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"The Swords-pony" by Dr. Steady Hoof Canterlot Royal Infirmary R&D Patient Archives (7 Days Comatose)
Canterlot Royal Infirmary Patient file #073 "Swords-pony" by Dr. Steady Hoof (This is classified material. Tier 2 or higher clearance level required to view this content legally. Un-authorised access could get up to 2 years incarceration and a fine of 1000 Celestial Bits).
Patient #073 is a curious matter for those who have had the privilege of knowing about him. From what we know he is a male Pegasus around his late 20's to mid 30's, he sports a light grey coat and a longish black mane. His heart rate, temperature, and basic biology are all normal.
His muscle density gives away the idea of a strong warrior. So in the flesh, he is simply a healthy stallion and there are no differences that we can tell off, aside from the scars on his right shoulder and face. Strange considering he was unconscious with any injuries of abnormalities at all. The peculiar thing is that he has no history. Magic cannot provide a known DNA match, and no matter how hard we try there is no birth certificate to be found anywhere in Equestria. It's almost like he never existed!
But the interesting bit is yet to come. What he was found with. It's not everyday somepony happens to stumble upon an unconscious pony just sprawled out in the middle of the road. Even less often is that pony wearing full armour and carrying a 35 inch sword with them. It is because of this that the staff that are assigned to his safe-keeping and secrecy, and have dubbed him as the 'Swords-pony".
The reason we are sworn to secrecy is that the technology he carried is out of this world and the written language inscribed on his equipment is all foreign and matches no known language. The style of sword and armour designs are also unknown and are far beyond that of any Equestrian design, technology wise. Not even the Griffons have anything to rival this type of weaponry.
Investigations are currently being carried out into where this pony came from and who he is. I hope we can decipher his secrets soon, this could be a breakthrough in our culture and science to be remembered for years to come. But for now we wait for him to awake from comatose so we can learn more from this extraordinary find.
Dr. Steady Hoof
Research and Development- Canterlot Royal Infirmary
Canterlot Royal Infirmary Patient #073 "Swords-pony" Medical report (Right Shoulder).
Extraordinary. When this patient was brought in, we would have never even thought such a thing was possible. Yesterday one of the nurses came into my office to tell me that she was concerned for patient #073 as she could not feel a pulse in his right shoulder. I followed her to him and she told me to put on a stethoscope. Then she placed the sensor on all of the locations where there would usually be a vein or artery and there was no pulse, just like she said. The strange thing was that the area around the shoulder had no problems. However upon further inspection...
With the use of some high level X-Ray magic, we discovered that nearly his entire right shoulder is bionic! That's right, his shoulder has no pulse because all of the bone, flesh and even the skin is made from some sort of Synthetic material. Judging from the scan and the fact that no other part of his body was found to be like so, it seems he may have sustained a heavy injury at some point and had it all replaced with highly resistant and surprisingly light materials such as those.
This is a massive and important progression in my department. But it's also a huge addition to the mysteries that this stallion holds. Its so frustrating that we find such things, but we cannot understand the mechanisms involved. But I guess that's what I'm here to figure out, these problems are the dealings of R&D and it will be amazing if we can come to comprehend the incredible technology we have here.
Dr. Steady Hoof
Research and Development- Canterlot Royal Infirmary
Canterlot Royal Infirmary Patient #073 "Swords-pony" Research Report (Right Shoulder)
Today myself and a few other doctors from the R&D department went to study the Swords-pony's right shoulder, along with a select few junior scientists who have been permitted to study patient 073 under supervision. We started off by using magic to create a 'Blueprint' of the shoulder mechanisms and well... Lets just say that its complex. Really complex.
It took our scientists a long half hour just to figure out what did what no matter find out how it works. The systems involved have an outstanding use of molecular science and elemental chemistry. The substance that was heavily used in the structure appears to be lightweight and strong enough not to alter the pony's natural sense of balance and increase the resilience of the skeleton in the shoulder.
The spell used to determine the materials used in the bionics was designed to measure the atomic weight of the substances and judge their overall strength along with melting, boiling and freezing points, as well as the temperature of which the materials will undergo sublimation. We are still attempting to discover exactly what this material is, as the results from the spell have not yet returned from our scientists. The data should be with us in a day or two.
Dr. Steady Hoof
Research and Development- Canterlot Royal Infirmary
Canterlot Royal Infirmary Patient #073 "Swords-pony" Royal visit
Today something completely unexpected happened. It seems that the princesses themselves took an interest in our mystery patient and found time among their schedules to come and visit. A problem with having the regal sisters visiting is that the press decide to come out of their holes and visit, too. And in Equestria's biggest and busiest hospital, space is need in order for our doctors and nurses to get around and care for our patients. An advantage of having the regal sisters visiting is that they can (Pardon my language) tell them to buck off. In a polite way, of course.
Anyway, we showed them to our unknown guest and they took the liberty to perform a couple spells of their own. The tests they carried out where for a different purpose than our scientific endeavors, and the results they received were just as such. They were searching for any residual magic left over from a possible teleportation spell, in hopes they could reverse the spell and create a counter spell that they could use to find where the Swords-pony came from. Creating a ten figure grid reference for the exact place in the universe where the spell was originally cast.
They concluded that some form of advanced teleportation spell was used to transport the stallion from somewhere, and we say 'somewhere' for a reason. Their results were as followed:
What does that mean? Not quite sure myself, and neither were the princesses. They said that according to this, our stallion came from nowhere and everywhere at once. Being transported from an infinitely small point in space-time which also just happened to have an zero mass in total, to Equestria.
Next question. How does that work? Be damned if I knew. According to Princess Celestia, these co-ordinates would imply he did not come from here at all. Like, not from this universe. Not from this plane of existence. Not from here . At which Princess Luna stated was an impossible feat in magic due to the fact that it would take an infinite number of in-definite magical matrix's. Comparing this to everything else, 90% of all known pony magic spells on require on at least one definite matrix. To put that into something that we could more easily understand, they said this.
"Imagine trying to fit an object of infinite size into a space of infinite smallness, moving that object without losing track of it, and then taking that object out of it's space." To which we had no reply. Princess Celestia sent a message for her protege to figure out the quantum physics. Again, this stallion continues to melt our brain cells.
Dr. Steady Hoof
Research and Development- Canterlot Royal Infirmary
Canterlot Royal Infirmary Patient #073 "Swords-pony" Material Test Results (Right Shoulder)
The results from our shoulder came back today. According to the boffins over at our Bio-science department, the material we have at hoof has never been seen before! And not only this, but there is evidence that a second material at play. However we've already had enough complex thoughts from #073, so lets stick to what we know.
The substance that we know of appears to be composed of a material that is almost 100% Carbon. Countless numbers numbers of microscopic strand of Carbon woven into shape. The structure is comprised simply of these strips being woven in a cross pattern and manufactured to head in the desired direction. Estimated to have a melting point of somewhere around 3000 Degrees Hoofigrade (give or take a couple hundred), this material is incredibly resistant to temperature and is thought to be able to withstand high amounts of stress and pressure.
However simple the structure may seem, it would be incredibly hard to reproduce. Even with the magical capability we have today, it would take years of trial and error before we could get a successful replica. This is something that as a member of the R&D department, I hope will be achievable. For it would be the only thing that we understand about our beloved number 73.
Dr. Steady Hoof
Research and Development- Canterlot Royal Infirmary
Canterlot Royal Infirmary Patient #073 "Swords-pony" Material Test Results #2 (Right Shoulder)
The results for our second material came in today. This time we have the substance that coat's our first one in some sort of protective lining. It looks to be a compound of Hydrogen, Nitrogen and Oxygen, and has been estimated to have a strength and resistance 5 times that of steel. Now that's what I call a strong material.
The structure represents a polymer unit that is formed into sheets that have been molded over the previously mentioned Carbon structure to provide a large amount of impact protection. There are multiple layers of this material all placed over each over each other and amount to about the space that the fat layers cover on the opposite shoulder, on top of the Carbon material.
Unlike the Carbon 'stuff', this material looks to be more easily copied, and my department are looking into ways of replicating this material. It seems that R&D are finally getting more deeply involved with the experiments, and it may prove to be a large task orchestrating the experiments with this new compound. Looks like I've got my work cut out for me.
Dr. Steady Hoof
Research and Development- Canterlot Royal Infirmary
Canterlot Royal Infirmary Patient #073 "Swords-pony" Medical Report #2 (Waking up)
Today we received some great news! 73 is finally coming out of his coma! Well, showing signs of it anyway... Scans show an increased intensity of brain waves, and dormant parts of his brain are starting to 'wake up'. However it seems that progress is going slow, and he may not be out of his comatose state until tomorrow or maybe the day after.
Still we must hold our excitement, for he may not fully regain his strength for a while even after he wakes up. Judging by how healthy he is, the medical staff estimate 3 or 4 days and he should be able to walk and speak properly. This is amazing news and we hope that we can speak to our dear friend soon.
Dr. Steady Hoof
Research and Development- Canterlot Royal Infirmary
A heavy breath was exhaled from a pair of lungs that had sat stagnant for a little over a week, and a consciousness floated back to reality. The grey pegasus slowly realised he was awake and signals began to race back and fourth between previously dormant neurons in his brain. As his senses kicked back into gear he could hear muffled sounds and sensed himself under a thick cover that seemed to be keeping him warm.
He wanted immediately to shuffle in his comfy resting place and dig further into the soft surface he lay on. But he found that his muscles were far too tired. Too tired to ache, too tired even comply with his desire however much he tried to will them to. But just as his awareness started it was ending. He could feel himself slipping away, back into the nothingness of sleep that felt so inviting and homely at that time.
"-Just five more minutes...-" He thought lazily to himself, before he fell away into the land of dreams.
Sam opened his eyes and he was greeted by a dark sight. A field was opened out before him and black colourless leaves blew about in the wind. Hills slowly rose out in-front of him and a windmill with slowly spinning blades sat on the top of the furthest crest, it's wooden architecture appearing almost strange against the norm of concrete, brick and sheet metal he was used to seeing. The high pitch whistle of the rushing air met his ears and tickled the light coating of fur that grew from the skin there.
"-Huh? I don't remember being hairy, well, not hairy enough to have it on my ears, anyway.-" He joked lightly to himself as he rolled over onto his... front? He frowned as he finished rolling over onto his belly and as he used what he thought were his arms to push himself up, he looked down to see he didn't have any arms. Instead, two stubs extended from his grey chest and met the floor with a pair of strange hooves. He cocked his head and narrowed a single eye at the sight before him.
"Now this is a strange dream, not sure I've ever had this one before." He said aloud as he pushed up with his new forelegs and left his rear dragging far behind him in a rather un-comfortable position; He felt like his abdomen was pinned to the ground with a weight on his spine to push it downward and into the floor. Sam looked back with his longer neck and found that his rear was now that of something like a cross between a cat and a horse, and he was completely covered in grey fur, as well as having a pair of wings attached to his body just behind his shoulders, interestingly enough.
He pointed his splayed out hind legs forward and shuffled his forelegs backward to reach a more comfortable sitting position that resembled that of a dog. He looked around his new body and noticed other weird details. Such as the size of his now giant eyes and the tattoo that adorned his 'hips';
An image that was a red katana, matching his own, spinning in the wing and leaving a bright haze in it's wake. The wind was represented by swirling clouds of barely visible 'gas' that curled and twisted due to the movement of the sword. He gave a slight chuckle and carefully pulled himself to a stand on all four of his hooves.
"Well, I guess there's nothing wrong with trying something new!" He said optimistically as he stood, only just managing to maintain his balance. "Okay. First things first, lets see if I can walk."
He started with his left hoof, placing it forward in a good sized step his balance shifted suddenly and he lurched sideways. He hopped to the side to stop himself from falling but in the process he misjudged just how much leverage he could get from his four legs and the moment created pulled him to the ground. He hit the cold hard dirt with a loud thud, and he groaned in a mixture of frustration and pain as his head started to hurt.
"Why is this so hard?" He pondered while rubbing his temples using his surprisingly soft hooves. As he rolled back onto his belly again, a voice rung out against the quiet.
"Having trouble walking are we?" An playful voice said from somewhere behind him. He couldn't see his reflection, but he would have laughed at the tiny size his pupils shrunk to at that moment. He inhaled sharply and somehow managed to jump to all four hooves without falling over. He then slowly and systematically rotated his body to turn around 180 degrees to face the direction of the voice.
In the shadows stood another creature just like him except it had several features that were distinguishable from his form. First off, this one was much larger than he, and it sported a darker blue coat. Somehow it's hair... mane blew on the breeze like it weighed nothing at all. It was a two tone blue and purple, and was filled with stars and constellations that shone beautifully against the dark colours of her coat and mane. On it's head was a dangerous looking horn as well as a pair of wings similar to his, albeit larger of course, to grow according to the proportions of the rest of the body. It looked back at him with sapphire eyes that pierced his very being and last but not least, the amused grin that it wore loud and proud on it's face.
He was about to enter a defensive stance when he realised that he had no clue how to work this body properly and as a result, could not make any attempt to defend himself if this winged unicorn thing came at him aggressively. So he sort of just stood there looking awkward as the creature looked at him questioningly. He had only known about her existence for half a dozen seconds and already he decided that he didn't like the way she looked at him.
"You could say that." He replied humorously and the creature cocked it's head at him. He was about to give a question back when she stopped him.
"Now that's an accent I've never heard before. Though I guess t'would make sense in a being from so far away." She answered her own question with a logical answer that ironically, only brought up more questions in Sam's head. As for the creature, he guessed by it's feminine features and voice that it was female.
"'Far away', huh? I've been to many places, but there are a lot more I haven't been. So you might have to spell it out a bit." He said sarcastically, still standing there looking nervous. The corner of her lip pulled up a little and she took a few steps forward before stopping a few feet away from him.
"Right now we're in your dreams-"
"You don't say." He interrupted her. "I'm not sure what this thing I am now is, but it's a tad strange to me so I'd love to wake up as soon as possible." When he stopped, she looked at him with a blank expression.
"Are you finished?" She said in a serious tone. Sam chuckled and nodded along. "Good. As I was saying, we're inside your dreams right now, but I can assure you that the form you find yourself in now is the body you're actually inside in the real world. So if somehow you have changed bodies due to some effect we are yet to uncover, then you might want to get used to using it post haste." Sam stopped and stared with narrowed eyes when he heard the bit about his real body.
"Woah, hold up there a second. Are you seriously saying this is what I actually look like?" He asked her sternly and she nodded. Sam didn't take her answer as truth immediately, he wanted to dig a little further. "And you say that like you know me, and as far as i'm concerned I've never seen you before. How do I know you're telling the truth?" She sighed before continuing.
"You don't. But my words are all you have to believe beyond your confusion. So believe me when I say that you are a Pony, and you are currently lying unconscious in a hospital bed inside the Canterlot Royal Infirmary. However you must be coming out of comatose now, as the brain is usually far too inactive for dream-walking during a coma."
"Coma? You mean I've been in a coma for- wait, how long have I been like this?" He said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"7 days, as far as I know." The blue pony answered him.
"And I'm a what now? A pony ? That's what this is!?" He was now beginning to sound a little angry at his current situation. "And who the hell are you anyway, who are you to tell me all of this and expect me to believe it?"
"Calm yourself, I assure you I mean no offense to you as I am just stating the facts for your knowledge. I am Princess Luna, co-ruler of the land of Equestria along with my elder sister." She said with a small bow as she put a hoof to her chest. When she finished Sam tried to make out words and form a sentence but the only thing that filled both his mouth and his brain was a collection of jumbled noises and discordant thoughts that whirled around in his mind, never becoming anything more developed than that.
On the outside, his body was just staring at the floor with a huge frown. He stayed like this for a few moments, and then he tried to speak but only got so far as inhaling the air for the sentence. A few more moments later and the princess walked forward and stretched her hoof out to try and rest it on his shoulder. However the movement caught Sam's attention and he perked up his head and saw the hoof coming to touch him. He met it with his own and batted it away. He stared at her, lost for words as she gave him a concerned look.
"No!" He shouted while pointing at her with the still raised hoof. "I'm not going to get myself to believe this crap, this is totally ridiculous and you know it!" Luna looked slightly offended and frowned at him as he started to backpedal. His raised hoof fell back to the floor as he shuffled back, slowly getting further and further away while never taking his eyes off' her once.
"Very well." Luna concluded. "If you will not believe my words then maybe you will believe your eyes. When you awake you will see for sure just what and where you are. And just so you know, we have your armour and sword safely locked away from prying eyes so you don't need to fret about that. However I recommend that you at least get used to using this new body as you may not have the required motor skills to-"
She stopped as she saw Sam trip over his own hooves, as if right on cue. His 'ankles' clattered together and he fell onto his rump before his poorly established sense of balance caused him to start toppling over sideways. As he began to fall over, Luna acted and lit up her horn's magic to grab hold of the stallion mid fall. He came to a sudden halt with his face scrunched up, expecting an impact. She picked him up and placed him on his hooves before letting him go as he gawked at her in both amazement and fear.
"What the hell was that?" He said as he pointed at her horn.
"That was magic, though I suppose I will explain that to you later, you seem to be in a bit of shock right now." Sam was about to argue, when he realised that he really was in no mood to start discussing 'magic' with a winged unicorn.
"I-I guess you're right... Okay, I'll practice with this body, just for you. But I won't need it when I wake up." He said it like he knew. Luna nodded and smiled mischievously before letting out a short spurt of laughter.
"You will need it more than you know. Goodbye, for now..." She left the sentence open for Sam to fill like a 'Please sign here' form.
"Jet-Stream Sam, but you can just call me Sam if you want. It's shorter." Luna nodded and then finished her sentence.
"Goodbye Sam. I will see you again soon." Then, to the grey pegasus' amazement, Luna spread her wings and took off into the night sky, heading toward the moon and creating a brilliant silhouette against the bright white light of the huge natural satellite. A few seconds later she disappeared in a flash of blue and he was once again left to his own devices.
He sat there for a second wondering about what had just happened, and he came to a single question he would later come to answer.
"-Am I dead?-"
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Sam-pai The Brazilian Horse (MGR:R Spoilers)
Sam woke again, this time with a little more mental strength than the last. Instead of opening to a dull and monotone world of muffled sounds, he now awoke being able to hear clearly and slowly but surely, his brain got in gear and he began to become more aware of his surroundings.
He could now hear people talking instead of mumbling and make out what they were saying, as well as the regular beeping of a heart monitor. A light shone through his closed eyelids and created a glowing orange/red collage of colour for his brain to work with. He felt something lodged inside his throat and the soft surface he was lying on, a bed? But that would mean...
"-No.-"
He rotated a foreleg to test the joints and the way his muscles moved, they certainly felt like they did in his dream. Then he started to test other parts of his body; his hind legs, his neck and his back. His movements were more like twitches than anything, but through them he could tell his body was nothing other than that of one of these 'Ponies', just like Luna said.
Bullets fired in his brain and panic started to set in, he opened his eyes and sure enough he found his head was resting on a clean white pillow and straight ahead of him there was a metal frame bed with another pony sitting on the side of it. Looking elsewhere he saw more ponies. Ponies that were naked, ponies in white lab coats, ponies in doctors uniforms and ponies in hospital gowns.
For a moment he just lay there and stared at them all walking by, going about their own business and doing what ponies do. He didn't know what to do, there had never been a time where he was a full on hospital patient. He kept thinking and the only thing that came to his mind at the time was to run or to fight, after all, it was what he had been doing for... god knows how long now. And he had to admit to himself, it was really all he knew.
First thing was to remove the feeding tube in his mouth and throat without hurting himself or attracting any attention. He raised his shaky hooves and gently tugged at the tube as well as using his tongue to push it out of his throat. It came out slowly, rubbing against his dry throat and causing a small amount of irritation as it slid away. And with a quiet *pop*, the tube came free of his throat.
After that unpleasant experience, his body shifted and he felt his new and tired muscles trying to object against his will. He did't have many cyborg parts, and he didn't have all those stupid strength enhancing implants that other World Marshal agents had, he never felt that he needed any of them. And he found himself wishing he did have them as his body experience a strange latency from his brain to his muscles. They just hated the idea of moving at that point.
He felt the pull of wires and tubes attached to various places along his body and as he pulled himself out of the covers, one of them broke free and a beep was emitted from the monitor. Then he pushed himself off' the side of the bed, landing hard on his stomach and detaching practically all of the things attached to him. The heart monitor immediately began to flat line and emit a constant beep, and he groaned in some pain at the stress in his body that was now discovered to be feeling very tight, stiff and achy.
Every pony in the room looked his way and went silent as he started to slowly push his reluctant form up onto it's unbelievably shaky hooves. He barely managed to properly stand his body, if slightly awkwardly, before he came face to face with his first real pony. What was probably a nurse placed a hoof under his chin and lifted it so that he could see her. She gave him a quick but skeptical expression before speaking,
"Hello, can you hear me?" She said to Sam who huffed and nodded. "You need to get back to bed, you still need a couple of days to fully recover." Sam could barely believe what he was experiencing. Talking ponies with technology and in their own civilisation.
"Recover?" He said to her as he gave a small laugh. "I don't need time to recover, I'm fine." He insisted.
"Sir, you've been in comatose for a week and your body is still affected by the prolonged sleep. You do feel exhausted, do you not?" She said to him like it was fact. Sam glanced up at the nurses cap on her head and for some reason he thought of it as a weird BDSM prop. He quickly dismissed the random thought and returned to looking at her white coated face.
"I'm fine." He said with a weak smile. "I'll walk it off." At that point she gave out a small sigh and looked to be suppressing a small grin.
"Sir, I'm afraid you can't just 'walk off' the effects of a coma. I need you to sit down, you don't look very stable on your hooves." She placed her hoof at his side as if trying to prevent him falling over sideways. Sam tried to shuffle backwards but found his legs un-cooperative, as they were only just managing to stay stood up, never mind walking.
"Here..." She said as she pushed him back and rested him at the bedside, leaving him to sit there as she took a look at him. "...You do look cramped and you're obviously tired out. I mean look at your hooves, they're pretty shaky. Although you don't look too badly affected as you said; you can stand at least, which is more than most coma patients can do when they wake up." She continued to look over his anatomy for a few more moments until she was interrupted by a loud voice suddenly overpowering everyone else's in the room.
A blue unicorn wearing a business shirt and tie rounded the corner and turned into the ward with massive excited looking blue eyes. He immediately saw that Sam was awake and his pupils widened, before starting to rush over like the world depended on it. He dodged skillfully around the beds and maneuvered his way to where Sam was sat and stood next to the nurse looking him over.
"Oh Celestia, I've been waiting for this for ages!" He said excitedly.
"You've been waiting for 7 days. That's hardly 'ages'." Sam replied.
"Yes, but with what we've learned from you and what we could further learn now you're awake could mean so much for Equestria!" He stated loudly.
"Okay, that's a... bit creepy." Sam retreated away from the unicorn by recoiling his head. The unicorn only leaned forward though so he could get closer and interrupting the nurses inspection.
"I'm Doctor Steady Hoof, Research and Development of this establishment and it's a pleasure to finally meet you!" He took up Sam's hoof and shook it vigorously in what should have been a friendly gesture, except turned weird. Sam tried to pull his hoof away but the doctor had him gripped too tightly. He wasn't sure how hooves could 'grip' but apparently it was possible. Sam tried to make his lack of comfort known.
"Um, doctor?" He said as he tried desperately to pull himself away from the mad scientist. The doctor stopped shaking his hoof but still didn't let go. "Please?" He asked him but then he started to talk again while using Sam's own hoof as a tool of gesture.
"We've learned so much from you; your shoulder and where you come from... well, that one was more confusing if anything, but hey-ho!"
"Doctor, I think you may want to let him go, he's only just woken up." The nurse reasoned with him as Sam looked at him hopefully. Steady Hoof then retracted his hoof and apologised over and over again after that. Sam wasn't sure if he was ready to take on life in a hospital with personalities like that and he could already tell, it was going to be a long first day awake in the kingdom.
Sam just stared at the image in the mirror, un-able to pry his eyes away from the un-familiar images staring back at him. In the mirror, a grey pegasus looked back at him with an identical expression to him. His confused and tired blue eyes looked almost as alien as the world around him, everything was solid colour and nothing shined very much unless it was really really shiny.
He flicked one of his ears as a pony walked alongside his bed and drew a draft onto the sensitive hairs. However he was so transfixed by the pony in the mirror to care about any other distractions, so he just lay there, in his hospital bed, staring at the mirror and the pony who stared back.
"You still staring at that mirror?" The female voice asked from his side. Sam didn't answer, he didn't know how he should, what would he say? 'I can't stop looking at myself because I can't get over the fact I'm a totally different species than I was before and I have been moved to an entirely different universe than the one I was born in.' He's already explained it to them and they said it made sense with everything they already knew about him, so why say it again anyway? He simply kept on looking blankly at the mirror as the nurse sighed next to him sighed and leaned over his bed, placing her note-pad down and draping her foreleg around his shoulder. She looked into the mirror with him and gave him a warming smile.
"You know, when I look into that mirror I can see a handsome and strong stallion." She said with a light blush upon her cheeks. Sam grew a small smile and looked at her reflections through the mirror. It was the mare who first helped him after he tried to get out of bed.
"Thanks." He said and the nurse giggled a little. "I never got your name."
"Red Heart, I used to work at Ponyville General Hospital but I got moved here because I'm simply that good, my superiors couldn't handle me being better than they were." Red Heart and Sam laughed quietly to each other before Sam finally came out of his trance, looking to the IRL Red Heart with a smile.
"Is that really the reason why?" He said with a manor of intrigue.
"Not officially." She said playfully. "But I could bet you my annual salary it was." They both laughed again.
"That's a big bet to place on such a small thing." Sam told her with a questioning tone.
"Yeah, well I like to bet big. No point being small fry all the time, sometimes you gotta' play with the big colts. Anyway, got other patients to check up on." She nudged him gently and took her leg away from his shoulders. Then she slung her note-pad around her body again and stood back on all fours. She winked at him with a sly smile and Sam winked back before they both giggled. "Your a fun guy, a little depressed and shocked maybe, but that'll wear off. I'm sure you'll get back to your normal self soon."
"Yeah... normal." He said as he drifted back to his mirror. After a few seconds he lifted his eyes to see her walking away from him and across the ward. "Hey!" He called out to her. She stopped and turned around to face him with only one eye visible due to the angle that her face was pointing. "Come back at some point, eh? Your the only pers-pony who isn't creepy or miserable around here, and I'll need someone to talk to." The nurse tilted her cap with a hoof and said;
"Certainly, Sam." Then she got up and walked away, going off to tend to some of her other patients. Sam settled back down into his bed and raised the mirror up to see himself once more. He turned his head sideways to see his black mane falling down the back of his neck and his big blue eyes staring at him interestingly. He smirked to himself and laughed light heartedly.
"Handsome, eh?" He placed the mirror back down and crossed his forelegs behind his head, lying back onto the comfy pillow and closing his eyes.
Later that day, Sam was napping and had his head rested in the same position he had been for the last hour. With his forelegs crossed behind his head and his head laid on top. He rested against the pillow for as long as he saw fit. He had even drifted off not long after he had started, but of course that had to be ruined by that stallion Steady Hoof who had come to apologise, yet again, for his actions early on. And promptly begin to question him.
He kindly told the doctor to go away and then he had been resting there ever since, unable to fall back to sleep again. So for 10 minutes he had been listening in on the people around him, gathering information and generally just eavesdropping on conversations for entertainment. Besides, it's not as if he had anything else to do at the time, hospitals were pretty boring.
So when he heard a new voice enter the mix, his attention was stolen. He opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the new voice; walking into the ward was a young looking purple winged unicorn alongside the nurse Red Heart who he had talked with earlier. When he saw the nurse point him out he smiled as he thought he would get to talk to someone normal among what seemed like an entire building of weirdos.
But then he saw the eyes of the purple winged unicorn who looked at him excitedly. He didn't like that look, it was the look Steady Hoof had given him when he first saw him. She took a notebook from a saddlebag and made her way towards him in a steady trot with the nurse following behind. His smile dropped and he sighed as he thought;
"-Not this again.-" The mare got to his bedside and sat herself down on a stool before pulling out a quill and inkwell from her saddlebag and placed them on the bedside table. Nurse Red Heart sat on the floor next to her and looked at him sympathetically.
"She's here to ask you a few questions." Red Heart told him and he rolled his eyes. "Just bear with her, she's been looking into how you got here so the least you can do is answer a few questions, okay?" She said kindly. Again, proving that she was the only one he had met thus far who was not creepy or obsessed... or both. But if the mare was there to ask him questions that would help him go home, then he guessed he could cooperate.
"Okay. As long as they help me get home then I guess I can go along with it." When he mentioned going home the nurse appeared to have a mood drop and she stopped smiling.
"Great!" The winged unicorn exclaimed as she opened her book to a blank page. "My name's Princess Twilight Sparkle, but you can just call me Twilight. All my friends do. Now first things first, whats your name?"
"-Jeez, did she say princess? Damn, this is worse than I thought...-"
"I have a few names. My full name is Samuel Rodriguez but most people call me Jet-Stream Sam, or Minuano. However I just like to be referred to as Sam. It's shorter." The purple mare scribbled all of this down before asking her next question.
"Alright. What's your occupation?" Should he tell her?
"-Ugh, why not. They probably know already from what Steady Hoof tells me.-"
"Mercenary. I am- was a swordsman and agent of the organisation Desperado Enforcement, connected to World Marshal. Before that I used to go free-lance and do what I want."
"What changed?" She asked him and he looked up to see her excited grin. This one unnerved him.
"I saw the bigger picture." He answered simply and she wrote it down while murmuring something under her breath. "However after the... incident with Raiden, I am still left wondering; Was the bigger picture the right picture?" Twilight looked at him with a questioning expression for a few seconds before looking back down at her book for a few seconds and then back at him.
"Okay... Next up: did you have any family or relationships?"
"I don't have any relationships. My father was killed by one of his own pupils at a sword arts class back in my home country, Brazil. Other than that I didn't know any other family." Both mares looked at each other, shocked, and then back to him.
"Oh my..." Red Heart started. "...I'm so sorry."
"Don't be. He was connected with the local mafia and he got what was coming to him in the end." Sam grew a sinister smile.
"H-how?" Twilight stammered a little.
"I killed him." Silence fell upon the three as the two mares looked at him, shocked once again. "I got my revenge and left Brazil forever, never to go back. After that I started up on my own, made my own life by building on what my father taught me. I became a master swordsman and I worked for myself, hunting down mafia members and corrupt people in high places who would have civilians killed for their own gains. Ridding the world of evil."
"And then you saw 'The bigger picture'?" Asked Red Heart. "And what is it? If you son't mind telling us, that is. It seems like you had it rough."
"The bigger picture is that no matter how much evil you rid the world of, there is always an endless sea of it somewhere else. Things like war, slavery and torture aren't just things performed by the wicked. They live inside us, and we have to perform evil ourselves just to destroy the evil others perform."
"That is not always true, Sam. When me and my friends fended of the changeling invasion we didn't kill any of them. We just had them all booted out of Equestria, never to return, as you would say." Twilight defended.
"And that was my mistake when I joined Desperado." Sam said. "I left behind what I knew, forgot what I truly fought for. I began fighting for a cause I didn't really believe in and I ended up fighting without knowing why. Did you know why these 'changelings' were invading, Twilight."
"Their queen wanted to feed from the ponies of Equestria. And before you say anything more, these changelings feed from positive emotions with love being the primary source. They're parasites and we did right by kicking them out and saving our kingdom." She said with a slightly smug expression.
"So the consequences of them losing is now they may be starving, dying and living in fear of death everyday because they couldn't feed themselves." Twilight opened her mouth to give a comeback but found herself not saying anything as her jaw hung open for a moment. Then she closed it and shrank back a bit.
"You destroyed the evil actions of the changelings, but by doing so performed your own evil by causing them to starve. You fought without knowing fully what you were doing, and because of it others suffered. This is what I had hoped to stop before I joined with Desperado, by killing those who would fight so blindly and cause even greater evil in the process I would have helped the world solve it's wars and settle it's problems. But... that all changed. I lost my way and ended up becoming one of those blood-thirsty bastards myself. And then I met Raiden." Twilight and Red Heart picked their heads up in some interest.
"Raiden fought for those causes I once believed in, fighting the world of evil such as corporations like Desperado and World Marshal. People who would make war just for profit." The two mares looked disgusted by the idea. "I fought with Raiden and was defeated by him. He defeated me because he fought for himself, not for a concept he didn't believe in."
"Make war for profit? What pony in the right mind would do such a thing!?" Twilight burst out. "That's horrible!"
"I can see why you fought for the causes you did." The nurse said and Twilight nodded in agreement. "But, how did you lose your way?"
"It's simple. I gave in to the temptations of evil. I started to think that I would never succeed and I gave up." He sighed and stretched his limbs out, getting some satisfying pops from all over his body. Twilight winced but Red Heart just posted a smile on her face as she thought about everything Sam had just said. He could tell she was trying hard to keep the smile there, though. And that she just wanted to frown away.
"Anyway, I'm still a bit tired and I'll need some more rest."
"Yeah." Twilight said as she stood up. "You've given me some food for though *Laugh*, and uh, I need to go get a friend of mine. He'll help us out for something. Thanks for telling your story, Sam." The purple princess stood up and began to walk away. "Bye!" She said as she hurried out of the room.
"In a rush, much." Sam commented as she left. However Red Heart was still present and took her place on Twilight's stool. There was a while where the two sat silently, not saying anything to each other.
"Was it all true?" She said to him in a hushed concerned voice.
"Hm?" Sam picked up his head at the sound of her talking to him. "Was what true?"
"Your story. Everything." She said solemnly. Sam nodded and the nurse bowed her head. "It's just so horrible... corporations that thrive on wars and live for the profit of fighting, your father, the time you spent on your own, Raiden... It's just a lot to take in."
"Yeah... and so is ending up here, leaving behind everything I ever knew. Not that I knew much."
"You said you came from another world, yes?" Sam nodded in affirmation. "Then what if you tried to make things right again, you could help ponies here. Do you have any other skills, other than... killing?" Sam harrumphed and turned his eyes up in thought.
"No."
"Oh... then maybe you could become a Royal Guard. Protect ponies on the streets?" The nurse suggested. Sam just laughed and sighed.
"No, law enforcement isn't really my thing. I'd much prefer the military approach, or going solo again." Sam didn't like the idea of being a guard. Taking orders from some wuss and actually not being able to take out an opponent sounded like a rather dull alternative to being a mercenary, or a freelance one-man-army.
"Then... well..." The nurse began to scrunch up her nose in thought. Her moment of thought was interrupted when the purple pony walked back into the room with a happy look on her face. This time she was accompanied by... a big lizard. The thing had big green eyes and purple scales. It stood about as tall as the princess' chest and walked on it's hind legs like a human would. He noticed the claws it had and eyed them for a while, part in envy part in annoyance. Was it some sort of pet? So as they approached, Twilight noticed him staring at her 'pet' lizard and frowned. Wait, she said earlier that she she was going to get her friend... was that it?
"What's that?" He asked her. Twilight smirked and gave out a little giggle.
"That is Spike, my dragon assistant." She said replied.
"That'd be me." The lizard said with a mock bow and a smile. The lizards voice sounded somewhat young, but a little aged. Not to dis-similar from a human in their mid teens. "-This place seems to get weirder by the minute. Magical talking ponies, dragons and princesses, what's next? Fire that sends messages?-"
"Ok that's great, but how does this advance our conversation?" Sam asked with a slightly impatient intrigue.
"His body contains an experimental and complex set of contact runes." Twilight explained. 'Contact Runes'?
"You'll have to keep it simple, Twilight. I'm not exactly knowledgeable on your world, what do these 'Contact Runes' do?"
"Oh, basically it means he can send messages by burning them in dragon-fire. How nifty is that!?" She beamed proudly. Sam's eye just twitched in response.
"What's wrong?" Nurse Red Heart asked, confused at his reaction to the break-down.
"Nothing." Sam quickly snapped like nothing had ever happened. The two mares paused for a second and exchanged a glance before Twilight carried on.
"Okay then. I want to send a letter to Princess Celestia about everything you told me." Twilight said.
"Your sister?" Sam questioned. Was there a large royal family in the country?
"Ha! I wish." She said before levitating a roll of parchment from one of her saddlebags and placed it withing reach of her assistant, who snatched it from the air with no problem encountering the magic field. She did the same with a quill and left Sam in some thoughts.
"Then how are you a princess if you're not related to the royal family?" He asked with a hoof scratching his chin.
"Oh, I ascended." Sam stared at her blankly, it took a second before Twilight realised he had no clue what she meant by that. "Long story short, I saved the world with my friends a few times and accomplished some pretty amazing stuff to earn a spot in royalty." She explained with a light blush. Sam didn't know he could ever consider a blushing alien pony as cute, but he did now.
There was a brief moment of silence and Sam glanced over at the heart monitor at his bedside. "-If they have the technology for things like heart monitors, then how haven't they invented the pen yet?-" He thought. "-But then again, I guess their weird magic stuff must make up for some lack of technology in places. Still though, I may need to get used to this 'magic'. It just doesn't look natural to be floating stuff around like that.-"
"Alright! Let's get started!" Twilight exclaimed after the awkward silence before looking at him with a strangely happy but nervous grin. "Oh, and um, Sam?"
"Yeah?" He waited for the question.
"Please avoid anything graphic." She gestured to the little dragon who looked up with a confused expression. "-Oh, the youngster. Of course.-" He noted mentally.
"Huh?" The dragon questioned out to them both. Ignoring his apparent confusion, Sam began retelling everything he told them previously. Except he put everything into a timeline and thoroughly detailed the points that the lavender princess asked him to extrapolate on. She seemed like the sort of person who wanted to know everything, like she had some sort of addiction to learning knew things. He wasn't disrespectful to this trait, however it became mildly aggravating the more she pressed. Anyway, he managed to compress everything he knew (Minus the gory bits) into a story which made sense.
Then the little dragon simply held out the scroll at arms length and blew a burst of green flames from his mouth, completely destroying the scroll. He cocked his head and was about to question the act when he remembered. "-Oh yeah... magic.-"
"Now we just wait for her to reply!" The princess exclaimed cheerily. Sam suddenly got a gut feeling that he wasn't going to like his new world.
Danger In The Most Unexpected Places
The wind howled past the opening the door had made in the side of the tavern, and outside the night-time air rushed in, pushed by the bullying motions and currents in the atmosphere. Against the dark colours created by the black skies and the light shine of the moon, a figure stopped to catch his breath. His breath condensed in the chilling breeze, coming in regular but gently slowing intervals. As he walked forward into the bar room, all of the ponies who were normally staying there for a few hours stopped to take a glance at the arrival. The door slammed behind him and he came to a stop in the glow of the candles before surveying the room.
He was a very broad stallion, an earth pony whose eyes were a pale amber. His mane was almost non-existent, which would make him look bald if there was not a coat of dark grey underneath. The tail was quite thin and ragged, comprised of gradating colours, going from a deep black at the base to maroon at the tip. He was wearing a long black coat that looked to be made to represent the colours of his tail as the trails turned red at their ends. Combined with his large stature and rough facial features, this all made his appearance seem very intimidating. However the most intriguing part of his body was the presence of a bar code that hid under his fur.
One by one, everypony in the room stopped their gaze as his eyes met theirs, suddenly acting like nopony had just arrived at all. After his eyes had swept the room and every occupant had returned to their original conversation, the stallion smiled to himself and continued on his journey forwards. He passed several tables all being dotted with mugs and tankards, filled with various liquids and liquors raging from simple orange juice to a strong apple cider. Reaching the bar at the far end of the room he pulled out a stool and sat his body down. He then leaned his weight forward onto the bar-table and rested it all on his fore-legs, making a gentle but dis-concerning creak as he did so. He looked over to his right to see the bartender, a tall and lean mare, finish serving a customer a drink. She turned her head in his direction and gave him a warming smile.
Her fur was a silver like grey, reflecting the light cast on it from the large candles dotted about the room. Her blue eyes locked onto his and she began making her way over to him, swaying her hips as she went. Her mane and tale were strange purple tinted red colour and they hung quite low across her body; mane coming to her shoulders and tail stopping just at the ankles. It was curious to most that she too wore a thick grey and red coat that covered most of her body. Asking anypony would prompt them to say that she was hiding something under it's warm exterior, and they wouldn't be far off. When she arrived at his spot at the bar she crossed her fore-legs and rested them on the table, replicating the stallion's current posture.
"So..." Her exotic accent sounded unlike anything most had heard in their area. Just the sound of her voice turned heads wherever she went. "... What's it to be today?" She angled her head and gave the stallion a seductive wink. He passed the gesture as a friendly motion and chuckled to himself.
"The usual." He said in a short and quick sentence that would make anyone think he was in a relationship with the mare. Speaking of which, her gaze never faltered as she raised a hoof and beckoned him to the other side of the bar-table. A few stallions un-knowingly interpreted the reaction wrongly, and gave the stallion jealous looks behind his back.
"Right this way, mister." She said as she winked and pulled back her fore-legs to a stand. As she turned to make her way behind closed doors, the large stallion got off' his stool, walked around the bar-table and through a small gate in the side. He then proceeded to follow the mare into the back room as he passed through a translucent sheet that hung from the top of the door frame. On the other side, shelves lined the walls and a small amount of steam rose into the air as the cooks did their work processing orders and making meals for the few who ordered them. The cooks wore clean white coats and most were the unicorn variety, as they could technically handle all of the ingredients without touching them using magic.
The shelves were filled with ingredients, ranging from vegetable to a few areas of packages meat just in case any carnivorous visitors such as a griffon or diamond dog were to pop by for a quick bite. However these were rarely used and often replaced as they went off quite quickly if they were not used. In the center of the room, stoves and sinks were arranged in a central block that the cooks worked around. And as the stallion followed the mare around the cooks, they barely payed them any attention at all. However there was another small blue mare with a pink mane and tail sitting in the corner talking to some of the staff who noticed them approaching and stood up to greet them. The coat clad mare stopped in front of the small mare and flicked her head toward the main room in a quick motion.
"'Daisy, you're up." She stated simply to her and she nodded before hastily heading over to replace the silver furred mare on bar duty. The staff along with the two newcomers watched her go before they left the staff to their conversation by continuing on their way. They went through another door, shutting it behind them and into a bare room. The only thing that existed in this room was shelves, lining every wall and every surface, leaving space for only a single wardrobe at the far end. The shelves were filled with glass bottles of wine and other alcoholic beverages that had taken them almost two months in total to acquire. They were all different colours and as the stallion followed his companion over to the wardrobe, he spotted a few of his personal favorites. About halfway through was a red wine, a delicately brewed drink that would knock out a normal pony in one pint. Good thing he wasn't just any normal pony.
"-Now that's a good drink.-" He thought to himself as he passed the pink shaded bottle and stopped behind the mare. They had reached the wardrobe which had abruptly stopped their passage. The mare lowered her head to the top of her coat and grabbed something with her teeth, before raising her head to reveal a large key-ring held between her jaws. She used a hoof to move a small piece of wood that matched the colour of the wood that made up the wardrobe, rotating it on a swivel until it locked in an upward position. Then she pushed the corresponding key into the revealed key-hole and twisted. A locking mechanism worked with a heavy clunk before the mare pulling the doors open to reveal a staircase hidden behind it. She let the keys hang loose and gave the stallion a gentle smile.
"After you." She gestured to the stairs and the stallion gladly obliged, walking past the false furniture and onto the stairs. As he went lower and lower into the basement, he heard the sounds of doors closing behind him and then the heavy clunk of the lock again as the doors were shut to hide their presence. He got to the bottom and stopped to be presented with a room that had a large expensive mahogany table resting in the middle. The room's roof was lined with a thin layer of smoke being emitted from the cigar being smoked by the occupant at the far side of the table, and around the side of the table sat the only other occupant of the room.
The cigar smoking stallion was even larger than the black clad newcomer. His eyes looked to be amber but shined an intimidating red that made him look like a demon in a pony's skin. His fur was a light tan colour and his mane and tail were black, the hairs of his mane styled back in a neat and smart fashion. Glasses adorned his face as he looked on with a humour filled but still somewhat serious expression.
The second pony however, was hard to distinguish as such. He was thin and did not have much fur, as his body was nearly entirely lined with what appeared to be some sort of dark grey metal exoskeleton that was red at the left shoulder and hoof. It also hosted several metallic circles placed in groups near gory red lines that ran down in strategic positions throughout his body. His face was half covered by a red mask that hid his eyes and most other facial features that could exist underneath, but what was shown had a relaxed expression on it. His mane and tail were snow white and absorbed barely any light as they looked almost un-natural for a pony with so many strange modifications. The fur that was visible on his lower face was a bright crimson like his shoulder, and it certainly gave him a unique look. Underneath though, the stallion was the only unicorn in the group. The new-coming stallion was silent as the mare finished following him down the stairs and stood beside him, nudging him and getting his attention.
"Ah, You've left me waiting for a while, Sundowner." The large stallion at the far end of the table stated after he took the cigar from his mouth. "I was beginning to get worried you had gotten lost." His joke lifted a small amount of laughter from Sundowner.
"Well at least I have some good news to bring from my travels. So you won't be too disappointed, Armstrong." Armstrong laughed cheerfully in relief at the mention of good news. Sundowner began walking toward the table and as he got there, he pulled out a chair and sat down. The silver furred mare repeated his actions, except on the other side of the table, and as she did so her coat fell away, revealing a pair of slim wings underneath. her body was well toned despite it's slim nature, and her joints as well as her collar and upper chest were armoured with metal implants and synthetic materials.
"Finally, I was wondering how long I'd have to stay in this hell-hole of a place before my brain burst. All the bad news was beginning to make me angry, and I don't wanna stay here any longer than I have to." Armstrong stated. "Go on, say it."
"Sam's here. In Equestria." Armstrong's expression changed from slightly relieved and mildly agitated to one of satisfaction.
"The wait is over, then. We can finally go find that son of a bitch and get the whole team together." He ended the sentence with a small chuckle. "But I need to give him a talk about lending his sword to AI's who happen to be on the opposing side of the war. Speaking of Sam, where is he?"
"Last I knew, he was in hospital at the capital. Apparently they're quite intrigued by his ar- fore-leg ." Sundowner replied.
"Aww, shit. That's not exactly the best news, is it Sundowner? Right, we're just going to have to be especially careful about the first stage." Armstrong sounded disappointed.
"We didn't have any problem drawing attention to ourselves back in Africa, as well as Mexico." The mare suggested. Sundowner gestured to her and shrugged.
"Mistral has a point." He simply put.
"Yes, but back on Earth there wasn't any beings capable of moving entire stars. Or a moon for that matter. Here we must adopt a more subtle approach." The closet unicorn spoke out, breaking his silence. "Revealing ourselves in the wrong place at the wrong time could be very dangerous."
"Monsoon also has a point." Sundowner repeated the same gesture to Monsoon as he did to Mistral.
"Exactly." Armstrong confirmed. The more he talked, the more bored he sounded. It was obvious he wanted nothing more than to get the show on the road. "However if we have to show up early I wouldn't care. As long as the job gets done."
"So yeah," Sundowner continued. "we repeat the same plan as we did back on Earth and hope it works out this time? I'm not too sure that will work after experiencing everything first hand."
"This time there isn't a certain Raiden disrupting our operations. We kidnap the target at the procession and use her as a pony shield so that we can get the attention of the diarchy." Mistral started. "They've never been on good terms with the griffons, and after their recent arguments with her it's likely Equestria will think the thugs we hired were instructed by the Griffon Kingdom. Thus, we start a whole fiasco all over again."
"Mmhm. And once the fighting begins we can use that as our cue to negotiate our way into Equestrian high society as ponies with ideals and technology which could lead to their victory. There are some groups of ponies who still harbour a hatred for the griffons, they will only strengthen our political standing." Monsoon continued on, leaving space for Armstrong to finish the explanation.
"And that's where I come in." He said, puffing on his cigar. "I use my experience in politics to rally the ponies behind our ideals, and with a few... accidents concerning the current royalty, we take power of Equestria through our influence."
"Okay." Sundowner finally understood the point of the plan after the explanation. "But what do we do with the Sun and Moon? We don't have the power to keep the day/night cycle rolling here." This caused Armstrong to give out an amused laugh.
"Read your Equestrian history lately, Sundowner?" Sundowner shook his head slowly. "The unicorns can move the sun and moon in a joint effort. I'm sure we can muster up a few powerful unicorns to help our soon to be subjects switch between the day and the night. Right Monsoon?" Armsrong finished his statement with a joke to the unicorn sitting close to him. The metal pony just grinned and sighed.
"I'm not too sure I like the idea of moving celestial bodies, Armstrong. Seems like a lot of hard work, even for my body." Everypony in the room let out a short burst of laughter before they all came back to serious expressions.
"So I guess we're ready then?" Armstrong looked around his followers, The Winds of Destruction, as they nodded in agreement. He cocked a smile and stood up, his muscular body pushing back his chair and creating quite the imposing figure. "Time to commence the first stage of the operation!"
The sun setting seemingly on the end of the earth itself. The wind blowing in your hair and the bodies of your enemies piled up at your feet. Perfection.
Except ponies had hooves and not feet, and there weren't any dead bodies. Shame, really. For a certain sword wielding mercenary was sharpening his skills and practicing his techniques in his new body. He was learning very quickly and even after only a single day awake he was well on his way to retaining his former skills. Of course this was massively helped along by the fact that it was possible for a pony to remain lucid in dreams, allowing the stallion to hone his pristine fighting prowess there.
*BANG*
With the pull of a lever an explosion racketed throughout the sky blasting sparks from a newly created opening were a sword was catapulted from it's scabbard and into the open air. A hoof was waiting in line, and with a perfectly timed grab control was taken over the blade. As the blade's gentle curve set the wielder's foreleg on a path upwards, electricity arcing around the metallic red shine of it's high frequency steel.
The sword was thrown free of the scabbard and fell completely under the control of the wielder. The huge amount of momentum generated by the sword's motion was enough to carry the pony upwards as he moved with the force of the blade's movement. As he ascended into the air he clipped the scabbard to the side of his body to give him two hooves free, helping him with the next part of his move. Keeping his body streamlined, he flapped his wings to propel himself forward before letting gravity take over and allowing his body to fall.
He took the opportunity to grasp the handle with both hooves and add strength and integrity to his strike. Raising the sword as high as he could, he waited until he fell to the right height before he pulled down with all his might. His target, a metal re-enforced concrete wall stood no chance against the highly advanced weapon of war. And as the strike made contact the blade sliced into it's strong material with ease, leaving a white hot glow on the split blocks. The attack was perfectly timed, as he landed in a well oriented stance just as the blade hit the ground, the contact carving a groove into the soil and dirt.
The stallion placed his left hoof on the ground for stability and threw his weapon leg back, flinging any remaining dirt from the metal. He then slid the side of the blade along the opening of the scabbard until the point hovered above the entrance. Rotating the sword up in line with the scabbard he pushed it back down, the high frequency weapon emitting an electric hum as it sheathed and locked into place with a loud *click*. He looked upon his handy-work with a smug smile, bringing his former weapon leg up to his chin to rest his head a little. Unknown to him, a certain princess stood silently behind him, her lips turned up into an equally wide but less cocky grin.
"I know I told you to get used to working with your body, but still..." She took his relaxed reaction, turning his head slowly to face her, as her cue to walk up to the blocks of material which had been cut clean into two by the swords-pony's attack. She stood and gazed upon the gently glowing slice which was still cooling from the blades awesome heat feature. The wielder walked up and stood beside her, joining her admiration of his work. "... I didn't know you'd get a hang of it this quickly." She looked over to the strange stallion who just chuckled and rested his left hoof on his blade's hilt.
"Now-now princess Luna, I am quite good you know." He winked as a tree suddenly appeared out of nowhere. In his dreams he figured out he could become lucid and pretty much do whatever he wanted. That was as long as he was calm and could concentrate. And he was usually a very laid back sort of stallion, and without any opponents he could quite easily manipulate his dreams.
He whirled around and leaped toward the inanimate creature using his wings to propel himself with great speed. As fast as lightning, he clenched his hoof around the lever and detonated an explosion within the scabbard. He grabbed the handle and used the momentum to spin around in a red whirlwind of death, slowly ascending upwards as he went. The tree was lined with slices to the extent that it was more orange with with the heat of the blade's cut rather than the deep brown of it's bark.
Once he had cut all the way up to the top he lined the blade up with the scabbard and slammed it back home. He then let himself fall to the ground with a heavy *thud* caused by the weight of his armour. Behind him the tree had begun to catch fire under the heat of the burning slices in it's trunk. The stallion back-flipped onto his front hooves and spun on them, using his hind hooves to kick a segment of the tree away before landing back on all fours, facing the tree once more. This way he got to see his work again as the tree collapsed onto the floor in a rising blaze of flames. The growing fire illuminated the semi-darkness of the shadow thrown by the setting sun on the horizon. The sparks that were released floated up gingerly before burning out merely a meter above the remains of the tree. He sat down at the bonfire and rubbed his hooves together, anticipating the cooling air of the coming night-time.
"And I also see that you've discovered how to create objects in your dreams." The large blue mare with the ethereal mane of stars and a blue coat walked over to sit beside him. Her horn and wings made her appear as a truly magnificent being. The stallion gave her a slightly smug glance before returning to gazing into the flames.
"I do tend to learn very quickly." He self complimented. "In my line of work I had to."
"Don't let it go to your head, Sam. I've seen foals manipulate their dreams on a scale equal to what you appear to have learned." She struck his cocky attitude down with no remorse. "Oh, and what was your line of work? I could make a guess but hearing it straight from the horse's mouth id more reliable."
"Mercenary..." Sam blurted out without taking his eyes from the bonfire. "... soldier of fortune, killer, murderer... I've been called many things."
"Why would anypony call you a murderer? You didn't murder innocent ponies did you?" Luna asked in a tone that sounded like a mixture of caution, dis-belief and serious questioning. Sam laughed a little at the suggestion.
"No. I may have been a little... mindless, before my death. But I'd never murder any innocents in cold blood." He replied in a strangely serious voice which didn't seem to sound right coming from him. He never usually took anything other than fights seriously, conversation and everyday interactions were always something to add a little fun to.
"Your death ? Is that how you came here?" Luna asked, sounding like she was piecing parts of a puzzle together. Sam just nodded in acknowledgement. "Hmm. Lost souls tend to wander through Equestria from time to time, ponies who have been reincarnated from a previous life. I have had the pleasure of meeting a few over my years, and they all seem to come here for a reason..." Sam looked up to the princess, her thousand yard stare piercing deep into the light of the blaze in front of them. "... some were looking for things they never had. Some were looking for things they lost. And some were trying to give something back."
Sam said nothing as the princess stopped for a second mid-monologue. She was talking from experience, that much he could tell. The way her voice was filled with certainty, yet it quivered on remembrance of people long gone. There was something odd about her he couldn't quite place, like an unparalleled wisdom gained from... somewhere. But where? Sam intended to find out before she left.
"Princess Luna, I want-"
"Just Luna will do. We're in your dreams now, it's not like other ponies can intrude and get the wrong i-de-a..." Luna stuttered to a halt for a second, her eyes widened and a small blush adorned the top of her muzzle. "No! That came out wrong!" She blurted out urgently, righting the wrong before Sam could capitalise on it. The armoured pony laughed at her embarrassment, making her muzzle scrunch up in shame before she hid it behind a hoof. Luna sighed behind her make-shift mask and put her hooves down, calming herself. "What I meant to say was that you can leave out the title when we're in informal situations. I'm trying to maintain popularity with my subjects as I've given out a rather bad message."
"Okay..." Sam said as he finished his laughing session. "... So I've been wanting to ask you a few questions, if that's okay with you.£ When Luna nodded he continued. "First of all, I'm guessing magic is a unicorn thing and that ponies use it generally for non violent means, yes?"
"That is correct. Combat magic is illegal except in use on the battlefield by qualified ponies. Usually among the Royal Guard or the Mages Collage."
"Okay. It just makes me a little nervous when I see unicorns levitating stuff around, I guess knowing the use of magic for violence is illegal will help. Next! I've noticed you speaking with a lot of wisdom, and I know some find it rude to be asked this question but here goes. How old are you?" Luna opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. It just hung open for a second before she closed it to put an expression of confusion on her face.
"Old enough. Honestly, I've lost count. But it's somewhere around the one-thousand-seven hundred mark." Sam recoiled slightly. "-What!? That's unreal! Surely that's a lie...-"
"Bullshit." Sam almost shouted out before he realised he just swore at a member of the royal family. He put a hoof to his mouth and turned his head to see Luna giving him a stern stare. She saw his regret on the action and lightened up a little, even letting out a small chuckle. "I'm sorry, Pri- Luna, I was just surprised."
"It's okay." She dismissed his concern with the wave of a hoof.
"But really? That old?"
"Yes." Luna said like it was common knowledge, and he was stupid for not knowing it.
"I don't believe it."
"You should."
"Why?"
"Because it's true. My sister's six years older than me, I know that."
"You can't live that long!" Sam shouted out. "You would die of old age well before two hundred. Not even Humans with the best implants would live over two hundred!"
"Human's? Is that what your previous species called themselves?" Luna asked, intrigued.
"Yeah, why?" Sam snapped, keen to know what else the dark mare had in store.
"No reason, just interested that's all." She looked back into the fire and a moment of silence fell upon them. During their conversation the sun had set and where it once cast a pink glow across the sky, now the sky was a soft blue where the sun had been before. And it slowly shifted in a very gentle gradient toward a deep black behind them in the distance. A few bright stars were just starting to overcome the brightness of the sun even though it had set, and it was now possible to see the moon fading into the background.
"Still, that's one hell of a long time to be alive." Sam said, half bewilderment half compliment.
"Maybe too long..." Luna trailed off, her voice becoming soft and almost vulnerable. Sam wasn't very good at seeing much else other than fear in someone's eyes, but he could swear he could get a chill in his spine from the loneliness in her's. She seemed to stare off into the fire once more before letting out a small sigh and looking down. "There are a lot more things I'd like to talk about with you, but I'm afraid that is going to have to be all for now, Samuel. Enjoy your dream, good night."
It was an abrupt end to her visit, but Sam wasn't about to question royalty. He glanced between her and the flames a few times, noticing the way Luna stuck close to it as she got up to walk away. He would have thought a princess of the night specifically wouldn't have cared much for the fire in her element. And warmth was just an illusion in a dream, being cold wouldn't make it any less comfortable than being warm. Maybe it was just a comfort thing anyway.
"Good night, Luna." Sam dismissed her, his hazel eyes following her as she took flight and disappeared into the shadows before exiting the dream in a brilliant but short flash of light. In any other circumstance he would have gone back to training but after that ending to the conversation, he felt a little overwhelmed. He would leave the practice for another time.
The moon lying seemingly on the end of the earth itself. The fire crackling in your eyes and the troubles of the past still lingering ever on. Strange... such a strange world.
Sam listened in on the conversation surrounding him. He hadn't taken much notice of the ponies around him other than the nurse who often gave him his check-ups. The princess and the weird doctor had given him the impression that he was... different from most ponies around their home. If they were going to throw the five 'w's at him everywhere he went then, this was going to be a problem.
Sam was usually laid back, at least as much as he could be without putting himself at risk. However he was but a humble mortal in a world of mad and random stuff which all seemed to be beyond him. Techni-colour ponies obsessed with friendship and kindness? Fair enough. Immortal beings who ruled the realm through their power and benevolence, controlling the sun and moon? He could cope. Magic however? Now that is something which was going to get on his nerves. He'd seen it be used plenty by the princess in her questions as well as some of the unicorn's employed by the hospital he was in. But that didn't mean that the sight of it wouldn't greatly perplex him, filling him with sense of confusion. But at least there were rules on weaponising it, that was enough to keep him happy around it for a while.
One thing that was starting to bother him though was the ponies around him. Mainly, what the ponies around him talked about.
"Have you seen that grey pegasus with the black mane?"
It seemed he was quite the subject of conversation within the ponies who worked around him. By eavesdropping on their talks he managed to determine a few important things about himself and his relation to the outside world at that moment.
Firstly, he was mostly a secret, even if it was a little badly kept. They let the princess bring in her assistant who sounded no older than sixteen. However he guessed you can't argue much with royalty. He fully expected to get the before-mentioned five 'w's from multiple ponies upon his leave, that is of it isn't under some form of escort or secret release. He had no clue what would happen.
And secondly, they were very intrigued about the technology he had brought with him to Equestria. His artificial skeleton in his right foreleg and shoulder were the main topic of speculation, but by talking for a moment with Red Heart he determined that they had got as far as trying to make their own Kevlar based of' scans. And as for his armour and Muramasa, they apparently had it locked away in an undisclosed location. That was what he could gather from: "The Royal Guard apparently have the equipment you came with. But nopony knows where it is. Nopony in the hospital at least."
Sam yawned loudly, his muzzle wide agape and letting out noise very obnoxiously. It was early in the morning after all, and Sam had some time to think before he got his breakfast. Pondering on what he would do after he left the hospital, Sam decided on a few things to get on with as fast as possible when he could, coming up with a short mental list.
"-One. Make sure I'm on good terms with Equestria and it's people. Two. Find some place to stay, even temporary shelter will do. Three. Find work, I get bored very quickly. (Note, avoid slave labour!) Four. Secure my equipment if I can, I don't wan't all that technology hanging around and risking killings if it get's into the wrong hands. Five...-"
Sam was sure there should be five things on the list. The absence of the final point hit him like running into a steel wall, literally hitting a wall with his list. He looked around blankly for a few moments to see if it would come back to him. To his sides were two other ponies who had both been admitted to his ward. They lay in the same beds as everyone else, with the same covers and hospital gowns. They seemed to be quite generic ponies and were both asleep. He couldn't tell if they were male or female from just looking at their heads and mane's, as he wasn't too good at judging their gender's after a day and two nights.
He looked across the room, and found himself taken by surprise when he saw the window at an awkward angle to him. He couldn't see much through it, only a tree blowing around in the wind with a blue sky and a few clouds behind it. below the window was- "-Oh shit...-" The fifth point came smashing back in as he focused on the tree in the wind again. It was the wind that had reminded him. "-The wind... The Winds of Destruction...-"
...
"Woah, woah, slow down there! What the hay are you talking about?" Red Heart pleaded as Sam furiously tried to explain to her what might happen to Equestria.
"The Winds of Destruction!" Sam blurted out, wildly waving his hooves to further demonstrate his worry about his old colleagues. "Remember the terrorists I was talking about with the Princess? The ones I worked with to cause a war?"
"Uhh, yeah." Red Heart cocked her head in confusion. "What have they got to do with anything? You said that... what's his face? Raiden? Yeah, Raiden, hunted them all down and killed them all. They're all gone now, so what's to worry about?" She finished. Sam grunted in frustration at the nurse's failure to connect the dots.
"I was one of them, Raiden hunted me down just like he did to them. If I got magically zapped into existence in this world then why not the rest of them?" Sam left the question open for Red Heart to figure out, which took only a few short seconds. Once she put everything into place her eyes opened up wide and she hung her mouth open, taking a short gasp. "Now you see my point."
"Do you really think that could've happened? And even if it did they wouldn't be very wise to act now. The Summer Sun festival starts the day after tomorrow and the place will be swarming with guards." The nurse said.
Sam stopped at that. The last time Desperado Enforcement had started a commotion was while a high political figure was on the move. Even with cyborgs and heavily armoured vehicles protecting them they couldn't stand up to their skilled operatives and force, his own force. Of course it was Sundowner who had actually killed the president but he had done most of the killing and the assaulting. The point was that they were not afraid of making appearances at big events and putting on a show. Whatever this 'Summer Sun' festival was, he would bet the big money that Armstrong would have taken an interest in it.
"Red Heart?" He asked. The nurse snapped her head is way after briefly glancing at another nurse attending a patient.
"Hmm?"
"Tell me, what is this 'Summer Sun' festival?"
"Well, it's a one day celebration that takes place in every settlement in Equestria where we celebrate the summer solstice." She explained like it was common knowledge. "Is it important?"
"Are there any famous figures around during the festival?"
"Princess Celestia comes out under guard escort to take part in the festivities, and Princess Twilight Sparkle will probably follow seeing as she and the other Elements of Harmony are charged with protecting Equestria from elevated threats. Princess Luna might even show her face too, though that'll be unlikely."
Alarm bells were ringing out in Sam's head by this point. Two, maybe even three princesses out in public on the same day and two of them even control the movement of the sun and moon! If they were to have mercenaries capture or assassinate one or more of them then that would be the perfect opportunity to offer their services to the kingdom as protectors. No doubt Armstrong would attempt to take the reins and control Equestria as a war hungry nation driven by revenge. This was not good.
"Red'? I need you to send a letter to the princesses. I don't care if they have other duties to do, but get the message across. Tell them I need to speak with them." Sam said sternly, almost an order. It wasn't too often he was so worried over something that wasn't himself, but if the remnants of Desperado were out there in Equestria something had to be done to protect the people who couldn't protect themselves.
"Uh, Ok. Should I do it-"
"Now, Redheart." Sam snapped. The nurse simply nodded and turned tail before walking off down the corridors in a slightly rushed walk. Sam sank back into his bed in thought. "-I have to get out of here, if the Winds' come looking for me, try to kidnap one of the princesses or assassinate them, I have to be able to stop it. I'm not letting what happened back in Africa happen again.-" After Sam had finished his musing, one of the very few ponies in the ward, one beside him got his attention.
"Heads up." He motioned him to look at the door where a certain R and D doctor was walking through in a hurry. "Nosy's here."
"Aww for-"
One hour later...
Twilight trudged through the doors of the Friendship Castle just in time to meet a blast of confetti to the face. She had barely been home for a few seconds, and the place had begun to feel a little too quiet. Of course, this was the cue for Pinkie Pie to Part Cannon an ocean of colour into her eyes and almost give her a heart attack. The rain of techni-colour paper lasted for a few seconds with the cheers of her friends backing all the part poppers and streamers going off. She stood slightly bewildered as her friends jumped out in front of her.
"SURPRISE!" They yelled. Twilight was silent for a second with a shocked look on her face.
"Aww, I think we made her jump!" Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing in place for a moment while Rainbow Dash shot out into the open. She was quickly followed by Rarity, Apple Jack and Fluttershy who all added their own chorus of noise to the 'surprise'.
"Hehe, nice to see you back safe, egghead." Dash dropped down and patted the purple princess on the head.
"Normally I am against such brash surprises, but that was quite the thrill." Rarity added in along with a round of nods and other confirmations. "Anyways, did Princess Celestia have anything important for you to do?"
"Sorry girls. Not that I don't trust you or anything, but that's top secret. I can't tell you anything... yet." Twilight replied, walking through the doors and across the surprisingly clear floor, considering it had just been scattered with technicolour confetti and streamers. Spike stepped out from behind the wall to enter along with her, but stopped when he saw all the mess conveniently placed out of the way, off to the sides.
"Woah, what happened here?" He asked, looking up to Twilight who just gave a light hearted giggle.
"Welcome wagon from the girls." Twilight said as she hauled her slightly weary body over to her chair at the large table spanning a significant portion of the room. "Specifically Pinkie's doing, though." Spike rolled his eyes at the mention of the party pony's name to the sound of the mare in question giving a small laugh.
"Who else?" He asked sarcastically. "To be honest, I'm not sure what else I expected." He joined Twilight by placing himself next to her chair. "So... what's been going on while we've been away?" Rarity seemed to fidget at the question for some unknown reason.
"Oh, not tha' much." Apple Jack answered, rising to the question. "Few ponies here n' there comin' in an' asking for ya'll." She then grew a sly grin and her eyes darted in the direction of the fashionista for a brief second.
"Don't you even dare." Rarity threatened, her lady-like voice creating a very odd tone when combined with an offensive attitude. Pinkie and Rainbow Dash looked like they could barely contain their laughter, having to stay it from leaving their mouths with their hooves. Fluttershy just appeared somewhat unsure of how to react.
"There were this one happenin'..." AJ started as Rarity grew a small blush and mashed her teeth together, looking like she was ready to pounch on the farmer and attack at any moment. AJ let the atmosphere tense for a few seconds before releasing her breath. "...Nah, it wouldn't be proper o' me t' say." Rarity's lethal expression died away and she seemed to be overwhelmed by a wave of relief.
The group set themselves into a small motion of laughter that lasted for a few seconds before it was interrupted by a belch from the little dragon in the middle of the circle. A blast of green fire rolled away and dispersed outwards to unveil a scroll which promptly fell into the claws of the drake.
"Huh, Celestia's Royal Seal." He said, examining the roll of papyrus for a couple of seconds.
"Celestia? I wonder what she could want now?" Twilight pondered, placing a weary hoof under her chin and looking up. The rest of the group gave each-other unknowing glances and exchanged suggestions as Spike unraveled the scroll. He held it out in-front of his face before clearing his throat.
"Dearest Twilight. I am well aware that you may have only just arrived back in Ponyville according to the train schedules, but something dire may have just arisen. Our pat-" He stopped and looked around. "Twilight, I think this one is supposed to be private. It's about him." Twilight sighed and glanced around, checking for any traces of paparazzi in windows and doors. Satisfied, she turned to her friends.
"Girls. Can I trust you all to keep a secret?"
"Yeah!"
"Good. Because we're going to have to spill that secret with this letter. It's a national security thing. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to answer them." The group huddled around to hear what was about to be said. Spike continued his reading.
"Our patient you have revealed to be called 'Jet-stream Sam' has had one of the nurses send me a letter concerning his past..."
"Who's Jet-stream Sam?" Pinkie asked.
"He's a patient they're holding at the Canterlot Infirmary. To the regular visitor he just looks like a normal patient, but as me and Spike have come to understand... He's anything but. No friends, or family. Guy was a free-lance sword who dedicated himself to hunting down terrorists. That was until he was finally beaten and made to join them. Recently he was supposedly killed in action by a figure similar to how he was before joining these terrorists. Awoke from his trauma induced coma only a day ago."
"... as the group he was previously affiliated with may be active in Equestria through the same means as his own appearance. He wishes to have a personal audience with us as the protectors of Equestria. He believes they may be a danger to our safety, and could make a move during the Summer Sun Festival. If he is correct then a lot of ponies may be at risk. I am going to have him escorted to my court within the hour. Though if you could fill me in on as much information on him as possible before then, I would be most grateful. Yours truly, Celestia."
"Woah..." Rainbow started after a brief period of silence. "That sounds serious." Twilight darted around, her head stopping at Spike.
"Spike, get me some papyrus!"
"On it!" He darted away into a deeper part of the castle to find some papyrus for his next scroll.
