Chapter One: Black and Red
Author's Note
This chapter, along with chapters 2 through 4 will be getting a rewrite. However, if anyone wants to see the original chapter they will be posted as a link to a Google Doc in this author's note at a future date. When? I don't know, but just keep what I've told you in mind before liking or disliking.
Chapter One: Black and Red
_____“Remind me why we need to be in the middle of the Everfree Forest again?” Pinkie Pie asked as she bounced happily.
“That is a good question my dear Pinkie Pie.” Discord replied. The forest was the same old forest. Aside from the few splotches of happy meadows due to the actions of those... things. They even somehow changed all the maps to show where those spots were, too. Even though Discord and Pinkie Pie both seemed to be immune they had felt... strange, like they weren’t really themselves. “The Mary Sues will take longer to get to us in here when I perform the ritual. I don’t know if they’ve already figured out what we’re planning or not but we still have to try and the Everfree Forest will offer us the most secrecy.”
“So why don’t you just teleport us where you want us then?”
“Because that would alert them if I did that. If they don’t know we’re out here yet they certainly would as soon as I used my magic.” Indeed, that was why Discord had taken to walking and kept his actions to a minimum after the Mary Sue’s started... well multiplying would probably be the best word. He had no idea where they kept coming from, they just seemed to pop out of nowhere. “But,” Discord said with a talon raised as he continued walking. “It works both ways, they can’t get too close to me without me knowing they’re there.”
“Well isn’t that good to know.” Pinkie said as she stopped bouncing. “How much farther do we need to go?”
“We’re probably in the most perfect spot that we’re going to get.” Discord said as they stopped at a clearing. This place was peaceful (well, as peaceful as you could get in the Everfree) and the MS’s hadn’t touched it at all. It was natural. There were no flowers, no wildlife, no sounds at all. A perfect place to be ambushed however but it was private and still difficult to get there in the first place. “Keep an eye out for me would you? I’ll need to concentrate for this.”
“Okie dokie loki!” Pinkie said as she gave a quick salute and bounded off for a tree and disappeared behind it.... Only to appear on the other edge of the clearing as her head popped out behind another tree to look for unwanted visitors. Discord was completely undisturbed by Pinkie’s antics, being used to doing far worse things himself. It was just unusual that she was able to do such things without using magic.
Discord readied his talons as he began tearing a hole through the fabric of dimensions. It was such a long time since he had done this to this particular dimension.... Soon enough there was a portal, wide enough for a creature like Discord to casually stroll through and still have some head space left. Not that he couldn’t modify his body to be bigger than it already was, but that was beside the point.
Pinkie had her attention diverted to the portal because it was- “Ooooh shiny!” Yeah, exactly. However, it was only a few seconds after that something came through that portal. It was a human male, though Pinkie didn’t know what it was. To her, it was just some kind of really funny-looking hairless ape. The human stopped as soon as he saw Discord and Pinkie and cringed.
“Listen, I don’t know who you two are, exactly, and it’s fairly obvious you must be the one who summoned me but.... Listen, this is way above my paygrade.” The man was starting to pant. “I can sense them... there’s so many. Listen, I’m going to go back and come back with someone who can actually make a difference here but for now,” he said as he pulled out a crystal, “stay here.” With that said he tossed the crystal into the air and it glowed brightly as it covered the entire clearing in a field of protective power. “That,” he said, pointing at it, “is a stealth crystal. As long as you don’t touch it no one, not even the Mary Sues can find you in here, magically or otherwise. To an outside observer there’s nothing here. You can’t see or hear anything on the outside, you could fight a war and no one would notice. Well, as long as something doesn’t step inside, that is, can’t stop that. So be aware of that and sit tight and I’ll be back soon.” And with that, he was gone almost as soon as he had appeared.
It was fairly obvious he had been in a hurry. By the time he had stopped talking he was practically hyperventilating. Pinkie Pie sat on her haunches as the look of confusion hadn’t quite left her face yet. “So um... Discord... what just-” Pinkie started to say until she was interrupted by another hairless ape walking through the portal followed by the same one from before.
The newcomer stopped and blinked as if it had just walked straight into a glass door. When it spoke it... sounded feminine to Pinkie Pie so she guessed that it must be a girl. “I can see what you meant by the population here. Okay, you did good by bringing me here. I’m casting a time dilation spell so we have proper time to prepare.” She turned to Pinkie and Discord. “Sorry for leaving you two here without answering any questions. Just wait a little longer please.” She turned back and stumbled a little before disappearing along with her friend.
Pinkie was afraid to talk just in case something else happened. But just because you’re afraid to do something, doesn’t mean you won’t do it. “So Discord, I have two questions for ya. What just happened and why do you keep calling the Mary Sues... Mary Sues?”
Discord sighed. “I call them Mary Sues because that’s what they’re called. As for what happened, you just helped me rip through dimensions as I summoned two Mary Sue hunters. I thought... no, I was hoping we would only need one. But if the situation is bad enough that the first one that comes through is scared of how many Mary Sue’s there are? Well, that just spells trouble. And not the harmless, fun, chaotic trouble either, oh no.” Discord got a sour look on his face as he crossed his arms. “Trying to move in, do such nonsensical things. I know I’ve said ‘where’s the fun in making sense,’ but the things they do... it’s annoying fueled by pure stupidity. Never thought I’d have to deal with them again, not after so soon after last time. But then again, last time would seem like such a long time ago to you ponies.”
“Well, do you think that those hunters can help us?”
“Maybe not those two in particular but I’m sure they’re coming back with someone who can help.” Just as Discord finished his sentence the portal flared as another man passed through.... Though it was probably more accurate to say that he shot through it and landed on his face.
He was wearing armor that looked heavy to the untrained eye. But Discord was able to immediately see that it was enchanted to be lightweight and still extremely durable. He also had a helmet on so it was difficult to tell who he was, or if he was even a male in the first place. However, it was the voice, the first words out of the man’s mouth that Discord knew who it was. “Oh, you cheating bitch!”
“...Noel?”
*One day previously*
The harried scout that returned after investigating the summons had come back with rather disturbing news. He reported that the Mary Sue population was staggering. Noel, completely armored up, was leaning against the doors that lead to the council room, deep in thought. Indeed, Noel himself had only just heard about the news a few minutes ago so he had rushed to the council chambers, hoping to influence their decision. They had refused to let him in for reasons other than the fact that he was not part of the council.
So what if he had crashed a gunship a few days ago? So what if he didn’t know how to pilot one? So what if the guy who had refused to teach him said that he was better suited to using magic? It was fun to fly that thing... for about ten seconds but still.
He was still thinking about how he was even able to get the damned thing off the ground anyways when a fellow hunter came up to him. It was a woman by the name of Carlotta. He was on friendly terms with her, had been ever since she first arrived one hundred twenty three years ago.... Noel just realized how weird it probably was that he kept track of that.
Not that he ever gave a damn but still.
“’Ey, Noel. Whatcha doin’ out ‘ere?” Carlotta asked. She would occasionally try to speak in broken English, or something. Noel used to have a theory that it was some kind of habit or that she liked doing it to annoy him. He’d always leaned towards the latter very strongly up until the point that he was proven right. Thankfully she rarely did it anymore.
“Shut the fuck up, Carlotta. You know I hate it when you speak like that.”
“But that one guy spoke in broken English on that one mission and you didn’t have any problems with it!” Carlotta retorted.
“Yeah, that’s because he couldn’t speak in any other way. You can speak normally without annoying me so do so.”
She giggled. “Fine, fine. But seriously, what are you doing out here? Shouldn’t you be in the council room?”
“They won’t let me in.”
“But you’re on the council aren’t you?”
“No.”
“Oh, did you get kicked off because of the gunship thing?”
“No. I was never on the council to begin with.”
Carlotta blinked. “Wait what?”
“Yeah. How did you not know this?”
“But... you... you’re always in there, influencing the council at times. Why? How?”
“Nah they just tolerated my presence there anyway. I just pushed my luck way too far with the gunship thing... among possibly other things.”
Carlotta sat down on a chair that she teleported in. How did I not know this? She thought as she asked her next question. “So what do you think they’re talking about in there?”
“My idea is that they’re deciding on who to send. But they won’t let me in so I don’t know. It seriously shouldn’t be taking this long.”
“Yeah, I’m going to go train with the squad, you want to come with just in case they do take too long or something?”
“No! Since they won’t let me in I’ve decided that I will stand out here until they come to a decision!” Noel said with a finger raised to the sky in defiance.
Carlotta laughed. When she finally stopped she wiped a nonexistent tear from her eye. “Yeah, yeah, good luck with that. I’ll see you around.” She got up and walked away, a grin on her face as she shook her head.
Noel would come to regret his decision.
In the twenty two hours that passed, Noel became very acquainted with his hallway that lead to the council room. Yes, it was his hallway now. In order to pass one must pay a toll! That’s a new rule as of ten seconds ago! Maybe I should’ve instated that as soon as I realized I was waiting here for over an hour. Indeed, some people had come through, looked at the closed council doors, and walked away. Noel realized just how brightly colored the doors were in contrast to the dull, grey, stone hallway. About halfway through the hours he had waited a council member had come out of the doors for whatever reason. Noel had taken that opportunity to do what anyone should have done in that situation. He made a mad dash for the door.
And got about five feet into the room until a collective blast of energy tossed him back outside and set up a forcefield. He had glowered angrily at the door and at the man who went back into the room. Not that anyone could see his face through the helmet anyway.
And so it was that he waited once more. And it wasn’t until just now that he realized something. Why not teleport in? Noel first decided to summon an apple and teleported that inside the room first, couldn’t hurt to be too careful just in case they were blocking attempts to teleport in. Or, at least, he tried. There was a flash and in his hand the apple was just a bunch of... well goo was probably the closest word. Those fuckers could’ve killed me!
Before Noel could decide on what to do next the doors swung open and a woman stood before him. Noel knew it was Claudia as soon as he saw her. She wasn’t wearing her armor, just her business robes. Claudia had brown eyes with hair to match and her skin was only slightly tan. She looked at the mess that Noel was holding before he teleported it away.
“I told them you wouldn’t be so careless as to just attempt to teleport in without testing to see if we had barriers up.”
“You assholes could’ve killed me.”
“No, it would’ve delivered a nasty shock to you. An inanimate object... well you saw how that would turn out.” She wrapped her arm around his shoulders as she walked him down the hallway. “That’s not important, though. But before we do get to the good stuff, how long were you waiting? I didn’t think you would wait for more than thirty minutes.”
“A combination of stubborn pride and determination won out against my better judgement. I was waiting outside for twenty two hours.”
Claudia’s mouth hung open slightly and her eyes narrowed as she looked at Noel as she tried to wrap her head around why he would do such a thing. She gave up after realizing that was probably hazardous to her mental health. “Anyways...” she started to say as she teleported them both to where they were heading, deciding that was probably just easier. “We did come to a decision about who to send. Remember that man who walked out of the council room and you tried to dash in? Yeah, he went to go prepare your squad and-”
“How long did you assholes know I out there then?” Noel interrupted. If his helmet was off, one could tell that he was indeed angry, but the tone of his voice did not reflect that.
“I thought you left after a while so I had NO idea you were out there.” Claudia said, her hands raised in a placating gesture. She had known Noel long enough to tell when he was really angry.
“Fine.” That was when Noel took the time to finally take in the scenery of where he was. They were currently in the portal room, the gates all deactivated save for one. His squad also happened to be there. Noel’s squad rarely actually worked with Noel, despite him being the leader. He saw Carlotta, she was just putting her armor on. It was plain and very practically made, especially protective and comfortable in her chest area. There had been an incident a long time ago and Carlotta had learned two very valuable lessons from it. One was to upgrade her armor, the other was to not antagonize Noel to extreme lengths in training sessions unless you want him to fight dirty. Carlotta was five feet and eight inches tall, had brown eyes with short black hair which was soon covered by her helmet. Her buckler and sword hung at her hips.
Next up was Simon. Now, Noel was no slouch, he fairly large and muscular himself, but in comparison to Simon he was just the average Joe. Simon was an absolute bear of a man, weighing at least two hundred pounds of pure hulking muscle. For the most part, he had to be and Noel and his squadmates were thankful for it since Simon always carried a lot of supplies along with that heavy armor and his massive ax. Simon was six feet and six inches tall, bald, with blue eyes.
The next one on the squad was Chloe, their resident demon. A succubus, to be exact. She was using her human form, having been forbidden from using her shapeshifting except to be in her true form or unless during training or on a mission. While the rest of the hunters could potentially change their forms, that required magic that would change their bodies into something else permanently until they used the spell again, not to mention being in an entirely different body took some getting used to. Chloe, however, could do it at will and it came naturally to her. Chloe was always allowed to hide her eyes, horns, and her tail, but she rarely chose to hide her horns, choosing to hide her tail instead, saying that it was uncomfortable to have it around at times. She would occasionally change the appearance of her eyes, from reptilian to normal human-like eyes, though she would never change the color, which was red. She liked that it set her apart from other hunters. Chloe’s eyes could sometimes glow but she was able to control it. However, they always glowed for at least two minutes after she... fed. Chloe was five feet and six inches tall, blonde hair, her red eyes were reptilian at the moment. Her shield and sword, leftovers from her past, were not standard issue. Intricately made, the runes were almost constantly glowing and reacting to her power. The same went for her expensively made custom armor to support her very... well-endowed body. Which... was to be expected considering that she was succubus.
The third and last female of the group was named Kayla. She was the youngest out of all of them and still a fairly new hunter. However, she had moved up the ranks quickly because of her determination and zeal. When she was assigned to Noel’s squad to replace one of their fallen members they had treated her with a little disdain, but mostly skepticism. It was due to her eagerness to please and refusal to give up that she proved that she was more than capable of pulling her weight, making her a well-rounded and valued member of the team. She was five feet and ten inches tall, a redhead with brown eyes, she was not as gifted in the breast department as the other two women but she didn’t seem to mind. Noel teased her about it to see if he could ever get a reaction out of her. He never could. A single sword hung at her hips.
Last but not least was Todd. Or maybe he really was the least, he was actually pretty unassuming. Two short swords were hidden in the slots in his armor. Todd was the fastest on the team, and probably the most versatile when it came to weapons and magic. A rifle called an adapter was slung across his back, the power pack was not inserted into the gun. There was probably a reason for that but I’m not going to go into that right now. Why? Because I’m just the narrator and I’m not qualified to release that information because I don’t possess it. Besides, I’m just rambling and it’s not like we can’t just edit this out. *Sounds in the background* What? What do you mean this is live...? Well why the hell not...? Oh, budget issues my ass, that is just the lamest excuse I have ever... what? The mic is still on? Why isn’t it off? Oh shit, uh okay, so the description of Todd is pretty much ruined so uh I’ll just have to go along with it.
Uh, in short order, or something like that, Todd is fast, stealthy, kills from a distance with modern and advanced human technology, uses magic, and gathers intelligence on the enemy. He’s short, like, five six and black hair. You know what? I’m switching out, I’m kind of uh, embarrassed right now. I wasn’t being professional and I apologize, I’m sorry Todd.
The entire squad turned their attention to Noel and saluted as he approached them. “Alright boys and girls,” Noel said with his hands on his hips, “before we head out I want to know everyone’s loadouts.” Loadouts were special abilities that a hunter would pick out before they headed out on a mission. They were extremely fun to use and see how the skills would work out in combination with other loadouts. Each hunter was limited to two loadouts. Noel pointed at Chloe. “You first.”
Chloe stood at attention. “Death field and fragment, sir.”
“Devastation and inspire.” Carlotta said.
“Enhance and indomitable.” Kayla said.
“Stun and lacerate.” Todd said.
“Rules of nature and mass heal.” Simon said. Noel did a double take on that one.
“Huh, mass heal? Didn’t think you’d be taking that one.” Noel said absentmindedly. Simon merely shrugged in response. “Anyway, I’m taking deadly strike and ravage.”
“Noel, before you leave there are some things you should know about first.” Claudia said. “As soon as you’re on the other side an entire platoon is going to be sent right behind you. They’ll be under your command for the duration of the mission, however long that is.”
Noel lifted an eyebrow. “An ENTIRE platoon? How long were the scouts on this world to gather that much intel?”
“They were there for hardly a minute, each.”
“Okay, that hardly justifies sending an entire platoon of hunters to take care of the situation.”
Claudia shrugged. “Sorry it’s out of my hands, I was of the same mind as you when it was brought to my attention. We were arguing about what to do until the eleven hour mark when the orders came from the boss himself once he found out.”
Noel froze up, his eyes widening slightly. “What does my master have to do with this?”
“You’d have to ask him yourself. He popped up in the council, gave us instructions and went... to go do whatever it is he actually does. Now, this isn’t word-for-word but what he basically said was that you are getting a lot of authority for this mission. You’re getting a platoon to start off, if you need reinforcements, you’re going to get them, and if we can’t spare more hunters then he’ll send something else. You need equipment and supplies in general, you get them. You’ll be sending any and all reports and requests to him directly, instead of the council like you usually do.... Which... is actually a stupid idea now that I think about it. How would we know that the messages haven’t been corrupted, compromised, or misconstrued in some way? And it keeps us out of the loop.”
“I can take that up with him next time I’m in contact with him, if you’d like.”
“Please do. He still scares me sometimes. He’s just so angry all the time.”
Noel shook his head. “Nah, that’s just how he normally looks. Trust me when I say that, as his apprentice — on second thought, anyone with common sense — would be able to tell when he’s genuinely angry. I remember the last time something managed to piss him off.” As if to empathize this, Noel looked off in the distance dramatically, as if remembering something tragic from his past. “That poor ghost never stood a fucking chance.”
“He banished a ghost? That’s not so-”
“He killed it.”
“Remind me to make sure I have nothing preventing me from passing on to the afterlife when I die.”
“No problem.” Noel said as he walked up to the open portal, stroking his chin in thought. “So... what do you think we’ll find on the other side?”
“Probably enough Mary Sues to cause a headache.” Carlotta answered. “Bet you the first one who goes through there is going to get the full brunt of it.” Carlotta thought for a moment. “Oh! First one through has to set up camp!”
“Well it’s definitely not going to be me.” Noel said. Unfortunately, the fact that Noel was standing between Carlotta and the portal only really hit him when Carlotta kicked him and he went flying through the portal.
*Present time*
“...Noel?”
It was a voice he hadn’t heard in a long time and he almost didn’t believe it until he looked up. When Noel saw the features of the one speaking he knew it was the Lord of Chaos himself, Discord. Noel stood up, dusted himself off and took off his helmet, revealing his features. Noel had short brown hair and green eyes. He was five feet and ten inches tall.
“Discord?” Was Noel’s slow reply.
Discord hovered over the ground and laughed. “Ah ha! Noel it really is you, old friend.” He was suddenly sporting an old cane that looked ready to break if it had to sustain an ounce more of force. “Then again, you haven’t aged a bit since I last saw you.”
“Neither have you,” Noel replied, “but you’ve probably aged like fine wine with all that chaos magic in you.”
“Oh you flatter me.” Discord gasped a little. “Oh, but where are my manners?” Suddenly, Noel was sitting in a chair with a teacup in his hands. As he looked at the teacup, he noticed a pair of eyes looking back at him, complete with a fully animated mouth engraved into the side as it talked. “How’s life as a hunter been treating you these days?” It asked.
“Not too badly, actually.” Noel responded, undisturbed by Discord’s antics. Life as a hunter had exposed him to many a strange thing in his lifetime. The portal was still open and the other hunters in Noel’s squad soon stepped through. Discord glanced at the newcomers in his teacup form and he immediately, and quite literally, rolled out the red carpet to greet them.
“Welcome, welcome! Friends of Noel’s are friends of mine!” He said, wearing the entire getup of a butler complete with his own little mocking bow. Or perhaps it was genuine, who could tell with Discord? While the other hunters started shaking hands with the draconequus Noel noticed that the time dilation field was still in effect so he deactivated it quickly. As soon as he did that he noticed the pink pony that was also within the field that the stealth crystal was producing.
“Discord, who is that?” Noel asked, pointing at the pony.
In response the pink one was immediately all up in his face with the biggest smile he had ever seen. “Hi! What’s your name?” She said with such happy enthusiasm Noel’s mind didn’t even register the question for a second nor did it kick in the years of training to make him wary, his fight-or-flight response just completely shut down as well.
“Uh... it’s Noel.” He responded after a second.
“Nice to meet you! My name’s Pinkie Pie and I want to be your friend!” Pinkie said, somehow shaking his hand with a hoof. She was absolutely adorable and Noel made sure to keep the smile that threatened to adorn his face in check.
Noel put his helmet back on, hiding his features once more. “Well, maybe-” Was all he had time to say before she gasped and zoomed straight past him to talk to his fellow squad members.
“Hi there, my name’s Pinkie Pie and I want to be your friend!” The words faded away as she went on and met them one by one while Discord floated over to Noel.
“I didn’t expect to see you here again, Noel.”
“Neither did I, nor did I expect you to be free right now. Last I heard you were stuck as a stone statue.”
“Well, a lot happened since you were last here and I’m more than happy to tell you about it.”
“We’ll have time to catch up later.” Possibly, I doubt it. “But right now I need you be serious and tell me what’s been going on.”
Discord dropped all funny business being... well, Discord, and he immediately became somber. “It all started a few weeks ago. They came in small numbers at first and I took care of it.”
Noel raised a hand to stop him. “Now, when you say you took care of it....”
“I did send them to other dimensions at first.”
Noel let out a groan of frustration. “That’s exactly the kind of thing that landed this world in trouble the first time. You don’t reason or redirect Mary Sue’s, Discord, you kill them.”
“Yes, yes, I learned and remembered my lesson after the first two.” Discord rolled his eyes, each one in separate directions before they stopped and settled on Noel once more. “I started getting rid of them permanently but then they just kept coming and coming. I thought I had it under control but after a few of them attacked me I knew I couldn’t hold them off forever. I barely managed to get away and they’ve been hunting Pinkie and I down ever since, since we seem to be immune to their... powers.”
Noel took a quick glance at Pinkie and leaned in to inspect Discord. He returned to his original posture after he was satisfied. “No, you’re both mostly immune but with so many Mary Sue’s around you’ve both been affected on a subconscious level. I can understand you resisting them but not Pinkie Pie.” Noel shrugged. “Eh, I guess she’s just one of those rare kind of beings that pop up every now and then. But listen Discord, this isn’t all the hunters I’m bringing in. Last time it was just me but now I’m bringing in my squad and I’ll have an entire platoon at my command for the duration of this mission, however long it takes. Overkill if you ask me but my master gave the order. As soon as-”
“She’s so adorable Noel!” Came the voice of Chloe as she held Pinkie Pie in her arms, who was giggling all the while.
Noel let a small grin adorn his face, glad that his helmet hid his features, before wiping it away. “Chloe put the pony down.” There was an audible ‘aw’ from the both of them. Noel turned back to face Discord. “Anyways, as soon as we get the area secured which is something the rest of you should be doing right now!” The other browbeaten hunters hurried to comply with his orders. “We’ll bring in the entire platoon. Once we do, you’ll help us out by teleporting us to the location with the highest concentration Mary Sues that you know of and then you’ll help with disposing them.”
“Area is secure, Noel.” Todd called out. “No MS’s in range either.”
“Good, send the go-ahead to the others on the other side.”
Todd nodded and tossed something through the still-open portal and put a hand to his head. “None of them on my scanner but holy shit there’s so many of them on this world I’ve got a headache. Anyone else got one right now?”
Now that Todd mentioned it, Noel did feel a little... on edge perhaps? Definitely a bit short-tempered. “As soon as more hunters come through it’ll get less bothersome. Hey Simon get over here.” The hulking man in question did as he was ordered while Discord went to do his own thing. “What kind of weapons do you have for us?”
The large bag and the crate he was carrying was set down on the ground. He popped the lid off the crate and took the tarp out and started laying out weapons of all sorts. He sat on his haunches and when he spoke his voice was deep and gruff, as befitting a man his size. “We’ve actually got some new things. This,” he said pointing to a rifle, “is called a flayer, an automatic energy assault rifle, we have ten of those by the way. Complete with a specialized scope, detects heat signatures and magic and what have you. It uses a rechargeable battery for the scope and an energy pack for the ammo. If the energy pack starts to run low, just switch it out for another one and let it cool down, then it’ll be ready for action again after about thirty seconds.”
“Wait, how the hell does that work? Where’s the energy pack getting the power to recharge itself?”
Simon shrugged. “I don’t know, I’m not an expert on the know-how. I just know the basics. My guess is that some hunters are able to use magic to charge it or something. Oh, that reminds me, don’t use up all the juice in a pack or you’ll have to charge it back up manually, via magic or electricity... or something.”
“Whatever. What else we got?”
“Five plasma pistols, those are always useful and-” He stopped suddenly when he looked up.
“What?” Noel asked flatly.
“Do you mind?”
“Nope!” Came the reply from Pinkie Pie. She was sitting on Noel’s shoulder, watching intently with the wide-eyed fascination of a small child. Holy shit how’d I not notice her on my shoulder? Noel thought.
Simon merely grunted and smiled. “Eh, well you’re not hurting anything anyway. Anyways, continuing on.” He picked up some small crystalline spheres. “Magic grenades. Not exactly fresh from the lab or an entirely new concept but it is a recent addition to the armory and an invention by your master. I really like these things because it won’t activate until you will it to so no worries about handling it roughly and they pack one hell of a punch while also being harmless to friendlies... somehow... not that I’m complaining. We’ve got some mines, perfect for traps, obviously. Five adapter rifles, standard models. Six if you count Todd’s modified one.”
“No one touches my Vera!” Todd shouted.
Simon continued unperturbed. “Long range, high-powered energy sniper rifle. Unlike the flayer it can also use different types of ammo, from ‘regular’ high caliber bullets to... exploding... high caliber bullets, if you feel like making a mess that is.”
“Question.” A certain draconequus asked.
The two hunters and Pinkie Pie looked up to see Discord hovering above them. Behind Simon the hunter platoon started coming through the portal. Noel and Simon shared a look before Simon hesitantly said. “Uh, shoot?”
“These little magic grenades. They won’t hurt friends, which is good, but what if a friend is standing in front of someone you’re trying to get rid of or the area is unstable, like a cave?”
Simon scratched the back of his head before answering. “Oh, yes. Yeah, those are indeed the downsides. I’m just glad Noel’s master was the one developing and testing the things out and we didn’t have to find out the hard way. But, I’m sure someone could get creative with them.” Simon breathed out a sigh. “We also have some enchanted weapons, swords, axes, daggers, a few bows and a crossbow. And that’s everything I brought. If we need more stuff we can always requisition more anyway.” Simon started to get up but hurriedly sat back in his original position. “Oh! Wait! Never mind I forgot something.” He said with enthusiasm as he rummaged through the sack and crate once more before pulling out a long rod... thing. “This is a new model of the metal claw thingy.”
“Ugh, I still can’t believe that’s what they named those fucking things.” Noel said disdainfully.
“Still useful though, check it out. There’s two triggers, blue is for extension and red is for clamping down. Come on, try it out! On a tree, preferably.” He said as he held it out.
Noel took it, got up and took aim at a thin tree branch. He’d used one of the older models before and this one was definitely new. It crackled with energy on the end. The metal claw thingy had a misleading name as the actual end of the weapon was less of a claw and more like someone had decided to take the cutting bits of pruning shears and stuck them on there. Noel noted that the weapon was surprisingly light, it couldn’t have weighed more than a few pounds. Noel pulled the blue trigger and the claw extended and hit the tree branch and severed it as he pulled the red trigger. Noel inspected the metal claw thingy. He estimated that the total reach of the thing was about six feet. That was when he also noticed the third button. “Uh, Simon, what’s this third button supposed to do?”
“Third button?... Huh. I did not notice that. Test it out.”
Noel pointed it well away from everyone else and pushed the button. However, instead of doing something deadly, like exploding, shooting a laser, recoil and fly and whack someone in the face, it retracted. Noel was left holding something that just looked like the sawed-off handle of a shovel, except that it looked fancy. “Huh... not gonna question how that works. I’ll take it.”
“Cool.... That was the only one I had though.”
“Why?”
“For the same reason I only packed one crossbow. I ran out of room for useful shit and I packed that because it looked like it might be useful in the long run, or something.”
“Okay, but you could’ve just packed a bunch of metal claw thingies instead of just one crossbow and the bolts. You eventually run out of ammo, you can miss, and the bolts can break.”
“We can always get more.”
Noel ignored him. “With this thing you can miss as many times as you want and it’s durable.”
“We can always get more!”
“Whatever, looks like everyone is here anyway.” Noel turned to address Discord, who was still paying rapt attention for some reason. “Okay, what’s the place that’s the most infested that you can think of?”
“Ponyville.”
“I have no idea where or what the fuck that is but you’re going to teleport us to the outskirts of wherever that is. You’ll make sure to throw up a few barriers to prevent escape. Don’t teleport Todd with us, he’ll use a beacon to locate us and teleport away from us so he has a good vantage point to take out Mary Sues at long range. After you get us there we’ll rush in and start doing our jobs.” Noel turned and addressed his hunters. “Alright everybody our first stop is... uh....” He glanced at Discord.
“Ponyville.”
“Ponyville! Once we’re there we start killing okay? My squad already knows its coordinated tactics and shit the rest of you will just do what you’re trained to do. Alright, got it?”
“Yes sir!” The unified answer came.
“Excellent!” He turned once more to Discord. “Discord,” Noel said, a mischievous glint in his eye, “go nuts.”
Discord grinned and then started laughing as Noel felt the unmistakable pull of magic transport him somewhere else.
It was needless the say the town was infested with them. Nay, not infested... filled to the brim. Noel would like to say that it was some epic battle, that the Mary Sues put up a decent fight, or at least tried to. This was not the case.
It felt more like a cleansing. Yes, it was a job. Yes they were pests that, if left unchecked, would plunge this world into total chaos until it became unrecognizable by its original inhabitants. The hunters had let that happen once in the past.... It was not something they would like to repeat. Noel, however, was a man who had been doing this for hundreds of years, and it didn’t faze him when he noticed a Mary Sues head explode in a shower of gore, quite hilariously he might add, from a well-placed shot from Todd far off somewhere in the distance. It didn’t bother him as he idly slashed away at Mary Sues, some actually tried to fight back but their powers were fairly useless against hunters for a good reason. It didn’t bother him one bit when he noticed a fellow hunter go down from a magic blast hitting him in the back.
...
Wait, what the fuck? Of course that did!
Noel rushed towards the fellow hunter and saw the attacker standing alone in the street. It was a black and red alicorn, her wings were outspread in a threatening posture and her horn was glowing bright crimson. Her mane and tail were black while the rest of her was red. Noel put himself between the MS and the hunter, throwing up a protective shield while he was at it as well.
“Hunters,” she said, her voice impossibly angelic and beautiful, “I should have known your hateful ways would bring you here.” Noel realized that her magical shields were weaker from the back. Noel cast an illusion spell, letting himself peel away while a perfect image of him stayed behind, but the words from his mouth would perfectly mimic the real Noel’s.
“Eh, this is just a job. We wouldn’t even have to fight if you Mary Sues would just stay in your own world.”
“We have names you know, I would appreciate it if you used them.”
“Oh, okay. Forgive me if I’m too busy massacring you all to stop and ask you your name. And when I do your kind is normally too busy screaming in pain to give me a coherent answer.”
“My name is Maria-”
“Bitch, that does not mean I asked for yours.”
“Fine, be rude. You won’t be alive much longer.”
“Is that so?” Came Noel’s voice right behind her, his metal claw thingy at the ready and in action.
To Maria’s credit she reacted fast and managed to almost jump out of the way of Noel’s attack... almost. Instead of hitting his original target, Noel’s metal claw thingy (M.C.T. for short, hey you know what I feel like I should narrate that whenever I feel like it, sometimes it’s a mouthful. Oh wait right the story!) clamped down on her right wing and severed it clean off.
There was a howl of pain as Maria inspected her missing wing for a half second before responding. “My wing! You fuck!”
“Sorry! Sorry! I was aiming for your spinal cord!” It was the truth too.... In case any of you were wondering that is. Noel made another move to use his M.C.T. but Maria teleported away onto a rooftop. “Hey! This is just going to hurt a lot more if you keep resisting!”
“No! I’m not stupid! You haven’t seen the last of me!” And with that she disappeared.
Coward. Was all Noel had to think about her when he got a call on his communication crystal set in his right gauntlet from Todd. “Sir, I’ve lost all but one Mary Sue signatures on my scanner, did something happen?”
“No shit something happened, I think Maria just teleported out all her Mary Sue’s in Ponyville.” Cowardly but one of those smart Mary Sue’s. Not a good sign.
“Who?”
“Some black and red alicorn. I’m thinking the self-appointed leader of the batch of MS’s on this world. Head on into town and take up overwatch on the highest building you can find. I don’t want any of them trying to spy in on us or something.”
“Roger that.”
“Noel,” came Chloe’s voice, “I actually have that rogue MS with me right now. Want me to bring him to you?”
“Sure, get to my location as quick as you can.”
“Okay, now what?” Chloe’s voice sounded off from behind Noel. He turned around to see her dragging a human Mary Sue by the collar with one hand, the other being used to wave at Noel with a big smile on her face.
“Uh...” Noel said before shaking his head. “Uh, now I interrogate him, I guess.”
“Aw... I was hoping I could get any information out of him... my way.”
Noel lifted an eyebrow, in fact, he took off his helmet just to add emphasis to this, attaching it to a hook on his belt. “Chloe...” Noel said slowly.
“Pleeeeeease? I haven’t eaten in weeks.”
“Ugh, fine.”
“YES!” Chloe said, complete with fist pump. And she revealed her true demonic form. Her wings sprouted from her back but they weren’t physically attached to her body and she grew a tail which was the same way. They seemed to... float, for lack of a better word. In fact, all of Chloe’s demonic features were now visible.
“But for fuck’s sake don’t do it out here in the open, find a house or something.” Noel said as he leaned against a building with his arms crossed.
“Okay.” Chloe said, dragging the poor son of a bitch to his imminent demise.
“And make sure it’s empty.”
“Fine.”
“And clean up after yourself.”
“I get it!”
Noel chuckled as she slammed the door. He noticed the original denizens of Ponyville were starting to stir, the vast majority seemed to be unconscious. He noticed a unicorn mare with a light blue coat stumbling towards him. He was sure that there was some fancy name for the actual color but Noel really didn’t care. What he did care about was that she was up and about. Most denizens on a world would immediately collapse from the shock delivered to their system when a Mary Sue is killed in their vicinity for the first time. Handy for the hunters to go unnoticed, not so much when a large operation was in place. Those who remained conscious were repeatedly described as being very out of it. There only rare individuals who possessed the ability to stay lucid through the initial process. He noticed the mare had an hourglass for a... cutie mark if he was remembering right? Yes, it was indeed a cutie mark. Her hair color was dark blue on one half while the other was light blue, or was it white? Whatever, it was almost exactly evenly split in color. No, Noel would not question things, he had done that once in Equestria and likely never would again. It had turned out to be very hazardous to his mental health.
“Excuse me? Sir?” Noel was snapped back to reality after having observed the mare for longer than he had intended. Whoever the unicorn was, she was wearing a nervous grin.
“Oh! Sorry, I wasn’t disturbing you or anything was I?” Though I suppose it’s a good thing that you’re not running or something like that. Last time I was here in Equestria I would not stop getting the weirdest looks. At least until I turned myself into a pony. And then until I started using human mannerisms.
“No. It’s just.... Well, first off, my name is Minuette. I think.” She’s pretty out of it. I’m probably going to have to remind her of where she even is.
Noel leaned down to eye level with the unicorn mare. He noticed that her eyes were also blue. Aside from her cutie mark her entire theme seemed to be blue. “Well hello, Minuette. My name is Noel.” He said, extending a hand to shake her hoof. After a moment’s hesitation, and a lingering hoof, she finally shook hands with him. Noel could still tell that she had that nervous smile on her face, so he decided to make her more comfortable. In Noel’s mind, this did not necessarily mean comforting words. “Here, let me get into a form you’re more comfortable with.” There was a glowing and Noel was transformed into a green unicorn, his flank was bare, if any of you were wondering. No, don’t ask where the armor and everything else went, I sure as hell won’t.
To Minuette, this had the opposite effect he was intending. She grimaced, not slightly, but rather in the most painfully obvious way possible. “I... can tell this doesn’t exactly make you feel more at ease, does it?”
Minuette’s expression did little to change. “No... those things would do it all the time. It was rather unnerving and I’ve had some bad experiences with shapeshifters in the past before. Plus, when you live in Ponyville you see all kinds of crazy things. Everypony here has seen Discord so trust me, you wouldn’t bother me in the least.”
Noel shifted back to his human form. And yes, his armor was back on. “That makes sense, actually. Sorry about that then.... I should’ve guessed Mary Sues would probably be doing that.”
“Who or what are Mary Sues?” Minuette tilted her head in askance. At least her grimace was gone.
“Those things that invaded your world, the shapeshifters.”
“Oh, yes. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, hopefully. So they’re called Mary Sue’s, right?” Noel nodded. “Well, you look just like them.... So what’s the difference then? Why should I even begin to trust you? There are just so many things I don’t know... I just don’t know what’s going on.” She sighed and sat on her haunches. Just as she did so there was a loud crash and a scream of pain from inside the building that Noel was guarding. Minuette shot to her... feet? Whatever, she was standing up as soon as she heard it. “What was that?!” Reaching for the door.
Noel was blocking her path immediately. “You really don’t want to go in there.” As a sign of caution he also cast a deafen and barrier spell on the building, to make sure no one else would stumble into there or get curious.
“But somepony could be hurt!”
“There’s a Mary Sue in there, one of my hunters are taking care of it.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“Because I’m a Mary Sue hunter. It’s my job to protect worlds from the likes of MS’s. Even if it means that some of us get hurt or die in the process, it’s still our job.” Noel would’ve continued but it was as he was talking that he remembered something important. “Oh no!” He exclaimed.
“What is it?”
“One of my hunters is injured! I completely forgot about him!” Noel took off running towards the motionless body of the hunter, who was still in the street. He had been so preoccupied with other things that even though the hunter was still in his line of sight, clear as day, Noel had simply forgotten. Minuette followed Noel as he reached the body of the hunter. Noel bent down to check if life was still in his fellow comrade. There was none. Noel pounded the ground with a fist in frustration. “Damn it!”
Minuette had caught up to him easily. The distance between the building and the body couldn’t have been more than fifteen meters. “Is he... dead?”
Noel sat down in defeat with his legs crossed. “Yeah.” He tapped his communication crystal and called Todd. “Todd, we’ve got a hunter down. Get a team in here to send the body back.”
“Roger that.” Came the instant reply.
“Damn it.” Noel repeated before running a hand through his hair. Noel took a closer look at the body. He recognized that the spell Maria had used was designed to eat away at armor, then spread throughout the body of the target and start destroying the body from inside out, while also burning the area away where it originally hit. The man’s neck was charred, which was probably the nicest part of the visible damage. All in all, a deadly spell, but a slow-acting one. He’d died only about a minute ago. If Noel had been paying attention to the man, or gotten to him a few seconds earlier, he most likely would’ve been able to save him.
Noel had witnessed fellow hunters go down before. Seen some get right back up, others drop like a sack of bricks and die. He was fine with that, because he couldn’t have done anything to prevent it. But he could have done something to help this man. Just because he was preoccupied, or simply forgot was no excuse.
Minuette put a comforting hoof on his shoulder. Noel did not shrug it off. “It’s not your fault.” Minuette said sadly.
“Actually, it is. I saw him get injured and I rushed to help him. I saw the Mary Sue who attacked him and I went after her. She got away and I completely forgot about him. I’m his commanding officer, I was supposed to look after him. Healing him as soon as the battle was over should’ve been my first priority. There’s really no excuse for what I failed to do.”
Minuette took her hoof off his shoulder. “You made a mistake. We all do.”
Noel nodded. “Yeah, I did.... Well, there’s no use dwelling on it.” He stood up and started walking back to the building to continue guarding it, the blue pony trotting on his heels. “So,” he said as he sat down next to the door, “was there anything you wanted to discuss?”
“Yeah.” She said, sitting on her haunches. “Are you a Mary Sue?”
Noel raised an eyebrow. “What? No, I’m not.”
“Then why do you look like them?”
“I’m a human. Mary Sue’s come in all shapes and sizes. Some of them can change their appearance, but the vast majority of them stay in their original bodies. The fact that they can also look like humans is just a coincidence.”
“So why do you hunt them?”
“Because they mess with worlds and shape them in ways that they’re not supposed to. Most hunters, like me, are also able to do that but we’re only allowed to use our powers to reverse any damage. We’re NOT allowed to change anything to how we like it, or because a world was in the process of dying and so on. We kill Mary Sue’s and then move on. But, there are some hunters that used to be Mary Sues themselves. We aren’t exactly picky when recruiting new hunters these days.”
“I see. That’s... a lot to process. So, why the name, Mary Sue? It sounds like a female name rather than the name of an entire species.”
“That’s because it is a female name. While not the first Mary Sue, she was indeed the most prominent example and so we named the rest of them after her. And since it’s a female name, whenever we see a male Mary Sue we call him that. They get so pissed off and it’s hilarious.” Noel grinned. “But that’s enough about me and my organization. What about you?”
“What?”
“Hey, just because I’m here on a job doesn’t mean I can’t be friendly.” Noel smiled, showing his teeth.
Minuette noticed this. “Wow... your teeth...” Oh, right, canines. Noel remembered, but before he had the chance to say anything Minuette beat him to it. “They’re so unique.” Huh, not what I expected but I’ll take it.
“Really? What makes you think so?” Maybe she’s some kind of dentist.... This narrator certainly thinks so.
“I’ve never seen or worked on teeth like those before.”
“Are you a dentist or something?”
Minuette smiled nervously again and put her hoof behind her head. “Um... yeah.” Noel’s eyes widened and he gasped. Minuette had never had that kind of reaction before when ponies, or a human in this case, found out she was a dentist. “Yeah... I understand if you don’t like the dentist....”
“Are you kidding?!” Noel was leaning close and had a giant smile on his face. “I love dentists! Dentists are awesome and they’re a vital part of any society!”
Minuette smiled so wide that it threatened to split her face. “That’s what I’ve been saying! Ponies should take the time to brush their teeth.” She stopped smiling and got a look that said ‘I suspect you of something’ and drew back. “Hold on, you’re not going to start calling me Colgate like the Mary Sues are you?”
“Like the toothpaste?”
“That’s what it is?”
“Yeah. And no, I would not do that unless you wanted me to.”
“Thanks, I’d prefer if you didn’t. They just kept calling me that, even after I told them my name.”
“Assholes.... Anyway, if you want to take a look at my teeth you’re more than welcome to.”
“Really? Sure! I’d love to!”
Noel facepalmed. “Oh wait, I should probably have some money to pay you with.”
“For what?”
“Checking my teeth.”
“I was going to check your teeth?”
Oh, she just lost her memory. Noel brought her back up to speed with current events, and repeated that he should probably have some money if she wanted to do so.
“Oh don’t worry about it!” She replied, happily. “Think of it as payment for helping out Ponyville.”
“Sure thing.” Just as Noel said that, the door to the building opened, revealing Chloe. Minuette gave her a look and paid no attention until she did a double take as soon as she noticed the horns.
“Is that a Mary Sue?” She asked, pointing at Chloe.
“No, that’s Chloe, don’t worry about her, totally harmless. She’s just not a human. She’s a succubus, a demon.” Minuette gave Noel her best ‘what the fuck’ face. “She’s a hunter like me. Like I said, we’re not exactly picky with who we recruit as hunters, especially nowadays.”
“Ah.” Was all Minuette said in response before she nodded. She then seemed content to just watch, having had enough strange things happen in Ponyville and Canterlot that it didn’t really bother her anymore.
“Chloe,” Noel said, standing up, “I assume you’re done in there?”
“Yes. I found out some interesting information as well.” She responded, idly inspecting her fingernails as she did so. “Not as much as we’d like, this one was either kept on the down low or he was simply ignorant.”
“That’s not what I meant. I mean, you cleaned up right?”
“Yes.”
“So if I go in there right now, I won’t find a bloody mess?” Minuette’s face scrunched up a little as Noel said that.
Chloe’s eyes darted to the door for a while until settling back on Noel. “Yes.” Was the eventual answer.
As soon as she answered him, Noel walked straight into the building. Chloe had indeed answered truthfully. There was no bloody mess. Just a regular mess. Chairs and tables had been tossed around with careless abandon and there were glass plates among other things shattered on the floor. There was no Mary Sue body to be found at least.... Or maybe that could actually be kind of worrying. One of the only things that was untouched was a cookie jar. Full of cookies. Delicious cookies….
When Noel walked out after about a minute he grabbed Chloe by the shoulder. “Tell me what you found out. Then restore that room to its rightful order.”
Chloe groaned. “Ugh, fine. He said that there was a large concentration of Mary Sues in a place called Canterlot. Wherever that is. He was actually surprisingly reluctant to give up that information.”
“Hmm, I’ve actually been to Canterlot the last time I was here.”
“What?” Chloe and Minuette said in unison.
“Long story that we don’t have time for at the moment.”
“I have no idea how I got here.” Minuette said, her eyes looking off into the far distance. Noel quickly explained everything to the poor girl.
“She alright?” Chloe asked, jerking a thumb at the pony, who didn’t even seem capable of paying attention.
“Not really, she just needs some rest and she’ll be fine.” He was about to walk off but stopped himself. “Oh hey wait, I’ve been meaning to ask you. How did you capture him in the first place? When Maria teleported out she took all of her Mary Sues with her. Why didn’t she take him?”
“He was teleporting around when I was fighting him so I hit him with an anti-teleport spell to stop the fucker from moving around so much. Guess that’s why.”
“Yeah. And don’t forget that room.” Chloe groaned in frustration once more before heading inside the building. Noel tapped his communication crystal and called Carlotta. “Hey, Carlotta. I’ll need you to find Discord for me.”
“Who?” Came the immediate reply.
“That draconequus we ran into when we first got here.” Is everyone going to keep asking me questions?
“Oh yeah, I forgot.”
“Find him for me and have him do a mass teleport back to where we were summoned. Once we’re there we’ll start planning our next move and we can get camp set up.”
“Correction. You’ll be setting up camp.” She said with such a smugness Noel could practically feel it oozing from the crystal.
“Fuuuuck you.” Was all Noel responded with. Well, this will certainly be an easier deployment than last time with this many hunters around... hopefully.
“I can taste colors!” Minuette called out to no one in particular.
Noel blasted her with a sleeping spell so that she could sleep off the effects that the deaths of the Mary Sues were having on her, making her pass out in the middle of the road. He considered moving her to a somewhat safer location. Which lasted for about two seconds once he remembered that this was the land of magical, talking, candy-colored, and overly friendly ponies. ….Eh, she’ll be fine.
Chapter Three: Don't Look at Explosions
_____I’ve said many things before in my life. I’ve preached that ponies should be kind, loving, caring... nonviolent. I’ve supported giving anypony at least a second chance to redeem themselves. I have tried, patiently I might add, to adhere to my own philosophy. Somebody (no not somepony, somebody) taught me otherwise when my kingdom started falling apart to the machinations of beings calling themselves Mary Sues, yet also vehemently denying it. It was as he was helping Luna and I that I made an exception. Mary Sues. Must. Die.
I don’t know how much longer I have to stay lucid enough to project my thoughts in some manner. I know Noel is on this world and Maria is manipulating my mind and my sister’s. For a brief moment I almost had control of my body and I knew... I knew Noel had somehow made it back to this world. Was it Discord who brought him here? I don’t know. I can only hope that Noel brought help as there are simply too many to handle on his own. Please, if anypony, anyone, anybody listening at all to this, if you can hear me, please send help. Help my little ponies. Help us ma-
_____ *static*
_____ Now, now, Celestia. We wouldn’t want people to get the wrong idea now would we? Oh love of my life.
*Twilight*
A hundred questions flowed through my mind that I wanted to ask Noel about. Sure, he answered all my questions but some of... scratch that, all but a few of his answers left even more questions. Like, who’s his master exactly? What’s the culture like? Why are they able to use magic at all. When was he here in Equestria before? Are humans immortal? I hadn’t exactly had the chance to study humans more in-depth with my time on Earth but I’m entirely positive that they can’t be immortal. He said he didn’t remember a village being here when he was here last time. But that means Noel was here before the founding of Ponyville which would have to make him at least the age of Granny Smith, yet he looks like he’s still in his twenties. How is that possible? I’ll have to convince him to let me run some tests. Then again... all the questions could also boil down to one specific question. Should we even trust him?
I mean, come on, what if he’s lying? It’s entirely possible. He comes in, pretends to save the day, lower our guard, and do... something. And just who exactly is his master that he mentioned? Noel’s words echoed in my mind, ‘He’d rather be studying or researching or something.’ Whoever he is... he sounds a lot like how I was. I hope I get to meet him anyway, despite what Noel said about him not being a nice person.
It was as I was deep in thought that I stumbled on a rock and I started falling down. I was in the process of righting myself with magic when the hunter known as Kayla caught me before I even had the chance. She certainly had fast reflexes.
“Are you okay?” She asked me.
It was around this time I realized that we were already back in Ponyville and I hadn’t even noticed it. I also took into account just how tall humans were in comparison to ponies. Kayla herself towered over me by nearly two feet according to my calculations. I had no idea humans were this big, but then again I had no way to compare sizes at any point in time. “Uh, yeah, thanks.” I responded.
“Good.” Kayla said with a smile and then continued to walk ahead of us. “This is your stop. If you need me or anyone else just ask for us.” She said with a wave and then she was off.
I took a closer look at her equipment. She had a single sword at her hips and her armor looked a lot like Noel’s. Now, I’m curious about the height difference. Maybe they’re not actually human, or they’re a different species of human. When I was on Earth the people there looked much different. I don’t care what Noel claims about his master, until I know otherwise, the Earth I went to has be the one he’s from. But then again, he said humans normally can’t use magic.... Does that mean some can study and learn magic on their own? I thought Earth didn’t have magic, even if they did for a short time while I was there.
A thought hit me as I suddenly remembered something Noel said. He said he wasn’t from Earth! But how is that even possible either? The chances of the same or similar species evolving in two different places are low. And in this case, with two separate worlds, the chances of that happening are astronomical at best, and impossible at worst. I needed to find out more about what Noel knew.... Oh if only the other princesses were here, especially Celestia, she’d know how to handle this.
*Noel’s camp*
Oh holy shit I forgot to ask about Celestia when Twilight was here! Noel thought as he just remembered and then proceeded to bang his head on the table. Looks like I’ve gotta go find her again. Well, off to Ponyville. But before that.... Noel turned to Todd. “Todd,” he said, the man looking up from cleaning his rifle in response, “I want you to go find Discord, then ask him to get you close to Canterlot so you can scout it out. Report back to me in person as soon as you can.”
“Yes sir.” Todd stood, saluted, nodded and went off to complete his task.
Now to find Twilight. Noel thought as he went outside and used the crystal in the camp that acted as a teleportation waypoint between the camp and the other crystal they had set up in Ponyville, allowing quick access. Huh, I wonder why I didn’t have Kayla use the crystal to bring those ponies back to Ponyville in the first place. Would’ve saved them the trouble of walking. Ah fuck it, whatever. Noel felt a tug on his body as in an instant he was transported from one place to another.
After getting his bearings for a few seconds, teleportation always made him feel queasy during his first few experiences with it. He’d eventually gotten used to it by now but the effect of having things completely switched around instantly would leave just about anyone slightly disoriented.
When Noel looked around he saw he was on the outskirts of Ponyville, he would see about talking to the closest thing this town had to a government official, though that would probably be Twilight, to move the crystal closer. There were probably laws about setting up things like that, he didn’t need to get into legal arguments since he would have to acquiesce anything to the ruling government no matter what he did. Luckily, it didn’t take him more than thirty seconds to get inside the town. As he looked around he could see that his hunters were doing their best to repair damage and restore ponies to health. He knew, or at least suspected, that many would want to have their memories about the whole endeavor erased. But that was before, maybe things had changed in the years he was gone.
It didn’t take him long to find Twilight, all things considered. She was standing next to an earth pony mare with a grey mane wearing some sort of... tie... thing... and glasses with a scroll for a cutie mark. She looked important. Neither had noticed him since they were facing the other way.
Before Noel managed to walk up to her, Twilight began talking to the other pony. “Yes, mayor,” Ah, so she’s the mayor, that makes sense. Noel thought. “Mare.” Oh wait, what? Is it mare mare, mayor mare, or mayor mayor or something? Is her name spelled differently but just sounds like that? Well shit, doesn’t matter now. “I understand but these... hunters could be dangerous. Should we even trust them?”
“Twilight, they’re repairing the town and are healing ponies. How are they evil?” The mayor mayor... mare mare... fuck it I’m using MM so there’s no confusion until Noel and I know for sure what her actual name is. Noel because he doesn’t know, me because I’m not allowed to read ahead in the script. Either way, the MM raised a hoof and waved it around, pointing at Ponyville to emphasize her point.
“I didn’t say evil.” Twilight responded. “I said they could be dangerous.”
“I don’t blame you for being distrustful of us, Twilight.” Noel said from behind the two.
Both mares jumped and Twilight looked ready to cast a spell. Her horn stopped glowing once she realized who it was and she relaxed slightly. “Oh, it’s you, Noel. You shouldn’t sneak up on ponies like that!” Twilight scolded. Did she just scold me? Dude yes I just said that weren’t you- wait- never mind, you can’t hear me.
“Sorry.” Was all Noel had to say. His face was expressionless since he was still wearing his helmet on his belt.
Twilight facehoofed. “Mayor, this is the man I was talking to you about.”
“So... you’re the mayor of this town?” Noel asked, turning to MM.
“Yes.”
“So, your full name would be Mayor Mare Mare?” Oh shit I think I’m just now starting to realize the pun....
“Uh, no.”
“Her name is Mare.” Twilight said.
“So... mayor as in, the mayor of a town... and mare as in... a female pony?” Noel slowly asked, to which both ponies nodded. I think my brain just tried to kill itself, it definitely doused itself with gasoline, all it’s missing is the match. You and me both, Noel. Oh hey, his right eye twitched a little bit. Noel calmed himself down quickly though. “Alright then. Princess Twilight, I was hoping to talk to you about something.”
“How do you know I’m a princess?” Twilight asked.
“Last time I checked when I was last here, all alicorns were designated as princesses.”
“We still need to talk about that.”
“Later. For now, I was hoping you or the mayor here could help me with-”
“Look out below!” Came a rather loud voice from the sky in Noel’s right ear, cutting him off. Of course, it only seemed so loud because it was actually so close, Noel didn’t know that though. When he turned his head at the source he could see why it was so loud. Time seemed to slow down. He saw a grey pegasus with a blonde mane only inches away from his face. Inches away from crashing into him as she had her eyes tightly shut, prepared for the inevitable. Multiple thoughts ran through Noel’s mind... what he’d been doing with his life. If he done enough, if he had more to live for, so on and so forth. It is at this moment that I realize.... I am about to get hurt. Noel thought. He thought all of that in the split second that it took for hardheaded, literally in this case, pegasus to meet squishy human. Time went back to normal.
There was a loud crash as both combatants crashed into the dirt, kicking up a cloud of dust from their epic battle as Noel was plowed into the dirt, leaving a marked trail behind him as he slid. The victorious pegasus stood up proudly, looked down at her defeated opponent and asked. “Hey, mister, are you alright?”
Noel looked up. He thankfully had a weak version of his magic shield active that had protected him from any of the damage. “Yeah. Thanks for asking miss...?”
“Derpy, Derpy Hooves!” She said cheerfully.
Noel got a better look at her. He saw that she had bubbles for a cutie mark with a mailbag hanging at her side, there were some letters strewn about the place and he could also see that her eyes were... cross-eyed... or something. His master had a scientific name for it, which Noel was suddenly able to remember for some reason. Strabismus was it? That was kind of cool, actually. “Well, miss Hooves. Would you kindly move so I can stand up?” Noel said with a grin adorning one half of his face.
“Okay! You can call me, Derpy, by the way.”
Noel sat up but he didn’t feel like standing quite yet. He set about grabbing the letters with his magic and started putting them back into her mailbag. “Okay, Derpy it is then. I hope you’re okay, you should be more careful in the future.” Though looking at her, Noel didn’t know if he should even bother telling her that, she didn’t have a scratch on her.
“Sure thing, mister! I gotta get going!” She jumped up and started flying. Upside down. Noel had no idea how the letters weren’t flying all over the place, especially when she didn’t get more than twenty meters before crashing once again. At least she got back up and tried again.
Twilight walked up to Noel. “Are you okay, Noel? You must’ve gotten hit pretty hard.”
“I did but I’m okay. I always keep a weak magic shield activated at all times and I didn’t get hurt because of it. That crash took it out, though so I’m going to reactivate a slightly stronger one. You ponies fly at astonishing speeds.”
“Wait, what did you say?”
“You ponies fly at astonishing speeds.”
Twilight shook her head quickly. “No, before that.”
“I’m okay?”
“No! The thing you said about you having a magic shield!”
“Ooooh, that. Why didn’t you just say so, Twilight?” Noel struggled to keep the smirk off his face.
“You knew what I meant!”
“Alright, alright. I’ll answer your question if your mayor answers mine first.” Mayor Mare stepped forward at being mentioned. “So we have a crystal set up on the outskirts of Ponyville but I was wondering if we could move it to the center of Ponyville or at least close to the center. I wanted to ask you just in case some papers have to be filled out or something. Ponyville is the property of the denizens living here and they may or may not appreciate an ugly crystal randomly decorating the road.”
“I can make the necessary arrangements for you. No papers are necessary.”
“Awesome, thanks.” Mayor Mare walked off. Noel turned back to Twilight. “Now, Twilight, to answer your question, yes, I was using a magic shield. What do you want to know about it?”
“If it was constantly active, how come I wasn’t able to see any kind of magic actually being performed? There should have been a magical layer that could be plainly seen just like any other barrier. And if it was constantly active, wouldn’t that be a drain on your magic?”
“I wouldn’t know the entirety of the difference between our magic so I’m afraid I really can’t help you there except for a few theories which I shall talk about later. Yes, since the shield is constantly active it does drain my magic but very slowly since it’s weak. It’s more like a cushion to soften something so I don’t get hurt too badly by something, that way I’ll have ample warning and time to use a stronger shield. My magic is stronger and regenerates faster than that shield was depleting it. That’s something my master always taught and drilled into me since I was little.”
“So your master is a lot like a teacher, just like Princess Celestia was mine.”
“Uh, yes. Celestia taught you things? Oh wait, shit that’s what I came to talk to you about anyway. What’s the status on Celestia? Where is she? Or better yet, how’s she been doing before all these Mary Sues started popping up?”
“Wait, what?! How do you know the princess?”
“I was here a long time ago. But I suppose I should talk about the magic shield theory first so I don’t forget about it. I’m going to assume that since our magic is different it therefore has different properties and thus acts differently. Or it could be that since I know and have been taught different magic spells by my master that it would not be visible in the same way one of your shields would be. That’s all I got.”
“Fascinating.” Twilight sat on her haunches, tapping a hoof on her chin as she pondered Noel’s words. “I’ll have to study that at some point....” She muttered under her breath, obviously thinking that Noel couldn’t hear her.
“You can study it later.” Twilight’s head shot up and she blushed as she smiled sheepishly. “I want to know about Celestia. What can you tell me about her? How’s she been? She and I haven’t talked much since the Nightmare Moon incident with Luna a few hundred years ago. And I know she was really depressed in the letters we wrote to each other.”
“What are you talking about? That didn’t happen a few hundred years ago.” Twilight’s eyes widened. “Wait, does that mean you’re over a thousand years old?!”
“No, I’m three hundred sixty eight years old.” Hold on a second, is she saying that Luna became Nightmare Moon over a thousand years ago? Just how long have I been gone....
“That’s not possible. Luna became Nightmare Moon just a little bit over a thousand years ago and she was banished. That would have to make you at least a thousand years old.”
“I suppose I should mention that in my dimension, time moves much differently. It might go faster, or slower relative to any one universe. The only exceptions to this that I know of are Earth and the universe my master is currently residing in. This only seems to affect our home so time flows at the exact same speed as the next universe. We can slow down or speed up time in my home but as I said, only the two universes I mentioned before are immune to it. We don’t know why. So it’s possible that time moved much faster in Equestria than I was aware of.”
“That’s so interesting. How are you able to do that?”
“Magic. I don’t gotta explain shit.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “No, I mean what kind of magical theory did you use to alter the time in your dimension?”
“I... don’t really know. I just know that we do it sometimes. There are some more rules pertaining to it but I think we can discuss it later. Now, about Celestia....”
“Oh, yes. She’s... I don’t know, fine I guess? She could be a completely different pony than what you knew her as. A thousand years or a few hundred years, either way that’s a lot of time for somepony to change. I’m sorry I can’t really tell you how she is without actually taking you to her myself.”
“Well, shit. Canterlot is the capital now, right?” Twilight nodded. “It’s probably far different than what I remember last time I was here. I suppose I should also mention this isn’t even my second time being here. I’ve been called here before, always on my own until now. But yeah, Luna... or... Nightmare Moon I suppose, trashed their last castle so Celestia moved to Canterlot. It was about the size of Ponyville last I remember. Is Celestia still in Canterlot the last you heard?”
“Yes, along with Princess Luna.”
“What?!” Noel grabbed Twilight by the shoulders. “Nightmare Moon is free?! When did this happen?” He was practically shouting at this point. Twilight could tell he had a glint of fear in his eyes.
“Ugh, no, Nightmare Moon is not free. Well, I mean yes, but no at the same time, not anymore.” Twilight said, brushing Noel’s hands off her.
“What are you talking about? Ah! Brain hurts! Speak simple!” Noel said jokingly, trying to lighten his own mood.
Twilight couldn’t help but smile. “Nightmare Moon was free but she was defeated with the Elements of Harmony.”
Noel raised an eyebrow. “Wait, she was banished and sealed inside the moon when Celestia used the elements. If she used them again, wouldn’t that just banish Nightmare Moon back and start the cycle all over again?”
Twilight shook her head, a little sadly this time. “Celestia can’t use the elements anymore. Both she and Luna have been cut off from them now.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. How was she defeated with the elements if Celestia wasn’t using them?”
“We did.” Twilight said, proudly.
“Yeah, that doesn’t make any fucking sense. You can’t expect me to know what you’re talking about Twilight. Now explain it to me like I’m five fucking years old.”
“You remember my friends when we were in your tent?”
Noel thought back. He connected the dots instantly from what Twilight was obviously implying. “You’re telling me you six are the bearers of the elements?”
“That’s correct! Wow you got that pretty fast. I thought you wanted me to explain this to you like you were five.” Twilight finished with a smirk on her face.
“Shut the fuck up, Twilight. Now tell me the rest of the story.”
Twilight huffed indignantly. “I don’t think so if you’re telling me to ‘shut the fuck up’ I don’t even know what the word fuck means but I’m thinking it’s not a very nice one. Now, how do we ask for things nicely?” She said, the smirk gone and replaced by the smuggest grin on her face that she could muster.
“...This is payback for all the times I’ve teased you so far, isn’t it?”
“Yep!” The grin didn’t leave her face.
Noel sighed heavily. “Could you please tell me the rest of the story?” Fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you. Fuck you so much. I will have my revenge on you Twilight, mark my thoughts.
Twilight clopped her hooves together in victory as she sat on her haunches and launched into the telling of her story.
Twilight had gone into a great amount of detail with her story, to which Noel was silently thankful for. Not like he was going to give her the satisfaction of knowing that, though. He wasn’t sure that she probably added or forgot a few things but she probably added her own personal spin on the story. Noel would ask to examine her memories down the road, just so he had a clear picture.
At least an hour had passed. There had been a crowd that formed as Twilight was telling her story, Noel had noticed it forming around the five minute mark. When Twilight finally finished her tale, the small gathering of ponies stomped and clopped their hooves in a round of applause. Noel would, at least, admit that it was indeed a good story.
When the crowd started to disperse Noel went up to Twilight. “That was a good story,” he said. “So it took the Princess of Magic to defeat Nightmare Moon in the end, did it?”
Twilight put a hoof on the back of her head. “Actually... I wasn’t an alicorn during that time.”
“What.” Noel said so flatly it hardly constituted as a question.
“I’ve only recently... ascended.” She said, a sheepish smile on her face.
“That... makes some sense. I don’t know how long we’ll be on this world but I would like to hear the story sometime, when you have the time that is.”
Twilight smiled a bit more genuinely this time. “Thanks. I think it’d be nice to have an alien perspective on this.”
Noel’s communication crystal beeped and he answered it once he realized it was from Todd. “Sir, I’ve scouted out Canterlot.” Todd said.
“That was quick.” Noel responded. At least things are looking up.”What’d you find out?”
“I have good news and horrific news.” Well fuck. It was good while it lasted. Yeah, nice going Noel.
Twilight’s eyes had widened during this time and she studied the crystal as much as she could from the distance that she was allowed. Such a fascinating piece of magical equipment! I wonder if he’d let me study it.... She thought.
Noel sighed. “Well fuck,” he repeated aloud, “tell me the good news first.”
“Well, I managed to get a good idea of the layout of the surrounding area. There’s some good vantage points that I can take that would allow me to get some good shots in. I was also able to place markers that would allow us to teleport in at multiple locations around the city and allow me to monitor how many Mary Sues are in the vicinity. That’s... where the bad news starts.”
“Let me guess, an abnormally large population of MS’s?” Noel deadpanned.
“Yes.... And when I say I’m giving a conservative estimate with this I really mean it. By my calculations, the lowest number I can possibly give is ten thousand of them.”
Noel sunk down into the dirt upon hearing those words. “You... b-b-but....” We have, what? Thirty five hunters with us, in total? That’s nowhere near enough.... There’s too many. “That’s... too much for us. We don’t have nearly the amount of manpower or ammo to take them on in any situation.”
“And that’s not the worst of it I’m afraid. They’ve brainwashed the population there, no surprise, but they’ve managed to dig their heels in so far and so brazenly that there’s no possible way they’re not daring us to come in after them. And they’re multiplying Noel. And I don’t mean a new MS is coming in once a week when they’re really trying to invade a world I mean there’s at least one popping up within every hour.” Noel’s jaw dropped. “And it’s just going to get worse as they keep coming with more frequency.”
Noel stared off into the distance for a brief moment before he got his bearings. “I need to get into contact with my master and the council as soon as possible. Tell the rest of the hunters to gather at my position.”
“Yes sir.” And Todd ran off to complete his duty.
The communication crystal stopped glowing and Noel decided to simply lie on his back stare up into the sky. There were going to be a lot of hunter deaths no matter what he did. Twilight walked over to him and sat next to him. “Noel,” she said, “explain to me what’s going on. Please, I have no idea what’s going on so please do so in detail.”
Noel sighed but didn’t move from his position. He did, however, decide to speak. “When Mary Sues decide that they really, REALLY want a world they appear in greater numbers and with greater frequency. The shortest time observed has been a total of three coming through at the same time in the span of one week. Then they have to wait at least another week. However, on average, a Mary Sue will pop on a world occasionally around every five or so years. But this...” he waved his arms, “I have no idea what’s going on. I can only apply my training here and hope for the best. I don’t know what I’m really supposed to do in this situation. Just... UGH!” He let out a massive groan of frustration, his arm covering his face.
That was why he didn’t notice Twilight’s horn light up, envelop him in her magical aura and sit him up straight until he removed his arm from his eyes in surprise. He didn’t expect the hug from Twilight. “Why are you-?” Was all he had time to attempt to ask before Twilight shushed him.
“Noel. I know this is going to be difficult for you. You may even lose some friends.” She pulled away, her face solemn. “I wish there was an alternative to killing, and I’m going to try to advocate for a peaceful resolution. But I know that you can do this.”
Noel grunted in response, but a smile still adorned his face. “I forgot how friendly ponies were. Not to mention cute, soft, and cuddly.”
Twilight jerked back and blushed. “Uh, well... I’m glad you think ponies are cute, soft, and cuddly.”
Noel laughed. “You know what, I think we should talk later, if I survive this ordeal. But first, I need to contact the council about getting reinforcements then I’ll answer a few questions. Particularly about this thing,” he said, pointing at the crystal set in his gauntlet. “Yeah, I saw you checking this out.” He stood up.
“Well I want to know how it works! It looks fascinating!” She exclaimed excitedly.
That got a chuckle out of Noel. “Well, we can talk about it later. For now, I would like you to give me some space. You can also observe what I’m about to do if you would like to get a feel for what I’m doing.” Twilight backed up a few spaces, hoping that she was giving him a respectful distance. Thankfully she did and Noel started going through some motions that looked practiced but also deliberately slow. Twilight pulled her quill and notepad from... somewhere... and started making notes. Without her trusty assistant Spike to record things, she would have to do it herself. Then again, this is probably more efficient. Spike is good for writing down things verbatim, not taking notes on the applications of magic and arcane practices. Twilight idly thought.
After about ten seconds, Twilight made sure to make a separate sketch by making another quill and notepad appear and record Noel’s motions thoroughly, a swirling ball of magical energy appeared. It started to grow until it finally opened a portal. Twilight could only stare in awe. With a spell like that at our disposal.... We could revolutionize modern magic! Distances would be made inconsequential! Supplies could be delivered instantaneously! Depending on whether or not there’s a lag time between the two portals, that is. Travel between great distances could be made so much easier and we could avoid raiding parties. Oh and exploration! Think of the things we could discover! Twilight thought with such glee she almost didn’t pay attention to what Noel began to say when he tapped that communication crystal.
“This is Noel. I am requesting an emergency talk with the council. I have urgent news that they need to be aware of for this mission. Authorization code, Delta 30262. Please acknowledge.”
“Authorization recognized. Request granted. Patching you through.” Came the response from the crystal. Unknown to the ponies, all voices that go through a portal, especially one that connects to two different universes, are distorted. Most of the time, it’s only slightly. To the point that it’s barely noticeable in some cases.
After a few seconds another voice spoke. “This is Claudia.” A female voice said, clearly annoyed. “Noel, you better have a damn good reason for using that authorization code.”
“I’m in dire need of reinforcements. We came to this world woefully unprepared. I need you to requisition at least an entire brigade of hunters for this mission.”
Claudia scoffed. “Noel, the last time we spoke you told me a platoon was overkill for this mission, now you want an entire BRIGADE? There’s absolutely no way you need that many-”
“The reports and amount of intelligence my subordinates have gathered changed my mind. We’re easily looking at a population of at least ten thousand Mary Sues.”
There was a faint sound of something breaking accompanied by a long pause. Twilight was not aware that Claudia has just dropped her coffee mug in disbelief. “You’re...” she finally managed to croak out, “talking about the entire population on that planet, right?”
“I wish I was. That’s just the amount of MS’s located in one location. I have no doubt there’s more out there, staying hidden.”
“Fuck.... I’m sorry, Noel. I’m going to say this now but there’s absolutely no way we can spare that many hunters at the moment. I’m not even sure if we can spare a thousand.”
“Well what can you fucking send us? If I try to get in there with even a few hundred hunters we’ll get slaughtered.”
“I don’t know, but I’ll see what I can do. It’ll... take some time. But they must not be actively attacking you, are they?”
“No, thankfully enough. They’re perfectly content to just dig their heels in and hide behind the walls of a city, for now.”
“I’ll make sure I get reinforcements there as soon as I can. Just... hold out, okay?” There was worry very much evident in her voice.
“I’ll get in touch with my master soon, as well. Noel out.” And without waiting for a response he closed the portal. Noel let out a sigh and turned to Twilight while also deciding to sit down.
Twilight walked up to Noel and sat on her haunches. She made no move to hug him this time. “So I guess things are really bad then?”
“Yeah. But I promised to answer your question.”
“Doesn’t preparing for... killing...” Twilight rolled the word off her tongue with some disdain, “Mary Sues take priority, or something? What about contacting your master?”
“We have time for both later. Now, this,” he said, tapping the crystal but not activating it, “is called a communication crystal. I think that just by hearing the name you can guess what it does.”
“It allows you to talk in real-time instead of having to send messages and waiting for a response?”
“Precisely. It has a limited range but that range is extended almost indefinitely if there has been an established link between two or more crystals. That’s why I’m able to talk to my soldiers here at such great distances. It definitely won’t work with sending messages through other universes, though. That’s why I had to open a portal to my dimension so that I could send a message to the council, or Claudia as the case happened to be. Don’t know why she was the only one there, I normally would’ve heard other council members talking in the background about the news I told them, at least. Still, when I opened the portal, the distance was effectively only about ten feet away at most. The signal goes through the portal and comes out the other end, just like sending anything else through.”
“Oh.” Twilight pondered with a hoof on her chin before asking her next question. “So what can you tell me about the portals you use then? I’m sure it’s complicated so I want to know how transportation works. What would happen if you opened a portal underwater? Wouldn’t the water start flooding through?”
“Excellent question, actually. My master encountered that problem when he started refining portals. Thankfully, he was able to perfect it, as far as I know, at least, for our use. The portal only allows things through that you send or want to go through. Can’t stop anything on the other side if it wants to come through, though. Not unless you put a barrier up.”
“I hope I get the chance to study under your master. He seems like he’s done so many good things! He could be like our world’s Starswirl the Bearded!”
“I knew that guy....” Noel started to say but he saw Twilight’s eyes widen with excitement. “But not like that, Twilight!” The eyes that were filled with disappointment would drive a lesser man to tears.... Maybe. “He and I only said hi to each other. I can guarantee you that Luna or Celestia could tell you more. I know of him, but not much to make a comparison to him and my master.”
“Oh.” Her adorable eyes went back to normal. Now that Noel really thought about it, all the ponies had cute eyes. If someone was really susceptible, and if the ponies really wanted to, the cuteness could be weaponized.
“As for being apprenticed under my master.... I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“Why not?” There was a head tilt. I’ve been here before, did the ponies evolve to be more cute?
“If my time here in Equestria and with Celestia was any indication, my master’s methods would be radically different.”
“I said study, not apprenticed. Perhaps your master could give me spell books, ooh! Like a trade!”
“He... might actually agree to that.”
Twilight did a hoof pump at that. Yeah, definitely hasn’t been an alicorn for long, let alone at birth. She’s so full of life; she hasn’t had decades to temper her with experience. Noel idly thought. “Noel!” Came a shout from a familiar voice, it was definitely filled with urgency.
Noel turned and saw that it was Todd sprinting towards him. “Todd,” he started to ask, “what is it?”
“We’ve got a problem.” Todd responded, coming to a halt in front of Noel.
“What’s wrong?”
Twilight had risen to her feet by this point, able to tell that something was obviously wrong with the franticness in Todd’s voice. “What’s going on?” She asked.
Todd turned and pointed in the distance. “That!”
The human and alicorn princess looked at what Todd was pointing at. What they saw resembled something human but it was huge and bulky. And it was walking calmly towards Ponyville, stepping on and crushing anything that got in its way. “Is that a Mary Sue?” Twilight asked.
Todd shook his head. “No. We just found that out the hard way. He’s incapacitated at least three hunters already. I tried shooting him but his armor is too tough and my scanners show he’s not under the influence of Mary Sues.”
“So what is he doing here?” Noel asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Mary Sue HUNTERS!” Was the bellowed response Noel got. The trio took a closer look at the giant man, if it could even be called that. It was indeed a giant, standing at least five meters tall. Armor that looked scorched covered it head-to-toe. It lumbered towards the center of the town, completely trampling everything in its way and leaving large footprints from its sheer weight. A massive sword that no unmodified human could possibly hope to lift was carried in a single hand.
Noel decided to make sure that a fight would be avoided as much as possible. “That would be me and my friend here, along with at least a dozen other hunters in this town.” No reason to give him our real numbers like a dumbass. Though, I wouldn’t be surprised if the MS’s somehow already knew how many of us there are. “What is your business here?” He would have asked why he had attacked the hunters as well, but that was assuming this giant had made the first move in the first place. Besides, Todd had neglected to let him know who provoked who. Then again... he knew who and what the hunters were....
The giant stopped where he was. “To get rid of your presence here in Equestria.” He responded.
“Mine in particular right? Or just one of us? Because I can guarantee you that I can just get one of us to leave if that’s the case. No need for violence here.... Deal?” Noel finished with an uneasy grin. No way in hell he would actually accept that. Hopefully that can buy us a few precious seconds of not having to fight this guy.
The giant growled, completely audible from the distance he was at between the hunters and himself, before launching himself forward. The ground shook with every step that he took. He was surprisingly fast and he closed the distance in a few mere seconds as he lifted the sword high above his head. “No deal!” He shouted before bringing the sword down. Noel grabbed Twilight as both he and Todd moved out of the way, the sword just barely missing them. The massive piece of metal sunk deep into the earth, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Noel jumped up on top of a nearby roof to get a better look on how to fight this battle, Twilight still in his arms. With the dust settling he saw other hunters start to engage the giant as it attempted to dislodge the sword from the ground. Twilight jumped out of his arms, a determined look on her face. It was the telltale sign of the makings of a great leader. “He just wants the hunters.” She said. “Let me go and talk with him, see if we can work something out.”
“Bad idea.” Was the response from Noel.
Twilight turned her head, her eyes narrowing. “And why is that?”
“Think about it. When he attacked us you were between Todd and I; meaning that he didn’t care if he killed you in the process.”
Twilight looked back at the giant. “But if he’s not a Mary Sue that means you don’t have to kill him. This can still be resolved without killing.”
“Maybe.” Noel and Twilight noticed that the ponies had thankfully fled the scene, only the hunters were presently fighting the giant. “I need to get down there and help my hunters. If you can think of something to help do it quickly.” With that Noel put his helmet on, jumped down and ran into the fray, leaving Twilight to quickly think about several scenarios.
A few houses had human-sized holes in them from hunters being tossed into them. Unfortunately, there were still ponies inside those homes and a few had been crushed and killed. The giant had a hunter in his hand and he had started to squeeze when Todd took a shot at his head. The impact made the giant flinch and he dropped the hunter. He turned his attention to Todd, who took a few more shots before running off. The giant grabbed a chunk of earth and rock and hurled it at the running hunter. Todd swiveled to take another shot but he noticed the huge boulder too late as he was firing and he turned around to continue running only to be hit in the back.
Noel shot a magic blast at the giant while his back was turned. He expected that to at least hurt the creature but it only turned its head and bellowed. It turned back to its sword and with a mighty heave it pulled its weapon free. Noel fired another blast of magical energy, fully intending to kill. The giant merely shrugged it off as he made a sweeping motion, forcing Noel to jump high and land on the building behind him. The blade’s reach was longer than expected and it collided with the building, cutting its supports and sending it crashing with Noel still on top. Noel anchored himself with magic for a brief second before launching himself at the giant’s armored face, his foot wreathed in magical energy. When the impact was made there was a small explosion and Noel was repelled off but he could see that the giant was reeling from the blow.
Unfortunately, it recovered just as quickly and brought its sword down once more just as Noel was landing on the ground. Noel saw the sword and barely had time to move out of the way and then back flip to avoid the massive armored fist that slammed the ground in another attempt to get him. The fist pulled back and was heading towards Noel once again. Noel was completely cornered with no more room to dodge so he put his arms up protectively, trying to gather as much energy into his magic shields as possible and hope for the best when the inevitable blow would come. He didn’t have much hope, knowing that his magic couldn’t gather fast enough and the amount of force behind the blow would probably kill him even if he had his shields fully powered. And so Noel waited, his eyes shut tightly, waiting for his end. But it never came. Instead he felt a tug of magic on him even as he heard a resounding boom.
Noel opened his eyes and saw that he had been teleported back to the roof where he left Twilight at. The giant was in the distance, though not more than twenty meters, his fist still in the building until he pulled out. More hunters started attacking the giant and his attention was thankfully focused upon them instead. I think I know who I have to thank. Noel thought as he looked up at his savior and, as he had predicted, stood Twilight. “Thanks.” He managed to force out as he began to pant and look back at the giant once more. What the fuck is with this guy? He keeps shrugging off my attacks like they’re nothing.
“No problem.” Twilight responded as her horn lit up and engulf Noel in a magical aura as she helped him stand up. “You helped us, it’s only fitting that I help you. I think I know a way to knock him unconscious.”
“If it involves magic don’t even try it.”
“Why not?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.
“My attacks were utterly useless against him. And look,” he said, pointing at the scene unfolding before them, “he’s just shrugging off magic like it’s nothing.”
Twilight saw that Noel indeed spoke the truth. Every bolt of magic fired at the giant bounced off harmlessly, washed over, or faded away. “But how? There are species that have resistance to magic like dragons but nothing at this kind of level!”
“I don’t know what the fuck is with this guy. Maybe it’s his armor, or his sword, or maybe he has some kind of innate magic resistance. Do you really want to go through the process of finding out? Because at this rate he’s going to slaughter us. He hasn’t killed any of my hunters but I bet you he’s probably killed some ponies in collateral damage alone.” He grabbed Twilight by her shoulders for the second time today. “So think this through, Twilight. Is a nonviolent solution even possible at this point and is it even worth it?”
Twilight looked as though she’d been slapped. She looked at the damage the giant had caused and amidst the rubble she managed to spot a severed leg of a pony. A tear came to her eyes and she looked back at Noel. He wasn’t crying but Twilight could see he was panicking slightly through the eye-slits in his helmet; a somewhat pleading look in his eyes. Twilight nodded. “I’ll help you.” With a twist of her head, her horn glowed and shot a beam of magic at the giant, hitting it dead-on.
And it shouted in pain.
Noel and Twilight’s eyes widened. “I thought he was resistant to magic?” Twilight wondered aloud.
“It’s just against hunters, it has to be. Look!” Noel said, pointing. “The hunter’s magic still isn’t working!” The giant was thankfully still occupied with the other hunters as it tried swatting at them like flies. “Twilight, I have an idea. I can supercharge your magic if I start pouring energy into you. Then you can use it to kill him!”
Twilight shook her head vigorously. “No, get somepony else to do it. I can’t kill something.”
Noel didn’t get the chance to make a counterargument when the giant let out a massive roar that demanded everyone’s attention. Noel and Twilight looked at the giant as he plunged his sword into the ground and a large sphere of energy expanded outwards from him, knocking away every single hunter close to him and tearing off the roofs of some buildings and even the foundation of at least one house. Noel saw for a brief moment Kayla’s face as she flew past him and hit a billboard that happened to be on the building that Twilight and Noel were both standing on. Convenient. Now that I think about it, it’s the only building there that doesn’t have a sloped roof. Strange. “Kayla!” Noel shouted as he rushed over to her.
“Hey, Noel.” She croaked out. She looked relatively unharmed, still bruised but nothing life-threatening. “The fuck is with this guy?”
“Beats me.”
“Guys....” Twilight shakily said. Noel and Kayla looked behind and saw Twilight pointing at the giant... heading straight towards them. It took calm, great, lumbering steps, assured of its victory. When it finally stopped it had a scowl on its face from being denied its quarry for so long. It wasn’t quite able to tower over the building but it could still easily reach over and grab Noel, Twilight, and Kayla if it wanted to.
“Noel,” Kayla said, grasping his arm and putting something in his hand. “Take this.” Noel took the object and recognized that it felt like a magic grenade. Hopefully this’ll do something once I get the chance to use it.
The giant growled and started lifting his sword above his head. And that was when a most unexpected thing happened. Something hit it in the back of the head and landed on the roof, sprawled on all fours. “Derpy?” Noel asked in disbelief when he saw who it was.
“Oh, sorry about that!” Derpy said, obviously completely oblivious to the danger behind her.
The giant had a stunned look on its face which quickly contorted in rage as it reached for Derpy. Noel grabbed Derpy and threw her out of the way just in time for the giant’s fist to enclose around him. Noel was brought close to the giant’s face. Twilight was distracted as Noel had unfortunately thrown Derpy straight into her and knocked her off her hooves... feet... fuck it, we’ll just go with feet. “Do you have any last words before I crush the life out of you?” The giant said.
“Yeah.” Noel responded with a smile, his voice strained in the giant’s vice grip. “Don’t look at explosions.”
The giant gave his best what-the-fuck look which continued as he inspected a small sphere floating very close to his eyes... when then proceeded to explode.
The giant gave a roar of pain as he was blinded and dropped Noel in the process. Noel landed on his ass and saw that the giant was angrier than ever. Well, that’s all I got. Noel thought with defeat as the giant raised his sword and started bringing it down.
“Now, now.” A familiar voice rang out. “We can’t have that.” All looked at the sword the giant was holding. Except, that it wasn’t a sword anymore, it was Discord he was now holding. He was in the general shape of a sword but bent out of shape to make sure that the others were unharmed. The giant backed up and let go of Discord who transformed back into his ‘normal’ self. “Ah!” He said, stretching and getting the cricks out of his back. “Getting bent all out of shape can do wonders for your back!” He extended a paw to the giant. “Hi! I’m Discord!”
The giant took another step back before taking a swing at Discord who merely separated his body to avoid the fist and then reattached his body parts. “I’m sorry, but it looks like we got off on the wrong foot.” The giant suddenly started wobbling as his foot literally wandered off. “Oh, but you’re rather rude. You didn’t even give me your name! We should remedy that, but first let’s bring you down to a more manageable size, hmm?” And the giant started shrinking, his foot was now reattached to his body, and he kept shrinking and shrinking until Discord stuck him in an impossible bottle. “Much better.” Discord said, rattling the former giant around in the bottle.
Noel jumped down from the building with Kayla and Derpy floating right behind him with his magic, but there was no visible aura like a unicorn or alicorn. Twilight teleported down a second later to join the group. Noel set Derpy and Kayla down gently and walked up to Discord, panting heavily. “Thanks, Discord. I’m glad you came by when you did. I was completely out of tricks to throw against this guy.”
“Oh don’t worry about it. You saved this world before, Noel.” Discord held up the bottle and looked at the tiny man inside. “It’s about time I returned the favor.” Discord held out the bottle to Noel. “Would you like the honors?” He asked, knowing that Noel knew full well what Discord meant by the question.
“No. I don’t think my magic would work on him anyway so I doubt I’d be able to get any answers out of him because he was just shrugging off our hunter magic. From what I’ve seen, you’d have better luck than I would.”
“Hmm. Very well.” Discord snaked a talon down into the bottle, god that’s kind of creepy, and touched the tiny giant on the head. Twilight shivered, reminded of a bad experience with the first encounter that they had with Discord when she saw the tiny giant’s eyes swirl. “His name is Carl.” Discord said, pulling away.
“Seriously?” Noel said, snickering all the while.
“Yep. Pretty interesting story behind him though. I’ll have something special waiting for you in Twilight’s library, written in a detailed report when you go for it. And I just finished writing the report. When you go in there... well, trust me, you’ll recognize it.”
“Thanks, Discord. Now hand me the bottle, please.” Discord complied. As he was doing so, however, Twilight’s other friends started showing up, starting with Rainbow Dash.
“What happened here?!” She exclaimed. “There’s... dead ponies here....” She stopped flapping her wings and landed next to Twilight.
“You noticed that too, huh?” Twilight responded, grimly. Rainbow only nodded. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy soon followed, in that order. They each asked the same question, but none of them seemed to notice any of the dead ponies like Rainbow Dash and Twilight.
“What happened here,” Noel said, lifting the bottle containing Carl, “was the result of this guy.”
Rainbow Dash flew up and inspected the bottle. “This little guy? Psh, he doesn’t look like he could harm a fly.”
“Well, he was bigger a few minutes ago. A lot bigger. Discord here helped bring him under control. By the way,” he said, pointing at Discord, “you got everything of importance from his memories, didn’t you?”
“Even better, I have them all stored in here, too.” Discord said, tapping his skull.
“Good. That means I can do this.” Noel smashed the bottle on the ground, sending Carl sprawling. Noel bent down and picked him up in one hand, not unlike Carl had done to Noel himself earlier. “Hello, Carl. I want you to look at all this damage you caused.” He said, making Carl look at the destruction. The other ponies looked like they were about to intervene but Twilight stopped them with a hoof and shook her head. “Yes, that’s right, get a good look.” Noel put two fingers on Carl’s head, pinching him slightly. And then he twisted. There was a tiny little cracking sound and the tearing sound of flesh as Noel pulled Carl’s head off his body, an easy feat considering the fact that he was small enough to fit in Noel’s fist twice over. With a small flash of light Noel disposed of the body. He’ll be good for experimentation down the road. I want to see what makes him tick. Maybe my master can use his genes for something....
“Hey!” Rainbow Dash shouted, getting all up in Noel’s face. “What’d you do that for!”
Before Noel had a chance to respond he saw an aura surround the prismatic pegasus that he recognized as Twilight’s magic. “Rainbow Dash, that’s enough!” Twilight commanded. “Noel was doing what needed to be done.”
“But he just killed somepony!” Rainbow Dash countered.
“Look around you Rainbow!” Twilight gestured with a hoof at all the damage. “Carl destroyed homes here and killed ponies just in an attempt to kill Noel and all the other hunters here! I saw him try to kill Derpy just because she annoyed him! I don’t like what Noel just did but he did what he thought was right, and what Carl did was wrong and extremely evil.”
Rainbow Dash floated down to the ground. “Oh....” Was all she said.
There was a pause in the atmosphere for a minute. After a while, Applejack put a comforting hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “We’ll find a place to bury these ponies.”
“You won’t have to.” Noel stated.
“Pardon?” Applejack asked, confused. “Why wouldn’t we?”
“Just watch what I’m about to do.” I’ll deal with the fallout later. These were innocent ponies caught in the crossfire, they didn’t deserve to die. Noel thought. Reaching deep into the reserves of energy that he was only supposed to use in a fight against Mary Sues he started repairing the damage to the buildings... and bringing the ponies back to life.
Twilight and her friends looked on in amazement as everything around them was being restored to its original place, as if nothing had happened. When Noel was finished he turned to Twilight. “Twilight, remember how you said you wanted to meet my master?”
“Yes? Why?”
“Because you’re about to meet him, in a way. Right about-”
”NOEL!” Came a massive booming voice.
Noel flinched a little bit, while the others, aside from Discord, covered their ears. “There he is.”
A large ball of light started appearing and started hovering above the group, not more than four meters high. “Noel,” it said, “you have broken the rules. I expect an explanation. Now.”
Twilight stepped forward before Noel had a chance to talk. Wow, things really like interrupting him today, don’t they? “What are you talking about? What rules?” Twilight almost immediately regretted it. The light above them did not move but she could... feel its presence focus on its attention upon her. It was old and full of power.
“I am sorry for disturbing your world. Who might you be?” At least he has some semblance of being polite.
“I’m... Princess Twilight Sparkle.” She responded, a little hesitantly.
“Hmm. A pleasure to meet you. I created the rules for the hunters when I established their organization. I suppose Noel is about to inadvertently explain one of them to you.” The presence shifted its focus to Noel once more. “Won’t you, Noel?”
“Yes, master.” Noel said, his head bowed.
“You and all others shall refer to me as the Archon on this world until further notice. Now please, begin.”
“As you wish. About ten minutes ago there was a giant named Carl that came into Ponyville, the town we’re at now, and started attacking us. It killed ponies and destroyed property. These ponies were innocent and were simply caught in the crossfire.”
“Hmm.” The Archon paused and thought for a moment. “Noel, you’ve had a good record. I’m going to overlook this entire thing and call it a misdemeanor. I have heard word from the council however about the amount of Mary Sues in this world. Is there truth to these words?”
“Unfortunately yes.”
“I see. I believe the council is about to find that they can suddenly spare more hunters to your cause. This situation also warrants sending in Alexander.”
“What?” Noel said suddenly. “No, you can’t send him! He’ll-”
“I know your thoughts and opinion on Alexander’s... unorthodox methods. That’s why I’m going to be sending him here with very explicit instructions to obey your orders and he’s aware that there’ll be extremely dire consequences for him if he disobeys me. I have made my decision on the matter. The council will be contacting you again soon.” And with that the light disappeared.
Everyone stood there, dumbstruck. Noel and Kayla in particular were wide-eyed with fear. “So,” Twilight said, “that was your master?”
“....Yeah. That was the Archon.” I can’t believe the Archon is sending that fucking psycho here....
“Okay. So, who’s this Alexander character?” Rarity asked. Noel perked up and turned to look at her. “He sounds like an unsavory individual if I’m guessing correctly from your reaction?”
“Yes, who is Alexander?” Twilight asked.
Noel let out a sigh and removed his helmet, setting it on the hook on his belt. “Among the hunters, Alexander is among my master’s most, if not the most, feared of lieutenants and for a very good reason. Even I’m not trusted with the kind of work that he’s tasked with. Not that I’d ever want to in the first place.” Noel shivered, remembering some dark things about Alexander, accompanied by insane laughter....
“....Are you afraid of him? Is he dangerous?”
“Dangerous doesn’t even begin to describe him. I won’t lie. He absolutely fucking terrifies me.”
“What makes him so dangerous?”
“Oh where to begin on that subject. To start, he’s unpredictably violent. If I make a mistake, the Archon only scolds me and makes sure I don’t repeat it in the future. If I make a mistake with Alexander around, he’d beat me senseless or kill me. And no, I’m not exaggerating. He’s just as likely to hurt or kill his own allies, if we can indeed be called allies when around him anyway.”
“Then why would the Archon send him here if he’s so dangerous then?!”
“I assume he did give Alexander explicit instructions. Plus, it’s hard for Alexander to really hurt anyone when he doesn’t have a physical body most of the time.”
“What? You’re going to have to explain that.”
“Well, Alexander isn’t exactly a person. He was never even born in the first place like you or me. He’s just a being that represents a part of my master and lives inside his head. Now, my personal interpretation of morality is fairly laid-back but... Alexander is evil. But he’s still effective at what he does.”
“It sounds like he needs a friend!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.
Noel shook his head. “I would highly suggest against that.” Just as Noel finished his sentence a portal started opening behind him. “That’s probably the bastard himself.” The portal closed quickly but not before a man walked through. He was short, definitely the shortest human there. His hair was black and his skin was brown. He was wearing lightly colored clothing which was an odd contrast to his supposed evil personality that Noel had described. He was also wearing something akin to a collar.
Alexander walked up to Noel. “My slave driver told me to give you this.” He said with a scowl and no small amount of disdain in his voice as he presented something to Noel. “This crystal will send a shock through me when you activate it. The Archon said to use it to ‘keep me in line’ just in case I get rowdy. Now. Direct me towards something so I can kill it and soon. I’m getting bored.”
That was when Pinkie Pie decided to do something stupid and she bounced up to Alexander. “Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie and-”
Alexander turned on her quickly as his face contorted in utterly terrifying rage that could melt through ice. “I don’t care who you are and if you don’t get out of my way I’LL KILL YOU AND FUCKING EAT YOU!” Alexander shouted (dude turn off the caps lock) as he brushed past her roughly. Pinkie stood there, her hair instantly deflating as tears started to come to her eyes.
Rainbow Dash was having none of that. She flew straight towards him and was inches away from his face. “Hey! You can’t-” Her words were cut off as Alexander started choking her.
“I think you’ll find there are many- ah!” He shouted in pain and grasped at his neck, letting Rainbow Dash go and falling to his knees in the process.
“Alexander!” Noel shouted. The man in question looked at Noel as he walked towards him. He grabbed Alexander by his collar and hauled him to his feet. “You will not harm a single non Mary Sue here. Kayla here is going to guide you back to our camp. You will not verbally abuse anyone here. If I hear any complaints from anyone then I’m going to start getting trigger-happy with this crystal. Do I make myself clear!?”
Alexander’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the ponies and back at Noel. He stared at Noel for a few more seconds, his eyes filled with pure, raw, endless hate. “Crystal.” He replied.
“Good. Now get out of my sight.” Noel turned and nodded at Kayla, who knew what to do since she’d been paying attention.
“Come with me, Alexander.” She said. Alexander did as he was bid. As the two walked off he took one last look back at the ponies, Pinkie Pie in particular, and licked his lips, a manic grin on his face, before looking straight ahead.
As soon as the two were out of earshot Applejack walked up to Noel. “He didn’t really mean what he said, did he? About eating Pinkie Pie?”
“If he thought he could get away with it he definitely would, unfortunately. I think you should advise anyone and everyone to stay far away from him unless you have a hunter with you. In fact, make that a rule.”
“You got it, Noel. I don’t want him anyway near Ponyville with that kind of attitude alone.”
“What an absolutely dreadful villain!” Rarity exclaimed. You got that right, Rarity. Noel thought to himself.
Noel looked at Pinkie Pie, still a little shell-shocked with her run-in with Alexander. Fluttershy was with her, a comforting hoof on her shoulder as she held back the tears. He walked up to Pinkie Pie and knelt down and hugged her. “Shh... it’s okay Pinkie.” He lifted her up in his arms and cradled her. He didn’t know why he felt like doing that but... it just felt right to do so. Pinkie responded by gripping him tightly in her own hug, her hair regaining its poofiness. The nuzzle that accompanied it wasn’t too bad either.
Todd walked up to the group, stretching his limbs. He was otherwise unharmed from his encounter with the boulder. “So uh...” he slowly said, all eyes focused on him, with one pair not quite as focused as the rest, “did I miss anything important here or what?”
Chapter Six: The Forges of Kalotoroth
_____ As Maria watched Alexander die, multiple thoughts ran through her head, one of which stood out among the rest. That was… a failure. And unexpected. She leaned back in her throne in the secret hideout that she had taken the liberty of creating. Questoa and Leviathan were also with her. Though, perhaps I should have severed Alexander’s connection to the Archon entirely. It’s a good thing I did not give Alexander any information about us. Regardless, it is of no matter now.
“Mistress,” Leviathan said. “What shall we do now?”
She hummed. “Questoa,” the naga perked up at hearing his name, “you may do as you like as long as you do not engage the hunters and accidentally give away our location. Be aware that I may have further use for you down the road.”
The naga nodded, obviously glad to not be stuck with the alicorn again and become bored. Though the battle made the event worth it, if only barely. However, he was disappointed that since Isla remained among the hunters still in Equestria, he could not stay and wait for his chance to kill her. He opened a portal and left the area. He would bide his time somewhere else, for now.
“Is there anything you wish of me?” Leviathan asked once the naga was gone.
“Not as of this moment, no. However, I would like for you to remain close at hoof. Just in case our enemies somehow manage to track us here, I will not leave this place completely defenseless.”
“It is unlikely they will be able to find this place,” Leviathan pointed out.
“At least for now, anyway. But one can never be too careful.” She continued her scrying. Before her were hundreds of images, all showing battles of various stages and outcomes. “And besides, we have other things to attend to.”
*Twilight*
_____It wasn’t long until I found Noel. He was sleeping on the grass, with Pinkie curled up on his chest. Off to the side was Alexander’s body since I recognized the clothing. I must be getting used to death quickly. Because I didn’t feel nearly as sick as I had before earlier today when I saw that his brains were all over the ground.
I… wasn’t sure how to really feel about that right now.
I walked up to Noel and Pinkie. Pinkie poked her head up. “Hey, Twilight,” she greeted. Her normal attitude was dimmed considerably.
Noel stirred beneath her and sat up. “How are you both feeling?” I asked.
“Pain,” Pinkie responded, now sitting up on Noel’s lap. “A lot of it.”
“Yeah,” Noel groaned, “that happens whenever we bring someone back to life.”
I jerked my head back and gasped. “Was Pinkie dead?!” I shouted.
“Yeah. Alexander’s doing. I would tell you not to worry but I don’t think I’d believe myself.”
I paused, not sure what else to say. So I asked a question instead, “So…” I said, pointing on Alexander’s body, “is that your doing?”
“No. The Archon did it. Just in time, too. Alexander was rinsing me.”
“Why didn’t he help before it got to that point?”
“Because things are really fucked up right now.” He proceeded to tell me of the things that the Archon had said to him.
I knew what I was about to say was an understatement. “That sounds… bad.”
“It is bad. We still don’t know the extent of the damage. And I feel fine but I think Alexander damaged me more than I thought. I can feel my powers returning, I’m still not quite back at full strength, but… they feel far away at the same time. Like they’re locked or something.”
There was electricity filling the air right next to us. I wasn’t sure what it was so I took a defensive stance, charging my horn in the process just in case it wasn’t friendly. Noel seemed to be calm, for some reason. A few seconds later, a portal opened up and I felt the Archon’s presence from before, it wasn’t exactly something easy to forget. This time, however, it felt a little… subdued, I think.
“Noel,” the disembodied voice from the other side stated.
“Yes, sir?”
“I have some news. I detect two others with you and I need to speak to you alone.”
I don’t know Noel’s master well enough to tell what his moods are, and he seemed a little on edge, but I did have a question. “This is Twilight Sparkle, mister, uh, Archon. Do you remember me?”
“Not exactly. Refresh my memory.”
“We spoke earlier, when you contacted Noel. Something about him breaking a rule?”
“Oh, yes, I remember. Do you need anything? I’m kind of busy right now.”
“Pinkie and I will leave you two alone but can you answer a question for me please?”
“Make it quick.” Yeah, definitely not happy right now.
“When we last spoke you said Noel would inadvertently explain one of the rules to us, I’m assuming the one that he broke, but I’m confused as to what he did wrong, exactly. I ask because he told me about what you told him earlier. What’s this about bending the rules?”
“Yeah, okay, I can see that. Quick lesson. In hunter versus Mary Sue engagements, all hunters are allowed to bring people back to life if they were caught in the crossfire. Hunters, can not, however, bring back anyone who dies otherwise, and they’re not allowed to revive another hunter.”
“But why? That seems like you’re giving the Mary Sues an even greater edge. So why bend the rules now?”
“I think Noel can explain it better, but I don’t have the time. Just trust me for now when I say that we have that specific rule for a reason because something is watching us. Now can I please talk to Noel, now?”
“Yes.” I really had no choice but to comply. With the sheer amount of power radiating from this man, and the fact that he’s normally perfectly capable of keeping someone like Alexander under control, I think he could squish me with barely any effort. Not that he would. I mean, he’s a friend, right? “Come on, Pinkie, let’s go.”
“Okay,” she despondently replied. I think she needed a few parties to get back to her old self. Then again, this is Pinkie I’m talking about. She probably only needs a few more minutes. We walked off, leaving the two alone. Then Pinkie said to me, “Twilight.”
“Yes?”
“Please don’t tell the others that I… died.”
“But Pinkie—”
“Please… I don’t want them to worry.”
I nodded slowly. “Okay. But if it somehow applies to a relevant discussion, I will mention it, okay? This isn’t something I’m willing to keep a secret for long.” She nodded in response. I decided another session of asking Noel questions was in order, with Princess Celestia present.
*Noel*
It was only as soon as the two ponies were out of earshot did the Archon feel comfortable with speaking. “As I said before, I have some news.”
“Well that certainly didn’t take you very long,” Noel responded, crossing his arms. He felt naked and realized that his helmet was ripped off in the fight with Alexander. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the helmet, lying some distance away. It was dented in multiple places, most likely Alexander’s doing when he used his telekinesis to toss it. It was currently unfit for use, regardless of how it got damaged.
“Yeah,” the Archon continued. “But you’re not going to like it. I don’t know about you, but with the amount of bullshit going on right now I am just absolutely livid.” Noel wanted to say that the Archon didn’t seem angrier than usual, but he knew better than to try to antagonize his master with such a statement. “There could be a literal shitstorm the size of the planet Earth right now and it still wouldn’t be enough to describe how much of a clusterfuck everything is. I mean seriously there’s just—”
“Sir,” Noel interrupted. He materialized one of the few storage crystals he had on hand, levitated his helmet over and stored it inside to be repaired later.
“Oh. Sorry. Anyway, here’s the current situation as we know it. All communication has been cut off between all hunters except the ones who are in the same universe as another. Portals are now all but impossible to open except for the stronger magic users. Thankfully, using advanced technology allows us to bypass this but progress in integrating such technology with our own has been… difficult. Some leaders from Earth are not pleased with how this was allowed to happen, despite them coming away with the least amount of damage, and technically none if you count the fact that a hunter will fix any damage once I can get one over there.”
Noel nodded. “I see. Anything else? Or is that it?”
“No, it gets worse. While I’m slowing reestablishing contact with as many hunters as I can, I had to do so through—fuck, we really need an actual name for the place—hunter headquarters first. I’m sorry to say that it was attacked by giants like the one you encountered.”
Noel was silent for a moment. “How bad?”
“At least two hundred hunters lost their lives. Twenty for every giant that participated in the assault. But as I said, I’m willing to bend the rules and some of our losses will be irrelevant. Perhaps it was their plan to attack and wound us gravely, or perhaps it was to show that they have the power to hit us like this. I will not be intimidated by this, and neither shall you. Though I don’t think that the Mary Sues were expecting us to be able to replace half our losses in that attack.”
“Half? Why half?”
“Some hunter’s souls were taken or consumed. We cannot revive them. Same goes to any other hunter who has suffered the same fate during this time. Any with intact souls, however, are being revived as we speak.”
“So there have been no… adverse side effects or—”
“Don’t worry about that,” he interrupted, knowing what else Noel was going to ask about. “However… some hunters that have been revived have indeed been brought back changed, unfortunately. So that is unaltered, for better or worse.” He sighed. “There are still battles going on all around the multiverse. However, it appears that whatever Maria did to interfere with the portals not only made it difficult or impossible but progressively more difficult the more times you try to open a portal to a specific universe.”
Noel fidgeted nervously at the implications of this. “So you’re saying that, if we’re not careful and don’t use our portals sparingly, it’ll reach the point that it’s eventually impossible for anyone to open a portal? Even for one such as yourself?”
“Eventually, yes. I would give it one hundred portals max before even I can’t break the barrier between worlds, even at my full strength. For any hunters on that world I would only advise opening ten portals and no more, unless instructed otherwise. Use that number wisely. Still, the alternate method should work once we fully implement it but it’s taking longer than I’d like.”
“It’s just one bad thing after another!” Noel shouted, raising his arms in the air in frustration. “Does this mean that the Mary Sues can essentially maroon us here whenever they like?”
“No, I’m certain they can’t. I’ve already tested out that theory and it appears as though they do not affect the portals whatsoever when they use them. It’s a small blessing, one that I would rather not have to be necessary in the first place but I’m thankful for it all the same. However,” the Archon said, his spirits a little higher than before, “I did find out that my personalities have absolutely no problem communicating with me between universes, aside from the Alexander debacle. This is because I had another personality in a different universe at the time of this event and I was able to communicate without the portals.”
“Sir, you’re not going to—”
“I am. Specifically Isaac and Abigail. If you need to contact me just talk to one of them, though you’ll definitely get more accurate responses from Abigail.”
“Okay, I can understand sending Isaac, but why Abigail?”
“It’s what I decided on doing. This will not result in a similar situation as Alexander, and I realize that I shouldn’t have sent that bastard when someone else would have worked much better.”
Noel clenched his fists in anger. “Why did you send him, then?”
“It was honestly in the spur of the moment. And I happened to be in a battle at that exact time so my attention was definitely split.”
Noel relaxed, but he wasn’t entirely okay with the decision. What was done was done, though. “I see.”
“There’s more.”
“Seriously?” Noel responded incredulously.
“I was working on a top secret project called the Forges of Kalotoroth. I don’t know how the Mary Sues found out about it but they attacked it just as it reached completion and have taken it under their control. I’m organizing an assault to recapture it as it is absolutely vital to our war effort.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“I know, that’s the point. A few more things and we’ll be done here. I’ll be taking some hunters under your command and have them join the assault, since they are no longer needed in… wherever you are.”
“Equestria, sir,” Noel corrected.
“I really don’t fucking care right now,” the Archon snapped back.
“Sorry, sir.”
“Anyway, continuing on. I also noticed something horrible. Somehow my favorite staff was stolen! You know the one with the green gem in it?”
Noel paused and raised an eyebrow. “That… seems very inconsequential in comparison to everything else.”
“It’s my favorite staff!”
“Can’t you simply replace it?”
“Fuck no, I can’t!” the Archon shouted. “I mean, sure, I have a bunch of swords and staffs but that one, along with my favorite sword but specifically my staff, are special! I can’t replace them! It’s impossible without the proper funds, which I do have but that’s beside the point, and I’d have to start over from scratch!”
“What do you mean?”
“Ugh, they’re bonded to me. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to track it, for now. It’s one of the few spells I didn’t bother casting on it because I didn’t expect something like this to happen.”
“Well, I’m sorry to hear that and I’m sure you’ll find it eventually.”
The Archon sighed. “Well… one last thing I suppose. I need to take a look at your memories. Specifically your first engagement here since I didn’t get full reports on that. I’ve already picked apart Alexander’s memories so I already know everything on his end. Then I’ll need to examine more memories later.”
Noel sucked in his breath. His mind immediately went to the hunter that he had failed to protect. He didn’t want to know how the Archon would handle that information in his current state. Plus he was in the perfect position to just come through the portal himself and strangle Noel if he felt the desire. “I, uh,” he stammered, “don’t think that’d be a good idea.”
“I will rip them out of your mind if you don’t cooperate.”
“Well, you see, I can’t!”
“One.”
Oh no please! “I mean, you don’t need my memories!”
“Two.”
“I’ll just go get Chloe or-or Todd!”
“Three.” There was a splitting pain as the Archon breached Noel’s mental barriers without hesitation and with very little resistance. Though, even if Noel had put up a fight, the Archon would have had very little trouble regardless. He was quick to find what he wanted and absorbed the information quickly. What the Archon found did nothing to alleviate his already bad mood. He copied the rest of the memories, as well, deciding that he would look over them later. When he was finished he released Noel’s mind. Though the man remained silent, Noel could tell that he was in trouble. “Seriously,” the Archon finally said flatly.
“I am… truly sorry sir.”
“This happened.”
“I forgot about him and… I failed in my duty, his safety should have been my priority.”
“You’re damn right it should’ve been!” The man was shouting. If there was any doubt that the Archon was angry before, it certainly wasn’t the case now. “I mean God fucking damn it, Noel! Really? You just forgot about a hunter, one of your own soldiers, dying in agony in the fucking dirt and you could have easily saved him? Oh sure, we make mistakes but shit! Forgetting about something like this is really no excuse! And then you go and have a fun chit chat with that dentist! Yeah! Yeah, that’s great! You can go and have fun, just forget about your own fuckin’ men I mean Jesus fucking Christ.” There was a loud sigh from the Archon. “You can be damn sure I’m not letting this go without punishment.”
“I understand,” Noel said, bowing his head in shame. “And I will accept any punishment you bestow upon me.”
“Good! Because I’m stripping you of your command of the hunters on this world. If you do well, you can earn it back, but for now, I’ll eventually be sending in another commander to deal with things in your place. And finally, your squad shall be participating in the assault on the Forge but you will be staying behind.”
Noel gasped. “But sir—”
“No buts! I’m aware that they normally work without you anyway, but that’s only for missions that aren’t serious and most hunters work solo for the vast majority of missions anyway. You running solo for the most part is no exception. But now, you’ll know they’re putting themselves in danger, with their safety at the forethought of your mind. And you won’t be able to do anything about it. Be glad that’s all I’m doing. Besides, I can detect how powerful you are right now and you’re still too weak to do much of anything anyway. Until whatever Alexander did to you wears off, you’re out of commission. I’d say about a week of rest minimum until I’d trust you with guarding a rock.” Out of the portal walked out two other humans. One male and one female. “Isaac and Abigail will remain here. I will require them to speak with the rulers of this world. If you have to speak to me, talk to Abigail, as I mentioned before. Dismissed.” With that final word, the portal closed and left a stunned Noel.
He understood the punishment but he wished it weren’t necessary in his master’s mind.
Isaac walked up to Noel and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I am sorry that this had to happen. My thoughts go out to all those who have lost their lives. And it pains me to see people choose violence instead of seeking other solutions.” Isaac looked different from Alexander. For one, he was caucasian, he was taller by a few inches, his eyes were green and he had brown hair. He, along with his other counterpart, wore the same clothing that Alexander did when he first showed up. His mentality was also supposedly different. He was a vegetarian, a pacifist, soft-spoken, and a kind man, always thinking of others and working to ensure their feelings are not hurt. In other words, the complete opposite of Alexander in almost every way.
“I appreciate the concern, Isaac,” Noel responded with a smile.
“Come on,” Abigail said, putting a hand on each of their shoulders. “We’ve got work to do.” With that, she teleported them both to the entrance of Canterlot. Once they were there, there was another flash and the colors of their clothes changed. Though, the clothes themselves did not. Everything on Isaac was colored entirely blue. Abigail’s was purple.
Abigail…. Noel was unsure what to make of her at some moments, as she was essentially the Archon but in female form. Yet, at the same time she was entirely different. Noel theorized that, because the two were so alike, that was why the two were so different. Or they were fucking with him. She was the same height as Alexander, Hispanic, thus, sharing the same skin tone and hair color as he did along with the same brown eye color. She was not the most amazing person to look at, but she wasn’t exactly ugly, either. Abigail was competent in thought and planning, thus consistently relied upon by the Archon to attend to diplomatic matters. Supposedly.
The trio made their journey into the city, though Noel did not know where their exact destination was. He looked at Abigail, unsure how to ask the question that had nurtured itself in his mind since the defeat of Alexander. It was only now that he just thought of asking it. “Uh, Abigail,” he said. She looked back at him, ready for anything he might say. “Or, sir… I mean—”
“When we are in private or with people I consider friends, you may call me Abby,” she interrupted. “However, in public you will refer to me as Abigail. Only a few people get to call me Abby.” She shook her head. “Anyways, if you wanna speak to the boss just tell me and I’ll repeat his response verbatim. Do you need to speak to him now?”
“Yes, I do.”
She paused but did not cease in stride. Her eyes went ahead, staring up at the sky for a brief second before settling back on Noel. “I just communed with him. He wants to know if it’s important.”
“It’s not, exactly. Curiosity more so than anything else.”
Another pause. “By the way, he’s a little busy with something so there will be some time lag in between responses as I relay messages back and forth. However, he can try taking direct control of parts of my body and talk to you that way. He says you can ask but he may or may not have an answer for you.”
“Thank you. Can he talk through you, please? The pauses might get a little annoying if we continue like this.”
There was a flash of green energy in her eyes. She stumbled slightly before stopping, waving her arms to regain balance. After a few seconds her right eye flashed purple. “Okay. Trying to completely control another body like this as if it’s my own, even if it’s just a part, through two separate universes at once is incredibly difficult. Definitely going to be a one time thing,” the Archon said with her voice. “What is it?” she… he… asked. Abigail resumed pace.
“Okay, first, do I refer to you as male when you’re talking to me like this or what?”
“Ugh,” he/she groaned with a roll of the eyes. “If you’re talking to me directly just use male… pronouns or whatever.”
“Thank you.” Noel breathed a sigh of relief. “So… sir. A child?”
“Yes… a child,” he responded, confused. “What kind of child? What child are you referring to? Does this have any importance or are you just wasting my time?”
“Sorry, I mean… I was unaware that you had a child.”
“Three, actually.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You didn’t ask and no situation came up where that information would ever be relevant or useful to you. Thus, unimportant.”
“But—”
“If you want to talk about this more personally, we can. However, this conversation is entirely irrelevant and wasteful of my time. Call me when you have something that’s actually important to talk about. Otherwise, stupid questions like this should be directed at Abby. In fact, any questions you have should be addressed by her first since you may not know what constitutes stupid and important in my mind.” With that, Abigail’s eyes flashed purple, leaving her in complete control once again.
Noel was left stunned. How was that a stupid question? Abigail brushed past him. “Let’s get going,” she commanded without looking at him.
Noel shook his head and joined her and Isaac as they continued their journey. Nary a word was said between the three. All around them the city was slowly being repaired by the hunters. Hunters, meta-humans and ponies alike were busying themselves with tasks, moving to and fro in a bustle of activity.
After some time had passed he decided it prudent to ask a more relevant question to break the silence. “So where are we going, exactly?”
“The palace,” Abigail responded.
“To speak with the princesses I assume?”
“Yes.”
Noel nodded. “Is there any particular reason why haven’t we just teleported there, then? Surely you have the power to easily do so?”
“We do, and given tomorrow, I’m sure you could as well.” She gestured with an arm at the city around them. “However, hunters who may need us should be able to find us quickly without having to search around if we make ourselves noticeable.”
“Ah, good idea.”
Just then there was a shout of, “SUSPECT MOVING INTO SECTOR 6!” The three turned their heads at the source and saw a group of royal guards along with a hunter chasing a male pegasus.
The pegasus quickly passed by them. When his pursuers got close enough, Noel stopped one of the guards with an outstretched hand. “Guard, what’s going on?” he asked, though he had a suspicion he knew exactly what was happening.
The guard gave a quick salute. This guard’s equipment was unlike the other guards. His armor was heavier-looking, and instead of the standard-issue spear (at least, that’s what Noel assumed from what he had seen so far) he wielded a halberd. “Sir, we’ve been ordered by Princess Celestia to aid the hunters in tracking down any Mary Sues still in the city. We’ve also been instructed to report to a man by the name of Noel about this should we encounter him.”
“I’m sure she meant me then.”
The guard saluted again and held his pose. “Reporting for duty, sir!”
Noel would have responded to that but he noticed his two companions were continuing their journey without him. “Where are you going?” he called out.
“You can deal with this on your own, I believe,” Abigail called back, waving him off. “And you have friends to call upon if required.”
Noel shrugged and turned back to the guard. “At ease.” The guard lowered his hoof. “I didn’t sense that pegasus was a Mary Sue, why are you chasing after him?”
“That was no pegasus, sir. It is a changeling and we have reason to suspect that it is working with the Mary Sues.”
“Changeling?”
“A shapeshifter, sir.”
Master might find that very interesting. Noel mused. “Very, well. I want to see how this plays out so I’m going with you,” he declared.
The guard nodded, took off and searched his surroundings. He found what he was looking for and he called back down at Noel, “I’ve found them! Follow me!”
Noel took off. However, he was still weak. Teleportation was out of the question and pumping magic into his muscles wouldn’t help at this point. He was quickly losing in this chase. He tapped his communication crystal. “Todd!” he said.
“Yes, sir?”
“We’ve got some royal guards chasing after a potential Mary Sue sympathizer, can you teleport to my location and help me out?”
Todd responded with action rather than words. Noel explained quickly that they needed to follow the pegasus guard. With Todd there, he was able to keep much better pace by levitating his friend to his side and jump from rooftop to rooftop as they followed the guard.
*Abigail*
Abigail and Isaac were on their way to the palace. However, Abigail stopped them momentarily by raising a hand when she noticed something. The two walked up to a band of hunters, all carrying the corpses of their comrades. “All of you,” she called out, getting their attention.
They immediately knew who it was and the leader spoke up, “Ma’am… we were not aware of your arrival.”
“Of course not. I’ve barely been here an hour. Now explain to me why these hunters are dead.”
They all looked at each other in confusion. “I’m… sorry, but are you asking me why they’re dead, or how they died?”
Abigail facepalmed. “I mean, why are they still dead? Did you not receive your orders to revive them or were these hunters drained of their souls?”
The leader looked nervous. “But… what about the—”
“Don’t worry about them coming back changed. If it happens, it happens. But even with that small chance, each hunter is too precious to waste right now. This is an order from the Archon himself. Do not disobey your orders and spread the word, if you have to.” Abigail and Isaac turned and walked away.
The hunters behind them knew what would happen if they protested. So they set the bodies down and got to work.
*Noel*
The changeling had dropped its disguise by now and was cornered, and there was a pegasus with it. They were holding off the guards but the one hunter was completely immune to any of the attacks made by the pegasus, marking it as a Mary Sue. In fact, the pegasus was actually fairly useless in the fight, with the changeling doing most of the work. The changeling was using strange wind powers to keep the rest at bay, but with it outnumbered and surrounded, it would only be a matter of time before there was a gap in its defenses. Noel called up to their pegasus guide, saying, “You go on ahead and help out! We’ll catch up! Don’t worry, they’re not going anywhere.” The guard nodded and sped headlong into the fray. “Todd, have you figured out the threat level of the Mary Sue?”
“My scanners say it’s just a level zero,” he said, looking through his rifle scope.
“Anything about the ally?”
He shook his head. “No, nothing.”
“This is troubling. I can’t sense the MS.”
“I noticed that, too. Want me to take it out and then we let the royal guard deal with the changeling?”
“No… let’s go down there. For some reason the MS is just trying to survive. But it’s not killing anyone and being very careful about the environment around it. Something feels a little off here… I want to see what happens.”
Todd nodded and levitated Noel again, jumping near the scene. If the Mary Sue’s powers weren’t disabled before, they were now as soon as they entered the vicinity but the royal guards were still being kept back by gusts of wind.
All, that is, except for the one that guided them there. The pegasus rushed and tackled the Mary Sue, shrugging off the last, desperate, pitiful attack it made with its weakened powers. Noel looked on with interest. So… we have a potential hunter with us.
The changeling saw his comrade go down. “Azure Flight!” it called out. That was all the opportunity that the other guards needed and they went straight for the changeling while the hunter switched targets and helped pin down the Mary Sue. “Don’t kill him!” the changeling shouted at the hunter as the man drew a plasma pistol and pressed it against the head of the downed pegasus.
“Stop,” Noel commanded. The hunter looked up, baffled, as his leader walked towards the changeling. He bent down and stared it in its insectoid eyes. “Why not?” Noel asked.
“What?” Now that Noel was up close, he could tell that the changeling’s voice was no different from a pony’s. He had been expecting some difference due to its bug-like features but he was mistaken.
“You heard me. Why should I not give the order to execute that thing?”
“He…” it paused, “because he tries to help others. I just want him to go home where he can be safe again.”
“Cute. You know, a lot of Mary Sues say they are doing everything for the best, that they’re going to fix everything. And technically, they do. But they’re manipulating people without giving them the choice to accept them. They’re anomalies, and their very existence destabilizes worlds. In fact, you’re probably being manipulated right now.”
“I’m not,” it snapped.
“Said every single fucking person being manipulated, ever. There’s always that chance. You’re helping one after all.”
“Of my own free will! I was hired.”
Noel tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. “You’re a mercenary?”
“An assassin, to be more precise.”
Noel glanced at Todd, who shrugged, for a moment before he looked back at the changeling. “Why’d they come to you?”
“I don’t know, they didn’t tell me. All they did was hire me but I never got any contracts. But when I found out about their… actions… I knew that what they were doing was wrong. That’s why, if I can… I wanted to offer my services to whoever might be fighting them. Turns out that happens to be you.”
Noel examined the changeling. It turned out that the little bug actually had some innate resistance. That made two potential recruits. And if there were more shapeshifters like it around… the Archon would be very pleased at that information.
Noel rubbed his chin. “What is your name, and am I correct in assuming your gender is male?”
“Gust. And yes, male.”
“Okay. I’ll consider taking you in for training but I promise nothing.” He got up and went over the Mary Sue, who was still pinned down with the pistol to his head. He ordered the hunter to step aside, who did so reluctantly. “Both of you,” he said to Todd and the other hunter, “power down. But be ready.” They did as they were commanded, if a little hesitant at first. Noel sat on his haunches. “If you try anything,” he said to the Mary Sue, “we kill you. This is a one time only thing and I won’t offer you the chance again in any shape or form. Get out. Open a portal and go home, and stay home. If any hunter sees you again, there will be no mercy. Do you understand?” The pegasus merely gazed up at Noel. Noel asked for a pistol, this one shooting bullets, that Todd always kept on his person and aimed at the Mary Sue.
Mary Sues classified at threat level zero are at the lowest for a reason. They have difficulty understanding anything. Trying to reason with one is akin to trying to hold a conversation with a brick wall. Noel did not expect it to be any different from the others… which is why he was shocked when it nodded in understanding, got up, opened a portal, then left. All traces of it gone.
“That was… unexpected,” Noel said, tossing Todd’s pistol back to him. He was about to go over to the changeling when he heard a whine signifying the charging of a plasma pistol. Right next to his head.
“You shouldn’t have let that thing go,” the hunter said.
Todd aimed at the other hunter immediately. “You forget yourself, soldier.” If he saw even the slightest hint that he would pull the trigger, Todd would fire without hesitation. The only thing stopping him was that his fellow hunter did not have his finger on the trigger itself, but if that changed….
The ponies looked on, not sure what to make of the situation, or who to support. “Killing me will not help our cause,” Noel calmly stated.
“You know we’re supposed to kill those things wherever we find them.”
“Yes, that’s correct. But there’s no rule specifically saying we have to kill them no matter the cost. We are allowed to retreat or let them live if it benefits us, whether that be the long or short term.”
“I fail to see how this is beneficial.”
“That Mary Sue was a level zero. It understood the threat it was facing and retreated. If I’d executed it outright like I was originally going to, I wouldn’t have found out that information.”
The man lowered his weapon and holstered it. Todd lowered his, as well, but was still ready if the man tried anything. “Did you have some suspicion of this?”
“Not really. I felt like it was a coincidence but thought nothing of it. In truth, I expected the exact opposite to happen. This was blind luck, really. And what’s one level zero when they outnumber us by so many?”
The man looked away for a brief second. “Forgive my insolence.” He paused for a moment. “But if this turns out badly, at least it’s not on my head.”
“You’re not wrong there. Now go on, I bet you’re needed elsewhere.”
“Yes, sir.” He saluted and teleported away.
Todd walked up to Noel. “That was risky.”
“It was. But with recent events I think we’re all on edge right now. I know I am. If I was at full strength I would have shoved his face through the pavement.” He made his way towards the changeling, still held down by the royal guards, with Todd following him.
“Through the pavement?” Todd said with a disbelieving chuckle.
“Oh I would have done it, too. Not like it would’ve solved anything. And then I’d be the one in trouble.” Well, more trouble than I’m already in.
“Yes you would.”
Noel stopped in front the guards. “What were Celestia’s orders when it comes to hunter business?”
“She said to obey you in matters concerning it, unless she says otherwise,” a random guard replied.
“That’s kind of flattering, actually. Still, I’m going to ask politely for this. I would like to request that this changeling be brought into hunter custody. Whoever is in command here may decide if that’s a good judgement call.”
The guards looked at the one who had spoken before. He mulled it over in his head for a few seconds before speaking. “Very well,” he said. “Release the prisoner.” Those under his command did as they were told and the changeling went over to Noel when he motioned him to do so. “Don’t make me regret this,” the guard said.
“I can’t make any promises about that, sorry.”
The stallion shook his head and took off, the others prepared to follow him. Noel was able to stop one of them, though, before he got away. “You there,” he said, pointing at the flapping pegasus that had guided Noel and Todd to the situation.
He looked around and pointed a hoof at himself. “Me?”
“Yes you.”
The stallion landed in front of Noel, while the guard leader flew down. “Is there a problem, sir?” he asked.
“Not necessarily. I just want to speak to this young lad.”
“As you wish.” He flew off along with the rest his stallions.
The remaining guard looked a little nervous. “Do you need me for something, sir?” he asked.
“What’s your name?”
“Thunderbolt Sentinel, of—”
“Just your name will do.”
“Yes, sir.”
“No need to call me sir. I’m technically not in command by order of my master.”
Todd’s eyes widened slightly. “What?” he asked out of disbelief,
“The Archon stripped me of command not more than an hour ago.”
“Why?”
“I’ll… tell you later.”
Todd’s eyes narrowed. “Is… is it really wise to go around still acting as though you’re still in charge, then?”
“As far as I’m concerned, he hasn’t officially announced that and hasn’t let every single hunter know about it yet, even though he easily could have done so himself or by ordering me to. I think he’d be proud of me for using this as a loophole.” Todd looked unconvinced. “I believe I know my master better than anyone on this planet. Trust me, I can get away with this.”
“If… you say so,” Todd said, worried for his friend.
“It’s not important right now anyway. What is important is what Thunderbolt here is capable of.”
The pegasus raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“Like Gust here,” Noel continued, gesturing at the changeling, “you have an innate natural resistance to the Mary Sues. You’d make a good hunter.”
“Are you offering to have me join your ranks?”
“Not necessarily. I’m just making you aware of this fact. I know full well you obviously have a life here, with duties to Celestia and Equestria. I would like for you to come to the palace with me so that she can be made aware of this. Then we’ll see what happens.” Thunderbolt’s mouth worked up and down but no words came from his mouth. “We’ll teleport there. Regardless of whether or not you decide to become a hunter—or if Celestia allows you to—Celestia will have to be made aware of your resistance.” Thunderbolt nodded. “Before we go, though,” Noel continued, turning his attention to the changeling. “Gust?”
“Yes?”
“Are there any more of you?”
Gust tilted his head. “Like… assassins? Or…?”
“Changelings, I mean changelings. Are there any more of your kind?”
“Yes, many more. Why do you ask?”
“Just wondering.” He turned to Todd. “Get us to the palace.” Todd nodded and with a flash of light they were standing outside the palace doors. There were two hunters stationed right outside, along with two strange-looking royal guards. These guards, like Thunderbolt, were different from the others as they had purple cloaks. They stared at the human and changeling newcomers. Their gaze was an unsettling one. Like they were daring for something to happen. As if they were being judged.
“Noel,” one of the hunters said, “the Archon’s… um, constructs, have requested that you come to the throne room.” The ponies remained silent but kept their eyes trained on the changeling and Noel. Noel thought it likely they were not taking action because they assumed that the changeling was in the custody of Thunderbolt. He decided that he didn’t want to contend with these particular pony guards at any point in time if he could help it.
“I was heading there anyway,” Noel said. He turned to Todd again. “I need you to bring the rest of the squad here. Archon’s orders. Tell them to head to the throne room. I’ll meet them there. Or they’ll meet me there.”
“I can do that.” And Todd was gone again in another flash.
Noel tapped his remaining two companions on the head. “Let’s go you two.” And they went inside.
_____ Turns out the rest of his squad beat him there. Both princesses, (and of course, Isaac and Abigail) Twilight, who was sitting in front of Celestia and Luna, her friends, and for some reason even Discord was there.
“The fuck is that thing?” Abigail said, jerking a thumb at Gust. Twilight and her friends turned their heads and shot to their hooves as soon as they also saw the changeling, ready for a fight.
“Noel, why is there a changeling in the throne room?” Celestia calmly asked.
“Oh so that’s what it is.”
“He’s here for a reason,” Noel responded. “But don’t worry, he’s been taken into hunter custody.”
“Regardless,” Abigail said, “aside from the guard and the changeling, this conversation is for the current occupants only. They’re going to have to wait outside.”
Thunderbolt saluted. “I will watch over the changeling,” he said while dragging the changeling outside.
“I have a name…” Gust said right before the doors were enveloped in a golden glow and closed.
“Now for the finishing touch,” Abigail said. She twitched a finger and the entire room was surrounded by a shimmering field that flickered out after a second. “Now no one can listen in on us. Time to get to business.”
“Abigail and her companion, Isaac,” Luna said, “were just telling my sister and I about a proposal from the Archon. But they wanted to wait until all currently gathered had arrived.”
This should be good, Noel thought.
“I will show you something that the Archon had spoken to Noel about.” Abigail conjured a purple crystal with a flat side, and something that looked like some kind of projector built into it, then lazily tossed it onto the ground in the center. When it hit the ground, it righted itself and an image appeared above everyone’s heads, except for Discord, who was floating around it.
“Oooh!” Pinkie exclaimed happily, “a movie!”
Abigail raised an eyebrow but otherwise ignored her. “What you see before you is a model of an experiment that the Archon was working on. It is the Forges of Kalotoroth. You can also refer to it as simply the Forge if you like, by the way. Or whatever rolls off the tongue best,” she finished, waving her hand around a little.
Luna raised a hoof. “What is this Forge of Kalotoroth?”
“It is one of the most ambitious projects conducted by the Archon to date. It is an experimental war factory that belongs to the C.D.E. thus, the Dragon Autarch.”
“C.D.E.?” Celestia asked. “Dragon Autarch?”
Abigail smiled. “Even the Archon has someone he must submit to. As for the C.D.E. it stands for the Celestial Dragon Empire.” Twilight made a mental note that she no longer had to ask Noel what C.D.E. stood for.
“I see. And why are you telling us this?”
Abigail sighed. “When Maria set her plan into motion, it was at the exact time that the Forge was finally completed. In one swift move, our enemies then captured the factory right from under our noses.”
The room was silent until Luna spoke up. “Surely you have blueprints of the factory? Can you simply not build another one?”
“In theory we could,” Abigail responded. “Though funding another project of this scale is impossible. Plus, building a factory exactly like this will take too much time. This forge is too important.” She snapped her fingers and the image changed, revealing a sun next to the factory. “It is situated next to a star. It then uses the energy output of the sun to create whatever we need. If it goes into overdrive, it can extract materials directly from the star itself. So it is capable of creating war machines, ships, weapons, replicate any technology and almost any item, and any raw material that we need. In short; it is a superweapon, and possibly the greatest expression of our technology.”
This is a device that is among the stars themselves? Luna thought in wonder. “Your people have explored outside of your own planet?”
“Into space?” Twilight thought aloud with glee. Her eyes were wide in fascination and a wide smile adorned her face.
“Not just explored. I like to think we have conquered the stars. With the Forges of Kalotoroth, that makes it a bit more literal.”
“This is all very impressive,” Celestia said, waving a hoof. “And my condolences go out to your people for losing such an important device. I now have a strong impression as to why you told us of this. So please, confirm or deny my suspicions. Why are you telling us this?”
“We want help in recapturing the Forge.”
“As I suspected. Why should we help you? What’s in it for us?”
“Princess?” Twilight asked, tilting her head at Celestia in confusion. Were they not friends with the hunters? And if the hunters served the Archon, that made him a type of friend. If the Archon served the Celestial Dragon Empire, did that not make them friends, as well? The hunters had helped Equestria, why would Celestia not offer to return the favor?
Even though she had only said one word, Luna understood exactly what Twilight had meant with her tone. “It seems you have much to learn about ruling, Twilight Sparkle,” she said, draping a wing over the younger alicorn. “Watch and learn.”
Abigail smirked. “We are prepared to offer a trade of sorts. Do well in this assault and aid us in further matters and we shall be more than willing to consider a somewhat more permanent alliance.”
“I am listening,” Celestia said. On the inside she was intrigued, as was Luna, but she showed no outward emotion. Millennia of diplomatic relations with other countries had taught her well. But she always outlived the other races. And experience could not be handed down through the generations. Sooner or later, she would always talk with a new diplomat or a new ruler. Aside from the dragons, that is. But they preferred to keep their own council, and isolated themselves from the rest of the world anyway. Now she was faced with an entirely new opponent. One who was more than willing to talk. And if things went well here, one who could offer both an intellectual challenge and greater opportunities for Equestria. “What do you have to offer?”
“A factory. It is similar in both function and technology of the Forges of Kalotoroth but nothing quite as fancy as the Forge itself. The Archon himself designed it. It has a somewhat personal value to him and he’s quite proud of it. But he is willing to give this technology to Equestria, along with any instructions on how to operate it.”
“Shall you be providing the means to transport it here?”
“Yes. I recommend having a square kilometer of space, preferably on flat ground. Or we can discuss that in later detail. This deal will only matter if you significantly contribute to the assault, after all.”
Celestia nodded. “Understandable.”
“So do we have a deal?”
“Yes. I will speak with you in greater detail about this factory later.”
“Excellent.” Abigail dispelled the projected image with a smile. “I shall leave the choice of who you will send to you. I don’t really care who or what you send as long as your choice can pull their own weight.”
Twilight saw her chance. She raised a hoof and shouted, “I volunteer to help!”
Celestia was about to protest but Twilight’s other friends joined in. They all voiced their opinions quickly and offered to go along. It warmed her heart to see her ponies working together, bound by such strong bonds of friendship… however…. “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, Twilight.”
Twilight’s ears folded back against her head. “But why not?” she asked. She knew she could help, but this was also her chance to explore and study new magic. Even study how an entire race’s other technology worked.
“I am aware that you wish to help, but I cannot risk the Elements of Harmony in this situation. If things go well, there will be other opportunities for you, I am sure of it.”
Twilight opened her mouth to protest but eventually bowed her head. “I understand, Princess.” It was as the princess said; there would be other opportunities. She just had to be patient.
Discord, who had remained silent up to this point, thought to himself. This was his chance to get out and explore without being reprimanded, while also gaining more of Sun and Moonbutt’s favor. Perhaps they would allow him more than just an hour of free time to spread chaos, and in a larger area. It was also the perfect opportunity to really exercise his powers (what if he was getting rusty?!) and give the Mary Sues some payback.
“I believe I should go!” he announced, fireworks going off randomly.
“Oh no way!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, flying up in his face, nose to nose. “Like we’d let you out of our sight!”
He slowly pushed Rainbow away with a single talon before responding. “I believe that the decision is not up to you.”
“Discord…” Celestia slowly said. Luna ruffled her wings in annoyance.
Discord knew that scolding tone anywhere. “Oh, Celestia, I just want to help! Do you not trust me?”
“I most certainly do not,” Luna asserted, stomping a hoof.
Discord gasped and put a paw to his chest. “Why Luna! I’m hurt!” He leaned in close to Luna’s face. “However,” he said, “I believe that lovely Abigail here said that the decision falls to Celestia here….”
“I did technically say that,” Abigail confirmed. Now how will you handle this, Celestia…?
“Discord,” Celestia said calmly and patiently, “why do you want to help?”
“Oh come now, Celestia! As I said, I just want to help out! And besides, I’m one of the good guys now!” He conjured a glowing halo above his head and smiled innocently.
Celestia sighed. “I will allow this.”
“Sister!” Luna stepped forward but Celestia held up a hoof to stop her.
“However, I want to attach a condition. Luna shall also participate.” She knew full well that Luna was protesting because, despite Discord having proved that he had been on good behavior (and admittedly a vital asset in helping bring Equestria back under control), he would be outside her watchful gaze. She was actually the first who had argued against freeing him for a second time. “She will go, or you do not go, Discord.” Luna stepped back in satisfaction, a smirk on her face.
Discord merely shrugged.
Abigail’s hands met together in one loud clap. “Then it looks like it’s been decided,” she said happily with a grin.
There were grumbles from Twilight’s friends, particularly Rainbow Dash, but none of them were about to oppose the princesses. Twilight herself kept composed. There will be other chances. There will be other chances, she told herself. Discord just got lucky. That’s all.
“When shall we be leaving?” Luna asked.
“Within the hour. I suggest you prepare. Noel’s squad shall be accompanying you throughout the Forge and you shall recieve your orders directly from me. Er, I mean the Archon, technically. Who is me….” She waved her arms around, pointing in different directions to represent herself and the Archon while continuing to ramble on before eventually stopping herself. “And… well you get the point,” she finished. She shook her head. “Anyways. However, while he will be giving the orders, he will only do so if he needs to direct you to a specific objective. Other than that, how you handle the situations thrown at you shall be largely left to yourselves. You will be given a contact stone if you require assistance or something.”
“Understood,” Luna said.
“Oh,” Abigail exclaimed. “One last thing, Noel shall not be participating in the assault.”
Everyone’s attention was drawn to that. Celestia raised an eyebrow. “And why is that?”
“In his fight with Alexander, he was weakened and is not fit for combat duty at this moment. There is another reason, however….” Abigail crossed her arms and looked at Noel, who had been trying to remain as small as possible, not that it did him any good at this point.
He took the hint and sighed. “I am currently being punished. Part of that punishment entails that I shall not be participating in the assault, as well as the fact that I am being stripped of command of all hunters on this world.” He did not want to mention why he was being punished just yet.
Abigail noticed this and was about to push the point further but was quickly shot down by a very disapproving Archon and a concerned Isaac. She instead turned to his squad. “You five get ready for deployment,” she commanded. “Report back here with whatever equipment you feel like you might need. Chloe is in charge.”
They all saluted and teleported out, except for Chloe. She went up to Noel, placed a hand on his shoulder, and stared him in the eyes. There were no words exchanged between the two, there didn’t need to be. She teleported out, as well. Though it was brief, he could easily tell from the expression on her face that she meant to give him some manner of comfort, and he was glad for that.
Luna nuzzled her sister. Celestia turned and furiously embraced her sister. They were confident in their abilities. But they also knew that there was the small chance that Luna or even Discord might not return. Or both.
“Come back safe, my sister,” Celestia whispered.
Luna pulled away and nodded. “Of course. When have you known me not to return victorious from a battle?” Luna replied smugly. Celestia rolled her eyes slightly and smiled. Luna gave one last look at her sibling and teleported away.
The Archon had been busy. He had managed to get into touch with meta-human command, and once he had the authorization, he had ordered Abigail to send out mental commands to various hunters, and meta-human commanders, letting them know that they would be needed for the coming battle. Having finished that task some time ago, she was stuck playing the boring waiting game, along with everyone else.
*Luna*
Ten minutes didn’t even go by. Noel’s squad had come back quickly since all they really needed to do was stock back up on any ammunition or bring extra weapons, and Simon had a box strapped to his back. Luna was the last to arrive. A sword hung at her hip, and someone like Abigail and Isaac could feel the power radiating from it. She was wearing armor with symbols of the moon etched into it, and it glimmered with a silver light. It was a remnant of ancient times that Celestia had kept safe. Enchanted with techniques long since forgotten, the armor was a part of her very soul and had served her faithfully in every major engagement she fought in. Luna would occasionally equip it every now and again; to reminisce in the feelings of battles long gone. But it was never the same.
With current times and the world so at peace, she did not expect to ever bear arms like the old days. Now, however, she felt the fires of nostalgia burning in her heart as her body, so used to years of combat, prepared itself for the rigors of battle as a force of habit.
Abigail teleported those required for the assault out of the throne room and onto the fields outside of Canterlot. All around Luna were thousands of meta-humans who had been requested to serve along with hundreds of hunters. A giant portal was opened and the coalition poured through with their gunships, tanks, and other vehicles, or even teleportation. Discord continued without hesitation, chuckling all the while. Luna took one last look at Equestria before going through. As she did so, she silently vowed that, not only would she return victorious, but she would do her part in establishing Equestria’s place as an even bigger superpower.
*Throne Room*
With some free time, Noel decided to tell Celestia something. It was one of the many things on his mental list to talk to her about and he definitely knew that neither of them had the time to go through all of those things at the moment. “Celestia,” he said.
She turned to him, a smile on her face now that things weren’t quite as serious now. “Noel, it’s been some time.”
“It has.” There was an awkward pause and Celestia idly played with her hair while the Elements watched them. Noel coughed. “Uh, well… Banana Prince told me the next time I see you to tell you that you still owe him… for… something… I’m still not sure what, though.” As he was talking Celestia slowly raised a hoof to her face. “Thinking back on that, maybe I should’ve asked him about that…. I mean, what—”
Celestia cut him off by groaning loudly. She sank down to her stomach and covered her face with her forehooves and her wings.
Twilight decided to step in at this point. “Um, Princess, what’s he talking about?”
She removed her wings and hooves from her face. “It’s not… it’s just… it’s not important right now and… ugh…. Ugh!”
All the Elements gave each other quizzical looks, while Noel and Isaac stood there looking impassive. In Isaac’s case, it was because he had absolutely no idea what to do. He eventually settled for sitting down on the floor, cross-legged. For Noel, it was because he knew Celestia was a big girl. Thus, he would let Celestia ride this out on her own.
After about thirty seconds, Celestia stood up and cleared her throat. “I hadn’t expected him to remember my debt after so long,” she stated.
Noel rubbed the back of his head and idly wished that his helmet wasn’t damaged. He wasn’t entirely sure how to ask this question, but knew that it had to be asked at some point. He opened his mouth to speak but was cut off when Abigail teleported in, dusted off her hands and said, “Sorry that took so long. I was just finishing up making sure that strike team alpha was being directed to a specific ship.”
“Strike team alpha?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Huh?” Abigail raised an eyebrow. “Oh! Yeah, that’s the codename that the team that Luna and Discord are on have been given.”
“Oh.”
Abigail scratched her chin. “That kind of killed the mood of what I was about to say. Made it less dramatic. I can make do, however.” She cleared her throat. “Now then, I think we have a few things to talk about.”
*Strike Team Alpha*
Where are we? Luna thought.
All around the seven was a large expanse of white… and seemingly nothing else. They could see things, but at the same time, they saw naught but white surroundings. Luna, the only one who seemed out of her element in the mysterious place, repeated her question out loud.
“You are in a storage crystal,” a voice replied, “which your bodies have currently been dematerialized and safely stored inside of. This particular crystal is reserved specially for you.”
“Who are you?” Luna asked.
“I’m going to take a guess that it’s the Archon,” Discord said, his arms behind his head as he floated relaxedly throughout the space of the crystal.
“Correct. Good guess,” the Archon said, slight amusement in his voice.
“Well of course it was a good guess!” Discord finished with a chuckle.
“Anyway. Your team is going to be referred to as strike team alpha. Your objective is to head to the control room in the Forge. Once there, I can begin the process of retaking complete control, and expel any enemies that remain. I will provide directions and advice when necessary. However, you should not rely on me as I am trying to make sure they do not succeed in using the Forge’s factory capabilities against us. And, honestly, you’re probably going to be getting more orders from one of my apprentices that I’m sending to help oversee the assault. If you absolutely require help, I can make sure that Delta Squad is diverted to provide assistance. However, I have faith in the seven of you. We should make this quick, but do any of you have any questions?”
“Yes,” Luna said.
“Ask away. But uh, ya know… hurry up.”
Luna raised an eyebrow but continued on nevertheless. “Is this crystal safe? What if our transport is destroyed?”
“The MKIII turtle transport may be weaponless, but it’s the most advanced transport we have and we’re sending a few hundred of them in for the assault. And don’t worry, even if one transport is destroyed, the crystals are all linked together into a network. So even if your original transport is blown to tiny pieces, the network will remain intact. We truthfully only need one transport to make it, but it’s best if all of them reach their destination in order to deploy throughout the Forge for maximum efficiency.” The Archon huffed. “Funny. Any of the warships we’ve sent against this factory, even some of our most advanced and newest ones, have all been destroyed. But the turtles aren’t taking a single loss because of their insane defensive capabilities.”
“I see. One last thing.”
“Go ahead, you have less than a minute left until you’re inside. Oh, and,” suddenly two white crystals materialized before Luna and Discord, “take these negation crystals, just in case.”
Luna took hers and so did Discord, attaching them around their necks. “What should we do if the assault fails? If this factory is as powerful as you say, surely you do not want it to fall into enemy possession? Thus, should we destroy it as a last resort?”
“Under absolutely no circumstances will this factory be allowed to be destroyed. If it appears that this assault starts going to shit, then our remaining forces will retreat and then I and my friends shall get involved personally.” Luna would have said more to that but the Archon spoke before she could. “Looks like you’ve arrived. Prepare for rematerialization. Good luck.”
*Throne Room*
“There’s a lot of things to go over,” Abigail said. “But I think that that changeling has been waiting outside long enough.”
Noel reached out with his mind and requested permission to commune with Abigail, who accepted. ‘We should bring in the guard, as well.’
‘Why?’ she responded. Out loud, she command Isaac to go get the changeling and the guard, and included him in the mental conversation, as well.
‘Both of them have innate resistances to Mary Sues, they could make potential hunter recruits. Also, the changeling was going to be captured by the Equestrians. For what reasons, I don’t know, but I believe he’ll be better off with us than whatever treatment he might receive in a prison. Even if that treatment is good, I think we can both agree that he’ll serve our purposes much better.’
‘I’m assuming that the word changeling means it can change its shape or something?’
‘Yes, and there are more of his kind.’
‘Then I think the Archon should know about this,’ Isaac suggested. ‘Or at least be involved in this conversation personally.’
‘This sounds very interesting, actually,’ the Archon’s voice rang out amongst their heads. ‘I would love to know more about this. But I am busy with something, so we’ll have to do it later. You said that this guard and the changeling could be potential recruits?’
‘Yes,’ Noel responded. Just as he did, Isaac finished bringing in Thunderbolt and Gust. ‘I believe we’ll have a better time getting Gust—’
‘Who?’
‘The changeling.’
‘Oh.’
‘Anyway, we’ll have an easier time getting Gust to join us than the guard, Thunderbolt Sentinel. But if Celestia allows him to join our ranks, that’d be great.’
“Noel,” Isaac said out loud, “would you like to explain why these two are here?”
“Certainly.” He beckoned Thunderbolt and Gust over.
‘We’ll speak about this later and stuff, as I said,’ the Archon remarked. ‘But if you can, try and make a case for both and get them to join us. I’ll be listening in on this as much as I can.’
‘Yes sir.’
As soon as Thunderbolt and Gust stood beside Noel, he could tell that the Elements were looking tense, at least one, Fluttershy, he remembered, with a mixture of fear. All except for Pinkie, who just kept on smiling like always. Noel had no idea what kind of history the changelings and Equestrians had for the Equestrians to be so openly hostile or fearful, but he was sure he was going to find out soon. The only two ponies in the room who weren’t showing any of these hostile signs were Celestia and Thunderbolt.
“Celestia,” Noel announced, “there is something important you should know about Thunderbolt Sentinel here.”
“Oh?” she responded, raising an eyebrow. “And just what might that be?”
“He along with Gust here have a natural resistance to Mary Sues,” he said. He patted the changeling on the head, who tried to swat away his hand but Noel quickly pulled away before he could.
“That… is actually quite interesting.”
“Celestia, I wanted you to be aware of Thunderbolt Sentinel’s ability. This is because I have a request. Two, depending on how you look at it.”
She tapped a hoof on her chin briefly. “I have a feeling I know what it is, and it could not hurt to hear you out.”
“Thank you. I would like to request to have Thunderbolt Sentinel join the ranks of the hunters. That is, only if he decides to join, and if you’ll allow it. He is one of your royal guards, after all.”
“Hmm.” She smiled. “Sergeant Thunderbolt Sentinel, would you come here for a moment?” she requested soothingly. Thunderbolt did as he was asked. Celestia knelt down to his eye level. “I would like to thank you for your faithful service to Equestria. Regardless, while you would be missed, I shall not prevent you from making your own decision.”
Thunderbolt beamed. “Really?”
“Yes. You are free to join the hunters if you would like to do so.”
“I would like to join the hunters, then!” he shouted, happily. “I feel like I could make a contribution, and offer a pony perspective.”
“Diversity wouldn’t be a bad thing, as far as I can see,” Abigail commented offhandedly. Noel nodded in her direction.
“So,” Thunderbolt slowly said, “what should I do now, exactly?”
“Give us a few minutes,” Noel instructed. Thunderbolt nodded, went back to Noel’s side, and stood at attention. “Well, that’s one thing out of the way. I have one last request.”
“Go ahead.” Celestia gestured with a hoof for him to continue.
“The changeling Gust was captured by your guards, earlier, but I asked that he be brought into hunter custody, as I would like for him to become a hunter, as well.”
Rainbow Dash jumped into the air, beating her wings madly. “Woah, woah… woah!” She flew closer to Noel’s face. “Hold on a second there!”
“What in tarnation are you thinking, Noel?!” Applejack agreed, having risen to her hooves, as well.
“I’m thinking about recruiting a changeling as a hunter,” he responded with a raised brow.
“Are you insane?”
“Given how old I am, probably, to some extent. Doesn’t change the fact that I want the changeling as a hunter.”
“Well you shouldn’t!” Rainbow insisted.
“If I may have a word,” Isaac said as he stepped forward between Noel and Rainbow. “Your name is Rainbow Dash, correct?” She nodded. “And you are Applejack?” The farm pony nodded, as well. “Well, it is apparent that the two of you feel very strongly about the issue of the changeling joining the hunters. If it would not be too much trouble, would you mind sharing your thoughts as to why this is?”
“They’re evil!”
Isaac opened his mouth to respond but Noel beat him to it. “So?”
“So you can’t trust them,” Twilight added and stepped forward. “And you shouldn’t trust them because of what they are, and what they’ve done.”
“Excuse me,” Gust interjected. “But I believe you’re referring to the attack on Canterlot. I am not and never have been affiliated with Chrysalis’s hive, so I was not involved in the attack.”
Twilight’s mouth hung open slightly for a second before she said, “Okay.”
“He could be lying though!” Rainbow pointed out.
“He’s not,” Applejack said.
Rainbow looked at her for a moment. “Well, it still doesn’t change the fact that they’re evil!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“Evil! Eeeeeeeeviiiiiil!” Abigail wriggled her fingers, pursed her lips, and finished with, “OooOOoh!”
Noel crossed his arms, “Seriously though,” he remarked, “how and why are they evil?”
“Well they could potentially infiltrate anything,” Twilight informed, “and they’re a fan of kidnapping and replacing your loved ones.”
“Which sounds like a valuable skill.” Twilight’s eyes narrowed at this, and the three humans in the room could feel some kind of tension rising.
“Yeah, well, while they’re at it they drain the love of others, leaving them, like, weakened and stuff!” Rainbow retorted. All the other ponies nodded either vigorously or slightly in agreement.
Abigail and Noel exchanged looks. “Yeah… I think we’re okay with that.” All the ponies, except Celestia, who merely raised a brow, gaped when he said that. That was probably the wrong thing to say.
*Strike Team Alpha*
Luna had felt nothing to indicate when she had been dematerialized into the crystal when she had stepped through the portal. However, being rematerialized was another matter.
She struggled to hold in the contents of her stomach for a few seconds. It was not unlike the first time she had teleported a long distance and had overexerted herself in the process. Except, instead of just merely being uncomfortable, this was painful.
It was also during these few seconds that she felt an arrow bounce off her armor. As soon as she felt the nausea pass she made her way to the nearest hunter, keeping herself a moving target in the meantime. Idly thankful for the enchantments holding together, she got a look at her surroundings.
They were all in a room, one with seemingly no immediate way to physically retreat. There were two hallways, both leading to a single passageway. There were a few hastily built barriers, with the Mary Sues launching a variety of attacks from behind. Chloe stood at the forefront. “Luna and Simon with me!” she commanded. All the blasts of energy, magical or otherwise, that struck her were ignored completely as they dissipated harmlessly. “Everyone else take the right side and head towards that opening!”
As familiar as she was with commanding soldiers, Luna decided that it would be best to defer to Chloe’s judgements, as her own experience with battling Mary Sues was unfortunately lacking. So she obeyed Chloe and followed her lead.
Chloe jumped over the barrier, stabbing an MS through the throat. On the other hand, Simon crashed into the barricade, sending it tumbling forwards and crushed the legs of another opponent underneath its weight while Simon kept charging through. Luna dispatched the MS by driving her sword through its cranium and moved on to keep up.
The two hunters continued onwards, each of their strikes connecting with something. Luna hung back slightly, and dealt with any stragglers that her allies passed by. The small skirmish did not take more than a minute and already the team was reunited at the doorway.
As soon as they did, a metal slab sealed the entrance. Chloe took one look at the obstacle, put her hands on her hips and chuckled. “Alright, who wants to knock it down? Or should we give everyone a shot?” The communication crystal in her gauntlet signaled her that a call from the Archon was coming through. “Yes sir?”
“Team, I’m monitoring your progress as best I can through any of the cameras. The further you go into the Forge, the easier it’ll be for me to regain control of the factory. Now, your ultimate objective is the control room. But your immediate objective is the auxiliary power room, which is just beyond that door. The central power grid is offline but we’re in the process of taking it back.”
“Isn’t it kind of pointless to secure either of them? Wouldn’t the control center allow them to just shut down either of them?” Chloe asked.
“I specifically designed it so it won’t work like that, exactly. The control room can only deactivate the central power grid if I’m the one who enters the code to do so. Otherwise, it can only activate the Forge’s production and defensive capabilities. The shields and the energy that allows it to fabricate the materials for war machines are reliant on the central power grid, but also the auxiliary power room. The auxiliary is completely independent, and in order to shut it down you’d have to destroy it. Unfortunately, having either generator operational is still allowing them to produce some basic stuff, which I have absolutely no control over right now.”
“Would it not be wise to shut the whole factory down until we have secured it?” Luna asked.
“The shields need the factory to be on, which relies on the power generators. You do know we’re basically right next to a sun, right?” the Archon replied.
“Yes. What of it?”
“…You do know what happens if you’re too close to a star, right?”
“These metal walls should provide us adequate protection, should they not?”
“Fuck no, not from the gamma radiation without the shields. And if the radiation somehow doesn’t kill you first, the heat sure will. So unless you want everyone on this station to die, then we need at least one of the generator rooms to be in our control.”
“Gamma radiation?”
“I… you know what? We don’t exactly have time for this. But I appreciate the thirst for knowledge. My apprentice shall take over for now.”
“Thank you, my lord,” a male voice said. “Strike team alpha, this is Nasion,” for some reason, Todd giggled at that, “I will be providing information about the auxiliary room’s current condition.”
“Anything we need to be concerned about?” Chloe asked.
“There are some platforms where the factory will deposit finished products. There are multiple Mary Sue overseers managing critical locations. One of those overseers is inside the room trying to cut off the power. The shields protecting the generator itself are holding but let’s not tempt fate. Oh, and try to avoid breaking too many things in there.”
“Yes, sir,” all the hunters said, and with that, the connection cut off.
“Well,” Chloe began, “I’ll ask again, who wants to break down that door?”
“I’ll handle this,” Discord said, striding forward. Everyone moved out of the way to make room for him. He stood there for a second and began stretching, joints audibly popping, among other movements. After he finished, he took a deep breath, let it out slowly, raised a claw against the door….
And flicked it clean off its hinges. Chloe giggled while Luna shook her head. “Did you really have to do that?” Chloe asked.
“Yes, yes I did,” Discord replied. Some of the others chuckled at that.
She rolled her eyes and the team went through the opening. When they were inside, they found that the place was like a dome. There were five platforms. The center, which was where the generator was. The other four platforms were all connected by bridges to the center one. However, the two to the hunter’s left and right sides both had a strange device integrated into the walls hovering above them. The one at the opposite side of the room was a platform identical in design to the one the hunters were currently standing on and was likely another way to get in or out of the auxiliary room. Each had two catwalks attached, instead of a wider bridge. Below at the bottom were pools containing either molten metal or lava, though it was probably the former. These pools were constantly being fed but the level did not appear to be rising, so the metal had to be going somewhere. They were thankfully so high up, that the heat wasn’t reaching them. It would make for a nasty ending if one were to fall, and if the fall somehow didn’t kill you, then the heat would eventually, for sure.
The first overseer, a human Mary Sue, sensed their presence instantly. She turned away from pounding at the generator, tightened her grip on her war-hammer and strode forward. “This,” she shouted, “is our forge now! You are all trespassers! Go back now! Or I will see that you never return!”
“Pfft,” Chloe muttered under her breath. She jumped high into the air and landed behind the overseer, who turned around quickly to face her new opponent. “Funny, I’d like to see you try,” she taunted.
The overseer shouted and brought her hammer down. Chloe sidestepped the attack and out of the corner of her eye she saw her allies take up various positions. The overseer was about to bring her hammer up but she struggled when a blue aura stopped her. Then a shot rang out as a bullet from Todd severed one of her arms and she cried out in pain. Chloe took her opportunity and skewered the overseer through the chest. She also felt just a twinge of hunger….
Removing her sword from the wound and letting it drop to the floor with a clang, she gripped the overseer’s head with her right hand. Then she began to feast on the soul of her enemy.
Unfortunately for Chloe, it wasn’t much of a meal. Regardless of this overseer’s threat level, she was a four or five but no greater, the soul was lacking in strength. It was a snack at best. When she stood up from the lifeless corpse she retrieved her sword. The runes glowed when she picked it up and the blood was absorbed into the sword. Luna walked by her and Chloe noticed a feeling of wariness coming off from the princess. Perhaps she was not used to someone like Chloe… not to mention she had just observed one of her many feeding habits. But at least Luna was not making any kind of fuss about it, for now.
Discord suddenly decided that, given their current situation, this place would benefit greatly from some fitting music.
Chloe and Kayla raised their eyebrows, while Luna looked unfazed. “Where the hell is that music coming from?” Kayla asked.
“Discord,” Luna deadpanned.
“But… but… how?”
“Discord is Discord.”
“I….” Kayla’s eye twitched, though her helmet hid that. “Okay.” Discord chuckled to himself.
“I must admit; that battle was shorter than expected,” Luna said casually.
“Good work team,” a voice rang out. It sounded like Nasion. “I’ll make sure some more hunters and meta-humans are redirected to your position to keep the area secure.”
“Where are you?” Luna asked, looking around trying to find the source of Nasion’s voice.
“I’m talking through a speaker in this room. I was watching that short little fight the entire time. Now that the overseer is gone, it’s easier for me to help regain control for the Archon. Oh, and I’ve disabled the factory’s production platforms now, so there won’t be any nasty surprises in the meantime. Those reinforcements should be there in about five minutes.”
This should be no problem trying to defend this position, Chloe thought.
“We’ve got a problem over here!” Todd shouted from the other side of the generator. Everyone else quickly ran to that side and they saw a gigantic, lumbering, metal beast. It was just coming out of the entrance, which it barely fit into.
“Nullification golem!” Chloe exclaimed in fear. Did I do this? Did I jinx it? If I did then that is so fucking unfair.
*Throne Room*
“How is this okay with you guys? How does this not bother you!?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
Abigail and Noel exchanged brief looks. “Honestly,” Noel said, “we’re not that picky with our recruits, especially these days. And Chloe kind of already does the same thing.”
“So she drains the love of others?” Fluttershy asked timidly.
“Eh… yes and no. She can, but she really doesn’t do it as a means to survive because she finds it ineffective. So not exactly part of her feeding habits.”
“But she doesn’t shapeshift, does she?” Twilight asked.
“No, she can.”
“Do all humans… do that?”
“No human can do that. At least, not naturally or without magic. Chloe can do so naturally but she’s not a human.”
“But I thought she was a human,” she claimed.
“So the horns sticking out of Chloe’s head and her helmet wasn’t enough of a giveaway that she’s not human? Or the eyes?”
“No. I assumed that she was another species of human. Just like how unicorns and pegasi are different, but still ponies in the end.”
Abigail laughed briefly. “Love to burst your bubble, but that’s not the case.”
All the ponies, except Pinkie, raised their eyebrows, but Twilight seemed to raise hers higher than anyone else’s. “I think, ‘Hate to burst your bubble,’ is what you meant to say.”
“I know what I said.”
“I—” Twilight hung her head and sighed. “You know what. Not important. I’m just basing this off my own previous experiences with humans.”
“I… what?”
Oh no, Noel thought, worried what the Archon might order Abigail to do….
“Oh, I was on Earth at one point as a human,” Twilight said casually.
“That’s impossible.”
“You’re telling this to somepony who has seen some pretty crazy things. In the past seventy-two hours, I’ve now seen even crazier things. I know you’re capable of opening portals to different worlds with considerable ease in comparison to us. Don’t talk to me about impossible.”
“No,” Abigail responded, shaking her head, “that’s not what I meant. I mean it’s impossible to get to Earth since we—the Archon is blocking all travel to and from there. Barring the current situation, of course.”
“Well, the world I went to was called Earth.”
“…I would like to discuss this further at another point in time.”
“Why not now?”
“Because if we tried talking about everything you could possibly have questions for, we’d be here for a while. And by that: I mean we could be here literally all day and not be any closer to answering everything. Way too much to cover.”
“I think we’ve gotten off-topic,” Noel remarked.
“Yeah, I think we have.” Abigail turned to Celestia. “Celestia,” she said, “you’ve been quiet throughout much of this. What is your opinion on us taking the changeling for hunter training?”
She hummed for a second. “I decided that I shall allow this.”
“WHAT?!” all the Elements shouted.
“But why?” Twilight asked.
“Twilight, Gust is but one changeling. And he was not part of the changeling attack on Canterlot. Imprisoning him for the crimes of other members of his species is unjust.” Twilight pondered Celestia’s words for a moment before nodding in agreement. “However,” Celestia continued, “I have two conditions.”
“And that is?” Abigail asked.
“If Gust is to join you, then I request that he be kept under guard just in case, until he is brought to wherever you shall train him.”
“Gust?” Abigail inquired, looking down at him.
“I have no reason to run away. I won’t mind,” he responded.
“There you have it.” She looked at Celestia. “And your second condition?”
“If Chloe is not a human, then what is she?”
“She’s a demon. A succubus.” At those words, the room suddenly got very tense. Even Pinkie looked a little deflated.
Celestia ruffled her wings. “I can say that, without context, that would appear to be a very worrying thing in our budding relationship. Luna would have a much more hostile reaction.”
“I see.”
“However, seeing as you are reasonable people, I’m more than happy to give you the benefit of the doubt. I’m sure that you can assure us that Chloe is not evil.”
“I can’t speak for that, as I’ve never gotten to know her personally. Noel, on the other hand….”
He took that as his cue. “I trust her with my life. She does what she does in order to survive, and only to our enemies. If that’s any consolation.”
“It is,” Celestia said.
“Then I assume this part of the discussion is over?” Abigail suggested.
Celestia nodded. “Thunderbolt Sentinel, would you kindly escort Gust outside? Once you leave this room, say this phrase: ‘The sands are blue today.’ My personal guard shall take it from there.”
“As you wish, Princess.”
Once the two of them left, Twilight said, “Well, that’s one more thing out of the way.”
“Yeah,” Abigail agreed.
“On that note, I would like to ask a few questions about the hunters,” Twilight announced.
Noel almost audibly groaned. I wonder how my team is doing….
“Don’t let it reach the generator!” Carlotta commanded.
“What do you think I’m DOING!?” Simon replied in strain.
I’m sure they’re probably fine…. No, no they have to be okay.
“What would you like to know?” Abigail asked.
“The Archon mentioned that the hunters have rules and that Noel could explain it to me better. What’s so important about the rule about bringing the dead back to life?”
“Oh. That,” Noel said. He scratched the back of his head. “Okay, well, like you know, hunters can only revive non hunters who have been caught in the crossfire of Mary Sue engagements. But if someone dies otherwise, we can do nothing about it. And a hunter cannot revive another hunter. It’s a rule, but we’re not the ones who made it, nor was it the Archon, either, even if he also made some of the rules.”
“And like I said, it seems like you’re giving the Mary Sues an even greater edge. He also said that it was specifically put in place because something is watching you. Or us. I don’t know. What did he mean by that, and why bend the rules now all of a sudden?” All the ponies sat down, curious about what Noel had to say.
“When my master said something is watching us, he meant something is watching the hunters.” He suddenly looked nervous, as if afraid to broach the very subject. “If you’re a hunter you might be able to get away with breaking the rule once, but most of the time not even then. We… we don’t know what it is, but we just call it the Watcher.”
“What is—oh wait, that’s right. Is there something more you can say about it?”
“It stops but it also doesn’t stop hunters from reviving others at the same time. We don’t know its goals, or its reasoning, we just know that it’s there. This is probably the worst part about it. If you’re a hunter and you even think about disobeying the rules… then… you feel something focus its gaze on you. That’s your first warning to stop. If you continue your attempts, then you start to feel a sense of dread. It’s completely unnatural, even if you’ve never felt an ounce of true fear in your life. And even then, if you still somehow manage to continue, you die.”
“That’s horrible!”
“It’s even worse for the few hunters who literally cannot feel any fear. When they feel the gaze, that’s all they get. It is very unwise to provoke the Watcher. Even then, sometimes you don’t want to revive someone. If the Watcher doesn’t stop you then… sometimes people come back… changed. Not physically, necessarily, but mentally. At times you would never know, but with others they can be unpredictably violent or act like their complete opposites. Which reminds me,” he turned to Abigail, “why is the Watcher allowing hunters to be revived now?”
“I don’t know,” she answered. “Perhaps out of some sick sense of justice or fairness. Or maybe when Maria did what she did, she somehow cut off the connection the Watcher has to the hunters. But I wouldn’t bet on the latter. For now, anyway.”
“So then why was Noel able to bring the ponies in Ponyville back to life?” Applejack asked.
“Well,” Noel began, “it’s like I said. Sometimes you can get away with it, and sometimes you can’t. The only way to know for sure is if you try and then you feel the gaze. I technically broke the rules and I did use up more of my energy than usual but it was for a good reason.”
“So then why’d the Archon get on you ‘bout it then if the Watcher didn’t?”
“Oh, he always knows when I break a rule or something.”
“So how are you able to revive others anyway?” Twilight asked.
“Well, we hunters have these things called loadouts, and we each have two. Well, actually technically we have three. But the third one is always reserved for the revive loadout. Any hunter who doesn’t take it is looked down upon, and you’re seen as really full of yourself. And if you’re out on a solo mission, it’s strictly forbidden to not take it. But a loadout is a special ability, and there’s a whole bunch of them that I won’t even begin to list right now. Word of advice; just know that if a hunter tells you their loadout, don’t take it as a way to judge their character. It really doesn’t tell you much.”
“Word of advice taken. Is there anything else you might like to share?”
“Not particularly.”
Twilight paused. “Are you saying that because you don’t have anything else to share? Or are you saying that because you don’t have anything you want to share?”
“The latter, I think.”
“Why not?”
“That’s just a quirk of his,” Abigail interjected. “He doesn’t like talking about the Hunter Organization for very long, for some reason.”
“It’s true,” he confirmed.
Rarity didn’t know how she didn’t notice this before. Perhaps it was because of the worrying events that were happening out there. Or the fact that she was actually trying to pay attention to the details here. But this was horrifying! It was the most dreadful thing!
“So that means you can direct any other questions to me. Guess I’ll serve as the exposition,” Abigail continued.
“Excuse me darling,” Rarity said. “Before we do any of that, there is simply something I must speak with you and Isaac about and it is of the utmost importance!”
“Yes? Is something wrong?”
“Yes! Yes there is! I don’t know how I didn’t notice this before! Oh it’s just dreadful!” She put a hoof to her head, as if she were about to faint.
“Well what is it!?” Abigail shouted.
“Your clothes!” she said and pointed a hoof at Abigail. All the other Elements sighed.
“I… wait, what?” In the heads of Abigail and Isaac, the Archon started laughing uproariously. Abigail checked her clothes and that of her partner’s with a quick spell and found no danger. “There’s nothing wrong with our clothes,” she informed.
“Oh but there is. You see, I’ve only just noticed this, but when that horrible man, Alexander, was here, he was wearing the exact same clothes you are. Now, this would be a disaster if it were true. But I’m hoping that wherever you come from, the fashion style is not where everyone is wearing the same thing! Oh, and your ensembles are all one color. That is just dreadful to look at.”
“Uh, it’s just a coincidence if someone off the street is wearing the exact same outfit as you. When the Archon created us Alexander’s clothing was just the default at the time and he didn’t want to go through the hassle of changing it. We just changed the color ourselves.”
“Created? Hold on a minute. You’re not saying…?”
“Oh, yeah we must’ve not mentioned this. But we’re like Alexander.”
All the ponies tensed up again, but this time it was briefer. “But… not exactly like him, right?” Rarity asked cautiously.
“No. Oh thank fuck no.”
“He was still a colossal jerk when he was here,” Rainbow pointed out.
“Ah, yes, that. Now, I’m aware that Alexander may have not left the best impression—”
“‘Not the best impression?’” Twilight interrupted. “He killed Pinkie.”
“Uh, sugarcube? Pinkie looks pretty fine and dandy to me.”
“No,” Pinkie said, “it’s true. But Noel brought me back to life!”
Isaac fidgeted. “I knew we shouldn’t have tried to keep that quiet!” he said. He was trying to look as small as possible and his eyes were darting all around the room, attempting to avoid contact with everyone else.
‘Don’t tell them that you fucking dumbass!’ Abigail shouted in his mind.
‘Sorry!’
“But I’m still okay!” Pinkie assured everyone. “See?” She pulled out her party cannon and fired it, spraying confetti all over the humans.
Where’d she get that? Abigail wondered.
“I’m sure you can explain this situation,” Celestia said.
“Uh… Isaac, you wanna take over here?”
“If you want me to.”
‘Just get on with it,’ the Archon said to him.
“I mean of course! I’d be happy to fill in for you!” He stepped forward and cleared his throat. “I’m not sure what Noel told the rest of you, exactly—”
“That Alexander is a piece of the Archon himself,” Noel added.
“Er, yes. What Noel just said. However, as you can clearly see, Alexander is not the only one that represents a fragment of the Archon’s mind. There not only three of us, or four, or five but many more than that. And we are each a part of his soul, something we carry inside us whenever he puts us into a separate body. As multiple personalities, we embody a purpose that we were designed for.”
“So you each have a set purpose in mind?” Twilight asked.
“Yes. Some may view this as unfortunate. As we are, in a way, completely separate people, with our own wants and desires. But at the same time, we are not. We’re capable of acting like… ‘normal’ people but yet still one-dimensional. I represent the Archon’s inner peace and kindness. So please trust me when I say that I will never do anything to harm another living thing if I can help it.”
“So essentially, you’re a good guy and the complete opposite of evil?” Rainbow implied.
“I would not be so arrogant as to claim such a thing. That would make me a braggart.”
“Okay, we get it, you’re probably a nice guy,” Abigail said, rolling her eyes. “Now can we get on with this?”
“Let me guess,” Rarity deadpanned, “are you the Archon’s rudeness?”
“Oh ha ha, very funny. Why don’t you go f—ow!” She clutched her right eye and doubled over. “Okay, okay! I’ll shut up!” After she said that, she stood upright again.
“Who are you talking to?”
She almost opened her mouth to reply but closed it quickly. Isaac answered for her instead. “The Archon can see what we’re doing at any point in time, and he can feel our thoughts since we are linked to him. It also means he can give us instructions instantly, even across other universes. Or reabsorb us if need be.”
“That must come in handy,” Applejack stated.
“So then why didn’t the Archon stop Alexander when he turned on us?” Rarity asked.
Twilight perked up. “I believe I can answer that.”
*Strike Team Alpha*
“Luna, stop shooting magic at it!” Chloe shouted.
“Then how else am I to fight this automaton?” Luna replied. So far, any magical attacks had absolutely no effect on the golem. And while Todd’s weaponry was having better success than the rest of the team, it was only by a small margin.
“By not wasting your magic!” Chloe dodged a swipe from the slow golem, aware that even a single hit could possibly kill her.
Luna looked around frantically. There had to be some kind of mundane object lying somewhere. She spotted the war hammer of the fallen overseer and picked it up in her magic. Then she threw it as hard as she could at the head of the golem.
It bounced off with a loud clang but it sent the construct reeling. The hammer tumbled down and Luna saw it fall into the pits of molten metal. That gave her an even greater idea. Discord had been just about as useless as she was. Everything he had conjured into existence was immediately dispelled upon striking the golem. But now she had a plan.
She located Discord and flew over to him. “Discord,” she said.
“Yes?”
“Do you see that molten metal down there?”
“Yes.”
“How quickly do you think you can cool it down so that the heat does not kill us, and how much of it can you gather up here?”
“Instantly and as much as you want. Why?”
She smiled.
Knowing immediately what her plan was, Discord teleported a large amount of the metal to their location. It was instantly cooled down and shaped into makeshift spears. Eight of the spears were now floating in the air. Luna took four while Discord took the other half. She looked at the draconequus and they both sent one spear hurling towards the golem.
The projectiles struck true and pierced straight through the golem and it stumbled. Seeing that the job was not finished, Discord and Luna attacked with the rest of their arsenal, turning the golem into a pincushion. It finally ceased its movements moments later with all life from its glowing blue eyes vanishing.
Luna flapped towards the center platform, with Discord not far behind her. Just as she touched down, Chloe walked up to them. “Hey,” she breathed out, “thanks to the both of you. I don’t know how long we could’ve kept holding that thing off.”
“All in a day’s work,” Discord casually stated.
“You are welcome, Chloe,” Luna said.
Chloe nodded and tapped her communication crystal. “Hey, Nasion!”
“Yes?” he replied.
“I thought the Archon said that the factory is only limited to producing basic stuff for now.”
“It is.”
“You call a full on nullification golem fucking basic?”
“It’s basic for the Forge.” Just then, more hunters and meta-humans arrived from the door that the golem had came from. “These guys will stay here and secure the area. You can move on to your next objective.”
“Okay then. Where to next?”
“The control room is below you. Just keep going straight, there will be another large room. After that, just keep heading down.”
“Alright then.” Chloe cut off the connection and took another glance at the golem. “Let’s hope we don’t run into any more of those anytime soon. But just in case we do,” she looked at Discord, “do you think you can make more of those?”
“Certainly.” He conjured up twenty of the rods, all ready to go. “Have fun with those.” Simon walked up to the rods, took out a storage crystal, and dematerialized all the rods into the crystal. Don’t know why I’m doing this, I’m just gonna forget about it somehow if I don’t use them, He thought.
“Discord,” Nasion said through the speakers, “we could use your help throughout multiple locations in the Forge.”
“Oh? Well where do you need my services?”
“Here, take this,” one of the new arrivals said, throwing a slate to Discord, who caught it in his claws.
“Use your magic to absorb the information from that slate, you’ll know what to do next,” Nasion instructed.
Discord did so and he magicked away the slate to… somewhere. “Well, looks like I’m needed elsewhere,” he said. “Don’t have too much fun while I’m away you guys!” And with that, he snapped his fingers and disappeared.
“Come on, let’s get going,” Kayla said impatiently, already at the door. The rest of the team hurried and joined up with her. “Oh shit,” she said before they continued any further.
“Something wrong?” Carlotta asked.
“I just noticed that that song is still playing because it’s just continuously looping. And I forgot to ask Discord to turn it off before he left.”
“Huh,” Todd said, “you’re right. I didn’t even notice it.”
“Can’t say I agree about asking Discord to turn it off, though,” Simon added.
“It’s not terrible music but it’s not good either and I don’t wanna listen to it while we’re fighting!” Kayla responded.
“Fuck off, Kayla,” Chloe said. “This music is great. Really sets the tone.”
“Are we seriously doing this right now,” Carlotta deadpanned.
Luna stepped forward. “Kayla, you are a warrior who has seen terrible things. This is surely not among the things that should ever bother you.”
“Yeah,” Kayla agreed, “but it takes the edge off if you can just vent and be goofy when you’ve got a moment, you know?”
“Come on,” Chloe said and punched Kayla’s shoulder. “Suck it up. Let’s go.”
“Yeah, yeah whatever.”
Luna stayed still for a brief moment as she watched the rest of the squad continue on their way. “Hmm.” She trailed along behind them.
As soon as they entered the room they were supposed to go to, Chloe noticed something. Amidst all the details, it was out of the corner of her eye and she focused on it. It disappeared, having known it had been found out, but Chloe immediately knew what it was because of the insignia it was wearing on its chest. What’s a renegade doing here?
*Throne Room*
“Renegades?” Celestia asked.
“Yes,” Abigail answered. “As far as you know, there are two major factions directly involved in this battle with the Mary Sues. The Hunter Organization, and the Mary Sues themselves. However, there’s a third faction in the midst of all of this. And we really don’t talk about them much.”
“Who are they?”
“Well, to begin, they’re what the name implies them to be. They’re hunters who have gone rogue.”
“Why would they turn traitor?”
“They’re not actually traitors. They just disagreed with how we ran things. There was no great battle and no story with how they got away and we’re hunting them down. We let them pack up and leave with relatively no harsh feelings. Now they do things by their own rules. Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“They’ve still got to obey the rule about reviving people, because the Watcher still enforces that one. A former renegade came back, with her memories wiped, and said she’d only joined the Renegades because she didn’t like how she couldn’t revive her friends. Turns out they all just had to live with that.”
“So what about any interactions with them?”
“Eh, we just let them have free reign. They may break every single one of our rules they think they can get away with, and we do fight them at times. But why attack allies who are helping you, even if they’re not conforming to your rules and only fight back in self-defense? Plus, it wastes a lot of our resources trying to find them since they can’t be tracked like Mary Sues. But you can tell who they are if they have an insignia visible on their chest, which looks like a closed red fist. Well, normally. I don’t think they’re obligated to do that. So basically they work in mysterious ways by helping us on the sidelines. They don’t directly interfere with us, and we don’t fuck with them.”
*Strike Team Alpha*
The room was bigger than they originally thought. It was large and cavernous. There was molten metal flowing down the sides of the walls into large pots and molds. There were four large platforms, each representing a different level. The unfinished weapons and other experiments were scattered around on the top platform. All around the hunters were the sounds of hammers pounding away. There were also assembly lines, but they remained silent for now.
“That dome there at the bottom,” Nasion said through Chloe’s crystal, “that’s where the control center is. Clear each platform first. Leave no survivors.”
“More golems,” Luna observed. “But they look different.” Indeed, these golems were smaller and had blue stripes on their shoulders. The vast majority were made out of rock but a scant few were made of metal.
“They’re not null golems but they’re still resistant to magic,” Chloe replied. “We’re better off smashing them with physical weaponry.”
“I believe that I can take care of this,” Simon said as he stood up and took off the box on his back. “Hold this for me.” He tossed it with one hand and Kayla caught it but had to use magic to steady herself and enhance her strength to not fall over. Simon glowed red and he jumped off with his ax above his head. The first golem barely had time to look up before Simon cleaved it in two.
“Should we help him?” Luna suggested.
“He’s using his rules of nature loadout,” Chloe said. “Trust me. He’s got this.”
Luna looked over the edge of where they were. How far down did he fall?
As if to echo her question, Kayla said, “This place is huge. How big is it?”
“This chamber alone is one kilometer in width, and a mile high in height,” Nasion answered.
“Holy fuck.”
That’s impressive. “Just how big is this factory?” Luna asked.
“In its entirety? Uh, I don’t know off the top of my head. But I know it’s about six thousand kilometers in diameter,” Nasion said almost casually.
“Impressive,” Todd said.
Luna’s brain stopped functioning for a moment. This so-called factory was so big that it could fit the entirety of Equestria inside it and still have room.
“That’s been about thirty seconds,” Chloe said. “Simon’s loadout should be wearing off now.”
Right on cue, Simon stopped glowing red but not before he used the flat of his ax to hit a metal golem so hard it went flying and pulverized another golem in its path. The rest of his team jumped down, sans Luna, their magic compensating for the fall, to provide support for him. Not like he needed it. The entire platform was almost cleared and there were only three golems left.
Luna, who had lagged behind slightly, soared towards the closest opponent. She struck the right arm with her sword and severed it. It clutched its arm in an imitation of pain and Luna idly wondered if it could even feel actual pain before she took off its head. While it confused her that these foes had fallen so easily, she wasn’t about to complain. When she looked to her companions, who had taken off ahead of her and engaged the rest, she saw that Simon and Chloe were having just as easy a time dispatching the golems as she was.
Kayla’s blade slid off the construct she was fighting and she jumped back before it had a chance to hit her. Simon came up behind it and took its head off.
“That was surprisingly easy,” Luna commented.
“Enchanted weapons are pretty effective against regular golems,” Simon explained.
“The first platform is cleared, head on to the next one,” Nasion instructed. “There’s an overseer down there, too, so be aware of that.”
*Throne Room*
“Yes, well, your entire apparel is all one color. It’s looks dreadful,” Rarity said.
The Archon laughed again. “You’re still on about that?” Abigail asked.
“It’s been bothering me this entire time. As soon as I have time, I will make you some fitting clothes so you don’t have to go around as a fashion disaster.”
“That might not be necessary because we don’t know how long we’ll be around until we’re reabsorbed again.”
“But thank you for the offer!” Isaac said happily. “Also, the Archon would like to apologize for sending Alexander here. He made an error in judgement. While he can’t physically be here at the moment, his wishes that it be known that he is genuinely sorry. Rest assured that Alexander is being punished accordingly, and will physically never set foot in Equestria again if you wish it.”
“That would be a relief if he never comes back here again,” Celestia said.
“As you wish.”
“I have a question,” Twilight said with a raised hoof.
“Go ahead,” Abigail said.
She pointed a hoof at Isaac. “He’s supposed to be kindness and inner peace,” she pointed at Abigail, “and you’re supposed to be planning, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then what possible purpose does Alexander have besides being… Alexander?”
“You basically just answered your own question. That’s the concept he embodies, and he can know nothing else. We’re really exaggerations of the concept or traits that we embody. Like, let’s get an example from one of you, we’ll have a fun little experiment.”
“You can use me, if you want.” Twilight stepped forward, eager to see how this played out.
“Alright then. Take any random trait about yourself. Something you like, something you hate, aspire to, could be anything, really.”
“I really like to study magic and learning in general.”
“Alright, that’s two things, we could work with that, but for the purposes of this experiment, let’s go with just one of those.”
“Okay, magic.”
“Alright. Let’s say the Archon used a spell to take a fragment of your soul, and then create a separate personality based on that with magic in mind. What do you think will be the result?”
“A personality that likes to study magic?”
“Close. You’ll end up with something that is completely obsessed with magic and studying it. But it’s merely a representation. It does not define who you are.”
“Ah, I see.”
“So, uh yeah. Not too hard to understand. Everyone get that?” There were nods all around. “Cool, cool…. Uh, now what?”
“So each of these personalities have names, right?”
“Does she always ask this many questions about stuff like this?” Abigail asked, turning to Celestia, who nodded with a motherly smile on her face, as did the other ponies. She turned to face Twilight again. “The answer to your question is yes.”
“So then what’s the Archon’s real name?”
“Twilight,” Noel interjected, “didn’t I already talk to you about this?”
“Ah ha!” she exclaimed, pointing a hoof at him. “Yes you did! But you said hunters can’t give out the Archon’s name. I’m essentially speaking to the Archon himself so he can tell me!”
“No,” Abigail said flatly.
“What?”
“The answer is no. For now.”
“Horseapples,” she said dejectedly.
“Anything else?”
“I believe I would like to pose a question,” Celestia said.
Finally, bet Twilight was going to keep asking me questions literally all day. “Go ahead.”
“Who is the Archon, the Autarch and the C.D.E. exactly? If we are to be working together in the future, I would like to know more about your people.”
“Oh goodie. Well, the Archon and the Autarch are rulers of the Celestials. They are two of the Six Great Heroes.”
“‘Six Great Heroes?’”
“Hold on, the Archon wants me to repeat him, verbatim.” She cleared her throat. “Funny honorary title given to us. We didn’t pick it, trust me. Certainly don’t feel like a hero in the traditional sense. Either way, yeah. People just gave that to us after the War of a Thousand Sins, which is a story for another time.” She shook her head. “Anyway. There’s me, the Archon, which is obviously not my real name, it’s just my title. Then there’s the Dragon Autarch, who everyone obeys. His wife, the Dragon Empress. Then there’s Irisell, the weakest of us, Gaveris, and my personal and most powerful apprentice, Sigrid.”
“Wait,” Twilight said, “you give us the names of the last three, but not the names of the Autarch, Empress, and yourself?”
“Yeah, weird, huh? They really don’t care if their names are out there. But the rest of us? We like our privacy.”
“I hope to speak with the Autarch and the Empress in the flesh soon at some point,” Celestia said. “And you, as well.”
“Thanks. If the Autarch comes here, he will give you his name personally. As will the Empress.”
“And you?”
“Eh, I’ll do it when I feel like it.”
Celestia giggled. Throughout the entire time, the Archon had felt a sense of familiarity coming from her every time she spoke, and he did not know why quite yet. But he knew he found himself very fond of that giggle. “Well,” she continued, “you’re certainly entitled to that right. Would it not be too much to ask if there are any others to whom you answer to?”
“The Autarch and Empress are the only ones in the entirety of the empire who outrank me, so they’re the only ones I obey in theory. In practice, the Empress knows it’s a good idea to say please and thank you whenever she needs something from me. But I won’t challenge the Autarch. I respect him enough as a friend.”
“Well, while you could not be here in person, perhaps we should feel honored you decided to give us the time of day, here,” she said playfully. “You must be very high in the social ladder.”
“You flatter me. And yes, I am. Hilariously enough, I can technically boss around the rest of the royal family. Though I don’t think the Autarch would appreciate it if I started ordering around his dad.”
“His father is not in power and still alive?”
“Yeah, he abdicated a long time ago. I can tell you the story later.”
“Please do, this sounds quite intriguing.”
“I’ll try to make some time for you.”
The conversation kept going as Noel listened with incredulity. Is… is my master actually getting along with somebody? I think he actually likes her! This was going better than he expected.
*Strike Team Alpha*
“Is she gonna run out of bullets anytime soon?” Carlotta shouted.
“Todd, you think you can take her out?” Chloe suggested.
“I’d prefer to not get killed! Thank you very much!”
Strike team alpha was pinned down on their third platform. This overseer had seen fit to prepare by setting up an intense anti teleportation field in a small area. She had a large minigun in her hands, which so far had been spewing an endless amount of bullets for five minutes straight. Thankfully for the hunters, but not their eardrums especially Luna, the multitude of pillars offered plenty of cover and they had to use their shields very little to protect themselves. And they were hoping to conserve as much energy as they could for future conflicts. Also, in their favor, the pillars, whenever damaged, repaired themselves through some strange magic that Luna had never seen before.
“You know what,” Kayla shouted over the din of bullets, “I’ve had enough. I’ll handle this. Watch our flanks.”
“What are—wait what the fuck are you doing!?” Chloe saw Kayla bound out into the line of fire. Instead of being turned into a cloud of red mist, Kayla vaulted and clung to one of the pillars. The overseer focused her fire on Kayla, who quickly jumped to another pillar, over and over again.
Chloe poked her head out from her piece of cover and saw that Kayla had made an impressive distance. Through multiple jumps, she had made it just about ten meters away from the Mary Sue. She made one last jump and landed behind the overseer who turned her weapon on Kayla just in time and fired. It would’ve been a grisly end for the hunter if the bullets hadn’t passed through an illusion.
Chloe couldn’t see the MS’s face but she imagined that her reaction was priceless when Kayla stabbed it in the back, kicked the overseer down, and finished her off with a stab through the head.
The rest of the hunters advanced and Kayla stood there, stretching, with a large grin on her face. “That was fun.”
“You couldn’t have done that before?” Carlotta asked.
“I honestly thought she was going to run out of ammo eventually,” Kayla replied with a shrug. Her grin disappeared and she flinched when she sensed a bullet get way too close for comfort. She saw that the shot had come from Todd and she turned around to see a Mary Sue falling down with a new hole in their head. She turned on him, vexation on her face. “Dude, you almost hit me!” she told him.
He walked up to her and looked her straight in the eyes. “Next time you’re going to do something like that, let us know first.”
“I did!” As soon as she said that, she knew she fucked up.
To Kayla, he looked way too calm. But she could see something spark in his eyes as soon she voiced her meager defiance. And it was something she hoped she would never have to see again. She’d seen and fought scary things before, things that weren’t Mary Sues. But she’d never seen something like this before. “Telling us, ‘I’ll handle this,’ is not a sufficient description.” Even his voice felt too calm. “I didn’t know what you were doing, and as soon as that overseer turned around, I saw a perfect opportunity to kill her…. I nearly shot you in the back.”
Kayla paused and her mouth hung open for a second before closing. “Oh,” she meekly said. Even with her helmet on and her eyes difficult to see, she felt like he was piercing her very soul with his gaze
“Think about that next time you want to show off.” He brushed past her without another word.
She shuddered, glad to be rid of his glare. All the others continued after Todd except for Luna and Simon. “You seem distraught. Are you alright?” Luna asked.
“I’ve never seen him like that before.”
Simon put one massive hand on her shoulder. She suddenly felt small. She didn’t know why, she was always smaller than this bear of a man. But she just felt smaller than usual for some reason. “He doesn’t like talking about it if he doesn’t have to. He’ll tell you if you ask him. Ask him about it when we have free time,” Simon said quickly.
“I… uh, thank you?”
“Let’s go.”
And so they joined up with the others.
*Throne Room*
“No. The meta-humans are from Earth.” Twilight had begun asking questions again. Noel had stepped up to answer. It was torture. And the Archon had abandoned him to this fate.
“So then how are they not from the Archon’s Earth?” she asked.
“I told you. It’s a different Earth. It was created separately. The history sure as hell ain’t the same, and it’s in the year 2,420, while the Archon’s isn’t.”
“Well how was it created?”
“We don’t know, and it’d probably be a waste to find out. We see universes that are similar to each other, but aren’t exactly parallel or alternate dimensions or something. This Earth is probably only named the same. Just like the Earth you probably visited. Either way, turns out the meta-human’s Earth is actually missing a continent. And according to my master, it’s not like it was one anyone would ever particularly miss. Oh, and the landmasses are completely different, too, apparently, despite also being named the same.”
“But then the meta-humans are still humans, right? Or at least they claim to be.”
“Right.”
“So then why are they called meta-humans then?”
“Uh,” Noel rubbed the back of his head and looked at Abigail, who just shrugged, “I can’t really answer that. You’d have to ask them yourself. It’s kind of a touchy subject that only they want to talk about.”
“I will as soon as I get a chance then. But it still doesn’t explain how the same species evolved in two different places, let alone two different universes.”
“And I told you, it’s a cosmic coincidence. We tried figuring it out, and nothing the Archon found or any of his colleagues was of any help in answering the question. Humans just seem to pop up in hundreds of worlds that we visit. Weird, I know. Also, dragons live here on the planet of Equestria, as well.”
“Mundus,” Twilight said flatly.
“…What?”
“The name of this planet. It’s called Mundus.”
“…Are you serious?”
“Yes. Equestria is the country, not the planet.”
“So… have I been saying it wrong this whole time?”
“I don’t know—”
“It was a rhetorical question!”
“Alright jeez. You’re cranky today.”
“It’s just….” He sighed loudly and rubbed his temples. “I’ve got a bunch of files to change now…. Fuck.”
“It’s also called Earth!” Pinkie interjected.
“Yes,” Twilight breathed out, “that is also another name for our planet.”
“That actually seems to be a common thing,” Noel said, “bunch of planets named Earth. But many of them don’t even have humans on them.”
“Mundus means ‘the world,’” Abigail said to no one in particular, her hand on her chin.
“What?” Twilight and Noel said at the same time.
Abigail hadn’t been paying attention. “Huh?”
“What makes you say that?” Twilight inquired.
“Well, it’s Latin.” No one seemed to know what that was, judging by the blank stares. “Latin is a human language. Mundus is a Latin word and it means ‘the world’ in that language.”
“Strange. It’s just a name to us. It doesn’t mean anything else.”
“How did you know that anyway?” Noel asked Abigail.
“Uh, well, the Archon took a couple of Latin classes in high school.”
“Doesn’t a translation spell completely defeat the purpose of having to learn an entirely different language?”
“Okay, long story short; he had to pass high school. At the time it would’ve been too suspicious if this Hispanic kid suddenly knew how to speak or understand perfect Latin and shit. And he’s sure as hell not fluent. Pretty sure we just remember random words at this point. Oh, and it’s basically cheating.”
Noel huffed. “Okay then.” He shook his head. “Crazy Earth rules,” he muttered.
He didn’t remember how he even got into the corner or where the dunce hat came from.
*Strike Team Alpha*
“Could you two hurry it up!?” Kayla shouted.
“We can’t rush this, you know?” Carlotta calmly said over the din of weapon fire and magic blasts, even as most of the attacks washed over her and Todd harmlessly.
“We can’t hold them off forever!”
“It literally hasn’t even been thirty seconds, they’re all level zeros, and we’ve all conserved more than enough energy up to this point. You’re all fine, quit bitching.”
“Well—” Whatever Kayla had to say, it was muted when Carlotta cast a deafening spell on herself.
“So did Nasion say the blue wire is supposed to be cut, or the orange one?” she asked, two wires of the named colors pinched in her fingers as they stood before the panel to the door.
“It was the blue one,” he informed flatly.
“Cool.” She cut the blue wire and sure enough, the massive door that led to the control room opened. It was amazing. Even with all their combined might, the door absolutely refused to open, and showed no signs of damage when they tried to breach it. And teleportation was still not an option at that moment.
Carlotta quickly disabled her spell and shouted at the others to hurry through, which they did so with haste.
When they got inside, the doors behind them shut through courtesy of the Archon, and they found a multitude of species inside the control center. Many of which Luna had never even imagined. There was a strange creature that looked like a lizard but whenever it was fired upon, it collapsed into hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tiny creatures.
The Mary Sues took very little losses as they immediately began to retreat. Luna noticed one particular thing, however. At one of the desks with flashing lights stood a bizarre human. It appeared normal but there were red glowing lines across his face. Perhaps he was using some kind of artifact or an illusion to change his appearance?
His allies grabbed him and pulled him away and Luna saw for the tiniest moment that the lines on his face changed from red to blue. And just like that, the fight was over and it hadn’t even lasted more than a minute when the MS’s opened portals and rushed through to safety.
“Fantastic,” the Archon’s voice rang out, “I now have complete access to the Forge once more and we’ve just recaptured the central power grid. One moment please.”
Just then, a feminine and metallic voice rang out. “Automated security systems online. Eliminating hostiles.” Screams could be heard outside the control room, accompanied by the noise that Luna had learned to associate with the strange energy blasts that Todd fired from his ranged weapon. It was a gun, if she remembered correctly.
“Strange,” the Archon stated, “I’m looking at the camera footage for the control room. I could sense all the Mary Sues except for the one at the console. As soon as he was pulled away, I suddenly had complete access to the factory again.”
“Perhaps it wasn’t a Mary Sue?” Carlotta suggested.
“You think they’ve got some kind of mercenaries or something?”
“I can definitely tell that it wasn’t a MS,” Chloe said. “I couldn’t sense him at all. But everyone else, yeah, they went off on my internal radar.”
“…Fuck. This is troubling. However—”
“Hostile forces at: twenty eight percent,” the voice rang out.
“Who is that?” Luna asked.
“That would be one of the factory’s AI. I haven’t given her a name yet. And before you ask, AI stands for artificial intelligence.”
Luna shut her mouth. Though she wanted to ask what an artificial intelligence was in the future. How could one’s intelligence be artificial? And why would this woman not have a name? She was obviously not given one at birth, but why? The more she thought about it, the more she really wanted to ask the Archon so many questions. Unfortunately, she wasn’t sure if he would be willing to do so. And judging by the tone of his voice, she did not know if he was in an eternally foul mood or not. She also did not want her reward for participating in this battle to be the answers to her questions. She doubted he would do that, but she did not want to risk such a thing.
“All hostile forces eliminated,” the woman said. “Awaiting further instructions.”
“Huh,” the Archon said in surprise. “It looks like whatever Maria did just wore off completely.”
Just at that moment, Discord popped into the room with a flash. “Oh, we won didn’t we?” he said.
“That appears to be the case,” Luna answered.
“Yeah,” the Archon agreed. “Give me a few minutes and I’ll open a portal to make sure you’re all sent home. Good work, all of you.”
*Throne Room*
“So,” Abigail said, “just a few things to cover real quick. Here’s a brief summary of the rules I wanted to cover. Um, the revival rule is something we’ve covered yeah. Some exceptions, some not. Then there’s the no direct interference one. Which is… kind of open to interpretation. But basically, the hunters go to a planet, do their thing, and then leave. They can’t make or influence any decisions for the indigenous populace. Whether on behalf or against them. No staying longer than necessary unless invited. Then there’s no killing non-Mary Sues unless in self-defense, and no plotting out events to instigate such a situation. And just in case said hunter tries that, because there’s no way to enforce the last part of that rule, all hunters actually deal far less damage to a non-Mary Sue. Annnnd… I feel like that’s it, for now.”
“Well,” Noel said, “there is one thing I’d like to mention. Hunters do have this weird thing that’s probably unique to each one. See, each hunter has a weakness, but none of us know what it is. That’s because it requires a specific set of circumstances to take effect, and if you somehow do find out what it is, it’s likely too late. I knew a woman who was a friend of mine. She was rising pretty fast in our ranks. Lots of victories, seemed like one of our best heavy hitters. Then one day she slipped on a banana peel and died.”
The Elements gasped. “That’s horrible!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“Thanks, but it was a long time ago.”
“So how did she die, then, exactly?” Twilight asked.
“That was her weakness. We call it the hunter’s bane, because we all have one. Once those specific conditions were met, she just died. No damage was done to her body, she didn’t cast any spells to prevent it… gone in an instant. Damn shame.” He shook his head. “Kind of insulting, too, when you think about it. But when the hunter’s bane goes into effect… any other hunter just knows that it happened to you. You, as well, if you’re extremely lucky to survive.”
“Also,” Abigail said, “Maria seemed to be particularly interested in this world. Enough to the point that she planned everything from here. So we were thinking of setting up an outpost on Mundus. Hunters will be stationed here on this world in case of emergencies. Unfortunately, it does imply that your planet is possibly under constant threat of Mary Sues. However, we can’t quite set it up without permission from some kind of authority to build it on this world. You just so happen to be that kind of authority. But if you allowed us to, it would be an alliance with the Hunter Organization.”
Celestia tapped her chin. “I will allow it,” she finally said after some time. “But where will you be building this outpost?”
“We were thinking of… the Everfree Forest? I think it’s called?”
“That is completely fine. But such a place is dangerous and outside of pony intervention. Are you sure your hunters can survive there?”
“Well, with that warning, we’ll be sure to be extra prepared. It shouldn’t be a problem.” She paused for a moment. “Well, it looks like the battle was won.”
“On the Forge?” Noel asked. “Is everyone alright?”
“Your squad is okay. We’re just finishing up a few things and they’ll be here in a few minutes.” We also need to give his squad an actual name, She thought.
“And what of Luna and Discord?” Celestia asked.
“They are also okay.” Celestia breathed a sigh of relief. “They should be back in about a minute. Luna and Discord were of an amazing help, by the way.”
“I’m glad that is so. So the terms of our deal…?”
“Are in full effect. I have faith in the hunters, but I don’t think alpha could’ve done it on their own.” She breathed a sigh. “Either way, I think that’s about it.”
Noel wanted to mention and entrust the information to the ponies that hunters had one other weird quirk to them. If a hunter were to hear rhyming or poetry and they were unprepared, such a thing would cripple said hunter. A weird exception to this is song lyrics, so hunters can thankfully enjoy the comforts of music.
However, he decided against mentioning this. Besides… he’d never run into anyone who actually talked in rhymes or randomly read poetry out loud. So what were the chances that he and his hunters would possibly run into something like that? There was nothing to worry about.
Soon enough, a portal opened and strike team alpha walked through. But they were accompanied by something else….
“WHY IS THAT SONG STILL LOOPING!?” Kayla shouted in exasperation.
The Archon recognized the song immediately. “Wow!” Abigail exclaimed in joy. “Holy shit! We haven’t heard that song in ages! Where’s it coming from?”
“That would be me,” Discord claimed proudly.
“I’m not even gonna question how I didn’t hear it earlier or how you know about it or anything like that. I’m just glad to hear it.”
“Well at least someone around here appreciates my work!”
“But he won’t turn it off!” Kayla accused.
“Excuse me,” Discord said darkly, the room growing foreboding as he closed in on her until he was nose-to-nose with her, “but you never asked me to turn it off.”
“Could you please just turn it off, though?” Kayla begged, her eyes wide.
“Sure!” The music ceased playing, the room grew bright once again and Discord pulled away with a smile on his face. “All you had to do was ask!”
Kayla only made a strange sound in reply.
“Okay then,” Abigail said, “looks like our business here is done. The C.D.E. will be sending in someone else to deal with diplomatic matters so don’t worry. Isaac and I were just here to act as communication between the Archon and the hunters and all that good stuff, so we were temporary anyway. But with the distortion caused by Maria now gone, we don’t have much of a purpose here anymore. ” She groaned. “Dammit. And I didn’t even get to make one sex joke.”
“Don’t worry,” Chloe assured. “I’m sure you’ll find some time for something like painting, you know?”
“Oh, I’ll find some time for finger painting,” she said with a wicked grin on her face. Isaac merely sighed in resignation.
“Really, Chloe,” Carlotta deadpanned. “Did you have to do that?”
She burst out laughing. “Yes!”
Just then there was a loud thud as something clung to the side of the palace. “Abigail,” Celestia said slowly, “why is there a dragon outside my palace?” Sure enough, the blood dragon that the Archon had sent was still in Equestria, and it was staring at them through the window.
“Oh fuck,” Abigail hissed. “Forgot to send him home.”
Author's Note
How many references can you spot?
So, just like the last chapter, this took way too long to get out and I apologize. Information on why (if you’re at all interested) is in another blog that I’ve put up, along with fun facts with this chapter. Be sure to point out any mistakes so I can purge them with extreme prejudice.
So let’s get to the interesting things first! That’s what we want to see!
Next up, the new hunter commander! And we get to meet one of the Six Great Heroes (I’m honestly not sure if I should capitalize that or not, I think I did at some point in my notes off-site… pretty sure I had a specific system…) in the next chapter! Huzzah. I guess.
How many of you guessed, (aside from Scarheart, who read one of my layouts for a future chapter, so while he can cheat, I will frown upon that. Oh and maybe a few others.) or suspected that the Archon had someone to answer to, huh? How many? How many thought he was the big boss?
Special thanks to Thunderbolt Sentinel for... Thunderbolt Sentinel.
Special thanks to zekromthepokemon for Gust and Azure Flight. Don’t worry, Azure Flight will be important later.
I honestly want to talk about so much more about what I have planned but I know I shouldn’t. Anyway! Here’s a special surprise for you guys!
You guys get to decide what chapters are released now! How? I’ll explain. The next five chapters will focus on a specific hunter from Noel’s squad, but not necessarily Noel himself. Though he might appear in each chapter, the focus will not be on him. This chapter’s purpose was twofold. First, to introduce the multiverse (or whatever term you want to use) beyond the Equestria we’ve been introduced to a bit more, and thus, give us a taste of what’s to come. Second, to get some more characterization to get you guys interested in voting for each hunter. The purpose of the next five chapters are to give the hunters more characterization. That’ll probably be about 50k more words of filler. Jesus. So just comment on this story (or send me a message or whatever) about which hunter you want to see in which chapter. Like, Todd: Chapter 7! I suppose likes on a specific comment can influence the votes as well.
Oh hey! Let’s give you a format to use!
Chapter Seven:
Chapter Eight:
Chapter Nine:
Chapter Ten:
Chapter Eleven:
There! Now you can copy and paste! I made it easy for you guys. Don’t say I never did anything for ya. Oh, and if any of you were wondering, depending on how you vote, it will definitely affect the timeline of the story and events from chapter to chapter. And there’s a changeling chapter, which would make more sense to have it as the next or eighth chapter. However, only Scarheart knows what hunter gets the changeling chapter and he’s DEFINITELY not allowed to cheat for this one by letting everyone know. If he does, I’ll just change the hunter it goes to. I really don’t want to have to do that.
However, just so you know, yes, the changeling chapter is already mostly done so if you can guess right, (I suppose) you can make it so that you’ll be getting a new chapter earlier than expected. Woohoo. Unfortunately, if it’s made into chapter seven, it’ll probably be around 20k+ words, and maybe even longer than this chapter. That’s because I’ll have to fit in the new hunter commander (however temporary they may be) along with the changeling stuff, one of the Celestial’s heroes, AND the hunter. The changeling content alone is already 7k words. If it’s chapter 8 (which I’m kind of hoping for at this point) it’ll be much shorter. Now that I think about it, if the changeling chapter is made into chapter 7, in order to include everything that I want, I might have to split it into two chapters, which I don’t want to do.
I’m also sorry, but not sorry that this chapter was so long. Not sorry in the sense that it’s this long, and sorry because I had NO IDEA that it was going to be this long. And I didn’t even put in all that I wanted to put in. In my head, it was going to be about half this length. Good job, Malozi, you fucktard.
So some of you may have noticed that I got rid of the cover art. That’s because I’m looking for some new, better art, though I appreciate the previous artist’s (Jdbener) efforts greatly. Oh, and uh, alternatively, if anyone not only knows anyone who can help make some better cover art for this story, but is an artist themselves and are willing to show me some examples of work and provide cover art for me, that’d be appreciated. If not for free, then I’m perfectly fine with someone discussing price with me.
Due to a blog I posted, I’ve been thinking of doing quite a bit of editing for chapters 1 through 4 of this story. More information can be found here. If you’re still here and haven’t clicked on that link to that blog, which I highly recommend, ~~here’s what’s basically could happen~~. The first four chapters of this story will be rewritten but the originals will be up in a Google docs, and it’s pretty much only if people vote for that to happen. It won’t change anything, story-wise, but it’ll make things flow better and fit the ‘tone’ of this story. It removes the 4th wall-breaking narrator which sounded great in my head, just like most of what I do or say, but really, it wasn’t. Too damn silly.
Update: I saw no reason not to rewrite the chapters, so I am doing so anyway.
Jesus Christ I didn’t mean to make this author’s note so damn long. It was longer but I cut it. A lot of it. It’s in a blog, which will be up soon, if you wanna go see those cut notes. Oh, and this story is over a year old, and it passed its anniversary. So, hurray, I think?
Anyway! So if you enjoyed this chapter/story, leave a like and until next time, I’ll see you later! Buh bye!
Oh and uh... don’t forget to vote for those hunters! Because that is how the story will proceed and cannot continue otherwise. So, again, either let me know in comments, a blog post, or send me a PM.
PS: My vote is for Simon.