Rehab with Bright Colors

After being a general ass at the expense of the poor virgin eared mares and stallion Hex smiled at Sparky who was furiously staring at her left over sandwich.

"Hey Sparky, I noticed some of the stores in town made cloths. You think one of them might be able to make something for me? I don't think clunking around in armor will calm any one down. Then again I might need some help getting out of the suit."

"Oh! I'm sure my friend Rarity could make you something to wear! She would love to make something new! But why do you need help getting out of your suit? Is it really tricky and complex? How do you even move in that thing?!"

"Its not hard getting out, I just need you to push a few specific buttons on the back to unlock it."

Twilight's face scrunched up a little bit at that before she choose her next words carefully.

"Why are you locked into the suit? I can see that it would provide a lot of protection but what if you were all alone like today?"

Hex was silent for a moment as he looked down at his hands and clenched his fists, the powered gauntlets creaking with the pressure.

"Because I was a prisoner and this is my prison. We are used as the first line of defense against an enemy calling themselves the Zerg. Prisoners are used because most of those who volunteered to fight them are dead and there was no one else."

The silence was so complete he could hear the tiny whirring of motors inside of his suit as he turned to look Twilight in the eyes. "This morning I was given the code to unlock the suit. I know you've got a lot of questions Sparky but I'm begging you to keep them to yourself."

Placing his helmet back on and rising to his feet Hex sighed again and wondered if telling them the truth was the best option. Too little too late now to go back though.

"Celestia, Luna, Shining. A word alone please. This isn't something to be discussed with those who have never experienced war."

They rose with him and Celestia was the one who lead the way but he couldn't help but notice the hard look on their faces. All things considered, he'd have the same reaction in their shoes but the story he had to share wasn't something he wanted the others to hear. Not Twilight or Vinyl, not so long as they lived. They didn't need those kinds of nightmares.

After being led down a few passageways they came to a set of doors embroidered with suns, what he assumed to be Celestia's room but he couldn't figure out why she'd take him here. Prisoners were spoken to in interrogation rooms, not private living spaces. The question answered itself, as soon as everyone had entered a white aura wrapped around his entire frame and moved his entire body in front of the tree of them. Figures big mama would dole out the questions.

"I have no reason to believe you are lying about what was said downstairs, and I will commend your honesty in admitting that you were a prisoner but I cannot take your word at being given a release code today. For all we know you could have stolen it at some point or even killed to take it. We will enter your mind to see the truth of your sentence, and whether or not you have truly paid for your crimes."

Hex was shaking, and for the first time in years he felt wetness flowing down his cheeks as his mind recoiled at her words.

"I will cut my own arm off to prove my honesty. Anything Celestia, ASK ANYTHING! Don't do this to them, not to Luna, and not to Shining. He has a wife for fucks sake! How is she going to react with him screaming in the night!?"

Celestia knew from experience an inmate could weave some convincing stories, and she knew from the past they could generate any emotion needed to further their case but there was something wrong with the man in front of her. He didn't seem to care about his own well being but instead the safety of her sister and the captain.

"We cannot do that Hex. You can't shed blood or mutilate yourself to prove innocence either. Your mind must be examined if we are to believe what you say is true."

Hex was silent for a long moment as he stood there. With a long shuttering sigh he looked up at Celestia and pleaded one last time.

"Just you Celestia. Just make it between me and you then. You'll know the truth you want so damn badly and Shining Armor and Luna won't be scarred for the rest of their lives. Remember Celestia, I offered to cut my own arm off to keep you from this."

Celestia hesitated as she looked at the man in front of her. He was shaking so badly the entire suit showed signs of it. She could recollect some of the most horrible atrocities history had ever seen in the centuries she lived though, but what could be so terrible to make a soul offer their limb to keep hidden? "Luna, Shining. Please leave us. Shining, wait by the door. No one is to disturb us or enter under any circumstances other than dire need."

Both protested heatedly but Celestia would not hear otherwise. After they took their leave with the doors closing behind them she looked up at the man in front of her. "Are you ready Hex?"

Dropping down to a knee Hex leaned forward and took off his helmet. "Sit down Celestia and let me show you what you want to know. Don't dig around in there though, there's stuff that's blocked off for a reason even from me."

It all came back like a bad dream he couldn't get out of. Celestia was there in his head and she could feel, see, and hear everything he did which made him shutter. His memory was wonky enough with the Resoc Tanks but she made it crystal clear in all of its horror. Hex had been a college professor before he was turned into an inmate, and he could taste his own terror at the message his little brother had received via instant transmission.

Mark had been screened for pysonic potential and tested positive, two soldiers were on their way to take him in for more testing as well as their mother. If he hadn't have been there at the time they would have taken him away and turned him into a puppet. Nothing more than a killing machine for the government and turn his mother into a lab rat since the gene always came from the mothers side of the family.

In the span of a few moments he threw his life away by grabbing the guass pistol that was kept hidden in case of burglary. His bother was screaming at him to stop and his mother was begging him to put the gun down when the soldiers kicked the door in. Two well placed shots put them down, and as his mother began screaming he fired one more round at his own family. He told them to run, he threw his wallet at his bother and told him to take everything Hex owned and flee, then fired two more rounds at them before giving them a warning. Leave or he would kill them himself.

Hexus murdered two soldiers and continued to fight the ones who showed up afterwards until he was brought down and prayed he had bought enough time for them to escape. The next memory was just a flash that spanned three months, a flash of agony to represent those months spent being beaten and tortured before he was stuffed into the re-socialization tank. It was on his own home world that he met the zerg forces for the first time, and after being locked into a suit he was deployed into his own city.

He remembered the quirky way zerglings hop when they moved and watched as a group of them had flushed a family out of hiding. He could feel the thuds from his Gauss rifle against his shoulder as he tried to save them. Most of all he remembered the way they screamed as the zerg tore them apart.

He saw the woman still scream and struggle even after being torn in half, and remembered in hellish clarity the way blood just poured into the streets. Millions were flooding out of the area trying to escape as zerg pods dropped into the masses, and millions died in front of him as the zerg tore through them.

Hex could still feel his mind screaming at what was in front of him but how it was dulled down and pushed aside as the machine took over. He tried to resist the order to retreat, he wanted to go back and try to help, he wanted to throw himself at the zerg that were slaughtering everyone. But the machine wouldn't let him go, and as a drop ship scooped the other marines up to take them back to the battle cruiser he could only watch the masses die.

His mind shattered shortly after returning to the ship and while it was usually deemed appropriate to execute inmates who couldn't serve the captain of the shipped voted against the action. Hex was put back into the re-socialization tank a second time to correct the problem.

The machine was no longer a force that dominated his mind as it did the other inmates, after the second dunk he was able to disobey orders but chose instead to serve regardless of the fact. He wanted to kill the zerg, and the machine kept his emotions in check as he went about the grim work.

What followed were flashes of battles he had fought in. Blood ran freely from both sides as he felt a tingle run up his back, the memory of a zerging landing on him and tearing into his body. So many instances passed where he should have died, times when a hydralisk' quills punched his armor, or when an ultralisk had knocked him aside like a toy to attack a bunker. Whole worlds burning under nuclear hell just to keep them from multiplying and spreading to other planets.

The one memory that stood out above all else was the nuking of his primary base. It had been over run by the zerg, and while the men and women he had fought beside tried to get as many out as possible he remembered the flash before his visor slammed shut and the mushroom cloud that billowed in front of him. There on the ridge beside him a ghost decloaked, and Hex could only stare and feel the cold alien touch of the mans pysonic powers.

It was why he fought now, he remembered. To keep his brother from ending up like this. A monster that would just as easily kill his own as well as the zerg if ordered to do so. The ghost shook his head slowly and whispered "You'll understand" before vanishing once more. To this day he had wished to remain ignorant until he witnessed one of his own friends blown apart by an infected terran.

Learning when it was kinder to kill someone than to let the zerg take them away would have been hard on a normal person, but the machine kept it everything down to a minimum. It was only after a year with some of the other veterans that the only thing not suppressed by the Resoc Tanks was humor. They were all gone now too with the events of that very day. It was almost like a sick joke being called down by the very same captain who had put him through the tanks again only to be given the release code.

Everything was still fresh from that day. The attack of the hive cluster, the three men he had killed, falling from the sky, and tiny little Vinyl Scratch scared out of her mind only to laugh at his dirty jokes.