Blacklight Retribution: Stranger on a Stranger World

by Bisilat

Chapters

Tanny's Complaints
Food
Raven's Shame
The Cloak Module
Ondra's Last Hallucination
The Stranger Ryman
Twilight's Relief
Configuration for (Man) Pony Hunt
Rainbow's Dash from Pony Hunt
Debriefing to an Old Friend
SEQUEL!

Tanny's Complaints

“So run it through me again, why do you wear the skull helmet? It doesn’t do shit,” Tanny chortled.

“Ah by the contrary, mate,” Freddie dismissed with a hand, “It produces intimidation.”

Tanny shook his head to this, “You’ve got to be fucking shitting me.”

Freddie quickly approached Tanny with the skull mask on him, this startled him, “Intimidated enough?”

Tanny gave a light chuckle, “Alright, alright, you win. Still doesn’t do shit to physical damage.”

Freddie scoffed at this statement, “I wear it because they can’t touch me.”

“Whatever,” Tanny gave in, “Hey, where’s that new guy? You know, the new guy that was supposed to be here about an hour ago?”

“His records are solid,” Poet cut in.

“Ma’am,” the two saluted.

Poet sighed at this, “Both of you shut the fuck up, it’s making me feel old.”

“Yes, bitch,” Stranger responded in the same tone, which earned a smack in the back of the head from her.

“Worth it,” Stranger mumbled to Tanny, who chuckled in return.

“What do you mean solid?” Tanny asked.

“I haven’t checked yet,” she said flatly, pulling out a tan file then gesturing it, “Here it is.”

“Well? What does it say, woman?” Tanny asked expectantly, “Is he good?”

Poet smacked Tanny in the head, which made him recoil in slight pain before opening the file, “I haven’t even seen a fucking word on this damn file and you ask me?!”

“Just-” Freddie started, but interrupted by Poet putting a hand up.

“It says here that he is a highly decorated veteran, a typical pro at shooting people, if you really needed that layman’s language.”

She looks more into the file, then pauses.

“Oh my god,” she gasped, still staring at the set of words she gasped. The silence and anticipation were killing the two males.

“What?” Tanny spoke up, “What’s wrong? Was he dishonorably discharged?”

Poet uncomfortably cleared her throat, “He survived the first outbreak.”

Silence filled the room once again, but with shivers down everyone’s spine.

“That,” Freddie stuttered, “That can’t be right. No one survived that with that Militia and infected at the same time.”

“Well this bastard did,” Poet snapped at Freddie, “And you’d better show deserved respect to a man who survived the first outbreak. He lost his sister surviving.”

Tanny decided to ask the stupid question, “How?”

“How he lost his daughter or-”

“How he lost his sister,” he interrupted.

Poet took another look at the file, “It says he personally shot her in the head. She was infected.”

“Damn,” Freddie sighed, “I wonder what it was like before the first infection. You know, twenty-five years ago? This guy must be too old to serve with us.”

“He can tell you about it when he gets here.”

“What do we call’em?”

Poet took a glance to the file, “Ryman.”

“Ryman? What the hell kinda name is Ryman?” Stranger didn’t notice the door opening and the new guy coming through.

Stranger only looked at Ryman for five seconds and, “Eh, I’m sorry?”

Ryman just walked silently to his bunk, and sat on it, looking oblivious to the fact that the three were uncomfortably staring at him. He looked surprisingly young, it was just the grey hair that was doing it.

“Good to have you on our fire-team, mate,” Stranger approached him, “I guess it’s your fault this group went from Squad to Fireteam, eh?”

Silence.

“Uh, look, mate,” Freddie hoped that he didn’t offend him, “If you need anything just ask... I’ll just uh... Leave you alone, take all the time you need.”

Freddie basically looked like a total kiss-ass to Tanny and Poet, and this got more laughter from Tanny than Poet, which earned a glare from Freddie to Tanny [lol].

“Name’s Ondra,” the newman spoke, this made Freddie jump by the elderness of the voice.

“That voice does not fit that face,” Freddie thought.

“Name’s Freddie,” he stuttered, but regained composure and smiled, “I think we’re going to be best friends!” he looked at his fake [non-existent] watch, “Oh, there ya go, we got to go get that lunch we were going to get five minutes ago,” he was nervously laughing, Ryman looking at him like he lost his mind, “I’m just gonna go to the mess hall, meet y’all there!”

Poet waited until the door closed and then she spoke.

“Well that’s settled, we need to give the man some space,” Poet cut in, “I’m Linda Beirch, codename: Poet, and I-”

“I know who you are, all of you,” Ryman interrupted, this startled her.

Linda cleared her throat, “Well, Ryman, lunch is almost ready so meet us at the mess hall when you’re ready, you’re going to be our new universal rifleman. I am your fireteam leader, is that understood?”

Ryman only nodded and the rest of the fire team made their way out of the room.

Once the door was closed, once Tanny ensured that the door was closed, and then met with Freddie.

“So, what do you think?” Poet asked the two.

“I think he’s crazy,” Tanny cut in, “I mean, the first outbreak? That kind of shit messes with people as much as that Vietnam war that happened a long, long time ago. Do you realise how many soldiers got dementia from that? Imagine that tenfold on this guy!”

“I know, I know,” Poet responded, “But his records ensure that won’t happen, you’re just going to have to give this man a chance.”

“She’s right, mate,” Stranger cut in, “We need this fifth man, The Order is becoming more and more aggressive. And we’re going to need more aggressive.”

Tanny sighed, “Fine, but if this does not go well, mark my words.”

“It will go well, you know why?”

Tanny looked at him expectantly with an irritated face.

“Because he’s now my friend,” he pointed a thumb at himself.

“So damned cheesy,” Poet face palmed.

“You’re so damned retarded,” Tanny groaned and followed the facepalm.

“Yo, guys,” Raven cut in through the comms.

“Yeah?” Stranger removed his helmet.

“I’m at the mess hall, y’all better get here before you don’t get anything to eat.”

“We’re coming,” Poet said, “Come on, guys. Stranger?”

Stranger was looking through the door’s glass and saw that Poet was focusing on some kind of toy... A small doll?

Poet shook him out of his trance, this earned a startled noise and shake from him.

“What?”

“Time to eat? To the mess hall,” Poet gestured him to follow, so di Tanny.

“Yes ma’am,” Poet groaned at this.

***

Equestria Mountains

***

“I am still alive?!” Freddie thought to himself as he knew he was breathing.

He opened his eyes and looked around, he was immobile, as in restrained.

He was in a dungeon, it was obvious, what with the environment of a cell and a cell door with bars.

“Hello?” he called out, no response.

“Hello?” that was basically bellowing out.

He had no injuries, as far as he knew because he didn’t feel anything, but his limbs felt weird. He was hesitating to look at himself, then he saw himself.

“HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIT! WHAT THE FUCK?!” he screamed, he knew that he felt naked and he had black skin, ash black skin.

He darted his head towards the restraints he felt, he had holed legs.

“How do I not feel this?!” he was talking to himself.

“This is a dream,” he chanted to himself, “It’s not happening.”

“This is a dream,” he closed his eyes, “It’s not happening..”

He opened them, “FUCK!”

“You in there!” a mysterious authoritative voice called out, “Silence!”

“Oh thank the world! Can you help me?”

Laughter.

“What... What is funny?” Stranger asked worriedly.

Then a horse came into view.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Stranger yelled.

“A HORSE WITH ARMOR AND A SPEAR?! … And a horn on it’s head?! I MUST BE DREAMING!”

The guard only stared at him.

“Come on, mate! Help me out of these chains, and I’ll help you turn back into a human, whaddya say?!”

The guard continued staring at him.

“You deaf, mate?”

“You’re very lucky to be alive,” the guard continued glaring at him, Freddie only chuckled at this.

“Yeah,” he sighed as he looked at the ground, “Yeah, I am. Where am I?”

He looked at him like he asked if he had wings.

“This guy did not want to be turned back into a human,” Freddie thought disappointedly.

“Why?” the guard asked.

“I’m supposed to be dead,” he responded flatly with a straight face staring into the guard’s soul, “Now how about you tell a dead man what FUCKING world he is chained in!”

The guard decided to humor him, “You’re in Equestria, and-”

“Ah ah ah,” Freddie interrupted him, “I’ve heard enough, I’ll hear the rest from someone else important.”

“I was sent here to check to see if you’re awake,” the guard sighed in disappointment, “The princess would like to see you.”

Freddie put on an intrigued face, “Princess? You mean monarchs still exist?”

Ignoring the question, the shackles were engulfed into a strange aura.

“What is...” the shackle opened, “You blokes developed telekinetic technology? Impressive.”

Ignoring the compliment, the guard was joined by two others before the cell door opened.

“I do not have a fighting chance, there is no point,” Freddie thought to himself as he sized them up.

“Where do we go?”

“Follow,” the first gestured.

“What do you think made the Princess want to spare the Changeling?” the third guard spoke, obviously knowing that the said changeling would hear.

“That’s what I am? Changeling?” there was a pause, “I can change into things?”

The three guards turned around to look at Freddie.

Then they started snickering.

“Oh man, he really did hit his head hard?” the second one mockingly asked as his comrades were laughing.

“Oh, ok, don’t be a bundle of penises,” Freddie huffed, “Let’s just get to that Princess.”

The first glared at him for calling him a penis, but he shrugged it off and continued onwards.

“No one will believe me if I tell’em what happened to me...” Freddie thought to himself.

“So where did you find this thing anyway?” the third asked.

“I found it at the gardens, just laying there,” there was a pause for the speaker, the first guard, to look at Freddie, “he looked like he was having a very nice rest on the grass.”

“And resisting your urge to kill him was enough to the princess to make it your responsibility?” the second one chimed.

“I have a damned name you know,” Freddie grumbled.

The three stopped and slowly turned their heads towards him expectantly.

“Come on think fast, man,” he quickly thought to himself, “Oh shit, I know!”

“Stranger, nice to meet y’all,” he struck out a hoof towards them, they bolted back because they thought the holed hoof was disgusting, “Aw come on! It’s not that bad is it?”

They all glared at Freddie.

“I wasn’t going to hurt ya,” he put the ‘repulsive’ hoof down, “racists.”

He mumbled the last part so they wouldn’t hear.

“Let’s just get this over with,” the first one sighed.

***

Moments Later

***

“Here we are,” the first guard said, “she wanted to see you alone.”

He then approached Freddie to jab him firmly with a hoof to his chest.

“Do NOT make me regret this,”

“Yes, ma’am,” Freddie joked, then received a blow to the stomach from the second guard.

“What did you do that for?!” the first one yelled exasperatedly.

“He-” the second one was interrupted.

“It’s alright,” Freddie coughed and wheezed to recover his air, “I’m dead anyway.”

“The Princess would not do that, even I know she wouldn’t kill anything,” the third guard tried to talk.

“These horses do not understand,” Freddie thought as he chuckled.

“Wish me luck,” the second one only glared at Freddie, the first one having a hopeful face, and the third one giving a full face of ‘I don’t give a fuck’.

The doors open and a larger horse with a horn AND wings is revealed.

“Ho... Ly... Spaghetti,” Freddie said in awe of the comparison in sizes of the princess and the guards.

“Hello there,” she gave a gentle smile, “guards, please leave us.”

“Yes, Princess,” the three guards saluted, much to Freddie’s amusement.

“The salute is stranger for these ponies,” he thought to himself.

Once the doors fully closed, the Princess cleared her throat.

“I am assuming you’re going to ask where you are?”

Freddie only gave a slow nod, hoping that his voice of a reptile wouldn’t lower his chances of survival on his second wing.

“You are in Equestria, a land of Harmony that is defended by the bravest and strongest,” she calmly stated, Freddie nodded slowly in the same to say to continue.

“I am Celestia, co-ruler of this land, along with my sister, Princess Luna,” she paused to look around, “she is asleep, and I do not want to bother her about this. I move the sun for the day and lower it for Luna to bring her moon to the skies and bring the night.”

Another nod convinced her to continue the talking, “You were not the first to be sent into this world... Or dimension.”

“You said that you move the sun and your sister moves the moon? You must be high,” Freddie chuckled, “ and you said I’m not the only one that was sent here?”

“Yes, he is a strange one, but we will discuss that later,” she pointed a political hoof to him, “you too, are a strange one. I have never seen a changeling with those eyes, you also seem to not be connected with a HIVE like most changelings, your wings-”

WINGS?!

“are also nothing like a normal changeling’s, they are whole. And as for your friend we will discuss that later.”

“Can... Can I get a mirror?” Freddie asked, with making it obvious that he was uncomfortable.

“If you’re worried about execution for being a race that my subjects do not enjoy company of, you do not have to. I have made you a citizen of this land.”

“Why?”

“You’re a clean slate, I know you haven’t been in touch with the HIVE that influences changelings into wrongdoing. I know I can trust you,” she laid out a gentle smile.

She gestured a hoof towards a convenient reflective surface, it would have to suffice.

Approaching it, Freddie could already tell that his eyes were a bright color in contrast to his black exoskeleton. His eyes were blue and looked like they were made up of pearlescent hexagons. His wings... He would call himself a giant fly.

His pupils were triangles, blue glowing triangles... His HRV burnt into his skull?

“How would I go into turning on HRV in my own head?” he thought to himself, he started tapping his own head. It didn’t work. He started doing some stuff that he thought came from the movies for Superheroes. Celestia took note of this.

“May I ask what you are doing?”

“It’s,” growing frustrated, he quit, “nothing, don’t worry about it.”

“If you’re wondering about your changeling powers, despite what I have against you using them, I will tell you that everything that everypony does is based on magic.”

Freddie looked at Celestia, “Are you high? Magic? This is a mutation! Not fantasy!”

“I will not tell you again; I will however, tell you that it takes some imagination,” Celestia stated.

“I am going to let you roam around Canterlot, on one condition,” she said more firmly this time.

“You’re going to trust me THAT much?”

“It’s either that or you spend time in dungeon,”

“Eh, I could use some inspiration to my ‘imagination’,” mockery was added to the last word.

“CAN I trust you?”

“You’re going to have to find out,” Freddie shrugged, “What’s the condition?”

“If you harm anypony,” her glare intensified, “ANYpony, you will be executed in a private area.”

“Why do you trust me with this decision, again?”

“Because I know you did not come from the influence of the Changelings I know who want to ruin this land, because I know there is some good inside you. I informed the guards of Canterlot that you will be walking among them in the city, do NOT disappoint me. I am surprised I had to repeat myself for you there.”

Freddie slowly, mockingly bowed down, “Yes, your highness. Where’s the exit?”

“I will send for a guard to escort you there. Good luck,”

“You’re also sending me out to make friends?”

“How did you guess?”

“This is a land of harmony,” Freddie shrugged, “I figured that kind of gay shit would happen.”

Celestia was not going to pry about that last part, but.

“What did you mean ‘getting high’?”

“It’s what the stupid portion of my people did, I’d rather not explain it,” Freddie dismissed the subject with a wave of the hoof, his holed hoof. He recoiled it, and started staring into his own self.

“Goddamn, I’m ugly,” he sighed, “which is cool, I guess.”

Celestia felt pity for the creature, “Would you like me to help you with transforming?”

Freddie glanced up, “Nah, I think I’d look like something from halloween, I wanna scare some folks!”

Freddie beamed a smile that looked like he was a nerd with a bunch of high grade GPUs in front of him.

Celestia put up a smile that represented pity for him, but he saw it as a parental smile, the kind of smile when a parent sees that his or her child is making good progress and is proud.

“This one might actually have a chance,” Celestia thought to herself, and brought a better smile to her face.

***

BLR HQ

***

“So, Freddie,” Tanny started, “Why do you like the skull helmet again? Tell all of us.”

Tanny gestured to all that was on the table, this earned a sigh of disappointment from Freddie.

“I like it because it intimidates our enemies,” he said flatly with a stoic expression, the other three burst out laughing, slowly breaking his stoic expression.

“No, seriously,” Tanny continued after laughing with the other two, “We’re dealing with men who created a plague that outranks the bubonic, what makes you think they’re going to be intimidated?”

“Look, mate, just piss off,” he flipped the bird to Tanny, “I’ve had it up to here with your complaints about my damned helmet.”

“Fine,” he gave in, “Just remember, that if you die by a headshot, you owe me in the afterlife.”

Freddie groaned in irritation, “Fine.”

Food

“So, what’cha got on our guy?” Raven asked expectantly.

“He came from the first outbreak,” Poet said flatly, as Raven’s jaw dropped.

“I,” Raven hesitated, “I couldn’t save... Anyone!”

She hung her head in shame, Poet placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, “Hey, it’s alright, you did all you could.”

“Everyone was infected those days, I couldn’t do shit. All I could do was watch as all the people I try to save become one those things, I think the survivor efforts were sabotaged.”

“Did you happen to see this girl that time? I know it was a long time ago,” Freddie took and held out a picture of Ryman’s sister towards Raven.

Raven looked deep in thought and she clicked, “Oh yeah, she was there. Only for a moment before his big brother or something left because he probably was the first to noticed that the survivor effort was useless.”

“That was the new guy’s sister. He shot her himself because she was infected, they were probably hoping that your survivor group effort was their only hope. I know it’s a lot to take in,” Poet said, placing another comforting hand on her shoulder.

“I just, couldn’t do anything,” she choked up, “and that’s the worst fucking feeling in the world, knowing you can’t do anything about what you’re responsible for, especially the lives of forty-seven people.”

“You counted?” Tanny looked amazed as he asked, but dropped as soon as Raven glared at him.

“I chosen as the best medic for that job!”

“And now YOU’RE our best medic,” Freddie said trying to lighten the mood, which earned a facepalm from Tanny and Poet.

“You’re making it worse,” Tanny groaned, but Raven beamed up a smile and sighed in relief.

“Thank you,” Raven flashed a hopeful smile, “I needed that.”

Raven chuckled away like she was letting go of the entire thing again, this brought a smile to Freddie’s face.

“Anytime,” he responded, “Don’t be a stranger.”

“So damned cheesy,” Tanny facepalmed, this earned a chuckle from Freddie as they all ate away at their lunch at last.

“Same old MRE’s, eh?” Tanny laughed.

“Yeah,” Freddie paused his eating and took a thoughtful look at his food, “Same old.”

“I wonder what’s that new guy’s deal?” Freddie thought to himself.

***

Canterlot: Residence Grounds

***

“So who’s going to escort me?” Freddie asked Celestia.

“Another changeling who has gone rogue from the Queen’s HIVE,” she paused, “I KNOW I can trust her, and hopefully she can do the same for you.”

She gestured outside, “You will meet her outside this chamber.”

“Yeah, let me just recover my bearings,” he continued studying his features of his insectoid self, “What’s his name?”

“Pardon?”

“His name, the new guy,” he clarified, “What’s his name?”

“Ah, the strange pegasus that must have come from your world?”

He nodded.

“His name is Midnight Flame,”

“What the hell kinda name is ‘Midnight Flame’?” it felt like deja vu asking that question.

“You will see why when you meet him,”

He shrugged, “Fair enough, I supposed. Right outside these doors, I will meet my escort yes?”

“She must be right outside, yes. Good luck to you, and please try not to make enemies.”

She gave a last glare to ensure that she had gotten her point across that messing with these ponies was punishable by death... By HER. Fortunately, Freddie understood.

Giving one last nod, he makes way to the doors.

When he opened the doors and turned around to close them, turning around was a startling feat.

“HOLY CHRIST, YOU LOOK WORSE THAN ME!” he bolted back at the sight of an authentic changeling, or Ditto.

“Nice to meet you too,” she huffed in indignation, then became lost in her own thoughts just studying the unique changeling. This went on for some time.

“Am I really that good looking compared to your normal mates?”

This snapped her out of her trance and she shook her head vigorously with a blatant blush on her black exoskeleton.

“NO! NO! It’s not like that!” she was hesitating, “It’s just, I’ve never seen anything like you.”

“Well I’ve never seen anything like you,” Freddie starting throwing suggestive looks. To his amusement, Ditto’s blush became more intense.

Thank the Renegade Hive they’re not seeing me like this, she thought to herself miserably.

“I’m jokin’,” Freddie laughed, “where we goin’?”

“I, uh...” she was being lost in her own thoughts again. Where WERE they going to go?

“Do you just want to eat lunch?”

Ditto knew that normal food couldn’t sustain her, but he interrupted her because she was hesitating again.

“I’ll take that as a yes, where to? I’m starved.”

Oh no, she thought to herself, Changeling’s can’t eat, and I can’t talk worth manure! I have to stop this!

“Want something fancy or just some fast food.”

I’ll just let this play out, she continued to think to herself as she was basically speechless, I’ll let him learn the hard way.

***

Moments Later

***

“Oh man! I’m so excited!” Freddie beamed as they were walking along the market areas bustling with ponies that were giving them funny looks because you know, “They’re racists, aren’t they?”

This took Ditto by surprise, “Racists?”

“Nothing you should know about if you haven’t already,” his eyes were darting around looking for anything that might look like a food booth or something, something that gives something better than MREs. This was difficult because there was a ‘shit-load’ of stores and venders that gave stuff he didn’t FUCKING need.

This scanning continued for some time while walking until suddenly, a ray of light, reflecting off a surface that was emitting the most delicious formation shapes and numbers and letters that represented the very thing that he was looking for: FOOD.

“THERE!” he pointed a holed hoof to the establishment and shook Ditto excitedly with the other, “FOOD!”

“Uh, Stranger, I don’t think-AHH!” too late, Freddie was placing her under his momentum.

THIS CHANGELING IS A FOOL, Ditto needed to put a stop to this, not because he was going to hurt himself eating pony’s food, but because she was going to lose her own mind just taking care of Stranger.

“Yes, I would like...” he started before looking up at the menu, then silence as he stared at the menu.

This earned strange looks from Ditto and the Cashier after he got startled by a changeling that suddenly said, “Yes, I would like...”

“Is something wrong? I was about to tell you-” Ditto started, but interrupted.

“What the hell kind of food you sellin’ here?! Food with flowers?! HAY FRIES?! HAY FRIES!?” he was practically screaming at the retreating cashier.

“HEY COME BACK HERE! I WANT TO TALK TO YOUR MANAG-MMFFF!”

“Calm down, Stranger! Calm DOWN!” Ditto was trying to restrain him as she looked at the others, she was chuckling in a mortifying manner.

“Sorry, everypony, sorry!” she gave a sheepish smile, the best she could muster because she was restraining a hyperactive, pissed customer at the same time.

“Uh yes, may I help you,” this could be the manager. At least this calmed Freddie down a little bit, “sir?”

The manager looked less frightened because there was a changeling looking like she was responsible for Freddie, and that was enough for the stallion.

“Yes, I would like to know why you do not sell meat,” Freddie requested firmly, and LOUD enough for the entire damned restaurant to hear.

Oh may Queen Carnation help us all, Ditto face hoofed as the rest of the establishment was staring at Freddie with wide eyes.

He took notice of this and starting looking around like the time he was told that ‘Lil Wayne’ was black, and then it clicked.

“Oh,” he gasped in realization, “OH! OH! Ok, heh... Heh... I’m sorry.”

He was giving a sheepish smile, and this came to the manager as amusing. Not the request to meat of course.

“I’m sorry for wasting your time,” Freddie said as he looked back at the menu considering the best option for him, “I’ll take the Hey Fries.”

“Yes, of course, thank you, that will be three bits,”

“Bits?” Freddie asked with deadpanned face.

“Bits,”

“Bits?”

The manager looked at him like he was retarded then made this statement more firm, “Bits.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE THE-” smack.

A sudden group of three gold coins has appeared on the counter table... From Ditto.

“I hope you can excuse my friend here,” she gave a shameful smile, “he’s new around here.”

“Of course, it’s no trouble at all, Ditto, anytime,” the manager gave a gentle smile.

“Thank you, I owe you one,” Ditto sighed with relief as they went to a free table.

“So, uh yeah, thank you for-OW” he was smacked at the back of the head by Ditto.

“Next time, I’ll do the talking! Got it?!” she hissed at her.

“OK, OK,” he put his forehooves up in the air, “I got it, goddamn.”

Ditto then sighed with irritation, I really hope he can give up trying to eat normal foods soon... Very soon, she thought to herself.

***

Moments Later

***

“So this guy pops up out of no where and then bam!” Freddie clapped his hooves to illustrate a ‘BAM’, “then Tanny goes: ‘RED MIST: ONE DOWN’, he’s a pro wannabe!”

He was laughing at his own antics, then sighed with nostalgia and looks down at the table at the realisation that he might not make it back home.

“You weren’t paying attention weren’t you?” this really took Ditto by surprise.

“No,” she said flatly, she was too tired to make emotion, “What were you saying.”

He sighed in disappointment.

“What?! I’ll pay attention, I swear. I lost you at... At,” she was tapping her chin with her hoof trying to recolle-

“The beginning,” he interrupted, “It’s fine, I needed to talk to myself anyway. I really needed that.”

He gave a smile of gratitude and looked out towards the mountains away and the bustling crowd of a market place.

“You know, it’s not that bad,” he started as he looked out at the crowds. This time Ditto really paid attention, much to her shame, “All these people, just minding their own business, having the time of their lives. Doing what I wish my people were doing all those years ago.”

He then took a good look at Ditto, which was probably too long of a glance because her eyes dilated to the fact that she was actually being looked at in the eye. A changeling, being looked at right in the eye, meaning sincerity and honesty. This made her blush.

“Being happy,” they continued losing themselves in each others eyes, Freddie’s being more interesting... A little too interesting. Ditto’s face was drawing nearer as Freddie’s face was dong the same, until-

“Batch of HAY FRIES ready!”

This really interrupted her moment, Was I really falling in love with another changeling?! Wait this is a different kind, but nonetheless a changeling! Ditto continued looking at herself in surprise, Did that really just happen?”

“Holy hell these things look surprisingly good!” Freddie interrupted Ditto’s train of thought, then another memory clicked back to her.

“You sure you want to eat these?”

“Hell, I’m starvin, I’ll eat anything,” he then started fiddling the sticks with his holed hooves.

OH I know! I’ll use these holes to get the fries! I’m such a genius, he thought to himself as he failed. This praise for himself went away as soon as it came, then another idea came up.

I’ll eat this like an animal, this was his last resort. No hesitation, no breathing, it will only make this eating easy. BAMANUMANUMMMAA-

“You know you can use magic right?” she looked at Freddie like he was eating like a pig.

“Magic? You must be high,” he shrugged as he was about to dive his head into the batch until a fry was floating.

“HOLY FUCKING SHIT A GHOST! GET DOWN!” he ducked under the table.

“It’s magic, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

Freddie slowly slid up to sit upright on the table as the ponies around him looked at him like this was comedy gold with Seth Greene... But no laughter.

“It’s floating,” he stared at said fry, “It’s magic?”

Ditto nodded, “You don’t see my aura?”

“I don’t give a fuck about your AURA! How do I use mine?!”

Ditto looked heartbroken, but Freddie didn’t care, he was about to eat fries without contact with his body.

“Imagination,”

“You must be fucking joking,”

“Imagine one of these,” she gestured to the batch of fries.

Well I am dead, he thought to himself, I might even pull this off.

Freddie gave a little more effort to using his imagination than Ditto expected... He looked like he was shitting himself, which earned a chuckle from Ditto.

Some time passed as the fledgling, unique, retarded changeling was focusing all his might to discovering the fundamentals of lifting the fry, the magic in his horn that he tried to summon by his ‘imagination’... Or-

“Fuck this!” he exhaled in irritation as he just used his face to smash it into the tray and send his face into a greasy fuck fest, Ditto was waiting for him to finish eating.

“How was it?” she herself was surprised a changeling ate a full batch of hay fries.

“DELICIOUS!” he bellowed as he was munching the last of it.

“You there! Insect! Silence, you’re kind is not appreciated here!”

“Shut up, Blueblood. You look like an insect yourself,” the manager defended Freddie.

The said Stallion... Unicorn with that gay blue mane was in a ripped suit, and had a collection of other broken accessories.

“Well atleast I don’t go eating my food like that,” he bolted his head up in indignation, this put Freddie into a laughing fit.

“What in Celestia’s name is so funny?” he growled at Freddie.

He wiped a tear, “Oh nothing, I just see a rich snob who thinks he’s going to overpower a changeling who looks finer than you.”

“Finer?! Why I never-”

“Your ripped shit says a lot,” Freddie interrupted while gesturing to all of Blueblood. He also noticed that there were signs that he cried recently, “And you cry?! A noble of a city like this and you CRY?! That is fucking SAD!”

He burst into yet another fit of laughter, this time the entire customer base following suit.

Some time passed like this as the ‘noble’ unicorn ran away almost immediately after he lost his stoic expression.

"YOU WILL NOT HEAR THE END OF THIS!" he cried out, choking up, " SWEAR IT!"

Some time passed with Freddie making sure he was completely out of the scene.

“Boy that felt good, what about you, mate?” he asked Ditto, just staring at him, “I know I’ll feel regret about it later, but that was enjoyable to say the least. I got the rest of the crowd to laugh after all! I'll apologize to that faigit later.”

“Yes, that’s nice,” she responded with a flat face, “How did those hay fries taste again?”

“Delicious?” he deadpanned, “OH, which reminds me! Another round of hay fries please!”

Ditto sighed and slumped to her spot: He does not understand, this could save our race!

A member of the fast food arrived to their table expectantly, looking at Ditto seeing as she was the first to pay.

“Oh, of course,” she glared at Freddie, “This is the last batch of Hay Fries you get today. You owe me.”

“Yes ma’am,” he winked.

"Do you know what this means?" she asked almost as if she was offended.

Freddie only stared blank into her furious eyes, a worried and sheepish face creeping up on him, then he sighed and dropped his head.

"Fine," he huffed, "I'll do whatever you want for two days for those fries."

She mentally facehoofed: I'll tell him about it later. Maybe when he's not stuffing his face.

Raven's Shame

“Ey, Freddie,” Tanny called out, “What’s your last name again?”

“Hoffman,” he responded and firmly went back to eating. Tanny knew it was Helmicks

“You’re not going to ask me that question?”

“Because I don’t need to, and I know you have some sort of joke that implies that I am gay in that,”

Tanny dramatically bolted back and gingerly placed a hand over his chest, “Why, I would never!” he said mockingly.

“Fuck you too,” he mumbled loud enough for him to hear.

“So what exactly happened during the first outbreak,” Tanny asked Raven.

“It was a time when people really knew what fear was,” she said softly looking at her food in revelation, “the first time when people really came back from the dead to eat the living, it was a time of real fear, pain, and despair. I just wish I could have done more.”

“Sorry,” He responded.

“Look, Tanny, just drop it and we eat our food, alright?” Raven then pointed a finger to Poet, “Where are those files, I want to see them myself before I meet him.”

She pulled them out then sent them towards Raven, “Right here, I’m sure you’ll like what you see.”

“Decorated veteran, purple heart and all that shit,” Raven chuckled, “Why are you still leader after this guy is being part of our group?”

“I’ve been asking myself that since I read those reco-”

“He came from the first outbreak?” she firmly interrupted.

“That’s what we’re thinking too,” Poet responded.

“What the fuck kind of name is Ryman?”

“That’s what I thought, mate!” Freddie cut in.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” she snapped at him in irritation then sighed, “Please don’t tell me this was the guy that was looking out for that little girl on that picture.”

Poet slowly nodded, then Raven put up a worried face.

There was a slight pause.

“What’s wrong?” Poet asked.

“I kinda told,” she sheepishly smiled, “I mean yelled at the guy to leave because I was worried there wasn’t enough space.”

“Oh,” she responded, “Maybe he already let that go?”

“What if he thinks I would be the reason he lost his daughter?”

“Sister,” Freddie, Tanny, and Poet respond in unison.

“SISTER?!” she gasped, then regained her composure, “What if it doesn’t make him feel better if I say I failed to save the forty-seven people I was helping instead of him and his sister?”

“Let me tell you something,” Poet placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, “It’s been at least a decade since that happened. And if he didn’t let all that go, then he doesn’t have a place on this fireteam, how does that sound?”

“You’re right, I suppose,” she looks back, “don’t kick him out of the fireteam if things so south, he’s been through a lot.”

Poet paused to analyse her request, “Sure thing.”

“Thank you,” Raven sighed and continued eating.

“This guy is going to be a nice addition to the team!” Freddie beamed.

Tanny only facepalmed at his childishness.

***

Canterlot Market Area

***

“Hey, who is that?” Freddie asked pointing a hoof to a pegasus that had metallic wings.

“I don’t know, probably another rich Earth Pony who still thinks aesthetic wings are in style,”

He raised a brow, “Aesthetic wings?”

“It was a time of great prosperity, for the nobles. They became so proud of themselves, part of the earth pony population started placing aesthetic wings. I don’t know what got into them.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Couple of decades before Luna’s return,”

“How long ago was that?” he pressed for a different answer.

“Two months ago,” this made him go wide eyed.

“How old are YOU?” he asked jokingly.

This caught her by surprise then she wiped her head up, “Hmph,” in indignation.

“Or you can not answer me, that’s cool,” he huffed, “Seriously though, who is he?”

“Rumor has it that he’s the stallion that saved Princess Luna from Nightmare Moon,”

“Oh?”

“Yes, I know it’s strange,” she chimed, “An earth pony saving a princess from another entity? Unlikely, but those were the rumors from MY sources. Maybe they are true.”

“What are your sources?”

“Fellow changelings of the Renegade hive,”

“I’m supposed to know there is a Renegade hive?”

“No,” she responded flatly, “They don’t get out much, I’m the only one basically giving them information, but I too have been out of loop. So much has gone about, with that Crystal anomaly. Which reminds me: I am being sent there by Princess Celestia to monitor progress of her student’s task in that area, apparently I was the best choice.”

“You’re not proud of being han- hoof picked by Princess Celestia?”

“All I’m doing is monitoring, that’s it,” she huffed in disappointment, “I’m supposed to be proud of foal sitting?”

“He looks lost,” Freddie changed the subject.

“Pardon?”

“The earth pony with aesthetic wings,” he continued staring at the stranger pony as he noticed some kind of glow emanating from his concrete grey coat, the wings were moving, “You sure those wings are aesthetic?”

Ditto leaned to look closer at the wings, she obviously saw them move, “Probably the future moving faster than I. Still fake,” she responded with a blank expression.

“What else are we doing?”

“I was only here to escort you around the city, I can’t do that while I’m near the Crystal Empire,” Ditto said.

“What if I go with you? Wouldn’t you like the company of another Changeling,”

“You’re not a normal changeling,” she frowned, “Your wings are whole, your eyes are not natural, your exoskeleton is-”

Ditto began tapping Freddie’s neck, “Harder than most.”

“I know what the ladies like,” he started bouncing his brows this made her flustered, “So can I come with you or not?”

“Promise me one thing,”

“Name it,”

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Ditto said as she sighed in defeat.

I know his type, they’re relentless, there would have been no point to argue, she thought to herself.

There was a pause, a pause of silence. Ditto enjoyed this pea-

“But you’re not going there now?” she then sighed despite her self.

“I know, I can help teach you a few things about being a changeling,”

Freddie’s eyes, narrowed, “I know when I am ruining someone’s life, don’t try to get me into that life.”

That phrase was already enough for Ditto to decide against what she was originally going to teach him, Freddie was glaring daggers at her. His electronic eyes staring right at her soul were saying, “I’ll will kill you before any decent pony in this world.”

She gulped, then gingerly straightened herself out, Freddie was doing a third unnecessary thing to getting his point across, he was leaning forward with graceful balance then leaned back at her gulping and ‘straightening’ herself out.

I’ve killed enough innocent people back at Earth, Freddie thought to himself as he was looking back at one of his mistakes, he marked the wrong target because the damned building had the logo of “The Order” plastered all over it.

***

BLR HQ

***

“It’s not your fault, Stranger,” Poet reassured placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah, man. Anyone would have made that mistake,” Tanny said, hoping that his sincerity seemed sincere enough to Freddie to understand that.

“But I made that mistake,” Freddie said to himself miserably, lightly banging on the table with his right fist, “MY MISTAKE!”

This took the entire squad back except the new guy, Freddie took notice of this.

“And what the fuck do you know about killing innocent lives, huh? ‘Ryman’?” Freddie snarled, the rest of the squad were not willing to get in the way of a pissed off Stranger, “What have you done that is equal to my mistake?”

Ryman only stared at Freddie with a blank face, then started chucking, “I’ve killed innocent people before, and those were on purpose. Every kill I made, every murder I committed, EVERY soldier I put in decommission, were to let me live for at least thirty seconds. And you know the worst part?”

Freddie was able to hold his urge to respond to the rhetorical question.

“That was not enough to save sa-,” he stopped, wide eyed. He was about to say something that the rest of the squad should not have heard. Freddie, in his rage, decided to pry.

Ryman was pulling something out of his pocket to look at a chibi soldier that was wearing HRV.

“What were you saying?” he huffed, “And what the fuck is that doll doing in your fucking hand? You’re part of the BLR program, fucking act like-”

He was interrupted as Ryman punched him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

With Freddie recovering his breath, Tanny noticed that Ryman was not going to stop as he put the chibi on the table.

“Woah, woah there,” Tanny started, “Break it up! Save it for the bastards that started this damn thing!”

Ryman just stood, staring at Freddie with a blank expression, more like a stoic expression, then continued to approach.

“I said!” Tanny stopped as he saw that Ryman was just holding his hand forward for a handshake for a breath taken Freddie.

“I’m sorry,” he said solemnly still holding his hand forward.

Freddie learned not to mess with Ryman, so he decided not to pry about what sa- was going to finish with.

He coughed and wheezed and finally, “I’m sorry too, mate,” he said weakly and put up a weak smile to add to it.

What this man had gone through was definitely worse than what Freddie had gone through tenfold. He was born into a generation that was more prepared for this infection. And Ryman’s generation was torn to shreds, for the other generations to learn the mistakes his did. The costs were too high; no one could understand what his loss felt like, not even Raven. Raven at least had the respect to stay silent.

“You were the one who denied to help my sister, weren’t you?” Ryman spoke to Raven.

This startled her, more like scared her shitless. She knew this was coming, but not in that voice, the voice of sinister realisation.

Raven hung her head in struggled defeat, “Yes.”

She closed her eyes knowing the inevitable was to come, footsteps from Ryman were hearable as her heartbeat became faster. Anticipating a well deserved bitch slap from the man she denied to help all those years ago.

The footsteps sounded like they were five feet away, she knew this was going to be painful.

And then is startled her, first contact on the shoulder. He was going to the punch that had extra momentum from grabbing the target towards him.

Nothing happened... Except an embrace?!

Raven open her eyes with that frightened look to see that she was being hugged... By the man who lost his sister because she denied to help them.

“What?” she asked confusingly, still expecting physical abuse for her actions.

“Thank you,” he said softly, keeping the same force of that embrace.

Raven blinked, “But, what I did. What happened to you.”

“Will not result in me hurting other people,” he interrupted, “I did not want that to happen. Or any other bad thing to happen, I haven’t let go.”

He let go of her and only gave glared into her eyes with furious eyes. Just when she thought she was off the hook, he glared at her. She “gumped”.

His expression softened, “I don’t blame you, looked like there were fifty people in that complex.”

He sighed in revelation, then chuckled.

“To think,” he paused, “That I wanted to strangle that woman who denied to help my sister because there were more ‘important’ guests.”

Raven only hung her head in shame, then Ryman placed a hand on her shoulder again.

“I didn’t like the way you said it, but I knew why you did it,” he chuckled, “Maybe a tad bit too late. Maybe some months after I shot her.”

She gasped in realisation that he had to prevent his sister from turning like that.

“I’m sorry,” she said solemnly.

“Not your fault,” he looked out to the open halls, “I understood that there were just too many to care for, it was probably not your best moment.”

She slowly nodded her head, “I’m sorry.”

“I know you are,” then he went to the table to grab his chibi and walked away, probably to take care of some business that the others didn’t know abou-

“That... Was... Beautiful,” Freddie sat there staring at the scene that had passed, with Raven looking at him with the ‘da faq’ face.

Then Freddie got slapped in the back of the head, by Tanny.

“What the fuck was that for?”

“For no reason, just like the way you enjoyed that going down!” Tanny snapped at him.

“But! He forgave her, and that was the magic of friendship!”

“No, you gay ass motherfucker!” Tanny spat, this made Freddie recoil with a sheepish smile, “That’s the power of mercy, of knowing what’s right after all that’s happened in the past, THE POWER OF LETTING GO!”

“That’s friendship!” Freddie beamed a smile as Tanny only groaned in defeat.

“I’ll be at my bunk,”

“He’s on his way in there, you know,” Poet called after him.

“I don’t give a shit, I’ll just stay out of his way,” he huffed.

“We need to give him the friendly initiation,” Freddie said after he insured that Tanny couldn’t hear.

“That’s actually not a bad idea,” Poet tapped her chin.

“See?” he remarked, “That is the power of friendsh-”

“Say that again, and I’ll restart that less friendly initiation on you,” she glared at him.

“ip?” after finishing, he just put up a sheepish smile and recoiled back to his post on the table and continued eating, he threw his shit away.

Poet sighed, “We don’t have a friendly initiation.”

“I might have an idea,” Raven cut in. The two just stare at the woman who denied to help the new guy’s sister.

“Don’t look at me like that!” she bursted out, looking like she was going to restart her shame phase with what happened all those years ago.

“Oh don’t be like that!” Freddie laughed in false reassurance, “What was your idea?”

“I really need to write it down, I will be elaborating it as I keep writing to make it the perfect apology from me and a great friendly welcoming from us!”

“Keep us posted, I guess,” Poet sighed, “Let’s go to the bunks.”

“But Tanny’s in there with Ryman,” Freddie remarked.

“Giving him company would be the first step to making him friends with us, dumbass,” Poet facepalmed.

The Cloak Module

“Hey,” Ditto nudges Freddie. who was face down on the table day dreaming, “Hello?”

He bolted up in surprise, took a fast and deep breath and let out the following.

“ONDRA! NO!” he screamed in surprise then put both forehooves to his mouth.

Wide-eyed Ditto was just staring at the mental break down Freddie just had. He took notice of this and sighed.

“What do you want?” he said tiredly.

“I just wanted to say that my train has arrived, I packed extra things for you since you wanted to come along,” she narrowed her eyes on him, “We’ll talk about why you lied about your name on the train. Right now, we’re almost starting to get late for it, we’re going to have to hoof it.”

Freddie could only snicker at the only time saying ‘hoof it’ could never be more legit... Because you know... Hooves.

“Yeah,” he chuckled at his own wordplay, “Let’s *Snicker* hoof it.”

Ditto only blinked at what she couldn’t understand, but then regained posture and gestured for him to follow.

***

Train Station

***

The train station staff were racists... That was an understatement.

One dude actually went and threw a balled up paper napkin at the pair.

“Just ignore them,” Ditto hissed at the not too pissed fellow changeling. She looked at him with confusion as they kept walking to their train, “How are you dealing with this?”

He just shrugged, “Let’s just say that I know how to deal with racial malice.”

“Fair enough,” she said with a softer tone as she knew that she didn’t need to worry about a changeling on a new paper that was talking about attacking other ponies.

“That,” he started, “and Celestia said she’d kill me.”

Freddie started chuckling at that last part.

Ditto stared at him wide eyed, “She wouldn’t kill you,” she laughed.

Why does everyone keep saying that? Well for the record he only heard two ponies say that, but nonetheless it is most likely going to be said by many more ponies to come.

“If I die by her ha- hoof,” he stuttered, “I’m going to kill you.”

Ditto only continued laughing because she couldn’t take him seriously when he said that in a joking voice.

He sighed and thought to himself, “These equines will never understand... I already died.”

Reaching their train car, Freddie noticed that they were the only ones headed to the crystal empire besides another group of females and one male, the stallion with aesthetic wings.

“He’s here,” he whispered to Ditto, who raised a brow.

“The stallion with the aesthetic wings?”

“Yes,”

“Don’t worry about it, we’re going to be in the other train car,”

Freddie took one good look until that group entered the train entirely, then the pink one poked her head out and laid out an ear-to-ear grin and waved maniacally with eyes dilating to blue dots.

He recoiled at the disturbing sights.

“What did you see?”

“I’d rather not talk about it,” his breathing was ragged because he almost got lost in his own thoughts what that pink one was trying to get at... Homicide?

“Well, we’d better get you started on the basics of changeling magic, so,” she trailed off looking around the train car.

“What training? Magic?”

“Yes, Changelings have the power to,” she paused, “Change into anypony.”

“Anypony?” he asked confusingly.

“Yes, anypony,” she responded, “Let’s see your go at it.”

“I don’t know how to,” he gave a sheepish grin and leaned back, prepared for the beating from his ‘teacher’, who groaned in annoyance.

“Look, I’ll show you mine,” she closed her eyes and green flames were emitting from her hooves and were slowly making their way up. Freddie took worried notice of this.

“Uh,” he stuttered, “You’re on fire.”

Ditto was trying to be comprehensive about this transformation.

“DITTO! You’re ON FIRE!” Freddie closed his eyes to protect from the lens flare.

“I know that you fool!” her voice was starting to trail off into a more high pitched one, “See? I’m another pony.”

Freddie slowly opened his eyes, only to be greeted with a frightening sight.

“HOLY FUCK!” he bolted to the other side of the train car with much noise.

“What are you doing?!” she hissed in the form of the pink one.

“Don’t kill me PLEASE!” he was covering his eyes with cowardice.

“What makes you think I would!?” she hissed between her teeth.

“You,” he released his eyes, “Won’t?”

The pink one groaned and was lit on green fire again, Freddie still getting used to people he just met getting lit on fire.

Ditto returned to her normal changeling form, “Now you give it a try.”

He gulped, “You mean, getting myself on magic green fire and taking another identity? I may have signed up for espionage, but that is just low. I don’t do that.”

“It’s what changelings do!” she jabbed a hoof firmly to his shoulder, “It is what we do BEST!”

He took that moment to think, “How do I do it?”

“Just imagi-”

“Now hold the fucking phone,” he snapped, “Imagination? You fucking serious?”

Ditto firmly nodded as he only sighed in submittance.

“Fine,” he huffed, “What am I going for?”

“You saw a lot of ponies around us, you can use combinations of traits or use one specific expres form you saw,” she said matter-o-factly.

“Ok, I got it,” Ditto nodded in response.

“Now imagine yourself in that form,” imagination was now probably the word most hated by Freddie, next to faggot.

Concentration was not that hard considering that the train was not loud or filled with too much movement. He was about to succumb to looking like he cared.

He heard digital chittering, so he thought it worke-

“HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!” Ditto screamed, them Freddie smothered his ears with his hooves.

“NOT so loud, woman!”

“You’re invisible!”

“I am?” he tried to take a look at himself, “I AM!”

“How!?”

“I don’t know!”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW?!”

“I MEAN I DON’T KNOW!”

“Hey! What’s goin’ on on there,” a female voice called out, this made Ditto’s face reduce into a fearful one.

“HIDE!” she hissed.

“I don’t need to!” he hissed back for he was cloaked.

“I knew that noise was familiar,” he thought to himself, the very same cloaking technology he used back at earth made the same noise. Then the door blasted open with a Columbia Blue pony with rainbow tail and mane coming out of the frame.

“Who’s in here? I know you’re here,” she sounded threatening, “We heard noises so stop hiding.”

“This is a golden opportunity!” Freddie thought to himself as he snickered in his invisible form.

“I hear you! Stop laughing and come out!”

“Who goes disturbing mai slumburrrr!” he howled.

“Enough games! Come out, you coward,”

Freddie slowly crept behind her and hissed, “It’s raping time.”

This was probably the last straw because this pony ended up screaming for her life and ran for the other train car. That scream was priceless; sounded like a commentator that Freddie couldn’t put his hoof on. The internet was small time entertainment that was at least preserved.

He decided to follow the mare to the other train car with invisibility still on.

“Stranger? Stranger!” he heard Ditto hiss through the dark train car.

“Just sit tight! I’m still invisible!”

“Don’t be cocky! Get back here!”

Freddie could have sworn she was still calling out for his name helplessly as he was following the panicking mare.

“APPLEJACK! APPLEJACK! WAKE UP!” an orange pony with blond tail and mane emerged from a bunk, with tired eyes.

“What is it, Rainbow?”

“So this was is Rainbow and the other is Applejack? I’ll call Rainbow: Skittles to be safe,” he thought to himself as Skittles was conversing about a ghost in the back train car.

“Ah figured you would be the bravest pony of all of Equestria,” she was snickering. The accent was very welcoming to Freddie’s ears.

“You don’t understand!” She snapped, “There is a ghost there! Here follow me!”

Freddie crept behind the two and decided to say something different, but in the same hissed voice, “Guess who?”

The two screamed like little girls in those cheesy horror movies as Freddie couldn’t hold it anymore; he bursted into all out laughter but didn’t notice the pink one laughing right next to him.

The chattering noise came back as he remembered that high pitched voice.

“So what so funny,” she trailed off looking at Freddie, who was looking at himself immediately.

“Oh shit,” he gasped bolting off into the trail cars ahead, and not his.

“CHANGELING!” Skittles and Applejack screamed.

Freddie was caught into a bear hug by the pink one.

“OHMYGOSHYOURTHATCHANGELINGTHATISAWENTERTHETRAINAREYOUNEWHERE?” the pink one screamed in one breath, Freddie was in pain.

“Please don’t kill me,” he said with all his bear-hugged might.

“Why would I do that silly?” she was giggling as she let him down, he was just staring at her wide eyed.

***

Freddie vision

***

“You and I are going to have so much fun together,” she pulled out a scalpel, “Aren’t we?”

Her eyes dilated into those same blue dots as she was reaching the blade closer to his face.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,” he went into a baby’s fetal position with twitchy limbs, the blood was really rushing through him, his breathing became ragged and-

***

Reality

***

“This one seems harmless,” Applejack poked at shaking Freddie with a hoof.

“I just wanted to give him a hoof pump,” Pinkie said confusingly.

“Changelings are weird, but this one really takes the cake,” Rainbow said with a hint of pity.

Pinkie gasped to get as much air as she could while in the air.

“CAKE?! WHERE IS THIS CAKE!” she became more unstable as the word cake was announced, Rainbow Dash tried to calm her down.

“There is no cake, now how about you help me get him to the other train car? This one is not getting up,” Rainbow Dash said pointing to the helpless changeling.

“Okie-dokie-lokie!” [A/N I think I spelled that shit wrong] Pinkie said.

“The... The infected... Never hungry... Always eats...” Freddie stuttered.

“We really need to send this guy to the other car, the officials would know what to do with him,”

“But we took care of changelings at the weddin’,” Applejack said.

“This is not a regular changeling,” Rainbow tried to sound like a narrator with her tomboyish voice.

***

Moments Later

***

“We made it,” Rainbow huffed.

“This changelin’ ain’t that heavy,” Applejack rolled her eyes.

“You said it yourself, this is not any changeling!” Pinke beamed.

She basically tossed the delirious said changeling to the other car from the door frame.

Once the doors were closed Ditto rushed to his aid.

“Are you alright?”

“Are they gone?” Freddie Responded

Ditto looked around and confirmed with a nod.

“Oh thank the christ,”

“What?”

“That was a good enough escape plan,” he dusted himself off, “If I say so myself.”

“You’re telling me,” Ditto started, “That they just decided to toss you back to this train car? No hostilities?”

“Natta,” he dismissed with a hoof, then started concentrating on his cloaking ability.

“What are you doing?”

He stopped then narrowed his eyes.

“I’m doing stuff, Ditto,” his voice became more irritated, “THINGS!”

“You’re trying to become invisible again?”

“As soon as I figure it out,” he dismissed with a hoof, “Do you know those ponies?”

“What those six?” she asked, Freddie giving a nod.

“Those are the elements of harmony,” she stated.

“What are the elements of harmony?”

“The main forces of defense for Equestria itself,”

“Entrusted on a bunch of women?”

“Women?”

“Females,” he responded resisting the urge to face-hoof, Ditto was resisting the same urge the entire time.

“Yes, entrusted on a bunch of,” she paused with a hint of confusion, “females.”

“No wonder you’re ‘foal-sitting’ them,”

“I’m just foal-sitting the purple one,”

“What about the others,”

“If you really care about them that much, I’ll protect them as well,” she rolled her eyes.

“This one doesn’t get paid enough for this shit,” Freddie chuckled to himself as he thought.

“Hey, what about flying?” she started, “You at least know how to fly, right?”

Freddie had never thought about it now that he looked at his insect wings.

“It would be easier for me because your wings are hole up right?” he should never have said that, Ditto had become offended by that and started approaching him with anger filled in her pearlescent eyes. Freddie bolted his forehooves up in defense.

“Alright! Alright!” he pleaded, “I’m sorry.”

He huffed in relief as Ditto reduced her hostilities to a glare.

This was going to be one long train ride.

***

Mid Train Car

***

“I think it’s the sleep deprivation getting into you two,” Rarity rolled her eyes, “You ruined by beauty sleep for that? Ghost stories? My, you girls really outdone yourselves.”

Rarity finished that last one with blatant sarcasm. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

“You didn’t let us finish! It was a ch-”

“It was a changeling that has invisibility, so he came from another world and is not here to bring harm to us!” she interrupted and beamed an innocent yet overjoyed smile... What the fuck.

Rarity took a good look at Pinkie and figured to stay with ‘Pinkie being Pinkie’ theory.

“Where is this changeling now?” she said with a nervous grin. She was hoping she wouldn’t have to meet said changeling.

“You don’t have to, I sent it back to the back train car, and locked it from ours,” Rainbow said with a puff from her chest with pride.

“You’re sure this one can’t get to us? It can turn invisible,” Rarity said worriedly.

“Ah’m sure! Pinkie Pah here,” Applejack pointed at said pony, “did somethin’ to it. Ah’m not so sure what.”

Applejack took a sure look at Pinkie Pie and looked back at Rarity with a sure grin.

“Just go back to sleep, girls,” Rarity dismissed with a hoof, “If you are sure we are safe. You really are the bravest part of the group.”

With Rarity commending their brave actions, it was enough to get them to their beds and finally leave Rarity back to sleeping.

“These ponies really need their sleep more than I do,” Rarity chuckled to herself.

“I ssssseeeeee you,” came a distorted voice, Rarity looked around speechless and gulped.

“Who’s there?” Rarity whispered, hoping that she could save her friends from getting anymore sleep deprived.

Freddie decided that he had run out of ideas, so he approached with cloak and finished his night of mischief with, “I will watch you sleep,” his voice dripping with sinister pedophilia, “Wouldn’t you like that?”

Rarity’s eyes dilated to a pair of small marbles and she shrank back under her blanket, frantically pulling her blind folds over her eyes.

“It’s just a dream,” she was mumbling audibly to Freddie to herself, “It’s just a dream... It’s just a dream.”

The changeling walked to his car and let out obnoxious laughter that was muffled by all his might.

“That was priceless!” he snickered to himself.

“What are you doing?” Ditto asked tiredly.

“Stuff, Ditto,” he groaned, “THINGS.”

“Please go to sleep,” she mumbled with a waving hoof over herself.

“Yeah, Yeah,” he dismissed as he chuckled to himself.

The cloaking module had burnt right into his body... Freddie was having a hard time understanding that because... Well, it was magic, and he didn't believe it. He understood how to use it, and he came up with a new explanation to anyone who could have gone to this world with him.

"I stopped making sense of it when I became this," he would gesture to all of him, "When I died."

Ondra's Last Hallucination

“So the city behind that field is the crystal empire?”

“Yes, and Celestia gave me a key spell to let us in,” Ditto responded.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” he shrugged, “Time’s a wastin’!”

“We need to wait for that group to pass,” Ditto started, “Let’s hope they forget to come back to check on you.”

“Yeah,” he responded lightly.

Five minutes, five minutes became ten as the group was getting their shit together, especially the white one. It was getting Freddie angered annoyed.

“Why does she grab all that winter gear, it’s not lik-”

“Shut up!” Ditto hissed at Freddie, “Somepony’s coming, hide!”

Freddie, being the lazy one, just activates cloak while giving her a smug look before he was sure the cloaking ability covered his face. The chittering was in a somewhat soundproof train car, so hopefully the pony didn’t hear it.

He approached the cargo hold, which was basically behind the car they were at.

Freddie decided to follow him.

The stallion arrived and looked for his box. After some rummaging, he found it. As he opened it, he was just as surprised as Freddie to see the contents inside.

A machete, looking too much like the one Freddie gave to... Ondra.

He just noticed that the helmet that was on him looked like... HRV, nightvision would look like you could see directly through it without operation.

“No way,” he thought to himself, as he ended up getting lost in what he was deducting, “Either I was not alive to witness the explosion... Or.”

He got himself lost to what we was deducting next, the mission was a failure. The human race depended on them to complete it... And they failed, the chain of command said there was no better choice than their team, he believed it as soon as he got word that The Order were hunting down high value allies and they were the underdogs.

They were no ordinary underdogs, weren’t they? The break through a facility that housed both militia and infected. They had cut the infected loose to the militia, they lost Tanny to that bravado. The Order had succumb to hiring younger individuals to their task, they lost Raven to a little girl that lost herself in the augmentations that went about in making the younger individuals ‘more effective’; the little girl had an extreme interest in autopsy, whether she had to get her subjects by force or scavenging. Nonetheless, Freddie thought he had the obligation to get back to Earth to recover what was left, in hopes of fixing what was broken.

He didn’t notice the stallion leaving the cargo hold until the door made an audible shut.

Freddie was staring at the doors that opened for that stallion to exit as he confirmed his deduction... It was Ondra, in this world; and he could be the answer to why they are in this world and how they are going to get back.

He uncloaked at he was approaching the doors, until Ditto stopped him.

“What are you doing?” she raised a brow, “He made enough distance.”

“I need to talk to him,” he said calmly.

“Why?”

“For stuff, Ditto,” he continued, “THINGS!”

“That is the last time you say that to me,” she approached with certain hostility, “Now tell me why you have to compromise my mission.”

“You’re supposed to remain anonymous to these ponies you watch over?”

With a firm nod, Freddie sighed in disappointment, “When are we supposed to intervene?”

“When something goes wrong,” she stated flatly.

He took a good look at the changeling.

“I really hope shit hits the fan,” he thought to himself.

“I think they’re gone,” he looks through the crack of the door, “Let’s hoof it.”

Freddie smiled at HIS use of the phrase.

***

On Snow

***

“How much longer? I’m freezing my ass off!” Freddie called out to Ditto.

She turned her head as they walked through the bitter winds, “Not too long, as long as we don’t run into any trouble!”

“Don’t jinx it!”

“What?”

“I SAID-”

A roar had interrupted what he was about to repeat.

“YOU DUMB BITCH!”

“Let’s GO!”

A black cloud had started forming, and Freddie was the first to notice.

“Is that supposed to be there?” it was a dumb question, but it was enough to get Ditto to actually take a look.

Upon seeing the cloud, Ditto became more frantic, “RUN!”

“What the fuck do you think I’m doin’?!” he yelled back, at the same time running with all his might. The yelling taking some fight out of him.

The running was relentless, so was that cloud it was fast. But Freddie only hoped, HOPED, that he was faster.

Ditto took another look behind her while running and her expression almost made Freddie lost hope of outrunning the cloud.

“What’s wrong?” he huffed, as Ditto only continued to run with the back of her head facing the front.

“STRANGER!” she slowed as Freddie’s peripheral vision was deteriorating into the darkness of the cloud.

As Freddie was noticing what was going on, he slowed slowly to a complete stop. Ragged breathing could only get this much out of him.

“Shit,” he huffed.

“It seems we have another visitor,” an ominous voice called out.

Freddie continued breathing, trying to return to normal pace.

“Where did you come from? Perhaps you are a friend of his,”

He swallowed sticky saliva, it was enough moisture to start talking.

“Who’s he?” Freddie asked, assuming the darkness expects him to answer that way.

“You don’t know?” a slight chuckled elicited from the darkness, “You will see soon enough.”

Silence, a lengthy silence.

“Answer me!” he called out.

Cold bitter winds of the north were coming back as he heard it whistling.

“Oh thank go-AAAAAGGGGHHHH,” the winds were becoming more sharp and were starting to get lethal.

He needed to run, so he ran, doing so meant his life. Stopping would let the winds finish him, running would let him live with - at most - flesh wounds.

“You think this will stop me? HUH?!” he taunted the darkness as the winds continued cutting him all over.

“This will not be the end of me,” he repeated in his own head, “This will not be the end of me.”

Winds were not stopping, he had to go faster. He had a lot of close calls, but this was the kind he could tell that if he didn’t haul ass, he would die... A second, painful time.

“THIS WILL NOT BE THE END OF ME!” he bellowed and ran with all his might, his anger filling his energy. There came an opening, a blue light that came from him was opening a path. Those lights came from his eyes? The rest of his body is black...

Running towards his freedom, his last move was doing an equine jump then pulling his body together to prepare a roll throw the cold soft snow. He gave a grunt in slight pain as he made his epic escape from the darkness. He looked around to be faced with an awestruck Ditto.

“How did you escape?” she started, “And made that cloud go away?!”

The cloud did go away, Freddie chuckled at his luck, “I guess I really am no ordinary changeling.”

Ditto only rolled her eyes at how seriously Freddie took this situation, “You almost lost yourself in that, and all you do is laugh?”

“Laughter is the best medicine,” he remarked, and before Ditto could protest, “And you best let that be MY best medicine.”

Ditto opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Laughter was going to HAVE to be his best medicine. She groaned in annoyance at her partner.

“How close are we now?”

“We’re right at the wall,” Ditto then charged her horn, aiming at the field.

“This field,” Freddie started, “Is that what this thing is keeping that cloud away?”

Ditto nodded as she was finalizing the spell.

“How are you holding up?” she asked with a hint of worry.

He scoffed at the question, “Oh these? ‘Tis but a flesh wound.”

They certainly were, they were bleeding and continuing to blood.

“I’m fine, bitch, just,” there was that irritation, the irritation of being parented, “please get us inside.”

She had a slightly broken hearted look, luckily Freddie took notice.

“I’m sorry, okay?” he sighed, “I’m just... I almost got killed and I really, really want to be somewhere safe. For at least five hours.”

“I understand,” she looked back at her work, “It’s done, we’re in.”

“Alright,” he huffed, shrugging the blood out, the slight pains of his first encounter with dark magic, “Let’s get this foal sitting done.”

"You ready?" Ditto asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be," the subordinate responded.

"You need to be serious about this," she glared, "You're very important to me, you're another changeling that is not attached to any queen, don't you feel anything about that?"

He shrugged, "I can care less, let's just get to him. If he's my friend, he might know something about how we BOTH got here."

Ditto knew he was talking about him and that strange Pegasus.

"If this friend of yours really knows you, then you need to act quick about it," Ditto sighed, “What made him significant among the crowd besides his wings?”

He shrugged, "I don't know, I just notice something chemically interesting about him if that makes any sense."

Ditto groaned, "Please don't tell me you have a thing about stallions."

"NO! I'm not HOMOSEXUAL! That's sick, that's just rude!"

Ditto chuckled, "Now that was funny."

She looked into the landscape that was completely different from the bitter north, "We'll shall we?"

"Ladies first," he mocked.

"Lady? You must be thinking of someone else, Stranger..."

***

Moments Later

***

“What’s with these pony’s?” he remarked, “They don’t even respond to us, I’m more normal looking than you for that matter.”

He laughed heartily at that last part, Ditto took no offense and shrugged at his question.

“How should I know? I was only given orders to protect,”

“Ah, you’re no help,” he chuckled, “Do you even know where they are?”

She tapped her hoof, Freddie took this as cluelessness

He chuckled, “You don’t even know where they are, huh?”

Ditto glared at the changeling who burst out in laughter, “We’ll find them, I just need to blend in, these ponies are not normal.”

“Well how about you turn invisible like me?” Freddie suggested.

Ditto placed a dead-panned look on her face, “I can’t, you’re not a regular changeling remember?”

“Yeah,” he sighed with a bit of pride, “Find a way to blend in, I should be able to see under your disguise since... You know? You’re a fellow changeling.”

“We don’t have the same signature,” she stated flatly, Freddie tilted his head.

“Look, Stranger,” she paused, “we’re really going to need to change your name.”

“Just call me Freddie,” he dismissed with a hoof.

Ditto shrugged, “Fine, we-”

“I’ll walk around this place invisible,” digital chittering spreading all over his body as he spoke, “You find out a way, I’ll help you protect these ponies. Give me a significant signal for me to go back to you, I’m sure you’ll figure that one out.”

The last word ended with no mouth.

“That’s,” Ditto trailed off, “Actually not a bad idea.”

There was silence.

“Freddie?” she was building up an irritated face, “You left me.”

She sighed and placed a brown cloak - the cloak of cloth - and started her way to ‘figure’ this shit out.

***

Ondra’s Fall

***

Darkness... Again.

“Whoever’s doin’ that, it’s gettin’ old and you know it,” he called out what ever was causing his predicament; he hung his head down in defeat, “I’m dead aren’t I?”

“No,” a simple and echoing voice breathed through the dark.

“Who’s there?” he asked simply, there was no point in fighting. He lost.

“Follow the light,” it ignored his question, a said light emitting ahead. Ondra decided to walk towards it.

Upon reaching it, he could hear distinct noises of child’s laughter and clanging of plastics and random metals.

The light was bright, but Ondra decided not to go slowly. It took some time to register the new environment but before he could.

“ONDRA!” a girl’s voice beamed... Sarah.

“Sarah?”

“ONDRA! You’re here!” an embrace caught him off guard, he decided not to push the embrace back, because he certainly was tired of pushing back these hallucinations, “How?”

“I died,” he replied flatly, hoping that the hallucination would take the hint to kindly fuck right off.

“What’s wrong? Aren’t you happy to see your sister?”

He kept a straight face staring right into Sarah’s pleading eyes. Ondra had seen a lot of things, bad things so he could certainly handle those eyes.

“You aren’t real,” he finally huffed, making Sarah pout.

“MOM!” she called out, “DAD! ONDRA’S HERE AND HE THINKS WE’RE FAKES!”

“Oh reelleh?” a female voice replied from a short distance. Internet slang... He hadn’t heard talking like that in a long time

“I’ll come right over,” a male voice followed. The next two people he saw were his mom and dad.

“How should I know that you three are real?” Ondra said firmly, keeping his stoic expression.

The three looked at each other and gave a disappointed nod.

“You don’t,” Sarah said, “Please believe us, we missed you.”

He sighed, he had enough of this. He was just going to have to embrace the fact that he had to live with these three, after all he had done; in earth, in Equestria. He lived a good life, he supposed.

“I have something to say,” another female voice cut in the silence... Linda.

“Poet?”

“Oh please don’t call me that, you know I can’t speak in rhymes to save my life,” she chuckled, and Ondra hung his head in shame.

“I should have taken the other hardsuit,” he huffed, Linda lifting his chin with soft knuckles.

“Chin up,” she gave a gentle smile, “You’re going to need it when you get back there.”

Ondra looked confused, “Back where?”

“I have someone who would want to speak to you,” she gestured to the darkness and out came a man... The same man who shot Linda.

“Well well well, we finally meet again,” he chuckled.

“Linda,” Ondra was losing it, “HE SHOT YOU.”

“For good reason,” Linda patiently replied, Ondra took the hint and stayed silent, only mumbling to himself, “It was to make you strong.”

“Strong?” he asked, he understood how losing a friend would make you mentally strong, but, “Why?”

“So you can protect the new world,” she sighed in relief that he understood, “Earth had gone too far in corruption. We had given up.”

“You wanted to get shot?” I asked with a deadpanned expression.

“Nah, it was pretty painful,” she shrugged, “Though I wish it was Stranger who got shot. He was a friend of your too, right?”

“That’s a twisted way of putting it,” Ondra chuckled at the hypothetical justification of which life had more value, “VERY twisted way.”

“I know,” she said, “This man would like to have some words with you, can you accept?”

Ondra shrugged, “What happened to earth?”

Linda closed her eyes and slowly shook her head, “I don’t know. But you and I know best that Earth has no hope. Resources have been drained, money doesn’t let us cooperate with each other, and the infection will take the rest of the world to start over.”

“You think the infected will evolve?” he asked with a hint of hope.

“Definitely not like us,” she sighed, “Still beasts with no intelligence, only following their hunger. They are never satisfied.”

Ondra could only bow his head solemnly at the closure that he REALLY failed his mission.

“Do you want to know what makes you special, Fredricks?” the man asked.

Ondra could only continue to look down blinking. And finally, he looked towards the man.

“You have gone through many obstacles that would deem any man broken to the point of no return. Or as you military say: FUBAR,”

Ondra chuckled at his use of FUBAR, “What are you going to do to me?”

He looked at Linda then, “You’re going back. To Equestria.”

He sighed in response, “I understand.”

“Just keep in mind you are dead,” the man remarked, “I gave you something tht would be a fail safe to that.”

“Revive? I thought I was going back in a different body or something,” Ondra tiled his head.

“Oh no, don’t worry about that. Your friend just has to come to you, he knows what to do,”

“Friend? Another agent?” that last question thrown towards Linda, who nodded in response.

It took some time to register, and Ondra groaned after a pause, “It’s Freddie, isn’t it?”

Linda couldn’t stifle a giggle at his deduction, “Yes.”

“Can I say good bye to my family first?” he requested, “You know, before I leave them again?”

The two looked at each other and gave him a nod, “Five minutes tops.”

Ondra smiled, “I only need two.”

It was getting to his mind that: what if this is his real family. Either way he couldn’t just leave anyone without saying goodbye would he? It was his best chance at really letting go of the past. Letting go of what happened before, during, and after his life was taken away from him.

Walking towards his family, Sarah was the first to notice and started her way towards him with a smile of a child.

“So what happened? Are you staying? With us?!” she was excited for the answer, this hurt Ondra because it really sounded like Sarah... And he was leaving her and his family.

He solemnly shook his head, “I still got to kick bad guy butt.”

Sarah ‘oh’d and she looked like she understood completely, she was welling up tears.

She reached into her pocket and took something he hadn’t seen since he was in Equestria: The Chibi HRV.

She handed it over to Ondra and gave a smile while trying to hold back sobbing, “Something to remember me by?” she pleaded.

The voice was genuine, this was his real family. The more he heard that voice the harder it was to leave and help the ones who needed it most, he gave a soft chuckle and lightly took the chibi, “Something to remember you by.”

“Don’t forget, Ondra,” his mother started, “We’re here.”

“And it was never your fault,” his father added, “What happened to all of us. You need to let go.”

“I know dad,” he sighed, “I know.”

“Two minutes, Ondra! Or are you going to need the other three?”

“I’ll be right there, Linda!” Ondra felt a tugging at his arm.

“Can I get a last hug?” this was her last request, before her big brother takes his leave for another long time.

Ondra took a lengthy look at the pleading eyes and broke into light sobs, “Yeah.”

The hug, it no longer mattered if the family was real or not, it felt right. It felt right and there was nothing that could change his mind.

“Thank you,” she sighed.

They broke embrace with some tears streaming down their cheeks, tears full of hope, of Dreams.

“Well? Thirty seconds la-”

“Just get me back,”

“I will warn you,” the man spoke, “It will be quite painful coming back to life; as you would imagine, you’re coming back to life, and this magic spell was difficult because it actually needed chemical conduits to conduct.”

“I get it,” he looked back at his family that was standing there, taking in every detail of their boy leaving them for another long period of time. They even started waving goodbye, which made him turn forward. The more he looked at them, the more difficult it was to leaving them.

“You will go through some transformation, nothing serious I assure you,” he continued.

“What Transformations?”

“You will see,” he replied, “But please take my word that it is nothing serious.”

Ondra huffed, “Fine.”

Linda placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, “You’ll be fine.”

“You’re always good with the hand to the shoulder thing.”

“You know you love it,” Linda teased, “Now make us proud.”

Ondra turned towards the man, “How is it supposed to start?”

“Oh another anomaly; not of the new world, must be in close proximity with you to activate the chemical to conduct the magic spell I placed.”

“Magic,” he sighed with a slow, humored shake of his head, “So cliche.”

“How do you think I felt when I was making the spell?” he gave a sheepish grin.

“What’s your name anyway?” he asked the man, “You shot her, so I think I’m at least entitled to know it.”

“Hmm,” he hummed in response, “Just call me Surrogate.”

“Fine don’t tell me your name then, jeez,” he chuckled.

“It’s better than calling me: the man who shot your best friend, right?”

Ondra took a distasteful look at him.

Surrogate made another sheepish grin, “Too soon.”

He narrowed his eyes as he shook his head disappointedly at him.

A light began appearing above them.

“Oh that must be him!” he beamed like a mad scientist on a verge of a breakthrough.

“How will this work?”

“Like rapture!” he squealed excitedly, “Good luck.”

Ondra was getting lifted, from the ground, without doing anything.

Reaching the light above, he noticed it was a ring of fire.

“Oh SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII,” he trailed off in an echoed scream.

The Stranger Ryman

“There he is!” Freddie thought to himself, then raised a brow, “Apparently he’s a playa, what’s with all those mares sticking to him? Oh god the pink one is with them.”

He was in cloak, and once he saw that his possible friend was dying, he rushed to him.

Freddie was not going to let him die, because he was most likely his only way back.

The only part that was difficult approaching Ondra; Freddie is getting his hopes up, was not bumping into unsuspecting ponies. His cloak made him invisible, but not phazable.

“But I caught him!” a voice loud enough for him to hear.

“I’m sorry,” another female voice responded solemnly.

Freddie was too busy to continue hearing, but he could hear an unmistakable repeat of:

“Midnight? Midnight?! MIDNIGHT!?” that was his name?

“What the hell kinda name is Midnight?” he thought to himself, chuckling to the slight feeling of deja vu.

A purple pony was on him, Freddie was approaching.

“Please get off him,” he said firmly as the digital chittering was making him visible.

The purple pony was wide eyed, “Changeling!”

She bolted in between the two and started charging her horn. Freddie lifted a hoof.

“STOP!” he snapped, “I’m here to help!”

“How? To conduct genetic experiments on him, to recreate your army with him?!” there were tears on her cheeks.

“No!” he replied with offense, “I think I know how to bring him back!”

Twilight was gritting her teeth, keeping the charge to an unchanging light on the tip. She then slowly moved out of the way keeping her glare on the changeling. There was nothing that would make her not skeptical... It was a changeling that was actually offering help.

The reason she was going to let him help was because he didn’t look like any changeling.

The eyes were not normal, they had triangles; his wings were whole, and no changeling had quite the ability like cloak, especially with ‘magic’ that made chittering noise.

“What are you going to do?” she asked as the rest of the group was regrouping.

“What in tarnation is goin’ on here, Twilight?!” the orange one asked.

“Yeah? It’s a changeling!” Rainbow Dash didn’t notice that he was the same one from the train ride, must be from sleep deprivation.

Freddie was actually starting to get tired of this racist crap, “SHUT UP!”

That was enough to earn gasps and glares from various individuals.

“I have had enough of you ponies! I am trying to help! I can fucking guess that a changeling simply doesn’t arrive to a pony’s aid!”

“How are you going to help?” the skeptical look still on Twilight.

Freddie sighed, and hung his head in defeat, “I don’t know. But what I do know, is that I’ll figure it out.”

Silence, a pause... Then a black dust was starting to pour out of the stallions mouth. Freddie looked in confusion.

The dust was circling around the two, Freddie was standing still in non-protest. Hoping that this was his solution. It was probably too much.

The dust was starting to get inside of Freddie, but he kept still. He had to let the magic; he assumed, do it’s thing. It’s thing was starting to hurt. It felt like he was breathing corrosive all over again. It was mental training back at BLR HQ, it was the best way for agents to fight against corrosive. The training was almost unbearable.

He could only grunt, wheeze, then cry in agony at what the dust was doing to him.

“Wake the fuck up, Ondra!” he said with all his might, “NOW!”

***

Ondra

***

“Well,” the man said, “It seems that is your way out. Are you ready?”

Ondra looked at the chibi and gripped it tight with a fist, “I’m ready.”

“Excellent,” he felt himself being lifted off the ground, “Off you go!”

“And don’t worry, we’re all with you!” Poet called out cupping her mouth with both hands to amplify her sound.

Trying to look down towards them was hard, for he was spinning in all directions. He was going to be fine, he was going to help the ones who can’t. For them, for his family and friend(s).

“WAKE THE FUCK UP!”

***

Crystal Empire

***

“What?! What’s goi-AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH” Midnight Flame was certainly alive until the dust had engulfed the two, eliciting cries of agony from them. Their yells were both terrifying as the dust was changing them in a very disturbing way; it was making them bend some limbs in ways that was not meant to be, it was making them bend their spines at whip-lashing speeds. The dust progressively made it harder to see them hurt to the point where it was just a ball of grey dust. They couldn’t see them, but they certainly were horrified that they were still hearing them them getting tossed into a new world of hurt.

And then, silence; just the noise of the dust doing it’s thing.

“What do we do, Twilight?” asked Futtershy, barely conscious and her hooves were shaking from the event.

“I don’t know,” she stared at the ball with full concentration, hoping that there would be an opportunity to help.

There were loud thuds and the dust was starting to lay off.

The six ponies could now see the two, and their forms were strange to say the least.

“What happened to them?” Fluttershy asked.

“I don’t know,” Twilight sighed, disappointed at not knowing, “There is basically no change.”

Twilight sighed, “Let’s just finish this and get them back, Midnight Flame looks alive.”

“What do we do with them?” Rainbow started, “We can’t just leave those two on the ground while crystal ponies try to enjoy their time.”

“She’s correct,” Rarity continued, “Two unconscious ponies are not good for the floor.”

Twilight took a good look at the changeling who probably saved Midnight Flame’s life.

“I’ll put them somewhere,” Twilight was charging her horn.

“But Twilight!” Rarity gasped, “Surely you need help with them.”

“I’m fine,” she huffed in response, “It’s the least I could do... I couldn’t do anything.”

“Come on, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said cautiously, “Let us help yo-”

“I said I’m FINE,” she snapped in response, maing Rainbow Dash shrink a little. Twilight sighed, “I’m sorry. I just... Need to do this, for them.”

The group silent as they watched the element of magic take on the weight of both ponies.

“How much time until we’re done here?” Rainbow whispered to Rarity.

“Hopefully not too long,” she responded with a worried look.

***

Ponyville Hospital

***

The two were in the same room on beds that were right next to each other, much to Freddie’s or Ondra’s unexpected favor.

Morning light was shining on them both, considering the placement of their beds were parallel, on their eyes. This made them slightly irritated and started shuffling in their beds to the point where-

“I’m in a hospital bed again,” Midnight chuckled, “What a fucking surprise.”

“Holy fuck, my head,” Freddie groaned, “What happened?”

Midnight/Ondra glanced at the changeling, “Freddie?”

The voice sounded like it was distorted by a reptilian vocal chord, but the distinction of Freddie’s voice was unmistakable.

“You fucking remember me,” he sighed in response, “Bloody hell, gettin’ to ya was a strange feat to say the least?”

Midnight looked at himself, there were black lines lining his limbs, “What happened?”

“I don’t know mate,” he shrugged, “First I was gettin’ to ya, then dust came outta ya and took us both out.”

Freddie looked at himself, there were white lines linging his limbs, “What happened?”

“This must be the transformation he was talking about,” Midnight said to noone in particular.

“Who?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Midnight dismissed with a hoof.

Freddie looked at him with a mischievous grin.

“What?” Midnight asked cautiously.

“What do these ponies call ya again?” barely holding a snicker.

He sighed in response, and then, “Midnight, Midnight Flame.”

Freddie was bursting out in laughter, “Oh my god, that is priceless! That is so stupid.”

“Yeah? Well, it was the best I could come up with that was appropriate considering my circumstances,” he huffed and bolted his head up in indignation.

“How? I know your imagination,” he mumbled ‘goddamnit’ to himself, “is large enough to come up with a good name!”

“I would if I could,” he started revealing himself by removing the sheets.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Freddie started covering his eyes with his hooves, “You know I don’t roll that way, bro.”

“It’s not that!” he snapped at him, “Look.”

Freddie was looking at a mark on his ass [A/N I know it’s flank].

“What the fuck?” he trailed off, “So these ponies have marks on them? I didn’t even notice, maybe it’s because I’m not a pervert.”

“I looked at the marks beca-”

“Pervert,”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP,” he took a deep breath, “I looked at their marks because I noticed that their names were tied into whatever the mark was, understand?”

“So it’s like a kid’s show,”

Midnight shook his head, “No. There are parts of this ‘Kid’s show’ that are way too advanced to be a ‘kid’s show’. I almost died for fuck’s sake.”

“You did,” Freddie responded flatly, “Ya looked like you weren’t breathin’.”

“Why are you speaking like that?”

Freddie gave a ‘hmph’, “I do what I want, bitch.”

“Fine,” he groaned in annoyance, “How long were we out?”

“How should I know? I was knocked out too,” Freddie shrugged.

“So what do they call you?”

“Freddie,” he said, earning a deadpanned look from Midnight, “It’s because I don’t have a mark on my ass, so I get to be whatever I want.”

“I supposed you're right,” he chuckled, “Your eyes.”

“What about’em?”

“Those triangles look like the ones we worked with on our HRV, try your voice pass phrase,”

“Oh yeah,” Freddie was tapping a hoof on his chin, “Never thought about that.”

Midnight tilted his head, “Seriously? All that time you never rememberd the triangles?”

“Shut up, mate, I got this,” he huffed, then made an expectant look Midnight’s way, “Cover your ears?”

“JUST DO IT,” Midnight snapped back.

“Alright, alright, shit,” Freddie chuckled.

Pass phrases along with voice recognition was key to not losing equipment to the wrong hands, much good that did. Hopefully Freddie’s voice was not too distorted.

“The only easy day,” he paused to make sure he remember, “Was yesterday.”

The phrase was deep, it was relatable, it was true. In Ondra’s ears, Freddie actually sounded insightful.

***

Freddie’s POV

***

“All optics modes operational, power source optimal, external communications operational,” I smiled at myself, “Welcome, Stranger.”

“Good to hear your voice, Theta,” I sighed in relief.

“It worked?” Ondra asked, I nodded.

“Yeah, fully operational, let me check comms,” Blacklight’s technology had gone so advanced that it reads electromagnetic pulses in the mind, so we didn’t need to touch ourselves to set stuff up on the heads up display.

“Theta, activate comms, scan all frequencies,” I thought to the AI.

“Scanning,” a silence full of anticipation, “Nothing found.”

I frowned at that.

“All frequencies read blank with static, apologies Stranger,”

I sighed in disappointment, “It’s alright.”

“Well?” Ondra asked with an expectant look, “What did you find?”

“Nothing,” I huffed.

***

Ondra

***

I really hope he doesn’t find a way to get back to earth, there’s nothing left to fight for there.

“Hey, did you notice that helmet right next to you?” Freddie asked.

“What?” I look to my right, my helmet, “I thought it was broken.”

“What are you talking about?” he tilted his head, “It was with you when I found you, I thought it was stupid so I didn’t really pay attention.”

I look at the helmet, then I noticed a little paper attached to it. I unfold it and there was a message.

To Midnight Flame,

As you can tell, this is your helmet, Rarity and I tried our hardest to place the cords correctly, luckily they were color coded. I saw what she did with your armor, so I urged her to not mess with this helmet.

I chuckled at that part, thanks Twilight.

The changeling that you see next to you saved your life, if he is still on that bed. I don’t know what happened to you, there was dus-

I decided to skip to the parts I didn’t know, to skip the parts that Freddie already told me.

You are expected by Princess Celestia once you recover, and by recover I mean once you're alive and walking. She is also expecting Stranger, this other changeling Ditto told me his name, Ditto said that he had abilities that were not of a regular changeling. If you’ve read this, just know that we are very happy to know you’re alive. Celestia says he is trustworthy, and that is saying something. I supposed I can trust him too.

Sincerely,

Twilight Sparkle.

I look at Freddie, “What do they mean, ‘abilities that were not of a regular changeling’?”

He glanced at me then took a breath, “They mean that I’m not a regular changeling.”

“And you probably know I’m just as strange to my species as you are.”

“Why are we different species?”

“Just answer the question,”

“On one condition,” Freddie lifted a hoof.

“What is it?” I asked expectantly.

“You show me yours,”

“Fine,” I nodded.

He got off the bed and stretched his limbs... I think that was what he was doing.

“Apparently my exoskeleton allows me to use my cloak module,” chittering noise along with blue hex crystals covering him up. Once he was engulfed in the blue, there was nothing, not even the chittering noise.

“So you’re telling me, your AI, Cloak module, and Helmet attributes were burnt into your body?”

Chittering noise was coming back, he was uncloaking. I have to admit it was pretty cool to see that happening to an equine structure.

Freddie gave me a nod after he fully uncloaked and opened his eyes, “Pretty cool isn’t it?”

He gave me an expectant look after a smug grin.

*Light bulb*, “Oh right, sorry, heh heh.”

I get off my bed and I spread my wings.

“I thought those were fake,” Freddie looked with a deadpanned expression.

“No?” I tilted my head in confusion.

“I,” he hesitated, “I was lied too.”

“By who?” I wasn’t going to pry

“Never mind about that,” oh well, “What can you do with those?”

“I can morph’em,” I said with a bit of pride puffing my chest out.

“Seriously?” his eyes widened, “That’s fucking awesome!”

“I can also engulf these with fire-”

“Thus your name and mark?” he glanced at my ass again, he was starting to turn it into a stare.

“HA! GAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!” praise Dr. Chang.

Freddie rolled his electric eyes at my laughter.

“I haven’t figured out how to fully control it,” I hung my head in shame.

“Okay,” he nodded with understanding, “What else?”

“Telekinesis,” I spotted his horn, his mangled horn I was not going to ask why, “Aren’t you able to do it too? You have a horn. A rather holy horn.”

“Don’t ask,” he dismissed with a hoof, “Let’s see what’cha got.”

I spotted a convenient flower vase and decided to demonstrate with that.

Lifting was a bit harder; maybe because I almost died and I’m pretty much tired, but not too tired to walk and start kicking again.

“Ta-da,” I chuckled at my antics with trying to balance that vase in my telekinetic grip that was clumsy due to the lack of energy.

“Put it down,” Freddie said cautiously, “You seem tired.”

“No shit,” I set it down, “Hey, since we’re both pretty much fine, you want to walk around this place freaking out the hospital?”

“With our transformations with these lines on us?”

I look at my self and look for a mirror... The lines still there, I was noticing a pattern besides it lining our limbs, there was a perpendicular line cutting through the middle of the lines at each limb like it was also lining our knees. I noticed this same pattern on Freddie.

“We look so badass,” I sighed with satisfaction.

“You got black lines over your concrete grey coat, I got white lines over my black exoskeleton. Yeah, we’re the best,” Freddie chuckled at the same satisfaction he was probably feeling.

I really hope he doesn’t hope to get back to Earth. There’s nothing left for us to save there...

“On second thought, I feel like laying down,” I said tiredly.

“Why?” he asked, “We can walk, we can talk, we can do what we do best!”

“And what is that?”

“Being awesome,” I groaned in annoyance.

“Don’t you dare say that again, I never hear the end of it from Skittles,”

“You call’er skittles too?!” he beamed with excitement, “High five!”

It was an awkward moment... We had hooves.

“Bro fist?” he asked sheepishly.

“BROHOOF YOU DAMNED MORON,” I laughed my ass off as we followed through with our first bro hooves of our lives, it was going to be a good day.

“Hey, you know what’s crazy?”

“What?”

“How fucking flexible these legs are,” he started demonstrating how they WERE almost as flexible as our arms, “And it seems there is a joint here before the hoof.”

I look at my own forelegs after laying on the bed, “Huh, looks like we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

I take a glance at Freddie, who was throwing a disappointed look at me, “Too late?”

“Too late,” he started his way to the door, “I’ll be back, I’ve got some shit to do.”

“Which is?”

“Stuff, Ondra,” he narrowed his eyes, “THINGS!”

I chuckle at his antics, “Don’t die out there.”

“We’re in a hospital, what could go wrong?” way to jinx it you dumbass, “don’t worry, Ryman, I’ll be fine.”

For everyone’s sake, you better.

I chuckle at the realization that this was Freddie I was talking about.

"You always were the crazy bastard of the group, Tanny being right next to you," I mumbled to myself.

Twilight's Relief

“Darling are you sure you don’t want me to restyle this helmet?”

“Yes, I am sure,” Twilight sighed, saying that for the twenty-third time, “He probably does not have the same tastes as you do.”

“Oh no you did not just say that,” Rarity stomped her hoof, “I have full knowledge of the tastes of fashion! I run the boutique for Celestia’s sake!”

“Just trust me on this one, just help me repair it, luckily these things are color coded,” Twilight narrowed her eyes, “I really want to reverse engineer this, but doing that without consent would be disrespectful.”

“You will be able to ask, I’m sure of it,” Rarity reassured Twilight, “The doctors said they would wake up this afternoon.”

“As in, this afternoon this afternoon?”

Rarity sighed, “Yes, I’m sure they said this afternoon.”

Twilight focused back into ‘repairing’ the helmet that deemed far more technologically advanced, probably by two centuries.

“I think I’m almost done,” she announced lightly.

“Oh, really?” Rarity being hopeful, “I must say, that was a piece of work that helmet.”

Twilight flashed a confused look at Rarity, “All you did was complain about not being able to cosmetically change the helmet.”

Rarity placed a dramatic hoof over her chest, “Well, I certainly helped by giving feedback, darling.”

Twilight chuckled and rolled her eyes, “Come on, let’s get this to Midnight’s room before he wakes up, I’m sure he’ll love that his stuff is not broken. I hope.”

“You did well, Twilight,” Rarity reassured, “Don’t worry.”

“Thank you, Rarity,” she sighed, “I need that.”

***

Ponyville Hospital

***

“There he is,” Twilight slowly opened the non-creaking door, much to her favor, “Now let’s get this on his table.”

“Twilight, are you sure that changeling is trustworthy? Placing it next to Midnight?”

“I’m sure,” she glanced at the said changeling, “because Celestia said so.”

“She said that he’s trustworthy?”

“Yes, that’s what she said,” she started, “This is not a regular changeling, and I am going to ask the questions to this one first before any regular scientist.”

“That’s why you’re her star pupil, Sparkle,” Rarity chuckled.

“Thanks,” Twilight said in response.

“I must say, what happened to them? They both have lines all over their body,”

“Must be from the magic spell that brought them back,” she glanced at the two, “I’ll ask them about it later, maybe they might remember how it happened.”

“I wonder what it feels like,” Rarity trailed off.

“What?” she asked, snapping Rarity out of her trance.

“Two lose your life twice,” Rarity put up a look full of thought.

“That’s something that Midnight experienced, we don’t need to dwell on something like that,” Twilight placed a hoof on Rarity’s shoulder.

“Of course, Twilight, it’s just,” she trailed off again, “Food for thought, yes?”

“I know how you’re feeling about this,” she finally placed the helmet on the table.

“When are you going to give that adorable doll to him?” Rarity asked, “Surely he would know to want that back.”

“I’ll give it to him when he wakes up,” Twilight said inspecting the Chibi from her saddle bag, “Come on, we have other things to do. They will notify us when they wake up.”

When they reached the lobby to leave, they noticed that Rainbow Dash was right outside.

“Why, hello there, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity was the first to break the element of surprise.

“Oh, hey there,” she said flatly, “How is he?”

“He’s fine, just some weird lines on their coat, we have other things to do,” Twilight tried to sound professional until.

“You mean you need to get to the books?” Rainbow flashed a smug grin on her face.

Twilight frowned, “For your information, they are not just books that I am ‘hitting’. They are advanced magic books, I need to catch up on the things I forgot!”

Rainbow Dash dismissed the sentiment with a hoof, “Whatever. Can I visit him?”

“Visiting hours are right now, Dashie, you can,” Rarity said.

“Don’t call me that again,” Rainbow said jokingly as she entered the building.

***

Freddie

***

I activated cloak after leaving my room, I’m sure I wasn’t banged up that bad. It was just dust.

I walk back to the door to see that Ondra was looking out the window taking in the view of the new world we ended up in. It was not... Normal, all this life. Just minding their own business, not worrying about what you do to save your species. I guess that is behind me now, we failed the mission, and frankly everyone’s lives were depending on that being a success. I guess I can start a new life in this world I will probably never get used to... Too peaceful.

Turning away from the door, I decided to lighten the mood so I walk, with cloak on, it was interesting to say the least, seeing all these ponies in hospital attire. Almost makes me forget that ponies were usually naked, you know... Without clothes. I really needed to get my head out of the gutter. One does not simply do that.

I sigh in spite of myself as I continued walking, hopefully I accidentally make my way to the lobby, without bumping into anyone... Anypony?

Walking on all fours in a place with no danger was certainly something to be happy about, while I enjoyed the versatility of walking biped, it actually felt less tiring to go quadruped. And that was saying something considering I just came out of my hospital bed. I’m fine.

I continue to walk, until something sparked on my mind. Ondra had said something about transformation; however, some lines on the coat and my exoskeleton was probably just part of it. Why was dust coming out of him? Did that pink one mess with him so that happened?

…

No... No way. There is no way that corrosive did all this. I remember when Linda died, I saw that Ondra was somewhat dripping with blood and stuff that was, supposed to be corrosive? I have some questions to ask him, and they must be answ-

“Oof!” my breath was taken away because I was not paying attention.

Unfortunately it was enough to ruin my concentration on keeping cloak on.

When I lifted my head ahead of me-

***

Ponyville Hospital

***

“It’s you!” Rainbow Dash gasped, “The one who tried to do something at the train!”

Freddie rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish grin, “Heh, yeah that’s me.”

Rainbow Dash was glaring daggers at the changeling, until a generic nurse pony noticed this happening.

“Now what is going on here?” she looked at Freddie, then narrowed her eyes, “You’re supposed to be at your room with that stranger pegasus.”

Freddie shook his head, “But I’m fine, see?”

He was jumping and wiggling all his limbs during air time from the jumps.

“Regardless, you’re not at full recovery,”

“The one who needs full recovery is my friend,” Freddie stopped and said firmly, “He fucking died... TWICE!”

Rainbow grew silent and resorted to slanguage, “That’s mah lein.”

She was giving Freddie a sinister look, like she was going to kill him.

Freddie sighed and his hooves above his head in defeat, “Alright, you win. You can take me there.”

The nurse looked at Freddie in confusion. She never took anyone to a medical room like that. She nervously chuckled and, “That will not be necessary, just uh... Follow us. You’re headed to his room are you?”

“Yeah,” this question somewhat caught her off-guard as she started rubbing the back of her head. Then she realised she was looking ‘un-cool’, so she snapped up and put up a stoic expression, “Only too check on the pony that I tried to save.”

The nurse noticed this blatant display of exasperation and rolled her eyes.

“Maybe he’ll even ask for an autograph,” she plastered a smug grin on her face.

“Follow me,” the nurse instructed.

“What is your name, nurse?” Freddie asked.

“I am Nurse Redheart of the Ponyville hospital,” she gestured a proud hoof over herself, then placed it down, “Or clinic, if you’d like.”

“Good,” he nodded, “because, Redheart, I know my way to my room. I’ll meet you there.”

Rainbow narrowed her eyes at him, making him lift a hoof.

“Relax, Skittles,” he chuckled, “I’m not going to hurt your boyfriend.”

She widened her eyes and immediately looked offended, “Why I oughta lift you to the stratosphere and drop you from there like I did with him!”

“Now now, Rainbow Dash,” Redheart tried to look like she was on both sides, but it was failing. Freddie winked at Redheart, giving her assurance that he wouldn’t be offended. Red Heart gave a short sigh of relief, “I know you want to do that, but think about it. Do you really want to risk your health on doing that to him?”

Freddie commended her quick thinking by a nod, “I’ll meet ya there, Skittles. See ya!”

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash called after him, “Come back here! I’m not finished with you yet!”

Red Heart, fortunately, was trained at restraining raging mares, “Do not worry, you’ll get your chance to finish when we get there.”

Red Heart was not thinking of a way to apologize for possibly encouraging the injury of a Changeling, to the staff.

***

Ondra’s Room

***

It was a peaceful time just staring out into the fresh scenery of Ponyville. Child ponies were enjoying themselves with whatever makeshift things they can make or find, Merchants were having a great time never failing to like smiling at passersby. This was definitely like the times before the first outbreak. Ondra was smiling in satisfaction at what he was seeing; he was seeing his great escape. His great escape from the life he had before, the life whe-.

The doors burst open, and Ondra cursed under his breath knowing it was Freddie who would make an entrance like that.

Midnight groaned, “What is it?”

“That skittles bitch is coming!” he was acting like a child biting his nails.

“Just go to bed,” Ondra then bolted right back up, “Oh yeah! Did you learn anything new about yourself?”

“Naw, too busy thinking while walking,” he puffed his chest in pride, “It was a dangerous feat, but I came back alive.”

Ondra put the helmet back on to activate it to see beyond the doors.

“Is there a reason why I see two heat signatures closing in on our doors?” Ondra gave Freddie an expectant look.

He was rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, making Ondra narrow his eyes, “What did you do?”

Freddie sighed, “I didn’t do anything too drastic, all I did was bump into her.”

“Thus the thinking while walking shit?”

“Thus the thinking while walking sh-” Freddie almost repeated until the doors burst open in the same manner.

“I must encourage you to calm yourself Rainbow Dash,” RedHeart pleaded.

“Who’s the white one?” Ondra asked bluntly, earning a face-hoof from Freddie.

“Don’t you know that is fucking offensive?” he snapped at Ondra, only making him shrug it off.

“Don’t you know that bursting through doors like that make a lot of noise,” he narrowed his eyes looked at the three, “And I was trying to rest.”

“Now you see, Rainbow? That’s why I told you to slow and calm down,” Redheart echoed with a ‘I told you so’ feel.

Ignoring that comment, Rainbow Dash spoke up, “‘sup?”

Ondra sighed, and started speaking in mocking monotone, “Thank you for saving my life Rainbow Dash, I am forever in your debt and I will never forget this.”

He even did a mock bow, this almost made Rainbow Dash pissed.

“I know, I’m awesome!” she smiled, closed her eyes, and puffed her chest out placing a hoof on it with pride.

Freddie grinned, raised a brow and slowly shook his head.

“This girl has no humility,” Freddie chuckled to himself.

Rainbow Dash glared at him, “And what do you have to say, pervert? I remember you from that train!”

He lifted both hooves in the air, “Guilty as charged. Now what other thing do you have to call me?”

She only continued to glare at him as Redheart was desperately looking for the right opportunity to appease this situation.

Freddie took the hint of her worried expression and sighed, “What do you want me to do?”

“Leave,”

“Now I can’t leave my best friend can I?” Freddie asked in response.

“I have to talk to him about something.”

“How ‘bout this? I leave with my friend here, uh,”

“Midnight Flame,” Ondra finished for him, cursing under his breath in embarrassment at his friend that couldn’t remember his name.

“YOU DIDN’T EVEN KNOW HIS NAME!” Rainbow Dash approached and snapped at Freddie.

“But I know him better than you ever can,” he responded firmly pressing his nose against Rainbow’s in opposition.

To Freddie, that glare was going to get worse to the point where it would actually get physical, and that was not something that he would expect to be intimacy.

Freddie moved back with an approving smile, “I like ya, sticking to friends the entire way. Even when there is something between you that could kill you.”

Rainbow Dash kept her stoic expression, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, that I could kill you in thi-”

“Enough,” Ondra cut in, “Freddie, that’s enough.”

He looked at Ondra, developing an apologetic look and said to him, “Sorry, sir. I’ll TRY to prevent that from happening again.”

He said ‘TRY’ throwing a glare at Rainbow Dash, but it was progress that was better than nothing.

“What did you want to speak to me about?”

She was looking away shuffling in her hooves, and finally pointed a hesitant hoof at Freddie, “Can he leave?”

“No,” he responded flatly.

Ondra dismissed that with his hoof, “It’s alright, uh.”

“Stranger, they call me Stranger,” Freddie cursed under his breath in embarrassment at his friend not knowing his name.

“You su-?”

“Yes,” he snapped firmly, “I... I’m sure.”

“I’m really tired,” Ondra thought to himself rubbing his tired eye with a hoof.

After the door closed on Freddie, she even motioned for Redheart to leave. Thankfully this was going faster because she complied almost immediately.

“What did you want to speak to me about?” Ondra repeated.

Rainbow sighed and hung her head, “Look Midnight, what happened at the Crystal Empire I-”

“Was the task a success?” he interrupted. This caught her off guard.

“Well, yes but-”

“Cut to the chase,” he grew irritated, but didn’t care to think about what he was getting himself into. When it finally clicked in his head what he thought she was going to say it was too late.

“You see,” she hesitated, then the doors opened up, “I’M REALLY HAPPY YOU’RE HERE!”

The doors were probably used by Rainbow Dash to use as an excuse to say that instead.

The ponies to come out of those door were not the ones Ondra expected.

“Midnight!” Twilight yelled in excitement as she was closing in fast on his bed.

He was expecting a hug, but it was not enough to dull the pain he was feeling of losing air while he was tired.

“Please,” he wheezed, “Let go.”

Twilight complied with a sheepish grin.

Ondra looked around and noticed that Freddie was chuckling as expected, and Rainbow Dash’s ears were down with a sad face. He was going to talk to her later.

“One of the nurses notified me that you were awake, and I just had to get here as fast as possible!”

“What did you need to speak to me about?” repeating that question made him feel professional on a hospital bed.

“To thank you for all you did back there,” she smiled, “And to give you this.”

She was grabbing something out of her bags. He lifted a hoof in protest.

“That will not be necessary, I just wanted to help,”

“Hang on,” she started struggling, “I know it’s in there... Why is it so-aha!”

“I said,” he was about to repeat until the next thing he saw, he couldn’t believe.

“Where did you get that?” Ondra’s eyes were wide as he was laying his eyes on something he thought would never see again... Sarah’s chibi.

“I found it after the dust that saved you settled,” she glanced at the toy, “This was all that was left.”

“May I?” Ondra was reaching for it. Twilight compiled by floating it over to him.

“What does it mean?” Freddie cut in the silence.

“Something to remember her by,” Ondra ignored him as he mumbled to himself.

“You saw Sarah?” Freddie asked.

Ondra started nodding slowly, slowly accelerating, “Yeah, she was there.”

“And that was the last thing to remember her by.”

He took a deep breath, and said solemnly, “Last thing to remember her by.”

Ondra squeezed his eyes shut to let down a tear that was being stubborn before his eyelids, letting that tear stream felt nice. Like he was getting something heavy off his chest.

He finally regained composure and placed the doll next to his helmet on the table.

“What did Rarity do to my armor?” he finally spoke with innocent curiosity.

Twilight only gulped at the thought of what would happen when he discovers what that mare could do to something like his armor. The result was not going to be pretty.

At least Midnight Flame was okay, he can still be alive to stir up some flavor to her life.

"I'm glad you're hear," Twilight thought as she smiled with satisfaction after thinking, "you're going to get your armor back. What could possibly go wrong?"

"Are you alright?" Midnight Flame asked, Twilight's pupils were dilated to purple dots and her left eye lid was twitching so he thought NOW was the best time to ask that.

Twilight shook her head vigorously, then gave an embarrassed smile, "Oh nothing! I'll by fine!"

Configuration for (Man) Pony Hunt

“Well you see, Midnight,” Twilight was chuckling nervously.

***

Before Crystal Empire Task

***

“Rarity, are you sure you can handle this?” Twilight asked worriedly, “I know how you are when there are only two colors on an article of clothing.”

Rarity slowly turned her head with twitching eyes, her voice filled with mad determination.

“Of course, darling,” she stared back at the armor, “I got this. Now leave, I need concentration.”

***

Ponyville Hospital

***

“What do you mean ‘I should see it for myself’?” Ondra narrowed his eyes, “What has she done?”

“Just follow me,” Twilight motioned for the entire group to leave the medical room.

“I have something to say to Rainbow Dash, we’ll catch up,” I called out to the rest of the group.

Freddie was giving Ondra the eyes best friends give when they are about to embarrass each other.

“Let’s give the two lovebirds some space, yeah?” Ondra sighed in disappointment.

“Still the same piece of shit from Earth, huh?” he chuckled to himself as the doors closed on Freddie.

“What,” Rainbow was hesitant, “What did you want to speak to me about.”

He took a deep breath and lifted his head, “I know it takes courage to say something like that to someone... Somepony. I may have never told how I felt about somepony, but I know you tried. I will not hold it against you.”

Rainbow hung her head in shame.

“Chin up,” he continued, “Remember, I still owe you lunch?”

Rainbow’s head shot up with wide eyes and a blush, so she turned her head away with a hoof rubbing the back of it, “Yeah, I guess you right.”

“I try,” Ondra chuckled, “Now let’s get goin’, Rainbow Dash.”

“Yeah,” that really had a good effect on Rainbow Dash, seems she will no longer be depressed about Twilight getting to him first.

Ondra was getting off his bed and made a gracious landing from four feet to the surface on all fours making simultaneous hoof steps. Until he was plunged into an embrace.

“Thank you,” she whispered to his ear, “I needed that.”

“You’re welcome,” he wheezed hoping that she would take the hint that he was dying.

“Oh sorry!” she noticed at least, then gave a sheepish smile.

“I still owe you that lunch,” Ondra said as he coughed and smiled.

Rainbow decided she had done enough damage, so she stayed silent with her smile.

***

Moments Later

***

“You try to give me a sedative to put me back on that bed, I will assure you,” Ondra leaned in with wing blades, “Pain without end.”

The clerk put down a syringe, which only could make it worse for him, then he nervously laughed, “Of course, just sign here.”

The wing blades retracting made the clerk sigh in relief, which made the group sigh in relief.

Ondra took a deep breath, “I’m sorry.”

The clerk’s ears perked up, “It’s alright, have a nice day!”

He nodded in response.

“Let’s get going?” Twilight motioned for the entire group to follow.

It was a peaceful walk, to have a closer look at the children ponies playing the random merchants and the ridiculous architecture looking like they were they for years and years to come. It was a nice walk, until.

“So when are ya goin’ ta fuck’er?” Freddie whispered to Ondra.

This made Ondra put up a face of disgust, “Get your fucking mind out of the fucking gutter, right now!”

Freddie kept the mischievous look on his face.

“Don’t make me turn that into an order!” he snapped at Freddie.

“Yes sir,” Freddie said trying to do the classy salute that one of those fancy spec ops units do... What was his name? Ghost?”

***

BLR HQ

***

“What the hell kind of name is Ghost?” Freddie asked in distaste.

Tanny only shook his head, “I think you’ve asked that about every name you see, including Ryman’s. I think it’s a nice name.”

“It’s fucking pretentious is what it is,” he started back, “What’s’is equipment?”

“I’m just going to tell you he uses HRV cloak, I don’t know the rest,”

“AHA! See right there?!” Freddie bolted up, “That’s going to get himself killed because the closer you are, the less effective that shit is! And enemies are usually pussies who NEVER pop out.”

“Whatever you say,” Tanny shrugged, “He’s above us in combat efficiency evaluations.”

Freddie raised a hand in protest, until that sunk into his mind, “What the fuck?”

“I know,” Tanny shrugged again, “It’s like they only care about the ones who had a shit load of money.”

“But we can over power them without money,” Freddie stood up, “Ya hear dat, ya sonsofbitches?! We can be better than you even when you have that shitty gear!”

“We’re in our bunk room, mate,” Tanny facepalmed.

“I fucking know that, don’t ruin my moment, faggot,” Freddie groaned.

***

Ponyville Residentials

***

“What the fuck is with this place, mate?” Freddie started, “Looks like a child’s movie.”

“Or a child’s show,” Ondra corrected, then decided to leave him with his thoughts at that.

“What are you two talking about?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Nothing,” they said in unison, luckily, Rainbow was not going to pry.

“So, Ryman,” he asked, “What do you think this ‘Rarity’ did with your armor?”

“We’ll find out,”

“Where is this boutique?”

“Right there,” he pointed a hoof to the most lady gaga looking house in this town.

Freddie couldn’t stifle laughter, “Oh man, your armor’s gone, mate.”

He continued laughing as they walked to the boutique, Ondra still holding a stoic expression in hopes of his armor still the same as he wanted.

They reached the door, and Twilight pressed the doorbell.

“Dat doorbell dough,” Freddie whistled.

A muffled ‘Coming’ was heard through the door, so Freddie decided to laugh about that as the said mare was still on her way to the door.

The door opened, “Yes? Oh, Midnight! I have much to show you!”

“I’m sure,” he had a deadpanned look.

“Well, all you come on in,” Rarity gave a smile, “Where’s that spikey wikey?”

Twilight rolled her eyes, “He’s home sleeping, or not. I can’t control what he does when I’m not there.”

Freddie looked confused at Twilight.

“Don’t ask,” Ondra said to Freddie, who gave a nod.

“Where’s my armor,” Ondra was getting impatient.

“This way, dear,” she gave a smile which gave him hope, hope that-”NOPE.AVI”

The armor’s color schemes were not symmetric, the emblem was turned into three diamonds, and there were three completely different colors present: Sky blue on the armor pads, bright white on the spandex, and finally... blood red on accents.

Ondra stayed silent and continued walking towards the abomination.

Rarity took this as a success, “Well? What do you think? I have to say I’m impressed with it myself.”

Freddie hung his head trying to hide snickering for Ondra and his armor. It will never be the same again.

Twilight was basically biting her hooves in frightening anticipation.

Rainbow Dash stayed silent as she was too obvious in trying to hide her laughter.

Once Ondra stopped walking, he mustered enough courage to put it on. A very short time was taken in doing so. The cloaking module was there, so he decided to try that first... It failed. Only emitting a crackling noise with a synthetic female voice saying, “Hex Crystals undetected.”

This was the last straw, “What have you done?”

Rarity gulped in spite of her herself and, “Well, you see there were these hexagons in my way so.”

Ondra only stared at her wide eyed... This was really the last straw.

“FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-,” fortunately, he stopped and took a deep patient breath, “What did you do with those crystals?”

The eye twitching certainly wasn’t helping Rarity answer, “I, uh... removed them?”

She was chuckling nervously as she knew she did something wrong... Something very, very wrong.

Ondra sighed, “Where are they?”

“I placed them in a special materials box,” she stated cautiously.

“You were going to use something from my armor for your fashion set?” it sounded like a threat from Ondra.

“Well, uh,” she wa hesitating, making Ondra narrow his eyes, “You see. I wasn’t, when I knew these belonged to you. YES! When those belonged to you, heh heh.”

“Show me them,”

“I will be right back with the box,” she blurred to another room, even Rainbow Dash seemed impressed by the speed of a frightened fashionista.

“Here it is!” she beamed at finding something that was pretty difficult to find, “All of them are in here.”

“Stranger,” Ondra called to Freddie, “How long does it take for the module to place all Hex Crystals?”

He shrugged, “How the hell should I know? Just ask it.”

“Why I never!” Rarity glared at Freddie.

“Not you, you fool,” he pointed at Ondra, “The module!”

Rarity looked at the backpack and corrected her reaction to staying silent.

Ondra took the backpack off and dismantled the grey lid which fascinated the group into what was inside it.

There was a screen, a touch screen. Ondra was hoping that his hooves were organic enough to do anything with it.

He was beginning to be frustrated and resorted to voice activation.

“Cloaking module serial key: one-three-three-seven-two-niner, requesting reconfiguration,” he said in monotone.

Another female synthetic voice started speaking, “Request confirmed, please place Hex Crystals to close proximity.”

“Acknowledged,” he placed the lid back and put it on his armor. He was standing next to the box of special materials and just stood there. Until.

“Hex Crystals detected,” he smiled in satisfaction, “Beginning reconfiguration.”

The reflective surfaces of the hexagons begin to lift out of the box, lifting other things in the process but they ignored those. It was a stream of shiny things covering his armor. Rarity was watching in awe what she was seeing. There was no magic involved and she was sure Midnight Flame’s magic was not doing anything either. It was all coming from the backpack, just telling these things to attach to him.

Freddie was watching in awe as well, for he never saw a cloaking module reconfiguration before. It was a first time experience.

Everyone else did the same because... It was a first time experience watching all these small shiny things attach to Midnight Flame.

“Reconfiguration complete, have a nice day,” Ondra chuckled at the engineers making AI say that at the end of their services.

He stretched his limbs out and pulled out the first remote, “Let’s see how this goes.”

Digital chittering could be heard as the crystals were turning blue to engulf him in a blue glow.

Ondra sighed in satisfaction as he was becoming invisible.

At last, there was nothing, except, “It worked!”

Ondra then grabbed his helmet which then turned invisible when he attached it to his armor. Uncloaking was no problem as well, the helmet almost matched the horrible colors, though Ondra had no problem with their differences in the first place. He did not enjoy colors on his armor.

Rarity gulped, “So tell me, Midnight. Why do you only like monochromatic values on your armor?”

He grew silent, he already knew the answer to that question, but all he had to do was remember how he was going to say it.

“The darker and lighter shades of the monochrome hues represent how everything is viewed in the world,” she needed more elaboration, “How do you view fire?”

Rarity tapped her chin, “Well, evil.”

“Why?”

“Because it burns anything in it’s path, it brings destruction,” she said trying her best to look insightful, then she looked at him, “How do YOU view fire?”

“Useful, helpful,” he shrugged, “Because what can you do with fire?”

“I just sai-”

“You can cook the food you prepare,” he interrupted, “You can keep yourselves warm during the bitter winters. And you can light a path through darkness.”

Rarity looked deep in thought.

“Notice how our opinions are in conflict with each other?” he asked, “Either side will develop more reasons and eventually it will go into a stalemate. The line between right and wrong blur into a grey from the black and white sides; or the right and wrong sides, like red vs. blue. Ones who have more understanding of each force will see that there is no end to it, they will just deal with staying in the middle. Now you see why I chose monochromatic?”

She nodded in approval of his explanation.

“Good,” Ondra was looking at himself once again, “then again, I’m in a world full of peace, so I’m sure I wouldn’t need you to repaint this.”

Freddie looked at him with wide eyes, “You serious?”

Ondra chuckled, “Yeah, I’ll let it stay.”

“Whatever you say,” the color scheme still making Freddie not take Ondra seriously, “Fagg-”

“ANYway, I really want to play a game, you know? To test my armor’s capabilities,” he said towards Rainbow Dash and Freddie.”

“What do you mean?” Rainbow Dash tilted her head, while Freddie’s face became full of excitement.

“You don’t mean,” Freddie beaming that childish smile, making Ondra chuckle.

“I’m sure you know the rules already,” Ondra presumed to Freddie.

“You bet!” he beamed, “You got two minutes!”

And with that, Freddie just ran off while activating cloak.

“What are we doing?” Rainbow Dash asked with a raised brow.

“Ever heard of pony hunt?” Ondra smiled to himself for getting the terminology right. Rainbow shook her head, “Well it’s basically, grown-up’s hide and seek.”

Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes, “Grown up’s? Why am I chosen?”

Ondra broke his smile and stared at her with firm expression, “You were laughing at my armor.”

Rainbow then put up a sheepish smile at that, “Heh, sorry.”

“And you’ll make it up to me by playing this with us,”

“Can I play?” Twilight asked out of the blue, which caught both ponies off guard.

“Sure,” Ondra spoke up.

“So I’ll just find a hiding spot?” Twilight then turned to Rarity, “Do you want to play?”

“I’m busy,” Rarity had a deadpanned expression.

“Great,” Ondra put up a face of thought, “We now have a minute and a half to find a hiding spot.”

“Rules?” Rainbow Dash asked expectantly.

“The seekers; Stranger and I,” Ondra pointed a hoof to his chest, “Decide when you stop hiding, which allows us to do many things to the hidden. You have five minutes to not get caught.”

Both contestants gulped at ‘many things’.

“Understood,” the two said in unison.

“Good luck,” Ondra said walking away as he activated cloak.

“Just stick with me, I have magic, so I can detect them,” Twilight put up her game face.

“If you say so, they’re invisible,”

“Trust me,” she whispered, “I can do this.”

“You’re starting to scare me, Twi,” Rainbow Stated worriedly.

Twilight’s eyes were twitching, her pupils were dots, “We’ve got this.”

“You do realise being invisible makes it basically impossible ri-?”

“WE’VE GOT THIS!”

***

Freddie

***

Shit! Now’s she’s pissed!

I started hearing crackling noises in my head.

“Freddie, you there?” came Ondra’s voice.

“What the fuck?”

“I knew you’d stay in frequency 69!”

“Yeah, how are you talking to me?”

“My helmet has radio communications remember?”

“Oh,”

“You heard Twilight?”

“Yeah,” I chuckled, “We’re in for one hell of a ride.”

“Let them win,”

“What?”

“I said,” he repeated firmly, “Let them win.”

“I’ll try, man,” I said nervously, “the purple one’s going to be a problem.”

“I’ll take care of Rainbow Dash,”

“You mean skittles,” I chuckled at using that name again.

“What?”

“Nothing,” I continued chuckling, which was probably my last time before I get owned by a purple girl.

“You ready?” Ondra asked worriedly over the comms.

“I know I’m doing this,” I reactivated my cloak, “Do you?”

And with the last hex crystal on my body making me invisible, it was their time to make sure their spots were good.

“No HRV, faggot,” I was surprised to hear that from Ondra.

“Sure thing, mate,” I chuckled on comms.

Rainbow's Dash from Pony Hunt

“So run that shit through me again, mate,” Freddie pressed on, “Why are we letting them win?”

“You can’t take a loss?” Ondra chuckled.

“It’s not that, you damned fool,” Freddie pointed a hoof at him, “You know damned well what I’m talkin’ about.”

He sighed in defeat and only stared at him with the look best bros give to show that they’re serious about something... And it was the other bro’s job to know automatically.

“No,” Freddie was developing laughter, “You don’t mean.”

“And you’d better shut the fuck up,” Ondra jabbed a hoof, “I lost a bet and it has to happen.”

“What do you have to do,” Freddie leaned with his exoskeleton face putting up a mischievous face, “It’s Skittles ain’t it?”

Ondra rolled his eyes, “Yeah, I have to have lunch. If you say anything about this, I’ll burn those white lines to match with your damned exoskeleton.”

Freddie held his forehooves up in the air, “Alright, alright. Not a word about this ‘shit’.”

“Good,” Ondra huffed.

***

“Twilight,” Rainbow tapped at Twilight, who was focusing her magic on finding the two finding them.

“I don’t see anything,” Twilight said with wide eyes.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she repeated becoming delirious, “THAT CAN’T BE RIGHT!”

“What do you mean?” Rainbow pleaded for a sane answer, “What can’t be right?”

Twilight was lost in her own thoughts as to why she couldn’t find the signature of a Changeling and the only Pegasus with metal wings, “I can’t find them.”

“Because they’re invisible,” Rainbow responded with a deadpanned expression.

She shook her head, “No, everypony here has a magic signature that I can track. Those two don’t have one.”

“So,” Rainbow trailed off, “Got a plan B?”

In all her days in Ponyville having at least some answer for anything especially the research of Pinkie Sense, Twilight never thought she’d face a problem with using magic tracker.

Rainbow Dash despite her rants with the use of HRV by Midnight Flame, she knows that Twilight’s heart is pure and would not use magic in ways that would deem ‘bad’. She had full confidence in her because... Well, she’s the element of loyalty.

Twilight took a deep breath, “Plan B?! We need a plan C-D-E-F... WE NEED MORE ALPHABETS!”

***

Freddie couldn’t hold his laughter from what he just heard.

“Did you hear that?” Ondra was laughing heartily on comms as well.

“Yeah,” he tried his damndest to talk while laughing, “I need a breather.”

“You,” Ondra paused, “didn’t even do shit.”

“Whatever,” he huffed in response, “How are we going to do this?”

“A lost of your equipment was burned into that body, correct?” it was an insane question.

“Yeah,” Freddie trailed off.

“And you said it reads nervous impulses to communicate with you?”

“Yeah,” anticipation of ‘cutting to the chase’ was rising.

“You still got that sound pack you used to prank Tanny?”

Freddie’s eyes widened, “Oh my shit. You think it’s still there?!”

“Hey, I’m not the one who had his equipment become part of him,” Ondra scoffed on comms.

“Let me see,” Freddie having a toothy grin going through digital storage of his equipment.

“So how was he?” Ondra paused, “I mean Tanny, when I wasn’t part of your group.”

“Tanny was a nice fellow, knew when to call me a faggot or child and knew when to be serious about something. You could consider him to be the most sober friend you can have.”

“I’m sorry,”

“Don’t worry,” Freddie plastered a soft smile, “I’m sure we’ll find him here like you found me.”

“You found me,”

“I know,” Freddie was holding that conversation all the while looking for the one sound pack that he always kept in his digital storage, “one-hundred fifty megabytes. This seems promising.”

Ondra whistled, “You got a shitload of sounds. Did you ever repeat one during a week?”

He chuckled in response, “I don’t think so.”

***

“Twilight,” Rainbow whispered, “Something wrong?”

“I have some more questions to add to what I’m already going to ask those two,” Twilight narrowed her eyes to the outside.

“I’m sure it’s because they’re invisible, Twilight,”

“Was I able to detect a magic signature on Midnight Flame before the Crystal Empire incident?” Twilight asked the pegasus, which made her glare at her for ignorance.

“I’m a pegasus,” Rainbow keeping her glare.

Twilight gave a sheepish smile, “Sorry.”

She only slowly nodded in response.

A pause, and silence to accompany it. They were not anticipating that the game would become intense to the point where it would feel like it was life-scarring.

Suddenly a scream of terror and agony... Sounded like it came from a cheesy horror film, then it was followed by a beastial roar to cut the screaming to a halt as mush splattering to and fro served as ambient noise.

The two froze in silence and fear of what they just heard.

“Uh Twilight?” Rainbow disturbed the silence, “What was that?”

“I don’t know,” her voice trembling with adrenaline, “And that’s the scary part.”

Standing their ground was all they could do as they thought that making movement would lure the beast to home in on the noise of hoof steps.

***

“I’m going to drop a book,” Ondra whispered on comms with his helmet on mute, “Get ready.”

Freddie was getting in position, in between the two.

The book started floating, and that was Freddie’s cue.

“Would you like to learn how to make cupcakes?” he hissed between in his fangs sadistically, “I certainly wo-”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!” Rainbow went crashing through the front door, Freddie unable to contain his laughter. He ended up disabling cloak as Twilight only glared at him in disappointment.

“What was that?”

“If this was the only place to hide, then you certainly can’t win this,” Freddie looked at Ondra’s position, “But I’ll let you win. Enjoy the rest of your day.”

Twilight blinked, “What?”

“That’s right,” Freddie gestured her to leave, “You’re free to go. Now shoo.”

“I have some questions for-”

“Later,” the changeling placed a hoof on her mouth, which she surprisingly did not swat off. Enabling cloak, he was walking away.

***

“Well,” Freddie scoffed, “Didn’t see that coming.”

“We need to find Rainbow Dash,”

“Skittles,” Freddie corrected.

“I’m going to use HRV,” he ignored his comment.

“Oh hell naw!” Freddie called out, “You damned hypocrite!”

“You used it first, asshole,” that banter ended with Freddie pouted, then asked, “So where are you having lunch with this lady?”

Ondra pointed to a cafe, “Why?”

“A best bro can’t ask another best bro that kind of question?” Freddie asked defensively.

He sighed in amusement as a response, “Right.”

Ondra looked at him with a curious look, “Do you have something else to do?”

Freddie tapped his chin, “I’ll go look around. Good luck with Skittles, you’re going to need it.”

“Her name’s not Skittles,” Ondra chuckled as he rolled his eyes, watching Freddie leave him to himself, “Her name’s Rainbow Dash.”

***

Rainbow Dash was running with a fear plastered on her face. She was more used to flying, but she really needed to be subtle about getting away from the bad ponies.

“Rainbow Dash!” she heard a voice call out behind her, “Wait up!”

She looked back and there was nothing, she stopped, having a determined look on her face.

Ondra did the same looking in surprise to how she reacted to him calling his name, he decided to have some fun with that.

Focusing on telekinesis, Rainbow Dash was focused on her senses to detect a pursuer so much that she didn’t notice that she was lifting off the ground.

When it finally hit her, the reaction was too much for Ondra.

She was flailing her limbs all around in an undignified manner, then the outburst of laughing became audible to her as Ondra accidentally disabled mute on his helmet... And he managed to turn off cloak in fast succession.

Rainbow Dash saw a stallion pegasus in full armor that was laughing at her; she did not like that, not one bit. So she lunged at the oblivious Ondra and started through the most generic punches that hooves could deliver, and they hurt.

“Rainbow Dash wait!” Ondra tried to defend himself, “It’s me!”

“I know that!” she spat back as she continued throwing punches, this was making a scene for everyone to see. By the time, they stop it would already be too late.

“Rainbow Dash,” Ondra breathed, “STOP!”

Those blue-hoofed punches were still coming. Ondra realised they were in a public opening and he needed to act fast.

“I SAID,” he grunted, “STOP!”

Ondra embraced her in a bear hug position. Unfortunately the rear legs ended up becoming in between each other so when they rolled over, Rainbow Dash ended up being the one on top again.

He looked around to see that there were ponies gathered around to see, and young ones eyes covered, which was a sign that it was bad but he was frozen in fear much like Rainbow Dash. Only able to look back at all the eyes staring that them with either disgust or pity.

“Oh please don’t tell me we’re in,” Ondra grumbled to himself as he looked up, “Oh for fuck’s sake.”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” she started squirming, which placed Ondra under pain, forcing him to sit up and embrace her again in hopes of restraining her.

“I know this is embarrassing, but you need to stop!” the thrashing continued for a time until he assumed that what he pleaded for sank into her head because she stopped moving and starting grumbling to herself.

“Let go,” she demanded coldly, making Ondra let go of the embrace slowly, which was only making her more impatient. She bolted back and punched Ondra in the face, “I SAID LET GO!”

Ondra was in fetus position holding his face for dear life, he was on the verge of tears until he realised that he was the stallion that had to show no weakness, though his only weakness was his changeling friend: Freddie.

The crowd started dispersing with chatter that was going to be a gossip thing for at least a week. This made Ondra groan both in pain and irritation, she did a beating on his stomach area, he clutched it with one hoof as he tried to get up with three.

An orange mare started walking which was significant among the crowd.

“Y’all got a lot of nerve doing that to mah friend there, ‘hero’,” she hissed with southern hostility.

“I was trying to-”

“No,” she continued to approach, “You’ve done enough damage. Ah think it’s time you left this good town.”

Ondra only hung his head solemnly.

“Oh!” she said excitedly, “Seems the royal guard is here to take ya away! Don’t come back here.”

She said the last part coldly, which made Ondra look at the chariot with shame.

“I tried,” Ondra finally said.

“Ya didn’t try hard enough,” she huffed.

“Midnight Flame?” one of the guards asked, making Ondra nod.

“Yes,”

“What happened?”

“I got assaulted by a mare,”

“This mare?” the guard glared at her, which made her furious.

“WHAT?! It wasn’t me!”

“Who was it?” the guard intensifying his glare at the orange mare.

“What will happen if I tell you?” Applejack began to feel uncomfortable to ratting out her friends.

“She will be tried for assaulting an equestrian hero,” he replied flatly as Ondra whistled impressively at that.

“Equestrian hero?! Oh for the love of!” she was sputtering out in frustration, held her temples with both hooves then sighed in defeat, “It’s Rainbow Dash.”

The guard gestured to the others to supposedly find her. Ondra approached Applejack in hopes of lightening the mood.

“You know you could have lied,”

“That’s not mah thing,” she was hiding something.

“I won’t pry,” Ondra chuckled as he left the mare alone, “How long do you think until-?”

A blue blur went into a complete stop in front of the chariot... Or in front of the two.

“Princess Celestia needed to see me,” she turned around then had a look of disgust on her face, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Sorry Rainbow,” Applejack rubbed the back of her head in childish shame. Rainbow narrowed her eyes.

“What did you do?”

“Ah kinda told the guards that you were involved in this here stallion’s beating,” Applejack whistled innocently.

“You what?” Rainbow then glared at Ondra, “I assaulted him?!”

“To be realistic, I was in more physical pain than you,” Ondra chuckled, “Emphasis on physically.”

Rainbow scoffed, “You’re a hero of Equestria, I’m sure you could handle something like that and not tell the royal guards a mare beat your sorry flank.”

“They asked first,” Ondra deadpanned.

“It doesn’t matter!” she snapped back.

“Ah’ll,” Applejack trailed off, “just be headin’ off.”

“Princess Celestia wants all the element bearers to be present at the meeting,” that generic guard came from behind the scene.

“We’re supposed to wait for all of them?” Ondra asked.

“They will meet you at Canterlot,” he replied motioning for the three to go to the chariot.

Ondra gave a nod and was the first to start his way to the Chariot.

***

Chariot Ride

***

“So what happened between you and Rainbow?” Applejack asked curiously to Ondra.

He chuckled in response, “Stranger and I wanted to play pony hunt until it got out of hand. Rainbow was running about and I needed to take care of something with her, but you saw how that ended up.”

“You were playing hide and seek? What are ya, a foal?” Applejack asked with distaste.

Ondra scoffed, “Take it however you like, I was the most hurt.”

Applehack rolled her eyes and turned to a silent Rainbow Dash, “How was it?”

Rainbow ignored the question and continued looking out to the sky, then decided to speak to the guard, “Why can’t I fly next to you guys?”

One of the fliers looked back, “You can, just don’t move off course. We’re headed to Canterlot.”

She put up a smile of triumph, “Sweet!”

***

Some time had passed, Canterlot was not exactly close.

“So what does it feel like?” Applejack trailed off, “I was meaning to ask you all this time.”

“Was this the thing that kept you from talking to me all that time at the Crystal Empire?”

She nodded, “Yeah, sorry ‘bout that?”

“What’s with the hat?” Ondra asked out of nowhere, making Applejack tilt her head.

“Why you askin’?”

He decided to dismiss the subject with a hoof, “Nevermind. What was it you needed to talk to me about?”

She gulped and held her hat to her chest, the hair exposed in the way he never saw before, “What does it feel like to die twice?”

When the question finally sank into his head, Ondra tapped his chin with a hoof, “It’s not exactly what you can describe in words, but what I can tell you is that it was not what I expected. People where I came from always talk about something to look forward to after death, like a place where everything goes right for you, a sort of super home. Sorry for lack of better terms, but dying twice, I saw nothing.”

Applejack narrowed her eyes, “You did see something.”

“Naw,” Ondra’s poker face was flawless.

“Tell me the truth,” she asked politely with a calm face, Ondra knew this conversation was going to get violent if he didn’t appease the female. He decided to humor her with the real truth.

Ondra was rummaging through the pockets of his armor, looking for his chibi.

He pulled it out and passed it to Applejack, “That.”

Applejack looked at him in disbelief, but before she could say anything.

“That’s my sister’s before she was taken away from me,” he said looking thoughtfully at the figure, “It was limited edition apparently.”

Applejack inspected the chibi with her hooves and decided not to get the story of how she got taken away, “What what she like?”

“She was,” Ondra took a deep breath, “The best sister you could ask for, though that statement is not exactly impressive coming from her brother. She did what I liked to do, I liked to do what she liked to do. And she was not one of those girls that like what an average girl likes; for example, sleep overs and that kind of thing. We played video games together.”

He paused to realise that video games probably don’t exist in this world yet, Applejack stayed silent as he intently listened which made Ondra smile.

“It was the most fun I had, having a sister play Arma 3 with me as the other players act like she’s a queen because she’s a ‘gamer girl’,” Ondra chuckled in spite of his teary eyes, “Good times.”

“She sounds like the best sister ever,” Applejack chimed, “Ah think Ah would’ve liked to meet’er.”

Ondra gave a solemn nod, motioning to receive the chibi, and repeated one of her last words, “Don’t make a girl a promise... If you know you can’t keep it.”

Applejack took notice of this, “She wanted you to do something?”

Ondra nodded as he closed his eyes and placed the chibi back in the pocket, “Before she passed, she wanted me to do the thing she knew would be the hardest part of losing her.”

He trailed off, thinking of all the things he had done to keep that promise.

Applejack continued to stay in silence of anticipation.

“She wanted me to live,” he breathed.

“I’m sorry,” Applejack looked at Midnight Flame in a new way, a way where she found the stallion more insightful and sensitive. The fiasco that happened in the middle of town was just some accident that they all could let go. There was no sense in keeping a grudge for that.

Applejack held out a hoof to Ondra, which caught him by surprise, “Friends?”

Ondra chuckled heartily and followed the gesture through, “Friends.”

“What are ya going to do about Rainbow Dash?” she pointed a hoof at Rainbow Dash who was doing flips like there was no tomorrow.

“I tried to have lunch with her,” Ondra shrugged, “But she decided to beat me up before I could explain myself.”

Applejack laughed to the winds, “Just let’er blow off some steam. Ah know she’ll forgive ya.”

Ondra hummed, “I don’t know, maybe I should have lunch with my new friend.”

“Heh,” she chuckled nervously darting her eyes from Rainbow and Ondra, “I’m pretty busy at the farm, maybe you should just go with Rainbow Dash.”

He leaned back and shrugged, “What a shame.”

“We’re almost there, get ready,”

“Yeah,” Ondra felt an obligation to respond to everything they say, they seem to hold some sort of military authority around this world.

“What do you think Princess Celestia wants to talk about?”

“A lot of things,” Ondra mused.

Debriefing to an Old Friend

“How the fuck did you get here the same time we did?!” Ondra asked Stranger and the rest of the element bearers with wide eyes.

“How should I know?” Stranger shrugged, “Maybe their transit system is completely more advanced than ours tenfold?”

Ondra looked at the steam engine, lifted his hoof in protest and, “Fuck it, where to?”

“I know the way to Princess Celestia’s palace, follow me,” Twilight motioned for the entire group to follow.

“So what happened between you and Skittles?” Freddie asked with a toothy grin of anticipation.

“She beat me up,” he replied flatly, making Freddie pause to let in what he just heard sink into his head... And burst into maniacal laughter, “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up and get up, we’re supposed to meet the Princess.”

“I’ll catch up, mate,” he wheezed, which made Ondra roll his eyes, “I think I’m going to die because you’re so bad with women... AHHHHAAAAAHAHHAAHAHH!”

Ondra had enough of his shit, so he decided to lift him with telekinesis, “Let’s go everypony.”

“You even use ‘everypony’ holy shit,” Ondra then developed enough force from his anger to punch a knockout hoof to Freddie’s head, which knocked him out unconscious as expected.

Twilight rolled her eyes, “Is that necessary?”

“You got cold water at the palace?” Ondra asked, Twilight took the hint of what he was asking for.

“I guess that settled, let’s go,” she motioned again for the entire group to move.

***

Royal Palace

***

Luna was fidgeting with her hooves with an uncomfortable face, which made Celestia giggle to herself.

“Sister, you’ll be fine,” she said reassuringly, “He will remember you, he won’t hate you for not visiting him in Ponyville.”

“That’s just it!” she snapped in apprehension, “I couldn’t make enough space in my schedule to visit him! I couldn’t do the easiest thing after he saved my life! After he saved the Crystal Empire! After I-”

She trailed off, Celestia decided to finish for her, “Kissed him?”

Luna hung her head in shame and nodded to the ground, making Celestia sigh.

“I’m sure you will be forgiven, besides you gave him his blade,”

“How,” she hesitated, “How do you know about that?”

“I told you that you should keep that away from him, it’s an extremely lethal weapon,”

“I know, but,” Luna pouted, “Considering what he had gone through, I figured those items were all he had left, all he was able to retrieve from his world, where he used to call home.”

“I do not know how to send things to other DIMENSIONS, unfortunately,” Celestia thought to herself.

The doors were creaking open which caught both the princesses’ attention.

But muffled yelling could be heard.

***

5 Minutes Ago

***

“Yo, is that who I think it is?” Ondra pointed a hoof to an aryan pony, for a lack of a better term.

Rarity advanced a little, “What? Blueblood? That sad excuse for a stallion?”

“You’ve met him?” Ondra asked with a tilted head.

“Why yes, in a very important event actually,” Rarity put up a nostalgic smile, “three months ago.”

“That’s not even long,” Ondra thought to himself disappointedly.

“I thought he would be the stallion that every mare should have shared a life with,” Rarity turned her head away from the aryan pony in disgust, “I was horribly mistaken.”

“I can tell,” Ondra chuckled.

“Why, you’ve met him too?”

“Our encounter was a little bit more physical than yours I can imagine,” Ondra replied flexing his wings to blades as he was inspecting the particular ability.

“Physical?”

“You’ll see,” Ondra dismissed with a hoof, retracting his wings, “It’s probably the reason why I’m here.”

They started their way to the door, walking on false hope that Blueblood wouldn’t notice them with him standing in front of the door and a group of five and more ponies walking towards it.

“I see the beast has returned,” Blueblood narrowed his eyes to Freddie, “With another beast to match him.”

The group paused but Ondra continued walking towards the door.

“Do you not take a hint?” he sneered, “You are not worthy of being in the Princesses’ presence!”

Ondra put Freddie down and slowly morphed his wings, “Well that’s certainly why they have you standing right in their front door right? We’re standing on the same ground.”

“Very clever response, but you do not know what is going on here,” the white shit placed a pride hoof on his chest, “The Princesses are going to bestow a very important roll for me.”

“Which is standing in front of their door,” Ondra dead panned.

“No-”

“How long have you been fucking standing there?” Ondra bolted to a position just feet away from blueblood with bladed wings.

Blueblood leaned his head back and scoffed, “You don’t need to know.”

“Then you don’t need to know about why I am here,” he retracted his wings, “You got that?”

“I am not letting you through,” Blueblood stated, which made Ondra slowly walk to Freddie then did the unspeakable.

Ondra continually paced on Freddie’s unconscious body.

Freddie was painfully gaining conscious, and finally muttered, “I’m awake motherfucker! Get the fuck off me!”

He was stumbling to get up, and groaned in either pain or restlessness, “Oh my fucking head. Ondra I know it was you!”

The group looked at Midnight Flame, “Just call me Midnight, please,” Ondra mused sheepishly.

“Why the hell were you stepping on me?” Freddie continued to groan in pain.

“Because we’re here, and you wouldn’t want me to deal with an aristocrat by myself, right?” he said pointing a hoof at Blueblood who was glaring at the two.

Freddie narrowed his eyes, then they widened like he’d seen him before, “HEY! You’re that faggot with ripped clothing! Did you really buy a new suit instead of repairing it?”

Blueblood just glared, his anger being obvious.

“Uh,” Freddie trailed off, “What’s his deal, he looks like he’s going to take a shit on that door.”

The redness on his face now slowly becoming more obvious.

“What do you think he’s going to die of first, dude,” Ondra asked Freddie “Loneliness, or a heart failure?”

He really looked like he was closely examining the dying stallion, “Heart failure?”

“ENOUGH!” he bellowed, “I am going to have to take care of this problem myself!”

The two paused, glanced, and nodded at each other.

“WITH PLEASURE!” they roared in unison, both charging at the raging aristocrat.

They came crashing through the door the instant the three made contact, the two guards were caught in surprise as they saw the three in some sort of fighting bunch. There was no safe way to break up this fight in front of the Princesses.

“GET OFF!” Blueblood screamed in protest, as he was probably the first to realise that they crashed through the door of royalty. Princess Celestia was the first to take action.

“STOP THIS FIGHT AT ONCE,” she bellowed in the royal canterlot voice.

Luna looked at her in astonishment, “I haven’t heard you use that in ages!”

Celestia rolled her eyes, “Yes, you haven’t.”

The three were stumbling on each other to get off each other, which tempted Celestia to bellow again.

“Princess Celestia,” Blueblood huffed, “Under Equestrian rule, I demand the arrest of these two beasts!”

The empty threat, made the two roll their eyes which made Celestia laugh... This basically made her day.

Luna giggled at Celestia’s antics, “Blueblood you are dismissed.”

The Prince’s jaw dropped to the ground, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“But-!”

“GO!” Luna yelled with HER canterlot voice, which was more frightening, considering she WAS the princess of the night.

After Blueblood left, the element bearers entering, and Luna clearing her throat, she couldn’t handle her excitement that her hero was here.

“MIDNIGHT!” she cheered as she was running towards Ondra.

After she placed him under embrace, “I am awfully sorry I couldn’t visit you in Ponyville, there was a lot going on and I coudn’t do anything!”

“It’s alright,” he wheezed.

Luna broke the embrace and chuckled in spite of herself.

She hummed peacefully, “I’m glad you’re here.”

Ondra was catching his breath, about to respond to that until Luna reached for the back of his head with a hoof and kissed him. This took everyone, EVERYONE by surprise.

Rainbow Dash felt like she was betrayed.

Twilight only stared in disbelief at what she was seeing... She offers him a room and this is how he repays her?!

Rarity fainted...

Fluttershy looked with utmost attention... Probably to learn about how to handle that situation.

Princess Celestia was starting to be envious of this happening a second time for someone who recently got free from the moon. Why doesn’t she get to do that?

And then there’s Freddie, just wide eyed that his best friend scored a Princess.

Ondra was lost in his own thoughts so that he ended up falling on his chin after Luna broke the kiss, which made both princesses giggle at the little fall.

Ondra stumbled to his hooves as fast as he could, “Uh, I’m sorry. What are we here for again?”

He tried to look professional with blatant blushes on his cheeks, the mane six and Freddie still speechless to what transpired.

A lengthy pause with silence, Ondra could only look into Luna’s eyes in wonder. Kissing surely was a new thing, considering that was his second time... In his entire life.

His sister did pester him about not having a love life.

Luna smiled and silently giggled at her ability to restrain a hero of Equestria.

“Wake up,” she said softly, snapping Ondra out of his trance.

“Oh! Uh,” he trailed off, suddenly sliding a hoof flatly along the marble floor was the most interesting activity for the next five minutes, “What did you want to speak to me about?”

“What happened at the Crystal Empire, Midnight Flame?” Celestia asked with a hint of worry.

“I have to say, you look... Strange,” Luna mused, “Your friend seems to have the same changes. Anything we should know about?”

“Do you have cold water?” Ondra asked.

Luna tilted her head in curiousity, “Pardon?”

“Cold water, do you have any in your disposal?” he repeated.

Celestia closed her eyes and charged her horn. At the end of this, she smiled, “It will arrive momentarily.”

The next moments were going to be painfully awkward unless somepony had something to say, and the only ones able to say anything were the Princesses and Ondra who was slowly losing his will to even talk.

“What is that?” he pointed to Philomena.

“This is a phoenix,” Celestia proudly gestured a hoof over it’s cage, “My pet: Philomena.”

She unhooked the gate, which made Ondra tense.

“Is that wise?”

“Do not worry,” Celestia reassured, “It will not hurt you.”

The phoenix started flying around until it landed back into it’s cage, checking out Ondra.

“Is it,” he gulped, “Is she supposed to look at me like that?”

Celestia raised a brow and started turning her head towards said firebird [A/N sorry for bad terminology] but before she could lay still eyes on it, it was already flying towards Ondra.

He froze in fear of what would happen if he made a wrong move... Which was any move.

When it went near his wings, they involuntarily flared out which placed him on the verge of freaking out.

“What is she doing?” he asked nervously.

Both princesses tilted their heads, then Celestia finally spoke, “I do not know.”

The phoenix seemed to be tampering with the wings. Then in anticipation, Ondra’s wings went on fire.

“Oh FUCK!” he was shaking, “GET THAT WATER!”

“Wait!” Celestia called out, making Ondra at least shake in place, “I think she’s trying to tell you something.”

The phoenix began making noises any other feathery friend would make but it was starting to make sense for Ondra first.

***

Ondra

***

“Can you hear me?” a distorted British voice called out... Wheatley?

I paused to see if I could hear that voice actor again.

“Ah bollocks, he’s deaf,” I frowned.

“No no, shut up,” a female voice responded... Linda? “I need to talk to him, not you.”

“Linda?” I asked out loud.

“Oh look, he’s intelligent,”

“Shut the fuck up before I place a virus on you,” Linda threatened.

“Alright, alright,”

“What is this?” I finally cut in, “You’re the phoenix?”

“For a time, yes,” Linda said, “You need to learn to control your wings.”

“What? The flame attribute?” I asked the flamed feathery friend.

“Yeah, do you think you can clear your mind?”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” I groaned.

“Those flames will not hurt you, stop being a pussy and just listen to me,”

“A flamin’ bird,” I put up an amused face of mockery.

“You want this bird to be your main problem?”

I dismissed with with a hoof and chuckled at Linda, “Alright, alright. I will listen.”

“Good. Now first you need to clear your mind,”

“Yes,” I complied.

A long pause then a disappointed sigh from Linda.

“Look, I know it’s your second kiss of your entire lifetime, but you need to focus. Focus on the wings if you can’t clear your damned mind,”

“Why are you helping me do this anyway?”

“Because it’s something you have to master,”

“Bossy today,” I rolled my eyes, then the phoenix landed in front of my ground and screeched like an eagle, “ok, focus on the wings... Focus on the wings.”

“Notice how you can now feel the flame?”

Now that I think about it, all those times where my wings DID go on fire I didn’t feel anything but panicked about me being on fire.

“Yeah, I think I can feel it,”

“It will have to do. You know how you retract your morphed wings?”

“You sure know more about this shit than I do,” I chuckled, “would’ve been better if you survived and I died.”

A pause, “Too soon?”

“You know how you retract your morphed wings?”

“Sorry,” I hung my head in shame.

“YOU KNOW HOW YOU RETRACT YOUR MORPHED WINGS?”

“YES!”

“Do the same damned thing with the fire,” she huffed.

I frowned in confusion, “First answer this question.”

A pause probably hinting that I ask now, “How do I start the fire?”

“It’s based on emotion,” since your transformation, “You have more direct control of it but your emotions still have more control.”

“Cool,” Ondra huffed.

The phoenix seemed to look at him with distasteful look.

“You’d better take this seriously,”

“Why do I get the feeling you wanted me to give up on Earth, on everything that was with me before coming here?”

“I don’t,” she replied firmly, “I’m here to help you with what shit you have to deal with NOW.”

Ondra took a deep breath and hung his head in defeat, “Understood.”

“Hey, chin up,” Linda said reassuringly, “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but you’ll be finding Raven and Tanny soon.”

He shot his head up with surprise gleaming in his eyes, “What?! Where?!”

Silence as the phoenix was only talking in his head. It fell over.

“What?” Ondra frowned at the little fiasco it was doing, “Linda? You there?”

The phoenix opened her eyes and darted her head around it’s environment and stood up.

“Linda?” Ondra asked again with a hint of uncertainty.

The phoenix ignored his call and started flying to Celestia.

The two Princesses were looking at him in curiosity.

“What was she saying to you?” Celestia started, “You were the only one able to hear her.”

“I,” Ondra trailed off.

A door slammed, so Ondra whipped his head around to see who was missing: Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle.

Ondra tilted his head, “What happened?”

“While you were talkin’ to Poet,” Freddie elaborated, “they were basically lunging for the door after they saw you get kissed by the Princess.”

Freddie was poking at his side with a suggestive look, “How the fuck did you score that?”

Ondra ignored that comment, “The phoenix was teaching me how to control my wings.”

“You were calling her Linda,” Celestia raised a brow, “Her name is Philomena.”

“Maybe something took it over, maybe that’s why it fell over, but I vaguely learned how to control it,”

“Better than no progress,” Luna asked.

“Better than no progress,” Ondra repeated.

“I will trust to leave that information with you, right now we are to debrief you and introduce you to your new team,” Celestia said.

Ondra had a confused face for at least three seconds, then his eyes lit up.

“Oh yeah, you told me I would be leader of it,” he finally said feeling uncomfortable, Freddie took notice of this.

“Hey,” Freddie placed a hoof on him, “You said it yourself, this world allows a new beginning, you’ll do fine here.”

Ondra took a deep breath, “I guess you’re right.”

“That’s the spirit!” Freddie looked to Celestia, “Say, can I be part of the team?”

Both Princesses glanced at each other.

“Your handler requested that I scan you,” Celestia said.

“What? Ditto? Sure,” Freddie shrugged, “Where’s ‘Midnight Flame’s new teammates?”

“Guard,” Luna called out.

A said guard approached the throne and bent down, “Yes your majesty.”

“Fetch the new combat force please,”

“At once, your majesty,”

“New force?”

“Yes,”

Applejack approached the group and chuckled nervously, “Heh, sorry about the reactions with Twilight and Rainbow. They did not take it well.”

“I could tell,” Ondra deadpanned.

“Ah hold nothin’ against ya, Ah promise,” Applejack smiled at Ondra, “Ah should get to’em.”

“You should,” Ondra replied, “and what about Rarity?”

“Fluttershy is doing her best with her, Ah might have to help her get’er out ‘o here,” Applejack rolled her eyes.

“Sure thing,” Ondra waved goodbye with a hoof as Applejack became more frantic in running in aid for Fluttershy.

“What are ya scannin’ for anyway?” Freddie asked the Solar Princess.

“Ditto became suspicious that you are able to digest food that a normal changeling could not,” Celestia replied with an intrigued look on her face.

“Is this going to hurt?”

“It’s a magic scan,” Celestia deadpanned.

“How long will it take?”

“You’re body is an exoskeleton, and you are foreign to this world, so I’m sure it will take some time,”

“How much more time?”

“About twenty percent more,”

“That’s a lot of time,” Freddie whistled sarcastically.

“Indeed it is,” Celestia chuckled, “Midnight Flame, the team should arrive shortly be ready.”

“Yeah,” Ondra complied then looked to Luna, “Was that necessary?”

“Wh-What?” Luna was hoping he was not asking what she thought she was asking.

Ondra rolled his eyes, “Come on, you know what.”

“I haven’t seen you in so long and the thought of losing you after a short amount of time spent together does not cope well with me!” she confessed hanging her head in childish shame.

Ondra looked to Celestia.

“I tried to take care of her. She had work to do, I knew you could handle it,” Celestia raised a brow continuing her scan.

“Thanks for the confidence,” he rolled his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Luna cut in with a soft voice.

“It’s alright,” Ondra reassured her with a hoof on the shoulder, which was somewhat difficult, “I just don’t enjoy hurting others by being kissed in the lips out of nowhere.”

Luna laughed nervously, “Yes, of course. I apologize again for that.”

“It’s fine,

“So what did you find so far?” Freddie asked expectantly.

Celestia ignored that for a second, “You do have a digestive system.”

She trailed off, the her eyes widened, “You have metal in your body.”

“Uh, is that bad?”

“You’re not feeling anything bad? Sharp pains?”

“I would know if I felt pain,” Freddie began to feel uncomfortable, “WHERE IS THAT METAL?!”

“It makes up your nervous system,” she tried to calm the situation with the calm tone.

“So what? I’m an AI?!”

“You’re a pretty stupid one if ya are one,” Ondra rolled his eyes.

“An AI can be stupid, asshole,” Freddie frowned at his friend, “The difference is how resourceful they are.”

“Whatever man,” Ondra chuckled, “So what if you can fully access your memory at eight gigabytes of RAM?”

“Very funny,” Freddie huffed, “At least I’m more resourceful than you.”

“You probably filled your head with a lot of junk from the internet,”

“Trust me when I say I used the internet for useful purposes,” Freddie smiled, “What else is different about me? What about the lines on our bodies?”

“They have foreign magic signatures and they seem dormant,”

“Are they friendly?” the two best friends asked in unison.

“It was the magic that brought Midnight Flame here back to life,” Celestia said focusing on the lines on both heroes, “I’m sure it is nothing to worry about.”

“If you say so,” Freddie mused, “Is that it?”

“Some of your organs are not,” Celestia paused, “Organic.”

“So I’m a terminator,” Freddie deadpanned.

“Terminator?”

“It’s some funny fiction that I read,” he dismissed with a hoof.

“The movie was better,” Ondra stated flatly.

“Okay,” Freddie shrugged. Ondra really expected that to offend him like most other with an opinion about some fiction that was a book then implemented into a movie.

“Oh yeah,” Ondra spoke, “Thanks for repairing my machete, it helped.”

“Oh,” Luna stuttered, “Well, you’re welcome.”

“His blade,” Celestia asked Luna with slight irritation, “I thought I told you to leave that in the forest.”

“But,” Luna started with an apprehended look on her face, but interrupted with Celestia’s hoof.

“It’s alright, sister,” Celestia then looked to Ondra expectantly, “I’m sure I can trust you with it?”

Ondra unsheathed the machete to inspect it thoroughly, then placed it back with a satisfied smile, “You have my word.”

“Good to see that you took care of my machete there,” Freddie chuckled, then Ondra whistled innocently rolling his eyes to the windows. This made Freddie raised his brow, “You broke it didn’t you?”

“What?” Ondra had a dramatic face, shot his hooves up and pushed them forward, “Get outta here!”

Freddie sighed in disappointment, “Whatever, mate. Looks in better condition than when I first gave it to ya.”

“Why don’t you have it?”

This took Freddie by surprise, “What?”

“I already have these,” Ondra was demonstrating his wing blade ability, also morphing them into shields, “I can’t have my best friend unarmed, right?”

Ondra unhooked the harness with the machete sheathed into it and floated it over to start attaching it to Freddie.

“You sure?”

“I’m HIV positive,” Ondra deadpanned.

Freddie closed his eyes and chuckled lightly at his antics, “Thanks, mate.”

“I’ll teach ya how to use telekinesis with magic later,” Ondra smiled, “Can’t be harder than how I learned right?”

“How did you learn it?”

“I imagine myself holding the damn thing with hands when I was less aware that I was an equine,” he responded with a straight look.

Freddie laughed heartily at this, “Right.”

“So what are we having for new teammates?” Ondra asked.

And at that moment the doors opened, which took the nest words right out of his mouth.

SEQUEL!

It's here! It's finally got the first chapter! Will try to lay off on Steam games to improve progress!

Raven's Shame