Getting killed by three diseases and septic shock isn't really fair for a fourteen year old Christopher. Although the Universe isn't that bad, as it gives Chris a second chance to live.... in Equestria
Warning!: All characters are human! -------------------------------------------- Partial tags: [Crossover] Reason: This takes elements from the game: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance [Dark] Reason: It has some moments were "reality" kicks in, so to speak Waking up on a clearing is a surprising thing, considering the fact I should be dead. I've been overwhelmed with diseases and died a slow death, leaving my family and friend behind. Now I must start off again in the land of Equestria. However i believe there must be another reason why I came here. But that's a bit cliche don't you think? Sometimes fate can be a lovely lady...Or a Sadistic Bastard.
Maybe both? ----------------------------------------------- The beginning is based on a true life event I had back in November 2013, although i did not die from these diseases, I was almost killed by the septic shock, the entire incident left me in a sour shape for about a month... I'm fine now and i decided to write a story on what would happen if i were to die from the diseases and was sent to Equestria. Somewhat of a self-insert, only has the major events like the changeling invasion, the marriage, and the coronation, etc. Any other episodes will be replaced with this storyline. First real fan-fiction, second attempt. Constructive criticism is NEEDED!
Everybody I loved and cared were around my bed, helping me on my way to the afterlife. I am stuck in the hospital because I was hit with three diseases. Each of them called: Kawasaki disease, Meningitis, and the third one hasn't been clarified. Not to mention that I am going into septic shock.
My heart-rate is slowly depleting every minute, as of now, I only have an hour left to live.
Heart rate: 60
The doctors had said that there wasn’t much time left for me and that my family should see me before I go. My parents were shocked about the news and are sobbing next to me, wondering what horrific sin is causing me to go out like this, while my step-parents are sitting down behind them in a seat looking downcast at the floor. Any relatives who were close by drove over here as soon as they heard the news, and was given permission to see me.
What’s odd is how I don’t feel any major pain, you would assume that since you are dying you would feel like you’re body was on fire or something of the sorts, however the only thing that's really happened is me curling up into a ball and grabbing a container or a bucket every 5-15 minutes and throwing up. Other than the time where I coughed once and it felt like somebody stabbed two daggers into the back of my skull.
The doctors took it as a hint that Septic shock was setting in and my internal organs were going to shut down.
My heart rate was at Fifty-eight now, might as well break the ice with my parents now.
“You know” I began, “I don’t feel any pain, I don’t know if it’s the morphine they are giving me or I lost all connection with my nerves."
Dad, being the first to stop sobbing after a couple of minutes, replied first.
“Son, we love you, I would expect that the doctors do the least help by making your…..Departure as painless as possible,” he choked out, still shocked to believe his thirteen year old son is dying.
Heart rate is fifty-six now
“What are you going to do with my stuff after I…Leave?” I don’t want to use the death word, as it will send my parents back in mass hysteria.
“...We will probably store them in the attic, anything that is valuable we will keep in the house,” Mom answered after regaining her composure.
Fifty
I...I just want to come clean, admit all of my sins and hope that I will have everlasting life...But something is holding me back...
”……I'm not afraid…..Should I be afraid of death?” I ask.
“It depends, are you scared to meet our father?” dad replied, answering my question with a question.
Here's a hint: I’m catholic.
“In a way…But it’s more wondering what he looks like than fearing his judgment, I know I did bad things in my life that I regret. But I know I did more good things than bad,” I answered.
“Then you have nothing to worry about, I trust that our father will be fair,” dad replied, I had gotten him out of his sorrow state, distracting him with a different topic.
Forty-two
There is no use sitting around waiting for me to die, I want to do something, but I don’t know what. I want to leave my family on a happy note, to reassure them that I will die happy and that my family has nothing to worry about.
Suddenly Mom sits down next to me and starts rubbing my arm in an attempt to comfort me, as if I’m a five year old, I don’t blame her though; her only true son is dying. At a young age too.
I suppose now it’s time for me to introduce myself.
My name is Christopher Taylor, friends call me Silver, thirteen years old and dying. Mainly I’m a gamer, spending my free time on my vast arrange of consoles. However when I get the chance I go outside and enjoy myself, whether it be go-karts or shooting my Silver coated, Colt M1911A1 at the firing range with my step-dad, I pretty much enjoyed myself up until the point where I didn’t want to go onto a cold winter camp-out on my boy scout troop. And somehow, the day I was supposed to leave, I got a fever, as a result I spent 2 months in the hospital with the three diseases that rid my body of my life. At first they treated Kawasaki, but then I got a re-lapse and sent back to the hospital were I was given a spinal tap and diagnosed with Aseptic Meningitis, they treat that, then I go home.
I was all fine and dandy for a good two days before I woke up in the middle of the night puking and shivering. My local hospital couldn't figure things out, so they send me to sacred heart, stayed there for a month...Then started dieing...
I had a pretty good reputation, I had tons of friends at school and as soon as word got out that I was sick, peers started sending me get well soon cards. However they don’t know that I’m dying…yet. Surprisingly enough I’m a bit above average than the expected thirteen year old. You would figure that since I’m a gamer I’m scrawny and weak. Well, not entirely. Pretty much have a solid build on my body, even though I am a bit skinny, all the skin on me is muscles, I can lift pretty much Ninety-five percent of my body weight (which is 132 pounds) and I’m pretty agile. To be honest the reason why I worked out was because of bullies and intimidation effect.
Not long after my twelfth birth-…..Wait a second…What day is it…No…you can't be serious…I’m dying…..ON MY BIRTHDAY!?!?
“Dad, i can't believe this is happening," i say.
“I understand that you are dying son but-“
“No not that…it's that I’m dying…On my birthday,” I clarify.
Everybody looks up at me, confusion filling their eyes for a moment, after taking a second to look at me; they look at the date that’s posted on the white board containing my hospital profile. Sure enough, it the eleventh of October. I’m supposed to turn fourteen today, and instead I’m on my death bed.
Unfortunately that statement was enough to drive everyone back to tears.
Thirty-eight now, I had it going and I lost it.
Well, not stopping now. After my eleventh birthday my step-dad happened to give me his favorite gun: His colt M1911. He polished it so it almost looked silver with a mirror sheen. Ever since then I have been shooting it with him ever since. Next thing you know the gun is now my signature weapon.
Thirty now, everyone has reduced to quiet whimpers.
Moving on,ever since then I have been fascinated with contact. Although I made a promise to never use it on the offense, -not that I could even be the first one to attack mind you.- I was taught fight techniques and how to use a very vast range of weapons thanks to the military experience my dad and step-dad had (However I was limited to certain guns because of my familiarity with a certain section) . My step dad was a retired master sergeant in the delta force, before that he was in the green beret, and before THAT he was in the special forces, the best of the best, while my father was in the air force. Both are retired, however, they do go to work at the bases.
*Ring* *Ring*
“That’s my phone, can somebody get it please?” I ask to nobody in particular.
My step-father goes into my computer bag and brings out my IPhone 4S, he then steps over and places it in my hand. Weakly I raise the phone and turn it on. It turns out I have received three Facebook notifications and ten text messages from my peers at school. I almost dismissed it as a get well soon text, however, I noticed that they were different. Unlocking the phone I proceed to look at the text messages.
*Patrick: Stephen just got in an accident! He’s on his way to the emergency room!*
dumbfounded at what I just read I decide to look at the other texts and see that they all bear the same topic. Stephen Miller, my child hood best friend since first grade, is on his way to the ICU.
Confirming the truth one last time I look at Stephen’s Facebook profile and see that his last post is from his parents who got onto his account.
It read:
“As of 9:56, Stephen Miller, our son was struck by a oncoming vehicle on his way to school, He was taken out of harms way and peers called for help. Please pray for our son, He is on his way to the Intensive Care Unit. The doctors say it’s very severe and it doesn’t look like he will make it.”
That sent me over the edge; I drop the phone to the side and start crying softly, not making a sound. It doesn’t take long for my parents to notice and they start asking what’s wrong.
“My best friend….. Stephen is in an accident, it seems….. Very likely he won’t make it….. like me,” I answer weakly.
My heart rate is at Fifteen now, as fate would have it I see a bed containing a bloody teenager being rushed just outside the doorway and into the room next to me. It doesn’t take long for me to notice it was Stephen who went past the room. It even seems like everyone noticed the person in the bed as well, as everyone was startled.
“I’m dying and…. as a farewell… my…. best friend…. is dying?” I state weakly.
Heart rate – 10
I’ve reached the point where I can no longer move or talk, just wobble my head back and forth and move my eyes. It also seems that I’m losing my hearing as everyone is starting to sound muffled and distant, as if they were moving far away.
HR – 7
There isn’t much I can do besides wait for my death. Some of the doctors start coming in to wait. Readying to take me away after I die. I don't even know how they knew my vitals were dropping.
HR - 5
Everything starts to sound distant, tunnel vision is setting in. My entire body is starting to feel numb, spreading from my arms and legs to my torso. It's feels so foreign i want to scream out, but i don't have the energy to do so.
HR – 3
It’s getting really dark; my parents hold both of my hands in an attempt to comfort me as i make my way to death.
HR- 1
My last minute here, I slowly drift off into the darkness, letting a silent tear roll off my face.
___/\_____________
Darkness…It's all there is…or is it?
Little did I know that one of the nurses was secretly a lunar princess from another universe.
Waking up to notice the feeling of grass on your hands and feet comes as a surprise when you’re supposed to be dead.
Which is what happened when I came to, slowly getting my bearings by wiggling my fingers and toes and reaching to my entire body. I deduce that I have no physical injuries so far.
Sitting up and looking around I notice I’m in a clearing of sorts in a very dense forest, somehow looking farther into the forest, the trees make it look like it is pitch black in there. Chalking it up to a trick of the light I stand up, albeit shakily at first but I have no idea how long I’ve been out.
Taking a look at what I’m wearing it appears to be a navy blue plain t-shirt, along with dark blue Jeans, as for shoes I’m wearing blue and black tennis shoes. Taking my first step I bump into something on the ground, I look down and see a black military backpack. Deciding to check it out later I begin to move about the clearing trying to piece together just what the hell happened.
‘OK, so I’m in a forest, I should be dead, but somehow I am alive and miraculously teleported into a forest clearing. Logically this doesn’t make sense, so until I get more information, I better not think about it…screw it I have a headache now.’
I continue walking around the perimeter of the clearing, scanning my surroundings and blanking my mind when something doesn't add up to prevent migraines.
Attempting to distract myself I return my attention to the backpack. It was mostly black all around with pockets at the sides for drinks or other items; there was a decal at the front showing the delta force emblem, the emblem looked like a ribbon forming a triangle around a sword, stopping at the handle. There was another ribbon in black with white trim saying “Delta force” normally I would wonder where I got this, but I remember seeing it on my step-fathers drawers, so i would assume it came here with me from his possession.
(AN: Look him up if you want. Name: Dale Comstock.)
After staring at the bag for a good fifteen seconds I decide to open the bag up and see what’s inside, needless to say I was surprised at what’s inside. After supposedly taking everything out of the backpack I begin an inventory check.
Dark grey hooded sweatshirt with a wool inside – good for cold nights and winter when I need it most.
Black gloves – Good when handling rough surfaces or doing some work. Not as good as leather though. Not to mention keeps my hands warm.
Silver zippo along with ronsonol lighter fluid – Should be good for starting fires or lighting candles, careful not to burn myself though. Lighter fluid should last about a year if I use it sparingly.
KM-2000 Military knife – Gifted to me when I was ten by my step-father; he had a few close calls with it in the military and in the real world. Decided to pass it to me for good luck (or should I say bad luck?) Should be good for cutting rope to use to tie things together or sharping twigs to makeshift knifes. Also a good self-defense weapon. (How did this get here?)
Seven tampered .45 ACP caliber magazines – when I mean tampered I mean the bullets have been changed, they look like tracer rounds but instead of going with red led it is blue. I am unaware of its property and what it does.
‘Odd, if I have magazines where is the pistol?’ I thought as I reach over to pick up the backpack only to find out it still has something in it. Looking inside I find three more items, adding it to the inventory check.
My gifted .45 ACP caliber M1911 – gifted by my step father when I was eleven, shot it ever since, Took up learning self-defense and how to use other weapons since then as well, looks to be in pristine shape. (How... In the world, is this here?!)
Leg holster for the M1911 – attaches to the right thigh, feels like it’s made of leather. black all around and uses a clasp to attach.
Some weird black thing – looks like it’s been cut in half, no idea what these are, will have to look into it later.
Feeling around the backpack I find one more thing, or in this case six more things. adding it to Inventory check.
Six, One liter mountain dew bottles - No idea how they got there, seems to be fresh, should last about a week, or three days. Depends on my mood.
Uncapping one of the bottles I put it up to my mouth and start drinking it hungrily as i had no idea how thirsty i was.
‘The first sip is always the best’
After taking the best sip in the entire world and thanking whatever higher power gave it to me. I put everything back except for the pistol, holster, magazines, zippo, and knife. Putting on the holster onto my right thigh I then place the pistol in it.
‘Perfect fit’ I thought.
Placing two magazines into the pockets on the holster and the rest in my jean pockets, I attach the knife to the left side of my belt. Feeling like I could take on anything I look up and see that it’s most likely ten o’clock in the morning.
‘……ah crap, where do I go now?’ My mind was drawing up a blank on where or what to do and if I want to look for civilization I would probably go the wrong way and end up further.
Somehow the higher power that gave me the mountain dew was able to see my distraught. So they decided to send me a map. Only problem was this map appeared out of nowhere from a blue fire and it looked like a scroll. So my first reaction was…
“......Wat....I say again, What?!” I scream out against the act of injustice towards physics. After taking a long look at the scroll I draw out my pistol and slowly make my way towards it, after circling it and making sure it's not a trap, I place the pistol back into the holster.
Picking up the scroll carefully and unwinding slowly to see if it was a bomb or something. it only leads me to more confusion as the map shows of a country or whatever called “Equestria”
‘Equestria? What kind of name or place is this? Wait…..Where have I heard that name before?’ My mind was acting like it knew something, it was on the tip of my tongue. I would need something else to help jog my memory.
‘Gahh... Come on... Think... Think!’ Try as I might I am only picking up vague memories of a name I can barely remember. ‘I can’t remember… No stopping here and wasting time, where is the nearest town…?’ Just then, that one name brought that name to my mouth and shoved it down my throat.
“Ponyville...!”
‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic…you have got to be kidding me. I am stuck in a little girl’s show?!’
“OF ALL THE PLACES IT HAS TO BE HERE?!” I exclaim.
I have no quarrel with the TV show or its popularity towards the unintended demographic. However I was not expecting to be sent here, needless to say I even knew what happened. I knew of the TV show because a couple friends of mine introduced me to it, i only watched the first five episodes and although it wasn't bad, i didn't show any appeal to it what-so ever. So i just went to my friends and politely declined. The last time i checked which was about two months ago, the TV show as halfway through season 2. After thirty minutes of trying to figure out how and why i was sent here i gave up and accepted that i was stuck here until further information acquires my mind. Until then, i might as well get started on a new life.
‘If I can even get a new life here, according to the show, there are a bunch of ponies that can talk, fly, and do magic, FREAKING MAGIC! Not to mention I am most likely a complete alien to them.’
Attempting to calm myself down and keep myself from going insane, I go to the backpack and grab the weird black thing and start looking at it.
“Just what the heck is this thing?” I wonder. Upon closer examination there is a tiny note wedged between a crack in the item. According to the note, I need to place the two halves to the side of my head as if I was putting on glasses. Cautiously I put it on like so, only to get an unpleasant surprise…
“Rrraaarrrrggghhh!!!” ever had that feeling that something is burning onto you? No? Well good for you. Cause that’s what exactly what I was feeling.
Due to the pain I was reduced to kneeling down and clutching the sides of my head. After what felt like eternity the pain subsided and I fell down into the ground as relief filled me, opening my eyes back up. i was greeted by a tint, almost like a sunglasses tint. Strange thing is, these sunglasses have a Heads up display.
“Welcome: Christopher Taylor” It read.
“What the hell is going on!?” I demanded, not realizing that the sunglasses pick up voice recognition.
“You have put on: Computer LG-1441 HUD, if you wish I can give you the instruction menu for this device,” It read.
“You go do that,” I reply, still mad that i was tricked and in so much pain.
After dealing with my head-splitting migraine, I take a look at the computer again and start reading the instructions.
Apparently this thing has connected to my brain and is a cybernetic enhancement. Whenever I want I can turn this thing on or off with just a simple thought and when it’s turned on it acts as a heads up display, when it's off it rests on the side of my head. This can also be customized and I can access the internet (I thought they don’t have internet here). There are more surprises but that’s for me to discover later.
*sigh* “Ohhhh dear god…this can't get any worse can it?” I exasperated, turning off the device. It splits in half and moves to rest on the side of my head.
Just then I hear a growl, or more specific a multitude of growls. Looking up I see a bunch of yellow eyes looking directly at me.
‘God damn it, Murphy’
At that moment one of the eyes lunges at me, in the split second between the pounce, I roll backwards and get out of the way before I get ripped to shreds.
Getting back up and assuming a fighting stance I look at the target, it seems to be some kind of wolf except it looks to be made out of wood. It also seems to be a head taller than me and not to mention the backup it has.
‘Ah crap, I’m at a disadvantage aren’t I?’ My fight or flight instincts kicked in along with the adrenaline. I grab the backpack and make a beeline north. The Timber-wolves in hot pursuit, jumping over the roots and pulling the branches back to swing at the wolves I am able to put a fairly big gap between me and them.
Just as I figured I would be safe from them, a wolf jumps from the right of me and tackles me to the ground.
Dazed, I grab the wolf before it has a chance to strike. However I need to act fast, as the other wolves are catching up. Grabbing my pistol in my right hand I hold the wolf in position and put the gun right next to its head. The wolf tries to deter my aim by swinging his head around, but that just makes his demise all quicker, clicking the safety off, I point the weapon at it's head and shoot, blowing the branches out of the timber wolf's head.
The wolf falls to the side and I get back up checking to see how much farther the other wolves are, I see that they are five seconds behind. Not wasting anytime I make a mad dash out of there. After a while I come across a dirt path, thinking it’s a path to civilization I get on it and start running along the path.
Looking behind me I see that the timber wolves have reduced from five to two, it seems that majority of the pack stayed behind giving up on its prey. However the remaining two are catching up to me, and fast. These two aren't going to let me escape without a fight. Looking back ahead I see the exit out of this hell hole and I make a final sprint for it. Apparently so did the wolves as they had caught up to me.
Just as I was about to exit I get slashed in the leg.
“AHHHH!! MOTHER FUUUUUAAAAA!“I scream out, purposely cutting off the remaining swear word. The slash sends me toppling onto the ground just out of the exit. Looking behind me I see the two Timber-wolves right in front of me and ready to pounce on the left and right flanks, I grab my pistol out of the holster and ready it for the unlucky bastard who makes the first move. However I can’t stand up because of the gash on my leg that is now bleeding profusely, god it feels like it’s on fire.
Sensing my moment of vulnerability, the timber wolf on my left lunges at me, seeing the first move out of the corner of my eye, I raise my pistol and take three shots at it. each hitting him in the head and body. He falls to the ground dead before he hits the floor. I made the mistake of relaxing my grip on my pistol there as the wolf on my right lunged for the gun as it proved to be a threat.
Knocking the gun out of my hand and kicking it out of reach the wolf turns back to me, thinking that he has me beat.
I think not...
I unsheathe my knife from my belt and take up a low fighting stance, ready for the wolf to attack, the timber wolf jumps at me, making the mistake of charging me to begin with.
I rush forward just in time to get underneath the wolf and dig my knife into its underbelly knowing full well that’s a weak spot.
Feeling the sticky sensation of tree sap leaking onto my fingers, the wolf shudders on my shoulder for a bit before breaking into a heap of sticks and branches.
‘Huh, that’s new,’ I turn around and notice I seem to have attracted a bit of a crowd. To my very surprise they aren’t ponies, rather humans, with equine features; such as a tail, wings or horn.
After turning around and stumbling to retrieve my pistol from the dirt, I start to lose consciousness slowly. Turning back to the crowd I look them in the eye and see them with looks of shock and awe. Well most of them really, a pink one seems to be giddy for some apparent reason.
It stayed like that until one of them; a female with a horn and purple hair with pink streaks steps forward.
"Are you all right?" She asked.
Just then I feel something trickle on the right side of my forehead, I dab a bit with my index and middle finger and take a look at it seeing blood. Now knowing I probably have a concussion from the tackle that timber-wolf gave me before, I return my attention back to the women who is now looking at me with concern in her eyes
"...Nope.."
The only thing I saw before I collapsed was the woman rushing over to me.
(AN: This is my first time using Luna as a dialogue, I will most likely need pointers, however I can say one thing, she doesn’t talk in old equestrian anymore, she talks modern equestrian. Save for extreme moments)
Time: 2:54 A.M Date: Oct 12, 2013 Location: Ponyville Hospital
Regaining consciousness I realize that I am on a bed, bloody comfy too. Quickly making sure that I am not broken in any way whether physical or mental, I slowly open my eyes to be greeted by darkness.
After waiting for my eyes to adjust I realize that I have been relocated to a hospital, it has a window to the right of me and there appears to be an extra bed for another patient that is unoccupied, there is a faint glow coming from a doorway that leads to the offices of the doctors, most likely a light. It’s night time according to the window showing outside.
Slowly moving around I shuffle my way toward the edge of the bed and slide out, after stepping onto the floor I feel a slight pain in my right calf, Probably from the slash, taking a look at it, it seems to have healed tremendously, as all that’s left is scar tissue. Ignoring most of the pain and chalking it up to magic (Because here logic just up and flew out a window), I notice that I am also in a hospital gown, not liking these kind of garments I take a look around for my usual clothes. I find them located in a brown bag located on a chair next to the window. Making sure that I won’t be disturbed, I grab my clothes and find a secluded area, and begin changing. After I finished I folded the gown and placed it back on the chair. Looking around for my backpack, I find it underneath the chair where my clothes were. After making sure that everything was in there I grab the pistol and knife from the pack and attach it to their respectful places. Knowing full well that I am done with getting ready I make a mental note to have the doctors release me by this morning.
Having no idea what else to do I turn on my HUD and start exploring it. It had a kind of old feeling to it, the HUD was yellowish and the graphics looked like something from a Pip-boy. Ignoring it I decide to explore around the computer, however as soon as I turned it on I was greeted by a message notification. Clumsily looking through the computer I finally find the messages folder and bring it up. Apparently I was given a letter or two. Bringing up the first one I began reading.
“Hello and thank you for putting on Computer LG-1441 HUD. We apologize for any discomfort you received when you put this on and we hope you can forgive us. Moving on we would like to inform you that this Computer is the first commercial HUD to be made, meaning that this is a incomplete project and it will be VERY likely it will have bugs. If you encounter any of this please send a report and we will begin working on a patch to fix it up. Also please take note that there are a couple of SusSMskaAsksLS---“
"Great. I only just put this on and I already encountered a bug, this is gonna work just fine," I say dryly. After closing the letter I rummage around the computer looking for the bug report file. Finding it in the settings menu I immediately send a bug report to who knows where.
‘It’s not like it will actually work,’ I thought hopelessly.
I got my thoughts handed back to me as soon as my computer blacked out and automatically split itself and rested on the sides of my head again. Wondering what just happened I wait a couple of minutes before the computer turns back on and merged with its other half after returning to the front of my head. As soon as it turned on, it began with a refined loading screen, what I mean is that instead of a pip-boy look, it seemed to have improved its graphics to that of a MAC computer. Not sure about the processing power though, but hey surprises, surprises. Luckily it kept the same layout as before so I was able to navigate to the messages window fairly easily. When I got there I was greeted by a new message, pulling that one up I began reading:
“We thank you for sending in your bug report; we have updated your software from 1.00 to 5.64. You should now be able to do most activities without any problems. If you encounter a bug, please send a bug report. Thank you and have a nice day.”
‘Meh, nothing new’ I thought.
Deleting that message, I move on to the last and fairly recent message before the patch. Bringing it up I was surprised to see it came from someone in this dimension. I began reading, hoping I could get some answers:
“Hello Chris, I am glad to see that you were able to put on the device I assigned to you. I must express some sorrow as it was likely very painful when you put it on. You most likely have plenty of questions for me and I will attempt to answer them to the best of my ability when we meet face to face. Right now I will just give answers to the questions I might guess, the most common question you probably have right now; you are in Equestria. No, this is nothing like that TV show “My little Pony: Friendship Is Magic” Although the events taken place is accurate, here in Terra we only have the traits of the creature in question. In order to elaborate; where you are; which is Ponyville, everybody you see will most likely have a horn or wings. (Tail is always) these represent the ponies in your case. Buffaloes, griffins, zebras will have their respected attributes as well.
Moving onto your next common question, who am I? I am Princess Luna, Co-ruler of Equestria, and little sister to Princess Celestia. You may remember me by the corrupt, Nightmare Moon.
“How do I know all this?” It’s because I have been watching you, a month before your hospitalization to now. Unfortunately you had to wind up in the hospital because of a malfunction in the teleportation spell I used on you to bring you to Equestria. That’s why you ended up in the Everfree Forest and was attacked by the Timberwolves. Good job on defending yourself by the way. Not many people are able to take on a pack of Timberwolves and come out in one piece.
After your little episode; Celestia’s student, Twilight Sparkle, brought you here to the hospital. In which you were patched up and healed. And now it brings us to the present where I will be expecting an update from someone on your condition, as this message was sent while you are unconscious in the hospital from the attack.”
Princess Luna
Co-Ruler of Equestria, Little sister of Princess Celestia, Princess of the night.
The letter ends right there. I was left open-mouthed at my current situation; I was in Equestria, I was dead in my dimension, pretty much everything made me feel like I wanted to just start laughing hysterically and begin banging my head against a wall.
Closing the computer but keeping the Glasses on, I look out the window and start taking a look at the outside world. From my side of the building I was given a view of a forest. Everything was quiet, nothing was making a sound, and everything seemed so…Peaceful.
Looking past the forest I spotted a silhouette of a mountain that looked like it was holding a castle on its side. The laws of physics should be preventing the castle from even being there without collapsing, but as I said before; Equestria = Fuck logic.
Taking a closer look at the castle I notice that lights are being emitted from the castle. Unfortunately, I can’t see any more other than what I can see from here at the hospital. Almost giving up, I then realized that I am wearing a super computer disguised as Sunglasses. So of course my mind decided to try and see if I can unveil a surprise. Bringing up the main menu (It is actually the HUD showing where I am at the top left, compass at the bottom, and a spot at the bottom right for any weapons I would be using.) I than begin to speak to the computer.
“Computer, Zoom in, 20x,” I commanded quietly.
Just as I figured the visor did as I commanded and started zooming in on the castle like a pair of binoculars.
‘Wow, that place is amazing,’ I thought as I scanned the castle.
I continued scanning the castle until I reached a very unusual area. It was a balcony, and on that balcony was a telescope. Normally I would just question the reason a telescope would be there. But the reason is actually behind it. Behind the telescope I can see a silhouette. And apparently this silhouette is watching me from the telescope. Judging by the evidence that was presented to me through the letter, I could probably guess that the person watching me would be Princess Luna.
Moving away from the window I disengage the zoom feature and bring up the messages application on the visor. Getting the letter that was sent to me by Luna, I decide to play a joke on her, so I reply to the letter in the most vaguest and creepiest way ever.
“I see you…”
Sending the letter to her, I return my vision back to the window and activate the zoom feature once more and aim it at the castle balcony. As I suspected the letter appeared next to her in a form of a scroll. She directed her attention to the letter and moved away from the telescope to grab it. After reading the note, she glances back and forth between the letter and the telescope for about five seconds before she rushes back to it and looks through it to see me waving at her. After she sees me she backs away from the telescope and admits defeat, she summons a scroll and begins writing on it. After a couple of minutes she sends it and it appears as a text message on my visor. Opening it up I began to read.
“You bested me, good to see you awake. Although I am somewhat surprised it was at this time of night. If you want I can arrange a carriage for you to bring you to Canterlot.”
Grinning at my joke, I bring my attention back to the HUD and reply to the message.
“I would say ‘Yes’ but you do realize I am still waiting to get discharged from the hospital, unless you have something else in mind,” I reply, from then on it acts like a text message conversation.
“Who said I was coming to get you?” she replied.
“What do you mean, if I want to get out you have to discharge me, there is no other way unless….Oh. You expect me to sneak out.”
“That is correct, think of it as a test, you succeed you get to come to Canterlot, you fail you stay in the hospital.”
“……Challenge accepted,” I replied.
“Very well, see you on the other side, the carriage should be located on the outskirts of Ponyville, and you have two hours.”
Closing my HUD but keeping the visor on the main menu, I take a look out of the window and try to survey my surroundings. I’m most likely located on the south side of the hospital, as I can’t see a gate, my best bet is to climb out the window and walk to the other side. It will be hard as I can see patrolmen going about with flashlights.
“All right, let’s do this,” I say quietly.
Unclasping the latch on the window, I push it out and quietly move from the inside to out. The temperature is slightly humid, nothing I can handle. After making it out the window I turn around and gently close it to not arouse suspicion.
‘Wait, did I ever bother to look at which floor I was in?’ I ask to myself.
I look down and sure enough, I was on the second floor of the hospital. If I jump down I might get broken legs. Keeping to the ledge I look around and see where to begin, I begin side-stepping my way toward the corner of the hospital. Whenever I come across a window, I check and make sure it’s occupied or not and if it is, I drop down and shimmy to the other side.
After I round the corner I see a platform on the second floor, taking a closer look it’s the roof of the gate to the entrance, if I drop down now I might get caught in plain sight. In the distance I can see the town and past the town I can see a carriage, wanting to get a closer look, I activate my HUD and zoom in.
Apparently the carriage is being run by actual Pegasi, and it’s being driven by a guardsmen. After a while of me watching it, it drops down and lands on the other side of town, judging the distance; if all goes well it would take at least thirty minutes to run from here to the other side, to the carriage.
Side-stepping the rest of the way to the platform, I crouch down and survey my surroundings. I see two patrolmen both on the left and right, I decide that as soon as they look away I will launch myself from the platform and make a break for it.
I step away from the edge of the platform and take three steps back, I watch as the patrolmen turn to move away from the gateway. As soon as they completely turn around, I launch myself off of the platform. Upon reaching the ground I roll to reduce fall damage, as soon as I stand up I spring to the nearest bush. Heartbeat races, legs tensing, adrenaline rushing, It didn’t stop until I jumped into the bush.
After calming down I look around to make sure if any patrolmen spotted me, being lucky for once I was safe.
Making my way out of the bush, I make my way to the other side of the town, passing stalls, houses, even a giant tree. I turn on my HUD to make sure I’m heading in the right direction, as soon as I think I’m home free. I hear an alarm go off.
I swear for a moment I saw an exclamation mark above my head.
The alarm reverberates all around town waking everybody up, just then I hear the alarm stop and someone beginning to speak. . “THE PATIENT HAS ESCAPED!” I hear the hospital scream.
“THAT’S A BIT OVERREACTING DON’T YOU THINK!?” I scream back.
Knowing my cover is half blown I make a full on sprint to the carriage, I still have fifteen minute running distance and according to my HUD I have bogeys on my tail.
Thinking I won’t be able to outrun them I turn a sharp corner into an alley and wait for them to pass by. I see the red blips on my map coming closer. Soon enough I see the Pony/People running. My heartbeat stops as they run by thinking I will be caught. After the last of them run by, I emerge from my hiding place and take a different path to the carriage, cutting my time off by two more minutes. I run the last of the path with no more problems and I can see the carriage once more, unfortunately I was left with a nasty surprise, everybody who was chasing me has crowded around the carriage wondering what it is doing here. I can see guardsmen waiting for my arrival are now trying to hold back the crowd. Grunting with distaste, I make my way back into an alley and contact Luna.
“Luna we have a problem,” I write.
“I can see your predicament, what is it you want me to do?” she replies
“Oh I don’t know send discharge papers!?”
“That won’t be necessary, just run,” She advised.
“WHAT!?”
“Trust me, run at your top speed,”
“….” *sigh*
Putting my trust in Luna for all I know is a stranger, I emerge from my hiding place and get down in a running stance, taking a few deep breaths I stand up and begin running. Slowly picking up speed I turn into a full-on sprint, the people start to notice that I am running towards them, they begin to form a blockade in an attempt to capture me. I was having none of it, continuing my sprint I realize that I was picking up speed way past my previous run. Right then I felt a sudden burst of speed, my feet feel like they are lightweight and they have no resistance.
Everybody in front of me looked surprised and faltered their defense for a moment; they soon regained it after a second, but are looking at me with uncertainty in their eyes. Wondering what’s going on I look down at my feet and see that there is blue lighting emitting from them every step I take.
Surprised with the new discovery I almost faltered for a moment but quickly regained my composure, the lightning is allowing me to run faster than before and it feels like there isn’t any resistance from the ground, almost like I’m running on clouds, minus the falling.
Not wanting to hurt anybody in my way I am forced to come up with an alternative, just then an Idea comes to mind. If the lightning allows me to run faster, why not jump higher?
Running towards the crowd more determined than before, I tense my muscles the closer I get. The crowd is getting the idea that I might plow right through them, but I have other ideas. I continue sprinting until I am five steps away from the first person of the crowd, from which I launch myself into the air. The lightning emitted a tiny shockwave that gave me the boost I needed to jump over the line of people. In the air I decide to enlighten some of the people and do a flip, as I look down I see tons of people with surprise in their eyes, some where even discontented they were unable to capture me.
I land safely (And by safely I mean I almost tripped) behind the guardsmen and make my way towards the empty carriage in front of me, as I look around I notice there are other carriages but more armored, presumably for the guardsmen. I enter the carriage and tell the driving guardsman my business, identification, and objective. He complies and has the pegasi take launch; I look back at the crowd and see that one girl who brought me to the hospital at the front. What was her name again? Ah yes; Twilight Sparkle was it? She seems to be looking at me with surprise, uncertainty, and a tad-bit of concern.
Luckily I’m wearing my visor so she can’t see my expression, not that It was showing anything in the first place…OK I was showing a bit of uncertainty, OK a lot of uncertainty. I have no idea what Luna wants with me, what she’s going to do with me, and how’s she’s going to do it. For all I know I could be walking into a trap, or my demise…I have trust issues…I blame my childhood.
(AN: this chapter uses photos, so it’s best not to be reading this chapter in text document format)
Time: 8:45 A.M Location: Riding a carriage to canterlot castle Date: Oct. 12, 2013
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”
I apparently dozed off on the ride and I almost paid the price, getting back into the carriage I grip on the edges ‘till my knuckles turn white. Scared shitless from my near-death experien- Aw, who am I kidding? I’ve had worse than almost falling.
Moving on, the ride was fairly eventful, I almost fell off three times, puked from sudden change of altitude, got cold and had to put on my jacket and gloves, I even tried to communicate with the Pegasi in front of me. No luck, but it turns out they are trained to follow a path according to the guardsman who’s driving the chariot. So it was a fairly unpleasant experience for about three hours.
Not to mention that half-way through the ride the sun came up and it nearly blinded me, I had to activate my visor as it is part sunglasses. I turned it off after the sun finished its rise and my eyes adjusted to the sudden change of light, did I mention it was the cause of my second fall? Bloody thing blinded me for a good thirty seconds.
Around the Third hour and thirty minute mark, we rounded a corner of a mountain and I came to see the castle in all its glory. After looking at it for a good five minutes my mood does a complete one eighty and it goes from awe to nervousness.
Most likely because I was heading to see one of Equestria’s goddesses you might say. Who has the power to send me to the moon and back. Needless to say my mind is giving off the warning that if I make the tiniest slip-up; I’m screwed.
My mind gets distracted for a bit as we fly past the countless streets and buildings canterlot has to offer, to be honest it seems pretty nice; excluding the people with their heads held high acting like they own everything, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them even owned a fraction of the city!
The city ended and was replaced with a pathway leading to a gate, the chariot landed and continued running down the path until we reached the gate, where we then got identified and let in. We continued moving on the ground until we came up to the front door of the castle itself. Where then I disembarked the chariot and it left, leaving me, the guards forming a semi-circle behind me, and the door.
Thinking I have no other choice, I began to make my way toward the two-story high gold trimmed door, nervousness begins to rush back up to me and every step I take my brain sends a signal saying:
‘RUN FOREST RUN!’
Trying my best to stay calm and ignore the signals, I step up to the door and take a look at the two guardsmen right beside it, I gave them a questioning look and all they did was respond with a nod while keeping their statue posture.
Taking a deep calming breath, I grip both doors and push as if I was entering a bar in a western movie. Original much? But worth it.
The doors swinging outward a good distance away from me as I enter the main hallway sorta gives me a sense of determination. Making my way toward the other side of the hallway to the throne room I notice the guards are eyeing me suspiciously. Understandable, but do they do that with everybody that they come across? Excluding the Princesses of course.
Reaching the second largest door I've ever come across in my lifetime I look at the guards for conformation once more, instead of nodding they decided to speak.
“You may enter, her majesty; Princess Celestia is expecting you,” the guard stated.
‘Celestia? I figured Luna would see me, oh wait, it’s daytime. She’s probably asleep…All right then.’
Taking another calm breath, I push the doors open western style once again, it’s a habit since I was twelve, get used to it. The doors swinging outward blocks my peripheral as all I see is Celestia sitting in her throne in all her glory.
(Credit goes to Ninja-8004 for the picture)
If there was one thing I can say about Celestia in one word it would have to be; Motherly. She gives off a sense that tells me that I am safe from any outside threats, She has the power to protect her subjects from any harm that is to come to her people, all in all, it just tells me I can trust her. And that’s saying something considering the fact I have trust issues!
Making my way towards the center of the throne room Celestia decides to dismiss her guards and stands up to meet me at the center of the room.
As soon as I reach the center I take a knee and bow to Celestia, don’t know why, just felt like it as if she somehow deserves it, Instinctual magic maybe?
“Rise, you need not bow to me; as you are not one of my subjects,” Celestia said.
‘That’s putting it bluntly...’ I thought to myself, somehow taking offence.
Getting up I take notice of Celestia’s features, she’s two feet taller than me minus the horn that dwarfs me to three feet taller, Her body shows sign of exercise, leading me to believe at any given moment she can defend herself if needed. Too summarize; she just radiates order and prosperity.
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you Christopher, let me be the first to welcome you to Equestria,” Celestia offers a hand in which I accept…What? Did you expect me to give her a kiss on the hand? Come on, I've been corrupted enough by the modern world I didn't even know I was supposed to do that.
“Thank you, too be honest I find it nice, excluding the fact I had a hard time on the first two days,” I respond, breaking the handshake.
“Yes, Luna told me about your little experience with the Timber-wolves. She also told me of your little escapade from the hospital,” The sun goddess brought up.
“Ah she did? Then she also must of mentioned she was the one who told me to do it” Celestia stifled a light chuckle for unknown reasons, “Speaking of Luna, I sort of expected her to be the one to meet me here at the castle, no offence, just wondering what happened,” i stated.
“None taken, Luna wanted to be the first to see you, but I had to send her to bed so she doesn’t fall asleep on her duties,” She answered.
“Makes sense, to my understanding she IS the goddess of the night” I yawn for a moment, “Sorry, the chariot ride was eventful and I was woken up in the very early morning, no doubt I am tired”
“In that case I’ll have one of my people escort you to your room so you can rest,” Celestia summons a guard to her side. “Thanks, I will be up at the evening at the latest, I’ll try to stay out of your way so you can resume your duties,” I follow the guard outside of the throne room to and into the main hallway, where we then exit the main part of the castle and enter a side door to a hallway consisting of multiple doors, leading me to believe that they hold storage rooms, bathrooms, and the guest rooms. At the end of the hallway I can see a large door that has a sun emblem embedded on the front, most likely Celestia’s.
The guard leads me to a guest room three doors away from Celestia’s room which is roughly two-hundred and sixteen feet away from me. A fairly good running distance, I could make the entire castle a physical training track. I enter the room to be greeted with a spacious feeling. There was a king sized bed on one side, sitting next to it was a door leading to a balcony, on the other side is a desk where I can take notes, or screw around with plans and crap, on the wall next to the desk is the bathroom doorway, don’t forget to mention the windows on the wall to the right of the balcony.
I set my backpack on the floor next to the desk and take off my jacket and gloves and set them on the chair facing the desk. Taking my pistol holster off of my belt I place it underneath the bed, don’t want anyone messing with it. I keep the knife and make my way to the bathroom; I give myself one look at the mirror and the first thought that came to mind
‘Who is this handsome devil?’
Just joking, however that didn't change at how surprised I was when I noticed my looks changed, my face was completely flawless, no blemishes or acne, no mustache or beard making its way onto my face, just a completely even toned skin colored fourteen year old face. My hair had grown a little longer than usual but I didn’t really care, the front portion of the hair only went down to half of my forehead, while my back portion only stretched down to half of my neck, the sides haven’t changed much still being at the half point at my ears, while the top was pretty slick, toned down so it didn’t stick up but keeping a spiked look at the front.
Quickly doing my business in the toilet I make my way to the bed and plop down on it, limp, I didn’t even bother to take off my shoes, I turn of my visor for a moment to check at the time; 10:26 A.M. I could sleep for a good seven hours before dinner at six.
Turning off the visor completely so it could rest at the side of my head, I curl up into a comfortable position on the bed and drift asleep
*Knock* *Knock *Knock*
I will never understand when you can only sleep for two hours and thirty minutes and feel like you can run to the other side of the world and back.
According to a quick check on my visor it was 1:02 P.M. getting up out of bed without much of a hassle I open the door to be greeted by a butler bringing up lunch to my room. Lunch consisted of Steak, served with a batch of rice, and a side of vegetables.
To be honest I never really had much of refined meat, mainly because I lived in a town where all restaurants are pretty much fast food. Not to mention that any fancy restaurants we went to were bloody expensive. Setting the lunch tray on my desk I thank the butler.
“Give my regards to the chief and Celestia, thank you for bringing this here,”
The butler leaves with a bow and takes the lunch cart away back to the kitchen, I settle down on the desk and cut a piece of the steak and put it in my mouth…
“….”
I slowly get up out of my seat, go out to the balcony and let out the best scream in my life
“THIS IS THE BEST FOOD I HAVE EVER TASTED!!”
After that little incident I finished up my lunch, drank some mountain dew and begin making my way out to explore the castle, more or less, I was trying to look for the library so I can refresh myself on Equestrian history, it just lead to me being lost at a random tower.
Exiting the tower I make my way back to the main hallway where I pace around trying to find the library, or at least a map showing the castle. Giving up I turn on my visor to check the time…
Only to be greeted with a mini-map showing the castle…
And subtitles showing every section…..
Including the library….
Which is right next door…..
Well fuck you too universe….
Letting out a growl of annoyance I enter the library and instantly get awed by the sheer architecture of this library.
(credit goes to josh-5410 for the picture)
Staring open-mouthed at the design this library holds, I regain my composure after a few minutes and begin looking for a book on history, which is gonna take a while considering the fact that there is four stories of books.
After fifteen minutes of searching I was beginning to get irritated by the fact that it’s extremely hard to find a single book in this library.
I give up for a moment to check the time which is 2:06 P.M and I immediately get an idea, if my visor can find its way around the castle, then can it find its way around a library?
Keeping the visor on the main menu I send out a search command
“Computer, search, history.”
When I finished saying it my vision turned a dark shade of blue and every object has been outlined with white, every once in a while my computer would send a pulse of light blue, assuming it’s for searching.
Looking around I see the book has been located at the right side of the second story, making my way up there I keep the pulse on so I can find the specific book and be done with searching.
As soon as I was about to grab the history book I heard the door open. Acting out of sheer instincts I make my way toward the staircase and dig myself into the corner between it and prop my back into it, crouching down so I can look as small as possible I look over the staircase to take a look at how just came in.
I can’t seem to detect movement so I decide to re-route my search configurations.
“Computer, search, heartbeat”
Just as a figured there is one person in the library with me, apparently in my blindspot, which is near the fireplace room underneath me.
The sensor indicates that the person is sitting in a chair near the fireplace reading a book facing away from the doorway, which is perfect. Getting out of my hiding spot I quietly make my way to the door, stepping down the stairway I begin crouch-running quietly toward the door. I make it toward the doorway, open it, get out, close it, and make sure the person is not disturbed. After giving the all clear to myself I turn off the search function and bring up the mini-map of the castle, I look for my room which is in the hall way on the other side of the main hallway, which I’m in.
Quickly making my way toward the other side but not enough to arouse suspicion from the guards at the side of the castle, I open the door and enter the side hallway where my room is at the other side, near Celestia’s room, which is about the length of a track.
‘Screw it; I could go for the physical training’ I figured
Ignoring the guards stationed at the doors, I start a brisk jog, I speed up to a run, and make it about a quarter of the way before I turn into a dead-on sprint, it was only halfway when I realized the lightning emitting off of my shoes has remade it’s appearance, and it has given me another speed boost.
My tennis shoes pounding on the tile floor is making some noise that is bound to draw some attention, but I ignore it, almost reaching my doorway I put both of my feet sideways and start sliding. Slowly decelerating, I was able to stop a little past my doorway.
Turning around to head back to my doorway, I was surprised to see someone standing at the other side of the hallway where I started running.
It was a female, with rainbow colored hair, she was wearing a light blue hoodie and light blue sweatpants, also some light blue and white tennis shoes, she had blue wings that lead me to believe that she is a Pegasus and she has a tail matching the same colors as her hair.
Overall, she looks pissed.
We engage in a staring contest for two whole minutes, everyone, including the guards feeling the tension between us.
It was only a matter of time before I settled things like a man.
I open my door without breaking eye-contact, slowly walk in still not breaking eye-contact, and while my head is now horizontally sticking out of the doorway I say the one thing that throws everybody off the edge.
“Hai”
"HEY!!!" I heard her footsteps pound on the tiles.
*Shuts the door and locks it before the girl catches me*
(AN: this chapter is going to be using a bombardment of pictures, I strongly suggest that you do not be reading this in text document format. This will be the last chapter that uses pictures as far as I’m concerned.)
Smiling softly at my little charade I lock the door so that no one can enter without my consent. I look around the room once more and attempt to find something to do considering the fact that I have been spotted, so it’s only a matter of time before I will be confronted.
Sighing in disappointment I walk over to bathroom to take a shower, because let’s face it. It’s been three days since my last shower and I've been exercising most of the time.
Closing the door behind me and locking it so now I have two lines of defense, I make my way towards the shower door and slide the shower door to the right, showing the knob I grab onto it and after some millimeter adjustments I have it set to be warmed up to a tolerable level. (Which is about the same as sitting in a fire, force of habit, I guess.)
After I do what needs to be done, I don’t want to get into too much detail, I was left in the shower thinking about the events that lead up to me being stuck here in this dimension….
‘Screw It, I still need answers,’ I conceded.
Washing my hair and rinsing, I sit in the shower for five more minutes before being certain that I am clean, turning off the water and exiting out the shower door I was greeted with a foggy room, not to be surprised, because I probably showering at 100`F for all I know.
Exiting the swamp I call a bathroom refreshed, clean, and smelling like a man should be. Don’t forget the clothes; I decide that I’m too bored to stay in one area, so I decide to sharpen my sneaking skills throughout the castle.
Another reason is because my visor picked up heartbeat and motion coming toward my door. According to the count there was an entire ‘squad’ coming, meaning there was about six.
Instinctive calculations determined that I had about five minutes before they came to the door.
Of course my playful nature (I would say sadistic but that’s under different circumstances) came out and I unlocked the door and made a dummy on the bed.
Quickly checking the time it was about 4:30, so I had about a half hour for “playtime” before I would cut everything off and head to the throne room.
Looking around for a good hiding spot I remember a little tidbit I learned from my step-father
‘People will look left, right, and even down, but they almost never look up’
Ever since then I would always find a way to get to the ceiling, and right now is when I would make it work.
Looking at the doorway I take notice of the ½ inch ledge on the outline. So I grabbed my backpack and gun from under the bed, strapped them on, began sprinting and jumped up and tried to get a grip on the ledge. After that I used my feet as a makeshift thruster and pushed myself up on top of the ledge. Sadly my center of balance was off, but instinct took over and I twisted my feet sideways and tried to keep myself leaning onto the wall, luckily it worked.
Right than the group came to the door and stood there for a few seconds before one of them came and knocks on the door. They didn’t receive a response for the obvious. After about a minute they attempt to knock on the door again, still no response for obvious reasons.
Tired of waiting, someone else from the group walked over and opened the door, causing me to stumble a bit but keeping my balance.
The entire group entered to my knowledge as I was facing the wall unable to see them looking, so as soon as they all entered and got a safe distance away from me I dropped down and grabbed the ledge with my hands and swung myself to the outside of my room without making a sound.
Grabbing my bearing I began my quiet sprint toward the doorway, which was on the far side of the hallway. Luck was on my side however because it wasn't until I was at the doorway when my cover was blown,
“Hey, there he is! Get him!”
Judging by the tone of voice, I have no time to play around with them.
‘Shit, to the throne room it is then’
I was being attempted captured by who knows who, and I didn't want to fight.
Slamming the door behind me, I turn left when I reached the main hallway and made a dead-on sprint toward the throne room,
To avoid suspicion I slowed down to a walk when I came into view of the guards, when I came up to the door, they allowed me in.
“Celestia has given permission to you to join her in the throne room; you may be allowed to enter,” said the guard.
Giving a nod of acknowledgement, I opened the door and closed it…A bit faster and louder than usual. Granted this didn't get Celestia’s attention as she was busy with paperwork.
“Is there a reason I’m being chased around about to get captured?” I asked Celestia in a dead panned voice, I normally use it when I suspect something.
This got Celestia’s attention and she immediately dropped the paperwork she had in her magical grasp, I most likely startled her as her wings extended from behind her.
‘How did I not notice those wings?’ I thought.
At this moment I realized that Celestia was wearing a sheepish grin, this immediately piqued my curiosity, and it also made me raise my brow, as a subconscious way saying I wanted an explanation.
“I….May have let my student and her friends stay here in account of them seeing you head here in Luna’s chariot. However they must have not gotten a good look at you, so they probably thought you were an intruder,” Celestia explained.
“That explains a lot, however that doesn’t change the fact that I’m being chased and I have no idea how to deal with it,” I continued to dead-pan.
“No worries, I will solve it when they come, in the mean-time you can wait here.”
I stand next to Celestia’s throne while she does paperwork; my guess is that the paperwork she has are complaints and what not.
After a while I start to get bored and explore my visor.
Turns out I can change the tint to all sorts of colors….
This is getting really boring.
I drop my backpack from my shoulders to relieve the stress it was building up on my shoulders, unzipping it I bring out a bottle of Mountain dew and take a large sip, putting it away, I sit on the backpack until the guests come.
It was only then Celestia gave me a VERY helpful tidbit about my visor.
“Luna told me that the visor can act as a makeshift computer, all you need to do apparently is bring out your fist and expand it, as if you were zooming in on a….What was It called again? Ah yes, an iPod.”
Trying out her advice I do what she said, a screen pixilated out from the center of my hand and I was greeted with a windows 7 computer desktop screen… The screen had a light tint of blue coming out of it and it was basically holographic, I could move it around and interact with it, but if I try hard enough my hand will go through it.
“Celestia?”
“Yes?”
“You’re a bloody genius, thank you,”
Celestia responded with a smile, and I immediately set to work on setting up the computer, bringing up the start menu, I take a look at the computer’s processing, memory, RAM, and what not.
Turns out this thing had 3 Terabytes of space, this thing was a supercomputer in sunglasses, I smile and begin work on setting up the computer, wallpaper, files, wait, I thought this was a new computer. What are my photos of my family doing here?
Closing the photo library before I start reminiscing I decide to look in on the internet.
After loading the crappy internet explorer (it stinks even in supercomputers) it brings up Google as its homepage. Confused at the breakthrough I look at the bottom right of the screen and check the WIFI connection.
It read: “WIFI, You can't explain it, so don't bother.”
Chuckling at this I decide to leave it as it is, I was about to head back onto the internet when the door opened.
“Finally,” I murmur, closing the screen by shrinking it down to non-existence.
Unfortunately, my moment of relief was short lived when the same rainbow haired girl from before charged me with her wings.
Instincts took over and I immediately side-stepped, barely missing her by a hair.
She would have charged me again if she wasn’t stopped by a Lavender aura surrounding her body and got dragged back to the doorway.
“Rainbow Dash! You just attacked someone in the presence of the princess!” I looked over to see who the voice belonged to.
It was another girl, probably about eighteen years old to maybe a year over my age; she wore a dark purple checkered mini-skirt that is outlined with pink stripes. She is wearing a white blouse and over it, is a purple sweater-vest. She had a unicorn horn, and her hair and tail is a near black, with a tint of lavender, save for the purple and pink streaks.
I would assume this is the ‘student’ Celestia was talking about; her name was Twilight Sparkle if I remember correctly. She immediately ran over to the princess and began apologizing.
“Princess Celestia! I’m so very sorry; I don’t know what came over her I-“She silenced herself when Celestia raised her hand.
“There is no need. Now how about we discuss everything over dinner? I’m sure someone is starving,” Celestia looked over to me, and at that moment my stomach growled like a tiger.
‘Traitor’ I mentally glared at the stomach.
“Sorry, that was me, I could go for some Teriyaki right about now,” I said.
Celestia chuckled at my little charade and we began to walk out to the dining hall, as we were walking I was receiving looks from the other girls and in response I activated my visor, they took it as a sign of ‘I don’t like being stared at’ and they looked away.
Eventually, we entered the main dining hall, and let me tell you, it’s huge. There is a table for about thirty people if necessary, and the architecture is great like the rest of the castle, there were about three chandeliers at the table, and each tiny little detail would make you mind say ‘Fancy’
Celestia took her seat at the edge of the table, and Twilight sat on the seat next to Celestia on the left side of the table. After everyone settled down I was sitting near the edge of the group next to a girl with a orange shirt with yellow highlights, tied up into a knot so her belly was exposed, she was wearing tan jeans with a belt that had a buckle engraved ‘AJ’, she had brown leather gloves on that a an emblem of three plump red apples on it. She was also wearing a Stetson hat that she never bothered to take off when she came inside, and she had blonde hair and a blonde tail both tied up into a knot at the end.
It stands to reason that she was one of the girls in the group who was staring at me.
The other one was more…Unique, so to speak, unlike everyone else who was normally wearing casual clothing, this one was wearing clothes as if she was going to a fancy gathering at every moment of her time, her hair and tail, where both a shining purple put up into a curl at the end. She had a unicorn horn poking through the center of her hair, leading me to believe she is a unicorn like Twilight. She had a white dress shirt that was trimmed purple and it was tucked into a dark skirt, she was wearing panty-hose that stretched down to her fancy black boots.
She sort of reminded me of my mother, when It came to the clothes.
She was located at the seat next to Twilight, and also next to another one.
This one seemed like the shy part, somewhere like me, except I’m working on getting out of my shell, she was wearing what seems to be a yellow knit sweater, with buttons going down the entire length; she has it down so you can see her shoulders. She is also wearing a green skirt, nothing old, and nothing new. Her pink hair and tail however look like it could be trimmed at least. I’m surprised she is able to fly with her Pegasus wings.
“Pinkie, it would be wise to not startle our guest,” Celestia advised.
“You do realize I picked up your motions a while ago, get out from behind me,” I said.
“Aww… You’re a party pooper,” came out a pink girl.
She was wearing a pink long sleeve shirt that had an emblem on the front, the sleeves were candy cane striped, she was wearing a pink skirt and underneath it a candy cane striped leggings, her mane and tail, were unnaturally poofy and curly.
“I give you props for disappearing without my notice,” I say.
At this she smiles at me and heads back to her seat.
“Now that everyone is situated, I believe introductions are in order,” Celestia speaks.
A collective bunch of 'yes' echo throughout the dining hall
Celestia giggles a bit and then begins
“Well then, everyone this is Christopher, Christopher this is Twilight Sparkle” Celestia brings a hand over to each person as they introduce each other.
“Hello”
“Applejack”
“Howdy”
“Rarity”
“Good evening”
“Fluttershy”
“Umm…hi”
“Rainbow Dash”
“Hey”
“And Pinkie Pie”
“Hi! Nice to meet ‘cha! Do you like parties? ‘Cause I like parties, do you like cupcake or muffins, betterthanyethowaboutmuffcakes?Butthatwouldstillbeacupcakes,whatabout-“ At this she gets silenced by Applejack, who just smiles apologetically at me, pinkie however is still talking as if there is no hand muffling her sentences.
“Sorry ‘bout that, Pinkie ‘ere can git a ‘bit random at times,” she apologized.
Just as I was about to respond, the door behind me opened again, and inwards came Princess Luna.
(AN: sorry about no visual in text, but unfortunately I most likely have no idea what she is wearing based on visuals, so you will need to make do with the photo.)
Like Celestia, Luna radiates a sense of authority and wisdom, however she might not have much experience past Celestia, but she knows how to get around.
When I turn around I happen to catch her yawning, I would assume she had a rough night. Even more so when she barely notices me, or any of the girls, except for Celestia.
“Evening, sister,” Luna says tiredly, as she walks over to sit in her seat next to Celestia.
“Evening, Luna,” The sun goddess replies.
“When will our guest arrive? I would think he would be here sooner,” At this I wonder what happened during her sleep to make her all oblivious.
“Did you have a rough night Luna?”, in the middle of the sentence Celestia glances over to me and gives me a wink practically saying ‘Let’s do something funny’, “Because he is right behind you,” Right when Luna turns around to look behind her, I silently moved besides twilight and gave her a face saying ‘Don’t say anything’ and continued moving, right when Luna turned face forward I had snuck up right behind her without her knowing. All the while a smile creeping up my face,
“Sister I do not see anything, is this, another one of your jokes?” Luna asks questioningly.
At the end of her sentence I stick my head right next to her face, and while looking straight ahead, I spoke right beside her ear and go with my killer one-worder.
“Hai”
“Pfftt, HAHAHAHA!”
Everyone continues to laugh at the little prank me and Celestia did, while I just sit there smiling smugly, while Luna is sitting there blushing like mad from embarrassment.
What happened is that when I spoke she screamed from shock and fell out of her chair, the best part is that I was back on my seat when she came back up, so she still had no idea what happened. At least until I broke the ice.
“Consider that payback for making me sneak out of the hospital and run across the town for two hours,” I say while still smiling. “Consider us, even.”
When Luna noticed me her face turned from one of embarrassment to surprise. Eventually we all calmed down so we could get straight to business, and when I mean business I mean-
“FOOOOD!!” Pinkie, Dash, and I, exclaim.
Celestia rings a bell and then servants go around the table bringing out menus, well except for me. When I shoot her a questioning look, she tapped on the side of her head.
I realized she was talking about my visor.
Activating it, the visor immediately brings up the dinner menu, Burgers, Hot dogs, Steak, Fettuccini, and the one I picked, Teriyaki Beef, along with a side of white rice and vegetables, oh and extra Teriyaki sauce, Gotta love Teriyaki sauce.
While I was taking my order I noticed a group of murmuring, quickly finishing my order, I turn off the menu so I can look at what’s going on. Turns out everyone was talking about my device. This brought me to the question:
“Luna, where did you get this device, and why?” I ask.
Without hesitating Luna replied, “I got it from an alternate universe close to yours, the reason why is mainly because it was meant for communication, however I noticed your love for technology is astounding, so I had it changed to reflect your needs”
“I see, thank you, Luna,” I say.
“It was a pleasure”
Celestia gets everyone’s attention, “Now I know you have been patient Chris, and I thank you for that, I think it’s time we answer your questions,”
‘Finally!’ I thought.
I begin with the most important question of all, “Why am I here? When I should be dead?”
When I mentioned the death part, a collective gasps and shocked murmurs spread between the girls. Celestia holds up a hand for silence, than speaks, “Your question is expected, however it is hard to answer,” Celestia stops for a moment to collect her thoughts, “…You see, Equestria, is not how you expect it to be, there are wars, extremely rare, but the more common problem is bandits and groups, although we send out troops to stop them from growing, they have been increasing lately, some have even started their own private military groups.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Each group has different plans, but one goal… They want to overthrow me and Luna.” Celestia finishes, another collective shocked gasp echo throughout the dining hall.
In the back of my mind, I pray to whoever is controlling this universe that Celestia is not leading to where I think she is leading. God knows how much I put that behind.
“All right, where do I come in with this?” I continue asking albeit nervously, ‘Please don’t say it please don’t say it,’
“…Your Military experience…” The sun goddess answers…
I drop my head on the table comically and start banging it to everyone's confusion, I raise my head again to reply, only to be interrupted by rarity.
“Not to be rude Princess, but how is a child experienced in the art of war? He seems more like an out-going kind of boy rather than a stoic serious one.”
Before Celestia answers I intercept first, “Ever hear the expression, ‘The ones who laugh the most, share the worst pain?”” I ask her, when I say this I notice Pinkie’s hair deflate slightly.
"Chris, be careful on what you're going to say next, I know how much emotions your bottling up all these years," Luna advises.
I just put on my best poker face and clear my mind except for my explanation before giving Luna a nod.
“When I was nine, five years after my real parents’ divorce, I was riding in a motorized vehicle in layman’s terms, with my mother and my step-father, I had a little sister…Her name was Monica Comstock, about three years old, the most adorable thing you can imagine, full of joy, and carefree. We were driving in a country called Iraq which was supposed to be a dead war area, my step-father was called by a photographer to do a photo-shoot with us for a military magazine, he said that we would be a safe distance from any hazardous things so there would be no need to worry about any battles, he brought us with him because it was a four day trip from Panama city beach, and he didn't want to leave us behind, that and the photographer wanted to take photos of dale's family…. how wrong were we…”
(AN: I forgot to mention.. This story is realistically illogical. In the real world, Chris wouldn't have been able to join the military because of age requirement. However In a universe where humanized ponies exist, the rules of the world barely applies. Therefore this story takes place In a separate universe where the military age requirement doesn't exist. But that doesn't mean that he can JUST join the delta force (at least without good reason))
We had pulled into a garage which was the designated location for the photo-shoot to commence, after five minutes of waiting my step-father: Dale Comstock, retired military delta force Green Beret, the best of the best. Decided we will leave and stay in a hotel, however as soon as we began moving, cars began swarming and surrounded us in a circle, I was holding my little sister close to me as I saw armed men exit out and began making their way towards us. What I remembered last was that I was knocked out with Monica crying in my arms.
When I came to I was in a dark room with Monica in my lap sleeping, however she was beaten by the men, and so was I. Bruises covering our bodies screaming out in pain every time I moved an inch, it felt like being put in a meat grinder and getting put back together piece by piece.
After an hour or so, the men returned and stood by the doorway speaking in Arabic, after a while they came over and took Monica, I tried to stop them but instead I took a stock to the face, dazed I tried to regain my bearing only to realize that they set up a camera and had tied up Monica to a chair.
She was crying, crying for help, crying for mom, for dale, all the while the Iraq terrorists speaking to the camera, ready to send it out to America.
“You invade our homes, deem us enemies, and you think you can just go back home to your family when you've destroyed ours? Who is the real enemy America?” the Iraq soldier says.
Now before I continue, I was to make it clear that these men were the one who started the war in the first place, they sent a Weapon of Mass Destruction to Colorado and killed Millions of innocent people, it was then the president of the United States declared war and sent our soldiers to fight, to prevent them from destroying our country.
After the Iraq soldier finished his speech, he pulled out a pistol and charged it; all the while Monica still crying and struggling screaming out my name and my family, I couldn’t do anything as I was being held down by two other soldiers.
“Chwis!” Monica would scream out, “Mommy! Daddy!”
The Iraq soldier loaded the bullet and pointed at Monica, all the while me and her keeping eye contact, I was crying silently, knowing that my little sister would die before she could even live her life. Monica was still crying but more silently now, keeping eye contact with me sent her a calming message.
The last words I said to her was: “It will all be over soon, everything will be better, I promise,”
*BANG!*
As I watched Monica fall down I noticed everything was going in slow motion, I saw the bullet exit out of her head leaving a trail of blood, the soldier grinning maliciously as he killed her, the recording finishing up and being sent to the president, everything. But as I saw Monica’s life being torn away I heard her say one last word before she died…
"Chwis..."
Then…Everything just….Snapped…
In a fit of adrenaline and rage, I tore away from the two soldiers and grab one of their guns, I kicked the soldier in the crotch before getting behind him and used him as a meat shield, holding the soldier in one arm steady and the gun in the other, I release a barrage of bullets from left to right killing everyone in the room, before shoving down the soldier I was using as a meat shield and sending a bullet straight through his skull.
After the entire adrenaline rush was over I dropped the gun and slowly make my way to Monica. Blood was beginning to pool around her head as it continued bleeding, I picked her up not caring if I was getting dirty or not and hug her, feeling her warmth sap away from her body, I let loose the dam of tears, Crying my eyes out and hiccupping once in a while, all the while blaming myself for not being able to stop them from killing her, while still keeping silent to respect her death.
After a while her warmth was gone and her body was cold setting her down on the ground I notice her eyes were open, glazed, blurry…Lifeless… I drop one last tear before closing her eyes, wishing her eternal rest.
Grabbing an assault rifle and pistol, I hook them up to my belt and shoulder before opening the door and make my escape, after a while of searching I come across another door, except this one was emitting sound, slowly opening it I come across a familiar scene from not too long ago.
Mom was on the chair this time, while dale is tied up and being subdued by three soldiers. It didn’t take long for me to realize that he wouldn’t be able to stop them from killing her like Monica, so I did the first thing that came to my mind, I shot the executioner and the camera man, before taking out the three soldiers holding Dale down.
While mom and Dale were looking at me in astonishment I took the knife from the cameraman and start cutting mom and dale loose.
“Chris? How did you escape? Where’s Monica?” Mom asks.
I look at her for a moment before looking away; mom gets the picture and holds a hand over her mouth in shock. “Did they..?”
“I COULDN’T STOP THEM!" I scream out, making Dale and Mom flinch,"IT’S ALL MY FAULT…!" I collapse onto my knees and start sobbing,"It’s my fault she’s dead! I was too weak…It took her to die for me to escape..." In a emotional breakdown i scream,"WHAT KIND OF BIG BROTHER AM I?!?” I start crying again while plopping down on the stone cold floor, awaiting my punishment for not protecting Monica.
Mom and Dale are only looking at me and each other in sorrow; it wasn’t for awhile ‘till they came over to me….And gave me a hug.
“Son, it wasn’t your fault, you couldn’t stop them, if it wasn’t for you barging in, I would have been gone and Dale wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it,” Mom said.
“I don’t deserve forgiveness...” I say.
“Then what do you deserve? I think you deserve to live, to keep Monica’s memory alive by doing the one thing to honor her: to fight for our country.” Dale replies.
From then on, we escaped and got back to our Humvee, however during the escape we went back to the room me and Monica were in and collected her body to bury. After her funeral, Dale and I were confronted by an old friend of Dale who is a general and recruiter of the United States Army. The general offered Dale...and I after a hour of 'Persuasion', an offer to fight for our country against the Iraqi terrorists, we accepted without hesitation.
I had a terrible time in the selection, but apparently I somehow exceeded a lot of the operators expectations, so they immediately placed me in selection for the Delta Force.
The Delta Force is a sub-branch in the Army, it focuses more on rapid deployment against counter-terrorism, done with surgical precision. It is one of the 3 anti-terrorist groups i am aware of, the others being FBI HRT; which is domestic, Delta Force is foreign, and ST6 is maritime.
from there, the delta force is separated into three 'troops' A,B, and C. A is for HALO jumps, B is for Scuba...And i can't remember what C was for...But i was assigned to A.
we got transported to a base near the Iraqi area in order to accommodate training for Dale and I. We stayed there for about a month or so, every day being a training session between me and dale.
When we were assigned to our squadron, we got mixed expressions; surprise was the first, then laughter, then fear. Because those sons of bitches were face to face with a master sergeant and a born killer, since then all missions were a success and without casualty besides the occasional gunshot wound.
I noticed Applejack's face scrunch up and Celestia's face twitch...Did they pick up on my bluff?
After three years of serving, I was ranked up to a Master Sergeant while dale became a First lieutenant.
Normally, we would have to serve a required 20 years before we can retire, but the general and the president said that in order to keep my position classified, I had to retire now. But when I get older, they would reserve a position for me so I can continue my active duty. So, we were unofficially retired and headed home to our friends and families and everybody lived their life on peacefully from there…Except for me, while everyone is happy I still carried the burden of Monica’s death, even though I was forgiven by my family I could never forgive myself for letting them take her life. Every night was a nightmare and I rarely could ever get a good’s night sleep, I took therapy classes and they thought it was Post traumatic Stress Disorder. From then on I lived a disturbed life, at least, until I got sick and became overwhelmed with diseases and was killed by septic shock.
-And that brings us to now” I finish, Throughout the entire story my voice turned monotonous, I was holding my face up with one of my hands, trying not to remember the day of her death in too much depth. I noticed everyone’s reactions all within a degree of sadness and sorrow.
Pinkie’s hair deflated all the way and she was bawling.
Applejack had her hat tipped over her eyes to prevent anyone from seeing her, even though I could clearly see the tear rolling down her cheeks.
Rarity was blowing into a tissue while crying in a dramatic way.
Rainbow dash was looking away from everybody, but even from body movements and jerks I notice that she too was crying.
Twilight was crying openly.
Celestia and Luna were both looking at me in degrees of sorrow and pity. However they managed to keep their composure.
And Fluttershy is looking down, her hair covering her face, however body movement says she crying a lot.
Taking a silence for respect between me and the death of Monica, eventually everyone calmed down.
“Chris, we are deeply sorry for your loss. This brings us to the second reason you are here.” Celestia begins, “You are different, you lead a unique life, one of pain and misery, disturbance, and corruption, when Luna was in your dimension, she came across you and learned of your life, although you were happy on the outside, spending time with your friends, we were able to see the turmoil going on within you. When you became sick with the diseases that took your life, Luna and I came up with a decision, we would take you here to live a second life, to get a fresh start from the previous one. However if only that were to be so easy, If it weren’t for the Private terrorist groups threatening to overthrow this country, you could live a peaceful life, but this is all I’m asking, can you protect another country? For the sake of Equestria and the countries beside it can I ask you to stop this terrorist menace from disturbing the peace that has lasted countless years without problem? This is all I’m asking, if you do not want to do it, I understand,” Celestia finished.
‘Do I want to start a new life repeating the same thing I did since I was eight? Although the circumstances were justified, it was still inappropriate for someone of my age to learn about killing real people. However this country is facing a possible war on terror, do I really want to subjugate them to what my world has been through?
No I don’t, I don’t want to have them lose their innocence and lives because of a selfish choice, even if I will be fighting for a country I’m unfamiliar with, no one else should have to go through the same pain and suffering I have been through, I’ve been through hell and back multiple times, I can do it again.’
The tension in the air has risen to uncomfortable levels as everyone is fidgeting in their seat, waiting for my answer.
I look up towards Celestia and slowly deactivate my visor, letting it rest on the sides of my head, with determination in my eyes I give them the answer they all wanted to hear.
“….I’ll do it…”
Everyone in the dining hall had mixed expressions; Celestia and Luna were showing signs of relief but uncertainty for my well-being.
The girls were in shock, at my willingness to fight for a country I have no idea about.
The guards at the sides of the room were either cheering, or astonished, that a child, who has military experience, is taking on the war on terror from now on.
After everyone has calmed down I take the spotlight once more,
“On one condition,”
Aaanddd the tension is back.
“I want to be trained separately and alone, no one besides me should have to deal with this burden…..I don’t want anyone else to go through what I’ve been through…This place is too innocent.”
...Eh, When I look back, that little add-on was both my stupidest mistake and the smartest.
Celestia facial expression is returned with a look of concern, before returning to her signature poker face.
“Very well, we will begin preparing for your training which will begin in the future of six months to a year. Until then I will assign you to live in Ponyville under the care of my student until further notice.”
The spotlight switches from Celestia to Luna for a moment, “Also, we encourage you to look in your guest room before you leave, make sure you don’t miss anything.” Luna finishes with a smile.
The tension leaves and with that, our food arrives, we eat in relative silence. Enjoying the taste of the food in our mouths, after we finish, we excused ourselves and head to our respective rooms to turn in for the night.
When I reached my room I was greeted with two cases, picking up the relatively familiar weight of one of the boxes I place it on the desk, I look around for a latch to open it, and when I do I was greeted with a VERY familiar object.
It was the Heckler and Koch HK416, my weapon of choice during my tour of duty. Next to the standard issue M4A1 the HK416 is the second in line in the line of duty. I had is fit with a small red dot sight rather than the usual iron sights because it just fit with me in the looks and functionality, I picked the weapon because of its design mostly until afterwards I realized just how functional it was in the battlefield, the small recoil and moderate rate of fire it had made picking off targets from a distance easy. Not to mention the forty round magazines its made with, allowing less space to be taken up from magazines.
It did me good during the short time I used it, before I was using a M4A1 carbine. I was modifying it with other items, however I got sent here to my "project" is on hold.
The most recent attachment that was added to it was most likely done by the princesses, they painted the gun darker than normal and added blue lighting starting from the stock and spreads out throughout the gun, although it wouldn't give me a tactical advantage, it still looks nice.
with it I had accumulated 50+ KIAs. (What? It's just my normal assault weapon, most of my confirmed kills are on my sniper and SMG's)
I Field strip the gun down to it's most basic components, checking to make sure it would even fire.
'Something isn't right...'
I move my hand around the gun's parts, trying to find the source of my unease, i look at the upper and lower receiver and tap my finger on it.
*Doonk* *Doonk*
'Strange, it looks and feels like metal, even holds like metal, but sounds like ABS plastic...'
My last source of unease were the bullets, they were the blue-tipped rounds on my pistol from before,
'Is it just me or does the bullets themselves seem a bit thicker? Like a 7.62 round than a 5.56...' I question myself.
'Probably just me...'
...
I'll regret that later...
‘I’ll have to ask the princess about why the rounds are blue-tipped in the first place tomorrow’
Placing everything back into its respectful places I close the case and move onto the next one.
This case was longer than the Assault rifle case, but way lighter than then the former. Setting it down on the desk with the 416 case, I open it to be greeted with a pleasant surprise.
It was a sword, unsheathing it carefully and slowly, I took in the many details it had, it had a carbon texture on the parts without the blade and handle, the hilt had a carrying strap at the end, and the blade was recently sharpened. The sheath was a mixture of metal and plastic, fitted to accommodate the sword, it had a futuristic feel to it, even more so with the note that was left in the case
“Just another item from the alternate universe close to yours, I’m sure you will like it.”
Placing everything next to the bag, ready for leave tomorrow, I take off my shoes and plop down on the bed preparing for another disturbed night.
‘Well, at least I can live peacefully now’
Clearing my mind I slowly drift off to sleep, welcoming darkness.
Next chapter:
“And you are?”
“I am MC prototype, SQ-74I"
"MC prototype?"
"Magical Construct prototype, all high level magical constructs and fitted with high level artificial intelligence, an additional intelligence grants verbal communication."
"..."
"I posses a intellect far beyond human reckoning,"
The metal clanging of my hands and footsteps echoing as I climb the metal ladder up to the roof, I was sent to provide over watch from the designated building as my squad made its way to the main building to take out the HVT.
As soon as I made it up to the top I saw an Iraqi sniper looking out at the other side of the rooftop.
“Dagger, watch out for the sniper to the west of your location, I’m taking him out,” I quietly say into the radio.
Dagger, was the designated squad call sign for this mission.
“Roger that,” Dale replied.
Sliding my military knife from its sheath barely making a sound, I walk on the soles of my boots to reduce the sound of my footsteps.
Reaching the soldier, I pounce and wrap my hand around his mouth, kick his legs from under him and stab the knife into his throat, take it out, and stab it in his heart for good measure.
I drag the body to the center of the rooftop so no one can see the body from here. I grab the sniper rifle he was using and adjust the scope so I can see the target building and my squad.
“Silver, confirm visual on the target building and the squad,” I hear the radio crackle.
“Roger that, I have visual, I count two hostiles at the front doors of the building, five inside the first floor, also note there is a sniper on the rooftop,” I reply into the radio.
“Roger that, ready to move on your kill” The radio crackles once more.
I attach a suppressor to the L96A1 I took, and carefully aim at the rooftop, finding the sniper patrolling around the rooftop,
'Wind speed is...23mph to the west of me, Target is...56 meters away from me...Coriolis effect will cause the bullet to veer a little bit to the upper left. Not much to screw up my shot, but I will need to make the necessary changes to guarantee my shot will enter the T range'
Taking a breath I aim at the correct area that would guarantee my kill.
Slowly exhaling, I squeeze the trigger, and feel the recoil bounce into my shoulder, after regaining my senses, I look back into the scope to the body of the sniper fall down into the rooftop.
“Kill confirmed” I say into the radio.
At that sentence my squad enters the compound and takes out the two soldiers guarding the entryway, signaling the real mission has begun.
“It seems there is more to you than we thought, Silver” I hear behind me.
Quick reflexes coming in, I turn around with the sniper raised, expecting a soldier, but what made me stop in my tracks was that it was Luna standing behind me.
It wasn’t long until I noticed the dream starting to dissipate into white, I was wondering what was going on and if it weren’t for my military training I probably would have started panicking.
I drop the weapon and let it rest to my side.
Luna summons up two couches, and gestures for us to take a seat. I set the weapon down, and relax in the couch, I was surprised at how comfy it was, and if it wasn’t for Luna gaining my attention again, I probably would have drowned out the world again.
“With respect Luna, can I ask what are you doing here?” I began.
“Well for one thing I assumed that you had more questions for us, so I came into your dreams to talk with you,” she replied. “And there are certain matters we need to discuss pertaining to your training coming up soon.”
“All right then, I’ve been meaning to ask, what are these blue-tipped bullets in my assault rifle and pistol?” I ask, beginning the Q&A.
“Ahh, those, they are actually sapphire bullets, enhanced with a certain spell, allowing it to charge lighting-
“Sorry, but I need to cut you off there before I lose another chance to ask this,” I begin, “What are these lighting powers I have that appear when I run a certain speed?”
“To be perfectly honest, I only know a little more than you.” Luna admitted, “You see, because you are human and not from this dimension, I theorize that because you are technically the original form, meaning your DNA isn’t co-opted with another species, and that you don’t have magic, this dimension had given you these powers to balance things out, so to speak. Either that or the device I gave you made it a side effect, maybe both,” Luna ended sheepishly.
“…I guess… that makes some sense,” I admit. “But to what extent do these powers hold?”
Luna summons a screen to her side, it shows me, except I’m in third person.
“To my knowledge, if you can perfect these powers you can run faster,” The screen begins to show me running with the lighting showing with every step I take. “Hit harder,” the screen changes to show myself, punching with lightning around my arms, and kicking with lighting around my legs, “and endure stronger attacks, or in this case here, an above average punch” the screen changes once more showing me blocking a direct hit to the center of my area from a kick.
“Wait a second, that was a kick, there is no way I could just block it directly, I should only be able to redirect it, or swing it away.”
“Ah, we have found another contradiction between our worlds, you see, whenever you are in a fight, with the exception of a firefight, if you were to block in anyway, besides evading, countering, or redirecting, you would generate a magical field in the area you are blocking. The strength of the magical field would depend on your endurance, willpower, or strength.”
“Hmm…Makes sense, kinda,” I reply, motioning for her to continue with her previous explanation.
“In any case,” she began again, “this is pretty much the basics of your powers, anything else you want to know about it, you will need to find on your own.”
“Well, all right then,” I reply, “But wait, what do my powers have to do with the sapphire bullets?”
“The sapphire bullets have been enchanted to charge lightning and store it in the bullet for later use,” she began explaining, “what the lightning will do will be based on how you shoot it, for example, if you were to activate your lightning and hold the trigger, the bullet in the chamber and other bullets ranging from one to five, will begin to charge up the lightning at a fast rate, if you hold onto the trigger to the maximum of five bullets, and release, the gun will release a charged shot, capable of penetrating a meter thick stone, and taking out an enemy behind it, or if you fire at an enemy out in plain sight, the bullet will penetrate and go through any other enemies behind him.”
“And the other style?” I asked, slightly unnerved by this power.
“If you were to activate your lighting but used it on the magazine itself, the bullets will be charged with the lightning, however the difference being that instead of a penetrating blast, the bullets will only stun, the advantage to this is that the lightning is the only thing being shot, the bullets will stay within the casing unaffected,” she answered.
“If I were to do neither, the weapon will act just like it was made to? Act like a normal bullet?”
“That is correct; the bullet will leave the casing and exit out just like any other bullet.”
“Hmm…All right…I think that’s all I need to know, for now.” I say, “Let’s move onto your discussion.”
“Very well, this should only take a minute or so,” At the instant, three screens twice my size began appearing around the white room. Surrounding us, underneath these were subtitles each saying: “Ninja” “Samurai” “Ranger”
Underneath the titles were bullet points describing the Class details, attributes, Etc.
“What’s all this?” I ask.
“Simple, these are classes that you can choose, and as soon as we receive an answer, we will base your training to head up that class,” Luna explained.
I observe the class descriptions and they go as follow,
Ninja: • Learn to ninja run and be able to run over obstacles with ease
• Be able to sneak up on your enemy and deliver a silent death
• Learn to use not only your hands for your sword, but your feet for extended reach
• Double your speed so you can attack faster.
• Run swiftly and silently to avoid enemy detection.
I raise my eyebrow at the feet bullet point and move onto the next one.
Samurai: • Learn to draw out your sword and attack at the same time. (Batto-Jutsu)
• Learn to dodge enemy attacks with ease.
• Learn to solidify air in mid-jump to double-jump.
• Learn to dash in mid-air.
• Double your speed so you can run faster
Without a word I move over to the last one and it kinda made me almost want to face palm.
Ranger: • Learn to handle a vast array of weapons ranging from bows, to rocket launchers.
• Learn to make your own ammo.
• Use your surroundings to your advantage to allow camouflage to the fullest extent.
• Recoil will barely affect you
• Learn to pick your targets in a millisecond time
I turn back to Luna and ask her a question.
“This is all there is?”
“Yes”
I summon up my sword and begin studying it.
“Is there a problem?” Luna asked.
“…Maybe…” I reply.
“What are you going to do?”
I smirk and raise my sword toward the screens.
“I’m making my own class.”
I rush over to the screens and in a flash of light I had cut off sections of each of the classes. (Because it's my dream, i can make special effects if i want,)
Before they could fall to the ground I grab the bullet points and summon up a blank screen, after that I throw the bullet points and they immediately sink into the screen and fall below it.
The end project was my own class, and for the occasion, I had named it: Maverick.
Maverick:
• Be able to sneak up on your enemy and deliver a silent death
• Learn to draw out your sword and attack at the same time.
• Learn to ninja run and be able to run over obstacles with ease
• Learn to make your own ammo.
• Learn to pick your targets in a millisecond time
I turn over to see Luna smiling at me; I put two and two together and became amused.
“You knew I was going to do that from the start didn’t you?” I said.
“Mmaaayybbe,” She dragged out childishly.
‘Clever girl’ I thought.
“You do realize the drawback of this will be that the training will last a little bit longer,” Luna advised.
“I can deal with it,”
I step over to the screen a press it, the screen began changing and turned to a video showing what is to be expected after the training, showing me silently killing enemies from behind, drawing out my sword fast with a blue ring behind erupted around me and attacking the enemies around me.
Showing me running over obstacles sliding under it, diving in between, then It showed me making my own sapphire bullets and other rounds.
And lastly it changed to me shooting my HK416 at an enemy holding a hostage; the bullet went past the hostage unharmed and into the enemy’s head.
After the video it erupted in a flash of light and dissipated, as did the other screens, Luna approached me and began speaking.
“We will get started on the curriculum of your training session; unfortunately it will probably get delayed another two months or so because of the variation of the attributes.”
“One last question, will this affect any or all previous knowledge of my abilities, like basic shooting, stealth, etc.?”
“No it won’t, your memories will be fine. Now then, if that’s it, I think it’s time for everybody to wake up, don’t you think?” Luna finished, and with that my vision began to darken, signaling that I was waking up.
Feeling my consciousness returning to me I slowly open my eyes to the blurry vision known as my room, blinking away the remnants of sleep I precede to get up and at least look decent.
One combing, one shower, and one brushing later, I exit out of the bathroom feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.
I look out the window to see the sun hasn’t even come up yet… And the moon signals it’s a couple hours past midnight.
“Figure Luna would do something like that to get me back at dinner.” I surmised.
Finding nothing better to do I decide to head outside, I grab just the sword and leave my other weapons in their respected cases. I figured I would head out to the gardens and practice.
As soon as I exit my room a thought came to mind.
‘Wait, how did Luna know about my lightning fast enough to make the sapphire bullets?’
*sigh* “Just more questions than answers I guess” I concede.
I begin making my way down the hallway, careful not to disturb the girls in their rooms. After walking for a bit, I realize the scarcity of guards in the castle.
‘Odd, where are they?’ I thought.
I make my way into the main hallway and I was about to make my way to the front entrance to the gardens when I was stopped by an unknown voice.
“Greetings, human,” it said.
Instincts kicking in I hold the sheath to my side and grab the handle of the blade ready for an encounter if the voice is hostile.
I search the area for the voice, looking left and right for any signs of life. However instead I heard something from behind me, and then it sounded like something got launched toward my direction.
In a successful attempt to deflect it, I turned around and swung my sword and it collided with an unknown object, when I hit it with my sword it glowed yellow for a moment, unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to figure out what that weapon was, as the assailant charged me.
Not enough time to dodge I decide to block it by stopping it by its tracks.
As soon as the attacker hit my hand I was sent back a couple steps but I was able to slow it down to a stop, It then decided to try and hit me again with the unknown weapon.
I dodged two horizontal slices by ducking left and right before getting tired and blocked it by holding the sword upright behind me. The attacker stepped back from my grip and I almost stumbled from the loss of balance, I was able to compose myself and jump backwards, narrowly avoiding a chainsaw like blade, from slicing my face in two.
As soon as I reached the ground, I saw the chainsaw blade get dropped heavily into the ground, burying it a couple inches.
“The hell are you?” I ask.
As the figure stepped out of what appeared to be a cloaking spell, it began to speak, “I am SQ-741, an MC prototype with a conversational interface.”
The figure looked to be some kind of metal robot, but instead of wires and electricity it was running on magical powered crystals, the exoskeleton seemed to resemble a wolf, except it was outfitted in what seemed to be Anthracite armor, only the face seemed to be uncovered. And in place for the eyes was just a red bulb, that shone every time it spoke, the tail was exceptionally long even by regular dog standards and the tip was replace with three long wires moving around like the tail, and on the back of the construct was the chainsaw blade it attacked me with.
Laughing at how it looked but not deciding to let my guard down, I kept my distance.
“Heh, heh, heh, a talking robot dog basically?" I taunted, "Why are you here?"
“I am here to kill you, and then move onto Celestia and Luna, by my superiors’ orders” it said.
“Now, why does your “superiors’” want the Princesses dead?”
“Directive 05 states that my supreme objective is to ensure freedom for this country, and in order to do so, is to eliminate all government officials. That is what my superiors want for me to do.”
“….Do you know what would happen when you achieve your objective?” I try to reason with it.
“Easy, freedom for the whole country.” It replied
“No, what would happen is that they would take over, then do much more bad than good that the princesses are doing,” in order try and convince it I make a risky move and sheath my blade and attempt to walk passed it, “Why don’t you try thinking for yourself and see the truth behind most words your hearing,”
“For..Myself?” 741 seemed to look like he was pondering for a moment.
Unfortunately the persuasion didn’t work, SQ-741 back flipped and landed in front of me. “If I disobey a direct order my memory will be wiped, even if I were to try and escape they would still catch me... I have no choice…” the tail ends wrap around the chainsaw grip, “I am sorry…You must die…”
Accepted the inevitable fate of a battle I began to unsheathe my sword and pose a battle stance, “Then, I am sorry, as well.”
(Author's note: Music will be added in for major battles, they also fit in with the storyline a bit, i Highly recommend listening to it)
741 started off the fight with a torpedo like launch towards me, yellow and orange waves of lightning swirling around him. I noticed the attack and decided to block it and counter with a high arc kick, it stunned him for moment and I slashed at his armor before jumping away.
“So, he’s deadly, he’s fast, but there has to be a weakness on him,”
741 regained his bearings after my train of thought ended; he ducked down and attempted to slash at me with his metal claws, fortunately enough for me, his attack was all too predictable, and I blocked it.
What I didn’t expect is for him to try and shove my blade out of my way, I still had my grip on it but it got sent backwards from me, leaving me open for an attack, in which 741 took the chance on and double-slashed at me, leaving a couple of cuts in my chest, and sending me flying.
I landed in the wall of the main hallway, and I was able to look forward just in time for 741 to begin charging at me again.
I jumped forward, blade at the ready and met 741 with blades crossed. Somehow the chainsaw blade isn’t able to cut through my sword, lucky for me I guess.
It was a battle of strength and 741 seemed to be winning it, but I was a deceitful boy, I shoved the chainsaw blade to the side and spun around and countered with vertical upper-slice leaving 741 stunned and some of his armor cut off.
‘His strength is his weakness, use my speed to counter-act his strength attacks, than counter, leaving him stunned and open for his armor to be destroyed.’
“I will obliterate your consciousness” 741 intimidated, and began launching his next attack which was a new one.
He started jumping from place to place, making it hard for me to track him, he jumped on walls, the ceiling, I got too caught up in his movements I didn’t notice his delayed jump towards me.
He pinned me down and grabbed my left arm so I couldn’t shove him off, but for some reason he left the arm with the sword unpinned, He started launching his blade towards me from above, intending to chop up my chest. I met his blade with mine, but since I was only using one-hand he was winning the battle fairly quickly, but I was able to stall him long enough for him to release my left arm to try and stomp me into the ground.
In between the time of the attack, I used my left hand and joined it with my right hand and gave a forceful push forward, unbalancing 741, I brought my blade down again horizontally and sliced off his side armor. Leaving an entire side of him uncovered, showing the exoskeleton plate, designed to cover up the inside crystals.
I put distance between us once again while 741 regained from his AI-error.
‘He’s attacking differently, he’s not following up on his attacks fully, and he’s leaving dozens of openings, what’s wrong with him?’ Just then it all clicked.
“I have no choice, if I escape they will catch me again” 741 said.
‘He wants to be free, free from his captors’ I realized.
At that moment, my visor kicked in and showed the main HUD, showed a new objective.
“Subdue SQ-741”
It also seemed to be showed a red square on 741’s back showing a power source.
‘If I cut off the armor covering it, I can reach in and disable him.’
741 regained from his error and looked around for me.
As soon as he found me behind him he began charging again his pinning attack. His body glowed yellow, and he began jumping from place to place once again.
Instead of watching him, I decided to hear his movements and attempt to find a difference between the jumps. After hearing three normal jumps I heard a delay in one jump behind me.
‘There’
Noticing the incoming attack, I turn around and hold the sword up just in time to block the pounce. The strength of the attack knocked the sword backwards behind me and left 741 open for an attack, using the new position of the sword I use it as a balance and set it behind me in the ground and deliver a stronger high arc kick to the head, rendering 741 with another AI-error.
I get to the side of 741 and deliver the final slashes and destroy the armor covering the exoskeleton plate covering the power crystal.
I turn on the visor again and it shows the red square showing where the crystal is located at.
Finishing the battle, I shove my sword into the plate and stab the power crystal and then pull it out. Leaving SQ-741 out for the count.
“Cannot…Continue…” he said.
(You can end the music)
741 Then collapsed onto the floor, I thought he was dead but I thought otherwise when all of sudden a call appeared on my visor.
I answered it hesitantly and a holographic screen showing “ERROR” popped up in front of me.
“Directive…Liberate…Nation….Ensure freedom…” 741 was sputtering, “Must obey directive….…. Ensure Freedom…Freedom, undefined….” SQ-741 ended with a last breath, which is quite odd for a construct to do.
“What would an AI know about freedom? Huh…” I said.
‘He’s different….Somehow….He deserves this freedom, he should be able to make his own choices’
I kneel down next to 741 and begin examining him.
It wasn’t long before the girls came and spotted me.
“Chris! What happened? Are you all right?!” I heard Twilight yell.
I look up and showed them my blade with the power crystal still lodged on it, they got the meaning but I still decided to speak.
“Assassination attempt, took him down…Can you get Luna here? I want to ask her something,”
“A-all right,” Twilight replies, to stunned to notice my mistake of not saying the titles of the princesses.
She left the rest of the girls behind to go get the princesses; I then realized that there were no guards around still.
“Where are the guards?” I ask.
“We found ‘em knocked out in some bushes outside of the castle, we brought ‘em to the medical wing so they can git fixed up from whatever attacked us ‘ere” Applejack explained.
“…” I didn’t even bother to reply, too focused on the future of this construct.
‘So humanlike, yet still treated like it can’t speak and make its own choices…’
It wasn’t for a little bit before the Princesses and a couple guards showed up, flanking them on both sides.
“Chris, what has happened here?” I heard Luna ask.
“Assassination attempt, targets; you, Celestia, and I, I subdued him before he could get to you…”
‘Yet, however I want to let him go and start fresh,’ I continued in my mind.
I didn’t notice the gasps of horror come from the girls I was too focused on 741.
I then noticed a pulsating feeling coming from the blade, the power crystal, it was diamond shaped and yellow, the area where its impaled seem to be leaking magical residue.
I did happen to notice the gasps of surprise from everyone around me; I turn around to look at the girls.
“What?”
“Is that a Prehnite power crystal?” Twilight asked.
“I think it’s Prehnite, not sure about the other properties though” I reply.
“Why, that gem is one of the rarest gems in Equestria! The capability it has when it’s used for enchanting is astounding!” I hear Rarity exclaim with glee.
“Then why does it feel like it wants me to crush it?” Twilight and Rarity gasp in horror. “I’m just joking; however it does feel like it wants me to absorb it somehow.”
I turn to look at the Princesses but stop when I feel a tingling sensation coming from my left arm. I look at it and see the magical lightning being emitted from my hand.
“What’s going on?”
I pull of the gem from the blade, and grip it in my left hand; my visor comes on with an examination sequence showing properties of the gem.
“Gem: Prehnite Power Crystal; Rank 92
Ability: Blade mode
Charge: ¾
Upgrades: None
Description: This gem gives you the ability to enter Blade mode (Abilities in help section 34) it requires the charge of raw magical power or other charged mini-crystals to perform.”
“What’s Blade mode?” I ask Luna.
“From what I have heard it’s a rare ability given to swordsmen, Back in the old times Swordsmen would train for years to get this ability to use it in battle, now all you need to do is find a gem that can hold the attribute and drain the gem to acquire the ability, Blade mode is when everything except for you stops in time or slows down dramatically, allowing you to deal heavy damage to an vulnerable opponent.
The drawback is that the gem requires charge from other magical crystals that hold magical power, otherwise the gem doesn’t activate and you can’t enter blade mode”
“So, how do I drain the gem to acquire the ability?” I ask.
“Normally you could crush it like other power crystals” more gasps from Twilight and Rarity, “Or you can spend a couple of minutes draining it into your visor,” Luna finishes.
I decide to go with the slow draining, for Twilight and Rarity to use later, I sheath my blade and walk back over to SQ-741.
“What are you going to do with him?” I ask.
“We are probably going to either reverse-engineer it or destroy it, whatever seems best.”
“…”
“Is something the matter?” Celestia asks.
“….Can you repair him?”
“WHAT?!” They all shout in unison.
“Are you crazy?! This thing just tried to kill you! Why would you want to let it live?” Rainbow asks and yells at the same time.
“I don’t know…It didn’t follow up on its attacks, it left too many openings, it didn’t seem like it had a choice when he was fighting, almost as if he never wanted to fight me in the first place…” I explain.
“…” an uncomfortable silence enters the room Luna and Celestia pondering what would happen next.
*sigh* “Very well, we will repair it. We shall replace the exoskeleton, gem, and plates, but you will need to provide for the armor, and if anything bad happens and it’s the cause, it will be your responsibility,” Celestia warned.
After bringing 741 to the blacksmith for repairs, the girls and Celestia left to go back to bed. I was told that 741 would be fit and repaired by this afternoon.
“Wow, fast service,” I say.
“Indeed, such are the capabilities of magic,” Luna responds, which follows with a silence, nothing but the hammer pounding on 741.
“Oy, I still have a bone to pick with you for waking me up at midnight….But if it weren’t for that, you would be dead and so would I…So I will ignore it…”
Luna giggles for a moment before recomposing herself, “If you feel like it, you may return to bed.”
“Soon, I want to overlook things for a moment, and then maybe take a jog in the nighttime air. For some reason I feel more energized during the night and it gives me more stamina, that and I like the night, so calm,” I reply to Luna’s advice, In which she returns with a smile, before leaving.
If I stayed and watched her I would notice her fist-pumping the air out of joyfulness.
“So, I hear you’re the new kid the princesses hired for this upcoming war on terror, kinda hard to imagine you taking down an army, but it gives some merit if you took down an S rank magical construct,” I hear the blacksmith say.
The blacksmith looked gruff kinda, with a rough voice to match the scruffy beard he had, he was wearing a tan shirt and a black apron over it, covering his leather pants and work boots. He reminded me of a Scottish man.
“A what rank?” I ask, wanting to know more about the ranks.
“S rank, Enemies and constructs are rated from C rank to S rank depending on their lethality on the battlefield. As of right now, there are few S rank enemies we know of, and most of them are in hiding or we can’t reach them.”
“Huh,”
“Moving on, so what are you going to use when you take down the enemy?”
“Excuse me?” I ask.
“You know. Your armor, weapons, and all that good stuff, surely a boy like you has some tricks up his sleeves.”
“Kinda, I more rely on skill, but whenever I need to I can blend in with the shadows and take the enemies by surprise, as for armor…I don’t have any, I was lucky enough that when I got slashed, it only left a small cut. Can’t say the same for my shirt though,” I say looking down at my shredded shirt. “As for weapons, I have my rifles and blade.” I finish, showing him the blade for a moment, he looks at it for a couple moments, completely ignoring 741, after a bit, he smiles and gets a look saying he has an idea before working back on 741.
“Huh, so you’re planning on going out on the battlefield naked?” the blacksmith jeered.
I laugh at this, memories of my squadron and their jokes resurfacing. “I don’t know, maybe, and then again I don’t exactly know anybody willing to make some light armor for me.”
“I know a couple people who dabble in that type of armor. If you want I can give them a message and ask them for assistance, being that you already got a design in mind.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, you would seriously do that? I mean. Don’t these people have other people to work for rather than a fourteen year old soldier?” I questioned, “Plus not to mention payment, I don’t exactly have money with me beside my native coin, but I doubt that even works here.”
“Its fine, consider it a thank-you for taking over most of the war on terror, bloody buggers were killing us no problem for the first couple years, even with some of THEIR technology we only managed to stall them for a couple more decades if things went well before you came.”
I managed to look at him with a deadpanned look, trying to get my point across.
“But, if you really want to pay, earn some cash first and send it.” The blacksmith gives in.
I grinned happily at this and bid him farewell, planning on returning with the armor blueprints I had in mind.
It wasn’t long until I felt a sudden pain course through my chest, it felt like it was on fire and spreading.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the cuts I received were just now acting up, strange it may be, I didn’t have the time to wonder why as I was in extreme pain right now to the point of collapsing.
“N-no, not now...” I gasped, “Where is that bloody medical wing.”
I turned on my visor and activated the mini-map; finding out the medical wing is just a short ways away from my location.
Trying to stand up, I manage barely and I begin coughing blood, when It splattered I noticed some green residue mixed in with the blood.
“P-poison,” I realized.
I begin staggering my way towards the medical wing, dropping to the floor a couple times; I just reached the main hallway when my vision started to darken.
“I said, NOT NOW,” I growled, attempting to force back the darkness surrounding my vision.
I get back up, and continue stumbling towards the medical wing doorway, when I grabbed the handles and exerted the remaining bits of my strength, the darkness increased dramatically and I began feeling light headed.
As soon as I entered the medical wing and took eye contact with the first person inside, I collapsed onto the floor in hopes a nurse or doctor comes and takes me.
Darkness all around me, my senses gone, all I could hear was the faint breathing of me, floating in this abyss.
I begin to hear bits and pieces of voices.
“-oisen too much not going t—“
“—heart-rate is going down—“
“Wha-what?!”
I then realize my senses coming back to me and I can hear more sentences.
“Get the Defibrillator! Now! We gotta keep him here!
“Ready?”
“CLEAR!”
I felt a small jolt of electricity surge through me; instead of a shocking feeling I felt a wave of relaxing pass through me, definitely a nice change from all the other near-death experiences involving these items.
The relaxing was enough to make me feel like I was ready to wake up, almost as if I had a good night’s sleep.
Sadly, the doctors thought differently, it wasn’t long before I felt another jolt of electricity surge through me, instead of a relaxation feel, it felt like I was hyped on 5 gallons of sugar.
“Umm, Doc? Is he supposed to glow red like that?” I swore I heard Rainbow Dash say.
‘Wait, sudden cheerfulness, or sadistic, feel like causing random stuff that doesn’t make sense? Oh boy, they get to see my other side…And I’m assuming red is the sign.’ I thought.
i felt my body beginning to shake up and down on the bed, moving to and fro from the edge.
I was about to regain consciousness when all of a sudden I began rocketing everywhere. Bouncing off of walls and the ceiling, anywhere you can think of.
“Someone keep him down!”
That wasn’t needed because as soon as my little charade ended, I landed on my feet at the end of the bed.
I opened my eyes to see my entire body sparking red lightning, showing signs that my sadistic/cheerful side kicked out.
“Oh boy, who brought the party monster out of the closet now?” I asked as I turned around, seeing everyone with varying decrees of confusion and shock.
I waited for everyone to regain their senses before I heard Applejack speak up,
“Chris? Just what ‘n tarnation ‘appen to ya?” she asked pointed to the red lighting.
“Oh, this? This just happens whenever I feel exceptionally cheerful,” I say, before continuing, “Or sadistic,” everyone flinched for a moment, “I consider it; my other side.”
“Does this come out often?” I hear Celestia ask.
“a lot really, I used it to keep the moral in my squadron up when times were low, oh that and whenever I was in a tight spot….It first came out when my sister was killed.” I answered, reliving that memory reverted the lightning from red to blue again, before reverting to red again. “Now then, why do I feel like jumping from place to place, and running fifty miles?”
Everyone began looking around, trying to find an explanation to my sugar hype. When everyone couldn’t find a reason, they turned to face me, only to find themselves get startled when I suddenly appeared behind them right where they looked.
“So, nothing? Aw that’s too bad, oh well, try again next time, am I right?” I say.
“B-but, you were..i thought…UUGHH! This is Pinkie Pie all over again!” I heard twilight scream.
“You mean her? Why? Can she do all the things I’m doing right now without thinking about it? Because this stuff is really making me feel odd,” I popped up right next to Pinkie upside down, before landing right-side up after the sentence.
Oddly enough, Pinkie just sat there, dumbfounded for a moment, before she regained her senses and began making a smile threating to break her face in two.
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! I don’t believe it! Somebody else with the ability to break physics on a whim just like me! Oh thank you author!” Pinkie grabbed me and pulled me into a bone crushing hug, when I heard the end of her sentence, I couldn’t help but think some kind of paradox was about to form.
(AN: get it? Because Chris is loosely based on me, so he’s sort of writing his own story.)
After Pinkie’s little outburst, everyone was left speechless, as for myself, I was becoming slightly dizzy with all the hopping Pinkie is doing while hugging me.
“Uh..Pinkie? I think you should let Chris down now, before you break him even further.” Rainbow says, in which Pinkie notices and lets me go.
“Broken?” I say, then crack my neck a couple times, “I feel fine.”
“Moving back onto the topic at hand,” I say, reverting my red lightning to blue somehow, I think it’s based on emotions kind of, “What happens now?”
“…” an uncomfortable silence reigns through the area, everybody unsure of what to say as they weren’t prepared with this kind of question.
“Ok then, where’s the doc?” I ask, in which the door opens and the doctor comes in.
He stares wide-eyed at the scene before him, before getting himself together and looks towards me, getting his wide-eyed stance again but speaking this time.
“How are you standing?” The doctor asks.
“Eh?”
“The poison affected you to the point where even if we were to save you, you wouldn’t be able to walk anymore; it damaged the nervous system to the point where your legs would be unresponsive!”
“…” I stared blankly at him for a good minute.
Before bursting out into laughter.
“ahh, man, that’s a new personal record,” I say, “Even here I’m a mystery.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight asks.
“Back home, every single time I went to the hospital, they would always say something like ‘Sorry, but you lost your middle finger, or three of your toes are gone’ because of some weird accident caused during my line of duty. I would shock them speechless when I show them my limbs worked just fine!
Unfortunately it’s also somewhat of a curse, for all I knew, when I got diagnosed with Kawasaki and those other diseases it was probably false, they probably gave me the wrong medicine, and all it did was bring septic shock faster, for all I know…” I ended, bringing an uncomfortable silence with it as well.
“Anyway, what happens now?” I ask the doc.
“We were planning on keeping you here for a week or so, so you could adjust to not having legs. But since that’s no longer needed…I guess…You could just leave now, No abnormal things going on besides you walking,” the doctor replies.
“Ok, so where are the discharge pap- err,” I studder for a moment, realizing a crucial thing about hospitals, “What about the bill?”
The doctor chuckles for a moment seeing my situation, “Don’t worry, the princess here already paid for it,”
“Oh, thanks,” I say turning to Celestia, in which she smiles warmly.
After signing the discharge papers, we all left the medical wing to head back to our rooms, according to the time on my visor; it was 4:45 A.M, so we could still squeeze in a couple more hours of sleep.
I, however, need to head back to the blacksmith so I can ‘Clean’ something.
“Hey mate, you’re back! Good to see you so soon. Sorry about the poisoning,” the blacksmith says.
“It wasn’t your fault. I just came to check on the progress of 741, and to clean off any remaining poison on his claws.”
“Already done it, as soon as I heard how you got poisoned, I immediately came back and wiped the claws clean, I’m almost done repairing him also. He should be up and ready by noon,” the blacksmith replied.
“That’s great! Thanks a lot for your time doing this for me,” I thanked.
“Not a problem, I’m still waiting on those blueprints for your armor by the way,”
“I have it ready; I just need to write it down from my visor,”
The blacksmith looks at me funny for a moment before I show him my sunglasses/super computer.
“So, that tiny thing has my blueprints?”
“Da, just need to write it down,” I reply in a slight Russian accent.
“Care to show me?” The blacksmith asks.
“Sure.”
I bring up the holographic desktop screen, and begin navigating my way towards my blueprints section, somehow this visor is connected to my mind and sees my memories, so all of the blueprints I have worked on, trashed, incomplete, and completed alike are all here.
I scroll down finding the perfect light armor variant for myself, and show it to him.
The blacksmith’s eyes lit for a moment before stopping his work and moving to get a blank blueprint paper and pattern, he began copying the holographic blueprint onto his.
After about fifteen minutes, he finished it and resumed work.
“Thanks, hopefully I can get the blueprint to my friend just in time for it to finish before you leave, I can get the armored part of the blueprint finished and send the other half to him.”
“All right, I’ll be seeing you around then,” I say, then exit the blacksmith.
I head back to my room, my entire body sore from the poison attack; however I am not tired so I can’t fall asleep. I turn on my holographic desktop and head to the internet, dragging the screen with me to the desk in my room and sit down.
I check the news first to see what’s going on in earth as I am no longer there apparently,
‘Stocks low, Russia threating nuclear war, kids starving in Africa, yada, yada’ I think to myself.
Finding that nothing new is going on I move over to my social networks, like facebook, although I don’t get on it often people still try to write to me- wha?
“Why are people still writing to me when I’m apparently dead?” I ask out loud,
I check the messages and the summary is basically rest in peace messages from friends, family, and fans.
“…” I’m thinking about writing a message saying I’m fine…But I have no idea what that would cause.
Not wanting to waste time, I pull up the messages folder on my visor and start messaging Luna;
“Luna, since I can still connect to the internet on my visor, what would be the consequences of announcing my new area of life?” I write to her,
“Not entirely sure, it would probably cause mass media hysteria, and your government to try and teleport their way in here, but that’s almost impossible, other than that…Nothing much,” She replied.
“So, it is alright to tell friends and family I’m alive?”
“Sure, just keep it to a minimum, we don’t want this to become a regular thing,” She warned.
“No problem,”
Exiting out of the chat box, I return to the holographic screen, I reach to the top and drag it down and reveal a keyboard hologram when it reaches the desk.
“Neat,”
I scroll up and...
“What do I say? Tell them I’m alive in an alternate universe and they can’t come and get me? So you have to deal with the fact that I would be slightly pushing my own problems onto yours and if I die again, you have no influence?!
What the hell kind of person would I be if I did that?” I exclaim.
Figuring that either way, I shouldn’t say anything, I turn off Facebook and log off the website before heading to YouTube.
“…I have no business here,” I sigh.
Finding nothing else to do, I download Steam for future use and begin downloading Team fortress 2, Counter strike: Source and Global offensive, Left 4 Dead 2, and Far Cry 3, saving Skyrim and Borderlands 2 for later.
I turn off the desktop so it can download in the background and head to bed, muscles now sore from exhaustion instead of pain.
I take off the ripped shirt, and shoes, before plopping down onto the soft and comfortable bed.
“It was a loonng night…Zzz…Zzz,” I say before snoozing.
(Perspective Shift, Third person, Outside of everyone’s room)
As Chris was busy battling the dreamland demons of his mind, (who knows what goes on in there), the girls were all stirring and waking up. After a couple of moments while everyone took their sweet ol’ time freshening up, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie, exited their rooms and entered the refined atmosphere of the Royal castle hallways.
Rainbow however didn’t want to marvel at the castle’s beauty; instead she has “other plans”
“Pinkie! Get over here!” Rainbow whispered to her companion.
“What is it Dashie?” Pinkie asked bouncing to her, it was only for a split second that Pinkie Pie instantly recognized the face Rainbow had on, it was the face of an upcoming prank. “Ohh, you want to prank someone don’t you Dashie, who is it?” Pinkie asked with giddy.
“Let’s play a little joke on Chris here,” Rainbow nudged to Chris’s doorway, “Here’s the plan,”
(Perspective Shift, First person, Inside of Chris’s room)
As my mind followed the crazed adventures of Heavy and Ellis battling zombies, throwing cars at each other, and throwing water at a giant cat while punching a train, my dream was nearing its end, And not the good kind…
My mind and ears got blared with the sound of a bugle playing the wake-up call of the military, as my self-consciousness tried to reboot and register the noise, my body thought otherwise and scrambled out of bed and into salute.
“Lieutenant on deck!” I yelled out, memories screwing around with my body, giving the sense that Dale, my step father, and leader of the squad was on the premises.
It wasn’t until I heard the sound of laughing did I snap out of it, and finally look around my surroundings, landing lastly on the two girls who gave me the wake-up call.
“Yea, yea, laugh it up you two,” I sigh irritably, drawing out the desktop screen to check on the downloads from last night.
‘Downloads completed’
Closing it, I draw my attention back to Rainbow and Pinkie, STILL laughing on the floor.
Getting bored with the constant laughing in my ears; I throw on my shoes and shirt, that’s still ripped, then exit out of my room.
The girls are waking up and exiting out of their rooms, I say hello to them and answer why Rainbow and Pinkie are in my room laughing.
“Prank, military wake-up call,” was all I said.
I enter the main hallway and activate my HUD to bring up the mini-map of the castle.
Finding out where I need to go, I immediately make my way towards the dining hall to get something to eat. “Wait a second, I almost never eat breakfast…Oh well, get something to drink then,”
Continuing on, I head inside the Dining hall and ask one of the servants for some orange juice, they comply, and bring it back.
I drink it down hastily and place it on the table for when they pick it up.
Exiting out of the dining I happen to see Celestia heading to her throne room to begin her royal court hearings, something that, although sounds interesting, might become boring within an hour.
We exchange pleasantries and go on our merry ways, I was going to head to the castle gardens, but memories of last night made me think otherwise.
‘Don’t want another assassination attempt, especially if it succeeds,” I thought to myself.
Finding nothing better to do I head back into my room in the guest hallways of the castle.
However just as I was about to open the door, I ‘felt’ something. It wasn’t a feeling, more like a sense to keep wary for something and that ‘something I had an idea of.
Slowly opening the door, I look up and down, finally noticing that on the ground, was a trip wire, leading towards a catapult that’s loaded with cream pie.
“…Yea, good luck pal,” I murmur, slowly stepping over the tripwire, and walking past the catapult, waiting for the prank to get back fired when the person who set it up comes to check.
I turn on my holographic desktop and set the volume to low, so I can keep an ear for someone coming, I begin playing some TF2 mann vs. machine, luckily it wasn’t with anybody I knew, so they didn’t recognize my username.
It was about an hour before my visor picked up motion coming down the hallway, and according to the appearance, it was rainbow dash.
Doing the best thing to come to mind to lure her here, I fake a yell, sounding like I was pranked yet again.
Luckily it worked, and rainbow immediately picked up the sound and began flying her way towards my door.
I turn and watch the doorway, waiting for the moment’s truth…
*SPLAT*
“pffft,” I chuckle lightly, for some reason my normal laughs are silent, only when I’m sadistic I laugh loudly and that’s not a pretty sound.
I face back to my computer again, giving Rainbow half of my attention.
Looking past the cream pie filling her face, she had a dumbfounded look, her brain rebooting on what just happened. It then got replaced with a look of anger, then, acceptance.
“All right, all right, ya got me. Nice move there, backfiring my own prank like that, can’t say I’m happy about it,” Rainbow said.
“Mmm..,” I reply, uninterested.
“Whatcha’ got there?” she asks, noticing me playing TF2.
“Team fortress 2, it’s a video game back in my world,” I reply, giving her half of my attention.
“A video game?”
“A virtual reality program fit into a monitor, if you want it in Layman’s terms it goes like this, it’s a game in a screen, that you can control with a controller,”
“…You lost me at ‘virtual’,” she said.
“It’s big stuff that lets you have fun, how about we leave it at that?” I resent.
Rainbow shrugs and leaves the room to wipe the remaining cream pie from her face, while I return to taking out robots as the pyro on Mann vs. Machine.
Hours passed and the time turned to 11:36 A.M, I shut off the holographic desktop and keyboard and exit the room, only to come face to face with SQ-741, about to knock on the door. His exoskeleton plate is showing and his armor and chain blade isn’t on him. His red bulb was replaced with a more realistic look, showing of blue eyes situated on the front of his head. And metal teeth on his jaw-line.
“...Can I…Help you?” I ask him wearily.
“…May I come in?” 741 asks, in which I hold the door open for him.
We both enter the room, and I take a seat near the desk. 741 opting to sit like a dog.
An uncomfortable silence fills the room, neither one of us knowing what to start the conversation with. It wasn’t for a couple of minutes until 741 broke the ice.
“I just wanted to express my gratitude for freeing me from my captors, killing people for their own gain…Wasn’t what I wanted,”
“Did the blacksmith disable the memory wiping?” I asked.
“Indeed, he has also disabled my remote piloting, and removed any connections to my…Previous group,” he answered. “My memories have also been returned to me as a result of the disabled memory wiping,”
“That’s good to hear, so I guess your position is neutral now?”
“In a way, yes. At least until I find out what to do now that I’m free,” He answered
“Any ideas?” I asked him.
“…Not any that I can think of, but even if I did, the princesses have said that I was to remain in your care until further notice,”
“Yea, I’m aware, sorry about that, but you have to understand she doesn’t exactly trust you right now since you *ahem* attempted assassinated her and I,”
“Speaking of which, I am sorry for poisoning you earlier,”
“Nah, don’t worry about it, you didn’t have a choice,” I reassured him.
The silence reigns again, except this time it wasn’t as uncomfortable as before, as 741 seems to be as ease standing next to me, the silence continues on for a little bit longer, until he breaks the ice once again.
“Chris, why do you do this?” 741 asked.
“Excuse me?” I asked, confused.
741 fidgets for a bit before continuing, “What is your purpose in this? Why are you willing to kill?”
I grew unease from that question but I answered honestly, “At first, when I was young, I killed for vengeance, for my little sister’s death at the hands of incompetent terrorists from a different country,” I grab my M1911 and begin examining it, looking at the tally marks I had etched into the side of it, for the kills of the terrorists who killed my sister, “I was going by that sole purpose for a while, until I just…Ran out,
I had no more reason to fight anymore, I could have quit right then and there, but I continued. Not for the enjoyment of killing, but for the defense of the innocent.”
“…” 741 stayed silent, a subtle sign telling me to continue,
“When I was fighting for my country, these terrorists were preying on the innocent, the people who had nothing, nothing at all to do with the war. They beat, killed, and sometimes raped, these people for their own enjoyment. This…It pissed me off, I couldn’t let myself go on while innocent people needing help, died by the devil’s hand,
So I fought for the innocent people that couldn’t protect themselves, to protect them from suffering the same pain as I did, that’s what drove me on, knowing that without me, innocent lives would be taken just for the sheer enjoyment of the enemy,
The same thing could happen back in my world in here, these private military companies disrupting the peace Celestia and Luna worked so hard to keep, and all it would take is the life of an innocent civilian and this country would be plunged into chaos, which is why I’m helping them combat this threat before it begins,” I ended.
“…I see,” 741 replied, “Your purpose is to protect the weak,”
“That about sums it up in one sentence,” I deadpanned, a bit annoyed at how he just disregarded that dramatic scene.
“Are you accepting any help?” 741 asked.
“I dunno, why?”
“Seeing as that I am under your care for the moment, and that my position is neutral, the only logical thing to do would be to join you in your endeavors, as I am in your debt,” 741 explained.
I was surprised by this, I had thought he didn’t like killing, but here he is, saying he wants to join me in battling the upcoming war on terror,
“What if we run into your previous group? What will you do then?” I ask 741, making sure he won’t turn on me if we fight them.
“I would fight them without hesitation,” he replied.
“...Very well, welcome to the team,” I hold out my hand for him in which he sets his metal paw in it and we shake, “All we need to do now is await further orders on what to do when we get to Ponyville, that and we need to get you some stronger armor.”
“Indeed, your blade was able to slice through it easily,” he agreed.
“That, and I don't want a bolt lodged in my throat...How about we head on back to the Blacksmith and check up on my light armor, hopefully he should have half of it completed,” I said.
“Very well, I shall accompany you,”
We exit out of the room to come face to face with all of the girls, who were apparently eavesdropping on us the entire time.
“…” I stood there with a blank expression, and so did 741.
“…”
“...Soo, how much did you hear?” I asked.
They responded with a collective bunch of ‘Enough’ save for Pinkie and Applejack, who decided to be blunt by responding with ‘All of it’
“…Mhmm…” I stood there, everyone waiting for the next word, “Well, I’m out,” I said and began walking away.
And then I was tackled…By everyone save for SQ-741.
“Eh?” I blurted out in confusion.
Twilight was the one who spoke first, “We never knew how bad your life was Chris, We never knew the hardships you went through to protect the ones you care about,”
‘Because we just met yesterday,’ I thought, starting to struggle from too much touching...(I'm touch-shy, all right!?)
“We may have saved Equestria a couple times from Discord and Nightmare Moon, but none of us would go farther than what you did,” Twilight finished, and a collective bunch of ‘Yea’ echoed.
“That’s…Nice and all…But…Air!” I exclaimed, from the resulting group hug started depleting my oxygen supply.
The girls released the hug and I drew a big breath of air, i could have sworn I heard 741 do the equivalent of a chuckle behind me.
“All right…All I did was protecting the innocent, which is pretty much the job of a natural soldier, the only difference was that I was more involved…And extremely young…” I say, and then turn around to head to the Blacksmith, “I’m not special, and all I did was do what any other person would do in the same situation, and I made the choice to do it,”
And like that, I left, although I was a bit moved by their affection, but I didn’t exactly need it.
My persona immediately changed darkly.
'They don't know what kind of Hell I've been through, they don't know what it is like to fight everyday for your life, always waiting for the first shot to ring out so you can shoot back in hopes you don't get shot yourself. They got the easy life.'
My rationality kicked in after the thought.
'Of course they got the easy life, comparing this world to mine, these so-called 'Discord and Nightmare-moon' sound to be about the equivalent of a terrorist attack on your own country. Only differences is, they seem to be unaware of the consequences of taking one's life'
I shake off my mental argument, continuing my walk in silent bitterness.
After a couple minutes of walking in the hallways and marveling at the sheer architecture of the castle, I eventually found the Blacksmith and entered it... And almost burned my face off from wall of fire.
“Whoa! Geez man, it’s hot enough already in here!” I yelled.
“Heh, heh, heh, sorry mate, just trying to add some finishing touches to your armor before I send it off to my contact in Ponyville,” I hear the Blacksmith say on the other side of the room.
“Huh, convenient, we are leaving to go there in a couple hours,” I say surprised.
The blacksmith wrapped up the half-finished light armor and got it ready for delivery.
“Now, what can I do ya for?” The blacksmith asks.
“Just checking up on the armor’s progress, and thanking you once again for your help, especially with 741,” I motion over to SQ-741, in which he steps up and bows his head before backing away.
“Ah, no problem, mate, Least I could do, it’s nice working on something different than the occasional sword and bow,”
“By the way, I never caught your name, Name’s Chris, friends call me Silver, You are..?” I stuck my hand out in a handshake.
The blacksmith wipes his hands on a rag than walks over to me and shakes my hand firmly, “Name’s Steel Forge, mate, though friends call me Forge, pleasure to meet ya.”
“You too, it was nice talking to you, see you later, Forge,” I turned to leave but was stopped when Forge told me something nice.
“By the way, if you happen to do any missions, look around for Girasol crystals, they normally contain training information or blueprints regarding the enemy, and in exchange, I am authorized to give you upgrades and enchantments for you and your companions,”
“That’s good to hear, I’ll be sure to keep an eye out.”
After leaving the Blacksmith I wander the halls aimlessly for a bit looking at the foundation while also speaking with 741 about how he came to be.
“So, are you like the only AI with the capability to speak?”
“It’s likely, unless the group happened to be able to back up the data needed to make my design, they couldn’t make another 741 that has the same functioning capabilities needed to comprehend and learn speech,” 741 answered.
We turned left and entered the main hallway.
“So how did you come to learn the Equestrian/English, language? Where you taught automatically, Or..?”
“I learned the speech recognition from the scientists who were working on me and teaching me, at first all I could do was do what I was told, but eventually, I was able to respond with a nod or shake, from then on it escalated to finally having a fluent vocabulary of the Equestrian language,”
“And then what happened?” I asked, after we entered the dining hall, not noticing the girls or the princesses at the table.
“After a couple months of more teaching from the scientists, my reputation was beginning to spread, in which PMCs, starting trying to buy me. Each time they offered an amount, the scientists would always turn them away, saying I wasn’t for sale,” he responded.
“…” I motioned for him to continue on, while taking a seat at the table and ordering a plate of Grilled chicken, with a side of vegetables.
I then noticed the girls and princesses but decided to give them my attention later, as they seemed to be interested with 741’s background.
“It was then the PMCs decided to become more aggressive, turning to underhanded tactics to try and collect me, at first they began with threats of property loss and such, then escalating to killing of friends and family, each time the scientists still rejected them and called security to escort them away,” 741 continued.
“Sounded like those scientists liked you,” ‘Or they were aware of your capabilities in combat’ I finished in my mind. Beginning to eat the food place on the table not too long ago, ‘Sooo, delicious.’
741 deciding to ignore or acknowledged it, either way, continued, “It was then a certain group going by the name of ‘Green-Wing Corporations’, got lucky and broke into the labs while I was in standby. They killed the scientists in cold-blood and took me away to their base by teleportation, when I awoke most of my memories save for speech and combat were blocked, and they put me in the field for the past six months,” 741 ended, finally acknowledging the presence of everyone, “Unfortunately, whenever I was put in and out of the field, it was by teleportation, so I am unable to firmly disclose the location of the base, what I can say is that they were all black, each and every one of them with a pair of bug-like wings and jagged horn.”
Celestia nodded and gave the name of the description, “Changelings, they impersonate people and start fires and make off with the love and money gained from the onslaught, fortunately we know of most of their bases and keep them in check enough for them stay in their area, problem is, we can’t find their leader, nor do we know what he or she looks like.”
We all eat in relative silence, while I was thinking about the changeling leader and her possible whereabouts, it wasn’t for a while when I was shaken out of my stupor when I comment from, surprisingly Fluttershy, was directed towards SQ-741.
“Mister Wolf? Umm.. Do you think, if you don’t mind that is, tell us what you are going to do now? That is…If you don’t mind,” Fluttershy timidly asked, hiding behind her pink hair.
If it weren’t for my visor automatically registering and raising the voice volume, I probably wouldn’t have known what she was saying.
It appears 741 has the same capabilities as well, “I will be accompanying Chris on his Endeavors against the war on terror, either providing reconnaissance or reinforcements on missions. However, until Princess Celestia gives us further orders regarding missions, then we will be practicing our abilities.”
I then realized the name Fluttershy gave to 741, and decided to put my two cents in, “Wolf? Huh, that actually sounds like a pretty nice name, though his real name is SQ-741, but to be honest I think he might need a name change, I don’t think his current name brings any happy memories,” I finished and turned to 741, “Do you want a different name? if you don’t want it just say no, I’m giving you a choice here.”
“A…choice?” 741 pondered for a bit, seemingly confused by the term, “I’m…Not sure how to say…,”
“If you need time to think, I’ll leave you to it, it’s all up to you,” I proposed.
Turning back to Celestia, I offer up my questions of the day, “Backtracking a bit, 741 does have a point, in order to prevent our abilities from rusting, we need further orders regarding missions, even if they are simple recon, plus, I need to find a way to make some money, and my skills all fall within the military category, save for technology, but you don’t have that here.”
Twilight looked like she was about to protest, but Celestia cut her off, “Maybe not as high as yours, but if you wish, I can offer a stipend in exchange for simple outpost liberation's and reconnaissance near Ponyville, Canterlot, and Appleloosa,” Celestia offered.
“Is the Stipend going to be a set amount of money? Or will it start low and rise throughout the week, months, or year?” I asked.
“The stipend will change depending on the missions, outpost liberation's will be regarded with a stipend of 1000-5000 bits, depending on the size, recon, will range from 250-750 bits, “Everyone was left open-mouthed at the payment, I can only deduce the amount of bits being paid were large, “there is also the bonus of the girasol crystals Forge told you about,”
“Yea, he said he was authorized to give me upgrades and enhances in exchange for them,” I confirmed.
Celestia nodded in acknowledgement, “I assume this will be all right?”
I nodded my head in agreement, “it’s perfect,” I agree happily, “We have a deal.”
Location: Canterlot public train station, (entered)
As I entered the train grudgingly and take my seat, I place the items and weapons on a safe spot below me and set myself in for another round of Team Fortress 2 while the girls began chatting.
Let me fill you in on what you guys missed out on…Nothing, as soon as the lunch was finished I had made my way back to my room and packed my items, from then on I just played my games until 3:00 P.M, from which I got some steak and rice for dinner and brought all of the stuff I had to the train station, all of the girls chatted while I stood at the sidelines either playing my games or watching my surroundings, every once in a while someone would look at me oddly as they had noticed I don’t have a tail and whatnot.
It went like it for at least an hour before the train arrived.
Now lemme tell you something, when you are practically a man, who served five tours of duties, and you see a train with hearts on the side and super girlish and bright colors and overall looks like something out of a THREE year old's imagination.
I, AM, NOT, GETTING IN THAT!
Somehow Twilight noticed my apprehensiveness and put me and my items in a magical hold, preventing me from walking anywhere except toward the train.
“Nope, nope, nope, no, nooo, nein, neit, no, (continues saying no in a bunch of different languages and accents)”
Twilight just rolls her eyes and starts pushing me with her magic towards the train, “Come on, your acting like a child,”
“That’s because I am one!” I retorted.
And with that, back to sentence one, the girls are chatting, wolf (temporary name) is lying next to me, and I am setting up a game session in this pitiful excuse for a train.
‘I would think that the men would all get together a sign a petition to have the train redecorated…Or torn down.’ I muttered to myself, smiling a bit at the picture of the train getting torn down…Or exploded….Or smashed….I can think of plenty of different ways to destroy this thing.
“One at a time Chris…One, at a time,” I with that, I began my gaming session.
It hasn’t even been thirty-minutes and I was already bored with TF2 and moved onto Far Cry 3, there is barely any noise in the train, save for the one or two sentences traded by the girls, who have now dwindled from six to three, the half of them resorting to falling asleep.
The sounds of gunfire and voices echoes quietly in the train as I turned the volume down in courtesy for Twilight (who fell asleep with a book on her face), Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash sleeping, the rest of the girls talking random crap about their finances, and occasionally changing the topic thanks to Pinkie Pie being random.
Wolf…I have no idea what the heck is going on in that AI of his, he’s most likely on standby for all I know.
‘How long is this trip supposed to last? I wonder if we make it back by nightfall,’ I think to myself hopefully.
I continued playing for another hour until the best moment in the game comes up.
“Did I ever tell you, the definition, of insanity?” I hear Vaas, the villain in the game speak.
“Isn’t the definition of Insanity when-“
“GAH!” I scream as I fall off my seat, waking up Wolf in the process.
I turn around to look behind me and see Pinkie Pie sitting behind me wearing her trademark smile, I look back to the screen and then back to her, then back to the screen, than back to her. sadly I’m not her, but anything is possible with the power of old spice,
“Pinkie…?” I stare at her incredulously.
“Yes?” Pinkie replies, keeping her trademark smile.
“How long have you been sitting there?”
“Since you’ve rode on that zip line and drove that truck, only to be captured by Vaas and he tells you about the definition of insanity and how it’s bad for your life and…,” She goes off on another Tangent.
‘Wait, HOW DOES SHE KNOW WHAT A TRUCK IS?!’ I scream internally.
“What’s a truck?” I notice Pinkie stopped rambling and looked at me innocently.
“…” I just stare at her with the best poker face I can make…Before twitching and slamming my face on the seat so fast, you would think that I was a screenshot from Garry’s mod.
“…I have no bloody idea how to move forward with this conversation,” I gave in.
“That’s Pinkie fer ya’, Can’t understand ‘er, never will.” Applejack commented, before turning back to Rarity.
I look back expecting Pinkie to be behind me but instead see her sitting next to Rarity joining in on their conversation.
I stare at her dumbfounded before giving up and turning back to my game.
Only been two hours, and judging by sheer distance and common sense, I’d say we are only halfway there, Twilight woke up not too long ago, embarrassed of the fact she slept with a book on her face, Rainbow and Fluttershy are still sleeping however.
I had turned off my game and resorted to leaning against the window and looking out. Admiring the serenity of the lush green forest spanned out what looked to be miles, the sun getting close to setting for the day. If I tried hard enough I could see the quaint rural town of Ponyville and my escapade back then.
‘I feel at peace somehow, disregarding the fact I’m dead and in an alternate dimension,’ I think to myself.
I was about to doze off, until I noticed Wolf was awake and watching the girls chatter.
I decided to keep him company and strike up conversation, “See anything you like?” Or not.
Wolf, either decided to shrug off my tease, or didn’t recognize it, “I’ve been wondering…What my new armor will look like,”
“Hmm…Well, we could always plan ahead, set up the material, the blueprint, find out the areas to find them and when to begin the actual building, would you like to do that?”
“…Very well,” he agreed.
We set off by heading to a metal and crystal website on my holographic desktop and started picking the type of material we will be using to make the armor, ruling out any kinds of crystals that have a hardness of five and below, eventually coming across Dark sapphire crystals, as it’s a 9 on the hardness scale, coming near and next to diamond and ruby, and is good for stealth operations.
We also took the liberty of finding out Wolf’s previous armor, anthracite. Turns out it’s a 3 – 4 on the hardness scale and is practically common near his area, making it a terrible armor choice.
After accepting the material to make it, we started on a new blueprint, running across different ideas for chest plates, leg guards, helmets, and sometimes weapons, apparently Wolf didn’t feel accustomed to his chainsaw blade, even though it’s the first one ever made in Equestria, can’t say I blame him, don’t exactly feel connected to my blade just yet, not used to stabbing, just slashing.
We eventually settled in on a full Sapphire chest plate and leg guards, removing areas so Wolf can maneuver quickly, we also took into account the weight of the sapphire and trying to accustom to it so Wolf’s speed doesn’t get diminished.
For the helmet, I thought it would be a good idea to make something close to my visor, and then I realized that we are in Equestria, so technology isn’t as advanced.
We eventually settled on a helmet that would cover Wolf’s face from head to nose, leaving his mouth and eyes clear, the helmet would connect to the chest plate to protect his neck, we also thought up the idea of adding makeshift ears connecting to his audio sensors, granting him the ability to hear better. It’s still up for discussion.
For weapons…We made no progress, we had come up with dozens of ideas, but had to scrap them due to possible mission scenarios conflicting with them. We did however decide to come up with a sound neutralizer for the chainsaw blade, as the whirring might alert enemies; we also set him up with some knives for long-range takedowns.
We overall spent the majority of the remaining time working on the specs of his armor and abilities, not noticing the girls looking on at interest and astonishment. Seeing me in this kind of state would probably be baffling considering my personality, but being in the military has these effects, leave no stone unturned.
Although, my ingenuity was self-taught since I was five. Having crazy ideas ranging from a forearm launcher that shoots plastic spheres, to metal/magnetic holsters connecting to the back of my uniform so I can put away my rifle, I think I could make them with the right material and set it up for my light armor so I can holster my rifle, but that’s for later.
We continued adding tweaks and bits onto the blueprints, trying to make it as perfect as possible. At some point I forgot that there’s magic in this world and we could take into account enchantment spells being placed on the armor giving it a higher advantage, but, I had a feeling even without the enchantments we would probably surpassed high-quality armor at the rate we were working.
It’s been six hours and its nightfall, Luna’s moon is shining down brightly on us as we pulled into the Ponyville train station, Wolf and I just concluded our little blueprint montage and stared out at the window admiring the scenery of the moon casting a light bluish tint to everything ranging from concrete to the grass.
The train finished stopping and we were allowed to leave the train station, we showed the conductor our tickets and set off on the path to the town.
The girls continued chatting, albeit slow and quietly as they didn’t want to wake anybody and that they were tired as well.
I however was feeling energized as the moon bore down on my with its refreshing cool air, if I had my visor on, I would notice my Blade mode ability started charging.
We had continued walking down the road, the girls stopping to say good-bye at their homes.
Fluttershy is first, stopping at a cottage near the forest, Pinkie being next at a building that looked like it came out of Hansel and Gretel, Rainbow, being third, flew off into a bunch of clouds molded together, at least that’s what it looked like from this distance.
Applejack had disconnected from the group at an intersection that lead to a dirt path, if it was daylight I would have noticed the roof of a barn in the distance.
Rarity was last at stopping at a building that looked like someone drilled a building into the middle of a carousal machine.
After everyone left it was just Me, Twilight, and Wolf.
“So, Chris, what was that back in the train?” Twilight asked.
“hmm?” I reply, not understanding what she meant.
“You just zoned everything out except for Wolf and made a nearly perfect blueprint regarding his armor,” she pointed out.
“Nearly perfect? What did I miss?”
“You forgot about enchantments." Twilight pointed out.
"Not entirely, it wasn't until about halfway through did i realize there was magic, but I figured at the rate I was going, I wouldn't need it." I replied.
I got to the door and held it open for her and Wolf, in which I entered lastly.
“Spike! Spike, I’m home!” Twilight exclaimed throughout her house.
Now, I’ve seen people having a small business like gas stations, utilities, etc. and bunking their house with it, but Twilight here, she takes it to a whole new level, books to the left, books to the right, a door right in front of me, but books everywhere! Books, books, books.
“This is one big library…And you live here?” I asked from common sense, in which she nodded.
“Yep, along with my number one assistant; Spike, and number two assistant; Owluicious,” After she said that, a boy who looked around eight, came out from upstairs, he was wearing green and purple tennis shoes, light green cargo jeans, and a purple t-shirt. His hair was somewhat combed like mine, however as mine spikes up at the front, his hair is spiked all over, the middle being a bit longer than the sides. He was also shorter than me by about a head’s length, reaching my shoulders.
Perched on his shoulder was a light brown owl, the trim of its feathers were darkened from the rest.
“Twilight! You’re back! Did you find out what happened in Canterlot?” The boy, who I could assume was Spike, asked. While Twilight explained what happened, and I bothered zoning out again to put away my stuff safely, It wasn’t until too late did I realize what was about to happen.
“-So now he’s here staying with us until he gets reassigned for training,” Twilight finished.
“Wait, so he’s going into the guard?” Spike asked, in which I replied instead.
“No, the training I’m going through is different from the royal guard, and my missions are solo except for Wolf.” I said, indicating to the AI who’s just sitting next to the door.
Spike notices and turns to look at Wolf, looking on with interest, “Whoa. Is he your pet?”
I shake my head no, “Hardly, he was designed with a Nuero-AI close to the human brain, he can understand and speak human language and is sentient, treating him like a pet would be degrading for him,” I turn back to my items.
“Chris, if you want, I can take you to your room to drop off your items.” Twilight proposed.
“That would be wise, I don’t want these getting into the wrong hands.” I grab my cases and backpack and start following Twilight upstairs.
We head up and stop at the second floor, the third floor I assume is the master bedroom where Twilight sleeps. The second floor is outfitted with more library areas, and a couple doorways leading to utility and restrooms. Twilight leads me to a doorway and opens it for me; I reply with a quick thank you and make my way inside.
The guest room is pretty much what you would expect, the guest bed seated at near a wall, a desk and chair situated near a window overlooking a portion of the town, a closet near the bed to store my items; the only difference is that a wall near the doorway has an entire array of books seated inside of it.
“Here’s your room, make yourself at home, if you read any of the books on the wall make sure to put them back in the right place, other than that,” Twilight got interrupted with a yawn, “Have a good night, I’m tired,”
I smile a little at this and reply, “Good night,”
Twilight turned and headed upstairs while I worked on hiding my weapons where no-one could find them except for me. I hid my pistol and rifle cases underneath the bed, and I placed the sword behind the closet, opting to just leave the knife underneath the pillow, if someone were to find it they should have at least enough common sense to notice what it is.
I then just had an impulse, a vision of a child, preferable Spike, or someone else, coming into the room and finding the knife and swinging it around like they were cool. Then cutting them selves.
Clearing my head of the thought I turn around and hide the knife where the sword is.
I turn and head to the desk and sit in the chair, bringing up the holographic desktop and set it on the desk. I began heading to the internet to check up on my family…
‘Still, mourning I see.’ I was starting to become frustrated, I wanted to send my family a message telling them I’m okay. But I don’t want them worried for me being stranded in an alien dimension.
After fifteen minutes of thinking, I came up to a conclusion; I turned on Facebook and headed straight to Miroslava Comstock, my mother.
--
Christopher: Hello? Mom, you there?
--
I waited for a good five minutes in silent nervousness before the chat box updated.
--
Miroslava: Who are you and why are you impersonating my son?
Christopher: Mom, it’s me, Christopher Bryan Taylor!
--
I typed my middle name as evidence to my case, as I barely use it and not many people know it.
--
Miroslava: That’s bullshit; get off of my son’s account before I call the network.
--
‘Think, what can I use to help mom believe me…? I got it!’
--
Christopher: It’s really me, and I can prove it; Last year when we moved to the three story house in Panama City beach, you placed a picture on the staircase showcasing an ‘unknown’ person showing off a pair of gym shorts that had on the butt, the word ‘Badass’, everyone thought it was Dale at first until you came by and said it was you…
--
I waited a long time after that, it wasn’t until an hour later and the clock just turned to 10:12 P.M, did I receive a video call.
--
Miroslava wants to video chat with you. Accept or decline?
Accept
--
A different screen popped up to the right of me, with the words showing ‘retrieving video feed’ in big bold letters, after a couple seconds I picked up sounds and not too long after the video popped up, showing Dad, Dale, and Mom As soon as they saw my face, they all went to a look of surprise,
Mom had her hand covering her mouth, while Dad and Dale just went and said expletives in surprise.
All I could do was smile and wait until they were recovered.
Mom eventually spoke up, “Chris?”
I nodded, “In the flesh,”
Dale tried to burst this using logic, “But that’s impossible! We saw your body! We all did! How can you be alive?!”
“Technically, I am dead in a sense,” I replied.
“What, you’re in heaven?” Dad asked.
“Nope, in a sense, I’m in a different dimension altogether,” I explained.
Aaand cue, the ‘Dafuq’ face.
“How?” they all asked.
“Apparently the leaders of this country are basically goddesses, they been spying on me for a while and saw my life, and when I died from Kawasaki they brought me here for a second chance,” I explained, leaving out the war on terror part, but according to Dale’s ‘examining’ face, he knew I was lying.
“Chris…” Dale interrogated.
I held my stance for a couple second before breaking, “All right, it’s not the entire truth, they WERE planning on giving me a second chance, but they have bigger problems,”
“Like what?” Mom asked, not liking where this was going.
“There are private military groups planning on overthrowing this government and killing all who oppose them, the Princesses called me to take care of them,” I explained, looking away when I reached the end of my sentence.
Mixed reactions, Mom didn’t want me to do this, while Dad kept quiet, debating whether or not to agree or disagree. Dale however, was motivational, “Make sure you pop a couple rounds up their asses for me all right?”
I smile at this and nod.
Mom, she’s doing what mom’s do, “Chris, no, I want you to come back here right now! I will not let yourself almost get killed for who knows how long over there!”
Does she even know how stupid that sounded?
I stared at her with an ‘are you serious’ look before breaking her logic, “Mom, that’s not possible, wanna know why? Because I’m already dead!” she stops ranting and looks at me fully now, “The princesses already explained that in that dimension, I already died. If I were to attempt and get sent back, the universe in that dimension would reject me, whether from denying my existence, or replacing me with a different person that you would never know.”
Mom just looked away with a defeated expression, “I just don’t want you to get hurt…”
“And I can understand that, however, this place needs a soldier, a skilled one at that, these guys haven’t seen conflict in over a thousand years, the guards here, they barely know how to actually fight! All they could do was copy the enemy’s weaponry and delay the inevitable for probably another year or so before they lost! Innocents, dead…”
Dale noticed my choice of words and tried to change the topic, “Why are you saying the words Princesses and guards? What are you in, medieval times?”
Following along with Dale I replied, “Ehh, kinda, sorta. The technology isn’t as advanced as ours however, they make it up with, and you are not going to believe this…Magic.”
“Magic?” They all say.
“Magic.” I confirmed. I head out the bedroom door and make sure no one is listening in, then close it and walk back to the desk, “and you wanna know something better? Dad, you remember that show my friends practically forced me to watch?”
“Uhh…Which one?” Dad said, clueless.
“The one with the ponies ‘n stuff?” I specified.
“Ohh..That one? What about it?” Dad asked.
“Apparently I’ve been sucked into an alternate dimension where basically I’m in a humanized version of the show. Whereas instead of ponies, there are humans with equine features, like horn, tail, wings, etc.”
Silence…Then we all laughed, marveling at the absurdity of the situation.
“Believe it or not, it’s real, Bad news is; I have to be careful who sees me when I kill,” I said.
“And what’s the good news?” Mom asked.
I leaned into the screen and whispered, “…It may be the hormones talking, but a lot of these girls are smokin’ hot!”
More laughter, I was almost banging my hand on the table.
“Hey! Can you keep it down! We’re trying to sleep!” I hear Twilight scream from upstairs.
“Ahh, and there’s my host, she goes by the name; Twilight Sparkle, a bit of an isolated type, concerns herself with books, and I mean a lot of them, the princesses gave her a house that bunks as a public library for the town…Of Ponyville.” We all laughed again, quieter this time.
After calming down in a much lighter mood, Mom decides to ask something incredibly obvious.
“What’s that on your head?”
For a moment, I didn’t know what she was talking about, but I then realized she was talking about my visor, “It’s apparently a super computer disguised as sunglasses, with the capability to split itself and rest on the sides of my head, it merged with my brain somehow and knows all of my memories. Including my baby years…Even I can’t remember them!” I explained.
“So, you went through surgery?” Dale asked.
“Eh…Not exactly, at first I had no idea what it was when I found it, but I found a note wedged between some sockets saying ‘place it on the side of your head’, next thing you know, I’m on the ground as the machine burns through my skin to reach the brain, or at least I think it did. I’m not sure… According to the computer I can switch it to different styles; one eyed HMD, cowls, etc. If I wanted to I could even make it detach itself and input the super-computer specs into my eyes (shudder), that’s a last resort.” I explained once again.
Mom and Dad were not happy, but before the spoke something I interrupted “Need I remind you that this computer is giving me the ability to talk with you right now?” That shut them up, “Plus the pain only felt as bad as when I touched the burning barrel of my assault rifle on my first week of training,” I half-lied, but seriously never touch the barrel of a gun after firing, burns like a mother. “I should get going, big day tomorrow, gotta pick up my armor and look for some mines to pick up some dark sapphires to make some equipment for my companion.”
They all nod, and then mom speaks up, “We miss you son, we really do.”
I nod silently, “I know, I just want you to know I’m all right, try to move past this, I don’t want you going into depression,” Dad speaks up next, “What do you want us to do about your news?” I look up at him confused before he elaborated, “Do you want us to spread the word, or keep us silent?”
“…It doesn’t matter, even if the government finds out about my whereabouts they can’t come here, they need to know which dimension I’m in, out of the billions out there.” I tell them, “I would probably expect some calls, but i can’t say my location due to no knowledge and I don’t want our dimension tainting this one.”
Dale nods, seeing the logic in my point.
I hear a knock on my door, wondering who it is, “I have to go, and I’ll call you when I’m not busy.”
We all say a quick good-bye before I swipe my hand against the video screen, causing it to close. I walk over to the door and open it to see Wolf sitting there.
“Oh, hey Wolf, whatcha need?” I ask.
“Is there someone in the room with you?” Wolf inquires.
“Nah, it was just a video call with Luna, is that it?” I Half-lied once more.
"I was wondering what the plan for tomorrow is," Wolf inquired.
“Simple, we go and pick up my light armor, then we find the location of the nearest mining area, we pick up enough dark sapphire in order to make your armor, head back to the blacksmith, then build your armor over the timespan of how long it will take,” I explained.
“Simple enough,” Wolf agreed.
“Yea, it is, if you don’t mind I need to get some shut eye, the activities we are going to do tomorrow is easier said than done. Good night, wolf,” I say as I turn off any illumination and head to bed, taking off my STILL tattered shirt and shoes, “Probably need a new change of clothes as well,” I mutter.
Wolf walks over and lays next to the bed, facing the door, acting like a guard dog almost, judging on how the ‘eyes’ lost their illumination he’s most likely on standby.
I climb into bed and get under the covers, sleep coming at a snail’s pace considering the fact I’m mostly nocturnal, usually not going to bed until 1 A.M, as soon as sleep came though I was out cold.
Time: 2:09 A.M
Date: Oct 14, 2013
Where: Underneath the ground, (unknown, but near Ponyville)
(Third person perspective)
A silhouette scurries around the cave system, knowing its location and where it needs to be, it makes its way around corners and doorways, finally stopping at a large doorway.
The silhouette opens the doorway and quickly looks behind him, making sure he wasn’t followed, before entering and closing.
The room appears to be some kind of communications room, with crystals of all colors, mostly green and black, the silhouette steps out of the shadows to reveal an anthropomorphic changeling, its jagged horn and insect wings clad in dark green armor trimmed with black, signaling it’s the captain of the current platoon.
The changeling steps to the back of the room and steps next to a large green crystal, the changeling waves his disfigured hand over the crystal and it glows a tint of black before sending a pulse of magical energy into the air forming into a sphere.
The sphere floats down and rests head-length next to the commander, after a while an image pops up showing a black silhouette
The changeling bows before speaking to the silhouette, “Sire, the scouts have reported some news, the elements have returned back to their town and along with them someone…Else…”
The silhouette seems a bit surprised at this, “Who?!” A bit too forcefully.
The commander flinches before answered, “H-hard to say, he doesn’t look all that different from a teenager, but for some reason he’s carrying a sword of unknown material, the scouts have also reported that our MC has been commandeered by him. He is going to leave with SQ later today to head to the mines for new armor to make for it.”
The silhouette relaxes at this and calmly replies, “A minor complication, send a patrol to the mines and keep an eye on them, this teenager shouldn’t be of any interference to us. However as for SQ-741…Execute him if possible.”
“Will do, sire,” The changeling bows and leaves.
The sphere stays suspended for a moment, “I can’t have any interference with my plans, and this wedding is the only chance we will get to take over Canterlot, and as for you Chrysalis, I won’t have any hesitation in this!” the silhouette turns away, “We WILL take over Equestria, and when we do, we will KILL all who stands against us! Even a pitiful teenager with a toy sword!”
“Monica please don’t die…Don’t leave us, please…You never got to live your life…”
Date: Oct 14, 2013
Time: 7:12 A.M
Location: Ponyville library (Chris’s room)
My eyes shoot open and my heartbeat is going a mile a minute, my eyes dart around the room, instincts telling me that I’m in hostile territory.
After sitting up and getting a clear view of my surroundings my instincts got suppressed by my common sense telling me that I’m safe.
I sit there for a couple minutes trying to calm myself down, I just realized that I was sweating a bit and noticed the droplets dripping down my face. I bring my hand over my head and wipe them off.
After finally calming down, I get out of bed and walk around aimlessly. Wolf is most likely downstairs noting the fact the door is open.
I stop by my desk and support myself leaning on it thinking about my latest nightmare.
‘This one…it was different, in a way. I can’t put my finger on it, but it felt like it was…,’ No matter what, I can’t seem to draw a conclusion, ’I can’t…Think!’ I screamed internally,
It wasn’t until I heard my name being called twice in a row did I snap out of my stupor, Twilight was standing at the door frame, concerned.
“Are you all right? I noticed a commotion going on up here and wanted to check and see if you’re fine,” she asked.
I look at her for a second before composing myself from the sudden moment, “Yea, I’m fine, just a nightmare,”
“I hardly think a nightmare warrants a cold sweat and you wandering around the room in a daze,” Twilight inquired.
I realized that I was half-naked and in front of her (giving her a full view of my well-toned body), so I began to grab my clothes while talking, “It’s not a normal nightmare, because its real, the only difference was that for some reason it felt…Different somehow,” I changed the topic, “Where are the showers?”
“Across the floor, first door on your left,” She answered.
“Thanks,”
I made my way towards the bathroom and proceeded to clean myself, after I was finished I felt refreshed and ready to go, I put on my clothes, opting to put on my sweatshirt because it was slightly cold in here and it would probably be a bit cold outside, I then grabbed a mountain dew bottle and took it with me downstairs, in which I found Twilight and Spike finishing up breakfast.
They also didn’t bother to make something for me, (good for them too)
That doesn’t mean I won’t tease them about it, “Aww, nothing for me?”
Twilight looked surprised for a moment before turning to spike, “I thought you made some breakfast for him,”
Spike was about to reply when I interrupted, “Nah, don’t lose yourself over it, I barely have breakfast anyway,”
“What do you mean? Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! How can you live a well enough life without it?!” Twilight asked.
“I dunno,” I take a sip of my drink, “because I’m a mystery, or because it’s just a side-effect from being a gamer and in the military. Your body learns to ration nutrients and because of that, I can practically go a whole day without food. Downside is that I will have a killer stomach ache afterwards,” I explained.
“That doesn’t mean you can just skip breakfast your whole life!”
“Which is why I said ‘Barely’” I win, Twilight got frustrated and rage-quitted.
While she calmed down Spike was cleaning the dishes and I took another swig of my Mountain Dew, Twilight eventually decided to change the topic and ask me about my plans today.
“Pick up my light armor, grab some tools and look for a mine to grab some Dark sapphires for Wolf’s armor, Speaking of which, can you tell me where the nearest mine is, and the name of the local blacksmith shop?” I asked.
“There’s a mine to the Northeast of here, and the Blacksmith is located in the town plaza, I’m not sure where to get mining tools but I’m sure Rarity has some for when she goes and collects gems,” she answered, “Speaking of Rarity, I don’t suppose you’re in need of a change of clothes, are you?”
I grab my gloves and Backpack, about to head upstairs and grab my Pistol and knife just in case, after I answered Twilight’s question, “Yea, but I’m pretty sure I need some money first, if I want to get some clothes,” I come back downstairs with the knife and Pistol attached to my thigh and hip.
“I’m pretty sure she can make an exception,” Twilight replied.
“I dunno, I’m not one to beg, I have hard enough problems asking a stranger for help, but that was mainly paranoia probably, I dunno. I’ll see what I can do, Wolf! Let’s go! Thanks, Twilight,” I finished, and Wolf came from the kitchen, we both exited out of the main floor and went outside.
The air was refreshing, clean, pollution free, it was a slight chill as it was nearing winter, good thing I brought my sweatshirt, everyone was out and about, doing things they normally would be doing, whether it be grocery shopping, working, etc.
Wolf and I minded our own business while walking, occasionally noticing the stares we were drawing, maybe because of Wolf, because of me, I don’t know, luckily my unease was hidden from behind my visor, showing the map of Ponyville and locating the Blacksmith.
Occasionally i would get an impulse of someone catching me in an alleyway and killing me or at least attempting to, I normally shook them off with logic or blanking my mind as usual, doesn’t help with my trust issues.
We went passed the market stalls and got to a more modern part of the town, the bigger businesses had their own buildings lined up on the sides of the street, their colors and how it was built would show what it was made for who and what. Dentist, magic equipment, music, etc. We kept walking until we neared the edge of the markets, in which I finally spotted a building, bricked outside with grey texture, an image of a furnace and sword decked out on the top of it, even the chimney served as an advertising enhancer, making the furnace look like it was smoking, the name of the building said “Iron & Metal's”
We entered the building, Wolf in tow; I was then assaulted with the usual smell of sweat and smoke, mainly smoke though, the inside of the shop was a bit different, common swords, shields and armor, sat on display on the side, while the counter was taking up more than half of the shop length.
The bell that was emitted when we entered alerted the blacksmith in charge of this establishment, as he soon appeared from the backroom in the usual blacksmith apron and gloves.
Unlike Forge, this guy seemed a bit older maybe around his late fifties or sixties, if the white hair is anything to go by, unless that was his natural hair color when he was born, he seems to be wearing yellow tinted work goggles on his face, obscuring the eyes, he had a white mustache that looks like it’s seen better days as it hasn’t been trimmed and is slightly hanging on his mouth, his hair is bald at the top but grows on the back and sides.
The spitting image of a mad scientist if I do say so myself.
“Welcome to ‘Iron & Metals’ what can I do for you? Do you need a sword to keep your family safe? Or a dagger to conceal for self-defense? Maybe a bow for hunting? Or a crossbow for large game? Anything you can imagine I can make real.” He said with a bow.
I walked up to the counter and began making my request, “I’m here to pick up some light armor, it was sent from Canterlot from a friend named; Steel Forge, I was hoping you have it finished and ready?”
The blacksmith looked at me for a moment, having a senior moment, before a look of recognition spread across his face.
“Wait…You’re the kid the princesses hired! My buddy Forge told me about you, Name’s Iron smith,” he holds his hand out and I shake it firmly, Smith returning with gusto.
“Chris, friends call me Silver,” I replied.
“Now,” he leans on the counter, “What can I do ya for?”
“I’m here to pick up the light armor forge sent over,” I repeated.
“Ahh, that, alrighty then,” he heads into the backroom and starts rummaging, “I must say, I have had done my fair share of light armor smithing, but this one, is the most unique is all I have to say,” He comes back out holding a box and sets it on the counter, “the best thing I like about making these,” he shakes the box gently for unnecessary emphasis, “is that they can be passed off as regular clothes,”
“That’s nice,” I open the box to make sure everything is in there, then closed it, “Thank you for everything,”
“Oh and one last thing, Forge had me make this for you,” the blacksmith pulled out a bandolier belt, equipped with a holster for the sword, and room for the knife as well, “He also wanted to say that he added a couple of enchantment slots into the armor, if you have any friends that are good with enchanting, bring it to them.”
I put the belt into the box, “I see, thanks again, when I receive my stipend I’ll be sure to send some money to you and forge for your help,”
“Not a problem, I’ll be seeing you,”
“Bye,” I hefted the box into my arms and exited out of the store, it wasn’t heavy, but it wasn’t light either, I moved the box onto my shoulders so I won’t tire easily.
“Where do we go now?” Wolf asked.
“Now,” I pulled up the mini-map, “We head for Carousel Boutique, according to my visor; it shouldn’t be far from here.” After retracing our steps we headed past the market and got more stares, and from the looks of things, news travel fast, as everyone was watching me.
Every once in a while I would pick up a tidbit of conversation,
“-that a wolf?”
“Where’s his tail?”
“Is he an original?”
‘Wait what?’ I thought for a moment, ‘I know Luna explained the term before, but the tone of this one sounded different...’
Deciding to ask someone later, we continued on our way, past the crowd of onlookers watching us and whispering to one another. Eventually we got out of the plaza and into the more household/business part of the town. Everyone continued to whisper and stare, but it was decreased than the plaza.
We eventually past some more businesses, Sugarcube corner for one thing were apparently closed as the lights inside were dark.
Finally, we made it to Carousel Boutique, the white and purple trimmed building reflecting off the sunlight giving it a lens glare through my visor, we walked up to it and I hefted my box down and gave the door a couple of knocks before entering (because it’s a business and a house).
Wolf and I entered the establishment, and I moved the box inside and placed it on the floor and stood next to it.
Not long after, Rarity came in, “Hello and welcome to Carousel Boutique; where everything is chic, fit, and magnefique! Oh! Chris! I didn’t expect to see you here, what is it that you need?”
“Hi Rarity, I was just wondering if I can borrow your mining tools so I can mine up some dark sapphires,” I asked. “Also, do you have a dressing room anywhere so I can change into my light armor?”
“Sure, just give me one moment, and the dressing room is to your left,” Rarity left to go upstairs and get the tools.
I picked up the box and moved over to the dressing room, I told Wolf to stay by the door for privacy purposes.
Seven minutes later (along with armor mishaps such as I put on the wrong strap), I came out, the armor I was wearing was (according to a note left by Forge,) enchanted steel, the enchanted part giving the steel the durability of a diamond. (Oh and quote from note: “Until you find me Girasol crystals, your favors are up, good luck!”)
Moving on, the steel was interlocked and separated into tiny little chains, if you were far away you wouldn’t notice it and it would look like leather or cloth, up close you can notice the chains.
The hood and cowl, i left in the box, as it would interfere with my visor.
The chain idea goes on as the inner part of the armor, Smith making the actual cloth/Leather, using it for the outside of the armor.
(AN: To keep from any more confusion here’s the armor in a picture. Note, the person in the picture is not to scale for Chris, just take note of the armor. The hood and cowl is there for Chris, but he isn't wearing it)
Last but not least is the scarf I had outfitted, unlike most of them, this kind of scarf is made to cover up your mouth like a bandana, keeping out sand, snow, etc. It’s mainly cloth, with a grey, and blue outline.
Overall it fit perfectly, if all goes well it sho-
“Well, well, well! Aren’t you the dashing rogue! You’re sure to capture a few eyes with that kind of attire,” Rarity comments.
I smile a bit before replying, “I hope not, this is supposed to keep me in the shadows, the heavy armor is supposed to make you look nice while doing your job,”
“Well whenever you get the chance you must let me design it!” She proposed, while working.
“We’ll see…” I trail off, not entirely sure on how to ask Rarity about my clothes.
Rarity looked up noticing my apprehensiveness, “Darling, if there is anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask! I’ll be sure to help anyway I can!”
“…As a result from a previous battle, my shirt got ripped up, and it’s the only set of clothes I have, I was hoping if you were able to repair it…” I asked, looking away, while gripping my arm in anxiety.
“Oh...Well why didn’t you mention it sooner? I would’ve gladly helped!” Rarity affirms.
I look at her mildly surprised at her acceptance of a favor, shaking out of my stupor, I reach inside my backpack and pull out the ripped T-shirt.
Rarity titters at this, “Oh, This just won’t do!”
I looked at her in confusion, ‘is she taking the favor back?’
Rarity continues, “The shirt I can most definitely repair, but you should really get a more variety!”
I breath a short sigh in relief, “I just need the shirt for now, when I make money I will buy more clothes.”
Rarity looks at me for a moment, uncertainty in her eyes, “Are you sure? I can whip up a batch of clothes the same as this in no time, in fact-“
“When I make money Rarity, besides I’ve already gotten a couple favors in line already, can’t dig a bigger hole,” I interrupted.
She sighs in defeat, then takes the shirt, “Very well, I’ll get to work on it when I get the chance, oh and the mining tools are on the counter next to the door.”
“Thanks Rarity, I’ll see you when I get back,” I grab the Pickaxe, shovel, and chisel, and strap them to the backpack.
We exited out of the boutique, Wolf has been silent for a while, I don’t know why though.
“Wolf, is there something on your mind? You’ve been silent for a while,” I ask.
“It’s nothing of importance, I just can’t seem to shake this feeling of us being watched from afar,” Wolf says.
“I feel it as well, I’m just guessing it’s Luna or Celestia watching us from a spell or telescope, speaking of which,” I activate the zoom feature on my visor and point it at the castle balcony holding the telescope.
Oddly enough, no one is there.
“Huh, no one’s at the telescope,” I shrugged, “Figures, Celestia has royal duties and Luna is sleeping probably, let’s get going.”
(Third person perspective)
“Sir, he’s getting close to detecting us, and our base is near the mines he’s heading, what do we do?”
“What do you do? What do you think you should do?! Watch him and keep him away at all costs! We can’t have him finding us out!”
“Roger,”
We were halfway out of town, heading to the sapphire mines when all of I sudden my visor activated and started ringing and saying “CALL” in big red letters in front of the screen…
'How do I answer?' I mentally ask, searching myself trying to find some kind of button.
I was answered as a diagram showed up on the front of the visor, showing the hand movements to answer.
I raised my hand upwards and a small line was on the palm, I then poked it, enlarging the screen. It was the same screen as before when I was talking with my family, only instead Celestia is on the other end.
“How may I be of service Celestia,” I say with a small bow, then continue walking.
“May I ask where you are going?” Celestia asked.
“Mines, I need to get Wolf some Dark Sapphires for his armor,” I answered.
“Hmm…Well you’re in luck, according to recent reports, there is a small changeling outpost not too far from the mines, and it’s also underground,” Celestia said reading from a piece of paper most likely showing the outpost locations.
“I’ll look into it after I’m done mining, by the way, have you been watching me with a spell of some sorts?” I ask Celestia.
For some reason, that ‘feeling’ Wolf had about being watched, started feeling worse, as if…
“No, I have not,” Celestia answered.
I heard a puff of air behind me sound like it launched something.
‘Shit’ if anyone noticed, my eyes would have lit up blue, instead of my brown color.
“Wolf! Find cover!” I say as I dodge the incoming projectile, the unknown item going past the holographic screen, ‘Destroying’ it.
Wolf ran and jumped inside a tree, effectively concealing himself.
“Show yourselves!” I screamed out, hands on my weapons.
After a short delay, three figures popped out of hiding, upon closer inspection, they appeared to be a black creature of some sorts, if the insect wings and jagged horn where any indication, I would have to say these are the changelings. They each had a suit of armor on, the main color black and the trim green.
The figure on the left, a more agile-looking changeling, spoke quietly, “Boss, I told you we shouldn’t have tried to knock him unconscious,”
The figure in the middle, a burlier changeling, reprimanded him, “Quiet! We can still take him; he’s just a teen,”
‘A teen eh? My reputation hasn’t spread well enough yet,’
My visor activated again and Celestia tried to call, I go through the hand motions and bring up Celestia.
“Chris? What’s going on!?” She said worriedly.
“Ambush, three hostiles, changelings,” I look at her, “Rules of engagement?”
“What?” She asked.
“How do you want me to take them out? Kill them? Knock them out?” I elaborated; the changelings began looking uneasy for unknown reasons.
“Oh!” Celestia seemed startled by this, but she can’t seem to come up with an answer,”…You may do as you wish, although it would be nice if you were to try and capture one,”
I nod, “I’ll see what I can do, but these are spies, they probably have cyanide stored in their possession if they got found out,” And with that, I closed the screen, showing the three changelings, staring at me with new-found determination somehow.
Didn’t matter, they were all going to die anyway.
“Now…” I activated my Sadistic side, and if my visor wasn’t on, my eye would have lit red.
I drew out my knife and pistol and held them CQC style.
‘Anyone else hear music?’ I thought before dodging the first swipe from the changelings.
Deciding on using the defense tactics, I wait until one of the changelings rush me; he attempts to swing his sword down on me in a diagonal slash, just before he does, I grab his arm, stopping it mid-swing, go under his arm so now I’m to the side of him, and then push my fist onto his elbow, locking his arm into place. He drops the sword and I kick out one of his legs, sending him to the ground, awaiting my knife to slice his throat open.
Before I could do that, I heard some noise behind me, I turned around to notice that another one of the changelings got close to me, and was about to slice me in half, I duck under it at the last second and swiped his legs from under him, putting him on the ground due to the center of balance being destroyed.
The last changeling to rush me came from behind, but before he could so much as make a move, I grabbed his neck and arm, and with all my might, threw him onto the ground as hard as possible; displacing dirt and rocks everywhere. With anybody else taking that hit, they would have been immediately knocked out, but all I heard was a faint crack from the changeling’s helmet as it squirmed in pain.
Putting distance between the changelings and I, I switch from knife tactics to pistol tactics, the knife in my left hand stuck to a groove in the handle of my M1911, allowing me to steady my aim,
All of a sudden that feeling came back of me being watched, I looked around quickly and noticed a suspicious looking cloud above me, well I shouldn’t say suspicious…The bloody thing has a rainbow tail sticking out.
‘Grr… I can’t let anyone see me kill, I’ll have to knock them out now because of Rainbow Dash watching me,’ I thought to myself as I switch modes, no longer sadistic, but the calm and collected side now.
Remembering a tid-bit about my lightning powers being used on my pistol, I divert half of my mind to trying to figure out how to activate the lightning around my hands to charge the magazine to stun these changelings, the other half now noticing the changelings getting back up.
“Ugh, that stupid kid…How could we get our asses handed to us that easily?” One of them said to another.
“I don’t know, But now I’m pissed! Come ‘ere you little shit!” The big changeling rushes me.
‘I have half a mind to tear you to shreds, oh wait, it’s occupied. Darn,’ I mused, while moving my knife over the M1911, switching back to knife tactics, and begin charging him as well.
Before he could get within grabbing distance, I dropped down to the ground and planted my feet at his stomach and legs at the other sides of his body, I then twisted my hips and brought him down in what’s known as; “The scissor take down”, using kinetic force on both parts of his body to throw off completely his center of gravity.
Just as I back rolled and got up, another changeling was heading towards me with his sword pointed at me, intending to stab me.
He got close, but I slightly sidestepped away and used my left hand to knock the blade away from my direction, reinforcing it by blocking the area with my right hand; I grab his arm and pull him forward towards me, I then knock my right elbow on the Biceps, than banged the bottom of my gun on the unguarded side of the helmet, generating a nerve cluster and essentially knocking him out. On any other situation I would have replaced the gun with my knife blade, or shooting him, but since I’m being watched, can’t kill.
‘One down, Two to go,’ I counted.
Turning around I noticed that the last changeling who was recovering was stunned at me taking out his comrade, using the opportunity, I grabbed the front of his breastplate, used most of my strength to at least weaken his hold on gravity, planted my right foot on the bend of his left knee, and pushed, creating a tripping point and sending him to the ground with some damage.
This was one of the moves Dale taught me when I was training. This move was to be used when I was faced with someone heavier than me, creates a huge margin for error, but always works, it’s called; “The Reap.”
Taking the opportunity the move gave me, I drive my foot down on the head of the changeling, knocking him out.
‘Too easy, where’s the last one?’ I wondered, as the last changeling was nowhere to be found.
(End music if it hasn’t already)
“You’re coming with me, you little shit!” I hear to my left, and to my shock, I see the changeling has grabbed Wolf, and hoisted him on his shoulder, he was somehow able to knock him out as his eyes were dimmed.
“You get back here, you little son of a bitch!” I yell, my other side coming out for a moment, I begin running towards him, but as soon as I did the changeling erected some kind of shield, and began charging a teleporting spell.
I start shooting at him with my pistol, trying to break the shield, but it was holding strongly, and I was still unable to figure out how to activate my lightning.
As soon as I reached him, he teleported out of the area, away from my reach, and my ability to save wolf has diminished until I could gather some Intel.
“Damn it!” I exclaim in frustration, coming to a stop where the changeling teleported from.
My frustration lasted short however, as I realized I had two changelings’ unconscious, ready for pickup, and interrogation.
Bringing up my visor, I send a call to Celestia, she picks up not too long after.
“Celestia, I have two changelings unconscious, ready for capture, and interrogation.” I start off.
“What of the third?” Celestia asked only for her to assume the worst, “You didn’t…”
“No, I was being watched,” I corrected her, “however he captured Wolf and got away before I could catch him, I have a hint as to where he would be…But…I want to confirm it with these two.” I finish, smiling maliciously, and tapping my foot on the unconscious changeling next to me.
“Can you send an extraction team to pick them up?” I ask turning back to Celestia.
“Very well, they will be there shortly,” Celestia hangs up, leaving me to deal with Rainbow over me.
“I know you’re up there Rainbow! Get down here!” I yell, not even bothering to look in the cloud’s direction.
A moment later I heard some air displace from behind me. I turn around to see Rainbow looking at me with…why is she looking at me with amazement? I haven’t done anything awesome…Did I?
I ignore it and move on to questioning, “Why are you here?”
Rainbow shrugs, much to my displeasure, “I dunno, just taking a break from my cloud work, took my daily nap, looked under me to see you whooping those changelings in their place!” She ended with glee, “That was so…Awesome!” she somehow is able to squeeze her face in a cute manner, much to my confusion on how is that possible, “Where did you learn to do that!? I only know a handful of Karate techniques, but I have never seen THAT before!”
“I learned my battle skills from all sorts of different sources, only a handful was from my training,” I answered with a shrug, “But that’s beside the point, I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.”
“Wha-Why?!”
“This area is about to be occupied by the equestrian military, I’m only going by common sense, but I don’t think civilians are allowed to see the military’s actions without authorized clearance,” I point out.
“Hey! I’m an Element of Harmony! I’m pretty sure I have enough clearance, whatever that is,” she argued, crossing her arms and looking away from me when she mumbled.
“Even if I were to even know what that is, I’m still pretty certain they won’t allow you witnessing what is about to transpire soon,” I say, mostly for the safety of her innocence.
“Uh-huh…And you said you’re PRETTY certain?” she asks, putting emphasis on ‘pretty’ for some apparent reason.
“…Yes…” I reply, not getting what she’s doing.
Oh…I accidently opened up an un-needed margin of error, darn.
“And you’re REALLY certain-“
“Out!” I exclaim, albeit frustrated.
Rainbow huffs at me, “Your no fun…Fine, I’m out,” she left when I gave her a slight glare.
As I watch Rainbow fly off back to Ponyville, I soon turn my attention to a changeling who has the misfortune to be the first one to come to consciousness.
I smile sadistically and began circling him much as a Tiger circling his prey, unknowingly switching to my Sadistic side.
“Hmm…’Tis a shame really, and here I was hoping to have a changeling head mounted on my ever-growing amount of trophies I’ve gathered over the years,” I intimidate; unfortunately it has an undesired effect.
The changeling spits out some green-blood and smirks at my form, “Yea, right…A kid like you can’t even muster up the will to kill us,”
‘Try me,’ I thought, before kicking the head of the changeling to the side, sending him back on the ground.
“Now, before we get any more blood spilt on that nice armor of yours, how about you answer me this,” I grab the shoulder-plates of the changeling’s armor and hoist him up dangerously close to my face, “Where. Did. You. Take. Wolf?” I seethe.
The changeling smirks again before spitting more green blood on my face, “Go run back to your momma, kid.”
I drop the changeling and wipe the blood off of my face, then draw out my knife, “Well then, how about we play a little game then?” I say, and then I pin the changeling back down on the ground with a stomp of my armored boot.
I grab his arm and pin it away from him, holding my knife above it, “This game is a classic for the westerns, called ‘The five-fingered fillet’…Don’t worry, I’m a pro at this.” I grin maliciously at the changeling, who is finally starting to show some unease.
I spread his fingers out with my knife, and then start stabbing the areas between it in order, repeatedly. Going faster as I go, the changeling is slowly increasing the unease on his face as I progress.
My knife is going so fast, to the point it’s no wonder I haven’t stabbed him yet, or until I at least, slow down greatly as the knife is in mid-air, changing the target of the space between the fingers to the entire hand.
My knife stabs through the gauntlet and passes through the hand and onto the other side, out of the palm. The changeling screams out in pain and tries to break free out from under my boot, as I just stare at him grinning like a mad-man.
“Aww…And I was soo, close to breaking my personal record,“ I sadly say, “Ah well, maybe I can try again on THIS hand?” I say as I grabbed the knife and yank it out of the changeling’s hand, releasing green blood everywhere on his gauntlet and moving it over to his other hand.
The changeling cries out into even more pain, and attempts to writhe out of my hold once more, I get another idea, and I release the changeling from my boot.
He gets to his feet and attempts to run away, if only a couple of feet, before a bullet passes through his leg, sending blood everywhere and him to the ground once more.
I check the magazine quickly and notice that only two bullets are left, one for the magazine and one for the chamber, I put it back in and put the gun on safety and holster it, I begin to make my way towards him, flicking the green-blood off of my knife as I go.
The changeling notices me coming and attempts to crawl away, but before he could get far, I reached him and stomped him to the ground once more. I think I even heard a rib crack in that breastplate of his, or maybe it’s his wings…Nah it’s the ribs.
“P-Please! No more!” the changeling whimpers from under me.
“Aww, come now, and we were only just getting started! I’ve had people last longer than you!” I raise his head and bring my knife to his throat, “And those guys got to the bonus level,” I draw my knife across his neck, not deep enough to kill him, but enough to cause tons of pain, “I’m only going to ask this once,” I bang his head on the ground before turning him over and bringing him to my now uncovered eyes, that’s apparently shining red, according to the reflection on his helmet, “Where. Is. Wolf.” I say as more of a statement than a question.
The changeling finally breaks, seeing my murderous eyes, “H-He’s b-been brought to the underground base near the minesss!!” He collapses and starts sobbing, “J-J-Just P-P-Please D-Don’t H-Hurt me anymoreee!”
I turn around and look to the sky, to see the armored carriage nearing my location, “Hmph, all you had to do was answer, was that so hard?” Amusedly the changeling nods to my rhetorical question.
I drop him down to the ground, in which he curls up into a ball and continues sobbing.
‘Wuss,’ I thought, the begin making my way towards the mines, and switching back to my Calm side automatically
(Third person perspective)
Once the golden trimmed armored carriage finally comes to halt on the ground, a squad of armored solar guards armed with crossbows and spears, makes their way out of the carriage and towards the changelings.
“Didn’t the princess say that a kid did all of this?” A guard says to his squad mate, as they all tie up the unconscious changeling and half of them hoists the changeling into the carriage.
“Yea, even heard the kid was in the military for a good amount of time, what was the branch called again? The ‘Delta Force: Green Beret’ I think that’s what it was,” replied the guard.
“That’s bullshit, there’s no way a kid can be in the military! They’re too young! He would have collapsed from shock at the first sight of blood!” A guard joins in the conversation.
(We are just gonna call them guard, 1,2,3 in chronological order. Easy enough for ya?)
“Hey what’s that over there?” Guard 2 says to anyone, pointing a green trail of blood leading to a black figure on the ground.
“Is it another changeling?” says guard 1.
They all rush over to the figure, slowing down when they see the crumpled heap of the changeling left on the ground, still sobbing uncontrollably.
“Holy mother of Celestia,” Says Guard 3 in horror and astonishment, as they all surround the changeling.
“What happened to him? Guard 1 asks.
“Let’s see here,” begins guard 2 as he inspects the body, “His hand has been stabbed clean through, his neck seems to be cut, large enough for a gash, but small enough to avoid death, at least until he would die of blood loss, and something appears to have been shot through his leg, not to mention he has physical trauma on his head…” He stops to hear the sobbing, hearing mumbles of the word ‘Death’s eyes,’ over and over again, “And he probably has mental trauma as well,” The guards all look at each other with shock and awe in their eyes, eventually changing to pity when they look at the changeling again, “Come on, let’s get him inside the carriage,” all the guards agree as they tie the traumatized changeling up, then hoisting it onto their arms, and into the carriage.
They all close the carriage doors, and as they all look at each other, the same thing echoing through their minds.
‘Don’t Fuck with the Delta Force.’
(First person perspective)
Time: 1:42 P.M
Date: Oct 14, 2013
Location: The Ponyville Mines
As I stare out on the barren grey wasteland called the Ponyville mines, I take notice of holes in the area, looks almost as if a dog made them.
My light armor boots crunch on the pebbles and gravel underneath me, making noise as I step across the area, looking for a spot to find the changeling outpost. Unfortunately judging by the holes, it seems that these were made to go DEEP underground, if I were to jump in it; I would most likely be dead before I even hit the ground. Not to mention that I would need a light source.
If anything, I would need to acquire some kind of substitute for a rappelling cord, a rope would suffice…But it would be hard.
I continued to look around for any holes shallow enough to the point where I could stick my knife in the side walls and slide my way down…But…None have appeared so far.
No? Wait… Ah here we go; I have discovered a hole that appears to be…Roughly 20-30 feet, according to a pebble I just kicked down. I can barely see ground where the cave begins but…and a big BUT, If I do this right, I can probably make my way down there with minimal damage.
‘Dale would kill me if he saw how I was handling this,’ I thought to myself as I saw how many errors I was making in my judgment.
Not wanting to waste any more time, I embed my knife on the edge of the hole and slowly and very carefully ease into it.
‘Down the hatch, we go!’
I plant both feet on the side of the hole and drag my knife down the wall as gravity tries to take over, my fall growing faster every millisecond I spent on the side.
After an agonizing ten seconds the walls of the hole ended and my boots and knife was left with open air, I fell the rest of the way for about five feet before I landed on my two legs, however the pain in my heels and tendons were excruciating and I fell onto my arms while I tried to endure the screams of hatred my legs and feet were giving me for putting them through all of this.
After the pain subsided I got back up and examined my surroundings,
‘Anyone else feel like I’ve just entered a realistic Minecraft cave system? No? Just me? Too bad for you,’
Everywhere I looked, I could spot some kind of glimmer in the distance indicating some kind of gemstone in the area, and some of them I think were the Dark sapphires I was looking for.
‘Wolf first, sapphires later,’ I reminded myself.
Activating my visor I open it to see that my mini-map has marked my entire walk, so in the case I need to backtrack I can follow it, however all unknown areas aren’t marked, so it seems while I can still locate Wolf,-which is apparently indicated with a Blue dot-, I have no idea how to reach him.
That means I have to navigate an unknown labyrinth and somehow make my way down nine floors and go all the way back to the entrance of the mines to reach the changeling outpost.
‘I fucking hate you universe.’
Rather not waste any more time, I immediately set off in the general direction to where Wolf is located at.
(Status: Unedited.) (Comments should point out any grammar mistakes I made and consistency errors, lord knows how long I got stuck on this chapter...)
(Third person perspective) Time: 1:53 P.M Date: October 14, 2013 Location: Ponyville Park - In the lush green clearing of Ponyville Park, stands a lone hill separated from all the hustle and bustle that the children bring, it’s used for many things; like taking a picnic, watching the stars, watching the sun rise, All sorts of good stuff.
But as of right now, Twilight Sparkle has set up a picnic for her friends at 2:00 P.M, Twilight, being the everlasting loyal student, decided to come early to avoid being late, With her is Rarity and Fluttershy. At first they all set everything up, waiting for everyone else to join them.
The girls are all chatting about various topics, ranging from animals, to books, to clothing, to just aimless chatter. Stopping every once in a while to welcome the remaining girls. The only one left missing is Rainbow Dash, who is currently en route to their location. Not that they know anyway.
“Typical of Rainbow Dash to be always late, why can’t she ever show up on time for once?” Rarity complains, shaking her head in annoyance.
“Something mega-important probably came up at the weather factory?” Pinkie thought aloud, taking on a thinking posture, before reverting back to her bouncy personality.
“No, she should be on her lunch break right now, if anything, she probably overslept on her nap and is rushing over here right about now.” Twilight reasoned, setting plates down and pouring glasses of lemonade for everyone.
“Now ‘ah don’t mean to change the topic ‘ere, but has anyone seen Chris? I haven’t seen the little fellar since yesterday,” Applejack wondered, concerned for the well-being of Chris.
Fluttershy brought her gaze down at the mention at Chris, not noticed by the others.
Everyone save for Twilight and Rarity wondered for a moment, at least until Rarity broke the ice.
“He does have a knack for being incredibly stealthy, if he hadn’t told me that he was heading to the Ponyville mines I probably would be worried for him,” Rarity said.
Twilight finally noticed Fluttershy’s distress and presented, “Fluttershy? What’s wrong?”
Fluttershy brings her eyes up, only a little, before replying, “I...I don’t want to sound mean…”
“Why would you sound mean?” Twilight interrupted.
“It...It’s Chris…He scares me…” Fluttershy replied, shrinking down into her hair.
“Fluttershy, dear, I know Chris seems a bit rough, but I don’t think he would hurt anyone without due cause, why does he scare you so?” Rarity asks.
“…It’s his eyes, they’re so dark, and you can barely see the pupil. It almost looks like he doesn’t have any emotion at all, like he isn’t…Like he’s done things in his life that he has either come to regret, or doesn’t care.” Fluttershy ended a bit hastily.
Before anybody could reply; Rainbow finally decided on presenting herself. Landing a distance away from the group as to avoid destroying the picnic area, it only worked half as much. Her landing was strong enough to make a gust strong enough to reach the picnic area and blow napkins and Styrofoam cups everywhere, essentially dowsing half of the area in lemonade, much to the girl’s displeasure.
“Hey guys! Sorry I’m late!” Rainbow yells, while walking over to them.
“Rainbow! Uuugh, there goes my vest again,” Twilight exclaimed, taking off her vest and folding it up, awaiting to be brought home and hung up to dry, “What kept you so long?” She asked, silently relieved at the change of topic.
It was then Rainbow Dash showed a look of admiration, “I just came back from my nap, but, something happened that kept me.”
“What could ever keep you from being even more late than usual?” Rarity asks sarcastically, draining lemonade from her hair.
“Uhhh, I don’t know, maybe Chris kicking the butt of three armored changelings without getting hit?” All the girls were showing mixed degrees of shock and awe, until Twilight spoke up.
“He took out three armored opponents?! Is he hurt?!” Twilight asks.
“Are you kidding me?! The kid barely broke a sweat! He was all like Wah-cha! And Ka-pow!” Rainbow demonstrated by acting out a terrible representation of the fight, “The changelings barely knew what hit them!”
“What happened after he took on ‘dem changelings?” Applejack questioned.
“He knocked out the two changelings… While the third one captured Wolf… ” Rainbow’s eyes dawned in realization, “And is bringing him back to their base located at the Ponyville mines… ”
“WHAT!?” the girls all screamed in unison.
“We have to go save him from all those meanie heads, before they hurt him!” Pinkie exclaims in determination and was about to charge off, hadn’t Twilight stopped her with her magic.
Rainbow was about to agree to follow Chris before Twilight stopped them.
“Calm down!” Twilight stopped everyone before continuing, “As much as I want to go to the mines and help Chris, we have to think about this!”
“Think about what?! Chris is in the mines, there are changelings there, and he needs our help! What else is there to think about?!” Rainbow argued.
“What makes you so sure he needs our help? Need I remind you that he took out an S rank magical construct on his second night here?” Twilight reasoned, “He Is probably perfectly capable on taking out the changelings on his own, otherwise Celestia would never have assigned him to recon and liberation missions!”
That shut Rainbow up in thought. All of the girls stopped and looked at Twilight before their eyes glazed over in thought, thinking about whether to go save Chris or not.
“Go anyways just to make sure he comes out?” Rainbow attempts at once last argument.
“Yep,” all the girls replied, and then they started packing to get ready to meet Chris at the mines.
--
‘Oh my god…I’m starting to hate mines!’ I screamed internally as I checked the corner of a tunnel before following it down.
According to my visor, I’ve finally made it to the ninth floor underground and I’m making my way towards the outpost. My pistol and knife both at the ready in case of any hostiles, so far I’ve managed to avoid any conflict with the inhabitants of these caves, ranging from rats to some kind of weird anthropomorphic dogs in armor.
‘Are these guys the miners of this cave system?’ I think to myself as I stick next to a corner to avoid detection from more anthro-dogs.
After they passed I make sure the dog continues walking and then move forward, quickly checking corners and letting instinct take over as I move my way towards the changelings’ base of operations in this area.
I stop for a moment and looking around one last time before moving to a corner and kneeling, planning on checking my visor for a moment to see how much farther I am.
‘Almost there… I’m going to need to find some way to spot my targets.’
Standing back up, I look once more to make sure there are no hostiles, and then start moving forward. My boots silently crunching on the small pebbles underneath me as I hold my knife over my pistol and gun at the ready, prepared for all sorts of encounters, whether CQC or Long range battles.
I continued following the tunnel for who knows how long now, the only thing crossing my mind is my footsteps, no possible encounters as far as I know.
I’ve come to realize that the tunnel is beginning to look more technical, boxes and barrels are starting to appear in the distance, and that can only mean one thing.
‘I’m close.’
I continue following the tunnel, sticking to the walls and barrels now that they are there, in order to prevent possible hostiles spotting me.
*Crunch**Clang**Crunch**Clang*
I drew a sharp intake of breath as I move my knife underneath my pistol and stick it in the groove of the handle and use both of my hands to steady it. Looking around for the hostile approaching nearby, the only sounds being emitted are from the steps of the possible enemy.
On the side of the tunnel where the outpost leads to I see a light slowing getting larger and larger every footstep I’m hearing, so I can only say it’s a torch and someone is coming.
I try looking around for possible hiding spaces but all the barrels are filled, either with equipment, gems, or some weird green-goo, and the boxes are either filled or too small.
‘Crap, crap, crap!’ I mentally curse to myself as I continue searching, the light and footsteps slowly getting closer.
I see one last box near the edge of the cave, but it’s where the light is coming from and I’m not sure I can make it.
Making another risky move, I dart from all the barrels and head for that one box, the footsteps getting close.
‘Please don’t be full’ I pray.
-
The changeling finally turns the corner and swings the torch in the direction of the cave, laminating it in the torch’s range; the changeling stops for a moment and observes the area for any suspicious items or behavior, before stepping his way into the cave, passing all sorts of boxes and barrels.
He was halfway through when a box near him decided to sneeze, causing him to stop his patrol and look around, resting on a box next to him.
He makes his way towards the box and stops just in front of it, resting his torch on the side of a barrel and put one hand on the handle of his sword; he puts his other hand on the flaps of the box.
In a split-second he opened the box and drew out the sword and pointed it… … … .At storage equipment.
“Hmm. Must have been my imagination,” the changeling mutters, before sheathing his sword and grabbing his torch.
He goes back to the center of the tunnel and resumes his patrol, finally leaving through the other side.
--
‘Close one,’ I exhale a breath I was holding as soon as the changeling left, the idiot happened to open the box next to me.
I open the flaps slightly and look at my surroundings, making sure the changeling left before I silently stepped out.
‘Can’t kill him, Can’t risk the outpost being on lock down when I get there, I can wreck hell on them when I’m inside the outpost and Wolf is safely with me,” I mentally give myself the ROE, and objective.
I bring out my knife and gun once more and place them CQC style, before resuming my trek towards the outpost.
‘After I rescue Wolf, Eliminate all hostiles and find a rappel cord, then find some explosives and blow the outpost to kingdom come’ I specify my strategy as I exit the cave and turn the corner into a new one that leads downwards.
I slowly descended the tunnel, careful not to accelerate due to the incline of the cave. Occasionally skipping for a bit in order to regain my center of balance.
I reach the end of the tunnel and see the next one is open and leads to the left downward, as I make my way towards it, I see the outpost in all its glory.
“Hooly shit….I’m gonna need more explosives…and Celestia said this was small?”
The entire outpost takes up about 90% of the cave’s chamber, it was not designed flimsy looking, but instead looked like a bloody fortress. Three main buildings adorned in black bricks with green trim, is placed in the center of the compound, the roofs being patrolled by changelings with crossbows, two of the main buildings go up about three stories high, while the middle building is five stories each building is connected by a sky bridge. There is a metal wall built around the perimeter, each corner housing a watch tower with a magically powered spotlight, with two changelings in the tower, one for the spotlight and one with a crossbow. Any and all climbable ledges are all outfitted with bob-wire preventing any entrances or exits through climbing, the front of the wall houses a fence-wire gate, with three changelings situated near the fence, checking all the personnel that enter the compound.
Around the main buildings was a pathway for patrols, shaped like a square acting like the perimeter wall, changelings in groups of four, patrol the inside of the perimeter.
There was also the issue of the warehouses built next to the pathway, possibly holding unknown weapons for use against the Equestrian government.
‘Damn, still, this is a very good outpost for changelings, if the Intel from Celestia is anything to go by,” I mused to myself, “Shame, it has to go boom-boom.”
I activate my visor and bring up the zoom feature, watching the Changelings patrol from corner to corner. I noticed every time I spot one, they get outlined. I don’t know what that’s for but I hope it will help.
After outlining all of the changelings outside, I take a look inside the compound’s buildings, looking for Wolf.
I search the buildings, coming across many settings, ranging from training rooms, labs, offices, until finally locating Wolf, who is being suspended and hooked to a bunch of green wires leading to a machine of some sort. There are changelings In front of him, and by the looks of things, I’d say they were trying to interrogate him, but he seems to be resisting… Those lightning shocks must be painful to his AI.
‘Just a little bit longer Wolf,’ I mentally reassure him.
After finding out all the secrets I can find by looking at the fortress, I direct my attention to the outside of it.
Apparently the main road splits into many different pathways, each leading away or around the compound. And if I’m lucky…..
‘Bingo,’
Transportation… Not vehicles, mind you. More like magical hover lifts; two so far, a square container big enough to hold at least nine boxes or nine barrels, powered by the changelings’ magic to be transported from each of the connecting tunnels to the warehouses.
The two transport lifts seemed to be going in a clockwise circle, the closest one next to me is three stops away.
I stand up from my hiding spot and begin making my way back towards the barrels and boxes I passed earlier, making sure to take extra caution in case that changeling from before comes back. After climbing the incline once more I reach the storage area and look for the box I was in before.
Looking around for a couple of minutes—finding boxes filled with gems that so happen to have a couple Dark sapphires, not wanting to waste my chances, I grab them—Before I finally find my old box and get in it; if time proves correct, it shouldn’t be long before a transport lift comes.
--
The changeling from before comes back around and turns a corner to enter the cave, being through with his rounds.
As he enters, a transport lift floats its way into the cave and sits idly by, waiting for a changeling to come and mark his ID and begin loading the lift.
The changeling approaches the lift and swipes his hand over an area of the lift, giving it a biometrical ID check; the lift accepts it and opens its hatch. While the changeling starts grabbing the boxes.
As he loads the boxes he sets locations for where they are to be placed when the lift returns to the outpost, eventually coming over to where Chris is hiding.
"East side, gem storage area," the changeling mutters to himself, as he picks up the box, not aware of the person inside.
The changeling places the box on the lift and closes the door, swiping his hand on the lift once more to signal that it is ready for takeoff.
The lift rises up into the air and begins hovering its way back to the outpost, passing the tunnels and finally floating over the gate, it then starts hovering above all the warehouses, in which they open their roofs. The lift starts dropping the boxes at the designated warehouse for about fifteen minutes before I was next, being the last one dropped off in a warehouse.
--
Unfortunately, I didn't realize the 11 foot fall down. So when I felt my weightlessness for a good second, I almost panicked in surprise, before hitting solid ground with an 'oomph'.
As soon as I entered, I could hear the timer set magic close the warehouse roof, bathing the entire storage room in darkness.
I wait for a good minute or so, before opening up the box a little, looking around to make sure there aren't any hostiles going about on their patrols.
Realizing that wasn't necessary as I was inside, I open the box all the way and jump out, into the darkness of the warehouse, No other means of light save for the constant sparkle of stray gems.
'Let's do a quick inventory check before I continue- wha?' As soon as I thought 'inventory check' my visor showed a diagram of my backpack and pouches and everything inside.
'Don't question it...Less you lose what little sanity you have less… I always have to remind myself that I’m stuck in an alternate universe where logic barely applies to anything here’ I sigh to myself in exasperation, ‘When I get the chance, I’m gonna find a secluded area and…Do whatever I do when I’m alone.’
Next to the diagram showed a list of all that's inside, I begin running through the inventory check.
- 'Wow, when you really get down to it, I don't have much equipment to use. Save for the weapons and armor on my back,' I think to myself, before closing the visor, 'What did it mean by, 'Not calibrated?' I mentally question myself regarding my pistol.
‘Ermm…Let’s try this, “Calibration”’ I murmur quietly, and my visor responded with an information tip.
Help tip #64 – Calibration
Calibration affects both the visor and the weapon in possession, when you want to calibrate a weapon, you must head to: Home > Items > Weapons > Calibrate – Or you can take the shortcut of saying “Calibrate weapon”
When the Calibration menu shows simply create a new weapon folder and begin calibrating your weapon, the instructions will tell you to hold your weapon in the center view of the visor for an unknown amount of time until if completes.
Then you’re done!
‘Seems simple enough,’ I think to myself, ‘All right, let’s see here…”Calibrate weapon,” I murmur quietly once more, adrenaline pumping when something shifted near me, only to realize it was just a gemstone falling from the top of a tower of gems.
Paying my attention back to my visor, I see a pair of brackets, surrounding the center of my view, underneath shows a sentence.
*Aim weapon in the middle of the brackets*
Doing what I was told, I sheathe my knife and align the sights of the M1911 and bring it up to the center of the visor screen in between the brackets.
Immediately the text changes to *calibrating, please wait a moment* with a loading screen above it.
I hold the stance for a good fifteen seconds until the visor said *Complete!*
The brackets close, and re-open while being dragged down to the bottom right of the visor, now showing the ammunition the gun has in its chamber and remaining ammo
*2/??*
I drop the stance I was holding and notice that my gun now has a cross hair following everywhere it goes, with the exception being that the gun is out of sight or I’m looking in the sights.
‘Neat…Back to the mission,’ I remind myself, drawing my knife out and holding it with the knife sticking to the groove in the handle of my gun.
I shuffle around a bit, trying to keep quiet while looking for the doorway that leads me out of the warehouse and into the courtyard. However, no matter how I try, I can’t seem to find the doorway- oh wait… Never mind, I found it.
*Clunk, sqquuuuueeeaaakkk*
Adrenaline courses through my body as the door is moving slowly and is making the sound as if I’m in a submarine.
‘I’ll be spotted if this continues making noise!’ I mentally reminded myself.
I open it just enough for me and my bag to squeeze through, and then exit.
I shut the door behind me, cringing at the awful and dangerous sound its making and its risk to my position.
As soon as I closed it, I immediately dash over to the nearest obstruction and hide behind it. Hoping that there were no changelings close enough to hear the noise I made.
My breathing is erratic as a result from the adrenaline coursing through my body, not to mention that I’m somewhat sweating from the stress that I might get spotted.
After about a minute or so, something inside of me clicked and told my body that I was safe for now, my breathing immediately slowed down to normal and so did my heartbeat.
I slowly stand up enough so I can see the surrounding area and began looking around; making sure that there wouldn’t be any patrols going about.
‘I think I just figured out what that blue outlined was when I zoomed in,’ I thought to myself.
All of the changelings and patrols that have been highlighted allow me to track their position even if they went behind a wall.
As such, if I wanted to, I could follow each and every position and use them as a path while taking them out
However my earlier ROE overrules that.
‘Can’t kill them now, Can’t risk the outpost being on lock down when I get there, I can wreck hell on them when I’m inside the outpost and Wolf is safely with me,’
All that left now, is to infiltrate the facility.
‘But how?’ I questioned myself.
First things first, I had to find an entrance, a back entrance preferably. I stand up and stick to the edge of the perimeter, my back against the cold stone wall as I survey the area, occasionally moving around.
After a bit of circling, I stop across from a doorway across the street, and survey the area once more.
After moving my head back and forth like a camera for a good five minutes, I eventually came up with a plan. I don’t think it was a good plan, but a plan nonetheless.
I pick up a rock and aim for a wall away from my direction, waiting for the next patrol to come by, when they rounded the corner, I chucked the rock and it hit a barrel, making a loud “dong” sound.
Loud enough to catch the changelings attention, they directed their attention away from their patrol to check the area the rock was thrown at.
When they were looking away completely from my direction, I crouched-run towards the door, opened it, and entered the middle building, slowly closing the door behind me.
After sticking next to a dark side of a wall for a bit to make sure no one noticed my entrance, I stand up and start moving alongside the wall.
‘These guys are proving me wrong on so many levels when it comes to their innovation.’ I thought to myself.
The thought came to mind because of the interior of the fortress. It was designed with a smooth texture of concrete on the floor and walls. The occasional carpet or two lined on a hallway.
It reminded me more of one of the buildings in Iraq, only in looks though, the actual layout, I’m not too keen on.
It wasn’t until I reached the first staircase leading up did I finally hear footsteps coming across the hallway.
Instead of rushing up the staircase, I went around and into the back corner of it.
I hid underneath the staircase and waited until the patrol passed.
“That AI is starting to be a real pain in the ass, why are we even interrogating it? Can’t it just lock the memories down or something?” I hear a changeling say.
“It could, that’s why we are having our engineers working on its memory drive, we are only interrogating it for fun,” I hear another changeling say, in a bit more professional manner.
‘Freaking sadists…’ I cursed at them, then realized the irony, than shut that thought down, ‘I only interrogated ruthlessly for information, not for fun, if the prisoner has no use they receive a quick and painless death, or imprisonment.’
I hear the changelings stop as I hear some footsteps come down the stairs, my body tensing up and trying to remain as silent as possible.
“What are you two maggot-sacks jabbering about?! You should be patrolling the floor!” I hear a gruff voice yell at them.
“Y-Yes sir, Colonel!” I hear the changelings yell before scrambling away.
“You!” One of the footsteps stop, “Come here.” The Colonel ordered.
“What is it sir?” The changeling asked.
“I want you to head back to the torture room and charge up the electricity gems, twice the voltage.” The Colonel ordered.
I can only assume I heard a salute, before a pair of footsteps went up the stairs.
The Colonel stayed at the staircase a bit after the changeling left, before I heard heavier footsteps echo away from me.
When there were no more footsteps I stayed for a couple seconds before slowly getting out from underneath the staircase.
‘Damn, I better hurry and get Wolf; otherwise I will be known too quickly, not to mention that I can’t let them have any Intel on Celestia or the girls.’
I look both ways across the hallways before I creep up the stairs, fast but quiet. When I reached the second floor I think I might have heard a door close above me.
‘Let’s start upstairs’
I repeat what I did going up the stairs, albeit more slowly this time, when I reached the third floor I saw a changeling enter a room to the right of me.
‘I can’t breach, my gun would make too much noise…Maybe if I were to commandeer a weapon from the changelings…’
I head back down to the second floor and watch for any signs of movement, before making my way across the hallway. Whenever I am in sight of a window, I go prone and army crawl until I pass.
All the while half of my mind was diverted to its own devices.
‘I like this armor, it’s very nice armor.’
‘They couldn’t make a suppressor could they? But they could make a bloody HK416’
‘I wonder if there has been any advances in stealth mechanics back home, I could kill for a silent assault rifle,’
My thoughts got cut off when I spotted a lone changeling pass by the hallway; I hid next to some containers and observed him.
‘Looks to be standard armor, weak points are the wing, tail, horn, and joints, short-sword located on the left hip, ranged weapon…looks to be a mix of a crossbow and pistol….It’s mine now,’
As soon as the changeling turns around and heads away from me, I holster my pistol and start sneaking over to the changeling.
I was only halfway there when the changeling stopped, muttered something, and began turning around.
I barely made it into a crevice in the shadows before the changeling passed.
That’s when I made my move.
I stood up, and rushed straight for the changeling,
He didn’t even have time to turn around before I reached him, kicked his legs from under him and place my knife in his throat, and covered his gurgling screams with my hand.
After he stopped struggling, I dragged him back into the shadows and confiscated his crossbow pistol.
Now that I had a closer look at it, it was very unique. The lower receiver had the same bolt release on the side, but it looked more to field strip than charging it. As for the upper receiver, there was a tiny bow attached underneath the front sight.
It looked more like a Mouser when it came to reloading.
The magazine is supposed to be placed underneath the barrel, right in front of the trigger guard, it was see-through and I counted five bolts, there also appeared to be some mechanism in between the magazine and the bow, if I had to guess…I think it might auto-cock the crossbow after it fires. Oh wait, scratch that, this gun is double-action. The trigger uses some kind of mechanism that pulls back the string, loading the bolt. Pull it even further and you fire.
‘Cool, now I’m really giving this to Forge he can keep it and make more to give to the Equestrian guard, I won't need it, no matter what, my M1911 is my main gun, nothing will change that,’
I lessen the grip on the small crossbow, my body acting on instinct to holster it, when it found out there was nothing to place it in I put it back in my hand.
I step out of the shadows and begin making my way back to the third floor, being mindful of the windows once more; I make it back to the staircase no problem, only encountering one other changeling.
I deduced he was the other changeling’s partner, so I decided to eliminate him.
I stick next to a corner, watching his shadow, as soon as I spot the first glint of his armor, I sprang.
I grabbed him, swung him over and slammed him on the wall, dazing him. While he was slumping to the ground I raise my knife, and slam it into the back of his neck, spraying a little bit of green blood on the wall.
I retract my knife and grab the body and drag it to the nearest clump of shadows, after making sure there are no more patrols, I head upstairs.
I make it back to the third floor to see that the door I saw before is still closed, and there are still changelings inside it as I notice the shadows moving underneath the doorway.
I sneak up to it and stick to the side where the door will block my sight when it opens.
‘Now, how to go about this, as much as I want to kick the door in and start shooting, I don’t know how many are inside, or where they are even located at. So…’
“Knock, knock,” I murmur quietly, while knocking on the doorway.
“It’s open!” I hear a changeling answer behind it.
I ignored it and continued knocking, all the while I was amusing myself by murmuring “knock, knock,” every time I knocked.
As much as I want to defend myself for either acting like a retard or feeling a bit too happy on the battlefield, I can’t argue. I amuse myself with the simplest of things to escape the horrors of death and brutality.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” the voice on the other side grows louder as he nears the door.
I make sure that I won’t be spotted, and hide behind where the door will open.
The door opens and the changeling comes out, “What is it?!”
As soon as I see his armor, I slam the door shut, effectively blocking any other changeling’s line of sight in that room.
The changeling didn’t have enough time to turn around before he felt the pointed tip of the arrow poking the side of the head.
“Freeze…” I say, “Drop your weapons,” The changeling does so, and I kick them away, “Hands in the air,” He complies, although I was tempted to say ‘now wave ‘em around like you just don’t care’ but I shoved it away.
“How many changelings are in that room?” I ask.
“T-t-two,” The changeling answers,
“How close are they?” I continue.
“T-they are close enough to hear the knocking,” The changeling answers.
I don’t know what compelled me, the fact that physics might be a bit lenient, or the fact that I was looking for amusement.
‘Good’
“Back up a couple steps towards the doorway,” I order.
The changeling complies, all the entire time he is shaking and his eyes are closed, if I didn’t know any better I would say at any moment he would piss himself.
When I deem him close enough, I step over to the doorway and knock.
I might have had a lapse of thought; otherwise I probably should have expected the doorway to slam open from a kick from the changelings on the other side.
Either way, the end result was hilarious.
The doorway caused the changeling in front of it to get sent flying across the hallway and into the wall, landing upside down knocked out.
I couldn’t focus on the knocked out changeling because the door slam kicked in my instincts.
As soon as I spotted the changeling emerging from the doorway in confusion, I shoved my knife in his throat, spun him around, and used him as a meat shield for the last changeling.
This was a good idea, because as soon as I came through the doorway the last changeling opened fire with his pistol crossbow, hitting the changeling meat shield I put up.
When I heard the thud, I poked my crossbow over the shoulder of the corpse and shot the changeling twice. The first shot missed, but the second landed a hit on his face, dispatching him.
Keeping the crossbow trained on the latest body just in case he was faking, I slowly walk up to the dead changeling and check it’s pulse to confirm my kill.
After I did that, I put my small crossbow on the table and went to pick up the changeling corpse by the door. When I picked him up, I looked behind him to see the unconscious upside-down changeling on the other side of the hallway.
I smile a bit and let out a silent chuckle. Before dragging the corpse and placing it on the other body.
I also did the same for the knocked-out changeling, except…Well, that’s another kill count for me.
When all the bodies were cleared and placed in the corner, I shut the door and looked around.
I appeared to be in some kind of intelligence room, with a small weapons cache in the corner. There was a small round table with six chairs surrounding it, and a floating green crystal in the center.
Any person would just head straight for giant glowing crystal sitting in the middle of the room, but I decided against it. Choosing instead to pick up an extra bolt cartridge and restocking the magazine inside the cross gun (2).
I searched around the room, coming across some yellow crystals. Curiosity getting the better of me, I touched one and held it.
I won’t say I was half-expecting my arm to light up again like back in the castle and showing me the contents of the crystal.
Basic summary: An upgraded version of the Small auto-reloading crossbow, using a full-length crossbow instead of a compact version. Uses same method and mechanism as the SARC.
Changes: The Bolt loader is being changed from a vertical to cylinder like, upgrading the bolt capacity from 7 to 20. (With Double enchantment, the capacity can be upgraded to 40 bolts)
Blueprints:
Planned finale:
-
That was all I needed to see before I pocketed it, ready to give it to forge when I’m done.
I checked the other yellow crystals, but all they had was Intel against Celestia and the Girls…I pocketed each of them to be destroyed later. (Not that any of the stuff was accurate in my opinion)
The last yellow crystal I picked up detailed of building aluminum alloys and other synthetic materials, great for making gun parts and the like. I assumed they needed it to make those cross rifles they were making.
‘Mine now,’
When I was finished, I had 5 yellow crystals worth of intel in my bag, ready to give to Forge.
*knock, knock, knock*
‘Copy cats,’ I surmised, thinking that the changelings were trying to copy me. Even if logically that wasn’t possible because they don’t know I’m here yet.
I bring out the cross gun and make sure it’s loaded and ready to fire, and I get behind some cover in case I miss, lastly, in the most gruff voice I can manage, I yell.
“Come in.”
Two changelings come in at that moment, completely oblivious to the dead bodies in the corner.
Of course, I’m not going to say some witty line or something, all that really happened was that both of them received bolts to the face.
What? I’m not going to make it seem like every kill is dramatic!
Two newly stashed bodies later and an ammo refill, I exit out the intelligence room and begin making my way to finding the armory.
I’ve always hated the feeling of adrenaline pumping into me at the wrong times. Like right now, it’s making my hands shake and giving me the sense of wanting to jump around everywhere, it’s taking some willpower to keep it down and continue on with my mission.
Of course, just because it’s happening now doesn’t mean it’s handy.
Without prior knowledge, a changeling came rounding around a corner right in front of me.
When I look back on it, it feels like some kind of selection goes through my mind when instinct takes over. Like, my mind automatically surveys the situation and acts accordingly.
Thus, the changeling on the ground next to me dead.
However there are some moments when instinct takes over and fails to respond.
There was one time I was walking around school, and one of my friends somehow snuck up on me. Instinct tried to take over, but it failed, when I look back on it, I feel like in my head, it when something like this.
Instinct: Enemy spotted! Activating CQC protocol number 54!
Mind: Wait! That’s a friendly!
Instinct: Conflicting protocols! Unable to properly respond! Shutting down!
Thus, I ended up on the floor in school, what happened was that when my friend surprised me, I almost responding with a fist to the face and kick to the groin, but it only got so far as to lifting off the ground. When the instinct stopped, I lost balance and fell down.
Enough reminiscence, moving on.
After going through the small sky bridge leading to one of the other buildings, I went through the doorway and entered a giant warehouse of the sorts.
Catwalks lining the frame of the structure and gems lined the floor everywhere, gathering in clumps in the corner or in boxes of organized chaos.
In the middle of it all was a bored-looking changeling patrol consisting of six changelings, around them was cases, and if I had to guess they were weapons caches.
‘And the award for ‘Not my Fucking job goes too…’ I thought to myself.
I went down the catwalk and went down some stairs to get to the ground level of the warehouse, when I got down, I stuck next to the clumps of gems that are darkly colored, as my armor and hair would help me naturally blend in.
Taking these guys out was simple.
Step 1: Acquire a distraction.
I took a loose gem and threw it against a mountain of gems that looked ready to collapse, when it hit, it all fell down.
Step 2: Wait in camouflage
I covered myself in gems while the noise was still going, and I stayed next to the mess.
Not long after, one of the changelings was sent to look at the mess, the rest of the group going back to their conversation.
Step 3: Ambush
When the changeling touched one of the gems on me, I took it as a sensor and struck.
He didn’t even see me coming,
‘Welcome to the horde, mate’ I joked badly.
Step 4: Rinse and repeat
You all know what happens now, over the span of an hour, the changelings came and died, one by one, the last one came with his weapon bared. As soon as he saw the dead changeling bodies, I shot him with my crossbow.
After the deeds were done, I covered the bodies with gems, and made my way to the weapons cache.
When I opened it, I came to see a lot of classic cartoon TNT stored here.
I felt like I had an argument to make…But it died down when rationality came in again.
Speaking of rationality, I better do something first.
I ring up Celestia on my visor and she picked up not too long later.
“Chris! Where are you?! The girls are worried sick!”
Needless to say, she sounded a bit mad.
“…” I blink at her a couple of times, trying to form a response, when I couldn’t I drove my hand up through my hair, and looked away.
And looked back at her with…Nope, there goes my determination, it died again…
Celestia is still looking at me like a mother scorning a child, and I’m just sitting here, wishing she would realize what she has ordered me to do.
Unfortunately she hasn’t realized that yet. So, I just skipped ahead.
“I have infiltrated the Outpost and I’m in the armory wing, before I begin rigging the bombs I want to see if you would like to take over this outpost or loot it before I blow it to kingdom come.”
Celestia…Still mad, “That’s no excuse for someone your age to be up and about at 1 A.M!”
I did a double-take, “Say what now?!”
And then I looked behind her…And still saw daylight...
It clicked on what she was trying to do, but I didn’t have the time for this. “Celestia, I don’t have time for an attempted prank right now, and you really need to work on the credibility of your pranks.”
Celestia’s mad face got replaced with a look of surprise, until she looked behind her and saw that her window was showing on the screen. She then looked back at me with a tinge of embarrassment.
“Oh! Ah… oh well, worth a shot. I am a bit rusty since Luna came back, since then; she has been engaging the prank wars with me for a while now.” She clears her throat, “So, you are in the outpost, is there anything of note we might have to pick up?”
“I pretty much have all the Intel I got from here, other than a crap-ton of gems, and some possible weapons, there isn’t much to loot. But, that’s up to you,” I explain.
“…Does the outpost happen to be placed in a strategic location?” Celestia inquired.
“…Hmm…” I try to picture my location on a rough imaginary map of Equestria, “It’s in between Canterlot and Ponyville, so royal guards could get to either places easily. However there is also the problem of it being so far underground with unknown entities in the area in between the surface and the outpost.” I try to summarize, “In my opinion I think I should blow it to Hell,”
“It would seem best; remember Wolf is in the area as well, so you need to rescue him first.” Celestia reminded.
“Already on it,” I replied.
As soon as Celestia said “Best” I just grabbed as much TNT I could carry and placed them in my backpack, making sure to leave one on the weapons cache behind me.
I also happened to pick up a grey gem, which happened to be the remote detonator according to my visor.
I make it back to the center building without any problems, resuming back to stealth mode,
‘I’m just gonna take a guess here and say that Wolf is in the fifth floor in the other end of the hallway. Because according to the laws of the universe where I somehow ended up in, the main objective is in the center of everything,’ I concluded, taking a shot in the dark.
The hallways seemed oddly empty for some reason, not a soul besides me in sight.
Normally I would think I did a bloody good job, but it’s TOO quiet…
I make it without any problems to the top floor of the fortress, and what do you know….
Go on, guess….
Come on…you can do it….
YOU ARE ABSO-*PONY*-LOUTELY RIGHT!!
THERE IS A DOOR AT THE OTHER END OF THE HALLWAY THAT HAS A FREAKING EERIE GLOW AROUND IT, AND IT JUST SCREAMS “WOLF IS HERE”
*cough*
I think it’s kind of obvious why I’m a bit upset for obvious and unknown reasons.
Mainly because: 1. how simple the objective would have been if I had known earlier. 2. It also screams with the best General Ackbar voice: “IT’S A TRAP!” 3…I never gets to three…. Moving on!
Knowing that it’s my main goal and a trap at the same time, I did what any sane person would do. I loaded my pistol and crossbow, holstered my knife, get into a running stance.
And charged.
While screaming, “AMERICA!”
OK! No rewind two sentences. As much as I wanted to charge in there, I’m not entirely sure if it’s even safe. Granted, I could do my previous strategy with the knock-knock joke, but that gets old man…
So, I check my inventory, and after a bit of tinkering, I manage to rewire one stick of away from the detonator and placed the rest of it back in the bag.
Now, I move up close to the door and make sure that Wolf isn’t too far from the blast radius.
I take out my zippo and light the fuse, “cook” it halfway, and then I opened the door, threw it in, and closed it.
I heard the screams of surprise from the changelings inside, and while they were scrambling, I was taking note of the sounds they were heading to.
Both hands in their respective guns, I count the targets.
‘Two on the left, possibly in cover, three on the right still scrambling.’
…..*BOOM*
I kicked in the door with a loud thud and opened fire.
It was all a moment of reaction really, I saw an open changeling on the right scrambling for cover.
I snap my pistol on him and shot him on the right side of his chest, the bullet entering his chest. After he went down, I snapped the pistol down and raised it at the next changeling my mind registered.
I saw a changeling horn picking out of a turned over table, I steady my aim by criss-crossing my crossbow and using my arm as a steadier. I aimed lower and shot the table with the pistol.
I didn’t bother to check to see if my kill confirmed yet, as I shot my crossbow when my mind picked up movement on the right, it hit the next changeling on the leg, but it was silenced when I shot again.
I separated the two guns and my mind picked up the last two changelings in the room. I opened fire on them until I noticed the blood from one of the changelings appear from his cover behind a cabinet.
Apparently I missed the other changeling as a bolt whizzed past my chest. My body automatically flinching away from the bolt in fear of getting shot and rendered incapacitated.
I sprint over to the nearest piece of cover; a table, in which I quickly overturned. Scattering papers and documents alike all over the ground as I crouch right next to it.
I put down the crossbow and draw out my knife readying it for a possible CQC take-down. However just as I was about to poke out my arm and blind-fire, I hear the changeling fall down in pain.
Jumping out from cover, pistol aimed with the sights on his head, I end him quickly.
Upon closer inspection I saw that the changeling was stabbed from behind with a knife. I look up and notice Wolf, tethered on the ceiling by wires and alike. Doing who knows what to him. His tail seemed to have moved, because when I looked at it, it was swinging limply as if he threw something
“Wolf!” I exclaimed, rushing over to him.
“C-Chris…” I hear wolf say, only barely. His voice is weak and static…They really must have done a number on him.
“Don’t worry buddy, it’s all over now,” I say as I searched the control panel for a release switch, when I saw it (Being a small button saying release) I pressed it. In which Wolf fell down from his perch. I rush over to grab him.
However just as I was about to grab him and hoist him above my shoulder, Wolf twitched and looked towards the doorway.
Taking that as a sign of hostility, I grabbed my pistol and aimed at whoever was at the door.
I shouldn’t even be surprised.
“Heh, heh, so you managed to kill an entire squad of my soldiers huh?” The Colonel said.
“…” I said nothing, as there was nothing to say…
“What? No witty banter, no one-liner like “You won’t win this war?” He taunted, “Or is it that you’re scared?”
I felt my face darken and tense, the grip on my pistol tightened.
The colonel finally walked out of the shadows from the doorway, now that I got a better look at him, I could assess him correctly. He was big, bigger compared to that changeling brute that stole Wolf. He was wearing plate pants, and it didn’t seem that he was wearing anything on his torso save for some kind of armor that crisscrosses on the center and acts as a holster for his Two-handed Mace with what appeared to be reinforced with Anthracite Spikes. His helmet seemed to be unique; the design seemed to correspond to that of one of those Roman Soldiers back in the old times. Except the coloring was dark green.
His body looked well regulated and strong, if he wanted to he could grab me and throw me on the wall and leave a crater behind it. His face showed years of battle, scars littered his body and face, detailing from cuts to gashes, and in his mouth, a cigar.
I almost cracked up at that last part. The perfect topping for your enemy to have.
Conclusion: Switch to dirty tricks; if I try to take him on a full-on melee, I’m dead for sure. Keep your distance, and go in on the offensive when he is distracted.
“The ‘big, bad, badass little child’ not even here for a whole week and you are causing a ruckus among the ranks, both ours and the solar tyrant’s” The Colonel continued.
‘Now this sounds interesting, better push it’ I decided.
“The solar tyrant…Celestia? What about her and her soldiers?” I questioned.
“So the little brat does have a voice! Ah ha! And here I thought I was talking to a statue!” The colonel barked.
‘Answer. The. Question.’ I mentally repeated, my vice grip on the gun increasing with each mental word.
“Why, our spies have noticed that you managed to send three of our co-workers to the Canterlot dungeons! I can still remember the faces they made when those idiots found the bodies…Quite a mess you made.” The colonel started pulling out his mace, in which I responded with getting into a fighting stance with my knife and pistol.
“I bet I can top that with only one child…” the colonel slammed the mace on the ground and pulled out a cross pistol, loading it with a glowing 5-bolt magazine.
I responded in kind by reloading my pistol, the ammo count now showing *7/??*.
“You’re going to regret what you did to my brothers. And I’ll make you suffer extra for each one of them.” The colonel threatened. “…” I watched him, waiting for the first sign of attack.
‘Course, I’m not gonna let him have the last laugh.
“Bring it on, you fat, potbellied pig…” I taunted,
I began hearing the beginning of that song again, but I didn’t have enough time to focus on it. As what I just said had some DIRE consequences.
The colonel’s eyes, they glowed and he let out a huge war cry, effectively shaking the entire room.
As I stumbled trying to regain my bearings, I noticed some kind of acid materializing from the ceiling, some of it coming down and splattering on the ground.
One of them landed next to me and a droplet got on my arm, it burned like a bitch! Somehow it hurt even through my armor!
I tried rubbing it to get it to stop, but it persisted for a good five seconds.
The Colonel and I circle each other. The both of us anticipating each other to make the first move. However, I was mainly circling to have the Colonel’s attention focused on me and away from Wolf so he wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire.
My concentration was entirely focused on him, trying to discern his first move so I can act accordingly. It seems as if a black dome had crawled up on us, preventing our concentration from getting interrupted from any outsiders.
However that doesn’t work on objects on the ground…
My foot bumps into a pile of boxes and my concentration slips a tiny bit, which was all it needed for the colonel to attack.
He charges forward, mace primed and ready, aiming at a horizontal sweep from the right. My mind does a combat assessment and decides to dodge instead of countering.
I duck underneath the mace and spin around to keep the colonel in my sights. What happens next would have baffled me if it weren’t for me being in the fight.
The colonel didn’t have enough force or reaction time to stop his mace, so it followed through the crates. Effectively shattering it to billions of pieces with everything inside it as well, looks like gems.
Shattered gems start pelting me as a consequence of the Colonel’s miss. I back away while covering my mouth to protect it from any cuts or crystal dust. After I get a good distance away I use my scarf and put it over my mouth as an impromptu mask.
I look forward again to find that my vision is blurry, the Colonel is now a green blob as what is potentially dust and debris cloud up the lens of my visor.
My first reaction would be to open the visor up so I can see clearly. But there’s too much going on that doing so would increase the risk of losing an eye.
As I try to determine the boxes from wires, I fail to notice the Colonel heading towards me; he must have notice that I was blind and begins charging up a punch.
However the Colonel himself fails to realize how big of a racket he was making. I couldn’t see where he was, but I could hear his steps, and I could plainly hear that he was coming in from behind me.
When I hear the closest step, I turn and dive to the right.
And then pain envelopes my right side.
As it seems, my armor takes the brunt of the force; I miss about 80% of the attack while the remaining was caught on my right arm.
The resulting impact sends me barreling away and into some more boxes (so many boxes…). The crates collapse on my body, concealing my form.
My right arm doesn’t feel like it’s broken, but I can’t use it to hold my pistol anymore, which was bad, because although I’m ambidextrous, my right hand is used for most things.
I sheath my knife and move my pistol painfully from my right hand to my left hand. Turn off my visor, and rise.
I see the colonel making his way towards me again from the other side of the room.
I began firing the pistol. Each shot varying between horribly missing or glancing off his armor. My left hand flinging about somewhat wildly as I try to manage the recoil of the 1911.
The colonel flinches and holds his shoulder in pain, dropping the mace. The .45 ACP round going straight through his muscle and rendering it unusable for an unknown amount of time.
My small victory was short lived, as the colonel quickly adapts and starts charging me with his good shoulder out in front.
Time seems to slow down as my body and mind start thinking about my next move. The booming steps as the Colonel charges growing ever so closer. His face contorted into a mixture of pain and anger as he bears down upon me.
If I dive to the right, I can dodge him, but I would land on my right arm, hurting it worse. If I dive to the left, I run the risk of crashing into some more boxes and rendering my left hand unusable.
Perhaps under the Colonel…?
His legs are bladed in a manner where if I did so I’d be caught between them or blocked completely.
Not a chance. Damn.
It was too late, my mind failed to react properly and I paid the price.
I hear and feel my chest cracking dozens of times as the wall behind me is left with my imprint. My breathing staggered as the armor is dented and pushed inwards.
The wall loses its grip on me when the Colonel backs away, leaving me to fall. The ground unforgiving as the impact induces more pain.
I stay there for who knows how long, my mind only focusing on recuperating what remaining strength I have.
Unfortunately, I get interrupted. Multiple times.
“Is this all you had to offer?!” The colonel taunts, kicking me in the ribs with immense strength. “Huh?! Is this all the “big, bad, kid,” has?!” Another kick, I was sent flying a couple feet away from the wall.
I start coughing from the impact, a rough, gurgling sound, “D-Damn.” I spit up some blood and wipe off any remaining on my mouth.
I can’t come up with anything, no discernible weaknesses, no effective ace up my sleeve. No smoke grenades to cover any escape, no flash grenades to stun him.
Why the hell did I fight him as I was?!
I bang a fist on the ground in self-depreciation.
“Oh? Do you still have some fight left in you? Well! Let me fix that!” The Colonel remarks as he kicks me once more, making me land a distance away from Wolf. Near some electronics.
My blood mixing with all the devices causes some to become gummed up and stop working, actuating by short-circuiting when the gears in some could no longer move.
When I take notice of that, I can’t help but notice the enormous pool of blood around me and the lack of a monster of a humanoid around me.
I dip a palm in the puddle. Lifting it and seeing the dark red painting the gauntlet.
This amount of blood is unbelievable, I should be unconscious or dead.
Blearily moving around, mind addled by pain. I manage to get my body facing upwards. The tunnel-vision no longer in effect.
Moving my sight to the left of me, I notice the cacophony of broken wires, gears, and screws lying about in a mess. A testament to the Colonel’s strength.
It was foolish to think I could take him on a force-on-force situation. What I should be doing is changing tactics.
Looking around the room, mind eerily calm potentially due to the blood loss, I look at the havoc wrought on by the Colonel against me.
Crates and boxes lay scattered and broken, wires and screws dotted dangerously about the area. Wolf is still tethered to the ceiling. Hanging limp.
The Colonel, distracted towards Wolf, slowly and smugly makes his way towards the magical construct with barely concealed intent.
Wolf, rather than give the Colonel the mental gratitude of fear, hangs in what might be called a lifeless state. His form laying limply as only the head watches as the Colonel meanders towards him.
The Colonel says something in what might be a declaration of victory, but my mind tunes him out unconsciously. Too focused on achieving victory from a different angle, my sight focuses on the contents of the crates that were smashed.
Tools, basic bobs and bits of perhaps maintenance pieces, and lastly, crystals.
Dozens and dozens of crystals.
A younger me probably would have made a Crash Bandicoot reference, hell, I probably would do it now if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m incapacitated potentially from internal bleeding.
But that won’t stop me from what could be my last chance of victory.
Twisting my body slowly, so as to not make any noise and get the attention of the Colonel, I begin moving my body back and forth. Wiggling slowly, but quietly towards the crystals not far from me.
As I slowly make progress, I take glances back to where the Colonel is giving his smug speech to Wolf about the futility of taking him out, how he’ll avenge his comrades by torching the both of us in a fiery pit of gasoline, and how he’ll be at the gates of Tartarus to personally welcome us with “presents.”
Thank this universe for villainous monologues.
As I near the silver-lined, teal crystals, a sense of giddiness makes its presence known inside me. My body, notably my chest and thighs, begin shaking in what I can most likely describe as anticipation.
On one of my glances back towards the Colonel, I take note of how the affected body parts have formed that blue lightning effect I’ve seen from time to time.
I reach the crystals and the Colonel is still monologuing about his greatest achievements and what of the sort. Not even utilizing his own common sense and looking back at my location to make sure I am dead.
I only smile for the outcome of it biting him in the ass.
Weakly reaching for one of the crystals, the lightning spreads towards the hand heading towards the pile of crystals. Connecting itself to it as I take one and hold it.
As I watch the lightning move almost systematically back and forth from my hand to the crystal, I begin to feel a rejuvenating and anxious feeling spreading throughout my body. Almost akin to a feeling of adrenaline being shot repeatedly into my heart. The only difference is that except for hiding the fact that my body is in intense physical pain, what was in the crystals seems to be healing me. If only minor.
Wishing to speed up the process, my mind rumbles through potential theories and possibilities to achieve the wanted goal. When a memory sparks in my mind from two nights ago.
“-You could crush it like normal power crystals.”
Morality sparked from the memory, my hand clamps shut on the crystal. The rough edges poking themselves on the gauntlet and making it known.
My arm flexes from the force I’m putting onto the crystal, I try with all my remaining strength to crush this bloody crystal and get what’s inside.
Just as I’m about to give up, I feel a break in the crystal’s shell as a part of its surface cracks. Spurred on, I place what I think is a greater amount of force necessary to break the crystal.
And much to my delight, the feeling of the crystal moving about in my hand as it breaks serves as a huge morality boost. The lightning surrounding the hand grows slightly intense as it soaks up the contents of the crystal and repairs my physical state.
My body fractionally repaired, I quickly get to work on crushing another crystal. This time using both of my hands.
By the time I crushed that one and the lightning begins soaking it up, I’m already crushing another one.
And another one.
And another one.
And-- you get the idea.
Within a short amount of time, I’m already back up on my feet. Body sparking with both anticipation and lightning, I silently make my way to the still monologuing Colonel.
He doesn’t even notice as I get real close to his back, too busy shouting about his nationalism and why Changelings are the superior race.
I debate for a short time within my mind on how I should handle this.
I could either; A. Stab him in the back right now.
B. Stab him in the back right now.
Or C. STAB HIM IN THE BACK RIGHT NOW.
There was also D, which was all of the above. But. Being the rebellious kid I am. And the notable lack of something stabby that wouldn’t break when it touches his skin. I went with E.
I raise my right fist behind him and extend my pointer finger upward, slowly reaching for the right shoulder of the Colonel.
“We will triumph over all! Because we are the righteous rulers of this world! All will bow beneath- huh?”
Just as the Colonel pivots his head over his shoulder, I jump to his left side and cock my right fist back.
And then unleash a haymaker worthy of making even Mike Tyson flinch as soon as the Colonel glanced at his other side.
The sound of a tournament bell signaling that a round was over makes itself prominent in your mind. A witty phrase already sounding off from your lips.
“…Cool story, mate.”
The colonel’s body falls down in a tremendous heap of limbs and bones. Green blood and spittle flying out of his mouth as his mind slowly realizes he was just knocked the fuck out.
Shaking my hand both from pain and to get the blood flowing back into it. I step over the Colonel’s body and over to Wolf, who remained silent through the whole ordeal.
“Sorry for keeping you waiting.”
“…”
Piqued at his lack of response, I lean over and check on him.
“Hey, you alright?”
“…Sensors indicate that structural integrity is adequate. However, I am questioning the possibility that the enemy might still be operational.”
“Operational…Huh?-Oh.” Looking back over to the Colonel’s limp body, I can see the barest hint of him breathing.
“I should fix that then.”
Walking over to the wall where my body is indented at, I pick up the relatively scratched but still functional M1911 and load it with a fresh magazine and aim It at the back of the Colonel’s skull.
Just as I pull the trigger, lightning shoots out from my arms and into the pistol for a bit before exiting out through the barrel. Hitting the back of the Colonel’s head and knocking it forward from kinetic force.
Meanwhile, I, confused at what happened, was checking the pistol to make sure everything was fine and nothing broke.
When I eject the magazine, I see that the sapphire bullets were no longer a dull blue that I normally see, and was in fact, glowing slightly.
Making a face at this revelation, I decide that I’ll worry about it later and place the magazine back into the pistol before re-holstering it. Moving my way to Wolf I finish taking off the remaining cables suspending him from the ceiling.
As Wolf’s frame comes down to familiar ground, I’m already surveying the surrounding area. Mentally compiling a damage report for reflective use.
Enemy Status: Knocked out…Probably.
Companion Status: Recovering.
My own status: Fucked up, but good.
Area of Operation’s status: FUBAR.
Yeah. That should do it. I’m too tired to write it all down so instead I just take photos of everything that look remotely interesting to look again.
The sound of metal clacking against concrete forces me to look back and see Wolf up and at it again. His metal frame shrouded with debris prompts him to connect to his inner canine and shake his body much like a dog. An odd noise of gears smoothly and jerkily grinding against each other emanates from him.
I feel my face contort in concern. Making a mental note to have Wolf checked out when we get back.
After I finish taking photos of the area, I signal to Wolf to follow me. The sound of his metal paws as he falls in line the only confirmation that he’s obeyed as I exit the room, leaving the Colonel’s body behind.
As I exit out of the hallway, my mind and body decide it’s the perfect time to come off of its adrenaline high and make known every bump, scratch, and cut on my body. The feeling of fire and itchiness not enough to make myself keel over, but enough to make me warrant a re-evaluation of what to do next.
Originally, I was going to search and clear all the rooms in the outpost and rig the remaining TNT while I was at it. But due to the current circumstances I feel that I should skip that and just get right to the rigging and leaving.
Which is exactly what I’m going to do.
As I slowly and somewhat carefully make my way back through the facility, I take note of the building’s layout and plan accordingly to what and where might be the better places to rig the TNT for maximum destruction. Wouldn’t want to waste any, that’s a no-no.
By the time I make it back to the sky-bridge, I look forward at the building and decide whether to head back inside and plant any TNT in the areas I thought about. But then I remember that there was the weapons cache in that warehouse connected to the other end of the facility where I planted some, and decided against planting anymore over there.
As I walk across the bridge, I drop a stick of TNT at the middle for detonation with the rest later. Wolf, still silently following me enters behind me as we head back into the main building.
It’s been a while now, and I’ve gone up and down the center building almost twice looking for anything flammable, combustible, or both. It’s starting to grate on my mind, and the after-effects of the fight and this infiltration is starting to make itself known on my body once more. Souring your mood as I start kicking open doors.
When I make it back down to the first floor, I realize that I have never even checked out the third building of the facility. It even crossed my mind about the fact that I never even neutralized the outside patrols. And when it did, I was not happy.
“Oh, god damn it…” I plant my head on the nearest wall. Mentally berating myself for my screw-up.
“Files and previous testimony shows repeated use of this phrase, even though its actual meaning is physically impossible. Why do you creatures always say it?” I hear Wolf analyze behind me.
“Now is not the time for jokes, Wolf. “ I deadpan, and cut him off when he tries to apologize, “Belay that, are your programs back up and running?”
“Internal software capabilities show that they are not exceptionally operational, but I can utilize them if needed.”
“Good enough, do you have anything that can detect organisms outside? Heartbeat detector, sonar, x-ray, anything?”
“I am equipped with a vibration detector similar to sonar. However I doubt its practicality in these circumstances when you’ve proved that you have better hardware.”
“What do you mean-? Oh. Ohhhh…I’m stupid.”
When Wolf pointed it out, I felt like as if I just now realized I had an arm my whole life and just now decided to use it. Activating my visor after cleaning the dust off of it. I activate the HUD and bring back the marks that were previously placed on the
changelings outside.
Or, I try to.
No marks were outside, no marks were around me. I look up, and I see them. Or one of them at least.
At the same area where I wiped out the squadron of changelings in the room where the Colonel is. A red outline of something resembling humanoid shows itself through the walls. It doesn’t take a detective to figure out that one of the changelings outside had known what was going on and came inside as reinforcements.
Which means that those outside, or were for that matter, know about the battle as well.
“Shit...” I hiss. Possible scenarios making itself apparent.
One of them being that either the changelings ran off and back up to the surface, which is bad, but it’s the more optimistic view of how I want things to turn out. As Celestia probably has a clean-up crew on standby ready to mop up any stragglers that I missed. The other scenario is that the remaining changelings ran into the caves and are setting up an ambush for me. Which I do not want one bit.
Auuugh. Frankly, I’m getting tired of this. I just want to go back, find a nice comfy bed, and sleep until next week. But if I don’t do something about the remaining changelings now, then this facility will become my death-bed. And it will not be comfy.
“You know what? Screw this.” I say as I reload all my weapons, “Wolf, let’s go. We’re gonna set this place up in flames, then we’re getting’ the hell outta here.”
“Have you come up with a suitable plan?”
“Hell no. I’m just gonna find anything that looks important, flammable, or combustible. Plant the remaining TNT, and deal with the stragglers on the way out.”
In the time during our short conversation. I fast-walk with Wolf behind me over to the remaining unexplored building of the facility. We walk through the doorway and my chest gets lighter with a small relief.
“And I think we have a contender that fits all three.”
Another warehouse similar to the one on the other side greets us. However instead of weapon caches, gems, and the like; this side is designed to hold anything magical or technological related it seems.
Structures composing of metal alloys are lined up against the walls, running, completing an unknown purpose that you do not have the patience, time, or drive to learn about. Most seem to be driven by power crystals.
In the middle of the warehouse however, sits a larger machine, reaching about halfway to the ceiling of the building. A pipe extends out from above it, twisting and turning out and through the hole in the building that probably funnels the exhaust of whatever is burning in there.
I quickly analyze the machine, spotting some large canisters off to the side connected to it. A look through of the label with the help of the visor details that it’s a certain chemical that you aren’t familiar with.
But the large icon that translates, “WARNING: KEEP AWAY FROM OPEN FLAMES,” is good enough information to plant the TNT on it.
I survey the surrounding area once again, only giving a glance to most things and a photo shot of some others that look important. Before making my way to the exit. Business done with in here.
I pause halfway through the skybridge when the visor picks up a signature hiding itself around a corner facing the doorway that I was about to pass through.
Seems that my location has been guessed. Potential solutions run through my mind. I could jump out and rappel down the window after breaking it, but that’d make too much noise and I don’t know if there are any hostiles outside still.
I wanted to capture the changeling nonlethally so that I could interrogate it and learn about the positions of the others that vanished. But it seems that might not be possible.
...Or could it?
I stare at the window again, tapping the knuckle of my finger against it to test its integrity. I’m met with a hard response, with no give at all.
I stare back at the changeling again and note that whatever it is on their heads just twitched in response to my taps.
I smile, albeit with cautiousness, as I give my orders.
“Wolf. Break the window.”
“Roger.”
As I position myself next to the doorway’s threshold. The sound of metal glinting before a snap is heard is the only warning I get before the glass is shattered by a knife thrown by Wolf’s tail.
And. Just like clockwork, what’s on the changeling’s head goes haywire with information processing. My smile grows slightly when I see that instead of rushing out the front door to intercept me like a trained person would, he makes his way to the door to confirm if I’ve actually jumped out the window or not.
And right into my ambush.
The metal doors slide open as the changeling pushes the button to enter. Crossbow in front of him prepped and ready to fire.
He makes his way through it, doesn’t notice until it was too late as I spring forward and wrap an arm around his and and one around his firing arm and twirl him around, slamming him against the wall face first.
Kicking the crossbow away, I check to see if he’s still conscious before questioning him.
“Where are the others?”
“W-what?!” Was his reply.
Wrong answer.
“You heard me. What happened to the other changelings stationed?”
“Wh-What changelinngggah!”
I twist his arm further into the chicken wing hold. A sound that’s not supposed to be made by bones greets the both of you.
“The changelings that were outside. I know they were there. Either comply or die.”
“Ah-ah-All right! All right! As soon as we realized that the Colonel was in a fight we sent them to the caves to report to the chain of command and to destroy the caves if none of us responded after a set amount of time!” He blutters.
“What set amount of time?”
“Th-thirty minutes!”
Thirty minutes. Judging by the time it took for me to finish fighting the Colonel and now, that could be anywhere between twenty and too late.
“Who is authorized to call in the report?!” I push on him. Eliciting another gasp of pain.
“I-I-I am!”
“Good.” I spin him off the wall and kick his legs out from under him into a kneel. “Call it in.”
“Wh-what?!” He turns around, mouth open with a rebuttal, before it dies out when he sees the knife at his throat and the gun to his face.
“Call. It. In.” I state.
The changeling doesn’t even bother to dignify it with a response, opting to just squeak in fear before pulling out a crystal and holding it up to his mouth.
“And before you try to pull any funny tricks on me, I have a magical construct here that can sense any abnormal wavelengths being sent out. So if you try to contact anyone else. Your head is going to paint the wall.” I bluff. Figuring that it’d be easier to use Wolf as an example rather than try to quickly explain what my visor can do.
The changeling only nods quickly before activating the crystal.
“This is Beetle 3-2, gimme a SITREP on the AO.” I hear come out of the crystal.
The changeling opens his mouth, and pauses to gulp a fearful lump in his throat when I remind him of the knife at his throat and the gun at the back of his head.
“Th-this is Beetle 3-1, The AO is clear. The Colonel dealt with the intruder. Return to base.”
Good. I might just let this one live.
I ease up slightly on the knife and raise the pistol to prep it for a knockout.
“THEBASEISCOMPROMISEDIREPEATTHEBAS-”
You fucker…
Whatever he said next was cut off as I quickly slit the throat of the changeling and fire the pistol at the back of his head. Green blood painting the walls of the skybridge as the body drops quickly. Losing all sign of life.
The crystal loses its glow as the last thing is heard from it is the panicked yelling of whoever is on the other side trying to get more information.
All in all, back to square one.
I stare somewhat blankly at the corpse’s general area. Mind trying to keep up with what just happened.
When it finally caught up. I slowly chuckle in amusement.
“And to think; I was gonna let him live.” I holster the weapons, “can’t believe the bugger had the balls to stand up to me like that.”
I step over the body and through the doorway. Wolf following behind me as my quiet laughter echoes throughout the halls of the facility.
I don’t bother to check anything else, I’m done here. I don’t even bother to crouch or hide beneath the windows. Not much of a point.
I eventually calm down by the time we exit the main facility. When I do. I break out into a run in an attempt to try and gain as much ground as possible before I intercept the changelings returning or before they begin the detonation process.
When I reach the tunnel, I just barely manage to stop in time to avoid triggering a detonation crystal. A quick drain of its energy prevents it from setting off the chain of explosives that would’ve encased Wolf and I in a rock tomb.
Sobered from the close call, we begin the trek back to the surface at a more sedate pace. Knife and pistol at the ready in case of any hostiles.
Not much was encountered on the tunnel floor of the facility, potentially due to the unlikelihood of any changelings having maken it back here already.
It was when we reached the first hole leading to the floor above did we encounter our first problem.
“I hope to God you aren’t heavy, Wolf.” I say as I ready the rope to climb.
“Last measurements indicated that my gross weight was around forty-eight kilograms”
“Convert it into pounds?”
“About one hundred and six.”
“Great…” I mutter sarcastically.
The climb was hard, but less than I thought since Wolf could stabilize himself when I felt like I was tipping.
This would go on for eight more floors....
The tunnels were quiet most of the way through. Any inhabitants normally prowling in here were most likely scared off by the changelings when they bumbled through.
It wasn’t until we reach the second to last floor before the surface did we encounter the first engagement.
I moved along the wall at a relatively quick pace, light becoming more and more apparent as we came closer to the surface.
I round a corner as we reach a T-junction and immediately round back just in time to dodge crossbow bolts from impaling me.
Adrenaline coursing, I pie my body around the corner, pistol in front as I search for where the fire came from. Visor helping with the low light.
I put my finger on the trigger as I move some more around the corner, when the first changeling’s head popped up on the visor, I fire.
The gun’s response deafens me again somewhat, especially with the narrow build of the tunnels. I don’t let it hinder me however, as I used the shock of the sound to make my move.
I dart to the other side of the T-junction firing a couple more shots in their general direction before repeating the process with the other side until none were left.
Similar engagements occurred as we grew closer to the surface. Wolf pitching in a couple times with the blades he picked up from the changelings’ bodies.
I notice late that the gun didn’t fire another one of those charged rounds, but decide to dwell on it later.
After a while, we finally make it to the hole leading to the surface. I check the surrounding area for any traps or hostiles. Then breathe a sigh of cautious relief.
I feel tired, my body aches from cuts, bruises, and other wounds. But at least I’m alive. I want to sit down and catch myself before making this climb. But I know that if I sit here, I might not get back up.
“Hahh...Wolf. You ready?” I ask as I ready the rope tethered to the surface from before.
I feel the weight on my back increase as I hear Wolf give his reply, “Affirmative.”
“Right then. Here. We. Go.” I grunt heavily as I begin the tedious climb. Expletives thrown this and there, cursing at a certain god and princess for this, the usual.
As I reach the edge of the hole. I look up and am greeted with the barrel of a cannon peering at me. Business end pointed directly at my face.
“For Christ’s sake.” I mutter darkly. Sweat permeating my brow from exertion and tiredness.
“Stop right there, evildoer!” A bouncy, yet somewhat serious voice greets from behind the cannon.
“Pinkie... “ Is now really the time?
“Weee’ve got another one, girls!”
I feel the air grow tense as the direction of the others’ purpose and gazes are directed towards Wolf and I, Meanwhile, I’m too busy cursing in my mind while staring at the belly of the cannon.
It’s when I hear the whistling sound of something diving towards me do I grab the hook and hop slightly to the left. A rainbow and a gust of wind the only telltale sign that Dash just tried to dive bomb me back into the hole.
I climb and roll onto the ground just in time to dodge her recovery. Her doing so would be a testament to her aerial skills and the depth of the hole I just climbed out of.
Needless to say, I climbed a lot. I’m tired as hell, and my patience is wearing very thin.
Wolf gets off of me and forms a barrier between the girls directly behind Pinkie and in front of me. Meanwhile said Pie has reoriented her cannon and is staring me down with a gaze that should be taken as serious, but without the heart in it.
Rainbow Dash positions herself on the side currently vulnerable and for a moment, I thought I would have to counter her once again. But it seems she’s cautious enough to stand a fair distance away for an easy melee.
I glance around for the others, and see Twilight supervising the main shenanigan, arms crossed. Rarity and Fluttershy are off in the distance doing who knows what, and Applejack is currently holding down a hogtied duplicate of me nearby.
Immediately, I understand the situation.
I’m too tired to do a negotiation, and we all know it’s pointless to argue with women anyways.
I turn my head towards where Applejack is located, which is unfortunately behind Pinkie and her cannon.
I could kill the duplicate from right here, but that might scare the others and possibly hurt my standing with the girls as it is. Plus It might be better for the Princess to take this one in for questioning.
I could attempt to close the distance. Push Pinkie out of the way and have Wolf subdue Applejack while I take care of the imposter. But then there’s the problem of Rainbow Dash being able to catch up to me relatively quickly and Twilight being capable of immobilizing me easily.
I brush my hand against the holster holding the pistol. Perhaps I might have to kill this one.
Fortunately, before the situation could devolve further, Twilight speaks up.
“Girls, I don’t think this one is a changeling. I’m not detecting their usual aura.”
“Yeah? Well I’m not letting my guard down, especially with what the previous one did.”
I raise an eyebrow in interest, what’d the imposter do?
“Besides, if he’s the real one; why hasn’t he said anything?” She leans in towards me, leering.
An excellent question, one that’d I answer if I wasn’t so tired to the point I can only watch and react.
Pinkie pipes in with her two cents as well.
“I bet he doesn’t even know what happened yesterday afternoon at 12:32 P.M in the Canterlot hall-”
“Pie in the face.” I interrupt.
“Huh?” Rainbow asks. Before spluttering as a cream pie is planted on her face that I took from the inside of Pinkie’s party cannon.
“He’s clean!” Pinkie yells, an arm raised in the air in glee.
I sigh with visible tiredness. Energy expended from that one spontaneous action. I hope it’s enough to prove my identity, because if it isn’t, I don’t know what happens now.
“We done yet?” I ask to nobody in particular. “I have to get Wolf patched up and I want to sleep.”
Twilight, having come closer now that the tension is over. Replies.
“Anything else you need to do?”
“No…”
“Everything is done and ready to be sent to the princess?”
“Yes…”
“All right then.” She nods to herself, as if she’s done something important.
For a moment, I’m almost irritated, but then Twilight’s expression changes to that of empathy.
“Come on. Let’s head back.”
“Thank you.” I say with relief and follow her.
And with that, the operation ended with a success. Wolf would need to be patched up again at the smith, and I needed to get my wounds treated. But all in all…
Job well done.
…
…
…
…
Oh.
“I almost forgot.” I pipe up.
Twilight stops in her tracks, then turns with a gaze that screams, ‘I asked you!’
With all the grace she can muster, and the maliciousness behind it, she asks, “What?”
“This.” I hold up the detonator crystal, and activate it.
A loud thump is heard, and the ground shakes as the explosives do their work.
I look back, and see the beginnings of a smoke stack forming before large fireballs puff out from some of the holes.
I walk past Twilight, who is staring at the fireballs with a somewhat mesmerized expression.
Crushing the crystal in my hand. I continue,“there. Now that’s everything. Let’s go.”
A distance away, I hear the voice of Rainbow shouting in amazement at the spectacle.
NOTICE: An update for the program has been detected. Do you wish to update?
[Yes] No
Downloading Update…
Download Complete.
WARNING: Installing this update will overwrite your current save file and will force you to start a New Game. Do you wish to continue?
…
…
[Yes] No
Extracting files...
Installing…
Installation complete.
Please read the changes before continuing…
- Heavily changed the base storyline. - Removed Magical Construct. - Removed HUD device - Personality of Main Character tweaked to be less edgy. - Combat abilities of Main Character tweaked. - Changed Experience from: Child Soldier to Taught by military family. - Increased the age of the Main Character to Sixteen - Removed Bipolar personality trait. - Removed Firearms and armor from inventory. Replaced with default clothing, holster, and M1911 - Changed location from Ponyville to Canterlot - Standings with characters have been tweaked.
[Confirm.]
Welcome to New World: New Rules. Ver. 1.04.
[New Game] Continue Options Quit to Desktop
Would you like to start a New Game?
[Yes] No
Creating Save file…
WARNING: THIRD PARTY PROGRAM DETECTED. ACCESS IS DENIED.
- Changed the storyline - Changed standing with characters. - Added in New locations: [Hakurei Shrine] [Forest of Magic] [Human Village] [Myouren Temple] [Mayohiga] [ Hakugyokurou] [Underworld] - Added in New Plane: [Gensokyo]
[Confirm]
…
...
...
“Terribly sorry. But we’ll be taking over from here on out~!”
Hey. It’s been awhile, hasn’t it? To be honest I’m not even sure what to say.
…
Guess I’ll be blunt, then.
Thanks for sticking until the end. The story originally started off as a spur of the moment action when I was younger. Didn’t even have an end goal in sight. Which, as I am now, realize that was a very bad thing to do.
Didn’t last long until I eventually burned out and left it alone for a long time. Life interfering was just an excuse. Truth be told the story got dropped right around when I lost interest in MLP. If I were to continue it now I really wouldn’t have much of an idea to go considering that the last I even watched of the seasons was the end of season three.
With that, and the fact that I’ve more or less lost the touch of the characters as time went on. I wouldn’t feel confident that I would be writing the Mane Six as they should be and I would fear they would devolve into a whole ‘nother archetype.
Though that could just be a fear of mine as an aspiring writer still.
With that said, here’s the end game.
THIS story is officially completed. The likelihood of a sequel being written is very low. At the most, I’d put out some outtakes that I had plans for to be in the main story but can’t be written due to the completion of it now.
I’ll be around to answer any questions about the story itself or myself in the comments section down below. But not for long. As after this, my time in this site will become very sporadic.
Other than that…
Not much else I can think of at the time of this writing.
...
It was fun while it lasted...
And it feels nice to finally put this story to rest after three years...
I thank everyone who’s stuck with this to the end. And to everyone who is just now reading this after finding this story for the first time.
