His foot hit the ground, twisting around on his toes as he twirled around to complete another lap of pacing in this hell he called home. It was nothing, no sound of his boots on the invisible ground, no sound of him adjusting what was left of his uniform, no sound of him screaming in anger. No light to show him where he was going. Nothing to touch, except the invisible walls that he knew were there but every time he tried to touch them he ended up touching nothing.
He deserved to be here, to believe the General’s words. He deserved it for believing Blackwatch’s story. He deserved it for sending the Wiseman team in like cannon fodder to distract Mercer. He deserved it for the things he had done.
But on the other hand he didn't deserve his cruel fate. He saved the planet numerous times by containing the deadliest plague to ever be created. He helped that thing that claimed to be Mercer save millions of lives. He stood by his men to the very end, refusing to desert them.
In the end it didn’t matter what he had done because thanks to that monstrosity, he was stuck in this hell forever. There wasn't any way it could have been played out differently. The General had just finished giving him orders, and flew off in his helicopter. He was alerted to the infected climbing over the fences by his fellow soldiers. He watched a hunter hop over the fence, a massive gorilla like creature that walked on all fours, with sunken eyes and lipless mouth, massive clawed hands that could easily fit around his head. It had stood up on its hind legs roaring to the heavens above before it dropped to its natural four-legged state.
He had whipped out his electric baton and told his fellows to contain the rest of the infected and leave the hunter to him. He had charged, dodging the hunter’s attacks and beat into it with his baton, intending to draw it away from his men. He had leaped off its arm and stabbed it in the eye and kicked off, shooting as many grenades out of his grenade launcher as he could, an amount that would have put down a normal hunter. But that thing had been far from normal, for as soon as he turned his attention to the infected charging at his men, it had leapt out of the smoke and came clawing at him, completely unharmed by his barrage.
His men were overwhelmed while he had done his best to kill the monstrous hunter. But by the time he had attained some sort of progress with it seeming to be weakened, its fellow infected had swarmed him. Busy fighting the horde, the monster took the opportunity to slam its hand into the ground, buried up to the wrist. The ground below him shortly erupted in spikes after, impaling him and the dozens of infected that had been trying to swarm him. Then the monster simply pulled the spikes out of the ground dropping him, and walked over to him. It had looked down at him before slamming its foot into his face.
That had been when he found himself here in the abyss of nothingness, pacing until something happened. This very well could be hell, a punishment of solitude for his devilish deeds. Or it could be heaven with a final eternal peace and he didn’t have to fight anymore. He took a moment to trace the white streak in his hair before sighing inaudibly.
He finally stopped his pacing and let himself collapse to the ground, head stopping as it hit something that he didn’t feel. The fluid in his ears told him what his eyes couldn’t and that was he had landed upside down, or was looking upside down.
He laid for maybe days, months, years or even just a few minutes. It was hard to tell. But as he lay there he noticed something he could see in the distance, something red. Something visible and moving. Flipping onto his side and pushing himself up he stared at the indistinct red object that was getting closer.
Swiping at his nose he walked towards it, slowly breaking into a run as it grew brighter and more noticeable. Within moments it doubled its own speed towards him, seemingly happy to see him as he was to see something for once.
He slid to a stop as it came within touching distance in front of him, illuminating him in a blood-red glow, showcasing his black uniform that somehow stayed with him, his armor plates still there on his body, radio on his chest and the unzipped portion on his chest. As he took appreciation of the fact he still wore his custom uniform sans his baton and grenade launcher, he looked at the red object, seemingly hovering in the air and flickering like an angry flame colored red as blood.
As it spoke he jumped slightly. “I have a proposition for you soldier.” Its gravelly voice echoing in the abyss they were in.
He crossed his arms, already wary of the flame despite being happy he wasn’t entirely alone anymore. “First what are you, then you can state your proposition.”
It flickered to the side before resuming its upward flicker. “What am I… I am a king in need of a soldier. I am a king that’s been ousted from my own empire. Under normal circumstances I’d ask for you to kill those that ousted me.”
“Well for me this already different from normal, but what has you changing your position on those that ousted you?” He asked, his eyebrow raising slightly as he fiddled with his turtleneck.
“As much as I hate to see my empire under control of others, they have done a…. decent job at running it. Not how I would but regardless they are prospering. I would sooner have them run my empire then have a army of thieves ransack it and rip it to pieces when the could have gotten what they wanted just by mining the nearby mountains.”
He smiled. “And judging by how you called me a soldier and you said you had a proposition, I have a feeling you want me to do something about this army?”
He swore he could hear a smile in the flame’s reply. “Exactly. Those that beat me had access to a device that could wipe me from existence, but only because of my deeds to the citizens of my empire and my succumbing to the dark. It does nothing to thieves, and their guards aren’t ready for fighting off this many at one time. So I looked around for an answer and I found you, a being that fought the Horse of Death and won, withstood the Horse of Plague’s touch and prospered, fought the Horse of War and managed to give it a hard time at its own sport.”
He took a moment to think about that before realizing the voice was comparing the virus to the four horsemen, albeit the voice kept calling them horses. “So what you want to hire me? Sorry, but I’m not a mercenary.”
“Even if it means a way out of this hellhole you find yourself in?” A tendril of the flame seemed to gesture all around them. “I am one of the few beings that could find you, and I’m the only one willing to bring you back. This is my area of expertise, bringing back the dead. All I need you to do is accept my proposition.”
“How do I know you’re not trying to steal my soul or something?”
“I can’t give you any assurance past the fact I need a soldier to fight for me, as much as stealing your soul right now would benefit me, this is even more beneficial. Either you run a risk with me or you stay forever in between life and death. Not up to heaven or down to hell, not even in the middle with the living, but instead shoved to the side.”
“So let me get this clear? You want me to fight off an army of thieves? As great as a soldier I am, I can’t fight off an army with guns, armed with nothing but my fists. Go ask Mercer for that.”
“I will not deal with Death, all that lies down that road is my empire crumbling apart,” The voice hissed as the flame turned greenish, before resuming its original blood color. “And you need not to worry about them having guns, my kind are… primitive in the art of war compared to what you know. Also another thing I need you to do is push a heart off a pedestal that’s in the middle of the empire, it won’t break no matter what you do so just push it off the pedestal.”
He smirked and picked at his chin as he thought it over. A hovering fire of blood was offering him a way out of this hell-hole he called home, a chance to save another country. The exact definition of sketchy right there, but then again, it was a way-out, compared to his other ways out… which were none.
He shrugged. “Okay I guess not like I have much of an option.”
It laughed momentarily. “Excellent, now this might hurt a little, just don’t fret too much and you’ll be fine.” The fire moved towards him, completely void of any heat or absence of it. His lips pressed together as he did his best not to fidget as the fire started to wrap around his feet, slowly twisting around his body.
Less than a minute later it had finished wrapping around him and all he could see was the blood-red. “Okay now here’s the part where it’s going to hurt, just whatever you do. DO. NOT. PASS. OUT. I cannot emphasize that enough, anyways let’s get this over with hmmm soldier?”
At that the fire started to warm, at first pleasing then moved onto a uncomfortable heat. He could feel it starting to press inwards on him, making it hard to breathe as it crushed his ribcage and his windpipe. The heat turned into a blistering one as the blood-red fire started to turn green and the more it turned green, the hotter it became until he felt like he was truly on fire. The fire kept crushing him, far past the point his bones should have cracked in half.
He fell forward onto the ground gasping for breath while his entire body, regardless of whether or not it was inside of him or outside, felt like it was melting. His hands clawed at his throat as every little breath of air he took only increased the burning sensation in his throat and lungs, drying out into little deserts.
Just as he thought it couldn’t get any worse it stopped, the only feeling he felt on his body was a smooth and cold substance on the side of his face. “Congratulations you’re alive.” Said a voice sarcastically above him.
Cautiously opening his eyes he was assaulted by a blinding light from every direction and as such he immediately shut them again, bringing his hand up to give them some shade as he inched them open ever so slightly. His other hand pushed him up into a cross-legged sitting position going for his baton but realizing it was gone.
“So as for who you need to get rid of just go ahead and get rid of any bipeds you see, I’ll have you deal with the usurpers to my throne later.” Said the voice again, just to his right. He turned to the voice to see a blurry outline of some black thing, but the longer he stared at it the more he realized how fucked up his situation was.
The person giving him orders wasn’t even a person. It was a greyish horse with a curved sickle of a horn coming out of its head, colored a raging red, the eyes taking up half the face were green with purple slowly leaking out of the corners like a noxious gas. On its hoofs were metal bracers,, while a silver crown decorated its head with some red decoration right behind the horn. Its hair if you could call it that was as black as the abyss he had just come from and seemed to be shapeless as it moved slightly.
The horse in question looked at him, fangs flashing in the light as it spoke. “Don’t tell me you’re this surprised, you fought the three of the Four Horses. Not to mention the horde of demons they had.”
“You’re a fucking horse.” He said lowering his hand as he finally got used to the light. His attention though shifted from the black unicorn of vampires in front of him and to the Crystal buildings behind the horse. In fact everything looked crystalline, the grass, the buildings, some berry bushes directly beside them, a giant tower that jutted out from the middle of the city and somehow the sky too. How was that sparkling?
“Yes and you’re a soldier who’s been through worse Cross. Anyways down that way,” The male horse said pointing again with its hoof, towards the Crystal Tower. “Are the majority of the thieves which I need you to take care of and the heart I need you to push off its pedestal is directly under the tower. Remember only bipeds, no quadrupeds.”
He kept staring for a moment before shaking his head and pushing up off the ground, slightly surprised that the grass felt like actual grass, and looked off in the direction the horse was pointing. “After I take care of the thieves do you mind if I ask you some questions about where the fuck I am?”
“After you get rid of them and remove the Heart from its pedestal, yes.” With a puff of air leaking out of his lips he shrugged and turned towards the center of the Crystal City, legs keeping in stride as he marched.
As he strode he took a quick note of his new… suit that the vampire unicorn had been gracious enough to give him. Probably the vampire unicorn anyways, since this was the first time he’d seen his current outfit.
Adorning his knuckles were metal gloves, black mesh covering the hands while the bones were covered by silver metal plates, he was unable to tell exactly what it was, but venturing a guess it was titanium. The knuckles themselves had spikes as if he was supposed to beat the thieves into submission. Up and down his arms, legs and covering his feet were the same metal, the metal forming a type of boot around his feet, all painted with lines of black running up and down the metal plates on his body.
His elbow and shoulder plates ended in a miniature spike, while curiously, compared to the rest of his outfit, his knees were only rounded plates of the metal. His chest or breastplate had some sort of symbol on it, from craning his neck to look at it he guessed it was the vampire unicorn’s eye, complete with the purple smoke leaking out.
His head was free of any type of metal plates or other clothing, leaving his main feature of a white streak of hair down the middle of his head, as thankfully the only feature. His hands brushed the outside of his thighs as he checked to see if he had any type of weapons, and with a smirk his hand smacked something.
His hand closed around it as he yanked it out of the armor’s holster and as he lifted it into his view he saw a familiar sight. He threw his arm to the side and it extended into its full length, the main difference being it seemed to be bladed instead of just round. He thumbed the switch, which was there surprisingly, and electricity started to arc up and down its length. A bladed electric baton…. there was literally nothing he could say to that.
Shrugging he thumbed the switch again the miniature lightning died off, leaving a bladed baton to his side, then hanging at his side as he dropped his arm. All in all he looked like a evil knight from the medieval ages, that had a lightning sword at his side, sans the helmet. He was also allied with a vampire unicorn, he was about to enter a Crystal City, where everything seemed to be crystal, he had to fight an army of thieves, and the unicorn kept saying something about bipeds only, no quadrupeds.
As he kept walking and kept his eyes forward, momentarily registering a sign he thought to himself how easy this was compared to the virus so far. It would be a walk in the park. Literally, judging by the area he was in now. Or he could break into a run and finish this up quick, so he could figure out what was going on.
Yeah. That sounded better. He slowly broke into a full out run as he focused on the clash of metal up ahead, that reached his ears.
“Hey Star!” Yelled Glisten, a crystal pony guard clad sparkling a dazzling blue and a darker blue coat, as he ducked underneath another Diamond Dog’s blade, twisting on his forehooves to bring his hind legs smashing into the Diamond Dog’s legs, sending it to the ground.
“Yeah bro?” Asked Star, his cousin who was also dressed in standard uniform, as he twirled his spear in his hooves, standing on his hind legs and making him easily as tall as the Diamond Dogs around them. It discouraged any Diamond Dogs from attacking him head-on, but didn’t stop one from trying to sneak up behind him. Star’s ears flicked up as he heard it stepping behind him and he let the spear almost slide out of his hooves, just to catch it at the end and smashed it into the Diamond Dog’s head. Said Dog didn’t make a sound as it crumpled to the ground.
“Next time you tell me you have an easy job, don’t tell me. The Changelings were easier than this!” Glisten commented as he caught a blade between his hoofs, by smashing them together, and yanked back on it, rolling onto his back and pulling the Dog down with him, before kicking the Dog off as it fell on top of him and threw the sword to the side. He smiled at the Dog before looking up at the miniature horde of them down the street, easily twenty or thirty, that had just turned the corner and frowned.
Clad in mismatched armor and varying from pony size to bigger than even the Alicorns, all in the process of snarling or growling at them, a few had swords, others maces, a few with flails, some didn’t even have a weapon of any sort, they watched them. Then they started to run at them, a few opting to run all fours in leaps from spot to spot. “Ah buck me... why did we volunteer to go near the edge?”
“For country? My question is why are there so many of them?” Star muttered as he walked up beside him, the spear somehow balanced on his back with no help from his hooves. He shook his head. “Well I do believe we are going to die, what say you?”
Glisten was about to respond when he saw one of the Diamond Dogs at the back of the pack suddenly fly up into the air and scream in panic, before getting stabbed by lightning. The rest of the Diamond Dogs stopped and turned towards one of their own clad in silver and black armor, one of its arms raised skyward holding the same lightning that impaled one of the Diamond Dogs, which was still there decorated on said lightning.
The silver figure that had attacked the Diamond Dogs alone, lowered its arm and let the one it had just killed slide off its sword of lightning. As one the rest of them attacked the figure en masse. It responded in kind.
All the while Glisten and Star watched dumbfounded as the figure slid underneath swords on its knees with ease and come up with an uppercut, sending Diamond Dogs flying. It caught the maces in its hands and smashed their heads in with it. Any Dog fast enough to avoid its lightning sword, were still sent to the ground in pain as it arced outwards and struck them with blue electric rage. It was the Diamond Dogs versus a righteous hurricane of lightning and fists, to which they didn’t last a minute against.
The final Dog fell as the silver and black figure dropped what was left of its head after smashing it in with its knee, and looked to them, the lightning sword changing into a black one devoid of any evidence of what it had just been used to do. “Uh I think it’s looking at us.”
“Yeah I can see that.” Star replied as the figure slowly started to walk towards them, slowly changing into a jog. Then a run. Then a full out sprint, at which point they realized what symbols it had painted all up and down its armor. The same symbols that Princess Cadance and Prince Shining had told them were Sombra’s black magic.
The most prominent symbol on this figure being the eye painted across the chest, seemingly looking into their souls. He would have shivered in fear if it weren’t for the fact that the figure that definitely wasn’t Diamond Dog or Minitaurian in nature, was almost on them. Star and Glisten looked at each other before nodding in agreement, they couldn’t let this thing get past them.
But as they prepared to fight, the figure turned down an alley to their left and disappeared from view, re-appearing momentarily later behind them, completely avoiding them. And heading straight to the Crystal Heart. “Oh buck this day just can’t get any worse.”
Cross caught one of the dog’s hands and stabbed into its eye with his bladed baton, lightning sending its entire body into a convulsion, thankfully dropping the sword in its hand as it did. Pushing the dead dog off his baton with his foot he whirled around to duck under another swipe, stabbing the dog responsible in the abdomen, sending that one to the ground twitching like his companion. A snarl from behind him signaled that yet another dog was trying to kill him, twisting around once more he dodged the downwards smashing hammer, cracking the crystalline ground, and rocketed his fist into its jaw. A sound of bones snapping and the third one went down.
But looking at the group he was reminded it wasn't the third, it was the seventh of the group. Which was the fifteenth group in less than ten minutes. Turning back to the giant crystal spire that was only a dozen or so streets away he resumed his sprint towards it, becoming increasingly aware of the fact that the vampire unicorn apparently did something to his body. Under normal circumstances he'd be short of breath by now, resorting to jogging to catch his breath, but no. On and on he went sprinting, fighting and killing, feeling no burning of his muscles or lungs. Not to mention the fact he was breaking bones with only glancing blows, was faster and more agile than he normally was and the times he was hit, they felt like somebody throwing rocks. Not a giant mace he barely blocked with his forearms.
Which only meant he had a few more questions for the vampire and then he'd be done with him, and figure out where the hell he was. But as yet another group of dogs came around the corner he was reminded of how the vampire asked him to remove a heart at the base of the spire and the fact that the closer he got to said spire more dogs seemed to show up.
It was probably more than a coincidence so instead of battling them like he did with all the other groups, he merely barreled through them, shoulder ramming one of them eliciting a crack from its ribs as he went on. The dogs roared at him and gave chase after him, slowly losing ground thanks to his newfound speed, but making up by growing in numbers as other dogs noticed their mob and joined them, ignoring the small pockets of miniature horses scattered throughout the streets.
By running past the roaming gangs of dogs he was within sight of the base of the spire within a minute, finally catching sight of the heart in all its pink sparkling glory. Along with a few dozen more miniature horses, holding a perimeter around the base with a shimmering see-through some of blue. A shield of sorts? Running out into the courtyard and into full sight of them, which several of the horses inside did take notice and leveled their spears at him. Oddly enough he could hear the mob behind him stop, turning to look he noticed they all had stayed at the edge of the courtyard.
Slowing down to a walk he turned off his baton and slid it back into its pocket on his thigh, looking back to his destination in front of him he noticed the fact they all were looking towards him now. Also realizing that the pink horse was a bit taller than its compatriots and was wearing an attire that made it seem Royal, what with the crown and necklace thing it was wearing plus the fact it had a horn and wings. Walking beside it, towards him, was another miniature one wearing a more elaborate version of the crystal guard’s armor, shinier helmet, more decorative chest plate and leg pieces, a sword strapped to its side and its respective white horn glowing the same shade as the shield around them.
Magic?
He dealt with worse than magic wielding horses, he thought to himself as he neared the edge of the shield at the same time the apparent ruler and personal guard did. He gave a slight bow and nod of his head, glancing at the heart behind them. His eyes snapped back to them as the royal pink one started speaking. “I should have known Sombra was behind this, my aunts couldn't take care of him the first time, shouldn't have expected the Crystal Heart to kill him, it’s not a weapon. You're wearing his symbol on your chest right now, never mind the stench of black magic on you. Are you supposed to be his general?”
So Sombra was the vampire’s name then, and he wasn't held in high regard. These two might be the usurpers that it was talking about beforehand. Leaning into the shield with one arm and letting the other hang, he said, “Look, I'm just supposed to help with the dogs, and after that, nothing. In exchange for helping with that, he's supposed to tell me where the fuck I am. You two seem nice enough to at least tell me where I am and what's going on. I was dead up until a dozen minutes ago.”
The two of them looked to each other, the pink royal one with a slight look of horror and the blue haired unicorn with surprise on his face. Seemingly ignoring him they whispered to each other, the blue haired one first. “I don't trust him honey, just look at him he looks fit to be a servant of that freak.”
Pink one rubbed her head against the blue one as if to re-assure him. “And it's just like Sombra to prey upon the desperate and if he was dead like he says he was, then I don't think any pony could say they wouldn't make a deal.”
Did she just say any pony? “And what if he's just trying to gain our trust and is trying to get inside to do the same as the rest of the Diamond Dogs? I'm not risking that.” It finished with a slight stomp and determined frown.
Cross interrupted by tapping the shield, a slight ping sounding throughout it. The two horses looked back at him as he held up a hand and started to count off the things that were wrong with the blue one’s statement. “One, as I said, I have no idea in hell what’s going on, I’m just here to help you with those guys. Two, I have killed fifty-four of them on my way here, so I am definitely not on their side. Three, when you are dead, you take any break you can get. And four, just because I’m dressed like a villain, doesn’t mean I’m here to kill you specifically.” He listed off, giving them a hard stare.
The two shared a look, a silent conversation definitely taking place before they both looked back at him. “Do excuse my husband, we are in the middle of an attack on the city. I'm Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and he’s Prince Shining Armor, captain of the guard.”
Cross nodded and gave another slight bow with his head, then immediately looking around once more, eyes lingering on where there had once been a huge mob, now reduced to twenty or so. That twenty starting to wander off too. “Considering you're under attack, it's pretty quiet around here. What's with that?”
Shining shook his head with a heavy sigh. “Probably because they're looting the entire city instead, Diamond Dogs covet crystals and as you can see…”
“Your entire city is made out of crystals.” Cross finished for him, now realizing why there were so many here. Or at least he thought so.
Cadenza nodded. “Normally all these guards would be out there fighting, along with my husband, but we have to protect the Crystal Heart. It's the only thing keeping our Empire from freezing over this far north.” Cross looked once more to the pink heart shaped crystal in the middle of the shield. It kept an Empire from freezing over and was crystal? Sounded like something the Dogs might want, although he was curious as to why they weren't trying to take it.
Cross was about to point that out when he noticed several of the guards on the other side of the shield were looking in the opposite direction of him and called out for the Royal duo’s attention. The Prince and Princess galloped over to look and Cross followed after, albeit on his side of the shield.
Since he was walking he had ample time to watch the reactions of the ponies, many looking disheartened or angry at whatever was coming from another street. The Royal duo looked pissed and sad, Prince and Princess respectively. As he came to a stop outside the shield and saw what they did, he understood their expressions.
For walking down the street was a tangible flood of the dogs, all clad in some sort of armor, blades, maces, hammers and spears held up into the air as they all chanted their battle cry. At the head of said flood walked a towering biped, lower body like that of a horse’s and upper body like a buffed up, full of steroids muscle builder who decided to dress up like a medieval warrior, being the only one wearing a full suit of black armor it's bull head being the only body part left exposed. Alongside it was an oversized axe, sparking along the ground as it walked and in its other hand, being held by a single leg was another pony, smaller than all the others.
“What's a Minotaur doing leading Diamond Dogs?” Asked one of the voices behind him. He knew he recognized that thing, albeit slightly. The flood of Dogs continued on, again only stopping at the edge of the courtyard, the minotaur throwing the small pony onto the ground before it and slung its axe up into the air, smashing it into the ground beside it, sending crystal shards flying everywhere, dozens pinging off of its armor and several cutting into the Dogs behind it, as several flinched or howled. The bound pony also squirmed, although from Cross’s spot it was hard to tell if it was from panic or from being hit by the crystals too.
The Minotaur’s voice boomed in the courtyard. “Dear Princess, if you value the lives of your citizens you will hand over the Crystal Heart now, for we have several hundred of your little ponies held prisoner and each and every second we gather more.” He, presumably, took a step forward and smashed his hoof right next to the little pony’s face. “I am more than willing to make an example of this one right now if you wish?” The bound pony let out a muffled scream.
Cross grimaced, that would explain why they had yet to attack the base of the spire. They were just rounding up civilians so as to avoid a direct confrontation with the royal guard and Shining, the only unicorn he’d as of yet to see make a shield, implying that he was unique or at least stronger than his compatriots. A sound strategy by them, they didn’t have any technology for war but they had the tactics for it.
The Royal duo behind him started to argue, Cadenza for surrendering and Shining for ignoring the demand. If they made a move to fight the Minotaur then their untold number of hostages could possibly die. They agree to the Minotaur’s terms he would lose allies, more people to shed some light on his situation and that Crystal Heart that three different parties wanted. Which meant anything they did would result in a horrible situation for them. Him on the other hand though… turning towards the Royals he simply said, “How about this, I take care of your problem you drop that shield of yours so we can talk.”
Before any of them could respond he strode towards the Minotaur, said Minotaur sporting a grin on his face at the seemingly worthless thing walking up to him. “Ah what are you, their diplomat to deliver their surrender? Too scared to come out of their little shield themselves and send some little creature to do it for them?” The Minotaur let out a cruel laugh and with a beckon from his right hand the legion of Dogs joined in. Some full-heartedly and some only because the others were, seeming to recognize him from his run through the city.
Cross remained silent until he was twenty feet from the Minotaur, looking up and down his body to judge him. Giant axe suggesting he would have to stay up close, powerful but probably slow blows, the armor would protect everything but would also conduct his baton wonderfully. It would be easy to kill him. “No but I do have a question, since I’m not familiar with your kind.”
The Minotaur’s eyebrow raised and he leaned onto his axe, his entire posture coming off as smug and arrogant. “Oh? What are you a traveler?”
Cross kept his face passive, eyes flickering down to what he assumed was a pony child, noticing that several crystal fragments had embedded themselves in said pony. Thankfully it didn’t seem to hit anywhere major as there was yet to be a pool of blood. “I am a traveler of sorts. My question is why are these Dogs following you into battle?”
The Minotaur flexed with a smirk, still eyeing him like an insect. “Are you a blind traveler?” The Minotaur stopped flexing and leaned towards him, using its size to intimidate him. “Biggest and strongest lead the gang, pick the targets and decides who lives.”
Cross nodded to himself cupping his chin in mock-thought, the only idea in his head was of whether or not the Dogs would try and kill him before he finished butchering the smug fucker in front of him. Judging by some of their faces, remarkably human looking, they were confident in the fact he was about to die. No, they’d watch to see him get slaughtered, and they’d wouldn’t interrupt. Best way to take care of this was quick and effortlessly, so he’d just need to take advantage of the smug attitude the Minotaur had. Looking back at the shield for a second he commented, “Well I don’t think your muscles can take care of that shield, unless they’re also magic.”
The Minotaur reacted exactly as he thought he would, throwing his head back and laughing, eyes closed because of how hard he was laughing. Not looking at him at all. A perfect opportunity to take advantage of, which he did. Launching forward from his position he whipped out his baton and pressed the button, lightning arcing up and down it’s length once more. The distinct crackle alerted the Minotaur to the fact something was amiss.
The Minotaur stopped his laughing and looked back at him, eyes widening as he finally saw Cross only a few feet away from him. He reached with both hands for his axe as Cross sliced with his bladed baton, crackling with electricity, at his throat. His hands grasped his axe’s handle just as Cross’s blade started to cut into his neck.
Cross continued on through with his swing, the blade slicing easily through the first two inches of the neck, stopping his own momentum just by pushing against the Minotaur and stepping back several feet. The Minotaur twitched as the electricity ran through its body, hands moving upwards to grab its neck, blood leaking out between his fingers as he glared at Cross. His lips moved but no sound came out, the message easily making itself clear nonetheless. Apparently he cut the windpipe or something equally important, maybe a jugular, judging by the amount of blood leaking out between the fingers. He was still alive though and he didn’t know how their bodies worked, so just to be safe…
He walked back to him and simply laid his baton, still crackling and hissing with electricity, against the Minotaur’s chestplate. It turned the Minotaur into a lightshow as lightning arced up and down his plates, sending his arms into a spasm, ripping away his hands from his throat and letting the blood flow freely out of his neck. Cross kept the baton on him, moving slightly just to avoid the spasms and by the time he pulled back smoke was already rising off the body.
Flicking the baton off he dropped it back into its protective pocket on his thigh and nudged the body with the back of his hand, sending the once arrogant and powerful Minotaur down to the ground, axe still embedded in the ground. He stepped onto the corpse to give himself some height and looked over the crowd of Dogs that were now staring at him, feeling the stares of the ponies boring into his back.
He ignored the stares and looked at the faces to analyze how to handle this situation. Many of the Dogs were surprised, some afraid and some looked pissed. A few moments passed and many of the surprised faces turned to ones of fear, though a good percentage turned to anger and disbelief. He could handle that. “As you fuckers can see I just killed your strongest member with ease, so I suggest before I decide to kill all of you that you leave this city and the hostages. Do that and I won’t have to chase you all down.”
That pissed off a bunch of them, sending them into howls and roars, many of them taking a few steps forward. One of the larger ones armed with a curved sword stepped forward, pointing said sword at him yelled, “You killed him because you surprised him, he would have wiped you out if it’d been a fight!”
Cross shrugged and stepped off the corpse, ignoring how much he wanted to smile at how his plan was working so easily. “It wouldn’t have made a difference, if you feel you can do better then come on.” He waved the Dog on to goad it, which did more than he expected because five other Dogs joined in on the charge at him. More examples to work with then.
The Dogs screamed as they closed in, the one that had yelled at him a few moments ago being the first to close in. It jabbed its sword at him once he was in reach, to which he stepped to the side and grabbed its wrist, pulling it towards him. The Dog was caught off-guard and fell forward, its wrist still held in his hand, head smashing into the ground. When he broke its elbow with a fist bending it into the wrong direction it howled in pain.
Dropping the arm he twirled around to see a mace coming down to crack his skull in, both arms holding it to bring as much force as the Dog could handle into the swing. Cross responded by slamming both his fists into its chest, a blood-curdling snap sounding as its bones broke, accompanied by the Dog falling backwards, all its forward momentum gone. His hands moved up to stop the mace from falling, but he saw that the Dog managed to keep a hold of the mace the entire time. The next two Dogs came as a pair, one a spear and the other another sword.
Spear struck first with a jab meant to knock him off balance so the sword coming in on his right could slice him into two diagonally. Instead Cross grabbed the spear out of the Dog’s hands and used it as a bat for the other’s head, the spear breaking into splinters as it made contact with the Dog’s skull, sending that one to the ground. Dropping the broken weapon Cross waited patiently for the last two Dogs to reach the now weaponless one, all three snarling at him now.
The last two were a dual-wielding swords Dog, who handed one of its swords to the weaponless Dog, and the other was a hammer wielding one. Not oversize or a two-handed hammer, just a hammer version of the maces. Sword nodded at the other two, a nod to the left and to the right and Hammer and Spear nodded back, walking in a small circle around him obviously intending to flank him.
As they reached their positions, he had to remind himself to wait for them, because he was making an example of these ones. So let them get all situated and as good as they possibly could be, then beat the shit out of them. Sighing he lowered himself into a stance, legs spread apart as his eyes glanced back and forth between the three Dogs.
Spear was the first to move, sword held to cut him horizontally. Cross began to shift towards that Dog until he noticed the other two moving at the same time, although they’d be a second or two later then Spear, still they weren’t as stupid as he thought. He stood still for a second thinking up a plan before smiling to himself and launching towards Spear, the other two having to change direction slightly to catch up.
Spear was caught off guard slightly but nonetheless swung at him once in reach, a bit higher than it had intended, giving Cross plenty of space to duck under, shoulder-charging its legs and sending it up into the air and back down to the ground with a satisfying wet smack. He stood there waiting for Hammer and Sword to come at him and they did at the same exact time, Sword slowing down slightly so as to keep pace with Hammer. Sword sliced diagonally and Hammer did too, both of them grinning with anticipation at killing him.
He denied them that satisfaction by stepping into their arc instead of away and caught them both by the throats and slamming them into the ground, more cracking bones and even the sickening sight of one poking at the skin. Cross looked back up towards Spear who still lay on the ground, expecting it to get back up any second. But as he let go of the Dog’s throats and walked back towards the crowd, he passed by Spear and noticed the pool of blood forming around its head. It must have landed on its head then and cracked it open.
Stopping by the Minotaur’s corpse again he crossed his arms and looked at the mob of Dogs, many more now afraid rather than pissed. Good. He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. “That there is me fucking tired of your shit. I could have done it a lot quicker by simply killing them, instead I decided to have fun. Now if you don’t fucking release the hostages and leave this city I’ll have fun with the rest of your bodies. I’m willing to let bygones be bygones if you leave now,” He lied with a shrug of his shoulders. “But it’s going to be now or never.”
The mob remained silent and kept staring at him, faces alternating between every emotion he could think of, the air tense enough to cut with a knife. It stayed like that for several seconds until the first Dog turned away, several of its compatriots looking at it in anger. But that Dog was followed by another, then a couple more, then a small crowd. As the seconds past more and more started walking away, two dozen of them staying behind longer than the others to glare at him, but eventually they left too.
Satisfied with that Cross turned around and walked back to the Royal duo, dusting off his arms to rid himself of some fur that had gotten on him. His walk back remained silent until he walked up to the shield once more and looked at the two Royals, both of them looking slightly sick. Shining was the first to speak with a disbelieving tone, “You just scared off the Diamond Dogs by breaking their fellow Dog’s bodies. Methodically and calmly you snapped them and dropped them to the ground. How could you handle that so easily?”
Cross’s eyebrow arched, if this was supposed to be the captain of the guard how could he be sickened by snapping a few bones? Although he could just be ‘captain’ because of the fact he was the Prince. “I’m a soldier of the United States Army, I worked for Blackwatch, I have killed to protect my country from threats like this and things far worse.” He leaned in to emphasize his point. “So believe me when I say this is something I’d do time and time again, without losing a wink of sleep. I also believe I told you I’d get rid of the Dogs if you’d drop that shield?”
The Royal duo kept staring at him for a few seconds, before Shining shook his head and his horn stopped glowing, the shield around them disappearing as he did. He backed up slightly and cast a hoof to the middle of the base of the spire. “I’m going to guess that’s why Sombra tasked you with taking care of the Diamond Dogs?”
Cross walked in after them, trailing them as they walked next to the Crystal Heart, the duo stopping a good few yards from it. Cross eyed the Heart openly, earning himself a few glares from guards and the Royals. “That and some other reasons I feel that he isn’t telling me.” He pointed at the Heart. “You mind telling me why that thing’s so important? You more or less left your citizens out to dry.”
The duo looked towards each other once more, sharing another silent conversation which would have irritated him, if it weren’t for the fact he was used to it. Shining turned away and walked a few steps away to talk to another guard, apparently about logistics from what he could hear. Cadenza meanwhile answered his question. “The Heart is quite literally the heart of the Crystal Empire, taking the love of our citizens and keeping the Empire warm with it and keeping out dark beings, such as Sombra.” She looked him up and down while she said that. “You on the other hoof it does not.”
Cross shrugged. “Maybe why Sombra chose me then, so exactly how’s the Crystal Heart work then?” He asked waggling his finger up and down, tracing the spiky floating pedestal thing and the Heart. “Does it just sit there and absorb ‘love’?”
Cadenza smiled, a forced smile, at him. “To be honest I don’t really know how it works all that much so I can’t say."
He quirked the edge of his mouth down slightly, even the answers he was asking politely were ones that didn’t get answered. Because why would they? “Aren’t you the rulers? Shouldn’t you know how things work?”
Cadenza laughed and did the pony equivalent of a face-palm, albeit much lighter than an actual one. “Well it’s a bit more complicated, because we aren’t from around, even though we rule and…” She trailed off and looked to one of the legs of the crystal tower. “How about we continue our discussion upstairs maybe over a cup of tea?”
He nodded and her smile became a tad bit more natural and she turned to the spire she was looking at, turning her back on him. His gaze flickered to Shining who was still talking to the guardspony. There were others still watching him but they were far from being able to touch him much less stop him. So he looked at the Crystal Heart that was just a few seconds away and thought back to Sombra.
The one character that could answer all his questions, including what the hell was going on with his body and the last thing he had to do was move that Heart off it’s floating spike pedestal. So he flashed towards the heart, hands reaching out to smack it off. Making contact he met more resistance than he expected, but with his super strength he continued on with his smack, sending it from between the two spikes and to the ground.
Or at least it would have hit the ground if hundreds of miniature shards exploded out of the ground around him, light glinting off each individual piece, flew to catch the Heart and held it aloft off the ground, slowly spinning it like a prize. A familiar voice started to let out a slow laugh, echoing throughout the empty courtyard seeming to come not from around, but inside his head. His own shadow bent in shape, contorting into a painful looking shape that only looked worse as it turned three-dimensional, rising off the floor.
Cross stepped back and grimaced as the shadow disconnected from him entirely and resumed it’s sick twisting and turning, slowly turning pony-like. If a pony had smoky black hair and tail, their fanged teeth displaying themselves as they laughed, the shadow slowly turning red into a king’s cape. Sombra stopped laughing as the shadow disappeared entirely as it became him, and looked at the ponies around him with a smile. “I suppose I am the only one that is happy I am back?”
