The Sword of the Reaper, Armor of a Cyborg

**Day 5:

Status of Main User: Charged and combat ready

Status of Companion (designation Altair): New body accepted, combat effectiveness to be assessed**

It took them far longer than Dycerton wanted to get anywhere. He couldn't go as fast as he wanted because the horses, wait...'ponies', couldn't keep up with his or Altair's speed. To someone like him, this was infuriating. At least the now-unprotected soldiers, leading them to the town known as Ponyville, kept their mouths closed. The other six however, asked question after question. He wouldn't answer them, unless they didn't stop asking to which he would give a glare and they would shrink back. Eventually they reached the edge of the town. Then the 'dragon' named spike belched up a letter with the seal of the sun on it. Twilight grabbed it with her aura, he still needed to ask about that, and read.

"'Princess Celestia invites Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, plus one, to the Grand Galloping Gala. Enclosed are seven tickets, I hope you will be able to attend. PS choose wisely."

Hearing Twilight read off the invite, all the girls popped up as if forgetting that there was a cyborg that had bested possibly the best swords-pony in the royal guard. They were chatting about what to wear, and what they would do and, blah blah blah blah. Dyce didn't care for it much, he wanted to move on but he couldn't be arsed to interrupt, because for the first time he saw one of these thing happy, and for once he looked and felt completely astonished. How could they forget about him being such a deadly thing, in an instant, and be completely hooked in on something they just heard about. He noticed Shining and the rest of the stallios seemed to look as confused as he was.

"Uh... Is this normal?" Dyce asked to Shining.

"Kinda." Shining answered.

"Have they forgotten that we are here?" Dyce asked.

"I'm, not sure." Hearing this from her brother Twilight looked over.

"Are you going to the gala?" She asked her brother.

"I have been assigned to it to provide the guards stations in case anything happens." He said this in a way that made Dyce think that he was expecting something to go wrong.

"Well then, I have an extra ticket and i would like to invite you," She pointed at Dycerton, "To come as well."

"What?!?" Dyce and Shining said in unison.

"As you said, you wanted to meet the princesses and I said they were busy at this time. If you met them at the gala, it would mean you are meeting on more pleasant terms then just barging in." Twilight stated with authority.

Both him and Shining looked at her with confused expressions. Dyce couldn't think of a reason to not go, other than threats, and that wouldn't help him much. Shining couldn't think of a way to deter his sister from bringing him. Before he could speak up, Rarity gasped.

"I just realized that you have nothing to wear! Not that your, um, that reminds me you haven't told us anything about yourself. Is that armor? Or your skin?" The curious mare asked.

"Both" Dyce replied flatly.

"Alright then, we are going straight to my boutique so I can get measurements. I promise you won't regret it!" As the words came out of her mouth, he began to think otherwise.

"That right we don't even know what you are!" exclaimed Twilight.

"Or what yer even called!" Applejack added.

"Great," he looked back at the group of stallions "Give a report to the princesses, tell them....... I will be attending the gala and expect an audience."

Shining nodded and looked back to the group, gave them orders to get to the chariots and prepare to leave. The carriages were in the center of town, so they had to walk through the town to get to them. Ponies all around town stopped to look at him and Altair with awe, until he assumed they saw the large sheathed blade on his back, at that point their eyes widened and jaws dropped as they scurried back into homes or down alleys.

Big Mac was in the town center, selling apples, he looked over at his sister and the previously armored stallions, the biped and the golden wolf. He continued to watch as the soldiers got into and left on the chariots. His sister walked over to him and asked. "Any questions?" After a minute of thinking he answered.

"Nope." He didn't want to know what this thing was, but if the guards left him with the town he couldn't be too dangerous, right?

"Well I think we had better be on our way if I am going to design you an outfit for the gala." Rarity sang. Dycerton groaned at her sing-song voice.

"Right then I will be around in a few hours, to see how it is going. Have fun!" Dyce cringed at Twilight's statement.

The others made their fare-wells and Rarity invited Dycerton into her house. "Would you care for some tea?" she asked him.

"I don't eat, or drink." She looked at him like he was petting a large spider, not quite sure what to think.

"B-but what, how do you survive without food or water?" She exclaimed with a worried tone.

"As long as I have power, I don't need the energy from food. Besides, eating is inefficient compared to me consuming energy the way I did with the tree." She didn't seem to understand but she didn't press him, she had work to do. As she began measuring his body he said "You do know I don't have any money right? I just got here." She laughed like he just said something ridiculous.

"Oh, don't worry about it, consider it a thanks for saving us from the timber wolves and the manticore. Besides you are our friend now and I made dresses for my other friends it seems fair to make an outfit for you too." She worked for a little more and asked "Would I be correct in assuming you are a male?"

"Yes." He answered.

She finished measuring and said "Alright then, do you have an idea of what you want your outfit to look like?"

"I think so."

"Excellent, I have some designs here" she levitated a small pile of papers over to him. "Or if none are to your liking then I have some spare paper and pencils." She pointed to a table in the center of the room.

He looked through them, but none stood out to him. He sat on a stool at the table and drew his own design. Rarity watched as he drew an overcoat, undershirt, vest, pants, boots and gloves. He handed the designs over to her. She looked at it with increasing eagerness. "I didn't know you had a talent in designs!" She exclaimed.

"To be honest, I don't. It was inspired by a man named Corvo Attano." He said. "You can alter the design if you wish, but I would like the basics to be the same."

"This is already amazing! I will get to work straight away. Twilight won't be around for another hour, so why not take a walk while I begin." She said walking up the stairs to her upper level.

"Alright then, anywhere interesting around here to see?" He asked.

"There are interesting things all over town. But perhaps you should go to town hall and learn what you can about the town. Maybe you could even get a citizenship! If you are staying then you might as well."

He didn't like the idea of staying, but he didn't have a way of getting back either. "I may, thank you for the ideas."

"No problems at all my dear. Although would you mind if I spent some time with Altair? He is such a brilliant creature!" She pleaded.

Dyce looked at Altair who gave a nod and walked over to the excited pony. "He wouldn't mind spending some tine with you."

"Oh thank you my dear,..." she thought for a moment "You haven't told me your name!"

"My designation is Dycerton, although I usually go by Dyce."

"Alright then Dyce, if you aren't back when Twilight comes around I will tell her you went for a walk."

"Thank you, and thank you for the favor." She nodded with a smile.

He walked out of the boutique, and looked around. Down a road he could see a large building and assumed it was the town hall by the size. As he walked towards it ponies still looked at him with cautious expressions. None dared to stop him, or even bother him. They just stared at him and his blade. He entered the hall to see a secretary nervously looking at him and shuttering.

"D-d-do you wish to see the mayor?" Her voice seemed to gain a few octaves at the end.

"That depends, can I access town files from here? And who do I talk to if I want a citizenship?"

"Y-you would have to ask the mayor."

"Then yes I would like to see the mayor."

She knocked on the door, it opened, to a brown mare with a grey mane.

"You have a request for a meeting Mayor Mare." The secretary said. The mayor looked at him and gulped.

"Come in then." She motioned for Dyce to follow her.

Her office was what you would expect, Everything was hardwood, plaques on the walls, a flag, bookshelves and desk toys. Across her desk were two chairs. She motioned for him to sit down in one.

"So what would you like to discuss?" She asked

"I wish to access this town's files." He decided to leave the citizenship until he really needed it.

"The town's public records can be viewed at the library, everything else isn't for public eyes." Dycerton glared at her, a low growl emanating from him. She seemed to shrink from this. "Un-unless you seem to take an interest in something that won't cause any harm! Heh, heh." She added quickly.

"Perfect," he stood up, looking down at her. "Lead the way."

She lead him down through hidden door, and down some stairs into a basement filled with filing cabinets. "Sections, one through nine should be fine for you to look through."

He nodded and began searching through the files, criminal records, personal bio's, and odd news reports. Nothing of interest. Eventually he got through sections one to nine and found that all of the cabinets in section ten had locks on them. He looked back at the mayor who was now standing beside him giving him  a dirty look that said 'Don't you dare'. He decided that if there was something worth hiding, it was worth his time. He quickly looked at the nearest cabinet and tore the lock off with ease, hearing a gasp from the mayor he looked at her. "Th-those locks were supposed to be unbreakable..." she said with a fearful tone.

"'Supposed to be', and 'Is' are two different things altogether." he stated flatly.

Looking through the files he found crime investigation evidence bags, random artifacts, old texts, and IDs. He moved onto the next cabinet, nothing stood out other than a strange black hardened resin. In fact the rest of the cabinets didn't have much but more IDs and resin. Suddenly, something hit him in the back of his head. It wasn't nearly enough to actually hurt and barely made him move. he turned to see the mayor with a large piece of wood between her fore hooves. Green flames engulfed her and dissipated, what was left was a wide eyed, black, insect-like pony. Dyce cracked his knuckles. 'Finally something I canplay with.'