Canterlot Castle

Dusk was among the first ponies off the Pelican once it landed in the gardens at the castle in Canterlot. With his back to the ramp, he looked back on the cabin. “Fillies and gentlecolts, welcome to Canterlot.” Once he turned around and dropped the ramp, Dusk had three spears at his throat. Finally noticing the contingent of Royal Guards that were ready to storm the Pelican, Dusk chuckled. “Guess I should have called ahead?” he asked.

“Alright lads, take it easy.” ordered Meteor as he walked up behind Dusk. “Just drop the weapons, and the Princess won’t have your heads.”

“And why the hell should we believe you?” asked one of the guards.

“Because that stallion earned his title.” said one of the guards. This one stood out. As opposed to the standard gold armor, his was a glossy shade of purple. Taking off his helmet and shaking his mane free, the stallion eyed Meteor Shower before approaching. “Commander Meteor Shower?” he asked.

“Captain, drop the formalities. I haven’t been called Commander in a long time.” chuckled Meteor. “What’s your name son?”

“Name’s Shining-”

“Prince Armor?” asked Flash, as he joined the group on the ramp.

Meteor cocked an eyebrow at the unicorn. “Since when did royalty command the Guard?”

“Since I got married.” replied the stallion. “It’s a rather long story involving a bit of brainwashing. You know, the usual?”

“Son, you’ve just described the core of every marriage in this bloody country.” Meteor paused a moment before cracking a smile. “You and I are going to get along just fine.”

“Now, are we done here?” asked Dusk impatiently. He received no response. “Alright then! Evans, you stay here. Blaze Squad, mark out a landing zone for the Pelicans. Miss Star, you and the usual suspects get the gear off the Pelicans as they land. Just leave the vehicles to the marines.”

As Dusk started walking towards the castle, Star exchanged a glance with Violet before developing a rather confused expression. “And where does he think he’s going?”

“To find a good diplomat!” yelled Dusk as he continued his walk to the castle.

______________________________________________________________________________

Twilight was sitting in the castle library, sipping on a cup of tea while going over yet another spell book from the library’s vast collection. After she had returned from Manehattan, she began combing through spell books in an attempt to find a way to reproduce the spell matrix that was used as the Guardian’s power source. She remained engrossed in her book until Dusk walked up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.

“Ms. Sparkle, I could use your help.” asked the Unicorn.

As she followed Dusk out of the library, she made sure to keep pace with him. “Help with what?” she asked.

“Just some inter-species diplomacy. Celestia and Luna are unavailable, so you’ll have to do.” replied Dusk.

“Ok?” replied Twilight, rather perplexed.

As the duo walked out into the castle garden Twilight saw two large green ships, similar to the Guardian, out on the lawn. A number of creatures were running in and out of the craft, bringing boxes and crates out and dropping them in the grass before running back to repeat the process.

“Ms. Sparkle, meet humanity.” said Dusk.

Twilight looked over at Dusk. “And you want me to initiate formal diplomatic relations?”

“Na, I already did most of that. Just help find some place for them to stay. In the palace preferably. It’s a bit better than the Paris.” as Dusk jarred his thumb skyward, a shadow fell over the Castle, followed by a dull roar. Twilight looked up in horror as she saw a massive ship fly over the palace and head for the valley below the city. Dusk noticed Twilight’s expression, and nudged her arm. “They’re really not all bad. A few of em’ can be assholes, but that neither here nor their.”

As Dusk strode away from a dumbstruck Twilight, he managed to find Sergeant Tremble dragging crates of weapons and ammo out of the back of one of the Pelicans with the aid of two of his soldiers. Once clear of the ramp, he knocked his fist of the back of the Pelican, and it took off after the Paris. “Nice place we got here.” he noted.

“Just be warned that we aren’t liable if you can’t get your ass out of bed in the morning.” snarked Dusk. The two only needed to exchange glances before they started laughing. Once they calmed down, Dusk looked over at the Sergeant. “In all seriousness, I’m not kidding. The beds here in the castle make everything else feel inferior.”

“Then I’ll gladly take one and a week’s vacation.” joked the Sergeant.

“Take whatever time you need Tremble.” said Dusk ask he walked over to the Guardian, which had arrived while he was inside. “Now, I never got around to asking,” wondered Dusk aloud, “But who was flying my ship?”

“Someone looking for me?” asked Blueblood as he walked down the ramp from the Guardian’s cabin.

“Alright, when did you learn how to fly my ship?” asked Dusk while he tapped his foot impatiently.

“Your grandfather showed me.” responded Blueblood

Dusk groaned as he walked away, muttering something about the “lack of respect” for personal property.

______________________________________________________________________________

By nightfall, the majority of the humans had all arrived at Canterlot Castle. All of their gear and vehicles had been assembled on the lawn of the castle garden, while the marines had built a bonfire with coals and firewood that they had procured from the castle forge. Most of the marines had gathered around the fire, some sitting in silence, while others stood around in small groups conversing.

Sergeant Tremble was apart from the marines, having taken up residence on a balcony overlooking the garden with nothing but his thoughts to keep him company. He had ditched the top half of his armor and replaced it with a red tank top. Looking out on the garden, he appeared to be deep in thought.

“Something wrong?” asked Commander Baxter as he joined the soldier.

“Just thinking sir.”

“You worried that we won’t get off this planet?”

The soldier shook his head. “No. Just trying to think of a way to get our hands on the gear we left on the Redoubtable and Coral Sea.”

Baxter took a moment to think, leaning on the balcony railing. “We’d need to make sure that the Paris is air-tight. Beyond that, we should be able to make it to their wrecks and salvage some gear, unless Coral Sea and Redoubtable started sucking vacuum after we left.”

“And what if the Redoubtable is atmosphere capable?”

“We could probably skip transferring equipment in a vacuum and just take her planetside. If we’re lucky enough, she’s in good enough shape where we can use her as an assault ship.”

“At that point we can just cannibalize the Coral Sea for parts then?”

The commander just nodded. “Anything on that pile of junk is fair game as far as I’m concerned. Lord knows that the Coral isn’t anything less by now.”

“Alright, so we have a plan.” as the two left the balcony and started walking down the corridor in the castle, Tremble paused for a moment. “How do you think the ponies will react if we brought down the Redoubtable?”

Baxter stopped to think, clicking his tongue before simply shrugging. “I honestly have no idea. But we can’t really give them a choice. If we want to fight the Enclave, we heed a way of moving at least a small battalion and the associated equipment. If we need the Paris to stand and fight we can’t put down to offload, and Pelicans won’t cut it because we don’t have enough of them. I don’t see another option.”

“We’re going to have loads of fun, aren’t we?” questioned Tremble.

“What can I say?” asked the Commander with a smirk. “It’s fun for the whole family Don.”

______________________________________________________________________________

Steeljack was sitting in Princess Celestia’s study sipping away on a beer, while Dusk was opposite of him pouring over a tablet loaded with information from the Paris’ computers. It had been mostly quiet since the last of the humans had arrived, so the opportunity to sit back and put his feet up was a welcome break. At the moment the various members of Blaze Squad were scattered about the room, while Celestia and Meteor Shower were off to the side engaged in what appeared to be an intense conversation.

Dusk finally put down his tablet, before wadding up a piece of paper and throwing it at Steeljack to get his attention. “I thought Patch was going to show up?”

“She’ll be here.” said Steeljack.

“Alright.” Dusk stopped for a moment before leaning back on the couch. “Can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.”

“Would it be a problem if I thought…” Dusk waved his hands around for a moment, seeming to think of his choice of words. “If Starry is, well, a smoke-show?”

Steeljack sighed, before putting down his beer down on the coffee table between the two. “Let’s face facts here. You’re young. I wouldn’t blame you. I have no issue if you try to talk with Starry, maybe make a friend out of her. But if you want to say that my daughter is a ‘smoke-show’ as you say, don’t do it with her standing right behind you.”

Dusk went pale for a moment, before the mare herself jumped over the back off the couch and plopped down next to him smirking.

“Uh…” For once, Dusk was speechless. Steeljack and Starry could only laugh at his embarrassment. “I’m just gonna stop talking.”

“Might be for the best.” said Patch as she walked by, before grabbing a seat next to Steeljack while Lightning Chaser grabbed his own chair. “Now, somepony owes us some details.”

“I guess I do.” Steeljack looked over at Dusk. “Alright, do a quick recap. I’m gonna go grab some food.”

As Steeljack left, Dusk looked over at Patch, before sighing. “Alright, I’ll keep it simple. A few years back Comet, Strike and I found a portal that connected our universe to yours, where we got dumped in an old MAS bunker underneath Tenpony Tower. In there we found a lab dedicated to developing super soldiers for the Equestrian Army under a program called Project Ichor. With a bit of genetic engineering and an IMP derivative, a prototype blank got developed-”

“I’m sorry, but a blank? They’re mindless drones.” pointed out Lightning.

“The key here is that they’re mindless. What the MAS found is that attempts to use the same process on normal test subjects put significant strain on the body. As such, someone came up with the great idea of using a blank like a robobrain shell. That way the perfect soldier could be developed without harming a subject.”

“So if I’m understanding this correctly... “ Patch stopped for a moment. “Ok, I don’t understand.”

“I’m not surprised.” quipped Dusk “What the program did towards the end of the war was transplant brain from subjects into a blank, and using the IMP derivative on the blank, which was already modified, you could mold the body to look and function identically to that of the subject’s original. From what we found MAS had five subjects in the field before the bombs fell, but with no records after that we have no idea if they survived or how long they remained functional after that.”

“Then you used one of the blanks on Steeljack?”

“Exactly. I don’t know what pointed me to his grave, but what I found is that while all of his limbs were fried the radiation from the dragon’s fire served as a method to ‘ghoulify’ all of his internal organs and preserve them in a functional state. So, I cut his brain out and teleported back to the bunker with it. I’ll just guess that the three of you can fill in what I did after that?”

“Ok… But what made you act like a mad scientist?” asked Starry

“Probably some aftereffect from the database maintained by the project. The project’s attached AI had a supercharged memory spell, in essence a giant memory orb, which contained everything. Details about the war, the ministries, the project. Try having all that forced into your head at one time and try not going off half-cocked.” replied Dusk.

“But it all worked out for the best.” said Steeljack as he returned with a small bundle. Unfurling it out on the table, it’s contents of apples, pastries and some bottles of cola.

Dusk looked over the entree laid out for the group, before looking up at Steeljack. Before he could say anything, Steeljack pulled a silver flask of scotch out of his jacket and tossed it to Dusk.

“Now, where were we?” asked Steeljack

Dusk took a swig from his flask before putting the cap back on. “I got up to the part about playing mad scientist.”

“So, right before I stabbed you then?” As Patch and the twins’ faces devolved into looks of confusion, Steeljack grabbed Dusk’s flask and took a quick swig before starting to speak.

______________________________________________________________________________

MAS Bunker
Approx. Three Years Ago

For a moment, it took Steeljack some time to process that he actually felt cold. While he was trying to wrap his head around the new sensation, he realized that he couldn’t breath. As his eyes flew open, he saw the outline of three ponies on the other side of a glass wall. He began to panic, and started banging on the glass. His continued assault led to a crack developing in the wall. In a final push, he delivered a powerful kick to the glass wall. As the glass shattered, the liquid that Steeljack was suffocating in drained out, leaving him sprawled on the floor.

“You OK?” asked a blue unicorn.

Steeljack reacted quickly, grabbing a shard of shattered glass before rocketing forward and tackling the unicorn. As the unicorn struggled, Steeljack jammed the shard into his shoulder before snapping off the protruding length of the glass.

“Motherfucker!”. Before Steeljack could react the unicorn’s companions tackled him to the ground and pinned him, as the wounded colt forced himself to his feet.

“Really?” questioned the colt as he pulled the shard of glass out of his arm. “Is it an insult around here to ask if somepony’s OK, or did I miss something?”

Steeljack tossed the other two stallions off him, before tackling the unicorn to the ground a second time. “What did you to me?”

“Saved you from a life of boredom?” asked the colt meekly.

Steeljack wasn’t very thrilled with his answer, and bashed his head into the floor. “I’ll ask one more time. What did you do to me?”

“I put your brain in a genetically engineered body that was thrown together for some MAS project. Happy now?”

As the pair clambered to their feet, Steeljack looked back at the tube he had been in when he first awoke. Along the top of the now broken tube was a brass plate. Etched in the brass were the words ‘Project Ichor, Phase Two, Subject Six’.

“It’s a Ministry of Arcane Sciences super soldier project.” said the unicorn and he walked up to Steeljack. “Name’s Dusk by the way.”

“Call me Steeljack.” As he looked over the tube he found the main display. Flipping through the screens, he found some of the basics for the project components before turning away and smashing the screen with his fist.

______________________________________________________________________________

For a moment, it appeared that Steeljack was trying to think of his words, before he fell back in his seat and sighed. “Dusk, there any scotch left?” Steeljack grabbed the flask as Dusk tossed it over to him, before drinking what was left out of the bottle.

“Something wrong?” asked Dusk.

“Look, we’ll have to finish this in the morning.” said Steeljack as he rose from his seat and made for the door.

Patch looked at both the twins before looking over at Steeljack, now already out the door. “What just happened?”

“I get a feeling I know.” Dusk looked around the room for a moment, before getting up and walking over to Dart. After a few brief words, he walked back over before plopping back down in his seat. “Dart’s gonna try to talk to him, see what's wrong.”

“Just putting this out there,” stated Lightning Chaser “But how is some mare gonna deal with-”

Dusk simply held his hand up to Lightning Chaser. “You need to understand that Steeljack is unstable. He has been as long as I’ve known him, and Dart is the only one of us who has had any sort of success when he’s gone off like that.”

“You make it sound like he’s crazy.” quipped Starry.

“And he is.” retorted Dusk. “From what we know about Project Ichor, there weren’t any side effects that caused mental instability.”

Patch got up from her seat. “I’ll talk to him.” She tore out of the room, before throwing the door open and running out after Steeljack.

Dart walked over to the group, looking concerned. “Did I miss something?”

“Mom’s just being overprotective.” Starry looked down at her feet for a moment, before looking up at Dart. “What’s my father to you?”

Dart took a moment to process the question before sitting down in Patch’s now vacant seat. “He’s my hero. Now, before you take that the wrong way and start thinking… OK, just forget I said that part. Before I met him and Dusk, I was a servant on plantation in the Griffany. I don’t remember anything before my time there. One night, him and Dusk showed up-”

“We were trying to interrogate her for information on the owner, De Witt.” added Dusk. “We thought he was running a drug ring at the time.”

“Moving on, the two of them had me up against the wall. Dusk was asking all the questions while Steeljack hung back and watched. Once they figured out that I didn’t know much, Dusk let me go. Then he saw the scar on the back of my neck from the whips that the plantation guards used on me and the other servants.”

As Starry and Lightning Chaser exchanged looks, Dusk chuckled. “Once I saw that, Steeljack and I decided to take out De Witt and the plantation guards. So we lit the field on fire, and when the guards showed up-”

“You took them all out?” asked Lightning Chaser

“Not me, but Steeljack.” replied Dusk. “He did all of the heavy lifting, so to speak. I didn’t have a chance to lift a finger before he took the whole group on. Two minutes later, they’re all on the ground either dead or dying from stab and bullet wounds.”

“De Witt showed up right when Steeljack was finishing off the last of the guards, and all he did was watch. No fear, no anger. He just watched as Steeljack slaughtered his entire defense force.” noted Dart. “De Witt never had a chance. Steeljack and Dusk blasted the guy. After that, they broke into the servant’s quarters and escorted us all across the Equestrian border into Vanhoover, where they brought us to the local hospital before they tried to leave. I followed them into an alley by the hospital-”

“And the rest is history.” Dusk noted. “We took Dart back to our factory in Manehattan, patched up her wounds and tried to learn a bit about her. Steeljack ended up taking Dart under his wing, teaching her how to shoot and fight. Shortly after that, I sent Comet and Strike back to the Wasteland on a long-term recon mission to try and find equipment and some recruits. All we got was Cosmo, a retired NCR Ranger. Mostly he sticks around Manehattan, dealing with petty thieves and whatnot. We’ve done a few ops with him. The more recent one was when me and Steeljack nearly got killed by Lilith and Star, but that’s a story for another day.”

“Then what do we do now?” Starry asked.

“Honestly?” asked Dusk. “I’d sit back and enjoy my scotch, but Steeljack drank the rest of it. So talking will have to do for now.”

“So, any reason you think I’m a ‘smokeshow’?” asked Starry. Dusk didn’t bother responding, instead going red in the face.

______________________________________________________________________________

Steeljack walked into his room, before tossing his shirt on the floor and plopping down on his bed. He heard somepony banging on the door and yelling his name, but he ignored it as he fell back in the bed. But whoever was on the other side of his door was persistent, and kept banging away. Finally realizing that he wasn’t going to be left alone, he got out of bed and strode over to the door, before opening it mid-knock and finding Patch standing there.

“Mind if I come in?” she asked. Steeljack stepped aside and allowed her into the room before walking back over to his bed and sitting down. “Steeljack, are you-”

“No.” cut in Steeljack. “I’m not.”

Patch sat down next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. “Wanna talk about it?”

Steeljack sighed before looking at Patch. “Do you know what it’s not like to feel anything?”

“I’ll guess not.”

“Good answer. I’m gonna guess that Dusk told you I’m damaged?”

Patch frowned. “More like unstable.”

“He isn’t wrong. I don’t know how long I was… Look the point is that for the longest time I couldn’t see anything, hear anything, or feel anything. Before Dusk used the Ichor project on me, I was alone with my own thoughts. Seeing that tube, that lab. It was a wakeup call.” Patch looked worried, yet remained silent. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter where you’re going because at the end of the day there’s nothing you’re headed for other than a hole in the ground.”

Patch wrapped Steeljack in a hug and just held him. “I wish I knew what to say.”

Steeljack pushed Patch back, looking her dead in the eye. “I don’t know either. Until now, I haven’t talked about-”

“You don’t have to.” Patch leant in for a light kiss before pulling away. “Since you died, I wasn’t always in my right mind. Watching Starry and Lightning grow up, they just reminded me of you. But at the same time, if you weren’t gone none of us would be here.”

“No need to remind me.” Steeljack fell back on his bed and sighed. “But unless I missed something martyrs get the title for dying in the midst of an act of heroism, and I didn’t die. Long story short, I got screwed over.”

Patch cocked an eyebrow before laying down next to Steeljack. “How?”

“Patch, I missed everything. I wasn’t there when the twins were born, when they were growin-”

Patch put a finger to Steeljack’s lips. “Look, what’s done is done. Sure Starry and Lightning are independent but that doesn’t mean that they don’t need their father. I’ve told them for years how much of a hero you are, and the twins never questioned a word. Now you have an opportunity to actually be a part of their lives.” Patch got up from the bed and started walking to the door. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Steeljack got up out of bed and grabbed Patch’s shoulder. “You don’t have to go.”

Patch pursed her lips for a moment before turning around and smirking. “You’re right. Besides, I told the castle staff I’d be staying in your room.” Steeljack could only chuckle, before he walked back to his bed and crawled in with Patch right on his heels.

______________________________________________________________________________

Dusk found himself in the castle dining hall the following morning using a cup of black coffee as an impromptu hangover remedy, as using magic to dispel his predicament was out of the question at the moment. Opposite of him was his grandfather, smirk plastered on his face as he watched Dusk attempt to cope with the aftereffects of too much scotch.

“And what have you learned?” asked Meteor

Dusk downed the rest of his coffee before slamming the cup down on the table. “Nothing new, but I did get a good reminder of how much of an asshole you are.”

By this point, Sergeant Tremble had dragged himself down to the dining hall, and joined Dusk with his own cup of coffee. “You know what? Last thing I’d expect on an alien planet is a good cup of coffee.” Looking over at the unicorn, the Sergeant noticed his demeanor. “Drink too much last night?”

“What was your first clue?” quipped Dusk.

“Dusk, where the hell are you!” yelled Baxter as he strode into the dining hall.

“Over here.” said Dusk as waved at the Commander.

“We’ve got a problem.” Baxter threw a tablet down on the table, showing a live feed to the Paris’ sensors. “See that red blip? That’s the Enclave airship.” he drew an arrow on the tablet to show the direction the airship was headed. “And it’s present course will take through the eastern half of the country before turning northwest-”

Dusk’s eyes went wide. “They're making a run at the Crystal Empire... Fuck!” He jumped out of his seat. “Where are they now?”

“Here.” Baxter pointed at a point in the southern half of the country.

“The Macintosh Hills.” noted Meteor.

“Commander, get to the Paris. We need to try and force that airship south into the Badlands.” said Dusk. “Then we blast em’ with the MAC on the Paris and problem solved.”

“Don’t we still need to investigate how the Enclave managed to develop multiversal travel?” questioned Meteor.

“One step at a time Gramps.” Dusk looked back at the tablet before pulling his radio out. “This is Dusk to Blaze Squad, prepare for combat.”

Author's Note

Anyone else picking up on the feels? Anyone?