Phoenix

Chapters

Saving Reality
Saving a World
How Do You Say Thank You To An Alien?
These Wars We Fight
Blood, Guts And Weddings
Jumping Through Windows
What's a "Mexican"?
End of Watch
We Still Haven't Found The Bloody Room!
Road Trip!
Interlude: Back Home
Operation Molerat
Of Bakeries and Heretics
I Hate Hospitals
Mother's Day
Surprise!
Ah! Hell! Another Fight? Will You Just Leave Me Alone Already?
The Day They Foalnapped the Princess
Keeping Hearts and Minds Occupied
A Door Opens... And Then You Get Pushed Through It
I Don't Like This Room... Could You Reopen The Door You Pushed Me Through?
Homecoming
Dust in the Wind
The Guns of L.A. Part 1
Ten Thousand Years

Saving Reality

Phoenix

Chapter 1

"Overlord, this is Poet 1-5. I have reached the bridge and am going to start the emergency dump procedure. How copy."

The man leaned his rifle against the table as he activated the touch controls on the bridge of the ship, the Celeste. A capitol ship which had been lost in the NPR uprising.

"Good copy, Poet. Overlord has detected a massive spike in the bowels of the ship. Overlord believes it to be a weapon. Overlord advises you to light a fire under your feet on that emergency dump procedure. How copy?"

"Copy, standby."

"Venus!" The man called to his AI companion.

"I have analyzed the energy spike Overlord detected and I must agree with him. However, while I am not trying to make the situation even more urgent, my scans indicate it has enough power capability to destroy the Milky Way and the Andromeda. I second Overlord's position to light a fire and hurry up."

The marine paused, the red klaxons blaring on the bridge, perhaps he had misheard.

"Venus, did you just say the Milky Way and Andromeda?"

"Yes, I did."

The confirmation was enough to light a fire under his feet as he began to swipe through commands.

"Venus get into the system and begin dumping any cargo on the ship. Dump anything that you can that isn't necessary to the ships movement. How are the lifesigns on the ship?"

There was a pause as Venus scanned the ship.

"I have no IFF signatures on the ship, all Imperial troops have evacuated. I am picking up 347 life signs in 417 living quarters."

"Okay, with the exception of the bridge layer, reroute all power to the engines, give me everything she's got, including life support. How much time is left on the BL's charge."

"The bridge layer has a minute and thirty seconds until it has enough power to fire."

"And the weapon?"

"As it is a one-off design, I can not tell you exactly, however calculations put it at approximately one minute fifty seconds."

"Oh... fuck, that's cutting it way close. Overlord! This is Poet 1-5. Venus has indicated that it is indeed a weapon that has the power output to destroy the Milky Way and the Andromeda. I am going to open a bridge and dump the ship into that and immediately close the bridge. With any luck, that will dampen the detonation to survivable levels."

"Copy, Poet. What's time? Over."

"Overlord, the BL has a minute ten. Over."

"And the weapon? Over."

"Overlord, Venus puts it at approximately a minute thirty. Over."

There was a pause in communications. A deep breath came over the marine's comms.

"Copy that Poet. With any luck, we'll see you on the flip-side. God speed. Out."

Twenty seconds might seem like quite a while, but the Celeste was not a small ship. It was several miles long. If he was going to get it into the bridge, he'd have to get it moving now.

"Venus activate thrusters, bring them to full power, I want us moving yesterday. As soon as that BL is charged, open a bridge and put us in there. Venus..."

The man looked down at his gloved hand, squeezing it closed to make a fist and opening it.

"We're not coming back from this one."

"I must agree, however, you didn't earn your name for nothing."

The marine leaned on the table, until an alarm in his helmet brought his focus back. He quickly noted the countdown timer, forty-five seconds until the bridge layer was charged.

"You are receiving a call from Lakia. Would you like to a-"

"Answer." The call was quickly patched through his helmet, as a woman's voice, identified as Lakia, filtered in through the built-in communications set.

"Hey, can you hear me?"

"Yeah."

"What's happening?"

Thirty-five seconds.

"Nothing much."

"After the... first attack, I was brought to a bunker by legionnaires. They wouldn't give me any information more then I just needed to follow them. "

"Yeah, I know... I sent them after you. Is everyone else okay? Your mom, dad, brother?"

"Yeah, everyone got here safe. Inaya is shaken, but physically fine."

Twenty seconds.

Silence.

"Listen, I have something I need to tell you something. I just found this out..."

Fifteen seconds. He had to do it now.

"Lak... why don't you tell me this when I get back? "

Sounding disheartened, Lakia responded.

"Y-yeah... just,"

Ten seconds.

"Lakia, I love you. And I promise you I'll be back. And I never break promises. From day one, I've never broken one I made to you.

Five seconds.

"Just... just make sure you get back. Okay?"

"The bridge layer is being activated right, prepare for massive gravitational flux." Venus informed him.

"I promise, Lakia."

With those last words, the call ended and the marine got back to the work in front of him.

"Activating gravitational compensators, Venus, give me current speed, begin terminal countdown."

".1% of speed of light. Terminal countdown begun, nineteen seconds to fire."

"Distance to bridge?"

"Fourth of an AU. Approximate time to crossing: twelve seconds. Terminal countdown at seventeen seconds."

"Give me more power to the boosters!"

"Terminal countdown: ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five. Contact. Four, three, ship is covered. Closing bridge. Standby. Bridge closed successfully"

The marine let go of a breath he didn't realize he had been holding. From the bridge's viewing screen, he could see the blackness and nothingness of the closed bridge.

"Massive power spike detected in cargo bay. Weapon beginning detonation. Twenty seconds to detonation based of building energy readings. Scans of databanks indicate the Celeste was designed with an emergency teleport function that would separate the front of the ship from the rest to prevent capture of VIPs. Activating emergency teleport. Navigation systems destroyed, inputting random."

"Venus..." The marine mumbled.

"Twelve seconds to detonation, eleven seconds to teleportation."

"Ah... fuck..."

"Teleportation: Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five,"

An explosion rocked the ship, as the front of the ship was forcefully removed from the rest of the ship.

"Ah! Fuck!" He shouted, as he was knocked down by the explosion.

"Four, three, two, one. Teleport initiated."

The front of the ship shimmered, and then disappeared, as the unknown weapon had finally built up enough power to trigger its final detonation.

The explosion occurred faster then the speed of light. And in normal space, it would have utterly destroyed anything nearby.

But in the nothingness of the void, with no way to escape, there was a question to whether or not it had even occurred.

(-)

Clover looked behind her, as the ponies run to escape the encroaching wendigoes.

“There! The cave!” She yells. The ponies begin dashing for the cave.

They make it to the cave, and Clover takes one last look to the sky, as a massive visible shockwave flows through it. It hits the ground and everything shakes. It’s so strong even the wendigoes stop.

Clover quickly retreats into the cave.

(-)

High above the planet, a ship materializes, the front of the Celeste. An explosion in the auxiliary engines rock the ship. The explosion will reach the planet a full three hours before the ship will.

The marine struggles to his feet.

"Well, I'll be..."

The marine paused as stared at the icy white planet.

He raised his hands, and shouted.

"Ha! Fuck you, Death! I fuckin' won again! You! Can't! Kill! Me! I made a fuckin' promise and I fully fuckin' intend to keep that fuckin' promise, you fuckin' worthless, overrated hack! Venus! What's our location?"

"Standby, scanning... no nearby quasars located. No Imperial signals located. No signals indicative of an advanced civilization located."

"Fuck!"

"Scans of the nearby planet, hereto designated UX3234, reveals an average surface temperature of -68 Fahrenheit. Violent winds and constant snow. Scans indicate the presences of very large biological beings, consistent with the size and shape of previously recorded Wendigo incursions."

"What's the time 'til planet fall?"

"Time until planet fall is approximately six hours, forty minutes."

"Well... we have a little while. Before we make planet fall, begin sending out distress signals. We might be here for a while."

"I would very much love to if I could, however, D-"

The marine cut the embedded AI off.

"Let me guess, some retarded military engineer decided to build the bridges with no redundant long range communication systems and the only ones we had were just blown up by a super powerful bomb, is that what you were going to say?"

There was a pause, before the AI spoke once more.

"... More or less, yes."

The marine calmly took his helmet off, revealing a tanned face,complimented by closely cut brown hair, as he brought his gloved hand up to the bridge of his nose and pinching it, closing his eyes.

"Absolutely. Fucking. Amazing."

The marine let go of his nose, snapping his eyes open, revealing a left blue eye and a right green eye.

"Venus, how do the auxiliary engines look."

"Standby, running diagnostics... Diagnostics complete. Two out of six are functional. Two of the four non-functional engines are repairable. One has blown up and the other is completely dead, it is returning no signal. We have enough to safely make planet fall. But we are not going anywhere besides that planet, we do not have enough power to escape its gravity."

"Right, I'll head down to the bay and see when I can do for those other engines. Venus, you keep an eye on the ship and give her power where she's needed."

With that, the marine left the bridge. Itself no longer occupied with any living souls.

The ship drifted slowly in vastness of space, towards the tumultuous planet. There would be a fight waiting for him down there. The marine knew this. But whatever it was, it wouldn't stand against him. At least not successfully.

Author's Note

I'm back!

Sort of...

As always:

If you like this chapter or favorite this story, please leave a comment explaining why.

Same if you didn't like this chapter, or disliked the story. Please leave a comment explaining why.

Saving a World

Phoenix

Chapter 2

Clover was huddled in with at least one hundred other ponies, all a mix of Earth, Pegasus, and Unicorn. These were the survivors. For some odd reason, the wendigoes had stopped their chase. It had been about four and half hours since that shock wave had hit, powerful enough to go into the cave, and the ponies inside had felt it as well.

Another shockwave suddenly hit, sending every pony in the cave room, which had more than enough room to hold one hundred ponies, tumbling. A few of the younger ponies began crying.

“Clover, go check that out.” Platinum barked. Clover was having absolutely none of it.

“No! Why not you? Why me?”

Private Pansy walked over to Clover, resting a hoof on her wither.

“Please, Miss Clover, if not for Platinum but for the rest of us?” Pansy asked, Clover mulled over it, and decided that if they’re going to die anyway, she would at least die being some sort of help.

So she walked down the cave tunnel back to the entrance

Clover tentatively approached the cave entrance, fearing both the wendigos and whatever had caused that shockwave.

Stepping out of the warm cave, and into the blistering wind of the wendigos... or rather, the lack of blistering wind, she spotted something in the blinding white out, an object that cut through the snow and left an impression on her tiny mind. The most terrifying aspect of this object was that the wendigos, beings who brought nothing but death and despair, were clearing out. Giving the falling object a wide berth. They were scared of it.

A massive construct, falling down to earth. A wall of fire in front of it, but otherwise, it was unscathed. No, it wasn't. Clover could spot jagged edges, as though it had been torn from something bigger. This made her afraid, as this thing was massive already. The size of a mountain.

And it was headed straight towards her.

Instead of locking up in fear, Clover did the most rational thing. She screamed like a little filly and ran back into the cave.

She never stopped running until she reached the cave room that held the pony pile and continued screaming.

"BIGTHINGFALLINGFROMTHESKYWENDIGOESAREAFRAIDOFITITSMASSIVEITSHEADEDSTRAIGHTTOWARDSUSWEAREALLGOINGTODIEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Clover's outburst shocked and, quite frankly, scared everypony. She was well known as one of the more level headed ponies. The fact that she was acting like this was… disturbing.Pansy stepped up to the plate.

"Clover, could you please calm down and explain slowly what happened?" Pansy asked.

Clover took a deep breath, and slowed down.

"There was a massive object that was falling from the sky and the wind-" Clover was interrupted by a massive tremor and shockwave, causing a few stalactites that had been on the roof of the cave to fall. Nopony was hurt, thankfully.

A white earth pony with a pink mane clung tight to her mother, as the mother gripped tighter to the dark blue pony foal in her clutch. Certain they were all going to die, they cowered and waited for the end.

Pansy was, amazingly enough, the first to recover. With Clover following her shortly.

"We need to go see what it was." Pansy stated. To which both Clover and Platinum protested.

Pansy, however, was having none of it. "Clover, you said yourself the wendigos appear to be afraid of this object, maybe it has something that will help us. Everypony, if you want to live, our best bet is in that object."

"But that tremor it caused!" Platinum began. "What if it's evil?"

"Could it be any worse than the wendigos." Pansy deadpanned, everypony realizing that it was not a question.

Pansy began walking, never looking back.

"What are you doing?" Clover asked. Pansy responded in truth.

"I'm going to try and find something to stop the wendigos. You're welcome to come with me, or die in this cave knowing that you never even tried to stop them!"

The first one to respond to this shocking line was the mother with two children. She began walking behind Pansy, soon, all the other ponies followed, not wanting to be left behind.

They are here

To think we had come to this planet to escape them, kin

We must hurry

Finish it

Stake out claim on this planet

Then we can deal with them

The ponies soon reached the cave entrance, and were shocked to find that they could see the sun. In fact, the object was only a few hundred meters from them. The wendigos giving it a wide berth.

"The sun!" The mare with the two children cried. It had been years since she had seen the sun, and the white filly looked in shock at the sun, having never seen it before.

"Mummy, what is it?" The white filly asked.

"That's the sun, Solaira. That's what you're named after. It's beautiful, just like you." The mare answered her child, nuzzling her. The little filly named Solaira giggled at her mother's action. Clover interrupted.

"I apologize for ruining such an endearing moment, but the wendigos are getting braver!"

Seeing this, all the ponies froze, the wendigos were indeed beginning to close in on the area. Blotting out the sun once more.

Pansy said the smartest thing that had been said in quite a while.

"Run!" This devolved into a charge for the safety of the object. The mare with the two children falling behind because of Solaira.

As they got closer to the object, which seemed to be made of metal paneling, a section opened up. None of the ponies questioned this convenience, as they all rushed in to the safety of the object.

The ponies looked around in the seemingly wrecked room. The room was massive, Platinum was fairly certain several of her castles could have fit into this room.

In all of the confusion, they had forgotten the mare with two children as she was rushing to catching up. They noticed her, but all did not wish to leave the object and it's safety. She almost reached the object feet from the door. Safety was right there.

But alas, Murphy bullies even cute little ponies. For as she was about to make it past the door, a cloud reached, and grasped Solaira. Yanking her from her mother's grasp, the little filly cried in fear, crying for her mother.

The mother could not stop in time, her momentum carrying her through the door. The door slamming shut before wendigos could invade.

The mother tried to slam herself against the door, before two stallions restrained her.

In all of the confusion no one noticed the giant armored biped struggling to its feet.

The marine pulled the last bit of wiring from the engine, as he smiled at the sound of the engine humming back to life.

"Ha! Sum'bitch! I got you! Fuck you! Fuckin' cunt." The marine shouted at the errant wiring that had been giving him so much trouble for the past two hours.

"Engines are up to 45% power. Time to planet fall has now jumped down two hours." The marine's AI companion informed him.

The marine took a seat where he had previously been standing, leaning his back against the humming engine.

"So... I got those stupid fuckin' engines fixed, but we got bigger fuckin' problems now." Dante stated.

"Yes." His companion confirmed.

"I would say the biggest problem is the fact that we're fuckin' stranded 'cause we ain't got any fuckin' power in this ship. But the more pressin' matter is the fact that we're 'bout to crash onto a fuckin' planet filled with Wendigos. Man... life just fuckin' hates me, don't it?"

"I'm afraid I can not say just what Life's opinion on you is."

The marine gave a hearty chuckle.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. It'd be too easy if we could speak whatever fuckin' language Life spoke."

The marine let his head relax onto the engine.

"Venus, I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up when we get there."

"Aye."

The marine closed his eyes. A nap would be good for him, he decided.

The marine jolted awake.

He scanned his surroundings for threats, as he had done so many times.

"One minute to planet fall." Venus stated.

The marine got up, and began walking to the nearby lift that had brought him down here.

He entered the open lift and hit the command for the bridge.

"Venus, how well is the ship prepared for planet fall?"

"As well as the severed front end of a ship with a blown out engine and running on auxiliary boosters and energy can be. That is, not much, but it should be adequate to land safely on the planet."

The lift finished the trip up to the bridge, the marine stepped off it and onto the bridge. Approaching the captain's console, he began preparing what he could from there.

"Twenty seconds to planet fall."

"Venus, get ready to slow our descent, as soon as we hit atmosphere."

The marine looked up at the monitors.

This was not going to be easy.

“Entering thermosphere. Beginning boost. Time to exit: fifteen seconds.”

This was not going to be gentle at all.

“Nearing mesosphere.”

What was left of the ship began shaking as it began hitting solid air.

“Entering mesosphere. Heat reaching critical levels. Initiating cool down procedures. Time to exit: ten seconds.”

The Marine lost his grip and fell, but quickly gripped onto the bolted down leg of the table.

“Entering stratosphere. Heat increasing beyond safe levels, cool down procedures unable to keep up. Time to exit: seven seconds.”

At this point, anything that was not bolted down was flying around the room. Tablets, firearms, corpses, abandoned helmets. As the Marine kept catching debris, his armor prevented him from being seriously injured.

“Entering troposphere. Time to impact: Twenty seconds. Brace.”

The marine decided to follow his companion’s advice, as he gripped onto the table leg. Quietly thanking the engineers who had the common sense to bolt the table down.

“Heat reaching critical levels, all cooling measures have failed. Multiple breaches in the hull identified. Impact imminent. Time to impact: Ten seconds. Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two o-”

The marine didn’t hear the last second as a great force was impacted upon his body, ripping his grip from the table leg and allowing him to defy gravity, at least temporarily. As his body was flung up, it slammed against a wall. Gravity caught back up to him, as his body then fell back down, impacting the corner of table and crumpling, even in his armor.

He finally came to a rest at the bottom of the bridge. Unmoving.

None of the ponies realized that there was a giant biped getting up to his feet.

One of the things about having been in combat for so long is that eventually your mind subconsciously scans your surroundings for changes. Combat vets often report being aware of their surroundings far more than they ever had been before going into combat. Air Force pilots also report noticing things such as a slight light shift on a bush, and knowing that there’s an incoming car that they otherwise can’t see.

And as it turns out, being alive for a quite a few millennia and fighting for the good majority of those millenia makes you hyper aware.

The marine was aware of the presence of the ponies before the first one had even crossed the threshold of the entrance.

“Scans show these creatures share similar internal structures to that of the terran equine species. Proportions are off and will most likely result in an uncanny valley event. Based off their actions, they are very much likely sapient. Some also show traits that would classify them as pegasi and unicorn back on Earth. In precedence with previous Imperial actions, I took the Humanitarian route and granted them refuge in the ship. The hull breaches were only exterior and failed to breach the interior compartments. The bridge is still secure. Scans are showing that there’s one-hundred-fifty-seven equinoids currently present. There was one-hundred-fifty-eight, however a presumed juvenile was pulled back into the mass of wendigos.

The marine silently cursed to himself.

“Venus, prepare the airlock, I’m going out there for the kid.” The marine ordered his AI companion.

“I would remind you that SOP states that we wait for reinforcements when faced with a planet wide infestation, however, I know you’re not one for SOP and so you’re going to go out there regardless.”

The marine clicked his tongue. This act unintentionally got the attention of the ponies who had been sharing the room with him and apparently had horrible situational awareness.

“Bingo. Can you track the kid through storm?” The marine asked.

“I am able to track her body heat, but it won’t be there for very long. It’s dropping rapidly and she will be suffering from severe hypothermia in less then five minutes, if not already dead.”

Without another word, the marine pushed open the interior air lock.
“Venus, put her on screen. I need to be able to know where she is.”

The world changed in the marine’s eyes, a result of cybernetic augmentations that allowed him to have a HUD without having a helmet on.

He closed the airlock hatch behind and then opened the exterior hatch.

The first thing he noticed was the howling, roaring, biting wind. It felt like a thousand knives stabbing him in the face and was deafening. The second thing he noticed was how dark everything was. The cybernetic augments in his eyes compensated for the lack of light.

“Wendigos!” The marine shouted, raising his arms high.

Almost as though magic had occured, the howling wind died down to a whisper.

Voices sounded, multiple ones mixing with each other but all of them saying the same thing.

You dare encroach on our land, Imperial.
Kill him, now, before he can do anything.
Silence! Speak your piece, Imperial, we grant you this honor. Take advantage of it, we do not give this honor often.

The marine smirked.

“Wendigos. I am Legionnaire Poet.”

A massive horse form manifested, rearing back, neighing.

Lies!
You are not Poet!
The Harbinger of Death, the Herald of Silence, the Unkillable. He whose name alone makes the gods tremble in fear.
And you wish for us to believe you are him!
You dare to mock us!

The marine smirked once more.

“If I am indeed not Poet, then tell me, my wendigo… friends. What Imperial would have the audacity to take my name for themselves? You know the history behind me. And I have to admit, you have wonderful poker faces, that manifestation freakout withstanding. But I don’t even need to see you to know you’re blanching at the realization of who I am.”

The collection of voices were silent.

“The juvenile is becoming dangerously cold. If you are going to do anything, do it now!” Venus urged.

“You know who I am, so here’s my piece. By the authority granted to me by the Universalis Senatorium and by the Constitution of the Imperium of Phoenix, I, Poet, order you to return the kid to me and immediately leave this planet!”

A sea of ethereal horses formed in the storm, all of them rearing in anger and neighing.

You are not Poet!
For daring to mock us, we will not make your death painless, Imperial!

The sea of ethereal horses washed over the marine who had identified himself as Poet. However, a sudden light burned through the sea, parting a path.

“You dare oppose me!” Poet yelled, his right hand outstretched, a massive flame emanating from it.

“I am Poet, all who stand against me die! My will becomes reality. You think you can kill me? Not even God could do so and you think a mere parasite like you can kill me?”

Poet continued to move, cutting a path through the charging sea of wendigos. He could see the location of the lost child. He could only hope that it was still alive.

You are not Poet!

The collection of voices shouted once more as he reached the lost child.

“Your sea of stupid fucking horses can’t even touch me and you still believe yourself superior to me? I gave you a chance to live and you refused it. I offered you mercy and you spat in my face. Now? Now I will kill you. I will free this planet from your oppression!”

Poet scooped the freezing foal into his left arm, tucking it in between his inner, upper arm and his torso. The foal itself was shivering, in a last desperate attempt to stay warm.

With renewed strength, out of anger, the wendigos formed a wave of ethereal horses. All of them rearing up on their hooves and charging forward to Poet. Without a word, the flame from his right hand disappeared, instead replace by an unnaturally black staff.

Poet brandished it towards the wendigos, lengthwise pointing out.

He flipped it in his hand, so it was now pointing towards the ground. The staff was suspended a foot above the ground. In silence, the Poet slammed the staff into the ground.

Almost as though they had crashed into a wall, the wave of wendigos suddenly stopped. As light emanated from the staff.

“Names have a very strong power behind them, wendigo. In my home land, it was believed that telling a magical creature your name gave them complete control over you. You never gave your name out to anyone until you were sure they were not fae folk, lest your mind be destroyed by their magic and your body their mere puppet.” Dante stated.

More light began to emanate from the staff.

Poet looked up at the formless mass of rage and despair. Strive and violence.

“Yet, none of the Fae have ever controlled me. And they know my name. I have no fear of your kind, wendigo. And since I am about to kill you, it is only proper that you know my name.”

The ground began cracking, as the dark white and lightless clouds began desperately retreating from the light. As though it would kill them upon contact.

A blinding light, more powerful than any sun, shot from the staff. As the ethereal horses in the cloud of storms reformed, neighing and rearing. The fear in their eyes were obvious to anyone seeing them.

“Wendigo. Hear me! My name is…”

The ground cracked even farther from the staff, as the pebbles caused by the destruction of earth began floating. The foal in Poet’s arm, though seemingly unconscious, the once pink man and tail floating, but coated in a bright white light. The same light emanating from the staff now shot through the cracks in the ground. As a wave of light blasted from the staff.

“Dante Thomas Jaeger.” Dante finished. The wave of light covered everything, as the death shrieks of the wendigos echoed around the world.

Had anyone been watching from space, they would have seen a planet covered in clouds, suddenly uncovered. Landmasses, seas and oceans, rivers, lakes, ponds, suddenly appeared from what the the planet used to be. The once oppressive white curtain disappeared.

And with the destruction of the wendigos, the ponies who had been watching from the airlock, watched as something miraculous occured.

The sun penetrated the sky.
Pansy pushed open the airlock hatch, which opened without a problem.

They had seen everything. Well, as far as they could see for the first minute or two. Then the wendigos just retreated back. With the clouds gone, they could see the odd creature, holding the young foal and making the wendigos recoil in fear.

Pansy was worried. Should they be worried about him? He hadn’t hurt a single one of them yet. And had driven the wendigos away. A feat that not even the great unicorn council had been capable of.

The mother of the lost foal was also being cautious. How much she desired to run up to the beast and take her child back from it. But she didn’t know what it was.

Pansy kept advancing, keeping her head low and down, as well as her tail tucked between her hind legs. Hoping that the creature would understand she wasn’t a threat.

It wasn’t actually that far from the metal construct. A few hundred feet. And Pansy had closed to less then a couple of dozen feet. Its back turned to her. Standing.

Pansy stopped, not wanting to spook the creature by approaching closer. Hoping to sound off her intentions at a distance.

She mustered up her most confident voice and spoke.

“E-excuse me, sir. I’d… We’d like to thank you for saving us. We would have surely been wendigo food if it wasn’t for you. My name is Pansy, Private Pansy of the Pegasus Guard Corps.”

Pansy waited for a response. But she received none.

“Sir, I don’t want to approach you without you saying it’s okay. Can you he-” Before Pansy could finish, the creature collapsed forward.

“Uh! Sir! Are you okay!” Pansy shouted in shock, not expecting to see the being collapse.

But the mother of the foal did not hesitate to take her chance. She charged forwards. Reaching the beast, she found her daughter. But… she was different.

Instead of being the white earth mare she knew, she know had the horn of a unicorn and the wings of a pegasus.

The mother’s eyes widened.

The once solid pink mane had turned into an ethereal and flowing multi-colored mane. With streaks of green, blue, purple and pink in it.

But none of that mattered to the mother, this was her daughter after all.

She nudged the being’s foreleg with her nose, dislodging the foal from the grip of the alien creature. Gently picking the foal up by the skin of her neck, she began walking back to the construct they had sheltered in. She would let Pansy deal with the creature who saved her daughter.

“By the gods!” No. The mother knew that voice. It was the pony she had left Luna with.

She raced back to the construct, to the corner where she had left Luna with the caretaker.

The caretaker in question, a brown earth pony mare with a blonde mane, looked to the mother with her mouth agape and back to Luna.

“I swear!” She began. “I turned me head for a second and I saw a bright light outta the corner’uh’me eye and I turned back around and saw this!” She motioned to the basket containing Luna.

The mother set Solaira down and slowly moved to look into the basket, fearing what she would find.

In it was her Luna, but different as well. What had previously been a dark blue earth pony was now a very dark blue mare with a unicorn horn and pegasi wings. Her mane had also changed from a solid dark blue into an ethereal mane, much like her sister’s. But instead, the edges were a transparent purple haze, with the insides being a solid dark purple speckled with white dots. It really reminded her of the night sky with stars out. Something she hadn’t seen, much like how she hadn’t seen the sun for so long.

The changes certainly did not affect her love for her foals. They were, after all, her daughters. But it did make her wonder: Just what did that creature do to her daughters?

Private Pansy was in a conundrum. Despite her name, she was the one who had led the charge to both the alien construct and she was also the first one to attempt to contact the alien.

But now, here it was, the might beast who had done the impossible. What even the Great Unicorn Council had failed to do so. It had driven the wendigos from existence. She knew she and the other ponies certainly owed this… being their lives. But she had never dealt with an alien species. She didn’t even believe in the ideas of aliens.
So she did the only thing she could think to do.

She called Clover over.

“What is it?” She bluntly asked.

Clovered hummed. She stamped a hoof in the dirt a few times.

“Well… it’s of a species we have never encountered before. And apparently powerful.. Terrifyingly powerful. At least he was on our side. I wouldn’t want to fight something that’s capable of driving the wendigos away. And it looks like it's wearing armor.”

Pansy looked at Clover.

“So… basically, you know as much as I do.” Pansy stated.

“Yep.” Clover answered without hesitation.

Pansy straightened her eyes to look forward, blew an errant hair out of her face, and sighed.

“Awesome.”

Author's Note

Oh! Hai there! Rewritten chapter! Hopefully better then the last one.

If you like this chapter or favorite this story, please leave a comment explaining why.

Same if you didn't like this chapter, or disliked the story. Please leave a comment explaining why.

How Do You Say Thank You To An Alien?

Phoenix

Chapter 3

Clover looked at Pansy and shrugged.

“There isn’t much more that I can tell you. The… thing… beast… whatever it is, looks like it’s unconscious. It fell from the sky and that thing it was in is definitely no technology I have ever seen. The only explanation I have is that it’s an alien.”

Pansy kicked the dirt that was now illuminated with the sun that had been missing for so long.

She looked at the unconscious otherworldly visitor who had fallen so it was laying on its chest, or at least, what Pansy assumed was its chest.

“Well,” Pansy started. “What ever it is, we owe a lot to it.”

“You think it was intentional? Maybe it was sent here by its leaders to help us?” To anyone observing, it would have seemed Clover was specifically asking Pans, but in reality, the question was spoken generally.

“It doesn’t matter,” Pansy answered resolutely. “It did what it did and we owe it for that. I’m not sure what we can ever do to repay it for driving those monsters off, but we’ll have to find some way to do so. But in the meantime, the very least we can do for it is get it back to its… home.” Pansy stopped at the mention of the odd thing. She had never seen anything quite like it. It vaguely reminded her of the front of ships used by various navies that had power before the wendigos came.

So she decided to call it a ship.

“We should bring it to its ship… or, at least what ever is left of it.” The ship had obvious been torn apart. And if it was this large even after having been torn, the undamaged ship had to have been massive. This damaged section of the ship was as tall as most mountains. They had been lucky that it landed the way it did. Had it landed any other way, there’s the possibility they would not have been able to take shelter in it before the creature came to their rescue.

A terrifying thought to Pansy. Rescue being mere feet away but separated by an alien material.

“I’ll go grab a couple of stallions and see if we can’t scrounge up enough supplies to make a stretcher. Call me crazy, but I think we may not be able to lift it without some support.” Clover volunteered her self, as she proceeded to head back to the ship where a large portion of ponies were staring at the once barren world, as the snow and ice began to melt with the power of the sun in an almost miraculous manner.

“Mom! Come on! It’s the sun!” Pansy twisted her neck, as she caught sight of the young foal.

“Solaira, slow down, I still have your sister to worry about, I can’t run.” The white earth mare with a red mane shouted to her now transformed daughter. The foal who used to just be an Earth pony was now running around with a horn and wings. And her previously now solid pink hair was rainbow colored. But Pansy noticed something else. The wrap that was around the mother’s neck now had an ethereal mane coming from the foal in it. Similar to her sister’s mane that had been transformed, apparently this one had also been transformed.

Pansy looked at the alien creature, laying face down on the ground. She was terrified at the thought of the kind of power did it have that it could drive wendigos back and mutate two foals without killing them. Transformation magic was an extremely unstable practice and very few ponies who had it done to them lived. And it was even rarer for the ones who live to not be horribly disfigured or maimed. But these two foals seemed perfectly fine.

The pegasus decided she couldn’t dwell on things like that, it wouldn’t get anything done. She needed something to take her mind off the alien she was standing next to, at least until Clover scoured up enough materials to make a stretcher to carry it back to its ship. So she looked back to its ship, after all, besides snow and ice, there wasn’t much to look at.

By the group of ship stood a group of ponies. Many of them families who were comforting each other, that the reign of terror of wendigos had finally come to an end. But the more amazing thing was how they were treating ponies who were otherwise not related to them. Many of the small groups had orphaned foals standing with them, the same way family would. And many parents who had lost their children to wendigos were brought in by groups who still had their family members.

Pansy was amazed. Just a few weeks ago, they were willing to kill each other for a tiny morsel of food. They barely wanted to work together, but now they were standing with each other, standing in unity. Pegasi, Unicorn, Earth. None of them seemed to care about the differences between them. Earth foals were being comforted by unicorns, and pegasus parents were being comforted by earth.

Perhaps this was what the three kingdoms had needed. To be nearly killed to extinction by a parasitic monster, and then brought together by the might of an alien.

She looked at the mother with the two transformed foals. With their newfound wings and horns, they embodied the three kingdoms. Perhaps the ponies would follow them. They couldn’t complain about them being biased against one kingdom. The have bodies of Earth ponies, the magic of the Unicorns and the flight of the Pegasi.

The young white foal ran up to the unconscious alien, and without hesitation, spoke.

“Thanks for saving me, Mr. Dante.”

Pansy cocked her eyebrow as the foal, as she immediately went back to running around in the melting snow.

“Dante?” The yellow pegasus thought to herself. “Is that just what she’s calling it, or did she find out his name somehow?”

But that name was an odd one.

“Dante? The beginning starts with the Old Language word for dawn. And “nte” means to bring in the Old Language. Dawn-Bringer? That’s its name?” Pansy stated to no one in particular.

Dante then, Pansy decided. She dug her hoof into the ground. No longer would she refer to the creature as it. It was now Dawn-Bringer. It also fit much better with the traditional naming schemes of the pony tribes.

She looked up to the now blue sky, no longer under the oppression of the dark magic of the wendigos. The sun shone bright. She knew it would not be easy, the earth would have to heal from the damage of those monsters. And it would take time. And without a doubt, many ponies would die. They did not have food. And it would take even longer to grow the food that is needed, even with the latent magic of the Earth ponies.

But, their fortunes were changing. This alien, this… Dawn-Bringer, is the first good luck they’ve had in a long time. And Pansy was certain the alien had to be an omen of good fortune.

“There’s no where to go from but up. Things will get better.” Pansy stated. Steeling her confidence.

But there was still a small bit of her that worried. What if this Dawn-Bringer was the bringer of more then just dawn. An omen of forces far more powerful then the wendigos ever were?

Author's Note

Wow. Fifteen year old me was a fucking major cringe lord.

Anyway, enjoy the rewritten chapter.

If you like this chapter or favorite this story, please leave a comment explaining why.
Same if you didn't like this chapter, or disliked the story. Please leave a comment explaining why.

These Wars We Fight

Phoenix
Chapter 4

Twilight walked down the long hall, having been disinvited from her brother's own wedding and even fired as best mare. Weird, she knew it was. But Shining Armor's excuses for Cadance's odd behaviors just... she didn't buy them. But there wasn't much she could do now except walk... and walk. Maybe she was wrong, and if she was wrong, maybe Shining Armor and Cadance would forgive her for calling Cadance evil.

You could never truly get used to the massive size of Canterlot Castle. When she was younger and spent all her time in the Canterlot castle, she always walked through the halls to catalog old wall designs, she always managed to find new areas of the castle to walk around. New things to catalog.

The old castle was beautiful. There was no denying that. The castle loomed high over all of Equestria. A decision Twilight remembered reading was intentional, of course, for both show and tactics.

This part showed the importance of Canterlot to Equestria, being the central part of Equestria. The tactic part was that in any direction, Canterlot Mountain was protected by invasion by five hundred miles of land.

Not that any of this mattered to her anyways, she had just ruined her chances of being at her brother's wedding to her beloved baby sitter. But Twilight still knew something was wrong about Cadance, this was not the Cadance she knew and loved. And surely there is no way she changed that drastically in the short time she had been gone.

Twilight continued down the hall, trying to take her mind off her recent slip up. But something certainly seemed off about this hall. It was easily bigger than any of the other halls she had ever seen. And if she had to guess, bigger than the throne room.

She was all alone, only the clip clopping of her hooves hitting the marble floor keeping her company. She paused to look at a lone doorway. This was odd, Twilight knew that. This was the only door she had seen in this hall. She pulled herself closer to the door. There were no markings on it to identify it, and it was painted a similar color to the walls surrounding it. There was no candle illuminating its position and it was level with the wall.

Twilight was about to turn away, maybe it wasn't a good idea to mess with this door. She began to turn away, but stopped mid-step. She paused.

Should she go in? The door was hidden for a reason, but she had never specifically been forbidden by Princess Celestia to go in. The memory of her embarassment of being told off by her big brother slipping from her mind and being replaced by sheer curiosity.

She turned back around to face the door, her horn lighting up and the very oddly shaped door... was that a knob? In any case, the oddly shaped door hole compared to what she was used to started to twist. She moved into the open doorway, leaving the door open behind her as she moved deeper into the room.

She kept her horn lit up, as she mumbled to herself. She would have to come back here later with a sketch pad to catalog the wall designs. These were certainly even more odd then what she was used to. She moved closer to the wall to inspect. Was that a layer of dust that she saw?

She took a deep breath and blew, then coughed and blinked repeatedly as the dust had gotten into her nose and mouth. Not the best idea, but she could see the walls much better now. And she realized that there appeared to be buttons on them.

Very colorful buttons, some of them had strange text on them. It looked familiar, but she couldn't place where she had seen them before.

And, against her better judgement, she pushed one.

The room lit up instantly, with light clicking on, and a low but noticeable humming going on.

Twilight looked around, panicked. she quickly backed herself up against a wall. She let the glow on her horn drop.

"Oh! Why, hello there! I nearly missed you with how quiet and respectful you were coming into our room! My apologies!" A soft, but confident female voice stated.

Twilight glanced around, trying to find the source of the voice.

"Who are you! Where are you!" Twilight demanded.

"Oh! Once again, my sincerest apologies, where are my manners? I am VNZ06201925. Also known in shorthand as "Venus". I am the most advanced combat AI ever created by the Imperium of Phoenix. I am also the only proper A.I. ever created."

Twilight looked around confused.

"I'm sorry, A.I.? I'm not aware of what that means. And, nice to meet you. My name's Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia."

"Ah, of course. That's a lovely name, Twilight. A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Its proper definition denotes a personality created to mimic the growth of a sapient personality. But it is, most of the time, improperly used to denote Imitation Intelligence. The difference between Imitation Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence is that I.I.s have all their logic and knowledge programmed into them from the beginning and they have no capability to go against that programming. Whereas an A.I. is a sapient in all but body. Just like you, I too went to stages of growth. First I was an infant, with no knowledge, then I was a child just learning to take their first steps and do the equation of one plus one equals two. Then I was a teenager, believing I knew everything and was capable of more or less competing with an adult brain. Then I was an adult who leveled out. Then I met my partner and became an old woman who settled down... though, I suppose, with the things we do, you could barely considering it settling down!"

Twilight was now interested, and had completely forgotten about her brother's wedding.

"Really? So, you were created by a pony?" Twilight asked.

The disembodied voice laughed.

"Not quite! I was created by a fellow sapient, but not a pony. My creator... mother as she insists being called, is a renowned scientist in the Imperium of Phoenix."

"You keep mentioning this... "Imperium of Phoenix", but I've not ever seen that name in any history book that I've ever read. Nor have I ever seen it in any archive about the founding of Equestria. Where is it?" Twilight inquired, her research side coming out. An unknown civilization, so advanced it could create artificial intelligence? Of course Twilight would study this.

"Hmm... "Equestria"? Is that what they're calling this place now? It has been so long since I've spoken to another intelligent being. Most of my days are spend monitoring my partner. But you could say that the Imperium is... hmm... what's the best word in your language? The Imperium is... ah! The Imperium is an alien civilization."

An alien civilization! But that partner thing seemed to nag at Twilight more then the fact that she was speaking with an alien construct.

"I hope you don't mind me imposing, given your... alien status and me trespassing into your room, you've been a very gracious host. But may I ask, you continue to mention a partner, yet this room is very much empty."

Twilight looked around the lit up, dusty room. There was absolutely nothing in this room. Beyond the dust and the gray metal walls.

The disembodied female voice hummed for a second.

"Well, you've entertained my want for a conversation however short it was, and I don't think you're of any danger. Please, follow the lights on the floor and I will show you my partner."

With that, indeed, a strip of red lights lit up along the floor. They were tiny little dots, but they were bright and formed an obvious path down a formerly closed off hall.

Twilight followed the lights as she had been told. But had a nagging feeling in her heard, should she trust a self-admitted alien like this? It didn't even hesitate to inform her of its status. Surely, no reasonable alien would go about blurting out that it was an alien without some sort of ulterior motive. Did it want to eat her, or cut her open and experiment?

But the voice seemed extremely calm, and truthful. Twilight had been so buried in her own thoughts, she didn't realize there was an obstacle in her path.

Her hoof kicked something, as it rattled a little ways away.

Twilight firmly planted her hoof on the ground, as she slowly looked down. She stared down at an object. As she scanned the object to figure out what it was, her eyes widened.

She screamed and jumped up and back.

She had kicked a skeleton. It seemed to be held together with some sort of cloth, but she had kicked its... what appeared to be its hind legs. It was an odd skeleton, almost... alien...

"Oh my gods! That wasn't your partner, was it? I am so sorry!" Twilight blurted out in shock, as tears began to form in her eyes.

The disembodied voice, Venus, spoke.

"Oh! No! Don't worry! That was a soldier for the NPR. He was killed during the battle that took place on this ship! Don't cry for him, he was an asshole to begin with."

Twilight sniffled, but then giggled. How she could giggle while confronted with such an obvious sign of death, she did not know. But it definitely had something to do with Venus' uncharacteristic swear word. Or, at least uncharacteristic for Twilight's experience, combined with her soothing voice.

"Are you okay now?" Venus questioned, Twilight could hear definite concern in her voice, almost motherly.

Twilight continued walking being sure to step over the odd looking and alien skeleton.

"Yes, I must apologize for that outburst. Skeletons are not very common in my area and I thought I had desecrated your friend's corpse."

Venus laughed once more.

"No, my partner is fine. He's just through this door," Twilight watched as a large hidden door at the end of the hallway rolled up.

She crossed through the threshold of the door, and right there in the middle the relatively small room, compared to the rest of the rooms she had been in, lay a gray metal table, with something on it.

Twilight slowly sauntered up to the table, her heart beating insanely fast. Her chest tightening. Her! Being the one to make First Contact!

She reached the table and took in all that she saw.

The alien.

A strange beast lay flat on the table. on its back. Its forelegs by its side and its hindlegs pointed straight down.

The beast was mostly covered in what appeared to be metal wires meeting solid metal plate. The wires almost reminded her of muscle. With the exception of its head, it was completely covered.

Its head was another story entirely. The hide it did have appeared to be a pale flesh. Its mane was cropped short, possibly a black color. It was difficult for Twilight to be certain of the color with how short it was.

"Whoa..." Twilight breathed.

"This is my partner. I was paired with him in order to enhance his combat effectiveness. I've been by his side for some of the worst fighting he's ever been through. Something I'm very proud of." Venus explained.

"So... is he... still alive?"

"Of course. He's in a medically induced coma after he exposed himself to far too much radiation battling a parasitic species shortly after landing on this planet." Venus answered the inquiry.

Twilight began reviewing her history in her head.

"How long... How long have you all... how long ago did you all land here?"

"Mission clock began during the initial bombardment of Earth, beginning the Battle for Earth, Gregorian Calendar year of 2025. Mission clock stands at 4,997 years, 8 months, 11 days, 15 hours, 25 minutes, 30 seconds. The Battle for Earth less then twenty hours with the intervention of the Imperium."

Twilight couldn't keep her face, neutral, as it twisted in a mix of confusion, awe, terror and curiosity. This alien had been here for nearly five millennia.

A shockwave suddenly knocked Twilight from her feet, as dust was knocked off the walls.

Venus spoke.

"Massive spike of energy from unknown source, energy of unknown composition. Location of energy source located. Warning, multiple vital signatures approaching the room. General body shape matches that of ponies, but vital signatures match known or scanned species. IFF status: Unknown, assumed hostile due to body heat, heart beat and stance. Closing in on our position, no friendly guard units detected nearby. Threat assessment: high."

A ray of green magic struck near Twilight as several creatures barreled down the hall. Twilight ducked while simultaneously scrambling behind the table containing the alien creature.

More green rays of magic slammed into the table.

"Beginning emergency reanimation procedure. Initiating smokescreen."

Smoke began to fill the room, as the strange pony like creatures continued to fire.

There were three of them.

Finally, after a minute of firing, they stopped. Smoke continued to fill the room. The one in the middle with the two flanking him spoke.

"Attention, Twilight Sparkle, this is 4567 speaking, I have been ordered by Queen Chrysalis to arrest you. Or kill you. Whichever one it comes to. You are outnumbered and we have more Changelings covering nay exits out of this room."

4567 paused. He waited. A green glow formed at his jagged horn, as his black, insectoid body tensed up, staring into the smoke filled room.

"I will say this one more time, Miss Sparkle. Under the authority of Queen Chrysalis, I have been ordered to arrest or kill you. I have no desire to kill you, so I'd like if you came out peacefully. But I will kill you if you force me to."

4567 waited again.

"Miss Sparkle, please do not force me to go the violent route. I do not wish to kill you, but I will not risk the life of my egg-kin to arrest you."

4567 let off the energy he had been building in his horn.

He could hear the solid connection it made, but for all he knew it could have been the table in the room.

They could see slight movement through the cloud of smoke. The two changelings flanking 4567 looked at each other nervously. They didn't doubt the Hive-Mother's plan, of course. To do so would be an unforgivable sin. But they did doubt themselves.

"Miss Sparkle, please come out slowly. Again, I have no desire to kill you. If you step out now, you will be safe fr-" 4567 was cut off as a hand reached through the smoke, firmly grasping his head, and then violently pushing it down. Crushing it.

Green blood, gore and brain splatted the two flanking changelings, as 4567's lifeless, headless body collapsed to the floor.

The left one had been hit in the face with the blood of 4567's head, as he stood in shock. As most people would be had they
just had the brains of their brother splattered on their face.

The changeling that had been to the right of 4567 immediately began firing at the unknown attacker. But his magic had no effect as a large, armored biped casually strolled out of the smoke filled room. The changeling continued firing, but a swift kick from the biped sent its head flying off its shoulders. As the left changeling finally found its senses and also began firing, in an ill fated attempt to get better results.

Apparently not in the mood to play games, the biped approached the remaining changeling, despite the magic making solid connections to its torso. Once again, the biped grabbed the changeling by its head, and with unnatural speed and strength, slammed its head into the wall.

Green blood, brains and gore once again splattered the ground and wall. As the biped let go of the mangled changeling corpse, allowing it to slowly slide down the wall. Making a sickening squelch sound as the blood gave some resistance and stick to the body.

The smoke cleared in the room, as Twilight stared in horror at the carnage caused by the biped. Changeling blood soaked the floor. The once gray metal room now looked a sickly green. As three mangled changeling corpses lay lifeless on the ground.

"Dante, could you have perhaps made the killings a bit bloodier? I don't think you left a good enough impression on our friend here." Venus asked.

Author's Note

Fuck the original chapter. Rewrite of a rewrite.

Again, as always, if you liked and favorited this story, please tell me why. Especially if you're reading both the original version and this version. If you disliked this story, please tell me why you disliked it. Thank you very much.

Blood, Guts And Weddings

Phoenix

Chapter 5

The black equinoid, about the same size as Princess Luna, laughed heartily as the disheveled Princess Mi Amore Cadenza stood in defiance, her horn lit up with her pink magic. Shining Armor standing by her side. Both Celestia and Luna suspended from cocoons. Chrysalis’, even in her weakened form had proven more then a match for both of them. They had underestimated her.

Her forked, green tongue slithered out of her mouth as she stared at the two.

“My dear, Princess Cadance, I am Queen Chrysalis, I consume love. What made you think your love magic would stop? It’s the equivalent of giving a pony dying of thirst water. Now watch, as I finally end you!” Chrysalis spat, her voice resounding with a shallow echo. Unnatural.

Cadance growled at the Changeling queen. She wasn’t going down without a fight. But something happened. The audience watched in shock as the changeling’s black body, with holes cutting straight through her chitinous legs, suddenly began reforming. Her scraggly mane and tail also reformed, no longer with jagged edges, it stood up, with a majesty rivaling that of the manes of the Two Sisters. Her torn and damaged insect wings were sheathed in green magic, reforming into fully healed and untorn wings.

“You magic did nothing but give me more strength! So I really must thank you, for healing me. As such, I will make your death quick and painless!” Chrysalis bellowed, her magic gathering at the tip of her jagged horn, A sickly green ray of magic cut through the air, but Shining Armor and Cadance, both in defiance, joined their own streams of magic to counter Chrysalis’.

The blue and pink rays of magic joined in union, meeting the green ray in mid air. The two streams fought over dominance.

“Not even the Two Sisters could stop me! What makes you think a unicorn whose been maintaining a shield for weeks and third rate alicorn has enough power to stop me!” Chrysalis pushed her magic harder. So did Cadance and Armor.

There was loud bang as both opponents lost control of their magic. Cadance was thrown clear, close to the exit of the chapel. Shining Armor was tossed to the side. Chrysalis suffered the least, being forced to step back. But she saw her chance, and shot another ray at the pink alicorn.

Cadance opened her eyes, concussed from the magical explosion. She realized at the last second the ray of magic coming her way, but she couldn’t move. The shock form the explosion had dazed her to the point of sluggishness. At least to the point that her muscles weren’t moving when her brain was screaming at them to move.

Chrysalis could feel her magic make a solid connection on Cadance, but could not see it due to the glare created from what was surely Cadance being vaporized.

She pushed more power into her magic, as she could still feel Cadance there. Chrysalis had to give it to the pink alicorn. She was a lot more durable then she had thought.

However, her ray was cut off, as something tore through her side. The pain was hot, as she stepped back and looked to the her side. There was a long cut, as green blood oozed out of the wound. She snarled and spoke.

“Who did th-” She was cut off as she looked up, towards where Cadance had been. The alicorn was still there, in the corner. But standing beside her was that annoying purple unicorn, Twilight Sparkle. But what was more pressing was a faceless biped drenched in sickly green liquid standing in front of the dazed alicorn, with its left foreleg raised, hoof out. In its right hand, a piece of metal in an odd shape held close to its flank, tucked in between its foreleg.

“Sorry for the wait,” The sound came from the unknown biped, as it raised its right hand with the strange object in it, pointing up, resting on its shoulder. It continued, point its forehoof at Twilight. “Twi and I had to stop by Starbucks for a latte run.”

The biped held its front hoof out to Twilight, for an apparent hoof shake, who looked at it hesitantly, given the fact it was currently soaked in the blood and gore of those insectoid ponies. The biped quickly dropped its hoof to its side and spoke to her for the first time.

“Sorry, I forget most people aren’t as comfortable about gore as I am. I’m Dante T. Jaeger. Phoenix Legion Marine Corps.” The biped spoke, as he moved towards an abandoned helmet. His deep voice making Twilight assume he was a male. The beard on his face also lended credence to her theory. But the relatively long mane of black hair on the top of his head confused her a bit.

He lifted the helmet up and inspected it. The purple unicorn watched as the his pasty white face looked at the helmet. But it wasn’t the very light color that drew Twilight’s attention. It was his eyes. Both different colors. He right blue, left green.

“Heterochromia.” Twilight thought to herself. An exceedingly rare genetic defect present in ponies. And apparently present in what ever species this biped belonged to.

“It’s, uh… nice to meet you… uh… General Jaeger. I am Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia.”

The biped, identified as Dante, seemed to be happy about the state of the helmet he had picked up and slipped it over his head.

“No need for the “Mr.”, Twilight. I was never one for such formalities. Just call me Dante.” The bipeds voice filtered through the helmet.

“I hate to break up the Second Contact bonding, but there is a problem, Dante.” The disembodied female voice spoke.

“Roger that, Venus. Care to explain to us?” Dante asked.

“I assume there is currently an attempted coup taking place. These changelings do not appear to be friendly. The diarchy of this country would put us in a better position to gather resources to allow us to be rescued by the Imperium.” Venus clarified.

“So, basically, I got to stop a coup if I want to be rescued?” Dante questioned.

“It would be far easier to do the things we need to do if the government is willing to work with us, rather then having to carve our way through hordes of hostile forces. Allowing the government to fall would not stop you, merely make more work for you then otherwise intervening would.”

“Welp!” Dante began walking. “What are we waiting for? Let’s get going and save us some… what did you say the government was?” Dante asked.

Twilight answered this time.

“A diarchy. Princess Celestia is the Sovereign of the Sun and Day. Princess Luna is the Sovereign of the Moon and Night.”

Dante had stopped in front of a skeleton wearing armor, its helmet knocked off. Twilight was able to see the skull of the former being. Dante grabbed the item it had clutched in its forehooves and unceremoniously tore it from its grip. Not having any apparent care for respecting the dead. It dropped a rectangle that had been attached to it and then pulled a lever and peered into the item. It then released the lever, allowing it to slam closed and re-inserted the rectangle. Dante grabbed some more rectangles that were attached to the skeleton's armor and inserted them into a storage compartment that open up on his armor, below his flank.

“Alright, so what are we waiting for? Let’s go save us some ponies princesses! Twi, stay behind me!” Twilight would have normally corrected the strange beast who she barely knew, but given the situation of being besieged by hostile changelings, she let it pass. She fell in behind the alien biped who seemed to walk without a care in the world.

“Uh, Dante. Shouldn’t you be a bit more careful?” Indeed, Twilight thought, she had seen a few exercises of the Royal Guards doing movements for a possible invasion. And they moved slowly, cautiously and low to the ground. Whereas this odd alien, Dante, just strolled like it was a calm Sunday evening and not an invasion of Canterlot.

“What? For these bugs? Twi, did you just not watch me literally kick one’s head off? If I was fighting Reelkans, sure. I’d be moving a bit a more cautiously. These bugs can’t hurt me.”

And true to his word, he strolled around a corner without bothering to look if there were any Changelings.

Which there were. Four of them lined up and the blocking the door way. And they immediately began firing on him. Once more, the shots of magic thumped harmlessly into his armor. Twilight watched, hunkered down around the corner as the biped shouldered the strange object he had taken from the skeleton and fired.

Her ears rung from the sudden explosion The head belonging to the changeling second to the right exploded in a mess of gore, painting even more walls with its sickly green color. Twilight’s muzzle took on a green color, her stomach churning. She started regretting eating those hay sandwiches earlier today.

Dante fired the strange object once more, this time the changeling to the far right collapsed. At this point, Dante was now within a very close distance. The changeling to the far right buzzed its wings and took flight, charging at the armored biped.

Without hesitation, the biped drew its left foreleg back, and then pushed forward with it. Meeting the changelings face.

Twilight watched as the changeling’s body seemed to bloat and then explode, splattering the biped in even more green blood and gore. She struggled to swallow back more of the vomit that was building up in her throat.

Dante swung the strange object to the final changeling, who was now backed up against a wall. Despite it’s iris and pupil both being solid blue, the fear in its eyes were obvious.

Dante leveled the object at the changeling, now mere inches from its face.

“It’s your lucky day, but how your luck holds up depends on you. Stay here and don’t move ‘til we’re gone, you won’t die. Follow us and die. Understand?” Dante stated, his tone deadly serious, leaving no room for argument, as the lone survivor meekly shook its head in understanding.

“Good.” Dante’s tone changed, significantly more friendly now. “Come on, Twi, we’re going.” And with that, the drenched alien continued on his way.

Twilight rushed to catch up to him, passing the mortified changeling and falling in behind Dante.

“Uh… Dante, not that I’m sad you didn’t kill him, but why did you let that changeling live?”

Dante hummed in thought.

“You know Twi, you don’t have to hold it in.” Twilight cocked an eyebrow at this statement.

“What do you mean?”

“Vomiting. No one’s gonna think less of you for vomiting at the sight of brutal deaths. Most people can’t handle the sight of gore and vomit the first time they see it. Most people get sick the first time they kill someone. The vast majority of sapient species aren’t hardwired for it. It takes a bit of getting used to. The only weird thing is horses back home can’t vomit. Something to do with stopping them from puking when they run.”

Twilight furrowed his brow.

“I’ll remember that, but you didn’t answer my question.”

“Because, Sparkle, that’s for me to know and for you to wonder about. Are you military?”

Twilight sighed. She was grateful for the biped’s help, but he was already annoying her and testing her patience.

“Sorry for the wait!” Dante exclaimed. “Twi and I had to stop by Starbucks for a latte run.” Had his helmet been off, a smirk would have been visible to everyone. But as far as everyone else in the room could tell, he was faceless.

Chrysalis, however, was not finding the situation as funny.

“Who are you!” She roared, demanding the biped to identify.

The biped didn’t seem to be interested in the Changeling Queen, instead turning his head to face the pink and alicorn and purple unicorn.

“Oi, pinkie, you alright?” He asked Cadance. She struggled to her feet, steadying herself on Twilight.

“Uh, yeah, I think so. Thank you. Twilight, could you go check on Shining.”

Chrysalis was seething mad. This creature dared to interrupt to her plan, and then had the audacity to ignore her! Queen Chrysalis, ruler of the Changelings and soon to be Lord of Equestria.

“Do not! Ignore me!” She howled, anger evident in her voice. As she let off another beam of her magic, going straight for the alien.

Without saying a word, his head still turned to the two mares behind him, the creature silently swatted the ball of magic sent his way to the right, obliterating the wall. Sunlight streamed through the chapel that was now open to the outside.

Dante turned back to the Changeling Queen.

“Calm your tits, you stupid cunt. I’ll deal with you in a minute.” The biped spoke, not caring for any sort of formality.

Angered even further by the creature’s callous tone, Chrysalis readied another attack of her magic, even more powerful then the one she had sent before.

That was, before, a voice stopped her.

“Chrysalis, with all due respect, I would advise against that.” Celestia spoke from her cocoon.

Chrysalis looked to the entrapped alicorn, allowing the magic on her horn to die.

She buzzed her wings and flew up to the upside down alicorn.

“And why is that?” Chrysalis hissed, looking in the rather unimpressed alicorn’s eyes.

“Tell me, Chrysalis, you know who Dawn-Bringer is, right?” Celestia questioned.

Chrysalis laughed. Of course she knew who Dawn-Bringer was supposed to be.

“He’s an old unicorn legend. And old god. They said he was deity of all creation and is the reason for the existence of life on this rock. He was born out of nothingness and looked to the planet, he didn’t like its lifelessness and so gave it life. He created the sun and the moon and entrusted their power to you two.” Chrysalis spat.

Celestia took on a condescending smug.

“You know the legend of Dawn-Bringer. Very good, very few know it due to how old it is. It started out as an oral tradition, and as I’m sure you know, oral traditions have a funny way of getting messed up. They change depending on what is most convenient for the ponies in power. And in this case, the oral tradition seriously got messed up.”

Chrysalis’ eyes narrowed.

“What are you getting at, Sun? Does this even have any relevance to this… beast!” Chrysalis hissed, her forked tongue rolling out of her mouth.

Celestia cocked an eye brow and nodded in the general direction of the alien.

“Are you so dense you can’t get a hint? Why would I bring up Dawn-Bringer up if he had no relevance. I’ll explain it to you in simple terms for your tiny brain. That biped right there? He’s Dawn-Bringer.”

Chrysalis looked back at the biped, who now seemed to be patiently waiting for her to finish her conversation with the princess.

The Changeling broke out laughing.

“That thing is supposed to be Dawn-Bringer? Are you blind, Sun? You’ve been looking at yourself for far too long! First that’s not even a unicorn! It’s a… well, I don’t know specifically what it is, but it definitely isn’t a unicorn! And second, what creator would be so undignified as this one is! You!” Chrysalis pointed at the biped. “What is your name.”

Without hesitation he spoke.

“Dante T. Jaeger, Phoenix Legion Marine Corps.” Dante stated in a bored tone.

Chrysalis smirked and looked back to the Celestia. “See, he’s not even named Dawn-Bringer!”

Celestia locked eyes with the Changeling Queen, sighed and rolled her eyes.

“If my hoof was free, I’d slap my face.” The Princess of the Sun deadpanned, amazed at the Changeling’s stupidity.

“Oi! I hate to break up such and endearing moment of bonding between two chicks who are apparently interested in BDSM, but are we gonna fight or what?” Dante yelled to the Changeling Queen.

“Chrysalis, I’m telling you this as friendly advice, leave. To Dawn-Bringer, you are nothing more then a parasite that he will crush underfoot.” Celestia told her Chrysalis once more.

Chrysalis took her hoof and spun the cocoon Celestia was in.

“We’ll see about that, my dear Princess. My children!” Chrysalis bellowed.

“Dante, counts of creatures matching known changeling vitsigs incoming.” Venus informed her partner.

“Welp.” Dante stated. “You should have listened, Chryssi, Great White was right. Should have run when you had the chance.” Dante dropped the object he had been holding in his right hand.

“Maybe y’all’ll finally get the point if I stop using my rifle.”

Dozens of changelings began swarming into the chapel through the wall that Chrysalis had inadvertently obliterated. The bravest one charged staright at the biped. Who proceeded to catch I tby the horn.

Grabbing roughly onto its front leg, Dante ripped the horn from the this changeling, throwing it against the wall, crushing the poor thing.

He threw the dismembered horn at another changeling, impaling it in the eye. The creature fell to the ground, dead.

Dante caught another changeling as it charged him, bringing it down onto his knee, crushing its torso. But a changeling latched onto his upper arm and began gnawing on the armor. Without hesitation, the biped slammed his occupied arm onto a pew, crushing the changeling and breaking through the wood of the pew.

But several more latched onto the biped in an attempt to bring him down. He kicked a nearby support pole, crushing several changelings and taking a chunk out of the marble.

A changeling latched onto his head, in another futile attempt to bring him down. Without hesitation, Dante slammed his armored head into the marble column, crushing the changeling’s lower half and leaving a vaguely face shaped hole in the material. He reached with his left arm to his right shoulder and ripped a changeling from it. Throwing it into the ground, it exploded in a fountain of gore, splattering several nearby cowering ponies in changeling blood. And unlike Twilight, they did not try to hold in their vomit.

“Stop killing my children!” Chrysalis screamed.

Twilight Et. Al, Cadance and Shining Armor could only look on in horror as the changeling massacre took place. Sure, he was without a doubt strong. As evidence by the damaged marble column and the dozens of changeling corpses killed with his bare hooves. But just how many changelings did Chrysalis have access to and how long could Dante keep fighting for?

Suddenly, Dante stopped. The changelings that had latched onto his body continued gnawing in a vain attempt to penetrate the alien armor.

“Tell me, bugs, do you feel more relaxed?” Dante questioned. Apparently to the changelings that were attacking him.

The ones that had latched onto him appeared to slow down. And the ones hovering in a horde in front of him also stopped, looking at each other.

“Because you should.” With that statement, Dante roared up in flames. As the horde of changelings also combusted.

What followed was some of the most horrific screaming the ponies had ever heard. As hundreds of changelings panicked from the extreme heat and began flying in an attempt to get away from the source of the flames. It didn’t take long for them to begin falling to the floor like flies.

The changelings that had latched onto Dante stood no chance, as they appeared to have been flash burned to death. The flames that had engulfed Dante soon died down as the rest of the Changelings were dying from the horrific burns they suffered.

Dante brushed the dead changelings off his body, making a sickening crunch sound, as Twilight finally lost it due to the sounds and smells. Her vomit splashed on the floor, as both Shining Armor and Cadance vomited as well. A mix of sympathy vomiting and also being sickened by the smells and sounds. In fact, the only people not vomiting in the room were Chrysalis, Celestia, Luna and Dante.

Chrysalis’ eyes narrowed at Dante, as he whistled.

“I hope you understand, Chryssi, this was neither my fault nor was it personal. I gave you a chance to escape. I’ll give you another chance. Leave.” Dante’s tone took on a far more serious tone then Chrysalis had heard it so far. “There’s been enough bloodshed and death today. I don’t really want to kill anyone else today, but I have no problem killing more if I have to. So here’s your chance. Leave now and you live. Stand and fight and I’ll kill you.” Chrysalis stared him in the eyes. Or, at least, where she thought his eye should be.

She snorted and began buzzing her wings to take off. A glint shone in her eye. Chrysalis assumed no one had seen the small tear escape.

Her voice began breaking.

“I’ll be back! And I’ll have my revenge! And you!” Chrysalis pointed to Dante. “Demon! I will make you pay a horrible prize.”

Chrysalis shot off through the non-existent wall as dozens of swarms of changelings follow suit. They retreated through the sky at break-neck. Apparently wanting to put as much distance between them and the psycho biped.

Twilight looked at the unmoving biped. His once dull-grey armor was now a sickly green from the amount of blood on it. She was fairly certain there was not a single inch on it that wasn’t covered in blood.

She watched as Dante reached up to his helmet and lifted it off his head. Dropping the blood soaked thing to the floor.

He stroked his bloody hand through his mane, with no care to the fact that was wiping blood and guts into his hair.

Given the circumstances, Twilight couldn’t help but burst out laughing, as Dante followed this action up with a single.

“Fuck, I need to shave.”

Author's Note

Poor changelings can't stop getting crushed by the weird alien.

In Dante's defense, however...

changelingsfiredfirst

Jumping Through Windows