Blacklight Retribution: Stranger on a Stranger World

“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.