Rehab with Bright Colors

Hex was more than a little glad to get off the hook, but after making his report to Celestia, Shining Armor asked him to follow. Once outside in the large courtyard he felt the machine kick in immediately with the pile of stuff spread out in front of him. Guards from throughout Equestria had come across strange machinery that had apparently crash landed in random areas, and after a direct order from Shining they had been transported through some kind of teleportation to the capitol for examination.

All of the equipment in front of him was Terran technology in various states of damage. There were two intact cargo containers but otherwise most of the other stuff was damaged beyond repair. After asking the captain to bring Celestia under the possibility of war he vanished in a flash of purple. He really wondered if it was possible to learn how the hell that even happened but the machine was already punching in an access code to one of the containers.

A chill ran down his spine when the container opened. The code he used was only supposed to work if the fleet ships had been destroyed. It was a last ditch command in the hopes that someone could use the equipment against the zerg, and if this shit got planet side then he had to assume the zerg could have come as well.

A series of snaps sounded from behind him that signaled the arrival of Celestia and Shining, but he said nothing to them until he had verified the contents of the cargo and stepped back out of the container. Luna, Celestia, and Shining Armor looked at him expectantly, and after taking a look around to find themselves completely alone he spoke in a cold voice that lacked any feeling or concern.

"This is all warfare equipment from my species Celestia. The fact that I can open these containers is proof enough that the soldiers and army I was fighting with has been completely wiped out, most likely everyone fighting with me is dead or worse."

Sitting down on a nearby crate and gesturing for them to sit down in front of him he laced his fingers together and sighed heavily.

"I had hoped that whatever brought me to this planet was an isolated incident and couldn't be repeated, but with this equipment here I have to assume the worse. The enemies I fought against may be present on the planet. I showed Celestia my origins to prove my freedom, but I cannot withhold the information regarding the enemy of every species in the universe if there is any chance of you being forced to fight them."

"Luna, since you and your sister rule here it is your right to know the extent of the threat. I have heard before that you raise the moon while Celestia raises the sun. I hope for the sake of this planet you are that powerful. The only thing that could possible save this place from destruction is keeping the zerg from making planet fall altogether, but how that is to happen I can't say. I need the three of you to watch the events inside of my head carefully. It may determine if your entire planet lives or dies."

With another deep sigh he closed his eyes and waited. The machine was still at the forefront of his mind when he felt other presence of others he smiled sadly at how they recoiled from the cold, soulless instincts that guided his actions. For ten minuets he made the watch a large scale battle against the zerg, showing how some of them launched spikes to impale his fellow soldiers and kill them.

Some of the zerg flew over head and lobed acid and deadly spinning disks that melted and cleaved through whole units while others merely fell upon the soldiers with claws. Hulking mountains of flesh rampaged through the lines, and only after the combined efforts of scores of rifles did they finally fall over in death.

The next memory was of him watching from orbit as two massive monstrosities floated over a planet, raining down thousands of pods filled with the same creatures he had fought on the planet. The last memory was of fighting a losing battle to hold a base as pods crashed down around them only to explode, spilling their horrifying contents to tear the infantry apart.

"Last night Vinyl Scratch used what you ponies called magic to physically lift me up and throw me across my room. I am assuming that since a civilian not trained in warfare is capable of that, then some of your guards may have the ability to crush the life out of these creatures. As you saw, fire also works fairly well against the smaller ground units so that could also be a possible way of dealing with them. Seeing as you do not have the means to kill these creatures the same way my species can, you'll have to be creative in the methods of ending their lives should they come here."

Luna and Shining were both pail after watching the butchery that he had lived through but he continued when both looked back up at him with the same cold drone.

"Understand that these creatures are not sentient and are incapable of feeling. They serve what we they call the Swarm and live for the sole purpose of slaughtering the inhabitants of planets before assimilating some of the more promising species into the fold."

After tapping his head he showed them a memory of what looked like a small vicious little predator running cross the dunes of a desert planet. After warping the image with armor, clawed limbs, and enhancing its aggression the creature turned into the zerglings deployed by the Swarm.

"The zerg are no more than dangerous animals without the presence of a commander, so if there are some planet-side they should be easy enough to put down alone. The problem arises when a command unit is present to direct them. Since there hasn't been any cities vanishing or thousands dead somewhere I doubt anything like that is here unless it's attempting to remain hidden. I'll take the equipment here as well as the weapons I had earlier to keep them close at hand when I leave."

Looking down at his clenched hands he considered the possibilities of repelling a zerg invasion with grim certainty. Since he didn't understand the magic ponies used there was little he could think of besides the obvious until an idea came.

"Celestia, if you really are capable of raising the sun or have some sort of affinity to it a possible solution to an invasion is using the star to burn the fleet in space before they have a chance to land. From our standpoint Shining, it would be prudent to gather at least one thousand of the best unicorns within the guards here at the capital for training. The number should be small enough to go unnoticed if they're plucked from across your domain, but large enough to act as a shock unit to respond to any isolated zerg encounters."

When he did finally look back up at the three he stopped for a moment. Tears were coursing down their cheeks, and while he was confused at first it was the machine that answered his own question. He had just told them that possibly thousands of his own kind had died within the past two days, fighting a horrifying enemy, and while the machine managed the emotional response to keep him from falling prey to depression or sadness they didn't have that ability.

Luna closed the distance with him and wrapped her front legs around his shoulders in a hug as she buried her face into his neck.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

He suddenly wished he could actually feel something more than the cold acknowledgement from the machine, but for the time being those kinds of emotions would remain suppressed until it deemed the time was appropriate to address them. He wondered just how bad that day might turn out as he returned Luna's hug. When she broke away and dried her eyes he was relieved to see a solid determination behind them.

Celestia showed the same determination as her sister but he was quietly pleased with the rage he saw in Shining Armor's face. He only hoped that he could find more men who would share that same anger in the defense of their home.

"Twilight has an assistant that can receive messages from either of the Princesses and myself. I'll address them as sealed for you, and trust her not to open them. For the sake of security I'll leave out any true details, but there will be a thousand Unicorns here in three days to deploy. When everything is ready, I'll send some guards to escort you back to brief them."

"Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst."

"I look forward to solving this problem."

With a vicious smile shared between the two of them he looked back at the sisters who nodded before Celestia responded.

"My sister and I will begin planning a method of dealing with them above our planet, but we will also call the other nations to meet and discuss the severity of the situation. It may take a while to gather them all here but once they are present we'll be relying on you to give specifics on the threat."

Nodding his affirmation the three of the departed with Shining flashing away and the sisters heading back into the castle. Hex was left to sort through the equipment with the captain returning moments later with his suit, weapons, and the left over bag of money he had brought the day earlier.

"Maybe its time to put some buns in the oven eh Shiny? Might not get the chance later if things go bad."

"Yeah... Maybe I'll pull the same shit you did with Vinyl yesterday. Not to bad of a score with that piece of flank."

"How the fuck did you know that?! You got those guards spyin on me you bastard!"

"Nope, you just told me."

Hex was left fuming at his stupidity as the captain of the guard flounced off laughing his pretty little head off.