Blacklight Retribution: Stranger on a Stranger World

“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.