Redemption

The next morning finds me awake and more than a little hyper, much to Vine's annoyance.

"Would you settle down already?" Vine asks/commands in a hissed voice.

I just pause a moment and stare into her big soulful eyes before I give a big grin. "Nope." I reply in an overly happy tone, she just groans and drink some more of her coffee. I ruffle her mane slightly before turning back to my own breakfast of choice. Anything that's loaded with sugar, plus a protein tab, or in this case, two pills. I'd run out of my own supply, even cutting back to one every couple of days, and I'd been taking the 'human' dietary supplements, at twice the recommended dosage, and I'm still having issues.

Discarding the errant thoughts, I consider the warzone which is my plate. After ensuring there is no more remaining food, I graciously accept the plates surrender and refrain from licking it into oblivion, much to Vine's pleasure, she hates it when I lick the plate.

After cleaning up the various remains of our breakfast, namely stacking them on the cart that was delivered to our room. I once again ensure all my gear and apparel is in order before I take up a position to watch the door awaiting my summons.

Almost as if summoned, there's a sturdy knock at the door. I rise and move to the door, bracing my shoulder in case they try to force the door, I open it a few inches. I'm met with the sight of another Royal Guard. Nodding my head, I toss a wave at Vine before proceeding out the door.

"This way," The mare states with little to no inflection to her voice, well trained vocally at least. I set off after her. A couple minutes of walking and several heavy doors later, I enter what looks like a your average sciencey office place. Only in place of all the test tubes and beakers, various pieces of Night Guard gear lay scattered about in various degrees of assembly. Suppressing the urge to rail at them for defiling my comrades. I feel my breath rate accelerate and my pulse climb as I stand frozen, my hands clenching and unclenching as I look around, remembering seeing most of this gear on living breathing ponies and gryphons as we readied for another sally in the face of overwhelming odds.

"Ahhh, the survivor!" A voice calls out from one of the work stations, and the various ponies scattered about the room turn to look at me as I in turn notice their presence. I glance over the various pieces of gear before I close my eyes and collect my thoughts, putting on a happy voice I turn to the pony in a lab coat walking up to me.

"Hello, Private Redemit reporting as ordered." I state, looking down at the unicorn stallion as he in turn looks up at me.

"Well well, aren't you a large specimen," Is his response and I have to stop myself from face-palming I'm already reminded of Twilight. "Anyway! On to business, we need your assistance with your gear, we believe we have most of the parts repaired or replaced on your 'scout' armor, but we're having some issues with the power crystals not setting properly," He states turning to walk towards a doorway with my at his heels.

I take a moment to examine him. Off-white coat, steel gray mane, what looks like some kind of metallic instrument on his flank that I see every so often when his lab coat shifts. He had a name tag, I think it said Straight Edge.

"I'll aid as I can," I respond,going through the various scenarios for power crystal failure I know of. My gear was all custom-made for my unique physiology, so it was understandable that they had no reference on the problem. Vine and I were the only ones who really understood most of my gear's quirks aside from the armor chief, and he was dead insofar as I was aware.

Coming to the doorway, we step into a side room, and away from most of the prying eyes(I was very grateful for that.), where my scout armor and the broken parts of my heavy armor(Mainly the chest-plate and pants, most everything else was probably broken beyond recovery.) sit on armor racks adapted to a vertical rather than horizontal format to best display my armor for the several unicorn technicians fiddling with it.

Suppressing my irritation at somepony messing with my gear with a ruthless mental fist, I step up to the gear as several other ponies in their own lab coats back off. At close proximity, the chest plate shows a number of patched spots and the visible runes all show signs of repair, most of it done acceptably if not masterfully. Checking over the other pieces, I clear all the armor components and straps. I then start checking the propulsion units, namely the belt pack. Popping it open, I take one look at the runes on the charge they have inserted and shake my head, stepping back.

"You've got the wrong rune-set, my armor uses punchers, not pushers," I reply, most of the surrounding technicians look confused. I just shake my head. "Have you got the rune guide handy? I don't know what they called the rune I need, but I can show you," I state, one of the unicorns grabs a tome with his magic and sends it my way.

I tilt the book open, and start flipping through pages rapidly skimming the various rune-sets as I go, this takes awhile since I didn't exactly think to check which section I'd find them in, not that I'd have known, but still.

Coming upon the appropriate symbols, I read the name which is still meaningless, but the technical description is very fitting. "High yield, short duration thrust. This is what they use in my gear," I state, handing the tome back to the unicorn.

The three of them huddle together and start talking amongst themselves shortly before the unicorn that met me raises his head. "Why would they use those instead of of a lower yield, higher duration?" he asks.

"Mass. I'm twice the size of most ponies, plus the orientation of my body and wings, it all just works better with a bigger push rather than a gentle acceleration," I respond, basically quoting what I was told.

The unicorn in question nods a few times before tilting his head at me. "What about your wings?" He asks, I resist the urge to face-palm.

"They're on my back... so to fly, I have to lay myself out flat, but to get enough speed, I have to run, which naturally keeps me around forty-five degrees, kind of hard to get enough speed at that angle, the crystals provide that extra bump to get me moving" I reply.

At this point he appears satisfied and they then move back to redoing the runes on my jets, leaving me to the mercy of several other ponies in lab coats, who then proceed to barrage me with questions concerning some of the other items they've salvaged.

...

After spending several hours explaining what I knew of the various items and theories contained in our gears and weapons(Not a lot.), I find myself sitting on a bench as several ponies place my now-functional gear on me. Why I couldn't put everything on by myself, I don't know, but they seem pretty insistent on doing it for me and I decide objecting would probably be more trouble than it's worth. Sadly there were no weapons, although I'd been told that might come later.

"So, why am I putting this gear on again?" I ask.

"Because we need operational data to figure out how to train our own units with this gear," Straight Edge replies

I feel a surge of adrenaline and elation at what I think he's talking about, but I decide to ask for clarification to be sure. "Does that mean you have a test range set up?" I ask.

"Uh-huh, we've got permission to use one of the sally yards and the adjacent wing of the palace, work crews are still working over the wing, but the open air parts are more or less complete," He replies absentmindedly checking over various closures on my gear, I'm doing the same thing, but mainly by instinct and feel.

I suppress a squee at the thought of finally MOVING again, and simply stare down at my feet, counting the seconds as they drag by before I can get out and stretch all my muscles, metaphorical and physical.

Finally, after what feels like hours, they step back, obviously satisfied with the job they did on applying my gear. I stand up rather abruptly, causing a moment of near-panic, because flighty scientists are flighty, go figure.

"Alrighty! Lets go try it out!" I state happily.

Straight Edge opens his mouth but I whip my head around to face him and just hold very still . . . in a faceless helmet with a skull depicted on the front. Yeah, he's terrified. Part of me feels kinda bad. He's not the bad sort for an academic, the rest of me though, just screams 'go!', yeah, it's time to party.

Straight Edge gulps while looking up at me. "Yes?" He says in more of a 'yes, and please don't eat me' voice than a questioning, slowly shuffling towards the door.

I nod my head and follow him with a bounce to my step, not nearly as much as the insane pink pony though.

...

I have to give it to them, they had an accurate idea of my gear's capabilities, or they involved some pegusai. The courtyard is no longer empty, instead, it seems rather crowded with columns and skeletal structures, little more than framework with boards laid down for the occasional platform or stretch of walling.

I'm practically bouncing in place as I wait for them to decide what they want me to show off first. Straight looks up at me and opens his mouth.

"First we'd like to see your general mobilit-" He says, but I miss the rest as I'm already shooting forward into the jungle of columns and walls like a wolf in the chicken coop. I feel the impact of my movement in my feet and legs as the world seems to blur as I parkour just to feel alive.

After about 10 minutes, I start to feel a mild burn in my limbs as my lack of practice catches up with me. I briefly consider using magic to 'fix' it but decide instead(Regretfully) that I need to take it easy for the first day. Decision made, I wait until the opportune moment to make a perfect landing by some very impressed looking eggheads.

Walking back and forth to work some of the tension out of my limbs, I grin at them behind my visor. "Well, did you get the data?" I ask innocently.

Straight just looks up at me with a mute face, then nods slowly, poor guy looks like his minds a little frazzled.

"Great, where can I get the rest of my gear?" I ask in a chipper voice, he just looks confused. "You know, my weapons?" I elaborate, he shuffles kind of nervously, and I prepare myself for some bad news.

"Uhh... we don't have it..." He mutters, waiting for my explosion, I simply nod my head understandingly. He takes this as a good sign and continues. "It's being held in the Royal Guard's armory," He says then starts to cower as I tower over him menacingly.

"Okay, where would I find the armory?" I ask in a mildly 'not gonna kill you today' voice.

...

After receiving directions, I set off down the hall whistling as I go, leaving a very confused Straight Edge and company behind. I don't know what they thought I was doing when I hugged them, but it made me feel better, and that's okay.

As I go, I take the time to admire the decorations as I go, even going so far as to hold a staring contest with a random statue, just to watch one of the guards watch me and try not to let their confusion show, it was glorious. I briefly considered doing a few other pranks, but decided against it. Acting odd was one thing, being an idiot would get me in trouble, and that's no fun.

Coming up on the guard areas, I drop the pretense of silliness and instead stride down the corridors and stairs confidently. Since everyone knows they don't bother you so long as you look like you know what you're doing.

"What are you doing here? This area is restricted to guard units only," A voice states from behind me.

Or not. Turning around, I'm met with the sight of a snowy white pegasus stallion in the standard guard armor. He's looking up at me and almost visibly recoils as he makes visual contact with the decal on my helm. Rolling my eyes, I open my mouth. "I'm here to pick up my kit, or at least a kit. I don't know about you, but I feel really vulnerable unarmed," I state, watching his reaction.

He opens his mouth, then closes it, then sits there confused for a bit. After a few seconds of me being very glad my helmets opaque because it hides my grin, he tries again. "This area is restricted to guard units only," He states, as if it's some kind of mantra or something.

I settle for a sigh and a face-palm. "I AM a guard unit. No, I won't tell you my rank and outfit, that's classified," I finally say. "Look, unless you've got something else to say, I need to get my kit and back to my duties, I'm running on borrowed time here," I add, the guard just nods weakly and I do a sharp about face and move on, wondering why he fell for that so quickly.

I mean, I AM technically a guard unit . . . I think. I'm not really sure what my classification is aside from science experiment. I have a rank that's apparently not my acting rank, all very confusing. But I digress! Weaponry! This unit will be weaponized.

Sadly, the universe had other plans. Because my comm unit chooses that moment to light up on the Night Guard channel, startling me. Guess they figured the controls out. "Echo Two-Four, what's your location?" A familiar voice asks.

"Buck," I mutter, sighing. "This is Echo Two-Four, I'm en route to the morgue to weaponize," I respond, there's a moment silence.

"Say that again?" Pahnzer orders.

"I'm en route to the morgue to weaponize," I repeat, there's another short confusion filled moment.

"Do you mean the armory?" Pahnzer finally asks, and I face-palm.

"Right, yeah, headed for the armory to pick up my gear, sorry," I sheepishly reply. Some habits die harder than others.

"You weren't cleared to rearm," Pahnzer states, as if that has some bearing on the situation.

"With all due respect, sir. I've been walking by armed individuals all day. You want to stick me back in the civilian area where no one's armed, okay. But so long as I'm going to be near a bunch of armed ponies. I WILL be armed as well." I reply somewhat coldly.

"Why, you expecting to be assaulted or something?" Pahnzer asks, a note of weariness creeping into his voice.

"Expect? No, I don't expect to be specifically attacked. I just don't expect anything better than to be attacked once my identity becomes known by most ponies." I retort, I'm left in relative silence after that as I come up on the armory.

Entering what looks like a converted barracks room, I can't help but give a small smile at the collection of various sharpened implements set on racks and in various display units. While the lack of enchants and other thaumaturgically enhanced gear was appalling, it was still a pretty sight.

Walking to a collection of sabers with mouth guards for use by ponies, I took a moment to stroke one, remembering long hours spent sharpening various tools of my trade as a way to escape. If only for a short time.

"Can I help you, sonny?" A gravely voice asks, I experience a moment of Deja Vu, before turning with a small smile hidden behind my visor.

For an instant I see a grizzled pegasus with half of a wing missing, then I blink, and its gone. In his place stands an earth pony stallion with a red coat and a brown mane. On his flank rests twin hammers with pommels crossed forming an X, I can't tell if they're supposed to be war-hammers, or the blacksmiths sort, but then, there's not much difference between the two anyway. Looking at his eyes I'm struck by a rather stolid individual, I think I could like this one.

Deciding to play it safe for the moment, I stand at attention and salute. "Yes sir, I'm looking to pick up my kit. I was informed I would find it here," I state, watching him watch me.

He shakes his head after a moment spent thinking. "Can't say as I know of any 'kit' that's been tagged for a weird two legged critter such as yourself," He replies, I have to bite back a snicker.

I nod my head. "I'm sure they didn't, but it's been here coming up on a month I'd say if I had to guess," I state, glancing around the room.

He blinks a few times, but then his eyes narrow and he takes a more solid stance, I feel my own adrenaline rising as I grew still. "There's no 'kit' here for you, sonny. Now, unless you have a requisition order, I'm afraid you'll have to leave." He says in a firm tone, causing me to nod my head.

"They still have it locked up three ways to midnight? Alright, alright, but I'm not walking around naked," I retort, he opens his mouth but I wave a hand. "Listen to me for a second, would you?" I ask, he watches me a second, then gives a small nod.

"I assume you've seen the items in question, I won't go into specifics for obvious reasons, but I assure you they're mine, note my wrists, and the surface decals on my armor," I state, watching him glance at my armor, specifically where my wrist blades WOULD be, before giving another small nod. "I know they've been locked up by order of at least one of the princesses and I'm not going to argue that with you, I'll take it up with them. But in the mean time, you've seen my gear, can you imagine the sort of situation that warrants that much of an arsenal?" I ask.

He tilts his head at me a second, then opens his mouth. "Yes, I suppose I can, and judging by the gunk I had to clean off em, I can guess what you were using them on," He finally states, only to pause as I shake my head.

"No, even they were terrified by what I fought, we 'tried' to save as many changelings as we could, but the fear got to the powers that were, and they ended up being 'purged'," I spit out, causing the armorer to take a step back as he watched me wearily. "No, the things I fought were much, much, worse. And you know what, we were losing. Outpost after outpost was falling, we never knew when the next attack would come. So yeah, sleeping with your weapons was the norm, so was paranoia. I had it, I'll admit that freely. I've dealt with most of it, but I'll never be happy in a crowded room, or with anypony I don't know personally," I continue, causing the armorer to nod slowly. I really hate pity sometimes, but I'll take what I can get if it means I'm not vulnerable all the time.

"Now, I've been acclimating to a safer situation for over a month now, and while I was playing the part of a civilian, it wasn't nearly so bad. Now? I'm walking through hallways with armed guards every 20 paces, and the stress is getting to me," I state injecting a note of pleading into my voice. "I'm not going to ask you to break their orders, but I still need a kit, even if it means taking the local variant," I say.

He opens his mouth with an affronted look on his face. I roll my eyes before I feed power into my armor from the reservoir feeling various runes and the suits enchant activate, while the visual effects are pretty minimal, the quality of my armor is none-the-less apparent. He closes his mouth with a snap as a look of comprehension comes over his face. My point made, I cease feeding power into my armor and let the crystals slowly recharge.

"Let me guess, they made you clean everything by hoof, no magic?" I ask, he nods again. "That's for the best, otherwise, you might have triggered something, and that generally does not end well at all," I state. "Now you see why I value my gear, it saw me through several hundred engagements and helped me save the life of one I cared for very greatly, " I say with a sigh. "Now can I please get some gear? I'll take the same thing you issue your guards if that's what you'll give me," I plead, he stares at me with an undecided look on his face.

"Do it, Supply Sergeant," A voice says from the doorway.

I glance over and see a familiar gray unicorn entering the room. Blinking at what I just heard him say, I stay silent for the moment, awaiting the statement of price. As I wait, the Supply Sergeant takes a moment to consider me, then turns around and moves over to several racks of various weapons.

While he does whatever it is he's doing, I turn to the gray-coated unicorn. Taking a moment, I examine him some more. He's in what looks like a simpler form of the armor I'd met him in before in the marketplace, from the three lightning bolts making a triangle, to the steel-gray eyes watching me with a cool reserve, this one isn't a pushover.

“I'm sorry, I don't know your rank, sir.” I state, watching him warily.

“I'm a captain, denoted by the twin bars on my armor,” He replies.

I take a closer look and he does indeed have some small 1 inch metallic insignia comprised of two metal bars with another two thinner bars serving as cross-links. “Understood, thank you, Captain,” I reply, he simply nods, still considering me.

“Alright sonny, come over here a second,” The Supply Sergeant calls out. I walk over to a table where lays a VERY short sword(About 18 inches) a dagger that makes me want to cry, and what looks to be a lance that when combined with my size would make for a decent spear, I really hate this world. “One long-sword(Ouch.) with scabbard, one dagger, and the longest lance we have, none of it's suitable to your scale, but I can't do any better, you'd be better off requisitioning from a local blacksmith for gear more appropriate to your size.

Huh, didn't think of that. I make a mental note to find a black smith at some point as I pick up the two sharp objects in one hand and the spear in the other.

“Do you want a belt for those?” The Supply Sergeant asks me, I just shake my head.

“Thank you sir, but no, I'll handle attaching them.” I reply as I inspect the swords scabbard before turning my attention to the spear in my other hand.

“Alright, thank you Supply Sergeant. Redemit, on me.” the gray unicorn orders, I nod my head and give the Supply Sergeant a parting salute.

“Yes Captain, on you.” I state as I follow him out of the armory.

Instead of heading back towards the testing grounds I find us taking a different route, this one taking us outside the building into a courtyard where a number of other ponies spend their time exercising, from sparring to what looks like simple group maneuvers. We don't stop at any point, but continue straight across into what looks like a separate building. Passing through a double set of doors with a charge break in between, we enter what I assume is the lobby, on the far back wall is a motif of a black sun cresting the horizon.

Stopping a moment, I stare up at the motif, burning it into my memory, before bringing my gaze back down to meet a pair of steel gray orbs watching me in turn.

“Welcome to the headquarters for the Rising Dawn,” he states, then turns his gaze forward and sets off further into the facility. I have no choice but to follow.

Several hours later I exit the briefing room tired and annoyed. Apparently, my delayed debriefing just came up, and several batteries of questions eventually led to a general foray into what exactly I did. If they'd been disappointed to learn just how little responsibility and knowledge I was given, they didn't show it.

Especially Captain Pahnzer, I shudder at the thought of him. That was one individual I think I'd ticked off, probably when I showed up his team in the marketplace, except he also granted me armaments, or didn't stand in my way I guess. I would have acquired weapons one way or another. This place is rather confusing.

My exile, as pleasant as it was, also appeared to be at an end. I was going to eat in the cafeteria with the rest of the special ops ponies, apparently being involved in the cleanup meant they had to be inducted into my little secret. And saying 'No thanks.' was not an option, unless I wanted to eat outside the palace, and braving the streets, even if it meant I could eat with Vine, just wasn't an option.

But first, I needed to deal with my weaponry, and eating at the same time sounded like a good idea. Glancing around, I find a landmark, namely a colored strip on the floor and follow it.

Coming into the cafeteria, I'm met with the sight of a large number of ponies moving around and sitting at various tables eating, off in a back corner, several tables suited to human scale sit, but are also occupied by several of the former. Rather than risk a riot, I opt to just grab some food and kneel down at a one of the pony sized areas as far from other ponies and the humans as possible.

Ignoring the various stares and absence of activity that ensues shortly upon my entry, I walk to the meal line and grab a tray, I keep my posture as relaxed as possible and ignore the various workers watching me as I grab a random selection of various plants. I check around for any meat, but sadly, it appears even combat humans make do without, meh. Snagging a couple fruits, I walk over to an unoccupied table and kneel down, ignoring the bench.

Triggering the releases on my helmet for the first time in several weeks, I feel it shift and slide down. Flexing my shoulder a bit to settle my cloak back down, I stare at the food awhile before I shake my head and set the sheathed blade on the table before me. Pulling the dagger out, I start tracing the first locking rune onto the scabbard of the sword, once I have the first light run done, I start working my way along it, barely breathing as I carefully etch it further into the material.

Finishing the second heavier run, I sit back for a moment to consider my work. Then I roll up my sleeve and use the dagger to prick the inside of my arm, holding it there for a moment, I'm rewarded with a small drop of blood before my skin reseals. Wishing I had some magic chalk or its equivalent, I take the dagger and gently dab the blood into the seal, I end up repeating this action several times before I'm interrupted.

“Okay, who left their charge sitting out here, and why isn't it in the human section... and why is he armed?” A cold voice asks suddenly and loudly, I hiss as I almost leave a streak of blood across the rune, potentially ruining it until I clean up and try again.

Turning my head, I'm met with the sight of a pale blue unicorn, the irony of this isn't lost on me as I stare at her as she in turn considers me with a look of disdain. I briefly consider dealing with the idiot before I shake my head and turn back around.

“Hey! Who left their human?” She calls out to the room again, I resist the urge to face-palm as I gently set the scabbard aside and start consuming my food. Glancing around, I notice more than a few of the ponies watching us sporting small smiles or hiding snickers. I feel a bit of an urge to snicker myself, even with a dust cloak on, my wings aren't exactly hidden, but she does have rather the ability to ignore what she doesn't want to see.

I feel her move up beside me and resist the urge to shy away or otherwise react to her presence. I glance at her from the corner of my eye and find her attention is drawn to the nearly finished rune on my scabbard.

“Ewwww, is that blood?” She asks, I sigh as I rest an elbow on the table and cover my face in my hand. Several audible snickers reach my ears and I have to repress another groan.

“Okay, whoever left their humans here and let them draw on their gear with BLOOD is about to get it. Come on, you, we're going for a trip,” She grabs my sword and dagger in her magic and turns to leave, obviously expecting me to follow like a good little human, not very intelligent of her.

I suppress my combat reflexes ruthlessly and settle for turning my head to look at her. Pulsing a bit of magic through my body, I feel the enchant on my eyes ripple and pop. “Put those back down,” I state, equally coldly.

She freezes a moment then whips her head around looking for who spoke before she slowly raises her eyes to meet my own. At this point she freezes as we stare deep into each others eyes.

Before this gets any more awkward, I decide to try and set stuff back on track. “Just put them down.” I repeat myself, she nods mutely and levitates the weapons back to the table. “Alright, yes, it is blood. Blood is one of the few items I have at my disposal that easily allows me to enchant an item, in this case, I'm modifying the sheath so it's compatible with my armor. If you're the squeamish sort, I won't bother asking why your in the Rising Dawn, I'll just suggest you find somewhere farther away to eat.” I state flatly, then shifting a softer tone, I continue. “However, if you don't mind my odd methods, you're more than welcome to pull up a plate of whatever this stuff I'm eating is, and have a seat and we can talk like rational, reasoning beings.” I state fighting a slight smirk.

She looks at me a few more seconds before shaking her head and stalking off, I glance around the room with a frown when I hear several ponies smother laughter.

Shaking my own head, I turn back to the food on my plate. After that's dealt with, I turn my attention back to the sheath, pulling it in front of me. As I hold out my arm to get some more blood to apply, I hear the clatter of several plates all being set down at the table. I pause for a moment to allow any vibrations in the table to settle, before I prick my skin again and start dabbing the blood into the grooves.

“Can't you use something else to do that?” A female voice asks, I nod my head.

“Yes, there were a number of powders that work just fine, they even had a chalk substance that made drawing them much easier and you only had to go over it once, not three times. Sadly, I have none of those, nor do I know how to make them or what to even call them here. So my blood it is,” I respond absentmindedly, giving the rune a once-over at the 75% completion point.

“Well, you could always drop by the mage quarter, making runes isn't common practice anymore, but I'm sure somepony would know something that would help.” Another voice pops in, a very deep, very gravely one.

Almost against my will, I raise my head and look up at the surrounding ponies. Annnd it's the foursome from the marketplace. I feel my muscles tighten as my eyes dart around the room rapidly looking at my options, for their own part they just sit there watching me curiously. After a few seconds and no overtly hostile moves I relax a bit, looking back at them. “Well, hello, interesting to meet you again,” I state, watching them cautiously.

One of the pegusai snickers. The earth pony just grins, I feel myself grinning back nervously, this could go bad very quickly. “No, I don't hold it against you, though if we go up against one another again, don't expect it to be so easy next time, if you weren't using that fancy shield of yours-” He starts.

“I'd be a smear on the cobblestone,” I finish in a monotone voice, the pegusai busts out laughing as the other pegusai and unicorn both smile. “Seriously, that one impact took at least half my power supply if you'd had any kind of thaumaturgical enhancements, you would have won that engagement,” I continue, causing the earth pony to chuckle.

Taking the moment of levity, I examine them. The earth pony without his armor is revealed to be a solid black with a deep brown mane, upon further examination, his cutie mark is still a boulder. I briefly consider then dismiss asking him how he got to rock golem status.

On his right, is another unicorn, this one a mare. Green fur, purple mane with tan highlights, I can't see her cutie mark at my angle, but as I recall it was a cloud of something silver.

Glancing to my left I see the two pegusai, one's a dark blue with a light red, almost pink mane, the one with the stylized breath of air. The others a tawny brown with a light purple mane with the hail cloud.

“I'm just glad you didn't have any boosters going, I wasn't kidding about being needed elsewhere,” I continue, shaking my head.

“And we're glad it was you cleaning those things out of their tunnels, if we'd done it, the casualties would have been a lot higher,” The unicorn states, the rest just give solemn nods.

I blink. “Wait, how did you know about that?” I ask, glancing around, then I realize as the unicorn grins at me, the grin feels false, but I leave it alone for now.

“We were watching, we caught the last part of that fight, you're something else I must admit,” She states, watching me appraisingly.

I nod before I bring my eyes back down to the scabbard in front of me. Nicking my arm again, I bring the knife to the rune and ever so gently finish the last bit of detailing. Sitting back a second, I stretch my back muscles. Then gathering a small amount of magic from my reservoir, I place a finger on the center of the rune and feed the mana into the rune. The result is a small flash of light and then the rune glows a steady soft green.

I grimace at my work, it's not very good, plus it's obviously been corrupted by my own abilities, but it'll hold. Now I just have to do it again for the second latch point. Sliding it over slightly, I start to repeat the process, slowly dragging the point of the dagger across the material of the scabbard.

“Well, that's not something you see very often,” The unicorn remarks, I pause a moment to glance up at her. She's staring at me with a raised eyebrow. “You just fed magic into that rune, I saw you use it the other day, but this time it felt . . . different,” She states with a thread of curiosity in her voice.

I sigh “Yeah, I didn't keep the flow pure this time, I went to a concert last night, so my reserves are at a higher point than they've been in months, it's kind of hard to NOT use it right now,” I reply, and get a bunch of blank looks at my non sequiter.

“I'm part changeling, I feed off emotions, specifically love, although I can draw from others to a certain extent,” I explain, tossing the information out there to gauge their reactions, I get absolutely no reaction, leading me to believe they've been briefed, so I decide what the heck.

“My Alpha was the only one that willingly kept me fed and moving throughout the war, but her emotional state was kind of strained considering the situation, so I was always 'half-empty' you might say, but when we were put in a peaceful environment, she was able to stabilize emotionally and physically, this meant she was broadcasting more of what I . . . consume naturally, Toss in an emotionally charged event that she enjoys, and it's like liquid pleasure flowing through your nervous system, plus it leaves you with quite a bit of stored love,” I continue, struggling to put my feelings to words.

One of the pegusai, the dark blue one, pipes up. “Like an orgasm?” She says, and I plant my face on the table.

“I've never had my abilities likened to sex before, thank you so much for that,” I mumble from the surface of the table, prompting everyone to chuckle. “But no, I'd put it closer to the herb you roll up in paper and ignite then inhale the fumes,” I reply raising my head, causing the tawny pegusai to nod her head before she freezes when everyone looks at her.

“What? As if you didn't try it at some point in your life?” She says defensively, I just smile. “It's not like it's against the law to use it either,” She grumps, I suppress a chuckle.

“Huh, where's my manners, I'm Redemit,” I state with a chuckle, deciding to give the pegasus a reprieve.

“I'm Rock,” The earth pony states, I resist a face-palm. “But most people call me Rocky,” He continues, and I feel myself die a little on the inside.

“I'm Fairy Dancer,” The blue unicorn with the silver swarm chirps, I nod my head in greeting while doing my best to suppress a snicker, that name. Guess I know what the swarm is now, maybe?

“I'm Scatter Shot,” The blue pegasus with the breath of wind says with a smile.

“And I'm Cloud Burst,” The Tawny pegasus with the hail cloud states with a grin, I feel a small urge to grin back, but it's overshadowed by a larger realization.

“So, who's doing the psych evaluation?” I ask, looking around at them. I'm met with generally blank faces, but I sense a weak thread of surprise, so I shake my head. “It doesn't matter, but realize this, once you've spent enough time around me, I will feel your emotions, no I won't feed on you, but I will sense dishonesty,” I warn. “Now, I'm not terribly worried about being lied too, but if you're not comfortable being near me, leave, now.” I state, letting my features grow cold. “I won't tolerate false company, I had to put up with being used to keep my Alpha safe, that reasoning no longer applies. I'm responsible for my own actions here, no one else. Show me friendship, and I'll show you mine. Show me respect and loyalty, and I'll be happy to storm Tartarus at your side. But show me weakness, or a false shell, and I'll break you,” I state in a flat voice.

I look around at the four of them. Rocky(Ugh.) seems to be taking it rather well, although he still seems cautious. Fairy Dancer looks outright hostile, and the two pegusai seem to be regretting their seating arrangements, I almost feel bad for them honestly.

Deciding to deal with the outright hostility from Fairy Dancer first. I look her in the eye, then open my mouth in a fang bearing smile, combined with my yellow eyes, it's earned me more reprimands and beatings than I care to think about, but it works.

Her look of hostility drops like a used rag as she shrinks into herself before remembering where her backbone is and glaring right back at me. This only prompts me to start chuckling deep in my chest, the sound causes everyone at the table to shift uncomfortably.

“Now that I have you attention, and I hope your understanding. I am willing to do whatever it takes to see the Princesses' will through, if you are truly loyal, you'll do the same.” I challenge them. “Now, can we sit together peacefully? Or is this little gathering going to devolve into a fight before the armed squads trying to act like they're on lunch move in to neutralize me?” I ask with an ironic smile. I have to give it to them, they barely even flinch as I drop bombshell after bombshell on them.

I shake my head. “I missed it the first time, I should have known any pony with the mental fortitude to be in the Rising Dawn wouldn't dumb enough to make that kind of scene, much less oblivious to my obvious differences, the fact they assumed I'd lash out needlessly kind of hurts,” I state with a frown. “But I also noticed that most every pony in here is armed, this was normal for my world, so I didn't pay it much mind, but then I realized, I've seen several off-duty individuals around the palace, none of them were armed,” I continue. “Add in the intentional irritation from my 'debriefing' and the fact they were trying to hit my sensitive areas, and a pattern emerged, my only question is if this 'test' was ordered by the Princess, or just lower level leadership,” I chuckle, looking around the room at all the various ponies(And humans) watching me.

“On a side note, if you decide to attack, remember, you will lose your first wave, I've got a weapon in hand after all,” I state, wiggling the knife I'd been working on the scabbard with very slightly. “Your best option is to send your attack-humans in first, they'll wear me down slightly, and give you some idea of how I fight, maybe reduce the loss amongst the 'civilized' personnel” My irony on the last part is withering, and causes more than a couple pairs of ears to lower, a hollow victory, these ponies didn't deserve that, a concept I'm not used too.

Curling my hands into fists, I rest my chin on them and glance around the very quiet cafeteria with a tired sigh. “So, I'll ask again, can we work together? Or will my world outlook and your own prejudices get in the way?” I ask, broadcasting my voice to the room in general. “I'm loyal to your monarchs, of that you should harbor no doubt, doubt gets you killed on the battlefield,” I look around at the various faces watching me cautiously, and smile again while shaking my head.

Turning back to my scabbard, I continue tracing the rune lightly, leaving them to consider my words at their leisure. As I finish up the first tracing, and move on to the second, deeper run, a throat clears itself. I raise my head and look at Rocky who in turn stares back at me solemnly. I raise an eyebrow and await his response.

“I guess we got off on rather a bad hoof there,” He states ironically, I just give a half-smile. “How about we try this again?” He asks, I nod my head, watching him quietly.

“I'm Staff Sergeant Rock of the Rising Dawn, Field Engineer.” He states, I nod my head.

The next one to speak is the blue pegasus. “Sergeant First Class Scatter Shot of the Rising Dawn, I handle field communications, although I expect that to change up a bit when we get our copies of your gear,” She states with a small smirk, I nod my head, a certain gate crashing even springing to mind.

“Sergeant First Class Cloud Burst of the Rising Dawn, I'm the resident Weapons Master for my squad.” The tan pegasus remarks with a cocky grin, I just smile back and watch her face falter a bit at the sight of my teeth.

We all turn to look at Fairy Dancer who in turn is still staring at me with narrowed eyes, for my own part, I just sigh and shake my head.

“Master Sergeant Fairy Dancer of the Rising Dawn, Medic, Mage,” She finally states tersely, I just nod my head silently trying to avoid further aggravating her without a good reason.

“I'm Private Redemit, formerly of the Night Guard, Point,” I state nodding my head in greeting. “Of course, what I am now is still up for debate, isn't it?” I chuckle.

Rock gives a small nod and most of them smile, Fairy Dancer just continues to watch me coldly, I just shrug my shoulders.

“I'll be here whenever they need me, I just hope its soon, I haven't killed anything in over a month,” I state sadly, and end up rolling my eyes when this causes another round of tension. “Seriously, did you NOT just hear what I stated about my loyalty to your Monarchs? I like killing yes, but no, I don't go around killing randomly, I'm just bored,” I say tossing my hands, minus the knife, up in the air.

“Don't you do anything else to entertain yourself?” Cloud Burst asks incredulously, I just stare at her blankly.

“Uhhh, never really thought about it, I generally spent most of my time in a fancy kennel until they needed me to kill something. Oh, now they did throw the occasional human female that was in heat in with me to see if I felt like breeding, took me forever to stop that shit. And if anyone gets the same idea, no, just no,” I state with a tight lipped smile, some rather uncomfortable nods is the only response I get, and a mild feeling of . . . did they really?. “Ugh, please tell me that wasn't on the table as an idea?” I ask as I plant my face on the table.

“Of course not!” Rock says, yes it was.

Shadows be my guide, I hate this place already, we'll get along just fine, if nopony dies anyway.