The Sword of the Reaper, Armor of a Cyborg

**Day 4:

Status of Main Armor User: Energy restoration complete and source acquired.

Status of Companion: Unknown**

Twilight stared into the eyes in the biped's newly-revealed face. They were glowing bright red, like two burning stars in it's head. Twilight  tried not to look afraid of the biped, but she couldn't help it. Nothing about this creature seemed to be able to feel anything but anger, enjoyment for destruction and efficiency. How could a living thing be in there? How could it survive it's isolation? How could she not notice that she had been thinking for about a minute?

"Well...?" Ordered the biped.

"Uhh...... Shining would you mind ex---" Twilight was cut off by seeing her brother's condition.

"I don't have all day. Now tell me what happened to Altair or I will find out myself, without any interruptions." It growled.

Twilight surrendered to the creatures glaring eyes. "We found it searching through the castle ruins. When it saw us it ran down a secret passage. It was looking around at a cross-section when a guard," Twilight hesitated about the last part, afraid of how this creature would react. "through a spear, and impaled it's chest." It's eyes flared even brighter than before.

.............

"Spyglass." the creature said. Seemingly to itself.

"Yes." Twilight looked around for the voice that seemed to come from the creature.

"Have you figured out a way to convert him yet?" Growled the creature.

"Affirmative." Said the second voice.

"Ummm.... Who is that?" Twilight said confused.

"Shut it!" The creature snapped. Twilight obeyed immediately. "Is the procedure still possible?"

A moment passed "Confirmed, as long as the energy in his body is still present, the procedure will be possible with resources."

"Excellent, how much do we need?"

"Enough metal to create augments, energy, and time. The amount of time will depend on the energy being used."

Twilight though about what they were talking about, when the biped turned back to her brother.

Shining cleared his throat as the victor of their duel turned to him. "Gather your men, and the fallen Altair, and return here." It said. Shining expression changed to one of slight confusion and question. "NOW!" It commanded. Shining went off to find the rest of the stallions.

It turned back to Twilight and she straightened up a bit. "I'm assuming you brought your five friends?" She nodded. "Then what are you waiting for? I told him to go get his troops now go find yours. NOW!" She scurried away to find the girls, hearing the creature grumble to itself.

Dyce watched as the purple winged unicorn dash down the tunnel to find the rest of them and Altair. "Great, so how much energy is required to do this procedure?" He asked Spyglass.

"The tree holds more than enough energy to complete it within an hour." Spyglass informed.

"Excellent, what do we need to do to prepare?"

"A clear space large enough for him near the tree." Almost as if queue, the roots of the tree separated around the space where he had sucked the energy from it and grown into a  table that was large enough for him to easily lie down on.

"Well then, problem solved... I guess. Spyglass remind me to further analyze the tree."

"Confirmed. Dycerton you need to further analyze the tree."

"No, no, I mean when we have time."

"When?"

"I don't know, when we have time."

"When?"

"Ugh, just pick a number, express that number as a time and remind me when that time has elapsed. Got it?"

"Yes."

A few minutes passed before Twilight came back. Apparently they had heard the commotion with the duel, and had already started heading towards them. They all stared at the creature, trying to take in all the details and not looking at it's metal jaw and red eyes with the flesh face. Then looking at the armor, without a scratch, and then the shredded sword at the other side of the room.

The timid yellow one identified as Fluttershy, slowly stepped forward and asked "Wh-wh-what are you?" she stuttered.

"A thing that can kill you if you piss me off, now if you're done staring at me, Twilight where is that soldier."

"We're here." came a voice from behind. The soldiers followed behind their captain with Altair being held up by the auras of two unicorns. 'So many tests to perform, so little time' Dyce thought to himself.

"Put him on the table." Dyce said walking between the table and the tree. Looking back at them, the soldiers and the five girls he just 'met' looked surprised at how he treated the soldiers, until Shining spoke up.

"Do what he says stallions." he said with some shame in his voice. So they begrudgingly did so and stood back with their commander.

"Remove your armor." Dyce ordered. The stallions looked more confused than before. "I am your commander now. thanks to Shining giving up his position in an ill considered bet. Now, remove, your, armor."

Shining was the first to do this, shame and fear in his eyes as he handed it over. "I'll need that broken sword of yours as well." Dyce said, and they were floated over to him. "Well? The rest of you too."

With all the armor around him, he jammed his hand back into the tree and began to feel the pulse of its energy.

"What are you doing? Are you crazy? The tree can't do anything now!" Exclaimed Twilight.

"Ugh," Dyce groaned. "As the great Dr. Edward Richtofen once said.." They all seemed intrigued by this, leaning in a bit closer to hear him "IT"S OK I HAVE EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL! or if we are going deeper into my psyche ICH BIN FUCKING ANGRY!" and with that he allowed as much power in the tree as he could withstand to flow through him, channeling it into the fallen wolf, the table and the armor around him. "Spyglass.... You know this better than I do.."

"Indeed,  I will take over from here." Spyglass replied.

Spyglass took control of his body, controlling the energy better than he could, some roots around the tree lifted the armor molding it into proper shapes for a wolf of his worlds standards. Others grabbed Altair's body  and created cracks in his wooden shell and other branches of the tree dove in, and pulsed with life. The armor was placed under the wooden shell. As they all watched mesmerized at his abilities, Altair's eyes began to glow again, but instead of the previous green, they were a red to match his own. A few minutes passed, this felt like months for them seeing as what they were witnessing, and the energy flow was cut off the table lowered Altair to the ground and receded. No one moved, no one dared. Then, a twitch, and another, and a paw moved, then a leg, then it got up. This timber wolf had just been resurrected. They all stared at the renewed pet and it's master with awe. It took a few steps, then something cracked and it froze, the wooden shell was still around it like a cast. The wolf shook it's body vigorously and the wooden shell shattered. Rarity snapped out of her daze to look at this new creature, clad in golden and purple, beautiful, she fainted on a couch that appeared to come from no where.

"Spyglass. is the transformation complete." asked a new voice.

"A moment, running final checks," replied Spyglass "Confirmed. Your transformation is complete all memories retained, body is accepting the implants, new mind operations adapted. Welcome, designation Altair."

The word Altair was carved into the side of his golden body. Altair moved to stand by his master.

Dycerton was pleased at the new revelation, the ponies either had more reasons to fear him, seeing as he could bend the dead to his will, or a reason to respect him for his abilities. Neither was favorable, but he would take what he could get. "Master Shining." The stallions stood at attention hearing their former commander's name.

"Yes.....sir" Shining said.

"You will bring me to your queen or king immediately, I wish to meet them, and I am certain they wish to meet me."

"Uhh, sir..." Shining caught a glare from Dyce. "She is one of the princesses." he said pointing a hoof towards his sister."

"You said she was your sister, does that not make you a prince?" Dyce asked raising an eyebrow.

"No only alicorns and direct blood to them are royalty."

"Alright then," he turned towards 'Princess' Twilight "I know that you must have a royal tie somehow, so take me to the highest authority."

"Well actually," Twilight said nervously "Princesses Celestia and Luna are busy planning for this years 'Grand Galloping Gala' and they are really busy and----"

"If they had time to send a squad they have time to deal with the problem. Whether or not they have time I AM going to talk to them," he began to walk out the same way he got in, and motioned for them to follow "and  they WILL listen to me."