POV: Death

A few hours had passed since the battle, and I was now being lead to the castle dungeons. Why, you may ask? I had just saved this entire country, more than likely, by killing Michael. Why on earth would I be going to the dungeons if I was a savior? It was simple, really. I had, apparently, screwed up by turning Michael's head into dust. Celestia hadn't really thought what I did was right, so she ordered her guards to take me to the castle dungeons along with the rest of the Blackwatch soldiers.

The guards, though, were the most pathetic excuses of protectors I had ever seen. Then again, that is coming from someone who is virtually indestructible, but the guards were shaking in their boots at me. They tried to act brave around Celestia and her other 3 friends, but they hadn't done too well of a job at that. I could still see them shake in fear occasionally. They had also tried to cuff me in an attempt that was mildly amusing, to say the least.

They were some sort of "magic" cuffs. From what I saw, only the unicorns had the abilities to perform magic, besides the alicorns. I also saw a few pegasi, as well. I guessed that's what they were since all they had was wings. I'd read mythology before, so that's what I had taken to calling them. The same went for the unicorns, though I hadn't figured out what the normal ponies were called. I hadn't heard anything on the way to the dungeons so I didn't know what to call them. I simply settled on "land" ponies.

The magic cuffs, although cool, to say the least, were very fragile and meant for pony strength. I figured this out when I had felt something like a bite at the back of my head and quickly raised my hand to rub it away. The cuffs shattered like glass and faded into nothingness as they fell. I got a glimpse of some ponies' faces and they were absolutely shocked by what I had done.

'Someone say that I'm not strong now,' I thought to myself. No one had.

As the multiple guards and I reached the dungeons, I figured that they must not have been used in a long time. Celestia did say that herself, of course. There was dust and cobwebs everywhere: in the cells, on the cell bars, and even one right in the middle of the walkway.

The guards hadn't re-cuffed me after I shattered them the first time, so I moved the web out of the way and kept walking. The place was dark, save for a torch every now and then.

We walked for a little longer before the guards told me to go into the next cell on my right. They had done the right thing by putting me by myself without a Blackwatch soldier in my cell, but screwed up by putting me in the middle of all their cells. Some of the Blackwatch soldiers hadn't woken up yet, but most of them were.

Though I couldn't see any of their expressions, I knew they held either anger, hatred, or fear towards me. Hopefully most of them were fear. I would be able to give them a heart attack if I had scared them enough.

The cells were what you would typically imagine from a castle dungeon. They were all concrete with a concrete bench stretching out the back wall. A bed, if you could call it one, that would be extremely hard for anyone to sleep on. It was what you deserved if you had managed to get thrown in here. I wasn't deserving of this place, but I wasn't complaining. That flowing-haired bitch would get what was coming to her soon enough.

For the time being, I had decided to simply sit and think about what had transpired within the past hour, or so. I had found Michael. He activated a portal which sucked up his company, him, and me all in one. We landed in the middle of some massive event in a royal throne room. I had killed Michael, and then was thrown in the dungeon with a group of baby-killing freaks. I didn't know when I would be able to get out, but I could wait as long as anyone else could. I would have easily broken the iron cell bars, but I didn't want to put these ponies in more of a panic than they already were.

I was soon interrupted from my thoughts by a Blackwatch soldier.

"Hey, Death," he said. I looked at him and gave no response. "How's it going?" I gave him a scoff in response. "I heard your parents screamed."

…

…

He just dug his own grave by saying that. He knew it too, but for some oddball reason, he didn't really seem to care.

"What was it like to see your parents die in front of you?" Those were his last words. I shot my whipfist at him through the bars and sliced him cleanly in half at the waist. That kind of shit was why Blackwatch needed to be erased. He may have just been curious, but I highly doubt that.

"Anyone else," I called out. "Anyone else want to make a comment and die?" Silence was what I got in return. Deciding that I wouldn't be out for a while, I took my belt off and let my knives drop to the ground around me. I took my jacket off along with my hoodie and mask. I was sitting there in only my jeans, t-shirt, and boots, and I was comfortable.

I ran my hands along my pockets to see if I had anything in my jeans, and it turns out I did. I had unknowingly grabbed my iPhone back at my apartment and put it in my pocket. I thought that I would play some music to get my mind off of things. I scrolled through the iPod app and settled on the song "Nightmare" by Avenged Sevenfold.

I didn't want to sit there and listen to the song while doing nothing so I decided to work out a bit. I did some sit-ups, pushups, and some other simple ones. My favorite ones, though, were handstand pushups and pull-ups. I liked to push myself when working out to get myself stronger. Though I never gained strength, it was nice to, at least, act like I was still a human.

For the next few hours I had worked out. Some of the Blackwatch soldiers started to come out of their shell and talking to one another. They asked questions like "Where are we", "Where's the commander?" and "How long until we get out?" I suppose they had all fallen asleep. I was extremely bored so I decided to go ahead and walk around the castle to familiarize myself with it.

I walked up to the cell bars after putting all of my items back on myself, and pulled them apart. They were surprisingly difficult to move. It wasn't hard to move them, of course, but they were stronger than they looked. Quickly throwing my hood and mask on, I made my way to the end of the hallway that led to the rest of the castle. I checked my phone for the time and it read 12:11 P.M.

"Damn," I thought. "I've been busy for a while, haven't I?" I eventually came to the door to the castle. I tried the handle to see if it was locked. To my surprise, it wasn't. "They probably didn't think anyone would be able to breakout." I thought. I peeked through the door slowly, so as to make sure there were no guards around to spot me. Luckily, there were none.

I slowly closed the door behind me as I entered the hallway. I expected this place to be big, so I would take my time to make details of everything I saw. I began walking to nowhere in particular. Along my way, I passed many doors. How anyone ever found their room in this castle I'll never know.

At that point I heard two voices coming my way. Quickly looking around, I saw no places to hide. I could run to the corner at the other end of the hall, but that would not be sufficient. It was a long hallway with no turns in it. I looked up to see if there was a skylight that I could use, but I saw none. The ceiling was high enough for someone to not notice me, though.

Settling on the ceiling, I jumped up and dug my hands and feet into it. I quickly crawled towards the corner the voices were coming from. I was surpsided that it could hold my weight, but why would I do this, you may ask? Because it is harder to notice somebody right above your head, rather than a few feet both in front and above you. By getting closer, I could make sure that I was out of their peripheral vision when they that turned the corner.

When the voices came into view, I saw two ponies: Twilight Sparkle and some white stallion with a blue mane.

"Don't worry Twily," the white one said. "I'm sure that it won't harm you. Didn't you say that it had wanted to evacuate the throne room?"

"Yes," Twilight responded. "I still can't help but feel scared when I looked into its eyes for that brief moment. I could tell that that thing was angry. It didn't act like it, surprisingly enough, but it was."

"Don't worry. It won't hurt you from the sounds of it. Even if it did, it would have the entire crystal empire and royal guard to deal with. I doubt it could withstand against a few soldiers, much less two massive armies."

"Try me, bitch. I've killed things that are 50 goddamn feet tall and taken shots from things that could level skyscrapers." I thought to myself. "I could take on you ponies any day and win."

"I know, Shining Armor. I know. I'll try to not think about it for now. We need to hurry up and get to Celestia's room. Luna and Cadance are already there, more than likely."

That caught my attention. I had been wanting to confront the bitch who had thrown me in the dungeon. If these two were going to be there, then Celestia may have been as well. I could get some answers from her.

As soon as Twilight and Shining Armor had rounded the next corner, I dropped from the ceiling and silently jogged up to the corner they went around. I slowly peered around and saw them turn to a corner on the right. This would have been easier if I had consumed a guard, but I didn't want to seem like an asshole. I had never tried consuming something of another species. I wasn't sure if it would work or not. Through the countless infected I had consumed, however, I figured out one thing: You could not take the form of another being infected with the Blacklight virus. You could take their memories, but not their shape.

I soon got to the corner that the two ponies did and peered around to see if they were still there. I saw them entering a room with large double doors and a sun on the front of it.

"Perfect," I said to myself. I quickly ran up to the door, silently, of course, and stood next to it. I wanted to hear what was going on.

"Ah, thou art here at last," I heard one voice say. It spoke with an Old English type of language.

"Sorry everypony," I heard Twilight apologize. "Shining Armor and I were talking on the way here and we took our time."

"It is fine Twilight," Celestia said "Were you followed?"

"No, we weren't. There wasn't anywhere for anypony to hide on our way here. I'm sure of it."

"Good. Now we can discuss what we are to do with the creature named Kyle Drake."

That was a start. I needed somewhere that I could have listened in on this conversation easier, and somewhere I wouldn't be caught. I remembered seeing a balcony outside of the castle when Michael and I fought. If this was Celestia's bedroom, then chances were that that balcony was hers. It made sense for a Princess to have a balcony.

I found the nearest window to jump out of. Of course, I looked around for guards before I did so. Satisfied that there weren't any, I grabbed hold of the side of the window and threw myself on the wall. I started to wall run in a diagonal form towards the balcony. To make a quieter approach I jumped up at started gliding towards the balcony.

I grabbed onto the edge of the balcony when it came into reach and pulled myself up. I could hear much better from this position compared to the door.

"I don't know, Auntie," I heard an unknown voice say. "He seemed fine to me. He had a level head when he arrived here. He wanted the ponies in the throne room evacuated for their safety. I don't think he is all that bad, honestly."

"You saw what he did, Cadance," Celestia began. "That creature he was fighting was begging for his life. Kyle killed him anyway. He seemed like he was happy to kill the other creature. I will admit that it was honorable of him to want to evacuate the room so that no innocents would get hurt, buthe still ended the life of another. You know that that does not go well with the Equestrian law."

"But sister, who knows what that other creature Kyle was fighting hoped to gain. We…er… I know that thou saw what he had done. He grabbed an innocent pony in hopes that if he died, he would take a life with him," I heard the archaic speaker say.

"While that is true Luna, I still can't help but feel he is not normal. Like he isn't natural. I don't think any being should be able to do what he did without remorse, much less actually do it in the first place."

Damn right I'm not natural. And you're standing up for that dead baby-killer? Really? "But maybe he could be used for good." What? Did Celestia just say that I could be used for good? Wasn't I good enough already? I saved her damn subjects!

"How," Twilight asked.

"He seemed to know what he was doing in battle, and the creatures that came through the portal looked like they were outfitted for combat. Perhaps they were a form of military, or something close to that."

"What does that have to do with anything," Shining Armor asked.

"Simple," Celestia said. "Since Kyle has dealt with these people before, he could have some military experience. We could have him train the royal guards. He, obviously, knows how to fight in hand-to-hand combat, and that could give the guards major aid."

"With all due respect Princess, the guards are fine." Shining Armor retaliated. "They performed their duties today admirably."

"Should you have been there when Kyle was being led to the dungeons, you would know what I mean. The guards put magic cuffs on him and he broke out of them. Without meaning to from the looks of it."

I didn't like the sound of this. Celestia was going to try and have me train some scared ass guards? I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I had to stop this now before it got too far.

I quickly pushed the doors open while saying, "You can't possibly be serious about that, can you?" I had, almost literally, scared the piss out of all of them. I saw them all light their horns up a launch different stuff at me. Time seemed to go in slow motion for me over the next few seconds.

I raised my hands up to attempt to activate my shields but was met with the sight of dark grey, stone looking, armor. I had taken all of the attacks without feeling much of anything at all.

I was now jumping up and down on the inside. I had taken Michael's armor ability! It was a surprise to me since I had never consumed an evolved infected before. I was ecstatic that I had gained Michael's power. Perhaps I had gained something else along with this. It took a few seconds for the ponies to recover from shock before starting to question me.

"Why aren't you in the dungeon? How did you escape," Celestia asked with slight anger.

"I'm not in the dungeon because I don't want to be. I simply pulled the bars to my cell apart. You should also tell your guards to start locking doors to the dungeon too. Leaving a dungeon unlocked? Who does that?" I said in response. I turned to Shining Armor. "You want to bet that I can take on both of the armies you claim I can't? I could take 100 of you on and not break a sweat."

"How did you...?" He asked shocked.

"You and Twilight don't look up on the ceiling very often, do you?" Both Twilight and Shining Armor blushed slightly in embarrassment. I turned to Cadance and Luna. I assumed Luna was the dark blue pony with the night mane and Cadance was the one pink one with the tri-colored mane. "Pleasure to meet you both. How's it going?" No response.

"Right. Anyway, what do you mean having me train your guards? Even you saw how terrified of me they were, Celestia."

"I know. That is why I would like you to train them. First of all, do you have any military experience?"

"Yes, an insane amount."

"Good. Now, there is one final question."

"And what may that be?"

"Would you allow my sister, Luna, and I access to your memories, for now? We must make sure that you are not wanting to harm anypony while you are here. We only just met you today, and I would be willing to bet that you are stuck in Equestria until you can find a way back home."

I couldn't let them look into my head. I couldn't let them ruin their sanity by doing that. I didn't know how memories looked when traveling through them. Who did? I could imagine my head being a massive damn maze for them. I doubted that they could find my memories if they tried.

"No."

"Why not? How are we supposed to know of your intentions?"

"I say "no" because I've seen, done, and gone through shit that no one should have. If you tried going through the maze of my mind, you could never find my memories."

This is when Luna chimed in.

"What doth thou speakest of? What doth thou mean by your 'maze of the mind'?"

"I mean just that."

"What do you mean specifically, though?" Celestia asked.

"Do you know what I did to Michael when I killed him?" This question was directed to all of the ponies in the room. Seeing all of them shake their heads, I told them what happened. "I consumed him." I gained puzzled looks in response.

"To me, consuming someone allows me to become them. I am able to take their looks and memories."

"How is that possible," Twilight inquired. "How are you able to do that? And also, what are you? I've never read about any species that looked like yours before."

"I am a human. Well, I used to be. To answer your first question, I am able to copy that thing down to a cellular level. My cells copy theirs and allow me to become a perfect copy of that thing I consumed."

"What do you mean you used to be," Cadance asked.

"I'm not human anymore. I'm a living, breathing virus." At this they all gave me odd looks. To end their confusion I gave them the whole spew on the history of Blacklight and what it does to you, but I left out my history. I didn't want them knowing what had happened to me.

"What about you then," Celestia asked. "What happened to you? How did you become infected?"

"I will not share that with you. I purposefully left that out. That is also why I don't want you going into my memories. You don't want, or need, to know why I am the way I am." As I finished, I could feel something in my head shift. I quickly put two and two together and looked at Celestia with a death glare. I slowly pulled down my hood and took my mask off without taking my eyes off of hers.

It was then she realized that I had meant what I said. I hadn't wanted her looking into my memories because she didn't need to concern herself with me, and she couldn't have handled it. She didn't appear to be soft, but she didn't look like a rock-hard stone. I slowly approached her, and as I did she got a good look at my scar-riddled face, as well as everyone else in the room.

I had then realized that I was the tallest one in the room. Celestia, excluding her horn, only came up to halfway to my chest. I had assumed that she was a tall pony, as she was the second tallest in the room.

"You know," I began. "I had meant what I said. You shouldn't go digging around in my head. Your sanity is on the line when you do. I will say this only one more time: do not, and I repeat, do not dig around in my head."

Her shock when I had walked back to where I was sitting was immense. I couldn't tell what she was shocked about, but she had, obviously, found something bad in my head. I told her not to, but she did it anyway.

"Where is my room? I'm not going back to that dungeon, and seeing is how I'm training your pets I need a place to stay." She had told me to follow her, and led me out the door and down the hall a little bit. Both of our rooms were in the same hallway. This was probably to show status of some sort.

I gave her a grunt in thanks and closed the door behind me. As I heard her walking away I walked to my bed. I needed some sleep after the day I had. I quickly stripped down to my boxers, jumped in the bed, and fell asleep.

POV: Celestia

I couldn't believe it. I simply refused to believe it. There was no possible way that anypony had the amount of memories he did. I did, of course, find Kyle's memories, but they were so deep in his head that it was shocking that I found them at all. A mind reading spell only takes a few seconds, if that, to work completely.

I made my way back to my room to go meet back with Luna, Twilight, Cadance, and Shining Armor. I needed to tell them what had happened when I ran the spell.

As I walked back into the room, I was met with the worried looks of said ponies.

"Sister, what is wrong? What did thou…err…you find," Luna asked.

"I found his memories," I replied. "But that is the problem. I can understand why he was worried about us going into his mind. He did not want us to worry about what he had gone through. Perhaps so that we wouldn't concern ourselves with him, but the frightening part was how far back in his mind the memories were."

"Auntie," Cadance said. "What did you find? Why is he the way he his?"

"To answer your first question, I found the memories of many other humans. He has killed many more humans than I thought he had, but they were all evil from the looks of it." I wondered how I would answer my niece's second question. I couldn't tell her what happened exactly.

"It is too horrific for anypony to see. I will simply say this: he has seen his own heart in his chest."

Everypony adopted wide eyes as they heard this. They had caught my drift and decided to leave it alone. Taking a glance at the clock in the corner of the room, I saw that it was close to 1:15 in the morning. I decided that everypony needed to get to bed as we had a big day for tomorrow.

"It is late. We all need to get some rest for tomorrow. It will be a very busy day." With that, everypony except Luna left the room. She probably wanted to speak to me about Kyle.

"Sister, what did you see?"

"I saw that he has gone through an immeasurable amount of torture within the past years. His parents were killed in front of him and he was used as a lab rat for an evil company. It is a miracle how he is still alive, much less still sane."

"Has he been broken, Celestia?"

"No. At least, not yet. That is my biggest fear, however. If a being as powerful as him were to snap, the results could be catastrophic."

"Then we must try as hard as possible to keep him unbroken. Do not worry sister. He will be fine."

"Thank you, Luna. I believe it is time for us both to get some sleep. We have a very busy schedule tomorrow. We must get our guest prepared for his new life."

"Indeed. Sleep well Tia."

"You too, Luna. I love you."

"We…I love you too."

I giggled at my sister's slip up of language. She had almost gotten the hang of it after being back from the moon for a few years, but she would make a mistake every once and a while. I needed to go to sleep, so I closed the doors to my balcony, got in bed, and gently pulled the covers over myself.

"Mother, Father," I said aloud. "Please help me protect Equestria. I fear that something bad will happen soon, and I am unsure of what it is. I hope I am wrong. Please allow me to be wrong about this."

And with those final words, I fell asleep.

Author's Note

Letting you guys know now. I am aware that these first few chapters are shit. I hate them too. However, I'm going to have my editor, Guardian55, get to work on these. Truthfully, he doesn't just edit them. He completely rewrites them so that they aren't complete and total shit. Just wait for chapter 8. It'll get better.

I promise!