The Commander, The Keyblade Master, and the Psycho

Chapters

Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8*
Chapter 9
Chapter 10*
Chapter 11*
Chapter 12*
Chapter 13
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 1
Chapter 14

Chapter 2

‘Okay Joel, I’m sure there’s a logical explanation here somewhere for all of this…’ I repeated to myself over and over again in my head.

‘I WANT TO DRIVE OUR MEAT BICYCLE! I WANT TO KILL!!!’ Krieg’s voice rang out in my head over my own thoughts. I grabbed part of my forehead in pain as I was hit with another head ache.

“Um, p-p-p-pl-ple-please lay b-b-back down…?” Fluttershy’s voice pulled me out of my minds struggle, her voice trembling and her legs were shaking even more underneath her and I frowned. It wasn’t right to see Fluttershy so scared, especially since I was the one scaring her. At her request and some of my own choice to do so anyway, I went back to the bed and laid down again.

‘WHY ARE WE TRYING TO SLEEP?! I WANT TO KILL KILL KILL!!’ Krieg’s voice echoed in my head again, giving me another massive head ache, which told me that the two were connected someway. Slowly one by one the five ponies that were hiding under the bed slowly came out of hiding.

“So this thing can understand us?” Dash asked as she looked over to Fluttershy.

“I guess it can, but that could just be my ability to handle animals so well…” Fluttershy said as she walked over to her friends.

“WHO YOU CALLING AN ANIMAL BUG BUTT?!!” My hand launched itself to my mask covered mouth as Krieg’s voice erupted from it loud enough to nearly give half the ponies in the room a heart attack.

“It talked! It can speak!” Pinkie exclaimed, with more excitement rather than fear.

“And it seems to not have any manners what so ever!” Rarity said with disgust in her voice from the ‘bug butt’ part of what Krieg said.

“Sorry about that…” I said softly in my own voice which clearly caught the ponies off guard since my voice was completely different from Krieg’s.

“NO, NO SORRIES! SHE CALLED US NAMES! SO WE CALL HER NAMES!” Krieg’s voice boomed out again as I was hit with another headache which caused me to hold my head in pain.

“Shut up!” I yelled at him as my headache started to get worse and worse.

“Um, I’m sorry…?” Fluttershy’s voice brought me out of my agonizing headache and silenced Krieg’s voice in my head as I looked over to see the ponies with either a look of horror, confusion, or a mix of the two.

“No, I… WE’RE sorry…” I said as I was hit with another head ache as Krieg raged at me inside my head.

“Um, we?” Applejack asked aloud which once again silenced Krieg’s voice in my head. I gave a sigh of relief as I was now able to let go of my head.

“It’s complicated…” I mumbled as I closed my eyes and began taking deep breaths to try and calm my nerves and tried to collect my thoughts without interruptions. Sadly it was not to last it seemed as there was a loud *POOF* and I looked over to find that two more ponies had joined us. One was a short purple alicorn, the other was almost my size and white with a long flowing mane. “Aw crud…” I mumbled under my breath.

“I’m back and I brought the princess with me, is everything okay?!” Twilight nearly yelled as she rushed over to her friends with a look of concern was on her face.

“Um well I guess so…?” Fluttershy said as she looked over at the two princesses. I took note that Celestia was looking me over with an expressionless face. She showed no fear, curiosity, or anything and it kind of creeped me out and I looked away. But even as I did so I could feel her eyes on me as Fluttershy explained everything that had happened since I woke up.

“I see, I think I know what’s wrong with our friend here.” Celestia said as I heard her hoofsteps against the wooden floor as she walked over to the side of the bed.

“What do you mean princess? He’s got a saw in his head, of course there’s something wrong with him!” Dash said and Krieg let out a snarl and I could faintly hear the wind of Dash flying to hide behind someone.

“I’m not speaking of what is physically wrong with him, I’m talking about mentally.” She said as I felt her eyes on me again. “Will you please roll over to face me please?” She asked in a calm yet pleasant voice, I did as asked and rolled over and came face to face with the princess of the sun. “I’m going to ask you BOTH some questions, I want you to answer them honestly okay?” I gave a nod but Krieg didn’t respond to any of this. “Who are you?”

“Joel…KRIEEEEG” Our voices mingled, apparently Psycho’s had a respect for authority.

“Where did you come from?”

“Earth…PANDORAAA”

“Why are you here?” We stayed silent, neither of really knew why we were here. I closed my eyes and shook my head and she frowned. “You don’t know? Well then what is the last thing you remember before waking up here?”

“A bright light…I, I’m beginning to remember, QUITE! KEEP THE MEMORIZE DOWN WITH A KNIFE TO ITS THROAT! SLASH IT UNTIL IT BLEEDS IT’S THOUGHT JUICES OVER THE DEAD UNTIL IT IS ABSORBED INTO NOTHINGNESSSS!”

“I see, and what are you exactly?”

“Human…HEHEHEHE, I KNOW WHAT I HAVE BECOME. I AM THE INSIDES OF THIS WORLD, I TASTE THE GORE, I SMELL THE CRYING, AND I WANT MORE! I WANT TO BATHE IN YOUR FLESH! I WANT TO SAVOR YOUR FEAR! I WANT TO LIVE IN A CASTLE BUILT OF YOUR AGONY, AND I WANT TO CRUMBLE IT WITH AN AXE TO YOUR CAROTID ARTERIES!!!”

“Alright and now for my last question. What would you do if the other did not hold you back?” Her question rendered me silent, I honestly didn’t know, but Krieg sure did.

“I WANT TO KILL!!!” I stayed silent as I looked from Celestia to the other ponies in the room. Not that it was much surprise that they held mixed faces of disgust, fear, and maybe a little anger towards Krieg for how he spoke to the princess.

“Joel, you did not answer my question.” Celestia’s voice pulled my attention away from the other to now face her once again. “What would you do, Joel?” I sat in silence as I pondered the question over and over in my head. What would I do? Try and go home? Unless I turned back to normal first I don’t think that would work out very well. So the next option, live here, still not exactly the best idea since I had a homicidal maniac living in my head. So in all honesty I didn’t know what I would do, I shook my head and she frowned again. “I see. Well then, thank you both for answering me honestly. You are free to do as you wish.”

“WHAT?!!!” The main six screamed out in unison and I almost screamed out with them as I looked up at the princess with disbelief.

“Forgive me princess but you heard him! He wants to kill you and probably everypony around him!” Dash yelled out in almost total anger.

“Ah agree with Rainbow Dash, this monster needs to be locked up in the deepest and darkest dungeon ya got!” AJ said as she pointed at me with her hoof.

“I third that movement, just look at what that vile beast’s words have done to poor dear Fluttershy!” Rarity exclaimed as she tried to comfort a now sobbing in fear Fluttershy on her shoulder. However Celestia shook her head at them.

“That is where you are wrong. Krieg wishes to kill, but Joel won’t let him, isn’t that right Joel?” She said in a calm voice as she looked over at me with a smile that put me at ease. I gave a nod of agreement and the others looked on in disbelief, but Twilight seemed to be catching on.

“A multi-personality disorder… Of course!” Twilight exclaimed but Celestia shook her head.

“Not quiet I’m afraid, though the concept is very similar. That is not just one mind with different personalities. It is one mind with two different people in it. Joel and Krieg are two separate beings trapped inside one body. Joel seems to be kind, honest, and friendly. While Krieg is well…”

“NIPPLE SALADS! NIPPLE SALADS. NIPPLE SALADS!” Krieg blurted out and I groaned mentally in response.

“Well, you can see for yourself. However it seems that Krieg is weaker than Joel at this point. Joel appears to have the most control over the body they share, otherwise Krieg would have killed you all already.” Celestia said as the other listened faithfully, despite what she was saying was probably nonsense to them.

“Yer tellin’ me that this thing is actually two separate things at the same time? That don’t make a lick of sense.” AJ complained.

“Think of it this way Applejack…” Twilight said. “…You know how Princess Luna can enter your dreams? Now picture if she was somehow trapped in your head even after you woke up. You would be two separate ponies in the same body, that’s the same thing as these two right now.” She finished and pointed her hoof at me.

“Okay well I kind of understand that part. But still why don’t we lock them up?” Dash questioned, and honestly, I couldn’t blame her.

“Take the Luna inside AJ idea for an example Dash. If AJ did something bad that was worth being thrown in the dungeon, would it be fair to throw Luna in the dungeon with her?” Twilight explained and Dash quietly shook her head. “It wouldn’t be fair to Joel if we punished him for something Krieg does…”

“Just do it…” I muttered, drawing all of their attention. “Lock me up and throw away the key. I, I don’t want to hurt anybody…” I mumbled, only to be replied to with a soft laugh coming from Celestia.

“Oh come now Joel, surely you didn’t think I didn’t have something in mind that would let you walk around freely without fear of Krieg running rampant did you?” Her voice was once again very calm and soothing and it put me at ease. “Please close your eyes Joel and take a deep breath.” I nodded and did as she asked of me, closing my eyes slowly as I took in a deep breath.

At first everything was normal, just the blackness of the inside of my eyelids, until I heard something coming from Celestia and the other’s direction. Soon the blackness became a blinding white light before Celestia came into view, along with a slightly transparent Krieg. Krieg gave himself a look over and tried punching his arm, only for it to go through him and he repeated the process and expecting a different outcome. I looked myself over to find that I was still in Krieg’s body as well, but his voice and my headache were now gone.

“This is the deepest part of your unconscious mind.” Celestia spoke, grabbing both of our attentions. “Here neither of you can hurt each other or anypony else. All you can do is talk to each other. Since neither of you can currently live without the other, you must learn to coexist in this one body you have.”

“You mean strike a deal?” I asked and she gave a nod of her head smiling warmly.

“Precisely. Until both of you come to an agreement you will both remain trapped her while your body sleeps in the outside world. I shall wait your return to the real world, until then farewell Joel.” She said before the vision of her slowly faded out and it was just me and Krieg left. I decided I would be the one to make the first move for an agreement.

“Alright Krieg here’s the only deal I’m ever going to agree to. I’ll let you lose so you can kill as many of the deserving you want, but the second you touch an innocent person I’ll end us. That’s the deal, I’ll let you run rampant against any bad guys we encounter, but if you so much as think about hurting the innocent, I’ll slit our throat without a moment’s hesitation.” I said firmly in a voice that actually sounded like I meant what I said despite the fact I was scared to kill myself, but he didn’t know that. Krieg didn’t really say anything but he did grumbled to himself before he reluctantly nodded. With that there was another bright flash of white light before my eyes opened up to the ceiling of the house I was in again.

“My, that certainly was fast. I didn’t even have enough time to make some tea.” Celestia’s voice caught my attention as I looked over to see her and the mane six still in the room with me. “I take it things went well?”

“Yeah, I guess I can be very persuasive when I need to be.” I said with a soft chuckle and warm smile, not that any of them could see because of the mask.

“So what was your agreement?” She asked and I gave a sigh.

“I told him I would let him loose whenever there was trouble but the moment he tried to hurt anyone innocent I’d end us.” I said sitting up and looking out the window to find that I was in Fluttershy’s cottage by the small creek and bridge in front of her house.

“Joel, surely you don’t mean…?” Celestia asked, her voice had a hint of concern to it.

“Yup, and I meant every word of it.” I answered with a slight smirk before looking back to her. “Nothing gets your point across like a death threat…”

Chapter 3

As the day went on Krieg stayed quiet in the back of my head, which was a good sign because that meant he was holding up his part of our deal. I explained to the mane six and Celestia what had happened before I woke up here and did my best to explain how my world was filled with technology. I also tried to explain to them how back in my world Krieg was a fictional character from a video game I was playing right before the bright flash of light. As I finished my explanation of everything, I saw that most of them had a look of confusion except for Twilight and Celestia. Twilight was more full of curiosity than anything else at being able to interact with a new life form. Celestia kept up a calm expression and didn’t give off more than asking an occasional question.

“You said before that Krieg was from a video game in your world correct? Was he the same in the video game as he is right now?” Twilight asked and I had to think about how to respond.

“Well it’s kind of complicated. When you play as him in the game yes he is very much like how he is now. He’s insane, violent, and wants to kill everything. But the game creators have stated before that he was once a normal mercenary type of guy. But he was captured and tortured by an evil corporation called Hyperion. They say that they experimented on him to make some type of super soldier but it caused him to go crazy and he escaped. Aside from that and what happens in the actual game I don’t know anything else.” I said as I took note that some of the facial expressions changed to that of sympathy maybe?

“Oh my, that’s just…awful…” Rarity finally said. “I mean, for somepony to cause another so much pain that they turn into, that. It’s just cruel.”

“Its torture, it’s not meant to be pleasant.” I replied a bit too bluntly.

“Well yes, but still…” Rarity said before falling quiet and I looked over to Celestia who still held the same calm expression.

“Well if you guys don’t have any more questions for me. I want to ask you all something’s.” I said as I looked over all of them. “First of all, where did you guys find me? Surely I didn’t just appear in this bed right?”

“Well no of course not.” Twilight said as she walked a bit closer. “You see, last night Princess Luna had planned a meteor shower but something was, off…” She said which caught my attention quickly.

“Let me guess, I fell from the night sky during the meteor shower.” I said and Twilight looked away with a look that told me there was more to it.

“Well yes but it wasn’t just you…there were five meteors that went off course in total. Two of them landed just outside of ponyville and were nothing more than meteors like we expected. So we just shrugged it off at first as a simple mishap. The other two landed in the everfree forest so it’s too dangerous for anypony except the royal guard to go investigate. But then there was you, you landed just right outside of Fluttershy’s cottage here.” She said motioning to the door and for me to follow here.

Getting up from the bed and followed Twilight from Fluttershy’s bedroom and through her cottage before coming to what I figured was the front door. I had to admit that everything seemed to match up with the TV show quiet accurately as far as the cottage went. But when twilight opened up the door, instead of seeing the small creek with a bridge over it like in the show. I was instead greeted by a massive crater that spanned maybe ten feet wide and seven feet deep just a couple feet away from the door. Did I really do that, but more importantly, why the hell wasn’t I dead from that? As questions flowed through my head the others soon joined us as we stepped out and stared at the hole in the ground in disbelief.

“So this is where you landed. Aside from smoking you were completely fine except for, well that…” Twilight said as she pointed to the saw blade in my forehead.

I didn’t answer, I just continued to stare at the massive hole before me as i got lost in deep thought. As I continued to stare at the hole something caught my eye. It was a small square black box at the very center of the crater where I figured I was when they found me here. I slowly made my way into the hole as Twilight and the others asked me what I was doing, but I was too caught up in finding out what this thing was to hear them. As I reached the bottom of the hole I reached down picked up the box and turned it over and brushed the dirt off of it. To my surprise it had an electronic screen with what looked like a radio wave flowing on it. I went to try and turn one of the dials on the side but the thing burst into a bright light which caused me to close my eyes and it simply vanished from my hand. Opening my eyes again I was greeted with the HUB from borderlands 2, the health bar, shield bar, Ammo, grenades, the action skill box, and even my EXP bar with “Legendary Psycho” under it but it didn’t say what level I was, I even had a mini-map. Bringing my hand up to try and touch the display I found that I was now holding my flaming infinity pistol that I had from the game. Giving myself a look over I had all of the items I had on my character last time I played it except for my assault rifle and rocket launcher. On my back I had the conference call shotgun and on my belt was the Rough Rider shield, my Fire Storm grenade mod, a relic that I had that decreased any damage I took, and my class mod. I also had the buzz axe that was Krieg’s signature item and I could hear Krieg in my head give off a laugh of delight.

“What in tarnation are those thing?” Applejack's voice called be back to reality as I looked back to see the mane six and Celestia looking me over with all of my weapons and gear. When my attention

“These where all the weapons and items I had in my game.” I said as I gave the axe a few swings with my arm, finding it surprisingly light.

“I trust you don’t plan to miss use those things now will you Joel?” Celestia called out in a now stern voice that told me not to mess around with this stuff too much.

“I won’t princess, but I need to make sure of something…” I said as I climbed back out of the hole with my gear and looked around for something flammable. I spotted a couple bales of hay and looked over at Fluttershy. “Can I use one of these?”

“Um, I guess you can.” She said as I took hold of one of the bales and tossed it into the crater. “What are you planning to do with it down there though?”

“Testing a theory I have…” I said as I pulled out my flaming infinity pistol and took aim at the hay bale at the bottom. “…and if I’m right, I just hope this doesn’t hurt too badly…” With that I fired at the bale of hay and to no surprise to me it burst into flames, and so did I. My body ignited into flames and my health bar started to go down ever so slowly.

“OH MY GOSH YOU’RE ON FIRE!!” Fluttershy exclaimed and all of the other nearly jumped out of their skin as they tried to find a way to put me out.

“Guys I’m fine, the fire doesn’t burn me…WE EMBRACE THE FLAME!” Krieg finished off my statement and I gave a sigh as the fire went out on its own and I was left smoking, literally. “See?”

“What do you mean it didn’t burn you?! YOU WERE ON FIRE!” Twilight exclaimed as she immediately began looking me over for burns, and to her surprise she found none. “But…that’s not possible…”

“I assume you had a reason for doing this Joel?” Celestia asked as she looked a little afraid for my well being, I nodded.

“In the game Krieg is from, there is a skill you can have that makes it so when I set something on fire I have a chance to catch fire myself. Normally this is a bad thing, but for Krieg it’s actually a good thing.” I tried to explain.

“Pray tell how in equastria can being on fire be a good thing?” Rarity asked.

“Well there are skills you can get that make you more powerful in the game when you are on fire. One of them is damage resistance, which is why I’m not that badly burned if at all.” I explained and the others just looked at me baffled, except for Celestia, she seemed very serious and concerned.

“Joel…What all can Krieg do?” She asked, her voice was serious, she wanted to know exactly what I was capable of, or rather what Krieg was capable of.

“Well, if this is anything like my character from the game, I might be able to turn into a badass mutant Psycho. All the other skills I had only made him stronger physically.” I answered honestly.

“Show me…” She said, and I had to process the request.

“Um, I’m sorry, you want me to show you what?”

“I said show me. Turn into this badass mutant psycho.” It took me almost a minute to process the request again. I didn’t really know how to even to turn into a badass, let alone if it actually would work.

“I’m afraid I don’t know how to do that. But I do know I wouldn’t be able to do it now even if I did know how.” I answered and she frowned.

“Do you care to explain?”

“Well if it works like the game, I’d need to be severely injured to activate it. Right now I’ve barely got so much as a scratch from burning just now, and personally I don’t want to get that close to death to do this.” Celestia’s frown went away and she gave a look of concern.

“Very well. I shall not ask such a thing of you again. However, I wish for you to give me a written report about all of these skills you both possess.” She said as her horn began to glow. “I’m afraid I must leave you all at this point. Despite the importance of this matter I still have my other duties to attend to back in canterlot. Joel, give your written report to Twilight and have her send it to me when it is done.” I gave her a nod of agreement and she gave me a soft smile that put me at ease. “Until next we meet, farewell.” And with that she used her magic to teleport away and now it was just me and the mane six.

“Well Joel…” Twilight said as I turned to her as she walked up to me. “…I guess you should come with me to the Library, I’ve got plenty of scrolls and-“ Before she could finish there was a large explosion coming from the forest next to us, the everfree forest.

“You said that two other meteors fell in there right?” I asked as i looked back to Twilight and she nodded.

“Yes, but it’s too dangerous for anypony to go in there without the royal guard so we haven’t been able to investigate, you’re not suggesting…” She said with a bit of concern.

“Well it’s a possibility that I wasn’t the only one to come here through meteor travel.”

“Yes we know that, but that’s not what I’m talking about. You’re not really going to…” I smirked.

“…Go in there and find them and bring them back? Yup!” I said as I pulled out my buzz axe. “Look Twilight, if there’s another person who’s stuck here like me and are in trouble right now, I want to help them. Who knows, maybe they know what’s going on and how I can get back to normal.” I said as I looked at her and the rest of the ponies. “So, are you going to help me or not?”

Author's Note

So I'm debating on how i want to continue out this story in terms of posting new chapters. Currently I'm posting chapters frequently but they have minor grammar and spelling mistakes in them and are also rather short. But i know for some people that bugs the hell out of them and they like longer and more detailed chapters so i currently have two options before me: 1) keep doing what I'm doing now and have new chapters up every other day or so. Or 2) double the length of my chapter and fix all the problems with said chapters, but reduce the frequency in which i post them. What do you guys think?

Chapter 4

Selene’s POV:

“SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!!!” I yelled as I ran at full speed through the forest as the barking and howling of three Timberwolves grew louder and louder behind me. I was running as fast as I could in my new armor that made moving around feel unnatural, which didn’t help. I quickly reached for one of the two grenades I had left and threw it behind me. “Why don’t you things just die already?!!” I screamed as the grenade went off and two of the three Timberwolves blew up with it, sticks and lumber scattering across the ground with slight singe marks and cracks in them. The remaining wolf stopped in the midst of our chase and at the center of the mess my grenade had made, but I didn’t care, I just kept running.

I kept on running and running as fast as I could until I was sure I was far enough away from those things. I finally came to a stop under a rather large tree, breathing heavily as my legs gave out under me, bring me to my knees. I leaned against the tree for support as tried to catch my breath and collect my thoughts now that I wasn’t running for my life. "What the hell was going on here?" Was the first thing that came to my mind. I was being chased by Timberwolves from mlp in some type of forest while dressed in the N7 armor from Mass Effect 3, helmet and all. My initial thoughts were to question everything going on, but I realized that this wasn’t exactly the best place to do that. If those things chasing me really were Timberwolves from the show, then that meant I was in the everfree forest right now.

After finally catching my breath and regaining the feeling in my legs I slowly brought myself to stand. I needed to get out of this forest before I could really consider trying to find answers to what was going on. As I started to walk again the ground started to shake beneath me as I could hear the faint crunching of logs, leaves, and other things coming from the distance, all followed by a VERY loud roar of a massive timberwolf.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” I mumbled under my breath as the sound of snapping wood and the massive thud of its paws started getting louder and louder as the ground shook even more below me. I turned and ran at full speed again, hopefully now that it was bigger it would have a harder time to maneuver around through the trees, meaning I would be able to out run it this time. But my prayers were denied as the thumping and ground shaking of the beast following me only got faster as I did and not slowing down in the least. The loud cracking of trees became very loud as I looked back to the massive timberwolf just simply run through the trees in front of him like they were nothing.

I noticed that the thing was starting to sway in its chasing, heading slightly in different direction which made me run a different way. The thing was leading me through the chase. It was forcing me to run certain directions, but why? As I kept running through the trees I soon found that there was break in the tree line and I made a mad dash for it, hoping it was the exit of the forest. If the shows logic played here then the thing wouldn’t follow me outside of the forest, right? I jumped over a bush and out of the denseness of the trees only to find that I was now in corner with a drop off that was about ten feet tall.

“Well played wolf…well played…” I said as turned around to see the massive timberwolf come out of the tree line and was now towering over me. I was cornered by the beast with no way out that would be quick enough to not get eaten or severely hurt at best. “…But I haven’t lost just yet…” I said as I reached for my last grenade and pulled it out as the wolf gave another loud roar. I was about to frag the huge thing but before I could arm the grenade I heard a loud shout coming from over the drop off above me.

“I HAVE THE SHINIEST MEAT BICYCLE!!!”

From on top of the drop off, someone jumped straight off and towards the massive timberwolf with what looked like an axe. Bring the axe down he wedged it right in between the things eyes, the beast giving off a loud roar of pain as it flung it’s head back and forth. The man held onto his axe that was buried deep enough into the wooden face of the wolf that it wouldn’t come out as he was flung around with him hanging onto it. After a bit of flailing around from the wolf’s thrashing about the man pulled his axe out and jumped off the beast. I got more than enough of a good look at him to tell who it was, but I didn’t want to believe it.

“Krieg…?” I mumbled before he charged at the timberwolf screaming and howling like the psycho he was known to be in the game. His buzz axe was now spinning in its hilt as Krieg wasted no time chopping right through one of the timberwolf’s legs, leaving a deep cut in the wood. The timberwolf howled in pain as it brought its leg up, only to have another leg cut by Krieg’s axe. Krieg kept on repeating this process over and over again, moving too quickly for the timberwolf to fight him back. After about a minute Krieg gave one final swing of his axe at the first legs he cut, and chopped it off. The timberwolf gave a final howl of pain before collapsing on the ground next to Krieg who was breathing heavily as his buzz axe slowly came to a stop. After a few second of staring at the timberwolf’s body he quickly spun around to look at me and screamed.

“I LOOKED INTO THE HEART OF DARKNESS AND I ATE IT ALL!!!!”

Krieg/Joel’s POV:

“Lovely Krieg, way to give off a good first impression…”

“NIPPLE SALADS!”

“I’ll take that as a 'I don’t care' then.” I thought out loud in our mind as Krieg put his buzz axe away and looked back over to the person in armor. “Alright Krieg, a deals a deal, I’m in control again. There’s no one left for you to fight.” I thought aloud again as Krieg began to whine and complain in our head as I began to take control of our body. I could feel the tiredness of our shared body from all the work Krieg had done taking down that massive timberwolf. My arms ached in pain as I held my head in slight pain from Krieg still complaining in the back of our mind, giving me a head ache like whenever he talked in our head.

“Um, Krieg?” I voice that sounded very similar to me called out to us, silencing Krieg in my head and bringing my attention back to the person in armor. “Are you okay?” She asked through her helmet, her voice was slightly muffled because of her helmet, but I could at least make out what she was saying.

“Sorry Miss, but my name’s Joel. Me and Krieg share this body and…”

“Joel?!! Is that really you?!” The girl nearly shouted at me as she took a step closer and looked me over.

“Um, do I know you?” I asked and she tilted her head at me like I was crazy before she straightened up.

“Oh right, the helmet…” She said before she began to fiddle around with her helmet before pulling it off. “Recognize me now?” She said with a slight smirk as I instantly recognized her.

“Selene?!! What are you doing here?!!” I shouted in surprise as I got a good look at her. Selene was a thin white girl who stood just a few inches shorter than me back home, but now that I was Krieg she was almost a full foot shorter. She had chestnut brown colored hair and unmistakable blue eyes that seemed to put the blueness of the sky to shame.

“I could ask you the same thing. Also, why do you look like your psycho from borderlands?” She said as she put her helmet back on.

“Your guess is as good as mine, I only woke up here a little while ago. I’m guessing you’ve figured out by now where we are based off this thing right?” I said as I looked over the timberwolf’s body before back to her.

“Yeah, we’re in the mlp universe I think, but I’m not sure.” She said before a voice called to us from on the top of the drop off.

“Joel?! Are you okay down there? You just took off running while screaming, and who is that?!” Twilight yelled down at us from on top of the drop off.

“I’m fine Twilight, this is my friend Selene she’s from my world! And for the record that was Krieg who took off running, not me!” I yelled back up to her as I looked at Selene who had a look of disbelief. “Yeah, I kind of had the same reaction too.”

“Okay, the moment we get out of here you have a lot of explaining to do.” Selene said as she started to look for a climbing path up the drop off.

“What did I do?” I said as I started to helper her start climbing up the ten foot wall by letting her stand on my hands and then lifting her up to my shoulders. I looked up to see Twilight eying the body of the timberwolf Krieg took down, but then her eyes grew wide with horror.

“GUYS GET OUT OF THERE QUICK! THAT THINGS NOT DEAD YET!” She screamed at us as I gave her a look of confusion before I heard the clunking of wood behind me. I suddenly remembered the timberwolf episode from the show, when the timberwolf choked to death on the rock he collapsed and broke into a bunch of pieces. This guy was still whole when he fell.

I nearly threw Selene up the wall and Twilight grabbed her with both her hooves and magic before I spun around to face the timberwolf again, getting ready to let Krieg take over. But instead I was greeted with one of its wooden paws pinning me to the stone wall of the drop off, pinning me down and keeping me from running away, my health bar dropping quite a bit as well, but still not half way down. The beast roared in my face and I was thankful I had on Krieg’s so I couldn’t smell it’s said to be horrible breath. It had me pinned with my arms at my side so I couldn’t pull out the buzz axe and try to cut off its paw to get free. It seemed to enjoy watching me struggle in its hold as it lowered its head so that we were looking eye to eye. The deep cut Krieg had made earlier was dripping with tree sap and its leg that Krieg cut off was slowly starting to grow back using any and all loose wood and sticks around us, but the cut in its forehead didn’t heal.

I kept trying to break free as Twilight and Selene started screaming for me to get out of there or trying to find something to throw at the thing to get its attention. Twilight blasted it with her magic but it only pushed the timberwolf’s head back for a second and charred the outer bark of its face, but it was still fixed on me. It opened its mouth to bite my upper half off and I closed my eyes as I began to struggle relentlessly to get free. Suddenly there was a loud crunch of wood and a roar of pain from the beast as my eyes shot back open.

On top of the timberwolf’s head now stood someone driving some type of sword into the deep gash Krieg had left. Cracks quickly formed before a final snap rang out and the timberwolf’s head split in two, right down the middle. The wooden paw that had me pinned crumbled into pieces along with the rest of the timberwolf’s body as I fell down to one knee. Looking up I saw my friend Jack dressed in an outfit that looked exactly like Riku from dream drop distance with the ‘Way to the Dawn’ keyblade in his hand. Jack was about three inches taller than Selene with red hair and freckles on his face with dark brown eyes. He smirked as he rested the keyblade on his shoulder and walked over to me.

“You started a party without me? I’m hurt.” He said with a chuckle as he held out his hand for me to take. After the disbelief of who was standing in front of me passed I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Still a cocky show off as always, huh Jack?” I said with a chuckle as I took his hand and he helped me up. “Thanks.”

Chapter 5

Joel’s POV:

The walk back to Fluttershy’s cottage didn’t take too long since we had twilight with us who could fly up above the tree tops and find the right way back. Out of the three of us Jack seemed to have been the one who was the first to wake up in this world. He told us that he woke up while it was still night time here and took refuge in a cave until the sun came up before trying to find his way out of the forest. Selene said that she woke up sometime this morning she guessed and already had all of her equipment on her. She said she only ran into the timberwolves about ten minutes before me and Krieg showed up to save her. I asked her why she didn’t just use her gun but then she reminded me that if a grenade didn’t stop them that a few bullets to them wouldn’t do any significant damage. To be completely honest I didn’t believe her but I wasn’t going to question it right now.

Coming out of the forest we followed a small dirt road back to Fluttershy’s house where Selene punched me in the arm for destroying Fluttershy’s front yard. Jack, not really caring for MLP like me and Selene did just sat back and laughed at me getting hit. The rest of the mane six were waiting inside for our return, Dash seemed to be pacing back and forth. My guess was that she was debating whether or not to come after us out of her loyalty towards twilight who said she wanted to come with me alone. The ponies were shocked to see that we came back with two more people but they didn’t exactly seem surprised either. Like they knew we’d be bringing others but I guess they didn’t expect them to look so different from me. After introductions were out of the way and I explained to all of them that I knew them from my world they seemed to ease up around them. I then went on to explain to them what happened to all of us before we found ourselves in equastria.

“So let me try and get this straight. You and your friends were in a sky-call and playing these ‘video games’, and the next thing you all know is that you wake up here?” Rarity questioned and I nodded at her.

“It’s a called a Skype call and yes, we were all in a call together while playing video games before we ended up here as the characters we were playing from our video games.” I restated, feeling a little redundant but I didn’t let it bother me since I figured this was a hard concept to comprehend.

“So what were you playing when you got sent here?” Dash asked us and I honestly didn’t know how to answer right away for myself.

“I was playing a game called Mass Effect that takes place in the distance future where we find alien life and can travel through space.” Selene spoke up first and Twilight seemed to be intrigued by the concept of the game as if was a setting for a good book.

“I was playing a game called kingdom hearts where I travel between worlds and get rid of the darkness in them basically.” Jack followed up as best he could since the whole concept of kingdom hearts was long and we didn’t really have time to worry about explaining it.

“And I was playing Borderlands where I have to stop a cruel dictator from awakening an alien warrior so he can destroy the world of Pandora. But right now I’m more concerned with how we ended up here like this and if we can get back or not.” I said as I took a seat on the sofa against the wall of what I guessed was Fluttershy’s living room.

“I don’t blame you.” Twilight spoke up as she walked over to me. “Having to be pulled away from your home world must be hard for you.” She said trying to comfort me, but I started to wonder if this was really even a bad thing. Was it really so bad that I was in a magical world full of talking ponies from one of my favorite TV shows?

“Well so long as there’s a way back home for us I don’t mind being stuck here for a little while.” Selene said as she finally decided to take off her helmet and fixed her hair. “I’d rather be stuck here than the universe my character comes from.”

“Agreed.” I said chuckling softly, despite my love for borderlands it wasn’t exactly a place you wanted to live in. Sure meeting all the characters would be pretty awesome but the other, I’m guessing ninety percent of the time would be spent fighting bandits or Hyperion loaders.

“Are the places you guys come from really that bad?” Dash asked and I chuckled a bit at her.

“Let me put it to you this way Dash, the place I come from is called Pandora for a reason. Literally everyone and everything wants you dead and is crazy enough of a place to turn out people like Krieg on a regular basis. Does that sound like your dream vacation destination?” I asked with a slight smirk under my mask as Dash grew silent for a bit.

“In the Mass Effect universe we’re under attack by an alien race called the reapers. They’re like locust that move from galaxy to galaxy, once they devour everything they move on to the next one while turning any biological creature into one of their own along the way.” Selene explained and I saw twilight’s once interest in Selene’s character universe go away.

“That sounds, dark…” Rarity said and I chuckled a bit.

“Yeah, but to us they weren’t any different than the settings you’d find in a book so we didn’t feel much connection for the characters or their universes.” I explained and seemed to ease things over with them knowing these weren’t real places. I looked outside and saw that the sun was now setting over the horizon and the moon was now starting to come out.

“Oh my, is it that late already?” I heard Fluttershy mumble as she noticed the sky changing as well. “Um, I don’t have much room her, but I’m sure I can make accommodations for you three to sleep here.” She said as I could tell she was going to try to accommodate me and my two friends for the night.

“Ah got an extra room at the barn if one of ya’ll wouldn’t mind coming with me. Might help ease some pressure off of Shy.” Applejack chimed in and I could see Selene’s face brighten up a bit, AJ was her favorite pony from the show so I figured she would…

“Sure I wouldn’t mind going with you.” Selene said smiling, trying to hold back her excitement.

“Called it…” I thought with a smirk under my mask and held back a chuckle as she and AJ made their way out after saying their goodbyes.

“I have an extra room at Sugarcube corner that one of you guys can stay in and while we’re at it we can plan you ‘welcome to equastria’ party!” Pinkie Pie jumped in and I smiled a bit and looked over at Jack.

“Well I do like a good party…” Jack said softly and was instantly being hugged to death by Pinkie.

“Oh this is going to be so much fun! I can introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Cake and their two little foals, oh and Gummy too!” She said as she practically dragged Jack out as she rambled on and on.

“Alas poor Jack, I knew him well.” I joked and earned a soft giggle coming from the four remaining ponies in the room.

“Well I best be off too, Sweetie Belle is probably wondering where I am right about now.” Rarity said before giving her goodbyes and making her way out the door.

"Same here, i promised Scootaloo that we'd camp out in the CMC's club house tonight. Later." Dash said before she left after Rarity and took off to the sky.

“Alright Joel you should probably come stay at the Library with me and Spike, the princess did ask you to write out everything Krieg is capable of so I can send it to her, but I’m sure we can do that in the morning.” Twilight said and frowned a little, honestly I wanted to stay with Fluttershy since she was my favorite out of the six. However I nodded softly and got up to follow Twilight out the door, but I stopped when I noticed that her front yard was still torn up.

“Oh um, yeah, sorry about the front yard Fluttershy. I’ll come back tomorrow if I can and try and fix it, if I can…” I mumbled as I looked back over to the timid little pegasus who was now straightening things up.

“Oh it’s not that big of a deal, I mean, you can come back and help if you want to. But I certainly don’t hold it against you, you couldn’t help it after all.” She said softly and gave me a warm smile that seemed to ease my guilt away and replace it with good feeling.

“Oh no I insist that you let me help, I caused the problem so I will fix the problem.” I said firmly with a smile behind my mask.

“Well okay if you’re sure then. I’ll get the things we’ll need to fix it up tomorrow then. Goodnight.” She said happily as she waved me and Twilight goodbye as we made our way out the door.

“You too Fluttershy.” I said as I waved back before Twilight closed the door behind me with her magic and I walked up next to her. We walked maybe about ten feet down the road from Fluttershy’s cottage before Twilight broke the silence.

“So Joel, what’s your home world like? You said that you guys had this advanced technology like your video games and skype calls, but what else is there?” She asked curiously as we kept on walking and I chuckled. I spent the whole walk to the library explaining just about everything I could from my world to her. I told her about TV, the radio, telephones, computers, cars, and just about everything really, while I wasn’t sure how most of this stuff was made or worked I knew enough to explain what things did what. By the time we got to the library the moon was now hanging in the night sky and the sun had disappeared under the horizon as I explained what movies were to Twilight.

“…and that’s why they charge you so much money for popcorn at the movie theaters.” I said as I opened the front door to the library and we went inside. Twilight was practically beaming with excitement from everything I had told her.

“Wow, for a place that doesn’t have magic you ponies sure know how to live!” She said smiling brightly and I chuckled at her.

“People Twilight, we call ourselves people, not ponies.” I corrected her.

“Right sorry. It’ll take me a while to address you guys like that.” She said rubbing the back of her head with her hoof.

“Oh don’t worry about it that much, we don’t take any offense by it if you just want to keep addressing us that way.” I said smiling.

“Well okay if you’re sure. Anyways I have an extra bed upstairs that you can use. Um, just try not to tear up the sheets with that if you can help it.” She said pointing to my forehead and I mentally groaned as I remembered that I had a buzz saw still lodged in my forehead.

“I’ll try but I can’t make any promises.” I said and she gave a worried nod before we made our way upstairs. For the most part everything was like the show with the exception of the extra bed in twilight’s room. Spike was asleep in his basket bed right next to Twilight's bed while what was to be my bed was right across from hers. I didn’t realize how tired I actually was until I saw the nice comfy bed and felt my muscles ache from walking all the way here and from fighting the timberwolf earlier. I gently set my equipment to one side of the bed before crawling in and laying on my back before covering up. I gave out one long and drawn out yawn before closing my eyes. I still had so many questions swirling around in my head, but for right now, I set it all aside as I let the darkness of sleep take me.

Chapter 6

Selene’s POV:

After leaving Fluttershy’s cottage with Applejack we made our way down a small dirt road towards Sweet apple Acers where I’d be getting to spend the night for now. Applejack stayed quiet most of the way there aside from the occasional question about my armor or weapons. I answered everything she asked of me honestly since I knew better then to lie around he, on top of which why should I lie? I didn’t see any harm in explaining what I had on my person so long as she understood I had no intentions of misusing any of it. As we got to the front gate I took off my helmet and took in a deep breath.

“The air is so clean here.” I said with a sigh as the smell of fresh air with a hint of some of the apples flooded my nose.

“Well ah guess I’ll take that as a compliment. Is the air not so clean where ya’ll come from?” She asked me and I chuckled a bit.

“No, on earth the air isn’t exactly the cleanest. We have machines called cars that use gasoline to get us from one place to another and they pollute the air.” I explained to her.

“That sounds rather nasty, no offense.” She said as she gave slight look of disgust.

“None taken. But it’s only really bad in big city areas where there are a lot of people who use cars. I live outside of the city so it’s not as bad, but still it’s nowhere near as clean as it is her.” I said smiling as I took another deep breath as we made our way up to the barn and AJ stopped me.

“Wait here for just a minute, ah gotta tell the family what’s goin’ on here. Don’t want ya give poor old granny smith a heart attack from seeing an alien.” She said and I gave her nod and waited outside while she went in and called her family out for an ‘important apple family meeting’ if I heard her correctly from inside. I held my helmet at my side and leaned my back next to the door as I tried not to eavesdrop on the conversation going on inside. After about five minutes AJ came back out with her two siblings and granny smith, all three of them were staring at me wide eyed and mouths hanging open.

“Um, hi?” I said nervously as I gave a small wave.

“She’s huge!!!!” Applebloom nearly yelled as excitement spread across her face and I fought back an urge to giggle. It was true that the ponies only seemed to come up to my waist, Big Mac coming up to about my neck while Applebloom came to my knee. “She’s taller than Big Mac even!”

“Eeyup…” Big Mac said a bit surprised but not overly shocked before granny smith walked up to me and studied me carefully which made me kind of nervous.

“Yer not one of them aliens that has been ruining our crop fields and leavin’ them weird patterns in them are ya?” She asked as she continued to study me over.

“Um, no…” I answered honestly as I tried to avert eye contact with here until she finally stepped back and gave me one last look over from head to toe before smiling.

“Well then welcome to Sweet Apple Acers Miss…”

“Selene.”

“Ms. Selene, please make yer self at home and if there’s anything ya need don’t hesitate to ask.” Granny Smith said smiling before Applebloom came up to me and looked me over herself.

“This is so cool! I get to meet an alien, I bet I can get my cutie mark at being an alien observer!” She cheered happily before Mac pulled her back.

“Alright now let’s not get not get too excited now Applebloom, I’m sure if everything Applejack said happen did happen she must be very tired.” He said smiling as Applebloom gave a disappointed ‘aww…’ in response.

“Well I’m gonna show our guest her room then before hitting the hay.” AJ said as she motioned me to follow her inside. For the most part everything looked like the TV show with exception of what was never shown. AJ showed me my room which was a simple guest bedroom with a bedside table with a lamp on it and a bed that looked like it would just fit me.

“Thanks again for letting me stay here Applejack, it’s really nice of you.” I said smiling as I sat down on the bed and sank into the covers a bit.

“Aw think nothin of it and you can just call me AJ for short.” She said smiling as she walked over to the bed. “Besides Fluttershy would have over worked herself if she tried to take care of all three of you at once.” She said smiling before her smile turned into a look that told me she was thinking something. “You mind if ah ask ya a question Selene?”

“Nah, go right ahead.”

“Well it’s bout yer friend Joel and well, Krieg…”

“You’re worried about him losing control over Krieg aren’t you?” I asked and she put on a little bit of a forced smile.

“Is it that easy to tell?” She asked rubbing the back of her head with her hoof and I smiled at her.

“Well I’m not overly worried about it, more like simply concerned. The way Joel explained how they work to me on the way out of the everfree is that it’s like a dial with two ends and an arrow. On one end is Joel, the other is Krieg, so he says it’s like turning the dial in his head, the closer the arrow is to Krieg the more control Krieg has.”

“Kinda like them fancy light dials that somepony’s use to dim the lights without turning them off all the way.”

“Exactly, from how Joel explained it he says Krieg can’t turn the dial in his head without Joel’s permission so I’m not too concerned.” I said smiling at AJ as she hopped up on the bed next to me.

“Well that put my mind at ease a little bit more at least. So you, Joel, and this Jack fellow were all friends back in your world right? Did ya’ll have any other friends aside from each other?” She asked and I nodded smiling.

“Well there was also our other two friends Dave and Ricky but other than that we didn’t have many other friends that we kept in touch with outside of school.”

“So there was five of ya?” She asked as she looked like she was puzzled over something.

“Yeah why?” I asked and she looked back at me.

“Well ya know how ya’ll came here like meteors from the night sky?” I nodded. “Well there was five meteors in total, but only you three showed up.” She said and my mind made the connection.

“You think our friends Dave and Ricky…”

“Ah can’t say for sure but I do think there is some kind of connection.” She said as she hopped off the bed. “Well there isn’t much for us to go on yet so let’s try not to let our heads run away without us. Let’s talk after a goodnights rest, alright?” She suggested and I smiled before nodding.

“Sounds like a plan. Goodnight then.” I said as AJ walked out and closed the door behind her and I started to take of my armor. After setting all of my stuff aside I climbed into the bed and quickly covered up before finding the most comfortable position I could. My mind was wondering about so many different things but my body was too tired to let my thoughts go far before I passed out as the world of dreams took me.

Jack’s POV:

“Why me…” I muttered to myself as I was being dragged off by a pink pony who was spouting off nonsense that I couldn’t make out. We hadn’t even been gone from the small cottage for less than a minute and I was already regretting my decision to leave.

“Because you and I have so much in common! We both like parties!” The pink pony said as she pulled me through what looked like a small town.

“That’s only one thing.”

“One thing in common is all you need to become the best of friends.” She shot right back at me which made me groan a little.

“Well I guess but still it’s not THAT much in common.”

“Well then you clearly don’t know me like your other two friends do. I’m Pinkie Pie the super-duper party pony of Ponyville! If there’s any type or form of party here in town you can be sure I’m the one throwing it!” She said as she finally stopped dragging me and was now bouncing up and down as we came to a stop in front of a house made of gingerbread, which normally I would have questioned. But since I was currently talking to a pink pony while dressed as Riku from kingdom hearts with his keyblade in hand, it was kind of the least important thing to question really.

“So you’re in charge of throwing parties as a job?”

“Of course not, I throw parties because they’re fun and make other ponies smile! It wouldn’t be right for me to charge other ponies for me to make them happy!” She said which made me pause for a second and brought up an obvious question.

“Then how do you make money?”

“Easy, I work here with Mr. and Mrs. Cake, this is the bakery Sugar Cube Corner.” She said as she opened the door and a bell above the door rang as we walked in.

“Welcome back Pinkie, I see you brought a new friend with you.” A male voice said as a yellowish pony walked out from a counter that had a bunch of baked goods in a display case.

“Sure did Mr. Cake, he’s new to town so I offered him a place to stay if that’s okay.” Pinkie said smiling happily and Mr. Cake smiled right back.

“Sure thing Pinkie, any friend of yours is welcome to stay. What’s your name?” He asked as he looked at me with a smile and I was honestly surprised he wasn’t freaked out.

“Uh, Jack. Forgive me for asking but, aren’t you a bit freaked out by me?” I asked since from what I could tell, humans didn’t exist here.

“When you live with Pinkie Pie long enough you learn not to question too many things. Thinking about it or trying to question it will only lead to headaches.” He said with a laugh and Pinkie only gave off a smile like she took that as a compliment.

“Well I’m going to show him to his room then Mr. Cake.” Pinkie said as I now found myself being pulled up some stairs behind the counter.

“Alright, just be quiet please, Pumpkin and Pound are sleeping.” He said and Pinkie gave a nod before she continued to pull me along. Pinkie brought me into what I guess was guest bedroom, which had a simple bed, a side table with a lamp, a closet and a window on the other side of the wall with the curtains drawn.

“This’ll be your room from now on so make yourself at home.” Pinkie said as she ushered me in. “I’ll let you get as much sleep as possible because tomorrow we will start your ‘welcome to equastria’ party planning.” She said before closing the door without another word and I was left to myself and the bed. I gave off a long sigh as I set my keyblade against the side table before climbing into the bed and turning off the light. The bed was soft, which was a welcomed change from the cave floor I slept on the night before when I was waiting for the sun to come up. Closing my eyes I took in slow deep breaths before I allowed myself to slip off to sleep.

Joel/Krieg’s POV:

My eyes slowly flicked open as I let out a yawn and I slowly sat up and rubbed my eyes. As my eyes slowly focused on my surroundings I found that I wasn’t in Twilights library anymore. I was now laying down on what appeared to be nothingness in a vast plane of stars and space. I instantly jumped to my feet as I looked around more to find that I really was drifting out in pace as shooting stars passed me by.

“Joel?” A female voice called out to me that I instantly recognized as Selene come from behind me. Turning around I saw here in here N7 armor also standing on nothing, looking just as confused as me.

“Somebody care to explain things to me?” Jacks voice called to us from my right, turning I saw him like I had before Pinkie dragged him away with his keyblade in hand. “Is this normal for when people go to sleep in this world?”

“Not unless we wish for it to be so.” A female voice called to us from my left. I quickly turned my head to see Princess Luna slowly fading into sight before us. “I am Princess Luna, Equastria’s Princess of the night. Apologize for disturbing your slumber and bringing you all here during your time of dreaming.” She said with a bit of concern on her face. “But we are afraid we have questions that you all need to answer for us.”

“Wait, this is some kind of dream?” Selene asked and Luna nodded.

“Indeed it is. We would have liked to speak with you all in person but our duties as the princess of the night are currently more important than questioning you right now.” She said as she walked towards me and looked me over.

“So what? You want us to answer your questions and then we can go back to sleep or…?” I asked curiously and she smirked.

“Not needed. Now that you are all asleep your minds have become unconscious and I can pull information from your minds with a simple spell. However I must first get your consent to do so here or else your minds will reject the spell.”

“So you can like read minds? Cool.” Jack said and I chuckled at him and Luna gave him a bit of a smile.

“In a way yes it is like a mind reading spell. But I’m not reading your thoughts with this spell, I’m pulling out the information I need from your mind instead.” She said before she looked at me. “My sister already spoke to me of you. You are both Joel and Krieg are you not?”

“Yes…HEHEHE, RIDE THE PONY...” My hand shot up to my masked covered mouth while Jack and Selene fought against the urge to burst into laughter while Luna’s face turned a bit red. “Sorry, he does that sometimes.”

“I see, well yes as I was saying; Do I have your permission to use this spell so me and my sister may know what it is that we need to know."

“Okay but I have one question to ask you before you do if I may.” I said and she pondered the request for a second before nodding her head.

“Very well, what is it you wish to know?” She asked and I looked her right in the eyes when I asked her.

“How did you know there was three of us here? Celestia only knew that I was here and no one has sent her a letter explaining that I found my two other friends. So how did you know they were here?” I asked and I saw her eyes widen a bit before closing and she let out a sigh.

“You are very perceptive Joel, perhaps a bit more perceptive then I would like but no matter.” She said as she opened her eyes and look at my other two friends before looking back at me, locking eye contact. “Yes, I knew from the moment you fell from the sky there were three of you. I know this because my scheduled meteor shower the previous night, may not have been exactly scheduled at all.” She said as I heard Selene explain to Jack that in the show natural events were actually planned out here unlike back home.

“But that still doesn’t exactly explain how you knew there was three of us.” I said and she sighed again.

“No, it doesn’t does it? When the three of you came to this world you were all unconscious thus your minds were open to me as I did my patrols of our subjects’ dreams. However since you were all not technically asleep I could not bring any of you here. Though I do not know how or why you three are here I do know that whatever the reason is, it must be of great importance.” She said with a frown on her face.

“I see. Thank you for answering honestly Princess.” I said giving a bit of a bow to her and she smiled.

“Thou may call us Luna, none of you are our subjects technically so you do not need to worry about addressing us as your ruler.” She said as she walked up to me as I brought myself up from my bow. “Well if you do not have any more questions may we begin?” She asked as her horn light up and I nodded before closing my eyes and allowed her to cast this info gathering spell. I saw a wave of images flash before my eyes in less than a second and I caught glimpse of some images like Krieg on fire, an explosion, Krieg changing into a super badass mutant psyhco among many other things.

“My, such a violent world you come from.” Luna said with a bit of shock in her voice, my guess was she was expecting something bad, but not THAT bad. “As long as you keep your temper in check you should not worry about Krieg running wild with no way of controlling him. Also, when the voices echo in your head remember that it will always be your voice that will reign supreme above them all.” She said before turning and going over to Jack and cast the spell on him. From the outside it didn’t look like anything was happening but I knew what was going on in Jacks head more or less.

“Such a kind heart and soul, set out to protect others from the darkness they fear. I noble quest indeed, but do not let your pride get away from you or it will cost you dearly.” She said before finally moving on to Selene.

“To fight against such a foe as the one you face takes no lack of courage and wisdom. To have to weigh choices on who to help must not be such an easy task. Do not fear to ask those close to you for help and advice or for a shoulder to cry on if the time ever comes.” She said before backing away from the three of us with a smile on her face as she looked us over. We all had a puzzled look as she spoke to us individually as she seemed to read out a weird fortune to us.

“Have faith my new friends, I believe with all of my heart that you shall all find the way back to your home world.” She said smiling as her wings spread out behind her. “So until we may see each other face to face, I bid you all farewell and pleasant dreams.” She said smiling before the area around me faded out to black and I was once again brought into the planes of my own dreams.

Chapter 7

Joel/Krieg’s POV:

I let out a long yawn as I began to awaken from my sleep, finding myself lying face down with my head buried in the pillow of Twilight’s guest bed. I rolled over to lay on my back but found that the pillow followed my movement and rolled with me. I gave a groan as I reached up and pulled it off of my head carefully, not wanting to rip it with the buzz axe in my head. Sure enough though I had torn a huge hole in the center of the pillow and feathers were now falling out onto my face. With a sigh I sat up in the bed and looked around the room, finding that both Twilight and Spike were not in their beds. I looked at the bed sheets and found that the upper half of them were torn and cut from me tossing around during the night. I climbed out of the bed and grabbed my gear that I had set down next to bed the previous night. After I had put it on I heard someone come in through the door and was greeted by a male voice.

“Oh you’re already awake.” The voice said nervously as I turned to look at the source, finding the small dragon spike standing in the door with a tray of some food in his hands. “Twilight told me to wake you up and give you this to eat.” He said as he walked over to me and handed me the tray of food. It appeared to be oatmeal and some apple juice to drink which I was okay with as compared to grass or something. “You do eat oatmeal right?”

“Yeah I can eat it.” I said as I took the tray from his hands. “Thanks.” I said as I put the tray down and reached up to take off my make but my hand froze mid reach.

‘NONONONONO!’ Krieg blared in my head as he held our arm in place when I tried to remove our mask, I guess he didn’t want me to take it off.

‘Fine, then how do we eat food then?’ I thought back at him as he slowly moved our hand to the nozzle on our mask that covered our mouth. He pushed a small button on the outside of where it connected to the actual mask and turned it to the left. With a small burst of air the nozzle came off, leaving a small hole where our mouth was. After that was done he gave me back control of my arm again and I gave a sigh before picking up the bowl of oatmeal and a spoon.

“Um, is that normal for you?” Spike asked as I managed to get the spoon through the rather small hole in the mask.

“Not for me no. But it is for Krieg apparently. He doesn’t want me to take of our mask off, don’t know why and nor do I really want to know.” I said as I took another bite of the oatmeal before reaching for the apple juice and realized I couldn’t drink it like this. “You have any straws?”

“Uh sure I’ll go grab one for you.” He said before going off down the stairs rather quickly, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was afraid of me. But then again who wouldn’t be in this world, I must look like some kind of monster to them. With a sigh I finished off the oatmeal by the time spike came back with a straw in his hand. “Here you go.” He said as he hand it to me.

“Thanks, is twilight downstairs?” I asked as bent the straw to fit through the hole in my mask and drank the apple juice.

“Actually she left about ten minutes ago, she received a letter from the princess this morning that requested her in canterlot as soon as possible so she’s not here right now. But she left me in charge of you so no funny business got it?” He said firmly and I was surprised to hear that twilight was being called to canterlot. Maybe it had something to do with Luna visiting our dreams last night. At hearing that spike was put in charge of me I chuckled as I reattached the nozzle to my mask and felt a rush of air flow into my mouth from whatever the thing on our mask was.

“Alright spike, no funny business. Cross my heart hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” I said chuckling to myself as I gave the official pinkie promise, hand motion and everything. After I had finished Pinkie opened the bedroom window from the outside and looked me dead in the eye with a serious face that sent shivers down my spine. “Um, isn’t this bedroom on the second floor?”

“It is.” Spike said as if this wasn’t anything new or surprising. “It’s best not to question it.” He whispered in my ear as pinkie pie made a motion with her hoof that said she had her eye on me.

“Pinkie! How did you get up there?!” I heard Jack call from outside as Pinkie pie’s serious face was replaced by her usual smile before she began spouting off stuff I couldn't really make out as I gave a sigh and looked at spike.

“Could you please go let my friend in through the front door like a normal person please?” I asked and he nodded before heading downstairs to let Jack in.

“So how was your meeting with Princess Luna last night Joel? What did she say?” Pinkie suddenly asked which caught me by surprise as she climbed in through the window and sat down in front of me. I wanted to ask her how she knew about our meeting with Luna last night but then I remembered, Pinkie Pie. Don’t ask questions.

“It went well, least I don’t have to write out everything Krieg can do anymore.” I said smiling as I laid back down on the bed as Spike brought Jack up into the room. “So how was your night at sugarcube comer last night?” Asked with a light chuckled and Jack gave me a cold glare.

“The night was fine, it was this morning that was a pain. I woke up to the sound of babies crying and smell of a diaper needing to be changed.” He grumbled as he walked over to me and hit me in the shoulder as chuckled. “It would have been better if you had warned me they had kids.”

“Hehehe sorry, it skipped my mind.” I said chuckling as I rubbed where he hit my shoulder. “Anyways, Twilights not here right now and we don’t exactly have anything we should be doing right now. So I suggest we gather what info we know about us being here.” I suggested and Jack seemed to nod in agreement.

“Well what else can you guys find out without researching into anything because I doubt any of you can read equestrian.” Spike interjected.

“No, but what we can do is gather what we already know and try to figure something out. For example we were all playing video games when a freak storm caused a power outage back in our world. Next we all saw a blinding light that knocked us, after that we woke up here as the video game characters we were playing. Another thing is that I’m the only one with that characters voice in his head.” I explained and spike and pinkie took a seat in front of me as I lectured.

“I was actually wondering about that, why isn’t Riku in my head like Krieg is in yours?” Jack asked and I looked over to him.

“To be completely honest I’ve got nothing solid to go on for that. My best guess would be that whatever caused us to turn into our characters didn’t full convert Krieg into me. But now I’ve got a question for you Jack. When I first woke up here I found an echo device in the pit where I landed. When I picked it up it gave me all of my equipment just like when you play through borderlands a second time and claptrap give you the thing he loots from the frozen corpse you know?”

“Yeah I know, but what’s this have to do with me?” He asked

“I’m getting there. Well I have my flaming infinity pistol on me so I did a little experiment. I shot a hay bale and I caught fire just like Krieg would in the game. Which means all of the abilities and skills our characters had in the game have carried over to us.” I said and Jack seemed to catch on to where I was going with this.

“I get it, so do you think I can do flow motion like in my game or call out dream eaters?” He asked, almost sounding excited.

“It’s very likely you can but I haven’t got a clue how. The same would apply for Selene and being able to use bionic powers from mass effect. Speaking of which we should probably go get her, she should be hear this too.” I said as I realized Selene still wasn’t here, which meant she was probably waiting for us at sweet apple Acers.

“Oh I can take you there! I know the fastest way there and back!” Pinkie exclaimed as she bounced up from her seat.

“Well so long as you guys have somepony watching you I don’t mind you leaving so go ahead and leave with pinkie I’ll join up with you later. I got some chores to do.” Spike said as he took the try he brought up for me back down stairs and pinkie lead us out of the library and through the town.

To our surprise not many ponies stared at us as we passed them in town, while there were some not a lot of them bothered to take a long lasting look at us. But for now that didn’t really matter as we followed the bouncing pink pony out to the outskirts of the town and to sweet apple Acers. After we passed through the front gate we saw Selene in her N7 armor carrying a large basket of apples to the red barn that was the apple family home.

“Hey Selene!” I called out and she instantly looked over to us and smiled.

“Hey guys! What took you so long?” She called out to us before we got close enough where we didn’t have to shout.

“Well you know me, I’m a late sleeper.” I said chuckling as she set the basket of apples she had down and wiped some sweet off her forehead with her arm. “So what were you doing?”

“Well you know I hate imposing on others and not give something in return, so I decided I could at least help around here to kind of pay the rent for me being able to stay here you know?” She said smiling and I chuckled.

“Yeah I suppose so. Which reminds me I have to go help out Fluttershy after lunch time.” I said as I remembered that I promised to fix her front yard after I kind of destroyed it. “Anyways, until then we were pulling together all the facts we had about us being here and why and such.” I said but before I could go on I heard a voice call from the barn.

“Hey Selene does your world have apple pies?!” The voice of Applebloom called out as she stepped out the front door and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw us.

“It’s okay Applebloom, these are my friends Joel and Jack, I told you about them remember?” Selene said and Applebloom seemed to let out a sigh of relief before scampering over to us.

“Wow he is bigger than you!” She said as she looked up at me and I chuckled.

“Nice to meet you too. I’m Joel and he’s Jack.” I said smiling as Jack gave a nod and smile to the little pony. “I hate to ask but we’re gonna have to borrow Selene for a little while could you tell your sister that we’re going to Twilights library if she needs us?”

“Aww but I want to talk to Selene some more…” She whined and gave us a pouty face.

“Tell you what Applebloom, if you make a list of things you want to ask me and I’ll answer all of them when I get back ok?” Selene said smiling as she leaned down and petted Applebloom.

“Okay I guess that’s fair enough. I’ll go ahead and tell Applejack you’re going with your friends to the library.” Applebloom said as she smiled and moved her head into Selene’s head as she pet her.

“Thank Bloom, I’ll see you later.” Selene said smiling as she got back up and waved Applebloom goodbye as she scampered off into the barn to tell AJ we were leaving. As we made our way back to the library we filled Selene in on what me and Jack already discussed before we came to get her.

“Do you really think I can use powers like in the game?” She questioned me and I chuckled.

“Well I set myself on fire just like in the game, it’s a good bet that you guys can use your powers from the game too.” I said as we made it back to the library to find two guards standing at the door which made all of us worry. When they saw us they quickly gave us a salute which I’m pretty sure threw all of us through a loop.

“You are Joel, Selene, and Jack are you three not?” One asked and we nodded our heads. “The Princesses are waiting for you all inside.” He said as he opened the front door for us and we exchanged a look of confusion between ourselves before we made our way inside.

“Ah there they are.” Celestia said as she rose from her seat and setting a book down with her magic. Next to her was Luna and Twilight each of them also enjoying a book while Spike brought out some tea cups on a tray.

“You were waiting for us?” Jack asked and Celestia smiled at him warmly like she would to anyone.

“Don’t worry we didn’t wait long.” She said with a light chuckle as she looked us over. “I believe an introduction is in order for you two. I am Princess Celestia I am one of the four princesses that rule this land.” She said smiling and giving a slight bow. “My sister spoke to me about you both, you are Jack and Selene, some of Joel’s friends from his world correct?”

“Yes ma’am.” Selene said and Jack gave a simple nod.

“Well then we can move on to the matter at hand then, but first…” She said as she looked over to Pinkie Pie who came in with us. “…Pinkie, would you please return to sugarcube corner and help the Cakes prepare a banquet for tonight?” She asked and Pinkie nodded.

“You can count on me Princess Celestia!” Pinkie said smiling before she bound out of the library and leaving me and my friends alone with the princesses and Spike.

“Apologize but we wish to keep this discussion between those currently present and no others.” Luna said as she moved the seat cushion she was sitting on next to her sister and moved herself to sit next to her sister as she grabbed a cup of tea with her magic.

“I see. Well if you don’t mind me asking, what exactly will we be discussing?” I asked as I found myself a seat cushion and sat down across from the princesses, Jack and Selene doing the same.

“Well for starters it is about what the three of you are capable of.” Twilight said as she soon sat herself down on the other side of Celestia. “We know that you possess the ability of your characters that you had in these video games. But what we want to know is about the abilities you didn’t have in the video game but they were still an option.”

“I’m afraid I don’t follow.” Jack said as I gave a sigh.

“Let’s use me for an example Jack. For my Psycho class I didn’t take the skill bloodsplosion but I could still earn it if I put skill points in it.” I said as Jack seemed to catch on before I looked back at the princesses. “So I’m guessing you want to know whether or not we can use those skills since we’re not in a game right?”

“Precisely.” Twilight said as she took a sip of her tea.

“Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news but just because we know about our characters powers, that doesn’t exactly mean we know how to use them…” Selene said with a frown and Celestia smiled at her.

“We assumed as much so we have a plan to help you figure that out.” She said as she looked at her sister and Twilight and both gave her a nod as if they were agreeing to something. “With your permission we can put you three in a magic simulator.” She said and we all looked at her confused.

“What’s a magic simulator?” I asked and she smiled.

“It a spell that we shall cast on the three of you, the spell will put you in a training realm where you can practice your abilities freely without risking harm to anypony around you. This is the same spell we use when we train soldiers for the royal guard, however yours shall be a little different from theirs.” She said as she took a sip of her tea.

“With the information I gathered from you all the previous night I can generate a similar environment for you all to train in.” Luna said as her horn glowed and a large picture formed in front of each of us. Mine seemed to be just a simple little spot in the middle of nowhere with three houses that enemies would spawn out of from borderlands. Selene’s area appeared to be some type of facility out of Mass Effect. Jack’s seemed to almost be a perfect recreation of traverse town from kingdom hearts. “I take it these places seem at least somewhat familiar to thou?” Luna said and we nodded.

“Another thing you should know about this spell is that while whatever hits you may cause you pain in the simulation it does not mean you are in any actual danger.” Celestia said smiling which kind of put me at ease.

“So let’s see if I got this straight. You’re going to send us in this simulator, pit us against a bunch of enemies and hope we can learn how to control our powers from it?” Jack said in a bit of a ticked off voice.

“Neigh, we do not expect thou to do this by thou’s self. One of us shall accompany each of the in your simulation.” Luna said. “When one casts this spell the caster is also put in the simulation but appears only as a phantom, we can do nothing except give you advise and control when the enemies will come for the.”

“So basically you’re going to train us?” Selene asked and Celestia chuckled.

“No, to train you would mean we would have to know what it is we are teaching you. We can only be there to give you advice on how to use your powers.” She said smiling as she set her now empty tea cup down. “But as we said this is entirely up to you three if we should proceed with this idea.”

“I’m in.”

“Same.”

“I don’t see why not.”

“Excellent.” Luna said smiling as she rose from her seat and walked over to us along with Celestia and Twilight. “We assume that ye three will always be fighting together so we wish to know if thou would like to watch thou’s comrades fight one at a time.” She said and I gave her a puzzled look.

“I’m sorry but what does us fighting together have to do with watching each other fight? More importantly how would we be able to watch them fight?” I asked and she smirked.

“Tis simple, by watching thou’s friends train and fight you may find ways to improve thou’s own training way and learn how to fight alongside them better.” She said and I kind of got what she was going for. “And as for watching, we can create a one way viewing glass that shall let everypony else here watch without getting in thou’s way of training.” I would have further questioned how this one way looking glass worked but I wasn’t gonna bother since we were talking about magic and I’m sure it had its own laws of logic it followed.

“I see… Well in that case I’m going first.” I said smirking as I got up from my seat and Celestia came up to me.

“Actually Joel there is something we must discuss about your training.” She said and paused until she had my full attention. “I don’t want you to let Krieg do the fighting for you here.” She said and I was almost immediately hit with headaches as Krieg raged in my head, making me cringe and hold my head in slight pain. “I take it he doesn’t like that idea?” She asked with a frown.

“No, not at all.” I said as Krieg continued to yell out loud in my head.

“Well then how about this then, after your training is complete I will make a simulation just for him to run rampant in for his delight.” She said and Krieg’s voice in my head went silent and I gave a sigh of relief.

“I think he likes that idea.” I said with a slight smile and she returned it.

“Alright then, for your training I shall assist you in helping you figure out how your abilities work.” She said as her horn began to glow and I closed my eyes and allowed her to cast her spell. At first all I could feel was the wind blowing against me, it was dry and had some sand in it. Next came the massive wave of heat that one would expect from a desert like the one Luna showed us. The smell however was what stood out the most, the place reeked of something foul but I couldn’t put my finger on it, until Krieg took the opportunity to say something.

“SMELLS LIKE HOME!!!”

Author's Note

It's done! This chapter took me WAAAAAY too long to write compared to my last ones and hopefully those to come.

I've been having to put up with midterm exams and all the "lovely" things that come with school life so yeah, if I'm not updating very quickly blame school cuz priorities and stuff.

Anyways hope you enjoyed this chapter and are getting hiped for the next one because i know I'm hiped up to write it ^^

fair warning though the next chapter is going to be pretty gory but I'm gonna try and keep it on the low side since it is kind of important to read it for character developments on joel's part.

Chapter 8*

Author's Note

WARNING WARNING WARNING: This chapter will be VERY heavy in violence and some mild gore. IF YOU DON'T LIKE EITHER OF THESE TWO THINGS DO NOT READ PAST THE SECOND LINE BREAK!!!!

Chapter 8*

Selene’s POV:

As princess Celestia cast her spell on Joel we stood by and watched as he and her both slowly faded out of sight. At first they glowed with a white light before they slowly turned transparent and soon they were gone completely. Luna marked with a pillow where the two were standing when the spell was cast and said that it was so we knew where they would come back. After she did that her horn began to glow with a dark blue aura and soon a big screen of the desert huts that Luna had shown us a minute ago appeared in front of us. In between the three buildings was Joel which must meant the spell worked and nothing went wrong.

“Now all that is left for us to do is sit back and enjoy the show.” Twilight said as she arranged the rest of the seat pillows in front of the screen for everyone to sit down. Jack and I moved ourselves accordingly as took our seats when there was a knock at the front door.

“I got it!” Spike said as he came out of the kitchen and ran up to the door before opening it. “Oh hey guys! What are you doing here?” Just about everyone all looked away from the screen Luna had made to see Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash standing in the front door way.

“Hello Spike, I was hoping I could find Joel here. Applejack said he came by sweet apple acers to get Selene before they came back here. He said he would help me fix the front of my house today after lunch so I figured me and him could go get a bite to eat before getting everything we needed from the town.” Fluttershy said smiling.

“Me and Dash here were having another iron pony contest when Applebloom came and told me Selene was coming here so ah came here to find her to see if everything was okay.” Applejack said before looking past spike to see us all sitting in front of the magical screen Luna created. “Princess Luna? I didn’t know ya was come to visit us.” She said as the three walked in and gave a bow to their princess of the night.

“Apologize but this is no casual visit. We are here on royal duties regarding our new friends here.” She said as she then went on to explain how she and her sister were here to train us. “Joel and our sister are both now in the process of training, thou are welcome to stay and wait for him if thou wishes.” She said looking at Fluttershy.

“Well I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to wait for him here, how long will he be training?” Fluttershy asked as she took a seat in front of the magical screen with the rest of us and Spike brought out more tea.

“Until our sister believes he has made enough progress for one day. Which maybe a while.” Luna joked and Jack and I chuckled.

“Well this I gotta see.” Dash said as she flew over to an empty seat cushion along with AJ who sat next to me before we all looked back to the magical screen.

Joel/Krieg’s POV:

Looking around the vacant desert that surrounded me and the three huts I was standing between I took note that the trade mark Hyperion station in the shape of an ‘H’ hung right in front of what appeared to be a massive moon. I had to admit, this simulation spell was almost dead on the mark with recreating borderlands. Celestia soon came into sight in front of me and aside from being slightly transparent she looked completely normal.

“So how did I do?” She asked as she looked around the world she had created for me to train in.

“I have to admit you pretty much perfectly recreated the world of Pandora, even Krieg thinks so.” I said and she seemed to be pleased to hear that part.

“I see, well then let us start your training.” She said as she stepped up towards me and I straightened up a bit. “We won’t start with combat just yet, for now I want you try and learn how your inventory works.” She said and I gave her a look of confusion. “In the memories we gathered from you, Krieg possess a type of digital screen that shows all the items in his possession. If you can access that, I don’t think I need to tell you what else you can access from that screen.” She said and it finally clicked in my head.

“My skill trees…” I mumbled and she nodded her head, if I could open up my menu I could figure out if I was built the same as in my game back home. “Okay I see your point but I haven’t the first clue on how to open it up.” I said and she smiled at me.

“That is why I am here to help you. Try picturing opening the screen with your thoughts, it’s possible that you may be able to control your skills through simple thought.” She said and I nodded and did as I was told, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes before I pictured the inventory screen opening up in my head. I pictured my load out and my glitched out backpack and the stat box for the currently selected gun. Opening my eyes however showed that nothing had happened.

“It doesn’t seem to be working, I’m picturing it in my head like you said but nothing’s happening.” I said and Celestia frowned.

“I see, perhaps I’m not having you think of it correctly then.” She said which made me confused, how could I be thinking about it wrong? “Joel, in your world how did you control your character in the game?” She asked.

“With a controller, it’s a handheld device with a bunch of different buttons on it. Why?”

“I want you to picture yourself pushing the button that opened up the screen in the game, maybe your skills react the same as your character would in the game.” She said and I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try. Once again I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as I imagined holding my controller and pressed the ‘select’ button. “Ah ha!” Celestia exclaimed and my eyes shot open to a massive blue screen with a giant map covering it.

“I can’t believe that actually worked.” I mumbled to myself as I looked over the screen in front of me and took note of the icons at the top. There was the objective screen icon, one for the map, my inventory, skills and my badass rank screen. I soon however found that once the screen was open the idea of pressing buttons on the controller in my head no longer worked. I also found that I was stuck in place, unable to move my legs from where I was standing, but my upper body seemed to be free to move.

The map screen wasn’t out of my reaching distance so I figured it might act like a touch screen so I reached out and tapped the inventory icon. To my delight the screen changed to the inventory screen from the game with all two hundred and fifty seven items out of thirty three still all there. It was at this time I was so happy I had glitched out my game so I could do that. I saw that my flaming infinity pistol was in its usual spot along with my conference call shotgun along with my slag Norfleet rocket launcher and my Attack Veruc rifle. Below my guns were the four item spots for my shield, relic, class mod, and grenade mod. Reaching out I pointed my finger at my Rough Rider shield and it light up and displayed the usual stat box to the left, zero shield capacity twenty percent damage reduction and over a quarter million extra health.

“I think I’m getting the hang of this.” I said as a grin spread across my face behind my mask as I equipped my homing quasar grenade mod and blood of the ancients relic and found that everything was working just like the game only it was now touch screen. After I was satisfied with my load out I tapped on the skills icon and my skill trees opened up. This screen however wasn’t like the game in terms of how thing operated, instead of putting points in skills like in the game this screen just said that the skill was either on or off. In the bottom corner it said I had one skill point to spend and I began looking over my skills, for the most part they were the same, I was built to constantly be able to go badass mutant psycho. Pointing my finger at the hellborn skill tree it moved in front of the other two trees and I looked through it to see where I could spend a skill point. With a grin I pointed at the skill ‘Hellfire Halitosis’ and the switch turned from ‘off’ to ‘on’ and my skill points went to zero. On the left a small box that explained what the skill was told me how to activate it. It said to breath deep when the heat inside could be felt, which sound like Krieg had written the explanation. I looked over all of my other skills, most of which activated automatically when I did damage or caught fire, but the release the beast skill was different from the game. Instead of saying to activate my rampage when I was in low health it only said “Get angry”.

I guess that meant I could go mutant Psycho any time I wanted if I got angry enough. I then tapped on the badass rank icon and was presented with just the screen that told me my rank and the bonuses I had. My rank was still over twenty five thousand like in my game and just about everything was better by ten percent because of my bonuses I had selected. It didn’t have secondary screen like in the game that told me the challenges I had to complete to advance my rank. I finally closed out of menu and found Celestia looking as me, along with a new found heat in my chest.

“Well what did you find out?” She asked and I smirked behind my mask before taking a deep breath, the heat in my chest growing hotter as I did. Looking up towards the sky I blew as hard as I could, flames spraying from my mouth as I did. I blew until the heat in my chest was no longer there and as it ran out so did my flames. Looking back at Celestia I found she had a bit of a worried look on her face as I felt a warmth in my chest start to build up as my fire breath recharged.

“So I can do that now.” I said as I started begin enjoying myself with my new found powers. “I’ve also learned that I don’t have to be hurt to turn into a mutant psycho like in my game. I just have to get angry is what it said for me to do.” I said and Celestia nodded. “I also found out I have all the skills my character had from the game but I can still get more if I earn enough experience. I also have full access to my weapons and gear.” I said as I pulled of one of my grenades from my belt. “Spawn an enemy real quick, a stationary one that won’t fight back if you can.”

“Very well.” She said as he horn glowed and a basic bandit came out from one of the houses and stood in place. Pulling the pin on my grenade I tossed it up in the air and sure enough it homed on the bandit. Once it made contact it created a singularity like in the game before it began zapping the bandit with electricity before finally exploding out into lightning. Though I didn’t catch fire this time, I did start earning stacks of bloodlust as long as the bandit was being damaged. “It seems your equipment works the same here as in the game, but what of your skills?”

“They seem to work the same here too, I just started earning stacks of bloodlust from damaging the bandit and we already know I can catch fire.” I said as I imagined hitting the down arrow button on a controller in my head and my flaming infinity pistol digitally deconstructed and my Norfleet digitally constructed in my hand. “I’ve also learned how to change weapons in the middle of combat.” I said as I then switched to my assault rifle. “Do you think you can spawn some enemies so I can practice fighting like this?”

“Of course, just let me know if things get to tough or if things are too easy for you.” She said as he horn glowed and mixed enemies spawned from the huts and began shooting at me. When they hit me I felt pain where I was hit but the wounds that were left behind quickly sealed up even though my health bar didn’t go back up.

“This is gonna be fun.” I said with a smirk as and pulled out another grenade and tossed it. The grenade did just like before and pulled in a group of bandits before zapping them, causing me to catch fire. I then aimed down my sights and shot the bandits that weren’t being zapped and light them on fire. After just about all of the enemies around me were all taking elemental damage I switched to my Norfleet and jumped back before firing. Despite it being a massive rocket launcher I felt next to no kickback as three massive elemental balls traveled from the barrel and exploding by the bandits, coating them all in slag. Looking at my health I saw that I was getting close too critically low health and smirked as I pulled out my buzz axe and looked over to where Celestia was.

“You wanted see him, WeLl TaKe A gOoD lOoK aT hIm!!!”

Selene’s POV:

“He’s not really going to…” Jack started to say as we watch Joel’s fight from the screen Luna made. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy were all watching with mouths hanging open, whether it was out of horror or amazement I couldn’t tell. The rest of us were relatively calm until Joel pulled out his buzz axe and spoke, his and Krieg’s voice mixed as his body began to shake.

“He is…” I replied to Jack as Joel’s body shook with great force and he became larger. There was an audible crackling as his right arm and shoulder began to shrink and his left began to massive size. By the time his transformation was over Joel must have grown at least fifty percent of his own size and his left arm must have been the size of thick tree trunk.

He gave out a roar that sounded like something that came from a wild beast as he clutched his buzz axe in hand before sprinting straight at the group of bandits. His buzz axe was burning and a stick of dynamite was attached to the side just like in the game, which meant these bandits didn’t stand a chance. No matter how much the bandits shot at him Joel didn’t even flinch, by now he must have massive damage reduction from his stacks and any damage they did do to him he’d get right back after a kill. He brought his axe down on his first victim and cut him clean in half, setting the corpse on fire along with himself.

“BurN bURN BUuuUuURn!” He screamed as he slashed another bandit across the chest and knocked him flat on his ass. Joel brought his foot down on the bandits head with a loud crunch before he charged to his next target. We could only sit in horror as Joel sliced his foes limb from bloody limb, I wasn’t even sure if this was Joel anymore, the actions looked like they were something Krieg would do. I’m pretty sure Fluttershy fainted and Dash had to cover her mouth to keep herself from vomiting at the gore feast going on while AJ just covered her face with her hat.

By the time Joel had gotten down to the last enemy he was completely drenched in blood and guts but he didn’t even seem to care in the slightest. Bandit corpses, or rather what was left of the corpses, laid all over the dessert sand and dessert soaked up the blood like a sponge. The last enemy Celestia had for him was a psycho midget that wasn’t even half the height of Joel’s leg. Joel grabbed him with his massive arm and pinned him to the wall of one of the huts and glared at him before taking in a deep breath. I clenched my eyes shut and looked away from the screen as I heard the unbearable screaming from the midget as he was light on fire.

When the screaming ended and I was finally able to bring myself to look back at the screen I saw Joel towering over the charred midget corpse. Suddenly his body began to shake just like when he transformed and his body contorted and his muscles shrunk in size and his arms returned to the way they were before. When he was finally back to normal he dropped to his knees and immediately began to hold himself as he shook violently.

“No more…” He mumbled. “…No more…No more…” He chanted as his voice began to shake with fear as he rocked himself a little. “N-n-n-no….m-more…” His voice cracked as tears began to stain his mask.

Chapter 9

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 10*

Author's Note

Slight gore after the line break, you have been warned.

Chapter 10*

Selene’s POV:

I watched as Jack left with Dash and AJ to go off to the everfree forest to let Jack cool down and let the news about Joel sink in. I sighed as I helped pick up some of the trash that went everywhere from Jack kicking the garbage can earlier. After that was done I took a seat on the waiting bench while the princesses conversed with the doctor and how everything would be paid for by them. Fluttershy and Rarity decided to seat next to me while Twilight tried to talk Pinkie out of throwing Joel a ‘get better soon’ party.

“Are you okay darling?” Rarity asked and I looked over to see she had a worried face and I sighed.

“I’ll be fine. I just need some time to let this all sink in is all.” I said as I tried to put on a smile.

“Well if it helps any, you and Jack can always come to me for help if anything ever comes up.” She said as she placed a hoof on my shoulder.

“Thanks Rarity, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.” I replied as I leaned back against the wall and let out a long sigh.

“Do you have any idea what happened to Joel that made him go crazy like that?” Fluttershy asked rather boldly to my surprise.

“No not really, no.” I muttered and she frowned a bit at that answered.

“Well let’s try and find out why.” She said and me and rarity gave her a questioning look. “Well think about it. If we can find out what made him go crazy like that we might be able to find a way to help him.”

“Well it’s a nice theory Shy, but I don’t think finding out what made him go insane will help us out since he’s in a coma right now.” I said sighing.

“Actually…” Twilight’s voice chimed in and we looked over to see her thinking hard about something. “That may just actually work…”

“How?” I asked.

“Well the doctor did say his coma was mentally induced, which means he’ll probably only come out of it when what’s wrong with him mentally is fixed. If we find out what happened to him mentally we might be able to find out how to help him using advanced magic.” She said and looked over to the other two princesses.

“We do not see a problem with theory. However, should the solution to his problem have a chance to be lethal we do not approve of the use of these methods.” Celestia said as Luna gave a confirming nod before looking at me.

“Selene you know the world Krieg is from the most out of anyone of us present. When Krieg goes through his transformation what happens in his world?” Luna asked and I thought for a minute.

“Well aside from the physical transformations I can’t really say for certain what happens aside from a changing set of dialog when he starts to transform.” I said sighing as I tried to think.

“What are some of the things he says when he transforms? Perhaps there is a clue in what he says?” Twilight asked and I thought hard to try and recall every line Krieg said in the game.

“Let’s see. There was “I can’t take it.”, “Gotta think big.”, "I've got a huge hand", and sometimes his old perso-!" I paused as I began to remember something about Krieg that had escaped my mind since we came here. ‘His old personality!’

“What is it Selene? Did you figure something out?” Fluttershy asked hopefully. I snapped out of my deep thinking.

“Okay I just remembered something important. In Krieg’s world, Krieg as an old personality, a version of himself before he became insane. He's almost like concision that kept him from killing everything in sight.” I explained and everyone gave a look of surprise, even the princesses.

“So it’s kind of like Krieg and Joel now but somebody else instead of Joel?” Rarity asked and I shook my head.

“Not exactly. The old personality that was inside Krieg’s head didn’t have anywhere near as much control as Joel does over Krieg. It was more like he was only a voice in Krieg’s head that threatened him if he did anything wrong.”

“I see, but pray tell what this has to do with helping the current situation?” Luna asked and frowned a bit.

“Well, in the game when Krieg transformed, the old personality and him became one, almost as if they fused together.”

“If that’s true, then Joel fused with Krieg while he was transformed.” Twilight said as her legs began to shake and I could see a bit of fear in her eyes. “Then he would have experienced everything Krieg experienced in the span of a few seconds.”

“I don’t think I need to explain how, unpleasant something like that would be.” I said as I gave off a shiver myself. “If this is the case we really are lucky that we didn’t end up with another Krieg.” I said frowning as I looked to the two princess sisters. “Do you think we can help him with this?” I asked and Luna nod.

“I believe so, but there is no guarantee that what I have in mind will work. But I am also more than certain that what I have in mind will not cause any harm to his mind.” She said as she began to head for the emergency room where Joel was in.

“Sister, what is it you plan to do?” Celestia asked and Luna stopped to look back at her with a smile.

“I’m going to find Krieg’s old personality and awaken him. If I can awaken him he may be able to help Joel recover mentally.” She said and I gave her a puzzled look.

“But I thought you couldn’t enter someone’s mind if they’re unconscious. “

“True, but he’s not unconscious now is he? He is in a coma, which is a defensive state of sleep one can enter.” She said smiling as she got to the door and looked to Celestia. “If I do not come back within an hour do not come in looking for me.” She said as she went through the door and everyone looked over to Celestia.

“As you wish, dear sister…” She said softly with a sigh before returning her attention to us. “Come, there is nothing more we can do here. I’m sure most of you have better things to spend your time on rather than sitting here with a sad face on.” She said smiling as she started walking towards the exit and I began to follow.

“Princess Celestia, what did Luna mean by not going in looking for her?” I asked and she sighed.

“My sister and I poses the ability to enter a sleeping subjects mind and search through their collective thoughts and desires. She does not want me or anyone else going in to your friends mind in case something goes amiss.” She explained as we reached the front door to find two royal guards running full speed towards us.

“Your highness! News from Canterlot! It’s under attack by changelings!” One of them yelled out to us and just about everyone gasped.

“How are our defenses holding?!” Celestia asked as she immediately met them half way.

“Last we heard the guard is holding strong. All civilians have been moved to secured shelters and the changeling’s offensive number were dwindling and we fear they may bring in reinforcements.” He said as the rest of us join them.

“I see, send word to the guard to hold them off as long as they can, I shall return with the bearers of the elements of harmony as soon as we can.” She said and the guards gave a salute and ran off the way they came. “I’m afraid we shall have to leave for Canterlot at once, Twilight go get the elements and find Rainbow Dash and Applejack and make for canterlot as soon as you find them.” She said looking to twilight who gave a quick nod and ran off with her friends.

“What should I do Princess?” I asked since I couldn’t exactly stand by and do nothing right now.

“I must ask that you remain her Selene.” She said as she turned her attention to me.

“But your majesty, I can help, I can fight just as well as anyone on the guard!” I protested but she shook her head.

“You misunderstand Selene, I want you to stay here and protect my sister.” She said and it clicked in my head. “While she explores your friends mind she is vulnerable to attack. So please, protect my sister for me, I am entrusting her safety with you because I know what you are capable of.” She said and I sighed but nodded.

“I understand your highness.” I said as I watched her take off and I returned to the hospital. “Man this sucks…” I groaned as I found my way back to the emergency room and opened the door to find Joel laying in a hospital bed with Luna leaning over him, their foreheads connected with her horn glowing. Looking around I took notice that no one else was here so I took a seat on the hospital bed next to the one Joel and Luna were on.

I sighed as I looked through all the gear I had on hand. I had my shotgun attached to my back and a pistol on one side of my hip. On the other side of my hip I had a pack of three grenades and my Omni-tool on my arm, but I still didn’t exactly know how to operate it. I figured I was more than prepared for simple guard duty like this. Shortly after I had finished assessing my equipment Jack came into the room, Keyblade in hand and a smirk on his face that sent a shiver down my spine.

“What are you so smug about?” I asked and his grin widened.

“Oh nothing much.” He said as he extended his hand and a burst of fire erupted from his palm. “Just that I learned how to use my powers is all.” He said as the flames turned to an icy crystals and fell to the ground, shattering into powdery snow. “So what did I miss?” He asked and I sighed as I explained everything that happened after he left, include Luna’s plan to help Joel and the attack on Canterlot.

“So we’re stuck here on guard duty until Luna comes back from whatever it is she is doing.” I finished as Jack laid down on the hospital bed across from me.

“Well this shouldn’t be too hard right? I mean look around, nobody’s here.” He said chuckling and I frowned.

“I know, that’s what bothers me. This is supposed to be an emergency room of a hospital. Where are all the nurses and doctors?” I pointed out and Jack sat up on the bed he was on.

“Out to lunch?”

“Really Jack? That’s what you’re going to go with? They’re all out eating lunch while patients are lying in beds sick?” I groaned and glared at me.

“Well excuse me for trying to think positive reasons why they’re not here.” He said crossing his arms.

“Just because it’s positive doesn’t make it anymore true or right. Go see if you can find the doctor or anybody for that matter.” I said and groaned before getting up and opening the door, stopping halfway through the doorway.

“Um Selene, what do Changelings look like?” He asked and I thought on how to describe them.

“Um, black ponies with bug wings with holes in their legs and a horn on their head. Why?” I asked as he closed the door and looked back to me.

“Well, there’s about ten of them crawling around outside the door right now…” He said as he backed up from the door slowly. “I don’t think they saw me though, so it might be a good idea to block the door. Right now.” I jumped off my bed and pulled my pistol from my hip.

“Use the empty beds, we gotta keep Luna safe while she’s doing this.” I said as I aimed at the door, ready to fire if anything came in.

“Yeah tell me something I don’t know genius.” Jack retorted as he picked up one of the empty bed cots and placed it in front of the door. “So why exactly are these guys attacking again?” He asked as he went to get another bed.

“I’m guessing they want payback for what happened during the Canterlot wedding episodes, where they were they failed to invade Canterlot by having their Queen pose as princess Cadence. I guess they Queen has developed a taste for vengeance.” I explained as Jack piled on the second bed.

“But if they’re attacking Canterlot right now then why are they here?”

“I’m guessing they’re looking for Luna, if they remove her from the picture then victory is almost guaranteed.”

“Well what about the other princesses?” Jack asked as he piled on the third bed.

“Well Cadence is in the crystal empire right now so it’ll take them a while to come all the way back here I guess. Twilight can’t really do much without her friends and the elements of harmony and Celestia was already beaten once by the Queen. So the only real threat they face is Luna and Twilight and her friends.” I said as there was a bang on the door.

“Looks like we’ve been found out…” Jack said as he grabbed his Keyblade and backed away from the door.

“You sound worried. Scared?” I teased as I readied myself as there was another loud bang against the door.

“Please, I could handle these guys all by myself.” He boasted as there was another loud bang against the door and the top bed feel off the pile. We could both hear the hissing of a mass of changelings on the other side.

“You sure you know how to control your powers completely?” I as the door was hit again, the second bed fell from the pile.

“Yeah, more or less.”

“So glad I got put with you…” I mumbled as the door was busted open, on the other side was about ten or fifteen changelings ready to pour in. Jack’s free hand ignited with fire.

“Let’s do this.”

Joel’s POV:

Blackness. An empty void of pure nothingness as far as the eye could see. I had no Idea where the hell I was or what the hell happened, last thing I remember I was fighting bandits in Celestia’s spell simulator. Now I was floating around in this void. I tried to look around but found that my body wouldn’t move no matter how much I tried to move it. I gave out a long sigh as I simply waited seeing as I couldn’t move at all so there wasn’t much else I could do.

Thankfully I didn’t have to wait long. It was small, but I could see a small light in the far off distance and it began to crawl closer to me. As it got closer and closer I could make out figures in the bright light, they weren’t anything more than black shadows on the white glowing light until they got closer. When the white light with shadows on it took up half of my vision I could begin to hear voices.

“What’s the code for Liar’s Berg’s fast travel station you damn bandit scum!” I male voice yelled out.

“Alright, alright, the code is… GO FUCK YOURSELF!” A female voice shouted back before she let out a high pitched wail of pure agony as if she was being hurt. By now, the white light had taken up all of my vision and the shadows formed into people and objects but I still couldn’t see faces. The source of the female voice seemed to be laying on a table with a machine jabbing at her while the source of the male voice stood next to her.

“Tut tut tut, language.” The male voice said before the male shadows looked over to me as the machine powered down and the female voice’s screaming stopped and she began breathing heavily. “Now then, I hope you can learn from your wife’s mistake.” He said as he moved from the table the girl was on, my vision following the male shadow as he came over to me, bringing me face to face with a similar machine that was above the girl. “Now tell me, what’s that goddamned code?!” He yelled.

“Hehehe, she told you already, go fuck yourself, John.” A male voice came from me and the male shadow growled.

“I’m only going to ask one more time bandit. What is the code?!” I spat in his face with a smirk as he quickly backed off and wiped my spit out of his eye. “Why you little..!” The shadow yelled as he came back over to me and jammed two fingers into my right eye. I screamed loudly as I felt his fingers move in my eye socket until they wrapped around my eyeball and he yanked it out. I could feel the blood pouring out of my now gaping eye socket as I tried to pull my arms up, finding that they were being held down by straps.

“See what happens when you fuck with me bandit?! I gave you a chance but now you forced my hand. Jimmy!” The male shadow yelled as my now halved vision looked over to see another shadow join the other one.

“It’s Jeffery sir.” The new shadow said as the other shadow threw my eye back at my face.

“Put these two on the war soldier experiment testing line. We’ll see if injecting these bandits full of eridium doesn’t force them to cough up the code…among other things.” The male shadow said as he began walking away. “Make sure they stay conscious throughout the entire process!” He yelled back as the sound of door opened and closed and the new figure moved over to me.

“Why didn’t you just give him the code? You could have spared yourself this.” The shadow said.

“Bullshit. That jackass would have killed us anyway so fuck off.” The female voice said, her breath still heavy from whatever the machine did to her.

“Well yes, but it would have been a lot less painful then what you’re about to be put through.” The male figure said before he looked over to me. “May whatever gods there are have mercy on both of you.” He said and my vision faded to black but the pain of a missing eye still remained.

“What the fuck was that?!” I thought as the pain of a missing left eye radiated intensely as another white light began to engulf my vision, again shadows surrounded me as well as a massive machine over my head.

“War experiment subject number six.” A female voice said as the machine above me began to hum as a large needle extended from a mechanical arm and positioned it’s self at my right arm. “Commencing eridium injection phase one.” The female voice said as the needle pierced my arm and I let out a howl of pain as I struggled to move, but like before I had been strapped down. After the needle was in I could feel it inject something into me that set my skin ablaze with pain. My arm felt like it was on fire and being eaten from the inside out by a million parasites all at once.

“Commencing phase two.” The figure said as another needle pierced my left arm this time and the process repeated for that arm. Then my legs, my chest, and finally my neck. “Commencing injection number six, total eridium amount injected into subject, six liters.” The voice said as the sixth needle injected into my neck earning another howl of pain from me. Out of all six of needles the last one was by far the most painful. The liquid flowed straight to my head and the inside of my skull burned like hellfire. My brain felt like it was going to split in two as I struggled to get free.

“Secure his restraints!” A voice yelled before my struggling finally paid off and the straps that were holding me down finally ripped apart and I knocked the needles away.

“Subject is lose! Code red! I say again code red!” A male voice yelled as I got up and punched one of the figures out of my way as I began to run. My body burned like hell with every muscle movement, even breathing caused me extreme pain, but I didn’t care, I just had to get away from here. Soon my vision faded to black again but the pain in my body never went away.

“No more…” I whimpered. “…No more…” as I began to hold myself as I shook in pure fear and agony as the pain in my body finally subsided to a simple tingling sensation after what felt like eternity. But the the pain was still a clear memory that i couldn't forget no matter how hard i tried.

~~“Joel! You’re okay Joel! It’s all over! You’re fine!”~~ A voice yelled out to me, looking up I could only see a black shadowy figure reaching out for me.

“STAY AWAY!” I screamed as I punched the figure back as I began moving back till I was up against a wall. “STAY AWAY FROM ME!! I WON’T LET YOU HURT US!!” I screamed as I grabbed hold of something and began swinging it around as I looked to see more figures gathered around the one I punched.

~~“What in tarnation is wrong with him?!”~~

~~“The force fields are down shoot him before he gets away!”~~

~~“Princess Celestia what do we do?!”~~

~~“Stop him! We can’t let the subject break out of the facility!”~~

~~“Tia we have no time to waste! We must incapacitate him, he’s only a danger to everyone like this!”~~

~~“Shoot to kill! I say again shoot to kill!”~~ Voices blared in my head at a volume that made my head hurt and felt like my ears were on fire with no sign of stopping.

“So much screaming, always the screaming, stop the screaming! No more! No more screaming!” I screamed as I shook violently as I felt my mind beginning to snap.

“He’s not a danger to anypony, he’s just trying to protect himself because he’s scared. Isn’t that right Joel.” A soft voice said that brought me back slightly as I looked to see another shadowy figure approach me.

“STAY AWAY FROM US!!” I screamed as I began swinging whatever was in my hand at the figure, only for the figure to dissipate like a cloud of smoke and reform again in front of me. I kept swinging over and over at the figure until my arm finally gave out on me and I was breathing heavily. My body ached with pain I never thought possible and it felt like my lungs were about to explode. The figure soon began walking towards me again and I forced my arm up again. “STAY AWAAAAAY!!!” I screamed as swung at the figure one more time, only to hit nothing and I felt something holding me.

“Shh, it’s okay Joel, you’re okay now, I’m here, we’re all here for you.” The soft voice cooed in my ear as I tried to struggle out of the hold it had me in. Soon however I found that the pain in my body slowly faded to the figures touch as it touched my back softly. The figure was holding me in a gentle embrace, one that soothed all the pain in my body as I stop swinging what was in my hand. Looking to the figure my vision turned back to normal and I could see a yellow face, pink hair that fell perfectly to one side of her face, and her deep teal eyes that were filled with care and compassion.

“Flu-Fluttershy…?” I choked out as my memory cleared and I realized what was going on. My hand was clenched around the buzz axe and Fluttershy was holding me in a gentle hug. Looking past Fluttershy I could see everyone else in the library along with Jack who now had a bloody nose.

“Oh god…what was I trying to do…” I thought as my hand trembled before I dropped the buzz axe in my hand and I quickly embraced Fluttershy as I began to wail into her hair. “I’m so sorry…sorry…so sorry…sorry…” I cried as tears poured from my eye and empty eye socket behind the mask I had on. I continued to cry for what felt like an eternity until my vision faded back to black and I once again returned to the void of blackness.

“Hey kid...” I voice called out to me in the blackness. “Kid? You okay.” My eyes slowly opened to find that I was floating in space, similar to when Luna came to me in my dreams. “Good you’re awake.” The voice said from behind me making me turn to see Krieg floating there behind me.

“Krieg…” I asked and he chuckled.

“Hehe, close enough.”

Chapter 11*

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 12*

Jack’s POV:

“Looks like the plan worked…” Selene said as she peeked her head out around the corner of the building we were hiding behind. The sounds of explosions and massive smoke clouds filled the air above the train station where Joel was making a mess of things no doubt. Selene quickly pulled her head back as the sound of changelings rushing by towards the train station passed by us. “…I’ll be the first to admit it, he was right on this one.” Selene said with a sigh and I gave a soft chuckle as I recalled how we ended up her.

*five minutes ago*

“Are you completely stupid or has Krieg gotten to your brain?” Selene snapped at Joel who just explained his plan to reverse the ambush and cause a distraction at the train station.

“Regardless of whether or not it’s stupid isn’t important, the fact still stands that it works. I’m the only one who can take on a swarm of changelings without any fear of serious danger.” Joel retorted and to be completely honest he had a point. Joel could take out an army single handily with all his skills from Krieg, at worst he would get downed and start throwing dynamite around. “If I can get the swarms attention I can give you guys a window to slip by completely unnoticed and you will have the element of surprise on the queen.”

“But this isn’t like your game, this is the real world, if you die you die for real.” The rainbow pony, Dasher I think her name was, said and was followed up by the yellow pony.

“She’s right, if you get hurt you get hurt for real. I don’t want you to get hurt…” She mumbled and Joel chuckled.

“I’ll be fine guys just trust me on this.” He said looking over to the princess of the night who had remained quiet this whole time. Neither of them spoke a word but the look on their faces said they were holding a very important discussion threw they’re silence. Finally, Luna spoke.

“Very well. Joel will take the train to the train station and cause a distraction so we can slip through the city unnoticed.” She said, bring and a shout of protest from the others but she quickly dismissed them. “Do none of you have any trust for Joel?” She asked and they fell silent for a minute before Selene spoke up.

“It’s not that I don’t trust him, it’s just…” She mumbled and Luna smiled softly at her.

“I understand your fears but knowing what Joel is capable of and what he can do, I have no doubt in my mind that he will be just fine on his own.” She said and Selene looked like she wanted to argue against the idea more but Joel spoke up before she could start.

“I’ll be fine Selene, I’ve turned off the release the beast skill so there isn’t a chance for another ‘accident’ like earlier.” He said as he walked over to her and gave her a look of comfort from behind his mask. Selene frowned and punched him on the shoulder softly.

“Just promise me you won’t do something stupid.” She said and Joel smiled from behind his mask and nodded.

“Promise.”

*present time*

“Okay the coasts clear, let’s move.” Selene whispered to us as we made our way across a main street and into a back alley. Even with Joel causing trouble at the train station Luna suggested still taking a stealthy approach to be on the safe side. The city was completely wrecked from the invasion and battles fought between the royal guard and the changelings. We kept quiet as best we could to not draw any attention to ourselves from any of the changelings that may still be around and not on their way to the train station.

“So where are your friends being kept? Any ideas?” I asked quietly as we took cover in a back alley, Luna smirked a bit at me.

“If there is one thing I know about Chrysalis it’s that she’s very egotistical and boastful of her deceptive tactics as much as she is of herself. More than likely she’s hiding out in Canterlot’s high tower to watch her forces destroy and consume everything.” She explained as Selene motioned us to move up and we continued our way towards the castle.

“And you think she’s also holding everyone up there with her?”

“Without a doubt in my mind. The Queen enjoys showing off the fruits of her labor to those whose lives she is destroying.” The princess said as we finally made our way to a back alley just across the street from the castle. The front was heavily guarded by at least thirty or more changelings in some form of dark armor chiseled from crystals it looked like. “The Queens elite forces, I should have expected as much.” Luna mumbled as she gathered us all up into a circle and motioned us to be quite. “Alright here’s the plan, Selene I want you to-“

“I WANT TO BATHE IN YOUR BLOOD WHILE HEARING YOU SCREAM IN AGONY!!!!”

“God damn it…” Selene groaned as she face palmed as Krieg came running down the street at full speed, Buzz axe in hand. The changelings instantly jumped into a formation to defend the main gate from the new intruder. I sighed and sat down and simply enjoyed the show as it were since I knew already the outcome of this fight. Krieg pulled his buzz axe back behind his head and chucked it straight into the center of the changeling formation. Even though the axe missed the changelings, the explosion from the TNT attached to it was more than enough to kill one of the shape shifting bugs, and that was all that was needed. After the first one died from the explosion its body exploded from Krieg’s bloodsplosion skill, one kill exploded into two, two to four, four to eight, and finally eight to fifteen. The elite’s formation they used proved to be they’re greatest mistake in this fight. The blood from the explosions covered the street in front of the castle, to Krieg it was nothing but a giant slip and slid.

“So much for the element of surprise…” Dash mumbled as Krieg slid on the blood soak street while laughing like the freaky maniac he was.

“DARN IT KID YOU BLEW OUR COVER!!!” A male voice yelled out from the direction Krieg had been running in from. Looking down the street a unicorn stallion in dark armor with a sword held in his magic came down the street and came up to Krieg who had stopped laughing and was wiping the blood off his body. “I told you to tell him to take dem out QUIETLY! Q-U-I-E-T-L-Y!! What part of dat did you not get?!” He blared as he finally came up to Krieg who I’m guessing had switched back with Joel by now.

“Oh yeah sure just let me convince a murderous psychopath not to kill people, yeah that’s a wonderful plan I can see why you’re a drill Sargent.” Joel retorted in an annoyed voice. “Now quit your complaining and let’s get in there! Luna and my friends have probably already snuck in and are fighting the queen.”

“We would be if you didn’t show up you dolt!” Selene snapped out as we walked out of the back alley, grabbing both of their attention.

“Princess!” The stallion exclaimed and immediately saluted to his ruler who simply nodded to the guard.

“At ease, we are in the midst of a raging battle, formalities have no place here.” Luna stated as the stallion dropped his salute. “What is your name soldier?” She asked and he quickly answer.

“Sargent Stellar Sheen your majesty.” He announced and Luna seemed to recognize the name.

“Ah yes I remember now, thou art the trainer of our elite guard are thou not?” She said and he gave a quick nod.

“Sorry to interrupt this pleasant reunion but we are standing at the base of the tower where the queen is hiding and probably holding our friends captive. Can we please save the chit-chat for later?” Joel said and Stellar gave of a grunt of annoyance but Luna chuckled and nodded to him.

“Indeed, we do have more important matters to attend to do, do we not?” She said looking back to the rest of us and we gave her a nod. “Then let us press on. Take head that I do not know what we shall find in here but be prepared for a fight should worst come to worst.” She said as we made our way through the court yard and into the large double doors of the castles front entrance.

Everything was strangely quiet and it bugged me to no end. The castle was a mess sure but there wasn’t a changeling in sight or signs of any ambush or trap. Luna couldn’t sense any magic in the area which only bugged me even more. Why would the queen leave the inside of her castle completely unguarded in case of intruders? There should have been something, a magical force field, a trap door, magically cloaked changelings, I don’t know just something! I wasn’t the only one either, Luna and Selene didn’t like this either it was just too easy for us.

“This is it…” Luna said as we came to a stop outside a large door with the depiction of the two alicorn princesses moving the sun and moon. “…there isn’t a better place to watch a city burn then here.” Luna said as we readied ourselves for anything as Luna tried to open the door with her magic. “What is this?!” She exclaimed as her horn flared up and the magical aura around the door glowed brighter. “It’s not opening!” She exclaimed and Stellar’s horn flared up as well and he began to try and open the door.

“She’s right. It’s locked with some kind of magic.” He said as he then tried to push the door open and it didn’t budge. “It’s no good, it feels like it weighs a thousand pounds.” He said looking back to us. “Princess, I’m afraid we’ll have to find another way in.”

“Umm guys, hello?” Joel spoke up and held up his buzz axe and walked over to the door. Neither Luna or Stellar tried to stop him which meant it was worth a shot for what had in mind. Pulling his axe back he slammed it into the door, chopping into the wood with a loud thunk and crunch. He repeated the process over and over again in certain little spots till he had outlined a hole in the door and kicked the massive chunk in.

“KNOCK KNOCK QUEEN BITCH! THE WOLF HUNGERS FOR YOUR BLOOD!!” Krieg’s voice yelled out into the room as we made our way in cautiously. The room was a large hallway lined with stained glass windows, some of them were shattered. At the end of the room was a set of thrones, one for each royal sister. On one of the thrones sat a black figure with glowing green eyes that stared us down like daggers to the chest.

“Well now, so these are the “monsters” I’ve been hearing so much about from my changelings.” The figure spoke as she rose from her seat. The queen had long hair and stood about as tall as Celestia with a jagged horn on top of her head. “How sickening…” She hissed.

“Enough! Where are you holding mine sister and the other bares of the elements of harmony?!!” Luna roared at her and she laughed.

“Oh they’ve been dealt with accordingly Luna, though I can’t say whether they’re alive or not by now.” The queen replied as Luna horn flared with magic.

“How dare you!” Luna roared as she pointed her horn at the queen but her magic ceased just as fast as it had appeared and Luna tumbled to the ground.

“Princess Luna!” The ponies yelled out in unison as they rushed to they’re princesses side as they queen laughed.

“You honestly think I would be foolish enough to challenge you in fair combat?” The cackled as she approached us. “That magical seal I had placed on that door was designed to suck away your magic and energy the moment you tried to use it again.” She said as Joel and Selene stood between her and the others.

“You coward…” Luna muttered as she tried to catch her breath as the queen laughed as the two pegasus joined Joel and Selene to confront the queen while I helped the new guy took care of Luna. The queen chuckled as we got ready for a fight.

“Oh you stupid foals, you really think I would waste my time fighting you?” The queen said as her horned flared with magic and green flames encircled us.

“Get out of the fire now!” Joel yelled as he grabbed hold of the yellow pony and jumped through the flames while shielding her from their blaze. I was about to jump out as well before the flames completely encased us in a fiery dome. I tried to move but I found that my feet were sinking into the floor and I was locked in place, and I wasn’t just me. Everyone one of us that were in the fiery sphere were sinking through the ground itself. I struggled to get free but nothing worked as I sank deeper and deeper into the floor.

“Joel!” I yelled out as the floor went past my chest. “Beat her to a pulp!” I hollered out just as my mouth sank past the floor and I was able to hear Joel’s answer before I was completely engulfed.

“Count on it!”

Joel’s POV:

Chrysalis chuckled in amusement at my reply to Jack as they finally sank into floor just like in the season two finale. I had managed to pull me and Fluttershy out just before the flames completely surrounded us and escaping her spell.

“I must admit I’m surprised you were able to get out in time.” She chuckled as I readied my buzz axe as she approached. “Not many know what that spell does, Twilight must have warned you of that trick before she came here, but no matter. I can’t sense any magical energy from you and your friend there is nothing but quivering mess.” She taunted and glanced over to Fluttershy who was shaking in fear.

“Relax Shy their okay, she just used some type of teleportation spell on them so they’re not hurt.” I assured her and it only seemed to calm her down a little bit as Chrysalis laughed.

“That’s where you’re wrong monster, I sent them to the canterlot caves where a mass of our hive awaits them.” She said as her horn flared with magic. “But you get the misfortune of having to fight me!” She yelled as she fired a magical blast straight at me. I quickly jumped out to the side to dodge her first attack ash she now charged at me as I tried to regain my balance. I tried to swing at her with my axe but she was already on top of me and the buzz saw couldn’t connect as the handle hit her horn.

I pushed back against the Queen as we became locked in a contest of strength, something that I could easily win. However, Chrysalis wasn’t exactly going to let me over power her with my brute strength while she still had magic to spare. Her horn flared up again as I began pushing back against her. With a quick flap of her bug wings she angled herself so her horn was now aimed straight at me face and fired. The first part of the blast wasn’t exactly painful but more disorienting than anything else, then came a second pulse of magic. It felt like I slammed face first into jagged wall made of obsidian and was strong enough to take out half of my health bar and knock me flat on my ass.

I tried hard to regain my focus by I was still blinded and confused by the first part of the magical blast that I could only see vague shapes and shadows through a heavy green tint. I tried to recover from the attack but I was struck back down by another blast to the side, knocking me down into the critical health of my health bar and it sure felt that way. My breathing came in rapid gasps for air, my muscles ached, and my head felt like it was being pounded in with a sledgehammer being swung by the world’s strongest man. I was just about ready to black out until I heard a cry from Fluttershy.

“Joel look out!” I heard her cry before something shoved me off to the side with enough force to push me across the ground a couple of feet. At first I thought it was Chrysalis hitting me but a long and drawn out scream of pain told me something else had just happened. I finally was able to regain my full sight as I struggled to get up, my eyes fixed towards where I was just a few seconds ago. There, on the ground, smoking and unmoving was Fluttershy, a massive hole burnt through her right wing’s feathers and singed on her side.

“How pathetic…” I heard the Queen comment as I crawled over to Fluttershy to check and see if she was okay. “…jumping into the way of a blast like that would have killed her, and for what? I mutated freak of nature, a monster who destroys anything that stands in his way. What a stupid little foal she was.” I rose to my feet after I was sure Fluttershy had a stable pulse, she was just grazed by the blast, nothing more than some minor burns except for her wing, she just fell unconscious, probably from the pain. “What’s the matter monster? Did I strike a chord? Or did I-“

“SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU BITCH!” I yelled as I turned to face Chrysalis, my hand clenched tightly to the axe in my hand.

‘Don’t do it kid…’

“You really want to see a monster?” I asked aloud as I opened my skill menu.

‘Kid stop!’

“I’ll show you what a REAL monster looks like.” I said as I switched off bloodsplosion and pulled up release the beast.

‘Aww fuck…’

“Then I’m gonna make sure you never hurt anyone ever again!”

*Click*

Author's Note

Well here's chapter 12, kinda took longer then i would have liked to put together but it turned out alright.

So for those wondering about this Stellar Sheen OC I'm bringing in, you can expect to see more about him and how Joel met him after this arc is over(about five or so chapters from this one if things go as i want.)

So yeah, hope you guys enjoyed this Chapter and look forward to the next one. ^_^

Chapter 13

Selene’s POV:

My mind felt like it was spinning in five different directions all at once as I faded in and out of consciousness, my vision was blurry and I could only make out shades of black and shadows that moved around me. I could hear faint calls from someone that steadily grew louder and louder as my senses slowly but surely came back to me.

“Is she going to be okay princess?”

“She will be fine once she wakes up. She must have just hit her head on something when we were sent here.”

“Well she’s not bleeding from the head so if that’s true she didn’t hit anything sharp.”

I groaned as the voices caused my head to pound and I tried to sit up, only to find I was being held in someone’s arms. As my vision finally came back to me and I opened my eyes I was greeted by Jack’s face looking back at me.

“Hey she’s waking up!” He exclaimed and my head began pounding in response.

“Keep it quite will ya, I got a splitting headache.” I groaned as he let me sit up on my own.

“Easy you hit your head when we showed up here. Try not to push yourself too much.” Jack said softly this time as I looked around, taking note that we were now in some sort of cave made of large gems.

“Here, allow us to ease your pain.” I heard Luna say as I turned to face her, seeing the rest of our little group excluding Shy and Joel. Luna’s horn flared with magic and my head felt slightly tingly before the pain melted away in my head and I gave off a sigh of relief. Luna stumbled a bit as her magic died down, the effects of that magical lock from earlier still apparently having some effect on her.

“Thanks Luna.” I said smiling at her as she regained her from and smiled back at me. “So, what now?” I asked aloud.

“We try to find our friends and then get out of here, what else?” Dash said bluntly and Luna nodded.

“Rainbow Dash is right, we must find the others and escape these caves and get back to Joel and Fluttershy.” She said as I was finally able to stand up. “I know these caves better than any of us here so please follow me closely and do not get lost.” She said as we all began to follow her through the cave.

The caves were almost identical to the season two finale with exception of EVERYTHING being made out of crystals and gems and lacking a mine cart with tracks. As we proceeded further in the cave we came across signs that changelings were definitely in here with us. Pods of green slime that were opened up from the inside out dotted the cave walls every couple of yards we walked. Luna clenched her teeth at the sight of them and hatred could clearly be seen in her eyes.

“Princess what’s wrong?” Dash asked as we passed the fifth group of pods and Luna gave a sigh.

“These are changeling pods… They place other species in these pods to genetically morph them into more changelings.” She said with hatred dripping from her voice and the other two ponies seemed to be taken aback by this new information. As for me I had read enough fanfictions with this similar theory that it honestly didn’t shock me as much as it probably should have.

“So, all dose pods we passed were…” Stellar stared but Luna cut him off.

“My subjects who we were too late to save…” She growled as she walked up to one of the smaller pods and reached down and pulled out something from in it. Green slime slid off the form of a stuffed toy bear that more than likely belonged to a young filly. I clenched my fist in anger myself as Luna held the stuffed animal to her chest and closed her eyes and whispered something i could make out.

“Joel had better beat the ever loving fuck out of that bitch. Cause if he doesn’t I’m gonna!” Jack snarled as Luna set the stuffed toy back down and took a deep breathe.

“Let’s just hope you reach her before I do then Jack.” She said in a emotionless voice as she continued to walk down the cave and we began following her again. As we continued to walk through the caves we came across more empty pods that were opened up but something was different about these. Instead of opening from the inside out these looked to have been smashed in, like someone had kicked them in.

“Princess…” Stellar said as we stopped to take a deeper look at the pods.

“I know, these were opened by somepony before the transformations could be finished.” She said as she looked the pods over.

“You think it could have been Twilight and the others?” Dashed asked hopefully and Luna nodded.

“It is highly likely that is the case, we should hurry and find them. They may be trying to save as many ponies as they can.” She said as our walk turned into more of a jog as we tried to hurry it up and find our friends. We passed about five or so more sets of pods that had been smashed opened before we came on to a set that were only half smashed open while the other half remained untouched. From one of the pods we could hear grunting and sounds of a plea for help as it shook every so often. Luna quickly rushed over to the unopened pod and smashed it open, a mare pony falling out, gasping for air.

“Your majesty! Oh thank the moon you’re here!” She said as she regained his breath.

“Easy, do not push yourself. What happened here?” She asked calmly as the mare gathered herself together.

“Princess Celestia and some other ponies were here a little while ago trying to free us from these things when they were attacked by a swarm of changelings.” She said in a frightened voice. “They took them down there…” She said as she raised a shaky hoof towards a tunnel to our left. “They took a lot of ponies down that way, I’m not sure why but nobody was taken past here, they all went down there.”

“I see, thank you, please stay close to us, we will keep you safe.” Luna said smiling but the mare shook her head.

“There’s one more thing.” She said and Luna raised an eyebrow. “A Little bit ago the changelings, all of them, ran out of the tunnel and down that way for some reason.” She said pointing down the path we were already following. “I don’t know why but they all looked… scared. Like something really bad just happened.” She said and Luna helped the mare to her feet.

“I see…” Luna said softly as she looked over to Jack. “Jack, you and Stellar Sheen free these ponies and continue down that tunnel, it leads to the exit of the caves. Rainbow Dash and Selene please accompany me.” She said as she made her way towards the tunnel to the left of us.

“Yes Ma’am!” Stellar as he gave a salute to his princess and began freeing ponies from the unopened pods. Jack soon followed suit and cut the pods open with his keyblade as me and Dash followed behind Luna through the tunnel. We walked through the tunnel for maybe a good five minutes until we came into a massive room I guess, filled with nothing but unopened pods.

“Free them quickly!” Luna commanded as she went to work opening pods and freeing the ponies inside them. Dash and I quickly followed her lead and began busting open pods to let the ponies out. As we continued to open pods some began helping us open more and our work force seemed to double effortlessly.

“Hey I found Rarity!” Dash yelled out which caught my attention as I turned to see a green slime covered rarity who was shaking violently.

“It’s in my mane…” She muttered shakily and I chuckled.

“Well at least she’s not hurt.” I said as I opened up my next pod and an orange farm pony with a hat fell into my arms. “I got AJ!” I yelled out as the others kept working on opening more and more pods.

“Thank ya kindly Selene, I was worried ah’d be stuck in that darn thing forever.” AJ said smiling and I smiled back.

“Well if you want to thank me, you can help us bust open these pods and get everyone out of here.” I said as I helped her to her feet and she shook off the slime that covered her before giving a firm nod.

“Can do!” She said before she started busting open pods left and right as we continued to free everyone.

“I found Pinkie Pie!” Dash yelled out and I turned to see the bouncing pink pony with a grin on her face like always.

“You found me? Were we playing hide and seek?! Why didn’t you guys tell me before you started looking?!” She exclaimed and I chuckled as I opened more and more pods.

“I have found mine sister and Twilight Sparkle!” Luna’s voice boomed throughout the room to us and I looked over to see the other two Alicorns wiping of the green slime from their coats.

“Thank you dear sister, but I fear we must cut this pleasant greeting short. There is still much more work to be done.” Celestia said as she began to aid in opening pods.

“Agreed.” Luna said as she too began to open pods once again as she began to explain to them what has happened since we showed up. It took us about ten minutes from the time we first started opening pods to free every last one of the ponies trapped in the massive room. In total we had freed roughly over a hundred ponies in total from their pods and were now looking to the royal sisters to guide them out of this place. We helped guide everyone out of the caves as best we could with so few to manage such a massive group. As we finally reached the outside of the caves we were greeted by Jack and Stellar standing by the exit.

“What’s wrong? Is there trouble outside?” I asked and Jack shook his head.

“That’s just it, there’s nothing wrong outside aside from a few fires and the town being trashed. There isn’t a single changeling in sight it like all just, left…” Jack said in a worried voice and the sisters didn’t seem to like the sound of it one bit.

“Lulu you don’t think…” Celestia started but Luna was already taking off to the skies and flying towards the tower where Joel, Shy, and Chrysalis were. “…This is not good.” I heard Celestia mumbled before she took off as well.

“Hey wait! What’s wrong?! What’s not good?!” Jack yelled after them before he soon chased after them.

“Come on girls we should go too.” I said back to the five present elements of harmony and we soon followed after. Stellar followed after us as we made our way back up to the tower where we last encountered the Queen. Jack had already beaten us to the door and was standing there wide eyed in what looked like pure horror at what he saw. “Jack what’s wrong, are they okay?!” I asked him as we came down the hall towards him, but he gave no response, he only continued to stare into the room absolutely horrified. Celestia soon came out of the room, hooves drenched in blood and looking like she just relieved her most vividly horrifying nightmare sixteen times over. Fluttershy was laying on her back but from what I could see she looked fine. I began to walk towards her but she quickly raised a hoof towards me, blood dripping from it as she did.

“STAY BACK!” She shouted at us and I froze in place as she walked over to us and set Fluttershy down in front of us. “You are not to come anywhere near this room do you understand me!?” She nearly demanded of us and I was a bit taken aback at how serious she was getting.

“What about Joel he was in there I have to see if he’s okay!” I said as I moved towards the door.

“SELENE NO!” She yelled at me to late as I looked into the room and I instantly froze in place In pure horror as I began to see why Jack was just standing there staring into the room. But I really wished we didn’t look at all. Jack finally made his first movement since we saw him at the door, he covered his mouth and tried his hardest not to vomit.

Unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough to stop myself…

Author's Note

Well this chapter was a lot quicker to write then i thought it was going but i guess that's okay.

hope you enjoyed it ^_^

Chapter 15

Gaige/Joel’s POV: *Present time*

‘She seems to be taking it pretty well.’ Gaige thought to me and I sighed a bit in relief mentally. I was a little worried Fluttershy wouldn’t be able to handle such big news or at least not believe it at all. The only one left in the room was us and Fluttershy while the others went with the princesses to leave us in privacy so we could explain what happened to Shy.

“So how did you escape?” Fluttershy asked and our attention was brought back to her, a glass of water in her hooves and a bowl of finished off soup that the nurse brought in for her to eat.

“Well that’s where it gets a little more interesting. See since I’m not Krieg that means that part of their transformation thingy they used on us got about half-way done. At least that’s what Zed said.” Gaige said to her and I sighed mentally. “So right now we’re about half changeling, but it doesn’t really explain why I’m here though…” Gaige said as she began to think of a lot of reasons why that could be and only managed to annoy me. “Anyways, since I’m part changeling I’m still fit to be their ruler apparently, that and the fact no one wanted to challenge me for the title after what Krieg did to our predecessor. So in other words you are privileged to be in the good graces of the new queen changeling.” Gaige finished off as she gave a bow and I chuckled. "So i simply ordered them to stand down and they obeyed their queens wishes so we were able to get out without any trouble at all."

“But um, you don’t look like a changeling at all, you kind of look like Selene.” Fluttershy said and Gaige smiled at her.

“Well like I said we’re only part changeling so far as we know all that’s changed is that we can shape shift like changelings but to be honest we haven’t a clue how to do that.” Gaige explained as Shy set her glass of water down.

“I suppose that makes sense, can I talk to Joel now?” She asked and we both frowned and I sighed.

‘Just tell her as it is.’ I thought and Gaige perked up to me thoughts to her.

‘Are you sure? She’ll be really sad.’

‘Better to be sad now than be devastated later.’ With that said Gaige nodded and sighed as she looked to Shy.

“Well, the thing is… Unlike Krieg, Joel can’t control me like he did with him. All Joel is right now is just a little voice in my head.” She said and Fluttershy’s eye widened for a couple seconds before she closed them and took in a deep breath.

“I...see…” She mumbled as she took a deep breaths before finally looking back to us with a smile that seemed true but we both knew better. “Well, I guess you’ll be like our new medium like they have with ghosts.” She said cheerfully and I smiled a little.

‘Hey Gaige, can you give her a hug for me and tell to not get herself hurt over me again please?’ I asked and Gaige nodded as she bent down and hugged Shy in a warm embrace.

“This is from Joel. He says not to go off and get yourself hurt over him again, okay?” Gaige said to flutter’s who was now returning that hug.

“Okay Joel, I promise, so long as you promise not to go off and put yourself into trouble.” She said softly and Gaige nodded for me and I smiled a little. Gaige held Shy in a warm hug until she was ready to pull away on her own. “Thank you for being honest with. It means a lot.”

“You can thank Joel, it was his idea to be straight forward with how things are now.” Gaige said and Shy smiled at us.

“Well then thank you Joel.” She said smiling and we smiled back before the nurse came in and got our attention.

“I’m sorry but visiting hours are now over, I’m afraid I have to ask you to leave.” She said.

“Alright, I’ll leave in a minute then.” Gaige told her and she nodded before closing the door and we turned to Fluttershy who was also frowning. “We’ll come back tomorrow with the others to check up on you, promise.” Gaige said smiling at the timid yellow pony, extending her metal hand out for fist-bump.

“I look forward to it.” Shy said as she brohoofed Gaige before we got up and left the room. To our surprise Stellar was waiting outside for us.

“Took your time didn’t cha?” He said and Gaige chuckled at him.

“Well there was a lot to explain. Anyways, where’s everyone else?” Gaige asked as we began walking down the hallway.

“Back at de palace making plans for what to do next. De city is still a mess from de invasion and wit you being de new queen of de changeling’s dings are a little less dan desirable.” He said with a sigh.

“I don’t see what the big deal about me being their new queen is. If anything it’s one less enemy you have to worry about so long as they follow my orders.” Gaige said and the stallion sighed.

“Even so not many of us ponies are too keen on de thought of having your kind around after dat invasion the former queen pulled.” He said and Gaige and I both sighed, he did have a point there. Stellar continued to lead us out of the hospital and back into the castle and to where the others had all gathered which appeared to be the throne room. Celestia and Luna were both sitting on their thrones with the others gathered before them Zed included who had taken the form of a earth pony. True to what he had told us he was completely covered in scares that made him look like he had been badly burned. Dash was the first to notice us and quickly rushed over.

“Well how is Fluttershy? Is she okay? Did something happen that they had to make you leave?” She questioned as she hovered in the air to look us at eye level, Gaige smiled and petted her head.

“She’s fine, visiting hours are over, that’s all.” She told Dash who let out a sigh of relief before she landed on the ground. “So what’s new? Did we miss anything?” Gaige asked aloud as she looked over everyone.

“Currently we have calmed most of the frightened masses of the city and have put out all the fires. Reconstruction is our next step and hopefully all should go back to normal with in the week.” Celestia said as she looked to her sister as she spoke, a frown on her face.

“But as for you, queen of the changelings, Gaige, we have yet decided on what we should do with you.” Luna said.

“After this attack I doubt ponies will simply sit quietly and let this blow over without some form of justice being served.” Twilight said. “And they certainly wouldn’t like the idea of the new leader of the changelings roaming about equastria as she pleases.” She finished and Gaige sighed.

“I was afraid of that…” She said scratching the back of her head.

“Fear not, Thou are a friend of equastria and we shall do everything in our power as the princesses of equastria to insure you are both safe and able to roam as you please.” Luna stated which caused me to smile a bit, as much as I could smile like this.

“As my Luna and I were discussing with Twilight and her friends, we believe keeping the truth of you being half changeling a secret for as long as possible while informing that we shall increase our search efforts for the changelings hive. This should keep the masses calm and tempered with their need for justice, but I do not know when the truth about your position as the new queen would be able to come to light if ever.” Celestia explained and Gaige nodded before putting her hands behind her head.

“Works for me.” She chirped and both Luna and Celestia looked a bit surprised by her quick response.

“You don’t seem to be all that… worried, about the position you’re in.” Celestia said but Gaige only smiled.

“What’s the point of worrying? Worrying about stuff only causes stress and the last time I got stressed out I ended up locking myself in my work shed for three weeks.” Gaige said before her stomach growled loudly, causing her to blush a little. “Um, on another subject, you guys have any food I could I eat, I’m starving.” She said with a weak smile as she rubbed her stomach.

“Well I suppose it is about dinner time.” Celestia said as she rose from her throne. “Let us all go to the dining hall and see if the castle chef has anything prepared for this evening.” She said as the ponies along with Jack and Selene followed after her. We were about to follow with but Zed stopped us from continuing out the door.

“We need to talk…”

Jack’s POV:

“So Stellar, how’d you end up with Joel during the invasion?” I asked the guard pony as we walked with the princesses to the dining hall to get some chow.

“Well I was running de new trainees for de royal guard through some basic drills when de invasion started. As part of drills we are put through in training we formed defensive lines to protect important buildings such as de castle or city library were we hold all of de guards records. I was there fighting off the swarm until I was KIA’d, or at least I would have been if he didn’t show up to save my sorry flank. I had taken a slash to de throat and was bleeding pretty heavily until I passed out. The next ding I know is dere’s dis monster looking down at me on de ground, my wound completely gone somehow but I was still covered in blood from it. He said he healed my wound and that he was on my side and wanted to help fight of de changelings. After some introductions he informed me dat he was working with de princesses and de elements of harmony and what you were all trying to do. So since he saved my life I told him I would help him in any way I could.” He explained to us as we reached the dining hall which simply consisted of a large room with a long table with more than enough seats for everyone.

“So in other words you owe him your life since he saved it?” Selene said and the stallion nodded his head as we all took our seats.

“Speaking of which we is de devil? Wasn’t he right behind us?” Stellar asked as we all began looking around for Joel and I noticed that Zed wasn’t present either.

“I’m right here.” Gaige’s voice came from the doorway as she walked in with Zed following behind before taking seats at the table. I was about to ask what took them so long to get here but another pony came into the room wearing a chef’s hat.

“Ah your majesties and honored guests what would you have me prepare for you all this afternoon?” He asked and Celestia smiled at him.

“As happy to serve as ever Bonne Nourriture. I believe fruit bowls will be more than enough for us this evening. Any objections?” Celestia said smiling as she looked around the table for anyone to say something. When no one said anything she gave a nod to the chef who bowed before leaving for the kitchen to make our lunch. “So miss Gaige, Stellar was recalling the tale of how he and Joel first met, I would very much like to hear Joel’s point of view of the story if you wouldn’t mind telling it for him.” She said and Gaige nodded as she closed her eyes, more than likely thinking to Joel.

“He says that he was planning on bring this up anyways but he guesses it doesn’t matter now. According to him this is what happened…”

Joel/Krieg’s POV: *During the invasion*

“COVER EVERYTHING IN THE CRIMSON GOLD OF THE UNRIGHTEOUS AND BATHE ME IN ITS GREATNESS SO THAT ALL MAY SEE THE GLORY THAT IS I!!!” Krieg roared as he cut through the swarm of changelings down the street from the train station we started at. The street and buildings that lined it were now painted in a thick red coating of changeling blood from the absolute slaughter feast Krieg brought on them.

‘He does have a way with words doesn’t he?’ I thought to the other Krieg who chuckled.

‘We used to read poetry before we were this, I think.’ He thought back and I gave mental sad smile.

‘Well I guess that makes sense, but I suppose I should step in now. No more enemies means I take over now.’ I thought as Krieg relinquished control of our body and allowed me to take over once again. I was about to start making my way to the castle when I picked up the faintest of coughing and wheezing from the building next to me. Turning quickly and searching the area I saw a member of the royal guard laying on the ground, gasping for air, a nasty cut at his throat.

‘He’s alive? Damn, he’s one lucky son of a bitch.’ The old Krieg thought to me as I quickly rushed over to the stallion to see if I could do anything. The cut was just barely enough to cut anything important, but it was still enough to make him start losing blood. I gently applied pressure to the wound without crushing the stallion’s wind pipe to slow the bleeding.

“Hang in there buddy, I’m gonna fix you up.” I said as my mind started racing on how I could try and save him.

‘And exactly how do you plan to do that? You’ve got no medicine and we’re certainly not a pair of doctors here.' Krieg thought to me.

“How indeed.” A male voice came from behind me that nearly made me jump out of my skin. I couldn’t turn my head far enough without having to take my hands off the stallions throat, keeping me from seeing the source of the voice. But I could defiantly see a shadow, or rather a pair of shadows, and they were defiantly human in shape one male and one female.

“To heal a wound such as that would take extensive surgery and trained professionals.” The female spoke up.

“Or one of these.” The male voice spoke up again as the shadow tossed a tube filled with red liquid and a needle on one end which landed right beside me.

‘An insta-health?! Kid we can use that to save him!’ Krieg thought loudly to me as I quickly grabbed the red vial and he instructed me to push the needle end of the tube just below the cut. As I did the red liquid drained from the tube and the cut one the pony’s neck slowly sealed shut. With my hands free I finally turned to face where the voices came from, only to find no one standing there and a golden bit on the ground.

“What the hell…” I mumbled aloud as I picked up the bit before I heard the pony cough and I turned my attention back to him as he slowly came to.

Selene’s POV: *present time*

The dining hall remained silent and all eyes were fixed on Gaige as she finished explaining what Joel had told her had happened when he met Stellar. Our bowls of fruit arrived a little while ago but they had mostly gone completely untouched as we were entranced by what Gaige had told us. Just about all of us had mixed looks of confusion, disbelief, and questioning.

“So you mean to tell us that some of your kind appeared here in Canterlot, gave you something out of the world you and Krieg both come from, and then vanished without a trace?” Celestia questioned and Gaige nodded.

“That’s about right. The insta-health vile is a healing agent that the Hyperion Corporation on Pandora made for its workers to instantly heal any and all injuries they might have.” Gaige explained and Luna spoke up.

“So there is someone who has been to your world and they are somewhere here in equastria.” She said looking to her sister. “It is a possibility that they may be connected to why you are all here and how you end up as you are.” She said and Celestia nod.

“I agree, but we have so little to go on, but it is at least a place to start.” Celestia said as she looked over the three of us. “After Canterlot is rebuilt we shall divert our efforts to finding this pair. If they are hiding anywhere in equastria we will find them.” She said smiling before a cup of tea was placed before her… by a hand.

“Why waste precious time to search…”

“…When what you seek is already in front of you.” The two voices echoed loudly through the dining hall like thunder cracking through a silent night. All eye were quickly drawn to the source of the two voices, one man and one woman dressed in tan outfits that matched each other with identical blue eyes and hair color. The man stood pouring another cup of tea while the woman held a tray with empty tea cup along with honey and other things to add to one’s tea.

“Robert.” The man introduced himself as he placed the tea pot back on the tray.

“And Rosalind Lutece” The woman introduced herself as she poured some honey into the tea cup.

“At your service.” They spoke in unison as Robert placed the now filled cup of tea in front of Luna.

Author's Note

This chapter took me much longer then i thought it would i apologize greatly for that. I would have been done a long time ago but registration for the fall at my college opened up and it's been nothing but crazy since. Add in the fact I'm trying hard to get a job and that i went to a convention my life has been more then crazy for me. But regardless i hope you enjoyed this chapter, and hopefully surprised you with the surprise visit from my favorite twins. ;)

Chapter 16

Selene’s POV:

The entire dining hall sat in complete awe and silence for almost a solid minute. All eyes were fixed on the new pair that had just appeared out of nowhere and were now serving us tea. The princesses stared wide eyed in disbelief that anything could sneak up on them and take them by surprise like this. AJ’s jaw was hanging open so wide that I’m surprised it hadn’t hit the table. Pinkie didn’t seem to mind their presence one bit as she munched on the fruit of her fruit bowl as the two placed another cup of tea before Twilight.

“Honey?” The woman asked twilight as she held the honey over her tea, snapping most of us out of our state of shock.

“Umm, uh, no thank you?” Twilight stuttered as the woman nodded her head and placed the honey back on the tray as the man poured another cup. Finally Luna got up from her seat and took a defensive stance facing the two.

“Who are you and how did you get into the castle?!” She nearly yelled at the two as the other soon got up to face the two.

“We are where we are need.” The woman said as she poured honey into another filled cup of tea.

“And needed where we are.” The man finished as he placed the cup in front of rarity.

“Don’t try to evade the question! I demand you to explain who you are!” She yelled at the pair who simply continued to pass out cups of tea with honey.

“Why do you ask what you already know?”

“Or is it just that your hearing isn’t what it used to be?”

“What?!” Luna snarled at the insult.

“If you had been paying attention…”

“You would have heard our introduction.” The two spoke as they placed a cup of tea in front of Gaige while Luna snarled at the two.

“Princess Luna, I think you might want to let me handle this.” Jack spoke up with a groan as he rose from his seat.

“And why is that?” Luna questioned, not taking her eyes off the pair.

“Because unlike the rest of you…

“…He knows who we are.” The pair spoke and all eyes turned to Jack, including Luna’s.

“Well I know enough about you to not like either of you.” Jack said as the woman groaned and the man smirked.

“Told you so.” The man said with a grin while the woman set down the tray of cups to pull out a pad and paper and scribbled something down on it before putting it away. “And for once it WAS as satisfying as I had imagined.” The man said as he poured another cup.

“Yes well, I suppose there is next time for me…” The woman said as she added honey to the cup.

“Shouldn’t the two of you be helping Booker and Elizabeth?” Jack asked in an annoyed tone.

“We would…”

“…If they were where they were supposed to be.”

“Just like you three are not where you are supposed to be.” The pair spoke as they looked between me, Jack, and Gaige.

“Um, Jack how do you know these two?” I finally asked as I looked to Jack.

“They’re the twins from Bioshock infinite. They appear randomly throughout the game giving advice through riddles…” Jack explained.

“Hold on a minute, you mean to tell me these two are from another video game from your world?” Twilight asked and Jack nodded.

“Close but not quiet…” The woman spoke up.

“We are the same twins you think us to be…”

“But from our own world and not your game.”

“What’s that suppose ta mean?” AJ asked the pair.

“There are some many different worlds and universes…”

“Each one slightly different from the last…”

“But all of them are real and infinite in number…”

“And now for some reason…”

“They’re beginning to merge.” The two explained one after the other.

“What do you mean by merging? Are you saying that other worlds are becoming one in the same?” Luna asked as she to a less defensive stance when she was sure the two weren’t a threat.

“Exactly. This world…”

“And many others are suddenly becoming one…”

“By the force of someone…”

“Or something.”

“Wait a second, you’re saying you guys don’t even know what’s causing this to happen?” Jack asked.

“No, we don’t…”

“At least not yet.” The duo explained before a ringing sound echoed from the man’s coat pocket. Reaching into an inner pocket of his coat he pulled out an alarm clock and stopped it’s ringing.

“It appears our time meeting will need to be cut short…” He said as the woman reached into her own coat pockets and pulled out two small boxes.

“But before we go…” She said as she approached Celestia with the two boxes opening them to reveal to necklaces. One with the proud head of an eagle and the other with the strong head and horns of a bull.

“Eagle…”

“Or the bull?” The two asked as the woman presented the two necklaces to Celestia.

“Is this a gift of good will?” Celestia asked the two who exchanged a glance before answering.

“Of sorts…” The man said. “Now, the eagle…”

“Or the bull?” the two said as Celestia looked over the two necklaces once more before pointing to the one with an eagle.

“The eagle.” She said as she levitated it out of its box and the woman gave a bow before returning to the man.

“I was expecting the bull this time…” the woman mumbled just low enough that not many could hear as the two walked to the door.

“If you’re going to be a sore loser I won’t be doing this again…” The man replied just as quietly back as the two walked out of the room.

“Halt! We still have questions for thee!” Luna yelled after the two as she ran to the door behind the two, the doors swinging wide open only for the empty hall to be revealed without a trace of the two.

“Don’t bother trying to chase them, only they know where or when they’re going to be next.” Jack said with a groan. “Those two are a mystery in a league of their own…”

“So what? We just let them leave?” Dash asked and Jack nodded with a heavy sigh.

“Trying to catch those would just be a waste of our time. I say we just try to put things together with what they gave us.” Jack said as Luna took her seat at the table again. “For example, what they were talking about, a bunch of worlds starting to become one with each other.”

“Sounds down right crazy to me.” AJ spoke out. “How in Equestria can anything pull off somethin’ like that? And let’s say something can make that happen, why haven’t we noticed anything like that happening yet? Just sounds to me like a bunch of crazy talk.”

“Well I know for a fact those two don’t really have a reason to lie to us, they don’t gain anything from it.” Jack said as he leaned back in his seat. “Maybe the changes happen in small portions and are days apart from each other. But we can’t really do anything about that until it happens.”

“So what we just simply wait until something happens?” Gaige asked and Jack nodded his head.

“Until something happens we don’t know what’s going to happen or how. For now all we can do is fix the city up and then wait for something to happen.” Jack groaned as he ate some fruit from his bowl.

“I cannot see any other course of actions that we can take.” Celestia spoke up as she began to eat her fruit as well. “For now our main focus shall be on restoring canterlot and then we will brace ourselves for anything else that may happen. Stellar Sheen, see to it that your men are always on the tip of their hooves at all times.” She said looking to the armored unicorn who gave her a salute.

“Of course your majesty.” He said which brought a soft smile before turning to Gaige.

“Let us change things to a different topic. Gaige why don’t you tell us about yourself?” Celestia asked which caused Gaige to look up from her fruit bowl.

“Well there really isn’t much to say about me other then I’m a Vault hunter now and that I like technology stuff.” She said with a shrug.

“Pardon if this bring back any bad memories for ya’… But what happened to yer arm?” Applejack asked which only made Gaige giggle.

“It’s alright and well as for my arm I just cut it off and replaced. No biggie’”. Gaige said happily while the ponies stared at her dumbfounded.

“You cut off your own arm?!” Rarity nearly shrieked.

“Well not on purpose at first, it happened when I was working on my DT project. I accidently cut my arm on some sheet metal, not that deep though, maybe just half-way through the bone. So I was going to treat it with an insta-health but then I realized that having a cybernetic limb would work wonders for my DT project so I said: “To heck with it” and sliced the rest of my arm off with a particle saw. A Few hours and a couple of pints of blood later I had this baby hooked up and ready to do work!” Gaige explained with a grin as she gave her robot arm a couple of swings. All the ponies stared at her completely stunned, even the princesses seemed to be a least creeped out by her story.

“You mentioned a ‘DT project’. What was that?” Twilight said quickly, trying to change the subject.

“Well DT stands for…You know what how about I just show you.” Gaige said as she got up from her seat as she extended her robotic arm out palm opened. She then began to raise her hand higher as she closed her palm into the form of a fist. In front of her a cloud of what looked like blue squares and boxes formed with the massive out line of her giant robot formed before solidifying into solid matter. “Say hello to Deathtrap!”

“Hellooooooo~!” Pinkie said happily as she waved at the robot from her seat, making me hold back a laugh while the other ponies stared in awe at the floating robot torso.

“Pretty cool huh? I built him from scratch myself.” Gaige bragged with her held high with a smirk on her face.

“Ah’ve never seen anything like it…” AJ mumbled and Gaige seemed to hold her head up even higher.

“Thank you I try.” She said smiling as Deathtrap scanned the room filled with ponies. “I made him for my school’s science fair, and would have won if that little miss daddies perfect angle Marcy didn’t rip off my idea and buy off those stupid judges!” Gaige said her voice dripping with anger and frustration as Deathtrap broke back down the same way he came to be. “Anyways, so long as I have this mechanical arm I can call Deathtrap at any time as long as he’s done recharging.” She said before there was a knock at the dining room door.

“I’m sorry your majesties, but I’m afraid that the paper work can’t be pushed back any further and I need to ask you to return as soon as possible.” A mare with glass said as she looked out from around the door and Luna gave a soft sigh.

“We’ll be right there Mrs. Quill, ready our stamps and ink wells.” Celestia said as the mare nodded and closed the door behind her. “It would seem our duties as princesses can no longer be put off. Miss Gaige if you wouldn’t mind coming with us, we still have question to ask of you if you would be so kind.” She said as she and Luna rose from their seats.

“Sure no prob.” Gaige said as she got up and followed the princesses out of the dinning while everyone went back to eating their fruit bowls and making small conversations. As we all finished our bowls we decided not to be a burden for the castle staff and made our way out of the dining room. As I passed where Gaige was sitting I took note that her food bowel looked almost completely untouched.

‘Hm, I wonder if the castle staff does room service…’ I wondered as I thought about how much Gaige must have been starving by now since she was the one who suggested we eat in the first place.

Author's Note

So yeah, sorry about the massive gap in updating, lots of crazy irl stuff going down. i recently got a job and i'm getting ready for my next semester of college so my time to write has been reduced by quiet a bit and some of the times i did have time to write i just wanted to pass out from exhaustion. but i refuse to let my stories go unfinished so keep an out for future updates!

THE SHOW WILL GO ON!

Chapter 1

As the rain pelted my window I gave a long sigh as turned in the quest I just finished in my game. I was on my 360 playing borderlands 2 with my final class that I needed to max out and I was just barely under the OP 8 mark. My laptop was open next to me on my desk, Skype was opened up and some of my friends and I were in a group voice chat. We had decided to have a weekly Skype call to stay in touch with each other after we graduated from high school and moved away for college. In the call was Jack, Selene, Dave, and Ricky not including me. I was so caught up in my game trance that I hardly heard Selene nearly shouting at me from the call.

“Hey! Earth to Joel!!!” Her voice was a bit high pitched, but that was mostly due to her crappy microphone that she used.

“Hmm?” I mumbled as my attention slowly pulled away from my game as looked back to my laptop.

“Jeez man, you’re as hard to reach as ever when you get like that. Let me guess, your Psycho now?” She asked and I gave another mumbled answer. “Well think of it this way, he’s the last one left for you right? After he’s done you can move on to a new game.” She told me, not that it helped much considering I still had a little while to go before I’d be done. See when I play a game, I HAVE to finish it completely otherwise it’ll drive me nuts.

“Hey Joel it could be worse…” I heard Jack’s voice come in as I now paused my game and was now focusing on my laptop. “…Your save files could have been corrupted and you have to start over again.”

“I’m guessing you’re talking from experience now jack?” I asked and he gave a grumble which told me he just found out one of his games got corrupted recently. “What game?”

“Dream drop distance.” Me and Selene gave out a pained ‘ooooh…’ cause we both knew that Jack was a kingdom hearts nut-job and could play those for the rest of his life and be happy. “Yep, found out the other day and had to start over completely.”

“How far are you from where you were?” I asked as I went back to my game and did some inventory arranging.

“Not that far really, I’m just missing a keyblade or two now but I’ve gotten everything else back.” He said as I could hear the sound of his 3DS through his mic.

“What about you Selene? What’cha playing?” I asked as I went to an ammo dump and sold all the useless guns, relics, shields, and grenades I had.

“Mass Effect 3.” I heard her say and I then caught Dave giving off a groan. “Hey just because you hated it doesn’t mean I can’t like it!”

“The game was complete crap!” Dave complained as I once again decided to tune out of the Skype call and get entranced with my game again. Whenever Dave decided to rant about something, normally it was going to go on for a good ten or twenty minutes. I only turned my attention back to the call when Jack’s voice came into the mix.

“Okay ladies I think we can hold off on this discussion till another day.” Jack said as Dave and Selene finally broke the argument.

‘Thank you…’ I thought to myself since I didn’t want our Skype call to go to waste. “So Dave, what are you playing then?”

“Halo Wars. I’m about three thousand points away from reaching general rank.”

“Took you long enough.” I taunted, since I had reached the rank of general in that game three months ago.

“Hey shut up! Most of us didn’t have the luxury of taking a semester off from college like you did!”

“Aww come on can you really blame me?”

“Yes!”

“Fair enough.” I laughed as Dave mumbled something. “What about you Ricky?”

“Ratchet and Clank deadlock.” Ricky’s voice finally came over my laptop.

“Damn dude, I almost forgot about that game. Man was that game fun…” I mumbled to myself as I got lost in nostalgia for a minute.

“Hence why I’m playing it again.” Ricky’s voice came over again and I gave a chuckle before a loud boom of thunder echoed outside.

“Damn it’s storming like hell over here…” I mumbled aloud.

“They say it’s all over the state right now.” Selene said as I heard the sound of an explosion coming from her game.

“Yeah I know but, damn…” I said as I watched the rain beat against my window harder and harder as the wind picked up outside.

“Well…supposed…better…” Jack’s voice came up, fuzzed out by static before Skype notified me that I had been kicked from the Skype call and my 360 notified me I was no longer connected to Xbox live.

“Damn internet connection…” I mumbled under my breath as I gave a sighed before pulling out my cell phone only to find I had no service. “Aw crap…” I said as I saved my game and returned to the main menu just in time as my power went out. Groaning as I sat there in darkness I looked at my phone and did the only thing I really could do at this point. I went under my videos and watched some MLP: FIM that I had download beforehand in case of things like this. I watched one episode at first, then one turned to two, two to three, and soon I found that I had drained my two hour high performance battery. I gave another groan as I looked at my phones watch before I finally turned it off with 2% battery life left. It was exactly midnight, time for bed anyways I guessed as got up from my seat, only to be blinded by a bright white light coming from my TV. “What the f…”

Blackness, nothing but blackness was all I could see, nothing, no lights, nobody or anything. Just blackness of a void. But I could hear something, or rather someone, a soft distant voice that seemed vaguely familiar. The voice soon turned to multiple voice, all of them were soft and distant and I couldn't make anything out of what they were saying. I slowly regained feeling of my body, I felt like I was being pressed with the weight of a boulder and my head ached like a motherfucker. I finally gave off a groan as I guess I came back to the world of the living.

“Shh! It’s waking up! Hide!” I cautious female voice said just barely loud enough for me to hear her. I shifted around a bit and found that I was lying in a bed with a blanket over me. My eyes slowly opened to see a roof that was clearly not my houses and a window to my side, beaming sunlight right into my face. Slowly bringing myself to sit up, wincing at the pain of doing so I felt a cool breeze hit me and my eyes shoot back open. I was shirtless, on top of that I was in a pair of black pants that I wasn’t wearing before and I had red flames painted across my, six pack?! I had freaking six pack abs with flames painted over them! Not only that, my right arm had been wrapped up in bandages with a few stains of blood on them. While my left arm had some type of metal gauntlet on it, I frantically searched the room and spotted a dresser with a mirror on it against the wall. I got out of the bed I was in a little too quickly as one of my legs gave out and I stumbled to one knee. I must have been laying down for a long time, I had to wait for blood to flow back into my leg before I was able to stand. Once I was able to stand I hurried over to the mirror and frozen in both horror and disbelief.

I had a buzz saw in my head and the Krieg Psycho mask, I WAS my character Krieg from borderlands 2. Reaching up I poked the buzz saw in my forehead gently, and to my surprise, felt no pain. I figured it was best not to mess with it, I might end up killing myself if I move it around too much. I fully inspected myself and found that my assumptions where right, by some way, shape, or form, I had turned into my psycho class right down to the skin and head I had on in the game. I pinched myself a few times and the pain it caused assured me I wasn’t dreaming, but how…

“Um, excuse me…” I timid female voice called out to me and I quickly pulled a one eighty and once again found myself in disbelief at what I saw. Right in front of me stood a yellow Pegasus with a pink mane with three pink butterflies on her flank. “Um, I’m, uh sorry but you really shouldn’t be up, you’re hurt very badly and…” Her voice was borderline trying to be caring and protective, but also filled with fear as her legs wobbled under her.

“Fluttershy what are you doing! It’ll eat you!” Another voice called out from under the bed I was laying on. Underneath was Pinkie pie, Rarity, Rainbow dash, and Applejack. What the fuck was going on?! I was in the same room as five of the mane six from mlp?! Could things get any more messed up?!

‘NIPPLE SALADS!’ ...oh fuck no…

Author's Note

So this was a very quick chapter I'll admit, but i was so excited to start of my first fimfic. The following chapters will be (hopefully) MUCH longer then this one, but i needed to get the base of the story grounded in first which is why this chapter only took me about two hours to make. I would love to hear feed back from you guys so please leave me a comment or two so i can improve!

Chapter 14

Fluttershy’s POV:

As my eyes slowly opened up as I woke up I saw curtains blowing from the breeze of the open window that they covered. I was laying down in a bed with covers draped over me that kept me nice and warm.

“Mornin’ sugarcube.” I heard Applejacks voice call out to me as I turned to see her perched up on a seat against the wall which was next the bed I was in.

“Applejack?” I asked aloud as my hazy head cleared up and I started to remember what happened before I woke up here. “JOEL!” I shouted out as I quickly sat up and was stopped by a sharp pain in my side and one of my wings.

“Easy there Shy.” Applejack said as she got down off her seat and trotted over to me. “You were hurt pretty badly so don’t push yourself.” She said and looked myself over, my side that hurt was completely wrapped in bandages along with my wing.

“A-applejack…wh-what happened?” My voice quaked in fear as I felt some tears roll up in the corner of my eyes.

“You got hit with a blast of the queen’s magic at some point. The doctor said you’ll be fine so long as ya get plenty of bed rest.” She said and my nerves calmed down a little bit.

“And Joel? Is he okay?” I asked and Applejack looked away.

“Um…yeah he’s okay…I think…” She said as she readjusted her hat. “Hey! No pony else knows you’re awake yet! Ah’ll go tell em now!” She said as she turned to get the others.

“Um okay, I guess…” I mumbled as she opened the door, only for pinkie to fall into the room with a thud.

“What in tarnation are you doing here pinkie?” Applejack asked aloud before we heard groans coming from outside the door.

“We were worried about Fluttershy so I suggested we have slumber party outside the hospital room while we waited for her to wake up.” Pinkie said smiling before yawing as the others came in with the exception of Princess Luna and Celestia, Stellar Sheen, Selene, Jack, and Joel.

“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you all so worried.” I said softly and Pinkie almost instantly hugged me as the words left my mouth. Admittedly it hurt my bandaged side a little but I didn’t care as I hugged her back.

“It’s quiet alright darling, we’re just glad your finally awake.” Rarity said as she walked up to my bedside with the others as Pinkie let go of her embrace on me.

“How long was I sleeping?”

“Well we actually don’t know exactly how long exactly, but since we found you it’s been about ten hours.” Twilight said.

“Ten hours?!” I exclaimed and Dash quickly held me back from sitting up to quickly.

“Well yeah, but some it was medically induced so they could fix you up from what the queen did to you.” Dash said as I looked to my bandages. “They said you should be back to one hundred percent in about a week as long as you don’t do any crazy stunts.”

“Well what happened while I was sleeping? Did the changelings retreat?” I asked and they nodded and I gave a sigh of relief. “Well what about Joel and the others are they all okay too?” They all looked to each other and then back to me.

“Well it’s kind of…complicated…” Twilight said and I grew worried.

“They’re not hurt are they?” I asked and Twilight shook her head.

“No no, it’s just that…” Twilight started before Celestia entered the room.

“I see our patient has finally woken up.” She said as she walked into the room followed by Luna, Jack, and Selene. “I’m pleased to see that you are making a fast recovery, though I’m afraid you won’t be able to fly with that wing until new feathers have grown in.” She said with a look of concern as she approached my bedside.

“It’s not that bad, I don’t really need to fly to take care of my animals back home anyways.” I said smiling and she returned my smile. “Um Princess Celestia may I ask you something?”

“Of course my little pony.”

“What happened to Joel?” I asked and her face became slightly saddened before looking to Luna and Joel’s friends.

“I think it would just be easier to show you. You can come in now.” She said looking over to the still opened door.

From the outside walked in a girl wearing a bluish-grey jacket with a red under shirt with a little skull on the front of it. She also wore a matching red skirt to her shirt with checkered colored socks and a pair for tennis shoes. Her red hair was tied into a pair of ponytails that hung off each side of her head with a pair of goggles resting above her forehead. But what stood out most about her was that her left hand was completely made out of metal. Around her waist was a belt that held a whole bunch of things that I couldn’t make sense of and didn’t look like they were there for fashion.

“So this is Fluttershy huh?” She said as she reached my bedside and looked me over, making me pull the covers up to hide myself.

“Um who are you?” I squeaked out and she giggled at me.

“The name’s Gaige, Gaige the mechromancer.” She said smiling at me before giving an annoyed look up at the wall above me and looking like she was thinking about something. “I swear he just doesn’t shut up...” She muttered.

“Um, who?” I asked and she looked back to me.

“Oh, sorry you don’t know yet. I’m basically the new Krieg for your friend Joel and he’s telling me to tell you he says ‘hi’.” She said smiling.

“What…?”

*8 and a half hours ago*

Selene’s POV:

I stared blankly out the hallway window and out over the smoking city of canterlot while Celestia talked to one of her guard about cleaning up the room as soon as possible. Jack was sitting down beside where I stood while the ponies took Flutters to a hospital along with Luna.

“The walls will need to be resurfaced, the carpets replaced, the tiles bleached, and the ceiling thoroughly cleaned and repainted.” Celestia said as I shuddered at the vision of the room still fresh in my mind. I was hoping Joel would do a number on Chrysalis but, damn… I shuddered again, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. I quickly changed my thoughts back to the current situation to prevent myself from remembering the room again.

Joel was missing. The only things left in that room were the bloodstains that were once the Queen and Fluttershy, who was found completely untouched by any of the horrors in the room around her. Celestia sent her guard on his way before turning her attention to me and Jack. “Sorry for the wait, I’m sure you both have questions to ask about your friend.” She said and I nodded.

“What happened to him? You and Luna know something we don’t, don’t you?” I said and she nodded and sighed heavily.

“I’m afraid Joel has been taken by the surviving changelings back to they’re hive to be turned into they’re new king.” She said and I was about to ask why but she seemed to read my mind and continued to answer the question. “It is a part of how their hive works, the stronger you are the more qualified you are to be the leader of the hive. When they found what Joel had done to their queen, I’m guessing they saw him as the ultimate leader if they could turn him into a changeling like they do to ponies.” She said and Jack spoke up this time.

“Can they do that? Can they turn other creatures into changelings like ponies?” He asked and Celestia nodded.

“I’m afraid so, though the process does take a much longer processes to happen, and since the changelings have never converted a human before it is highly likely it will take even longer.” She said.

“Well then what are we waiting for lets go save him.” Jack said as he grabbed hold of his keyblade.

“I’m afraid I do not know the where about of the hive’s location, and even if we did we would need to carefully plan our approach. It is more than likely he will be highly guarded by the entire hive until he has been turned.” She said before we heard Stellar’s voice from down the hall.

“Well den princess Celestia we’re in luck.” He said as we turned our attention to where his voice was. In his magical grasp floating above his head was a changeling tied up in rope and a silver ring around the base of its horn. His head was hung low and three scares across the center of his face that still looked somewhat fresh. “We found dis little bugger trying to hide down in de swears below de city.” He said as he dropped the changeling on the ground in front of us. “I’m sure interrogation won’t take more den a couple of minutes.”

“They’re hiding in the badlands, south of Dodge City, the secret entrance is under a single standing stone raised above the dried river bank.” It spoke and I blinked a few times.

“Well that was easy.” Jack said but Stellar didn’t seem to accept what the changeling said.

“And why should we trust you? How can we trust you?” He question the black creature who chuckled at him.

“I’ve been left for dead fool. I betrayed my kin during this invasion and so I’ve been exiled by them, and without a hive to call home it’s only a matter of time before I die from starvation.” He asked and I raised an eyebrow.

“What do you mean starvation? You transform into other ponies and feed off the love that pony’s friends and family hold for them don’t you?” I asked and he shook his head.

“You must not be aware of our biology then, when changelings fight each other with their own magic it leaves magical scares that will remain on us even if we shape shift.” He said and jack spoke up this time.

“So that’s what those scares on your forehead are?” He asked and again he shook his head.

“No, I got this during the invasion. The magical scares do not appear upon me until after I have shape shifted.” He said as he tried to rub his forehead. “Hard to pretend to be somepony else when you have scares that they don’t.”

“Even so dat doesn’t explain why we should trust you.” Stellar said and the changeling nodded.

“Indeed, I’m telling you this because you are my only chance for survival now. A single changeling does not require massive amounts of love to survive. I only need to feed once a month at most and any effects of my feeding would disappear in less than an hour.” He said.

“And what makes you so sure we’re just gonna let you do as you please once we rescue our friend?” Stellar retorted and the changeling smirked.

“Because I’m the only chance you’ve got of finding your friend before he’s turned into our new king.” He answered back. “So, in exchange for my freedom, I’ll show you where the hive is and help you save him. Is that agreeable?”

“Are you will to be under constant watch by the royal guard?” Celestia spoke up and the changeling nodded. “Then so it will be, however I wish to know why you betrayed your fellow changelings?” She asked and the changelings head fell low again.

“Because I was against this invasion from the start.” He said and just about everyone raised an eyebrow. “After our failure to invade canterlot during the royal wedding our form queen grew determined to succeed in taking it eventually. Well, more like she became obsessed with taking the city, like she was being consumed by her anger and rage towards you all for beating her. Because of this she diverted much of the hives time into finding a weak spot and the perfect time for another invasion, including those of us who were supposed to be gathering food. Some of us began to die of starvation within the hive and we began to question her majesties way of thinking.” He said as he looked back up to us. “To be honest, I think if any of the hive saw this place ever again, it would still be too soon.”

“I see…” Celestia said as she took a deep breath. “Very well, your terms are agreeable.” She as she began to undo the changeling’s bindings with her magic. “But make no mistake, if you go back on your word, there will be hell to pay, understand?” She snarled at the changeling and he firmly nodded.

“I understand completely.” He said as he began to stand up, struggling at first but soon found strength in his legs. “Call me Zed.”

“You highness are you sure about dis?” Stellar asked in a hushed voice to his princess who sighed.

“If you have any better ideas please share them now or else we will have to trust him.” She said and Stellar fell silent. “Then it is decided, we make for the badlands at once.”

*two hours later*

I yawned as we made our way down a beaten path south of Dodge City and on the border of the badlands. I had fallen asleep on the train ride to dodge and was trying hard to wake up before we got to this hidden entrance Zed kept mentioning. Jack and Stellar were walking on both sides of me while Celestia and Zed walked in front of us. Luna and the others stayed behind to try and calm things down and help rebuild in Canterlot while we went to go save Joel. We had been walking for maybe an hour through the badlands before we finally reached the place Zed was talking about. At pile of rocks with one standing high above the rest next to a dried river bed.

“Something’s not right here…” Zed said as he began looking around with serious eyes. “There aren’t any guards at the entrance. There should be two or more guards here.” He said as he began walking over some of the rocks towards the tall standing one.

“Well you kept saying this was a secret entrance. Wouldn’t be very secret if you have a bunch of guards protecting it.” Jack said and Zed rolled his eyes.

“They wear camouflage you fool.” He said as he pushed on the tall standing rock a little, sliding back a few inches before one of the rocks broke apart and opened up like a door into a cave system. “Now stay behind me and don’t talk unless I talk to you.” He said as he hopped down the hole and we followed after him.

The cave system wasn’t that much different from the caves below canterlot aside from the fact changeling pods covered nearly every surface except for the floor. There were countless tunnels that stretched out in every direction off of the main tunnel that we followed, each one filled with pods. Zed explained to us that the incubation pods were used as beds for their kind and that any of them that were still unopened were sleeping changelings. He assured us that the thick outer shell of the pods blocked out any sound we made but that they were more sensitive to motions. If we so much as tapped the pods the sleeping changelings would wake up inside it. After a few minutes of walking and being extremely careful not to touch any pods as we walked through the main tunnel Zed stopped us.

“Is something wrong?” Celestia asked him in a hushed voice.

“Up ahead is the main chamber of the hive. I can sense a lot of my kin in there along with another being that isn’t a changeling at the center. I’m guessing that’s your friend. From what I can tell he hasn’t turned yet and it’ll be a couple minutes before he does.” He said as he looked back at us. “Here’s the plan, run in in a blaze of glory, cut open your friends pod, pick him up, and run and don’t stop until we’re out of the badlands.”

“Sounds good to me.” Jack said with a smirk as he readied his keyblade while is side and pulled out my shotgun.

“You go for the pod and I’ll keep you covered.” I said looking at Jack who nodded before I looked to Stellar and Celestia. “And you two watch my back.” I said and Stellar grew annoyed with me.

“Who do you think you are giving orders to Princess Celes-“

“Understood, we will ‘watch your back’ Selene.” Celestia cut off Stellar whose jaw was now hanging open and I chuckled.

“I’m counting on you.” I said smiling back before turning my attention back to Jack who was more than ready to go.

“If you’re all ready then.” Zed said as we began walking down the tunnel again and I could start to hear the buzzing of a mass of changelings ahead of us. “Alright let’s go.” Zed said before he began running down the tunnel ahead of us and we began running after him. As we ran the tunnel began to expand larger and larger until it open into the massive chamber Zed mention. The chamber was covered in changelings from top to bottom to the point I couldn’t make out the stone floor and walls. The only outstanding feature of the chamber was a set of stairs that lead up to a throne that currently seated a massive pod.

“Oh no…” Zed mumbled as he came to a screeching halt just past the entrance into the chamber. We stopped next to him braced for the fight he told us to be ready for but it never happened, not a single changeling even so much as looked at us.

“What’s going on here Zed?” Stellar said as readied himself for a fight. Before Zed could answer him all of the changelings in the room horns light up with they’re green magic. A second later every single one of them fired a blast of their magic at the pod on the throne, making it glow bright green.

“Shit!! GO NOW!!!” Zed yelled as he began running full speed for the pod and Jack and I began running after him.

“What are they doing?!” I yelled at Zed as we made our way up the stairs.

“They’re trying to speed up the transformation process and from what I can tell it’s working!!!” He yelled as his own horn flared up and he formed a green shield around us and around the pod to deflect the magical blasts. “Open the pod now!!!” Zed yelled as I began firing into the hive, gaining they’re attention and stopping them from blasting the pod with magic. Jack stabbed his keyblade through the side of the pod, cutting open and causing a mass of slime to pour out as I kept firing, my back turned to the two of them.

“Well is he there?! Is he okay?!” I yelled back at them as began to reload my shotgun but then noticed something, the changelings weren’t fighting back. Every single one of them were bowing towards the pod behind me.

“I thought you said your friend was a boy?” Zed asked as I turned to see Jack holding the body of a girl in his arms, her face covered in green slime. Her left hand that seemed to be made of metal reached up and she wiped the slime of her face before spitting off to the side and spoke.

“EEEEEWWW! ITZ IN MAH MOUWTH!!! GUYZ ITZ IN MAH MOUWTH!!!”