles rifle from RvB, a Prototype suit, must you ask why, and perhaps an Armored Command Unit from Supreme Commander. Damn, I love those things. Best part is, the last two I would be in, and even if I am killed, I win. Because, well, if you've watched Legends, you know why with the suit. For the ACU, it goes nuclear boom upon destruction. And what a glorious explosion it is! "Remember, I have the same ability you do, and a lot more instruments of destruction to make."
"Yes, I suppose you have a point," Luna said.
"If you ask me, those things should be kept in Tartarus," Starlight said.
"Oh yeah," Onyx said. "I'd say they're worse than Sombra, and that's saying something."
"That bad," I ask, which brings a question to my mind. Who is worse: the Caribou, or Hitler?
"Yep," Starlight said.
It was here that one of the Watchers with the group flew over to me. "What is it," I asked.
"Sir," it said in its mechanical voice, "Zeta group has reported Sharp Wit is in the South with bearers Twilight Sparkle, Rarity Belle, and Rainbow Dash. What course of action do you wish them to pursue?"
"Follow, but do not engage," I said. "But tell Knight Zeta One to deliver a message to the bearers. The message is as follows: I wish to speak with the three of you and the other bearers. Be asleep at midnight, and I shall you in the dreamscape."
"Message sent," the Watcher said.
"Good. Go back to the group you're a part of."
"Yes sir," it said before flying off behind us.
"Why do you wish to speak with them," Luna asked.
"Did I say 'speak,'" I asked. "I meant see if they've been working on dream shit, seeing as how I could invade their minds, or someone else, for that matter-" Sharp with Control Brace, anyone?- "and we don't want them caught unprepared, now do we?"
"If that's the case, I'll join in," Mist said. "Might be fun. You guys?"
"Nope," Quick said. "I want actual sleep tonight."
"And Starlight and I want to be alone tonight."
"Have fun, then," I say. "I know we're going to."
That night- midnight
I, along with Luna and Mist, were in the dreamscape, this one being in the guise of my favorite Halo 4 map, the Impact variant from my first time in the Equestrian dreamscape. The one with the ship. I had added more land in between the two asteroids for the mane six to walk one when they got here. If they decided to come that is, as another thing I had done but not mention the first time around was implant a small bit of my mind in their minds that I had kept inactive until now. Hey, dream logic, anything goes.
"So, what do you have planned," Mist said.
"I'm going to fucking improvise," I say. "No plan survives contact with the enemy, anyway."
"I hear that," Mist said. "So, any idea when they're going to show up?"
"Nope." Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long, seeing as how, a few seconds later, each of the bearers appeared.
"And just what do you want," Rainbow asked.
"For you to think fast," I said before throwing a primed plasma grenade at her. "You all need training in dream combat, I seem to be the only one interested in it, no offense, Luna."
"None taken, you are right, Josh," she said as the grenade hit Rainbow. "But this means you won't get anything tomorrow night."
"I'd rather make sure ponies can defend themselves then personal desires right now, Lulu," I said as the grenade exploded, though doing no damage, leaving a very surprised Rainbow. "Right now anyway."
"You still won't get anything."
"Can we talk about this back in the real world," I said just as the Elements got over their shock, snapping my finger to keep them from moving. "Now, if you want to try to fuck my shit up," I said to them, "get out of there without using magic."
"I suppose we can," Luna said.
"Thank you," I said, turning back to the Elements. "Oh, dear god, you people are morons," I said with a face palm. "This is a dream. Just imagine the chains breaking for god's sake!" It was here I was surprised, and I do mean that. I was looking at my tracker, which I had told no one how it worked, and listening in, and I was sure Luna and Mist were watching as well, and nothing came up. And yet, I was punched with the force of a Hunter shield, on Legendary, from the front in the helmet, and was sent flying into the ship I made, punching right through the top of one of the hangers. "Owww," I croaked out.
"Like that," I heard, of all ponies, Rarity say.
"Exactly," I said with a groan. "How the actual fuck?"
"I've had practice," she said as I heard hoofsteps next to me, as my head was still ringing to where I couldn't get up. "And don't worry. Luna and the changeling are alright, I just made it look like you and I are up there fighting."
"How," I asked, turning my head to face-. . . . . Okay, who here showed Rarity RWBY? Pinkie?
"Wasn't me, Lone."
Discord?
"I started with Red vs Blue, and when she saw the outro that had the Red trailer in, she wanted to watch it, don't blame me here."
(Sigh) Why do I have to suffer here in the Void until the others are ready?
"Just get back to the story. The readers are a little confused right now."
Shut it, Pinkie. Okay, sorry about that, I just hate it when Pinkie or Discord interfere without any good reason in a world, and this is one of those times.
Anyway, Rarity was dressed as a mix between Coco and Wiess, maybe a hint of Emerald and Cinder. She had on a white beret with designer glasses like Coco, the outfit Cinder wears when not in disguise, Emerald's boots, with a pair of beige jeans going with red and gold patters at the top before fading to green at the bottom to blend with the boots, and Wiess' sword. Well, could be a worse outfit, I guess. And even so, I guess it fits with her personality. "Why," was all I could ask.
"Discord showed me and the others a show you seemed to like before you came here. I didn't really like it, but the outfits, well, I did like a few, and combined what I liked about each."
"I'll admit, fits with your character," I say. "Now, to my original train of thought: how did you do that? Only someone that's a Dream Master can fool another, Luna said so, and I'm certain Celestia would have said not to when either you or your parents came to somepony to find out what it was."
"Unless my parents knew what it was, and hid it from Celestia," Rarity said. And something just hit me like a speed boosted 'Hog with boosters, that sounds fun to ride, by the way. Her small grin from the Minotaur capital when Celestia was mentioned, the dirt on her being revealed, her being able to fool two dream masters, one of whom is a fucking alicorn, and, god, I was lacking common sense then, the families Luna said her children were with, Gem and Light. With some help from Lone, I found out what happened to them. Both families had broken apart. One had went to Canterlot, and most Nobles were descended from them. As for the Gem, they remained scattered, in the end becoming as spread out as the Apples, with one. . . having. . .lived in. . . Ponyville. And the name of that one was-
"Belle," I said. "That's part of the family Luna gave Selene to." I then looked at the white unicorn. "Selene?"
"Hello, Josh," she said. "I'm a little surprised you took so long to figure it out."
"Well, to be fair, I'm trying to stop a crazy unicorn who potentially has two powerful artifacts that could utterly fuck everyone's shit up," I said. "So I am not sorry."
"I can see why my mother likes you," Selene said. "Are you going to get up?"
"Soon as you tell me why you didn't tell Luna who you are."
"It's because I was afraid Celestia would find out if I told anypony, and think I wanted revenge."
"Fair enough, I guess," I said before I teleported, dream logic, people, next to a Banshee. "So you don't know where your sister is?"
"I do, but I think you can figure it out with the little hints we left."
Before I could say anything, we heard an explosion. "That was not me," Selene said.
"And I did not say how grenades work, and it didn't sound like magic," I said. "Not good." That feeling was amplified on hearing a voice.
"Oh, Spartan," Sharp said, surprising the both of us. "If you don't show yourself, I'll make Luna regret it."
"Fuck you too, bitch," I said before getting the Banshee I was next to and going out the teleporter, and flying to where I saw Sharp using magic to hold the others. I got out when I was close, Selene, still a little surprising she was Rarity, believe me, teleporting next to me.
"I'm guessing you're a dream master too," I said, pointing my BR at him.
"Indeed I am," Sharp said. "I imagine you wonder why I am here?"
"Yeah, I am."
He chuckled. "Simple," he said. "A rematch, and a little bet."
"Why, and what are the terms if I accept?"
"Because if you don't, I will enslave these six right now," he said, gesturing to Luna and the others. "And when I win, you eight with no argument. If you win, I tell you my plan, and let you try to stop it. And I pick the terms."
"Okay, okay, and no," I said. "You made the terms, I choose the rest." Under my helmet, I smiled. Time to do something i always wanted to do.
"Fine," he said.
"Good," I said, snapping my finger, unleashing a torrent of information into Sharp's head that will instantly be forgotten upon him waking up. "You'll need that, seeing as how my terms are an all out war between us in the dreamscape in an eighty-one by eighty-one kilometer area that is mostly naval territory. You know with what by the information I just gave you."
"A strategy game," he asked in surprise. "I will win this easily. I accept."
"And we have equal unit types here," I say. And it's just us."
"If you wish."
"Then let the Infinite War," I said, snapping my fingers, putting the two of us on the Betrayal Ocean Map from Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance in UEF ACUs. "Begin."
So, I was debating the entire dream fight, or just the actual epic final fight, and, for your sake, I went with the latter.
So, my forces, first, and you may want to get a tab open for the supreme commander wiki. I went there once. Just type in supcom.wiki.com. Trust me, you'll need it for the units.
So, first, my naval force. It had thirty tech one, lowest tier of units, by the way, Thunderhead class frigates and a similar number of tigershark attack submarines, ten Govenor class cruisers, which have cruise missile capability as well as AA missiles, ten Valiant class destroyers, ten Cooper torpedo boats, which are dedicated sub killers, by the way, three Summit class battle ships, three Neptune class battle cruisers, which have laser cannon, I am not kidding, missile defenses from cruise missiles, torpedoes and torpedo defense. The flagship is the Experimental Aircraft Carrier, known as the Atlantis, which holds, in order of lowest tech to highest, thirty Scorcher attack bombers, which carpet napalm a place, ten tech two Janus attack bombers, which hit a larger area than the Scorcher with more damage, and five tech three strategic bombers, which drop low area-high damage nukes. Those twenty five are my air force.
The ground force, which one would think useless as Betrayal ocean, there is a wiki page for maps there, by the way, is mostly water. That is the joy of the UEF. Their tech three armored assault bots, called Percivals, are amphibious, and walk under the water, and are the landing force. They, numbering one hundred, and it did take a while to get there, believe me, were the bulk of my force, and, with the naval and air force covering them, would be transported into Sharp's territory via five tech three heavy transports, myself in my ACU, having a personal shield generator, damage increase, and a tech three engineering suite, which allows it to build tech three structures and experimental units, but also increases its health. I made it a fucking pain to kill.
I'll admit, though, there's one thing I didn't expect, and that would be Selene, also Rarity and one of Luna's daughters, for those who forgot, wanted to help, so, I built a quantum gateway to build a Support Armored Command unit, which is upgraded with shields, an energy accelerator, that increases the rate of fire for the main cannon, and an upgrade to give said cannon splash damage.
"You don't have to do this, Selene," I said. "I can do this myself."
"Josh, I'm doing this to show Sharp he can't just take my mother and sister hostage, or threaten to mess with our minds," she said, her sACU, that is the acronym in the game, next to my ACU. "And besides, I am a little eager to see how this thing handles, even if it is ungainly in look."
"And there's Rarity," I said.
"Shut it."
"And there's Selene," I said. "Thank god this is my favorite map from the PC version of the game. Next to Seton's, that is," I muttered. "Okay, I'm putting us in the same group as the Percivals." Under my helmet, as I still had my Spartan armor on, I smiled. "But first, a little ranged fucking." I typed in a few commands. There is one combo in Forged Alliance UEF players should know. I call it the 'Sniper Spotter' combo. It's the Experimental Novax satellite, yes that is a unit, plus one of the most memeable UEF units. The Mavor. My favortie meme featuring it is 'Mavor. You may as well drop the pretenses and just have it flash 'You lose, n00bs' on the screen of all your opponents'. Appropriate, since the Satellite can't be destroyed unless the control center, which I am protecting as much as I can, and the Mavor has unlimited range. Said artillery gun was behind me, and was aimed for Sharp's power facilities. "Fire!"
A single shot rang out from behind me, the massive artillery shot firing, which is when I had my naval forces, which were at the island west of Sharp's, move in. Once they began to bombard the base, I would move the ground units in via using the transports to ferry them to the water, as well as my ACU and Selene's sACU, which, upon us arriving, we would march out of the water, and utterly rape Sharp's base. I went to the strategic zoom, and saw that the Atlantis was almost in position to deploy the air units.
Okay, stopping the Atlantis where it is and allow the others to pass. Keep in mind it's easy, as said ship is submersible.
Three minutes later, the shore bombardment began. "HEY, SHARP," I said over open comms. "SUCK IT!" With that, I had the Atlantis surface, and then deploy the bombers over the island, letting the, focus on what they wanted. "Okay, Selene, let's go."
"Right," she said, and I had the transports initiate the ferry, me and Selene in the first wave, which consisted of thirty total T3 units, the ACU counting as a tech three. That means a little less than four waves of thirty units. I did the math.
"I'll take the lead out of the water," I said as we were picked up with four Percivals. "Also, music is my choice here, Selene."
"This is stuff you know, Josh," she said. "I'm just here helping."
"Right," I said as we passed over a small island in the center of the map. Time to get the music going.
With that, anyway, I had one of my camera feeds in my ACU focus on the Naval fleet. Perfect. The cruisers and frigates were keeping Sharp's air force suppressed while the Battleships bombarded the hell out of the AA and torpedo launchers, the battle cruisers protecting them, while the Coopers, Tigersharks, and Valiants kept any naval forces in check.
The bombers were doing there part as well, targeting mobile units and hitting factories, either destroying them, or weakening them for the ground force. Only thing I didn't see, though, was Sharp's ACU, and, seeing as how the attack started just a minute ago, I went through footage from the units, and still didn't see it. Something isn't right here.
Anyway, the first thirty units landed in the water near the up slope on to Sharp's island, and the transports made their way back to base to pick up the next thirty. But to keep the pressure on, I decided to go on, and have the other units move up as they arrived. "Let's go, Selene," I said. "Take half of the Paladins, and move up from the right. I'll go left."
"Got it," sh esaid, and her sACU and fourteen of the Paladins followed her to the right and out of the water, the other half, doing the same with me on the left. All in all, we had Sharp's base in a scorpion, which is a pincer attack, flanking the enemy from both sides, with air support. With that and the reinforcements arriving from Alpha base, the landing area was cleared, which is where we split up to make sure he wasn't on the island. I was a quarter way down the left side of the island when I heard a sound I dreaded, as well as every Supreme Commander player.
Strategic launch detected. Aw, fuck berries. "Selene, we need to pull out. I have a feeling that missile's coming for us!"
"I can't," Selene replied. "Sharp sent Riptides-" basically hover tanks that can go over the water- "and Percivals! I'm boxed i-" BOOOM! Aw, double fuck and fuck you, Sharp. That was Selene's sACU being destroyed, taking Selene to where ever Luna and the other Elements were being held. Wait a minute. Nothing coming after me-fuck. I redirected my ACU and the Percivals, every single one still going, into the water near us to avoid the Nuke. Yes, a UEF ACU can survive a nuke, even at its base health, but still, if he sent multiple to the same area, I'm screwed in the extreme.
Turns out I was right, as just as soon as I entered the water, one nuke landed, followed in succession by two more. That would have killed me. "Computer, where did the missiles come from?"
"Island Charlie."
And that's the one to the east of my base. "Damn it," I muttered. "Voice command: Air factory one, construct single tech three spy plane, then have spy plane move over missile launch site."
"Confirmed," the A.I. replied, and a minute and a half later, I had a view of the island in question. This one was heavily protected form air and naval attacks, and Sharp was quick to adjust, as he had Kennels, which give an engineering drone to assist structures in their range, next to shield generators, which allow them to charge quickly if they are taken down, something that takes a lot of energy, but was countered by all the tech three fusion reactors, making sure nothing would break the shields. That's a pro move, there. He also had air patrols going, which, combined with SAMs, took the plane down, but not before I saw more of the base, as well as where Sharp's ACU was. It was located next to a walled off portion of the base, with gunships nearby, and stealth field generators. I imagine that is where the others are being held. I also saw that Sharp had put upgrades on his ACU, but not what they were, as well as SMD, strategic missile defense, systems. This was going to be one tough nut to crack, but nothing is invincible. In this case, he failed to protect his generators, I'm guessing he thought the AA, patrols, and shields would protect them. Nope.
"Voice command: Air factory one, construct one tech two transport. Land Factories one and two, construct three field engineers each. Engineers are to board transport." The confirmation was received, and the orders carried out as I put my ACU on the nearest Tech three transport. Now, for those who don't know, field engineers are combat capable variants of tech two engineers, equipped with a low damage-high rate of fire riot gun.but in numbers, by the way, radar, and, what is most important here, jammers, meaning false positives will show up on Sharp's radar, giving them time to either capture or reclaim/destroy one or two of the generators, which would cause a missive drain when the shields are recharged.I manually gave the orders for the six, transporting them to the southern end of the island, out of the patrol range, and had the transport come back, when it was shot down.
Hopefully, he would assume it was a light recon force, and become over confident. That was the case apparently, as the six engineers were able to capture one of the reactors, which is when I had my Mavor target a shield with a reactor under it, and fire. The shield went down, but quickly came back on. Still not there. "Give it up, Spartan," Sharp said over the radio. "My defenses are impregnable."
"Nothing really is, bitch," I replied. "You just need the right tactics," I said, sending my Atlantis, which had all the bombers form the initial attack stored in it now, yes all of them survived. under water and close to the island. I need the perfect timing if this is going to work.
This is my plan, have every bomber mass bomb a single shield and, if the timing was dead on, have a Mavor shot hit generator for the shield before it came back up, which would allow for destruction of the reactor removing more power from his grid, hopefully leading to Energy stall, causing the shields to go between off and on as power came in and ran out, allowing for more strikes on generators, leaving his base completely exposed. Then again, he may then divert forces to that area, which may expose the engineers.
. . . Got it. Okay, Sharp. Time to see which of us has the better tactical mind. I sent my carrier to just short of his naval defenses and submerged, so only torpedoes could strike it, and made the Mavor target a shield generator, but had it hold fire. Now, the reason I'm holding back and not just nuking him to oblivion, which I can, I have enough launchers to overwhelm the defenses, is because where he is with the wall and gunships is, again, where Luna and the others are being held, and I don't want to risk anything here. But first- "All air factories, construct five tech three air superiority fighters each, and have them stand ready." That would lead to a total of thirty tech three fighters, meant to target the patrols in conjunction with everything else.
Two minutes later, everything was in position. The fleet was holding just short of their maximum attack range, belonging to the battle ships, the Atlantis was ready to deploy, the ASFs on an outpost island next to Sharp's current one, and I was in the same transport as before, twenty nine Percivals in the air with me in the other slots and transports, and the Mavor was locked. "Hey, Sharp, answer me this," I said. "Who's going to lose this fight? You." With that, I unleashed the attack, having the carrier rise and deploy the bombers on the opposite side of the island as the engineers, hoping to divert his attention away from them as they got to work on a second generator, and the Mavor fired.
The first two bombs dropped were by the Strategic bombers after ten seconds of travel, and they dropped the shield, only for it to come back on. The next to hit it were ten Janus napalm bombs, also dropping it, but no damage was taken. The third thing was what I had been trying to open a window for, the Mavor shell. Turns out timing was still needed, but not for what I hoped. As soon as the shell hit, the third and fourth strategic bomber delivered their payload, which, with the shield still recharging, took out the generator. "Eat it," I yelled to Sharp before having the other bombers target the generator being protected by the shield, and the combined pay loads took it out just as the third was captured, and the shields began to flicker. Bingo.
"Voice command: All ASFs, move in and engage air patrols. All bombers, target Anti-Air. All ships, target naval defenses. Transports, move in and deliver cargo."
Luna-1st person
To think, this is how I was captured. In the dream world, where I was in my element. 'Tis embarrassing. Sharp had me, Mist, and other Elements, excluding Rarity, moved to this outpost of his as soon as the battle had begun, and fortified it whenever he could. After an hour of only being able to walk for fear of the machines he placed outside the walls shooting us down- one could still feel pain in dreams, after all- we saw something leave the location and go north, though we did not know where, with Sharp's machine coming out of the water. A few seconds later, Rarity appeared in the practical cage with the elements, Lone, and myself.
"Welcome to the party," Mist said sarcastically.
"Oh, shut it, Lone," Rainbow said. "What took you so long, Rares?"
"Well, Rainbow, if you must know, I was trying to help get all of you out of here," Rarity replied. "Obviously, I failed in that regard."
"Well, if it isn't the Element of Generosity," Sharp said, getting our attention. "I wondered if I would kill you or the human first. It seems as if the larger threat was removed first."
"I wouldn't underestimate him, Sharp," I snapped at the traitor. "Like you, he is a dream master, and defeated me and the Elements in combat."
"So? I am as well, and took you seven down. The only one left is your lover, and that will remove each of you from my way. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to wait for his suicide charge. I hope you have fun reuniting with your daughters, Princess Luna. They're in there with you, after all."
I stood there, not believing what I heard, as he turned around to wait for Josh. My daughters, my only two lights while I was imprisoned within Nightmare, were here? I fell to the sandy ground, mouth slightly agape. I had expected them to be living a life as far away from my sister's eye as possible, not directly under it, if not dead. Then again, the best place to hide from a pony is right next to them in plain sight. And Celestia doesn't know of them, or she would have said if they were the Elements, which meant everything about two of the Elements lives before a point are lies. And I know who.
My daughters were born unicorns, after all.
As the six Elements tried to figure out, well four and two acting to do so, with Lone doing the same, I said, loud enough for them to hear, "Why did you not tell me when we met?"
It was the most recent arrival who answered, stopping the others where they were. "We were afraid you'd think we would try to make you take revenge on Celestia for your banishment. We wanted to, but were afraid of that, and of our aunt's reaction," Rarity said. "We're sorry, mother."
"Yeah," Twilight Sparkle said. "Sorry, mom."
"Wait a minute," Rainbow Dash yelled, my eyes focused on the ground and wet with tears. "You two are Princess Luna's daughters!?"
"We'll explain everything later, Rainbow," Twilight said. "We do have bigger issues right now, after all."
"Yeah, like Sharp wanting to mind rape each of us," Mist said, his tone showing slight irritation. "Come on, girls. I think we should give them some time."
"On that, we can agree," Applejack said, and I heard five sets of hoofsteps getting fainter before I felt two pairs of arms wrap around me.
"I had thought you two dead," I said through small gasps.
"We practically were," Twilight said, "without actually being able to see you, that is."
"But this time, we won't be separated again," Rarity added. "Even if it means the three of us get banished for something only one of us did."
"May I know which of my daughters you two are," I asked. "Now that I know you two are my children, I want to refer to you by your birth names, unless you wish otherwise."
"Whatever you want, mother," Rarity said. "Selene. That's the name you gave me."
"And Artemis for me," my other daughter said, which is what finally broke me. Not of sadness, but of joy. Not only was I reunited with my daughters, but one of them had achieved their birth right, as any alicorn child must, and that is gaining whatever appendages they are missing for their race. The dam burst, and I began to sob, and I felt my children's heads rest on my shoulders and hug me all the tighter.
And it was then that we knew, we would be free, as we heard an explosion sound from the other side of the island, and saw a flying unit come over the mountain in the center. A few seconds later, the ground shook as something flashed over the island and impacted on a dome on that side, followed by two mushroom shaped clouds. "Looks like Sharp's in trouble," Selene commented, and her sister and I couldn't help but agree as we looked up from our prison and saw Sharp's own units being destroyed.
But, for me, the best sight was seeing a large machine almost exactly like Sharp's, but with a kind of shimmer surrounding it and the accents colored blue where Sharp's were red.
"Guess who," Josh said before he raised his machine's right arm, and pulled its trigger.
Josh-1st
As I fired the first shot from my ACU's cannon, I used one of the secondary camers on my ACU to look in the impromptu prison, and saw Luna, Twilight, and Selene hugging, the others not far. Looks like that guess was right as to Twi being Luna's other daughter.
Anyway. the shot connected, and an armor integrity bar appeared on my HUD for Sharp's ACU, dropping about one percent before steadily rising. Great. He went with the auto-repair rate upgrade. Fun.
"So, what other upgrades do you have?"
"Damage increase and missile launcher," he said. "I imagine you have the shield and the damage increase as well."
"And the Tech three engineering suite. Health increase. Oh, and a fucking army, navy, and air force. All ready to kill you."
"Good luck," Sharp said. "I know not everything of yours can shot me.
"Plus, I kind of planned for this," he said before more naval cannons fired on the ground forces.
"One on one, then," I said. "Voice command: All Naval and bomber units, engage hostiles. Percivals, fall back to the water." Note I ignored the Engineers. "So, should we start?"
"If you wi-" he said before I fired an overcharge, an enhanced shot with extra damage. And with enough energy, no cooldown.
"DIE, ASSHOLE!" I kept firing, but the health boost and regen did counter most of the damage. Low rate of fire and all.
"Even if you beat me, you'll still lose," he said.
"Why's that," I asked, continuing to fire.
"Because Princess Luna has no protection from my cannon," he said before turning his ACU to face where he kept Luna and the others. "And a dead princess will still fit my goals."
With that, he fired.
And I smirked.
Just as the shot left, a blue dome popped up, the area just barely protected by a shield I had the engineers build. "Ever heard of field engineers, bitch," I asked, pumping two over charge shots into his back as the six engineers move into the area, one reclaiming a wall segment. "I suggest you all get on one of them. I'll hold Sharp off." If they complained, I couldn't hear it. Regardless, I saw them each climb onto an engineer, two of said units carrying two ponies, and made their way to the water.
"I don't think so," Sharp said, leveling his barrel at them, but I rammed into him before the ACU could fire, resulting in its shot going wide to the left. I backed off, and fired two overcharge shots, which, with the barrage earlier and the gap between the firing taken into account, brought his ACU's integrity to seventy five. Yeah, fuck it.
Once the engineers were over the water, I went against my own rules. "Voice command: all combat dedicated units, redirect and target hostile ACU." As soon as the last syllable left my mouth, the Percivals in the water began to march out.
"I thought you said this would be one on one," Sharp said.
"This is war, motherfucker," I said. "And besides, you would do the same if our roles were reversed. And one other thing." Strategic launch detected. "I hope you like being in a sun," I said as the Percivals began to fire and bring the integrity low enough to where Sharps would be killed, much as he could be in a dream and a transport came to pick me up, as this nuke wouldn't have a long travel time. The reason why is because I also had a tech three strategic missile sub built but kept put of the main force, as it needed time to make a nuke, which it had been able to do. It just happened to be in the vicinity of this island.
Just as the transport got my ACU, I gave one last message. "Next we meet, Sharp, you will die." With that, I directed my transport back to my main base, and I had left the island just as two mushroom clouds, one from the missile, one from Sharp, came into existence. It was also then that the scenery changed.
Now, you may be asking what it changed to. Simple. It changed to the map I was in during my first dream here in Equestria. We all stood in a circle in the central area, which was filled with a shit load of Halo four UNSC weapons and vehicles, and, bad as I was at reading people, I could tell there was some tension between Luna, Selene, Artemis, assuming the last two want to be called that, and the other Elements, given how they stood apart from one another, as well as the looks. "So," I said, getting their attention, "I guess you four," I said, looking at Rainbow, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie, "mostly Rainbow Dash and Applejack, feel betrayed that Twilight and Rarity didn't tell you they were Luna's daughters?"
"Darn tootin'," Applejack said.
"And what does it change," I ask, crossing my arms. "I mean, yeah, their past isn't the same, but does that change everything you six have? You still have the same experiences, you six are the Element bearers, and who knows what else. They're the same ponies. If anything, there's just more to learn about with them." I can tell when people, or ponies, in this case, are going to be pissed. Plus, this is Applejack and Rainbow, here. Believe me, I needed to head things off before they even began.
"He isn't wrong, girls," Pinkie, cheerful as ever, said.
"There's really only one thing I want to know," Mist said. "You two going to stay with Celestia, or what?"
"Yeah, I'm a little curious too," Rainbow said. "But before you two say, I do want to point out that, much as I hate to admit it, the guy's right. Whatever you two decide, I'm okay with it."
"I have a name," I said.
"Yeah, I know," Rainbow said. "So, what are you two going with?"
"And more importantly, what do we call you two," I asked.
"Our birth names," Selene said. "Which would be Selene for me, and Artemis for my sister
"As for who we're going with? We said we'd stay with our mom," Artemis. "So, assuming Rainbow doesn't try to stop us once we wake up, we'll try to find where you and everypony else is, Josh."
"Don't" I said, raising a hand. "I'll come personally. We know where you are." And then I remembered something. "We need to wake up, now."
"Why," Luna asked.
"I just remembered. Sharp's in the south."
"In the same town as us," Rainbow said.
"Bingo," I said. "You'll have help holding him off until I get there. Right now, see ya later," I said, snapping to wake each of us up.
I jolted upright from where I lay on the ground, as did Luna as we got up. "How do we get there quick enough," she asked.
"We fly," I say before bringing into existence the fastest UNSC vehicle I know. And my personal favorite. The Falcon, this one having the chin mounted gun and two machine guns on the side. Fortunately, I knew it well, and we were at the edge of the camp for the night, and I was able to bring it quickly. "Come on."
Just as I got into the pilot cabin and Luna one of the seats inside, Mist and Quick came running. "Mist filled me in," Quick said. She would have been on patrol tonight, so she would have ran into Mist on his way here. "You guys need help."
"Get on the side guns," I said. "Operation is simple: point at what you want to hit, and pull the triggers. And hold on, we're going to top speed."
"I don't see how we can get to Appleoosa there," Mist said as he took the left gunner seat. "It's ten miles away."
"And this thing was meant to carry Spartans," I said, closing the canopy, and taking the vehicle into the air before gunning it in the direction of Appleloosa, intent on getting Selene and Artemis out of there.
As I flew the Falcon to the desert, and towards Appleoosa, my mind turned to Sharp Wit, and his motivations. Every villain and hero has them for what they do, and, sometimes, knowing ones motives can result in you having an advantage. Of what I can tell, he either thinks he would be a better ruler than the current ones, and plans to use this war to show it, with the control braces as a backup, or simply wants to. All I know is that Sharp wants to take over Equestria. I swear, if he's doing it simply because he wants to, I'll give him a slow and painful death. I always hated that cliche with a villain.
Anyway, we had been in the air for about ten minutes when I began to see flashes that indicated magic, as well as explosion mushroom clouds from time to time. "Looks like we're getting close, people," I said over the radio. "Luna, get ready to leave, I need to stay in this thing to pilot it."
"But what if Sharp sends whatever he has control of after me?"
"Don't worry, there should be some nearby to assist," I said before I changed radio channel. "Promethean group Zeta, where are you?"
"We are within the civilian city," one of the Prometheans said. "Awaiting orders."
"Right. Half of each, locate and defend the Elements of Loyalty, Generosity, and Magic. One quarter, locate and track Sharp Wit. Last Quarter, wait to escort Princess Luna to the Elements," I said. "Which reminds me, what are you facing down there?"
"Unknown," the Promethean replied. "Creatures with black and white skin and etheric flames have been observed."
Great. Guess I should have seen that coming with the Guardians. Looks like Oryx is trying to remove their help before the fight there begins. Noted. Okay. I need a. . . dimensional radio.
And with that, something similar to the ear piece appeared in my lap, though it did have a few glowing parts. I removed my helmet, and put the new ear piece on. "Hey, uh, Guardians, can you hear me?"
"WHAT? I'M TRYING TO KILL A FUCKING GOD!"
"Okay, ignoring that, I just thought I would let you know that Oryx seems to be sending forces here to try to stop me from aiding you in the final fight. Before you ask, I'll tell you how I'm able to talk with you next I see you." With that, I removed the ear piece before any more yelling could occur, and put it in my thigh compartment before putting my helmet back on. Wait, did he say he was trying to kill a god? Can't be Crota, they killed him, and they would bring me in if it was Oryx. Their Celestia, maybe? Guess I'll ask when I next see them.
Okay, getting back to my story, I set the Falcon down on the northern edge of the town, keeping the rotors going, as a quarter of the Promethean forces I had sent here teleported up in their usual fashion. "Switch to the other frequency," I told them over the radio just as they cleared the rotors of the Falcon, allowing me to get airborne and engage night vision. This allowed me to see that, yes, Sharp was commanding Taken. How did i know he was commanding them? Try he was at the front of a small group of the fuckers and not being filled with whatever the Taken use for ammo, as well as the lights from the quarter I had assigned to track him nearby.
"Element retrieval group, where the hell are you?"
"Southern edge of the town," a Promethean said. Should have guessed that, seeing as how Sharp is moving in that direction.
"Copy. Do you have the VIPs?"
"Affirmative, but something is jamming communication with escort group."
"Of course there is," I said. "And whatever it is, the Falcon's able to punch through it. Try to circumvent Sharp, who is heading your way, and link up with the escort group, in the north. Tracking group, we're holding them back."
"Uh, Josh," Mist said over the radio. "I thought you needed to be in this thing to fly it."
"Who said it was going to stay in the air?" I retorted. "We're bailing out, now!"
"Josh, this is one of the craziest plans you've made!" Quick yelled.
"I know," I said. "Bail out!" With that, I opened the cockpit canopy, unstrapped myself, and jumped from the Falcon.
"Josh, if you live through your crazy stunt, I'm going to kill you," Quick said over the radio as I heard wings flap. "You're just lucky neither Mist nor I were strapped in."
"Yeah, you're late on that," I said as I did a flip and activated my suit thrusters to slow my fall as I came close to the ground. "Luna already owns my life. And not in the slave way," I said as I landed in front of Sharp and his forces. "Hey Sharp. Fancy meeting you here."
"I should have guessed you'd get here," Sharp said, his voice smug. "You like my new forces. A sort of present from who those Guardian allies of yours will be facing."
"Yeah, I figured," I said as I activated my left wrist mounted hardlight blade, and drew my right energy sword. "Time for some fun." Or I die and go to hell. Meh. Either way, I'm taking as many of these fuckers with me as I can.
I stood in front of Sharp and the Taken he controlled, my left hardlight wrist blade and right energy sword lit. "I didn't know you were allied with Oryx, Sharp," I said.
"Well, he did offer me what I wanted for helping him," Sharp said. "But you won't find out what that is. Take him while I find the Night's daughters." With that, Sharp turned to the left, and left as the Taken moved forward and closer to me.
"Well, this is going to be fun," I said sarcastically before the first Taken, Taken Thralls, annoying assholes who could short distance teleport and were melee enemies. Yeah.
Anyway, though they moved at a walking pace, their teleportation had them reach me pretty quickly, but I quickly cut them down, causing them to melt as if they were liquid. And before you ask, no, I don't know how that works, I just know it's their usual death animation in Destiny. The few that were able to hit me with flame infused claws, again, no idea, had their attacks blocked by the amulet Luna had given me, and were killed before they could try again. After them came the Taken Acolytes, which weren't much different than from before they became Taken, soulless abominations, except that they can summon something called "Acolyte's eye", which is essentially an easy to destroy turret.
Of what I could see, there were twenty of them, and ten of them opened fire with their weapons, which, in essence, fired lightning, while the other half summoned their Eyes. Thankfully, they can only summon one apiece. Unfortunately the eyes had a fast rate of fire, and ten meant high damage per second. Joy.
Anyway, I began to move before the massacre of me could begin, and kept moving, or risk being torn to shreds or vaporized, both being equally bad, and, with my two blades lit, made my way to each Eye, intent on removing those first as I dodged fire from all else, and killing whichever Acolytes got in my way, which was only five. Still, once I made it to the first Eye, I began to slice and dice through them with my hardlight blade, and alternating to the energy sword for every third strike.
It took five strikes each to remove the Eyes. The only reason I survived was because of the amulet and my shields, as I alternated between the two. From there, I proceeded to take out the Acolytes themselves, which was easier than the Eyes, as it took only a single slice to kill them, and I used my thrusters to get in close for them.
After them came the area denial assholes, which is to say the Taken Knights, who can, I swear I am not kidding, spit fire, and there were twenty of them. For this, I decided to bring out the big guns. I deactivated the hardlight blade and sword, put the sword hilt on my thigh, and, from my back, drew the Didact's Signet.
With that, I ran to the nearest Taken Knight, and, before it could swipe at me, I unloaded a shot into its chest, making it disintegrate in that way only Forerunner weapons can do. I then ducked under a shot from one of their weapons, which fired void energy, far as I can tell in Halo terminology, and fired off another shot, killing another, which left six.
I used my thusters to avoid shots from the others, and drew the open hand boltshot, and fired it, with the whole clip killing two more.. I dropped it, and drew the closed fist, and fired, killing another two. This left two Knights and the annoying, for me anyway, Taken enemy type. Taken Wizards. They have tracking shots, and move at high speed. Yeah, they are annoying fuckers.
"Well, time for the bigger guns," I said before summoning a vehicle I knew well. One with a. . .sting to the enemy. "Fuckers, meet tank!" I summoned a Scorpion. "DIE!" I fired the main cannon, which killed each of them. "Now. Promethen group Zeta. Where's Sharp?"
Outskirts of Appleoosa
"Good thing this town was evacuated during the first days of the war," Luna muttered as she heard an explosion. "Sounds like Josh is having fun." Here, a Promethean Knight walked up to her.
"Princess Luna," it said, "escort team is enroute to our current location with your offspring and the Element of Loyalty."
"Are they safe?" Luna asked, concern in her voice.
"At the moment," the Knight replied. "ETA for their arrival is thirty seconds."
"While mine," Sharp said, making Luna whip her head around behind her, "is now." Sharp stood about ten feet away from Luna, and he held a Taken weapon, the one Acolytes used, and had it pointed at Luna. "Tsk, tsk, Luna," he said. "I thought you knew that if you betrayed me, you'd pay for it. And here I was planning on being merciful and letting you and your daughters be together after I took over."
"You think we would live under your control?" Luna asked. "Assuming you could take over at all. I'm certain that when what you plan on doing is revealed to my sister and the other leaders, they'll join together to stop you at least."
"Highly unlikely," Sharp said before he conjured up a familiar collar. "I imagine you know what the control brace is? Well, you see, I already have one on Chrysalis, Sombra, and Cadence. I was about to put one on your daughters and Rainbow Dash before they woke up. Perhaps once my allies forces kill the human and subdue you, perhaps I'll put this one on you, and have you go to Canterlot, and bring your dear sister into the fold."
Luna growled before she used her magic to summon a sword. "Never, traitor."
"You think I betrayed Equestria?" Sharp asked before chuckling. "Oh, no. I'm doing what I ma to make it a strong nation. It's because of your sister and her incompetence that you became Nightmare Moon; it's because of her that Cerberus left his post, and Tirek escaped. It's because of her allowing trips in the gardens that Discord escaped! If it were me, I would have smashed that statue the first chance I got to ensure he didn't come back! I'd rather be a monster who protects his home than some softass who just let's threats roll over her. The Caribou? I told them I would help them, so long as Dainn made Celestia my slave. Before I would kill him and every Caribou, just to prove I was set on protecting my home. Try and tell me you didn't have that line of thinking before your banishment and upon your return!"
This made Luna lower her sword a little. "You are right," she said. "I did have that line of thinking before." She then glared at Sharp. "And I still do. But I will not be seen as a monster to protect my home." It was here that Artemis, Selena, the Prometheans escorting them, and Rainbow ran into the picture.
"And look who's here," Sharp said before three more control braces popped into existence. "Time to grow my army a little more," he said before flinging the three braces in the direction of the three new pony arrivals, who were being held in place by Sharp's magic.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three thunderclaps rang out, and the three control braces exploded. "What?" Sharp said before his eyes narrowed. "Damn him."
Josh
"Boom times three, bitch," I whispered as I reloaded the Sniper I had made before climbing onto a roof, the Scorpion tank on the street below. I saw Sharp turn and I think snarl at me before he teleported away. "Mist, Quick, you there?"
"Yeah, we're here," Quick said. "You're lucky we can fly, because we landed away from the fighting. Where are you?"
"Northern part of the town. Luna and the others are here. I'll meet you once I take care of something."
"Just don't do something stupid this time," Mist said. "I want to live to see my next birthday, which is in a week, by the way."
"Copy," I said. With that, I put the rifle on my back, and sat down in a meditative pose. Time to get to mental work.
Ten minutes later
Mist and Quick had arrived where Luna and the others were, with some hostility between Mist and the Element bearers, which was understandable, while Luna and her daughters, for the first time in over a thousand years, embraced. It was a tearful reunion, one that Rainbow, having only known her father, could only imagine what it was like to reunite with a lost parent, and didn't want to ruin the moment. The only wods spoken there, the only ones needed, were, "I missed you two," by Luna.
"Us, too," by her daughters. They knew it was cheesy, and a little cliche, but they didn't care. The moment was ruined, unfortunately, by Josh coming in with a large, airborne vehicle, colored olive green, two wings coming from the sides, with flames coming from the back of them, as well as the tail of the vehicle.
Josh set the vehicle down, the tail end facing the group, and a hatch opened up, with Josh stepping out the back. "Ride's here, guys," he said. "If you're ready, that is."
"Almost," Artemis said before she and her sister turned to face Rainbow. "I guess you and the others will have to come after us next time we see each other, huh, Rainbow?"
"Yeah, I guess," Rainbow said. She then looked at Josh. "If you even hurt Twi and Rarity, your armor won't help you."
"I'm so scared," Josh said, sarcasm in his voice. "Promethean group Zeta, return to the main group. Everyone else, if you guys are ready, get on."
The three ponies of the night looked at each other, small smiles on each face. "Well, see ya guys," Rainbow said before she spread her wings, and flew away.
"I suppose we had best leave, too," Luna said to her daughters. "After all, you two do need time to get to knw your stepfather."
"We aren't married yet," Josh snapped, though with a joking tone. "Come on. I need to pick something up."
"What?" Luna asked.
"A Scorpion," was all Josh said, bringing confusion to the faces of all before they shrugged and boarded the Pelican Josh had made, the hatch closing as they sat down. Josh put the ship in the air, picked up the tank, and, with the tank and the others on board, made his way back to the rest of his army.
So, it's been a few days since Appleloosa, and a certain project I was working on was nearly done. Artemis/Twilight and Selene/Rarity-I refer to them as that because I do not know what they want me to call them-were understandably upset that they weren't able to see the other bearers, but also happy to be with their mother again. As far as I knew, they were a little nervous around Starlight-understandable, given history-the changelings-again, history-and a few of the soldiers from Sombra's forces that had left. Still, given what happened in the town, everyone was on high alert.
Now, you're probably wondering what project I was working on for it to take a few days. Let's just say it was something big, and leave it at that for now, okay. Fortunately, though, it was nearly done, to the point, actually, where I simply needed to personally activate it. Yeah, no way for me to get around that one.
Anyway, once I was sure it was done, I got up from where I sat in a meditative stance, and back to where the rest of the army was. To be safe, we had spread out in groups so as to prevent crowding, each with a different designate, with my camp, which consisted of myself, Luna, her daughters, Lone, Mist, Quick, Azure, Onyx, and Starlight, being designated Alpha.
Right now, everyone was around the camp fire at the center of our camp. There was no food over it, them having already eaten, and my suit being able to help me focus while eating so work on the project wouldn't diminish. "So, anypony got any good stories?" Mist asked. "'Cause I hate awkward silence."
"Doesn't look like it, Mist," Onyx said as I came into their view. "Hey, Josh. Finally decided to speak with us?"
I chuckled as I replied, "Just finishing something up I plan on showing everyone later."
"And what would that be?" Twilight-screw it, I'm going with their show names until I know for sure-asked.
"Just a little something to help with where we all sleep right now," was all I said as I took off my helmet and sat down on the grass next to Luna. "So, considering everything, how are you guys doing?"
"Considering that our aunt probably knows who we are now," Rarity replied, "and can probably guess why, as well as the fact we see the girls in the dream world, good. Though believe me, I do still want you to pay fr what you did at Ponyville, Josh."
I shrugged. "How about after we end this war, which does bring me to what I wanted to talk about since Appleloosa, but haven't been able to since I began work on the project."
"And what would that be?" Lone asked
"Simple," I said. "We kill Sharp and try to bring the others to a peace conference."
"If only it were that simple," Luna said. "There are those on both sides within the military that want the war to continue, whether for personal reasons or to remove a threat to their side, I don't know. Simply killing Sharp won't make them stop, and they'll pressure the leaders of both sides into continuing the war."
"Yeah, maybe," I said. "But something tells me that having a few national heroes protesting the war will work in the opposite way. You know," I said, looking at Rarity and Twilight, "if you two are up for it, Twilight, Rarity."
"I don't see why not," Rarity said. "As long as that disgrace for a general is unable to do anything to sabotage it."
"I figured that," I said, shrugging. "Unfortunately, far as I know, he's in Canterlot. I'm sure I don't need to explain what that could mean."
"I doubt he'd do it now," Twilight said. "He'd probably want to put control braces on the others along with Celestia, so as to make sure the amount of individuals who can challenge him is reduced. After all, not many could go against a mind controlled alicorn that may very well have been ordered to use all her power, and having four of the Element bearers under his control would prevent the one thing that would be powerful enough to stop him from being activated, and last I remember, Applejack's in Manehattan, Fluttershy is in Trottingham with Pinkie, and Spike's in the town we first met Starlight in."
"Maybe," I said, "but he does have dirt on-"
"Can we just stop this conversation for now?" Quick asked. "I'd rather not talk about potentially mind controlled alicorns and dragons right now."
"Yeah, same," Starlight said, a little uncomfortable at the mention of the events from the season five finale. "How about plans for after everything?"
"Makes sense," Quick said. "Well, I'm going to see if I can find out more about my past. That file I found while we made our way to the Minotaur capital had some names in it, and I'm going to see if I can find them, maybe get a few answers."
"A little obsessed on that, aren't you?" Onyx asked.
"Well forgive me if I want to know about my past," Quick said in an annoyed tone. "But I actually want to know where I came from."
"I guess that makes sense," Lone said. "Well, Starlight and I plan on trying to repair the relationship we had with Celestia."
"I can imagine my sister will be happy as to that," Luna said. "As for me? I think I'd like to have a few non-dream world dates with Josh."
With a small blush on my cheeks, I said, "If that's what you want, Luna," as I put my arm around her. "Same here, actually."
"Well, then, I guess I plan on opening a few more stores," Rarity said. "Not to mention getting to know mother past the mask she put on for the public."
"And for me," Twilight said. "Josh, do you have any records on your kind?"
"You'll see tomorrow," I said. "What about you, Onyx? Mist?"
"No idea for either of us," Onyx said.
"Yeah, we'll probably just improvise," Mist said before he yawned. "Jeez, that late already? Guess I'll see you all tomorrow."
"Yeah, same," Quick said. "Need to sharpen my talons, then hit the sack." With that, the two of them got up, and went to their respective tents.
A few minutes of awkward silence passed before Lone and Starlight got up. "Yeah we're heading to sleep, too," Lone said.
"Don't worry, we'll keep it quiet," Starlight said with a slight grin, which made me roll my eyes.
"Starlight, we could have lived without knowing that," Twilight said, apparently thinking my thoughts as well. There was no reply as the couple made their way to their tent.
"Yeah, um, I'll. . .head to the perimeter," Onyx said before quickly getting up and jogging to the edge of our camp, leaving me, Luna, Twilight, and Rarity around the camp fire, along with awkward silence as Rarity and Twilight looked at each other before nodding.
"Um, Josh?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah, Twilight?" I replied, looking at the lavender alicorn. Yes, despite her and Rarity being Luna's kids, they still had their in show colors as their birth ones.
"Selene and I wanted to ask you something," she said nervously.
"Okay," I said slowly. "Why?"
"Should I be present for this?" Luna asked.
"Yes, mother," Rarity replied. "We wanted to talk with Josh and see if he could help us with our abilities, and see if you could also. We never did have any formal training, after all."
"Um, shouldn't that be done just by family?" I asked. "Which would mean just Luna, and not me?"
"That's just it," Twilight said. "We talked about it, and decided that, since you and mother are. . .an item, as well as you two are the only other dream masters we know of, it would be best if both of you guys taught us."
"And no, Josh," Rarity said, "that does not mean we consider you our father-that would belong to the stallions from the families that raised us-but we do accept that, most likely, you and mother will marry, we may as well get to know you."
I just sat there, a little surprised there, but was able to gather myself. "Thanks, I suppose," I said. "Though I don't have any formal training either."
"But you were able to make an entire mechanical army!" Twilight exclaimed, to which I shrugged.
"Yeah, I did," I said. "But the thing is that I didn't make the first ones. I just knew the concept well."
"But we thought-"
"Only original stuff could be made with that ability?" I asked. "Maybe," I said.
"But I told him that as long as one knows something well enough," Luna, "a Dream master is able to make anything."
"Still, though," I said. "I'd be happy to help you two out."
Canterlot
Within a darkened room located in the royal castle, Sharp stood, watching Josh, Luna, Selene, and Artemis talking, and smiled. "Checkmate, Spartan," he said. "Checkmate."
Yes, this story is being cancelled, as it is-undeniably- my weakest story. This one will remain up, but another will be made with a hopefully better story line. Pinkie Promise it will be up by the end of March. Also, those looking forward to the large crossover of my Displaced, my most recent blog post has a canon explanation for this cancellation and rewrite.
Chapter title says it all, and the story is considered a sequel to this one. Head over to it, and let me know what you think. If you don't like it, let me know why.
