Machinery and Magicby Night MusicChaptersNew ToyNew...Friends?Old SorrowLaw & OrderFriend... or Foe?GuardianLeave it to MeAll It Takes is TimeNew ToyClick"...Over heating is still a reoccurring problem. If worn for extended periods of time, it seems that the wearer will begin to suffer from heatstroke and other heat related symptoms. The tests though seem promising, the suit itself enhances the physical capacity beyond any human or animal on earth." ... "The suit allows the one wearing it to run faster for an extended period of time. And so far it has allowed me to punch through two feet of solid concrete with only a minor hindrance, the recoil of the punch itself doesn't get fully absorbed, and I am currently looking for a solution to the problem. I'll check back in once I find the solution."Click "What is with this god damned forest!?" I yelled to nobody in particular, my voice muffled by my mask. I leapt over an uprooted root and roll into the landing. I continue running away from a my chasers. Wooden wolves. That just made no sense at all. "I have to engage these things, that, or keep running and they catch me..." I say to myself. I stop to look back at the wolves that were chasing me. Brown just like the trees around them and foaming at the mouth with this nasty green goo. I threw both of my hands towards the ground, trying desperately to psyche myself up for the fight. Four wolves can't be that bad. "This is going to hurt..." I pulled my fist back as I waited for the perfect time to strike. The wolves leapt the same branch I did and I let my arm fly forward. I see the punch connect with the the top of a wolf's head and time seems to stand still. A moment later the skull of the wolf seems to cave in. I use the now dead wolfs head to propel my self into the air and I drop kick another to my right. The problem with the suit being able to punch as hard as it can, the recoil has nowhere to go but my body, so I had to work around it and make sure the vibrations of the impact went through the suit and out of the boots themselves. CRACK We all land back down on the ground a wolf squirming beneath my boot and the other dead below me to my left. I look back at the other wolves and see the snarling at me. "Two down, two to go..." Transition to 3rd person. Rainbow Dash was flying about over Ponyville doing her job as leader of the weather team. Moving clouds about getting ready for the eventual downpour of the week. CRACK "Whoa! What was that?!" She exclaimed. Rainbow Dash flew towards where the sound seemed to originate. "The Everfree? I gotta go and get Twilight." Rainbow nodded and flew off to the Castle of Frienship. "Rainbow is that you?" Rainbow stopped and looked down at her friend who was on the ground. "Hey Twilight did you here that?! Tell me I wasn't the only one who heard that!" Rainbow yelled as she swooped down and landed next to Twilight. "I heard it too! I was on my way to Zecora's home because I needed more herbs and then I heard the noise." "We gotta go see what's going on." Rainbow said as she flapped her wings and began to hover in front of her friend. "I'm right behind you." Twilight said. The two ponies then began to gallop towards the Everfree forest. "Why won't you just die already!?" The man in the suit screamed as he continued to pound away at the wooden wolf. Ever since he dispatched the last two wolves all four of the corpses decided to fuse together and make an even stronger wolf. "Every time I kill you, you just have to get right back up." CRACK CRACK CRACK "There it is again, it sounds like it's just behind the brush!" Rainbow yelled as she tried to speak to Twilight over the noise. Twilight used her magic to push away the brush to reveal a large bipedal creature battling an even larger Timberwolf. Thee two ponies froze in their places as they saw the fight ensue. The wolf has leaped at the creature and the creature reacted by grabbing both of the wolf's jaws. The creature pushed the wolf while bring the jaw up to his waist and proceeded to rip the bottom jaw off. The sickening crunch and cracking of wood was heard as the jaw came clean off. The creature tossed the wolf to the other side of the clearing. "It's like a monster fight." Rainbow Dash said. Unheard by her friend who was watching with a curiosity like no other. The wolf looked towards the mysterious creature and began to try to escape. As the wolf limped away, something that sounded like laughter emanated from the creature. "...Like hell you're going to just get away from me. You wanted me dead, so now I'm starting to want you dead." The creature ran at the wolf and grabbed it by the wooden tail. A yelp escaped the wolf's broken maw. The creature then held it in its arms as if it were hugging it. The wolf had begun squirming in the creatures grasp. "Suit, engage lockdown mode. Get ready to purge the suit of any and all excess heat." The forest went deathly quiet as the sound of gears whirring were heard. And soon after a large thud as the creature visibly sunk into the ground. "Wait-" Twilight yelled out before being cut off. "Feel the heat you little wooden shit! Radiating Light!" Not a moment later the creature began to glow as if it were on fire. The wolf began to cry out in pain as it had caught fire and began to die. The creature began to speak again. "Suit! Cool this bastard down, let everything out! Solar Flare!" Twilight stood and saw as the back of the creature opened up and a blinding light had been released from the opening. "Hell's going to be a lot nicer than in my hands you shit..." Twilight turned and leapt back towards her friend. She pulled her down as she used her magic to create a bubble shield. As soon as the shield was up a large explosion was heard as fire immediately shot out towards them and deflected off the shield. The fire stopped and Twilight passed out from the exertion the shield and explosion put on her. "Twilight you need to wake up! The things going to get away!" Rainbow Dash whispered as she tried not to yell and let the creature know they were there. "Wha...? What's going on?" Twilight asked, a tiny bit disorientated. "The thing's going to wake up any moment now! We have to get the drop on it!" Twilight got up from the ground and shook her head, trying to dispel any feeling of uneasiness. The two heard the creature in the now burned clearing say. "Suit, disengage lockdown mode." The two ponies hurried up to where the bushes had been and saw the creature fall over and spew what looked like vomit from what they could assume was its mouth. "Never again... I'm never doing that again. That was the first and hopefully last test of the fail-safe mode." The creature got up from the ground and dusted itself off. Twilight used her magic to trap the creature and hold him in a stasis of sorts. "Why did you do that?!" "..." "Well?!" Twilight shouted. "What ever you're doing, you better stop and drop me right now." "Is that a threat?" "Only if you want it to be." The creature said. "That's it you're coming with me and your going to answer some questions." "Oh no I'm not." "Suit! Engage lockdown mode!" After the creature said that, Twilight felt the weight of the creature crash down on her as she held it in her magic. The field that held the creature flickered and dropped him to the ground. "Suit! Disengage lockdown mode." He brushed himself off again. "You, little Missy, are going to answer my questions." The creature said as he proceeded to turn towards Twilight and Rainbow Dash. The creature stopped as he looked at the two ponies. Nothing was said for a good while. Until, "Looks like the heat's getting to me too..." New...Friends?Click "...So I just speak into this? ... What for? ... Okay? I guess... H-hello, my name is Johnson Barder, I am currently twenty eight years old, this will be the first of my many recordings as we try and discover a way for the human body to become better than what it already is. What should I say about myself? Uh, oh, I was born in Washington D.C., a place also known as... yeah? What?! Hold on! Don't let him go anywhere! We can't just let him leave! Well stop hi-" Click "Now the heat's getting to me too." A moment of silence passed between the three associates. Nobody dared to move, or even cough lightly. All of the silence was broken as the purple mare known as Twilight Sparkle moved forward and asked, "Why did you do that? He gave up!" "..." "Well?" Twilight asked as an eyebrow raised. The creature proceeded to turn and walk towards a tree. "This isn't happening... Need to find water soon, if I don't cool down this is gonna get worse." "Hey I was asking you a question!" The creature grabbed at the tree and reared its head back and brought it forward with the eventual thunk of the head meeting the tree. The creature turned its head back to look at the now wide eyed ponies still standing there. "Well, that's it, I'm dead, and I'm in hell as punishment and now I'm stuck with talking animals." "What did you just say?" Twilight asked, not quite hearing the creature. "Nothing!" It yelled back. "Well, since you can talk to me now, why don't you answer my question?" "Because I don't have to! Those things tried to eat me and I killed them. Where I come from that's pretty normal." "You better watch your tone buddy! This is a princess you're talkin' to!" Rainbow Dash shouted at the rude creature. "Oh I'm sorry, forgive me your highness. I wasn't right in the head." The creature bent at the waist in what seemed to be a bow. "Stop, don't do any of-" "I didn't know I was in the presence of a princess and her bodyguard; Skittles. Oh I'm just quaking in my boots." Rainbow Dash gave the creature a glare like no other. It did nothing. "Can we please stop this? We all got off on the wrong hoof. You said you k-killed the Timberwolf in self defense and I'll believe you." Twilight said, trying to get the two off of each other. "..." "..." "Glad we could come to an agreement. Now, I'm Twilight Sparkle, this is my friend Rainbow Dash. What's your name?" Another moment of silence passed between the three. "My name is Johnson, Johnson Barder." "Okay, Johnson, I'm going to need you to come with me, we're going to be heading into town and we'll need you to stay close." "Can I ask you a question first?" "Sure." "Is there a lake around here? I really need to cool off." "Yes actually, the path we're taking will go past another one of my friends house, she has a pond just outside of her house." "Okay, lead the way." SPLASH "Oh god this feels amazing!" Johnson said as he splashed around in the water. Steam rising off of his suit as he did so. "So Johnson. What is that you're wearing, is that a suit of armor of sorts?" Twilight looked at Johnson in the water. The suit itself was just a metallic grey, the areas where she could assume where his arms bent were joints like a wind up toys joints. The helmet though, it was the most off putting design of the whole thing. Twilight was unable to see anything inside the helmet for some reason it was like the eye and mouth holes were blocked out. The holes for the mouth and eyes were rectangular, but the mouth was pulled up in a creepy smile, it didn't curve like a regular smile, it was just another carved out portion of the mask. "Please John is fine, and yes. In a way it is a suit of armor." "What do you mean by that? If I might ask...?" "Well, normally, I wouldn't have been able to fight that wolf back in the forest. But this little, allows me to do things I wouldn't be able to do. Mainly speaking, lifting more weight, putting more power to punches and kicks, react quicker, run faster, that sort of thing." "So the suit is an enhancer of sorts?" "Of sorts, yes." "So how fast can you go?" Rainbow Dash asked, her curiosity peaked. "Uhm, right now I can only go so fast as something like a cheetah, which could hit ninety for a bit. But if I divert some power and give main priority to the legs I could hit two times the speed of sound, but if I do that, I put the arms out of commission for a good three hours. It's all some stuff I haven't gotten the chance to test and make sure it won't break my legs." "No way that thing can make you do that." "Again, it's all something I haven't tested yet." "Wanna race and see?" "Okay, can you give me a moment to ready myself?" "Take all the time you need, just delaying my soon to be win." Rainbow Dash said as she started to stretch. Johnson got out of the water and shook the water off of him and out of the suit. "Suit, redirect power from the arms and into the legs. Give no priority to the arms and move everything to the locomotion of the suit." Twilight was listening with fascination at what John had been saying. A moment after the commands were given a noise began to sound off from inside the suit. The suit itself began to shrink down as piece by piece the suit shrunk. "Ah, god that feels weird." "What did you do?" Twilight asked. "When the suit goes into this sort of mode, it factors in the resistance it will get if it reaches tops speed in the regular form so it tries to create less surface for the wind to catch on." "You ready yet? All this egghead talk is boring me." "Sure." "We're going to be going all the way to Ponville and back. Just follow the river until you get to a bridge. Once you get to the bridge, cross it and follow the river back. Got it?" "Yup." Rainbow Dash and John lined up next to each other as they readied themselves for the race. "On three. One." Rainbow Dash gave a smirk as she got lower to the ground. "Two." John put his hands to the ground, one leg bent and in front of the other and the other straight back and planted into the ground. "Three!" The two were off. Twilight flew up to see everything that was going to happen. "Damn she's fast..." John thought. As he watched Rainbow next to him he turned his head to look down the path they were heading. The bridge was a good distance away. "I'm going to have to pick it up on the return." When John turned to look back at Rainbow Dash, she was gone. And there she was again. Zooming past at incredible speeds. "How the he-" BOOM Johns thoughts were cut short as a wave of sound bombarded him as he ran. "She just broke the sound barrier... Shit, I guess it's now or never." "Suit, deliver everything we have to the legs, let's win this." "She just did the sonic rainboom, there isn't any way John can catch up now, she's already halfway through the return and he's just passing the bridge." All of a sudden, the little grew dot that was John burst forward. In his wake was a giant grey tear. He was doing his own sonic rainboom. All of a sudden John disappeared entirely. Twilight looked around the whole track to where he could be. She then spotted the tear. It was right next to Rainbow Dash and her trail of rainbow. This was going to be close. "I wonder if I could boost myself even further with the solar flare. If I put a direction on it, it could maybe add half of my speed on top of what I already have... Here goes nothing." John looked over to the rainbow trail that was Rainbow Dash and nodded. "Technology ain't losing to magic, not now, not ever." "What is he doing now!?" Twilight yelled to herself. John leapt up into the air and tucked his legs into his outstretched linking arms. All of a sudden a giant flash of light and fire began to fire from his back and he shot up the trail even further. The fire stopped, John dropped back onto the ground and continued to run. He was already at the finish. He won. "He won?" Twilight asked in bewilderment. She began to fly down to the area where the race began, and now, had ended. Old SorrowClick "So, me and my team of six others made another breakthrough, we began to toss around an idea for a suit that could physically enhance a human without the need of any outside assistance, a.k.a drugs, medicine, bodily enhancers, what ever you want to call them. So we tossed the idea around and we came to the conclusion that this could help, not only with future projects that might need some lifting but with so many other things as well. There are other projects going on as this one does, but those aren't mine. Let's hope this goes well." Click Twilight flew down to the races starting line, as soon as she got close enough, she could hear screaming. She squinted and looked down at the two, John was on the ground screaming while Rainbow was by his side trying to discern the problem. Twilight's head shot up and her eyes widened. She dove down trying to get down faster to the two. "What's wrong?! Are you heating up again?! Rainbow Dash asked as she tried her hardest not to freak out as the creature was on the ground, not moving, screaming in pain. "Fuck! My fucking legs!" Was all John said before he continued with the nonsensical screaming and swearing. "Is there anything I can do?!" Rainbow yell over his screaming. John quit yelling for a moment, instead it was replaced with low growls of pain. "Not really. I can't take off the suit and I can't do much from in here." "Why don't you loosen the suit up then?" Johnson's screaming stopped altogether. A moment of silence passed between the two before Twilight landed next to them. "What's going on?! I heard screaming." ... "Well?" Johnson's suit expanded and he let out a sigh of relief. "Nothing is going on, just had a moment of stupidity. And it hurt." "Are you sure you're okay? I could here you screaming from where I was." "Yeah I'm fine now. Just give me a minute and we can continue." "Okay. So, what I want to ask now is, how in Equestria did you win?!" "Win what?" "...The race of course!" "Oh yeah! Yeah that, um, I don't know." "What do you mean you don't know? How do you not know how you beat me?" Rainbow Dash asked, sounding slightly appalled. "I don't know! Okay? I just remember running and this grey shit formed around me before I shot forward. What ever, okay? I won. That's it. Can we get to your town now?" "Sure but you're still answering some of my questions on the way." Johnson slowly lifted himself off of the ground. "What's this town called again? I think you mentioned it before but I'm not quite sure." "Ponyville. We're going to Ponyville." "..." "So, what's with the suit and where can I get one?" "That's something I can't answer." "What? Why not?" "I wouldn't tell you even if I could." "Even if you could?" "Yup. I am incapable of telling anyone or anything, about my suit and or where it came from." "So where do you come from?" "A planet called earth." "Where on earth?" "A country called The United States of America." "Where in America?" "Washington D.C." "Is that where the suit came from?" Twilight asked with a smirk on her face. "Nope, that's where I was born and raised." The smirk fell off of her face the moment he said that. They continued there walk until they got to the very edge of town. The sound of hooves clopping on the stone walkway filled the air. "So, what's the plan to get me through town without causing mass hysteria?" "I didn't think this part through just yet." "How about I pretend to be a robot and you can say you built me...?" "That might work, or it might not. Let's just try." "This is going to be fun!" John thought as a smile was creeping its way onto his face. The three continued walking into town. As soon as they had been seen, all attention was focused on them. Nopony dared to move as the giant behemoth of metal made its way with the Princess. A single pony broke from a group and approached the Princess, Rainbow Dash, and the giant metal thing. She was yellow with long pink hair. She was carrying a basket and being followed by a small rabbit. John turned towards the pony and said in the most robotic tone he could muster. "Halt! You approach the Princess herself. Identify." "I uh uhm." the pony stuttered, sweat visibly showing up on her face. "Identify or I shall consume thine children." The pony pony looked as she was about to faint before the princess grabbed onto her and said with a fake smile. "No it's okay Fluttershy, he's just playing around, right?" Twilight looked to Johnson before he replied in his normal tone. "Yeah, I just had to do that, I apologize." Johnson said as he gave a mock bow. "See? He's friendly, enough." "Yeah, I don't actually eat babies anymore, too chewy." It looked as if Fluttershy was about to faint again before Twilight caught her. Again. Johnson started laughing as Twilight looked back with the angriest face she could muster. "Will you stop that?!" "You ponies are just to easy to scare." He said clutching his gut. He looked up the gathering crowd of ponies. His arms shot up and he waved them around as he shouted. "Oooooh! I'll eat your soul!" Some of them ran away in terror, some of them started to shake in fear, and others just kept staring. Johnson began to laugh even harder. He fell on his back as he clutched his stomach and rolled on the ground. "That's not very nice." A new voice said, for some reason, this one demanded his attention. Johnson sat up from the ground and looked over to the one who was talking. It was Fluttershy. "You don't go and scare ponies for no reason. What did they ever do to you? Nothing. You just walk into town and start scaring ponies just because you can. You're nothing but a big bully." Everything went silent as Fluttershy gave Johnson, the stare. Johnson got up from the ground and picked Fluttershy up and he carried her like a large cat. "...Okay, I'll stop, just... don't ever do that again. Okay?" Was all he said. Fluttershy nodded. "Okay. Can we get inside somewhere? I'd like to see if I can get out of this thing." "Just- Just over here." Twilight said, not sure what to think about what just happened. "Welcome to my home, let's get to one of the rooms and see if we can relax for a bit." "Hm, sure is nice in here. Very spacious. Oh yeah, before I forget, do any of you know anybody close with fingers?" Johnson got no reply. "These things." He wiggled his fingers in an attempt to find someone who didn't lack digits. "Oh, yeah, We've got Spike, he's my little brother. Hold on." Twilight moved forward a step and shouted out his name. The pitpat of feet could be heard as whoever Spike was got closer and closer. "You called Twilight?" Spike said as he popped his head around a corner. "Spike we have a new guest, come here and say hello." Spike came around the corner and noticed Johnson almost immediately. His eyes widened and his walk became slightly slower as he got closer and closer. Spike was roughly just below knee height when compared to Johnson. "H-Hi, I'm Spike." "Hey, I'm Johnson. But you can just call me John." He extended a hand in an attempt at a handshake. Spike took his hand and they both shook. "Well, now that we know each other, Spike, do you mind if you do me a favor?" "Y-Yeah?" "There is a panel on the back of my helmet, I'm going to have you open it and flip the switch twice. Can you do that for me?" "Sure." Johnson got down on both knees and gave Spike a clear view of said panel. Spike used his claws and opened it. He saw the switch and flicked it upwards. "And now back down please." Spike nodded and did like he was asked. He closed the panel after he was done and moved away. The whole suit began to shake slightly as piece by piece the suit began to move away from the front. As soon as the whole front was open and Johnson hopped out of the suit. Everyone in the room gasped. Here was this hairless ape like creature with scars running down almost every inch of his body. The most noticeable ones were. From Fluttershy's point of view, a large column of metal that ran down his spine. From Rainbow Dash's point of view in the air, a bunch of tiny protruding pieces of metal from his almost bald head. And from Twilight's point of view. A mass of electronics in a particular spot on his chest. Presumably where his heart should be. "Heartless?!" "Brainless?" "Spineless?" All of these thought words described the being in front of them. Johnson. Law & Order Click "So, we finished fixing some kinks with the suit. Heat should not be causing the suit any exterior damage anymore. That's a plus. One of the test subjects for the medical project had a breakthrough. It seems though that after extensive surgery. He seems to perfectly fine. Some minor degradation of thought processing, but this was far from unexpected. What was unexpected is that he kept any at all. The others will be keeping a close watch on him... I still think that he should be kept in a cell. The problems that occurred in the medical field was that, even with the loss of thought or even reasoning sometimes. The subjects would begin to feel extreme emotions. Happiness, sadness, anger. Mainly anger, that's what scares me the most." Click "Hello Princess, I wish I could have made less of an entrance, but when it comes to this suit, I have a problem with people touching it. Especially when I told them that I didn't want them to touch it." John said as he looked Celestia in the eyes. "No harm has come to anyone here so it is fine. I wish that we could speak face to face, speaking to mask is quite odd, especially yours in particular." Celestia said as she stared at the mask. The metal smile unsettling. Even if it was just a mask, the smile itself didn't seem to fit the person speaking from behind it. "If it would please you that I remove the suit, then if you could, could you open the compartment on the back of the helmet and flip the switch twice. Please be gentle." John turned in place and pointed to the panel on the back of his head. Celestia used her magic to open the panel. A multitude of tiny lights and a single switch were revealed. She flipped the switch twice. John then spread his arms and legs out as if he were going to fall back and make a snow angel. Sounds emanated from the suit as Celestia saw panels move out of the way to let John out of the suit. The sound of feet stepping down onto the crystal floor filled everypony's ears. John walked around the suit and greeted Celestia with a bow. "Your majesty." John said with a smile. He raised from his bow and Celestia's eyes widened slightly before returning to normal not a moment later. "It's the scars isn't it? Don't worry, they have that effect on everyone." "N-No. It was the machinery showing from your body. I haven't seen that kind of work before." Celestia said as she tried to ignore John's body. "It's fine." John said in a calming tone. "The piece in my chest enables me to resist poison, even more so than the old one. My new brain allows any medicine I take to be strengthened as it is processed more than ever to help me. And my spine allows me to take minor blows without them harming me while also strengthening me." "And all of the scars? Those don't seem to be of any beneficial nature." Celestia wanted to know what caused the rest of those scars. She could care less about the machinery. She had seen veterans of war come home with less scars then what this creature had. It was either he had been in more action than she had seen or someone was very cruel. John ushered her away from the group that was listening and began to whisper. The smile on his face now gone. "I can tell you, but it has to be on my own time. I am entitled to my secrets just as you are to your own." A small frown made its way onto her face. "Hey, if you have any other questions that might need to be answered, I would be gladly to answer them... On one condition." Celestia's ears perked up. "What is this condition?" "I want to punish the purple princess for touching my suit. And I need someone who can do magic to help me." Celestia was intrigued. A mischievous smile crawled onto her face. "What are you planning?" "Trap her in the suit she wants to tinker with without her magic. Can't move, no magic, give her what she wants, a front row seat to the most technological thing in here and she can't even mess with it." "I can cast an enchantment on the suit itself. Any magic near it will be negated. Is that fine?" "Perfect." John said as a twisted smile formed on his face. "So, how do I work this thing?" Twilight asked as she stepped her way into the suit. Standing up on her hind legs. "You have to be in it for it to listen to you, and you can ask it any question you want." John said as he watched as the unicorn tried her best to fit in the suit. "This is a bit uncomfortable." "Yeah, different species and all. Suit, engage lockdown mode." "What's going on?" Twilight asked "Punishment." Celestia said as she casted the spell. "Punishment? For what?" "Messing with my stuff. I always get payback." John said as he gestured for Celestia and the rest to follow him. "Wait. Guys! Don't leave me in here." Twilight tried to cast a spell, just for the result to sputter out and die like a candle being blown out. "I'm sorry! I won't do it again, just let me out of here." Twilight pleaded. Her pleads fell on deaf ears, or in this case, no ears. No one was in the room anymore. And so, it was going to be a long three hours before the spell was going to wear off. "So, what to you ponies eat around here?" John asked as he rubbed his stomach. "Hay, flowers, wheat, stuff like that." Spike said as the group walked down the hall. "Do you guys eat meat?" John asked. Unfortunately he didn't get an answer. He turned to look at the group of ponies before him. "What?" "Y-you eat meat?!" Spike asked, his eyes wide with fear. "Yeah? Why? Do you guys not have things in this place that eat meat?" "The Griffons do that but they mainly eat fish." said Celestia "Hmm. That sucks, Oh well, do guys have any fruit? I can eat fruit." "We have apples!" Spike declared. "Nope, not eating those, I can't stand those vile things." And so, the group of ponies and John made their way to the kitchen in hopes that they could find something to eat. Author's Note Little short, but I thought I would end it on that note. Let me know if there are any mistakes, grammar, spelling. Anything. Friend... or Foe?Click "The subject I mentioned last recording seems to be doing really well, we found he still retains most of his functions after some testing, something odd though, it seems that the auto-doc that preformed the surgery decided to go off course and messed with his larynx or voice box. After a whole day of testing we found out he can imitate anybody he has been listening to for a good amount of time. He's still very violent of course that was expected but nothing else! ... The suit is coming along as well, it seems that along with the enhanced capabilities of the wearer it comes with a downside, anybody who wears it for to long either gets cooked to death or succumbs to heat stroke. More testing is needed." Click "I wouldn't let Apple Jack here you talking like that. Might not get off so easy." Spike said as they continued down the hallway. "Who?" "Friend of ours, owns an apple farm, she wouldn't be to happy if she heard you say that." "Should I care? That's just my opinion, it shouldn't matter unless she decides that it matters." John didn't care if someone had a problem with him or his tastes. He's had problems like that in the past but those got settled ages ago. "To each their own." "What?" Celestia asked, deciding it was time to ask questions of her own. "I have my opinions and you have your own, let's not fight to see which one of is right, because in the end, neither of us are." "Are you quoting someone or...?" "Someone I met, real book-smart kind of person. Smartest person I knew really." "Knew?" "Dead, or so I assume. Can't really know, not unless I saw her again." John said shaking his head and chuckling. "Oh, I'm sorry." "You have nothing to be sorry about." "When are we gonna get there? We've been walking for ages!" "Just the next door over to our left, this place is huge." John rushed ahead and swung the door open. It was just a normal kitchen, except for the fact that it was all crystal based. The kitchen counter, the sink, even the stove was crystal! "Is everything in this place made out of crystals?" "This place was grown from a crystal tree." Spike stated. John walked into the room and sat down at a large wood table. The table itself was adorned with a cloth and a few bowls filled with various fruit, along with a number of plates. John reached over to the bowl and pulled out an orange. He began to peel as soon as the rest of the group joined him in the room. "So, do you all want some pancakes?" Spike offered. "Yes please, I would enjoy some." Celestia said as she sat across from John at the table. "Oh, that would be nice, if you wouldn't mind..." "Sure, I needed something to eat anyways." Spike looked towards John. "Hm? Oh yeah, sure, thanks." He was just finishing peeling the orange and had been distracted. Spike walked towards the kitchen area and began to pull out everything need for the pancakes. "So, John. Would you mind if I asked some questions?" "Sure." "How did you end up coming to Equestria?" "Not sure I can answer that. I honestly don't know." "You don't know? "Nope. All I do know is that I was taking the suit out for a joyride and poof. I'm in the middle of that forest and I'm being chased by a giant wood wolf." "Hmm. Odd. Okay then, are you planning on doing something... bad?" "Whoa, where did that come from?" "For the time you have been here you seemed to be extremely complacent. My student messes with your... suit. And she gets a slap on the hoof, but that suit is more than just a toy or something that you take on a joyride." "True, but I am not the one who should be handing out punishment. Someone of power should be doing that, someone like you or the police." "But seeing as how you are not of this land, or of this world it would seem, you would be held with the same regards as a dignitary from a far off land. While they can't fully punish someone, they can however call for punishment if the offence is high enough." "So, will I do something bad?" John asked himself. "Yes, that was the question." "...But the term bad, just like good, is subjective, something that you find bad might be good for me. Just like eating meat, while not inherently bad it is frowned upon. Not something that can get me locked up, but something that makes me lose a few 'social points'." "So you are going to do something bad for us, but good for you?" "No... well maybe... most likely good for both of us." John finished with nodding his head. "...Okay?... Can I ask you something about the suit?" John nodded as he ate half the orange he had peeled. "What is it made for?" "Tasks to hard for regular people. Lifting things, breaking things, crushing. That sort of thing." "So it's not made for war?" John was silent as he slipped another half of the orange in his mouth. "It is, isn't it?" John swallowed. "Not necessarily. While the main reason it was built was for arduous tasks. It can be used in battle. Skittles over here can answer that for you." John pointed at Rainbow Dash. The pegasus in question was eating an apple while listening to the conversation being had. As soon as her name was mentioned she looked up to John and Celestia. Celestia was looking at her, expecting an answer to the question that was asked. "Um, yeah, he totally destroyed a timberwolf that was chasing him. It was huge, maybe like four times bigger than the regular ones." Celestia was shocked, but she didn't show it. Even most of her guards couldn't take down a timberwolf of that size, a group of them against one wolf, sure, but one of that size... "How did you accomplish such a feat?" "The suit itself has a power source. And that source tends to heat the suit up beyond what most can handle, so we built in two systems that could let heat out without harming the person inside of it. One is the slow release of heat, the suit slowly expels any heat within it and cools down the source. The other way is a rapid explosion. Letting everything the suit has built up all out at once. Anything within thirty to forty feet become a nice pile of ash unless it has something to cover it." "Wait, Twilight is in that thing, wouldn't she overheat as well?" "No, the suit heats up slowly yeah, but unless if you are using it continuously for about ten minutes, it can't reach any higher than a sauna. The most that's going to happen to your student is that shes gonna get really sweaty." A look of disgust washed over Celestia's face. "Wouldn't that mean you have to deal with that later?" "Nope, what do you think happens to me almost every time I wear that thing? Besides, jump into a lake and it's all better." Celestia was interrupted as Spike came into the dining area with a big platter of pancakes. "Here you all go. Eat up." He said as he forked pancakes onto everyone's plates. John looked at his plate of pancakes. "Something wrong?" "Wha— What? No, nothings wrong." John picked up a pancake with his hands and rolled it up. He took a bite... John was overcome with a feeling euphoria. "These are some of the god damned best pancakes I've ever had!" John declared, right before shoveling more into his mouth. Everypony stared at him, unsure whether this was normal or not. "So fluffy, so sweet." John whispered through a mouth full of pancakes. Everypony decided that they should begin eating their pancakes before John tried to eat them. Time Has Passed "So... did you learn your lesson?" John said to a sweating panting Twilight. Who only replied with. "Never...*pant* again...*pant*..." John sniffed. His face contorting into a look of confusion. "Why do you smell like candy?" "What are you talking about?" Rainbow asked. John looked back to the group of ponies and Spike to see them all covering their noses with hooves. All but Celestia seemed to be repulsed by the smell. "She smells awful!" John sniffed again. Deeper this time. "Not to me, smells like... black licorice." "Please stop." Twilight said as soon as she got her breathing back to normal. John looked at his suit before a rumbling shook the whole room. "What was that?" John asked as he looked at the ponies behind him. They all shook their heads and shrugged. John moved towards his suit and began to put it on. "Let's go check out what that was." John walked to the door and opened it. The light blinded him for a moment before he saw what the rumbling was. In the distance moving towards him, was a giant timberwolf, this one wasn't made out of branches and twigs, but whole trees. Twice as big as the last one he fought. "Nope" Was all John muttered before shutting the door and walking back inside. GuardianClick "I'm going to ask you some simple questions and you're going to answer, easy right?" "Yes, simple." "Good, now let's begin. Do you remember anything before arriving here?" "No." "Are there any kind of urges that you have? Violent... maybe...?" "Yes." "Are you planning on acting any of those urges out?" "Yes." "Do you mind telling me what you're going to do?" "..." "..." "I'm going to break free." Click "What? What did you see?" Twilight asked as she approached John who was standing at the door. "Nothing. Why?" John said in an oh-so convincing tone. "Let me through. I want to see for myself." "Okay, go ahead." John raised both of his hands up and backed away from the door. Twilight trotted to the door and opened it with her magic. She peeked her head outside and a loud crash was heard a moment later. Her head came back inside and only thing was said. "Nope." "See?" "All I saw was a giant timberwolf attacking Ponyville!" "Yeah, you guys have any plans to get it out of here?" "What do you mean 'you'? You fought off one of those things before, what's so bad about this one?" Rainbow Dash asked with an eyebrow raised. "Try like ten times bigger!" John exaggerated. "If I tried to fight that thing, I would probably last like three minutes." Celestia stepped forward and asked. "What if all of us stood our ground against him?" "We might have a chance, you two with your freaky magic, skittles up in the sky doing what she does and... Fluttershy?" The pegasus 'meeped' at the attention. She didn't want to fight, let alone something that was bigger than buildings. "You can stay out of this if you want, I wouldn't hold it against you. Just look after Spike." John turned towards the door and opened it, as he stepped out the sound of crashing and screaming was clearly heard. In the distance the timberwolf was seen rampaging. "This is gonna hurt." John muttered to himself as he began to sprint to the large beast. "Hey! Kindling!" John yelled as he walked towards the timberwolf. The wolf reared its head up and looked around. "Right here!" John yelled again. The wolf finally spotted John and his gang of four. It bared its teeth as it let out a snarl. "Yeah! How about you pick on someone your own size? And by that I mean leave peacefully and don't hurt anybody." The wolf just snarled even more. "Yeah, I thought so. So, Twilight, Celestia, you take out both of its front legs and I smash its skull in. Yeah, sounds like a plan." "We shouldn't try to kill it, harm it and let it limp back with its tail between its legs." Celestia suggested. But it was to late, John was already charging towards the wolf. Celestia let out a sigh and charged her magic. "Come Twilight, help me with this." Both of the unicorns released bolts of magic. John sped towards the wolf but stopped as two bright lights passed him up and pounded into the legs of the wolf. The wolf let out a yelp and fell forward as the two legs were swept from underneath it. John chuckled and leapt onto the wolf's head and proceeded to slam his fists into the wooden head below him. Punch after punch, crack after crack. The wolf struggled to get back onto its paws. So instead, it lifted its head rapidly and tossed John into the air. The wolf quickly climbed back onto its paws and looked up towards John. "John!" Twilight yelled out. John was soaring through the air before he reached the highest point he could go. And soon after, began traveling back towards the ground, and towards the wolf's gaping maw. "I can't do shit! I don't know what lockdown would do at this height, this thing is going to eat me!" John thought as the wolf got closer and closer. The jaws of the wolf lined with wooden teeth, the hole that had been the throat was pitch black. John fell into the wolf's mouth and the wolf quickly swallowed. Time seemed to stand still as everypony stared at the wolf. It licked its muzzle and looked towards the two princesses. It leapt towards the and tried to scoop them up in its large jaws. Twilight threw up a bubble shield wither her magic and protected both her and Celestia. "Hey! Stay away from them you over-sized pile of firewood!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she pushed a cloud above the wolf's head and began to strike it with her two back hooves. Lightning struck from the cloud and slammed into the wolf's head. The wolf raised from his position on the ground and snapped at Rainbow Dash and her cloud. The cloud burst and floated away with the breeze and Dash had flew out of harms way. The wolf looked back towards the two shielded alicorns. Just as he was about to leap a second time, the wolf gave a pained yelp and fell to the ground. Everypony stared at the wolf with wide eyes. their gaze shifting to the midsection of the wolf where a bright light was shining through the now burning gaps. The wolf began to whimper in pain as his midsection was burning away. A moment later a large glowing figure fell from the stomach of the wolf. "John's okay!" Twilight yelled from inside the bubble shield. Celestia looked to where Twilight had been looking and she saw John, on his hands and knees heaving. John got up from his position on the ground and looked to the wolf with half of its midsection missing. "You thought you could kill me?!" John shouted as he walked towards the wolf, each step burning the ground around him, the grass sizzling away. The wolf looked towards John and let out a pained cry. "Yeah! Guess who's top dog now?!" John grabbed one of the wolf's hind legs and swung a fist at it, cracking it and burning some away. "Me!" John proceeded to punch away at the leg until it broke under his fists. The hole leg shattering into hunks of wood which lit on fire as they shot away from the scene. "John! Stop this insanity at once!" Celestia demanded. "Twilight, deactivate the shield, we're safe." The shield was dropped and Celestia took flight towards John and the timberwolf. John moved to the other leg and smashed it to pieces just like he had done with the other one. "Tried to fucking kill me! I'll piss on your god damned ashes you waste!" John said as he moved to the head of the wolf. The wolf looked up to him with a pained expression. John raised his fist and was met with a yellow bolt of magic. He recoiled and lowered it back down. "That is enough John! There is no need to kill it." Celestia said as she stepped beside the wolf. She recoiled at the smell. It was something she hadn't smelt in a while. "This fucker tried to kill me! The shit in his stomach almost did!" "You mean to say that—" "What you're smelling is my fucking melting flesh!" John raised a fist up and brought it back down onto the wolf's skull. The sound of metal meeting wood sounded with a loud crack as the head of the wolf cracked slightly. "Tried to kill me and you're defending it." He raised hist fist again. Noise assualted everypony's ears. Celestia stared he eyes wide with fear. "Tried to destroy a town and you're defending it." The action was repeated. "Tried to kill ponies and you're defending it!" The wolf's head caved and in a green liquid squirted out onto John. As the liquid oozed down suit it pulsed with energy and John fell to his knees. Celestia wretched as what looked like blood shot out of his mask. John collapsed onto the ground and darkness swam in his vision before blacking out completely. Author's Note John lost a bit of his skin and if you know what I'm talking about, you'll know what he'll get back. Leave it to MeAfter John passed out, Celestia had the suit stripped from him and had him be taken by a pair of guards. She had brought him back to the crystal castle for a nurse to look at him. "Is there anything wrong with him." Celestia asked as she watched the sleeping figure of John. The heart rate monitor giving out soft beeps as the humans heart beat away. "Besides the fact that we could barely get the needle through his skin? No, there is nothing wrong with him. He seems perfectly healthy... I think." Red Heart said, muttering those last words. Celestia said nothing as her horn started to glow. Conjuring a pair of magical shackles, locking his wrist to the crystal bed post. "Guards." She called. And two royal guards stepped into the room, spears in tow. "Yes my princess?" They both droned. "Make sure nopony enters this room without me." She stated. "Yes princess." "And make sure he stays in bed." They both nodded. As soon as they began to move to their positions, Celestia heard John move around his his bed. She turned to see him sit upright. He struggled against the shackle. Grunts of frustration were heard as he tugged the chain connecting him to the bed. "Celestia~ you better have a key for this." He said, pointing at the magical handcuff. "I do. But for now, you're being held until I can determine if you're going to be a problem." "I'll be a fucking problem if you don't get rid of this." His tone getting more irritated. A guard stepped forward and lowered his spear to John's face. "You shall not disrespect the princess beast." John looked around the room, ignoring the guard. "Where's my suit?" "I'm having Twilight look at it." John's face took on a look of anger. "If she lays a fucking finger— hoof on my suit, I'll—" "You won't do anything, you're not escaping this room." Celestia interrupted. She activated her horn and began to push John back into his bed. The heart rate monitor began to beep at an accelerated rate. Adrenaline began to pump through John's cybernetic brain, enhancing the effects as he began to push against the magic. Celestia struggled at the humans new found strength. John tugged harder at the magical shackle, this time the bed post broke with it, he swung it and caught the bed post in his hands. The guards rushed him with spears and lunged at him, he was able to dodge one, but the other caught him in the stomach, his hardened skin barely letting it pierce beyond a couple of inches. John brought the crystal club up and swung it downward into the closest guard's helmet, leaving large dent in the helmet as the guard collapsed. The other saw his comrade fall, he lunged once more, only to be stopped as a hand caught it it and ripped it from his grip. John dropped the spear to his feat and clubbed the remaining guard. John looked up to Celestia who had her horn lowered, as if she was going to spear him with it. "This is your last chance!" She yelled. "Give up and you'll be spared!" John let out an inhumane snarl that would have put a Manticore to shame. He pulled on the club with one hand, while pulling the shackle with the other. The shackle finally broke and he tossed the block of crystal at Celestia, and he ran to her. Celestia saw the crystal, but not John, she teleported to Twilight to let her know that it was not safe, but as soon as the teleportation finished, she saw that she had brought John with her. Twilight saw both John and Celestia pop into existence. Fear shot through her when she saw the human. "Twilight! Run!" Celestia shouted. But John was already on her. He kicked her away from the suit, launching her body into the wall. She wasn't harmed too much, she was just going to be sore in the morning. John laid down into the suit, which activated and closed around him. He got up from the floor, the metal plates of the suit grinding away at each other as he did so. "Suit." John said, his voice guttural and scratchy. "Activate Operation Lock and Key." As he said that, Celestia heard and saw the suit tighten and lock around it's wearer. The floor below him cracked slightly as the suit entered the modified lockdown. A pained grunt escaped him. "You want me to be a problem Celestia? I'll give you that and more." He stated before breaking into a sprint towards the alicorn. Raising fist and lunging forward, only to punch the wall that Celestia had been up against. The wall cracked under the suits strength. Celestia had teleported herself and Twilight out of the room. She was met with a number of her guards. "Guards! Subdue the creature at all costs!" They nodded at the command. All of them jumped as metal fist burst through the door behind the princess. The fist was drawn back and a mask was seen on the other side of the door. "Here's Johnny!" The human yelled in his guttural tone. Before ripping the door from its hinges. Click "Today went well. My employers wanted me to install a fail safe directive into the suit. So, should the wearer be captured and needs to stay in the suit at all costs, he or she would need to activate Operation: Lock and Key. Lock and Key makes the suit unable to open from any outside source. The wearer would need to deactivate it themselves. The whole thing makes it like a mobile Lockdown Mode. No bombs, bullets, or technology will get that thing to open up again. You may move a bit slower, but it makes everything that gets thrown at you seem like wads of paper against a brick wall." A scream sounded off in the distance. Click "What's going on?!" John yelled. His voice echoing off of the walls of the large room. "It's the subjects! They escaped, the new one helped them!" A woman shouted as she ran into the room, closing the door behind her. "Oh fuck." A look of pure fear ran over his bearded face. He brought a large recorder up to his face. He looked to his peer and said. "Suzy, it's been a pleasure working with you." He looked away. Click "If anyone finds this, I just wanted to say. I'm not sorry about what I did. I wanted to make peoples lives better. My name is Johnson Barder. I'm a scientist for the Big Mountain research team. An organization of scientists brought together by the U.S. government to further the technology we already have." The man sighed. "We had a good run, but some... technical difficulties won't allow us to work anymore." "John! They're trying to bust the door down!" Suzy screamed. "Okay! Let's get out of here." Click John dropped the recorder and ran to Suzy. He guided her to an escape exit meant for emergencies, and this seemed like the time to use it. He looked back to the room to look at everything they had made. A giant white tarp covering the suit he was building and a number of other technologies. He looked down into the hole to see Suzy looking back up at him with worried eyes. He jumped down to her and closed the hatch with a push of a button. As soon as the hatch closed, what seemed like hundreds of people stormed in, snarling like animals. Waving proton axes about. One of them that stood out walked forward with determination, a number of the Big Empty technologies sticking out of his bare skin. He saw the device on the ground and picked it up. He looked at the device as his brethren left the room, snarling and screaming in anger. He pushed a button and recordings began to play. A smile crept up to his face. An hour later. "...Okay! Let's get out of here." Click The man dropped the recorder and said in a pitch perfect copy of the recordings voice. "My name is John Barder. I'm a scientist for Big Empty." He stomped on the device, making sure to destroy it. The man looked to the tarp in the far corner of the room. An even wider grin spread on his face. "And I'm going to escape." Author's Note PLOT TWIST! You all probably saw that coming, or maybe you didn't. Hope you liked it though. What's going to happen next time? Is somepony going to die? My response: All It Takes is TimeClick "We are in the first stages in the production of the suit, right now we are trying out our first prototype. I'm gonna be the one entering and driving the suit. I have no enhancers helping me, it's gonna be all me when I'm commanding the suit." "First run was a success. Well, as much a success as any other would go. The suit itself runs like a charm, but it doesn't have what we need. Some of us have been noticing the shortage of supplies that we have. Been talking about going out and getting what we need since our deliveries stopped, don't know why they did, they just did. I'll record some more again if something happens." Click Everypony stared at him. Nopony said a thing. "So, see anything y'all like?" John joked, trying to get their attention elsewhere. It didn't work. He couldn't blame them, even his own body still scared him sometimes. "You have a very lovely home Princess, thank you for having me as a guest." John moved towards Twilight and grabbed the bottom jaw of her agape mouth. He began to move it up and down and started to make a high pitched voice and speak. "No problem Johnson, make yourself at home, I hope we can be friends, oh yeah, and I'm sorry for making things awkward by staring at you, I hope you can forgive me." John let go of Twilight and began to laugh. The three ponies snapped out of it when they heard his laughter. "What happened to you?! Who did all of that to you?!" Twilight asked, frightened by the large amount of damage to John's body. John stopped laughing. "I'll tell you about these." He said as he point to his chest, head, and spine. "But the rest of this." He gestured to rest of his scar covered body. "This is my secret to keep." Twilight nodded. "The stuff you all see right now, this is advanced machinery given to me by the auto-doc of where I had been before all of this." "Auto-doc?" "An automated doctor. A robot doctor if you must. Basically, he cut into me and replaced my brain, heart, and spine. With stuff that works even better than the originals. My head can rarely ever get hurt anymore and I handle chemicals better. My heart can make the chemicals I take work better and I can't be poisoned. And my spine makes me stronger, also, any blow I take to the chest, won't ever break anything." "Fascinating." "Yeah... Fascinating." It was still really awkward among them all. "Do you mind if I take a look at that suit of yours now? Since you're out of it and all." "Yes I do mind." "Why won't you just let me look at it? I won't damage it or anything like that!" "I don't care, if any of you touch it or even look at it funny without clearing it with me. It's gone, with me in it." "Fine." Twilight said with a small pout on her face. "Good, glad we understand each other. Now, is there a bathroom in here that I could use? I tend to get really sweaty when that thing heats up." Everyone made a face at his remark and Twilight pointed down a hallway to her left. "Second door on the right. Towels will be in the bottom drawer underneath the sink." And with that, John gave a small bow and made his way to the bathroom. The moment the door closed behind him and Twilight was sure he couldn't hear them, she moved from her place and towards the suit. "Um, I don't think you should be messing with his stuff Twilight. He even said not to." "It's fine Fluttershy what he doesn't know won't hurt him right?" "I'm more worried about what will happen to you if he finds out." "That's why he won't know." Fluttershy gave Twilight a look of worry before turning her head to Rainbow Dash and Spike. The two were chatting away. Something about when a new Daring Do book was supposed to arrive. "Look, I'll tell you when I know okay? No need for an interrogation." Spike said as he raised his claws to either side of his head. Fluttershy looked to Twilight and then the hallway John had gone down to take a shower. She nodded to herself and made her way to the very same room. Behind her she could hear Twilight. "Spike, we need to get Princess Celestia down here." "All in all, leaving my suit there with her was probably a bad move." John said as he rubbed away at his skin, soap suds dripping off of his body as time went on. The fruity smell of the soap tickling his nose. "I have a feeling I might need to enact for some premature revenge." John looked over at the sponges. He felt for which one was the softest of the bunch and took it. "This'll do." He took the band of his shorts and stretched them out, and so, John began to scrub his unmentionables with said sponge. After he was done, John stepped out of the shower and proceeded to wrap a towel around his waist. He hastened as he heard the door open. opening. "Mr. Minotaur? I'm sorry for intruding but—" "It's fine, I was just finishing up. What's going on?" John asked as he turned towards the yellow Pegasus. "Um, promise you won't be mad?" "I promise." "Pinkie Promise?" John raised an eyebrow to this. He then shrugged and lifted his arm, clenched his fist and extended a pinkie towards the yellow mare. To this Fluttershy raised a brow and asked. "Um what are you doing?" "A pinkie promise, although, I don't know how you're going to do this without a pinkie." "That's not a Pinkie promise. You're supposed to say Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Fluttershy said as she went through the motions without jabbing herself in the eye. "Cross my heart and I can't fly, and I'm definitely not doing that last thing. happy?" John followed the motions, but not with much conviction. Fluttershy gave him a confused look before nodding. "Twilight is messing with your special suit. Please don't be angry at her." She gave him a pleading look. John was silent for a moment before he moved for the door. He grabbed the knob and opened the door. He marched out to the main area of the castle. "Twilight, it's alright, I'm sure what ever he is, he doesn't wish ill intent on us." Celestia said reassuring her student. "But he has this... thing! He even used it to destroy a Timberwolf even after it was trying to run away." "I'm sure it was for a good reason. Timberwolves are dangerous after all, he may have even saved someone from becoming a victim in the future." "I even found some recordings! The suit played them when I was messing around with it and they—" pat pat patpat pat patPAT A moment later a blur passed between Celestia and Twilight. The suit animated as power flowed through it and the hiss of said power could be heard. The suit itself stood just a head taller than Celestia herself. If you included her horn than they were the exact same height. The suit walked up to Twilight and dropped to a single knee. John grabbed Twilight by the back of her head and pulled it closer to his mask. "So... Is it okay if I break a Pinkie Promise?"
New ToyClick"...Over heating is still a reoccurring problem. If worn for extended periods of time, it seems that the wearer will begin to suffer from heatstroke and other heat related symptoms. The tests though seem promising, the suit itself enhances the physical capacity beyond any human or animal on earth." ... "The suit allows the one wearing it to run faster for an extended period of time. And so far it has allowed me to punch through two feet of solid concrete with only a minor hindrance, the recoil of the punch itself doesn't get fully absorbed, and I am currently looking for a solution to the problem. I'll check back in once I find the solution."Click "What is with this god damned forest!?" I yelled to nobody in particular, my voice muffled by my mask. I leapt over an uprooted root and roll into the landing. I continue running away from a my chasers. Wooden wolves. That just made no sense at all. "I have to engage these things, that, or keep running and they catch me..." I say to myself. I stop to look back at the wolves that were chasing me. Brown just like the trees around them and foaming at the mouth with this nasty green goo. I threw both of my hands towards the ground, trying desperately to psyche myself up for the fight. Four wolves can't be that bad. "This is going to hurt..." I pulled my fist back as I waited for the perfect time to strike. The wolves leapt the same branch I did and I let my arm fly forward. I see the punch connect with the the top of a wolf's head and time seems to stand still. A moment later the skull of the wolf seems to cave in. I use the now dead wolfs head to propel my self into the air and I drop kick another to my right. The problem with the suit being able to punch as hard as it can, the recoil has nowhere to go but my body, so I had to work around it and make sure the vibrations of the impact went through the suit and out of the boots themselves. CRACK We all land back down on the ground a wolf squirming beneath my boot and the other dead below me to my left. I look back at the other wolves and see the snarling at me. "Two down, two to go..." Transition to 3rd person. Rainbow Dash was flying about over Ponyville doing her job as leader of the weather team. Moving clouds about getting ready for the eventual downpour of the week. CRACK "Whoa! What was that?!" She exclaimed. Rainbow Dash flew towards where the sound seemed to originate. "The Everfree? I gotta go and get Twilight." Rainbow nodded and flew off to the Castle of Frienship. "Rainbow is that you?" Rainbow stopped and looked down at her friend who was on the ground. "Hey Twilight did you here that?! Tell me I wasn't the only one who heard that!" Rainbow yelled as she swooped down and landed next to Twilight. "I heard it too! I was on my way to Zecora's home because I needed more herbs and then I heard the noise." "We gotta go see what's going on." Rainbow said as she flapped her wings and began to hover in front of her friend. "I'm right behind you." Twilight said. The two ponies then began to gallop towards the Everfree forest. "Why won't you just die already!?" The man in the suit screamed as he continued to pound away at the wooden wolf. Ever since he dispatched the last two wolves all four of the corpses decided to fuse together and make an even stronger wolf. "Every time I kill you, you just have to get right back up." CRACK CRACK CRACK "There it is again, it sounds like it's just behind the brush!" Rainbow yelled as she tried to speak to Twilight over the noise. Twilight used her magic to push away the brush to reveal a large bipedal creature battling an even larger Timberwolf. Thee two ponies froze in their places as they saw the fight ensue. The wolf has leaped at the creature and the creature reacted by grabbing both of the wolf's jaws. The creature pushed the wolf while bring the jaw up to his waist and proceeded to rip the bottom jaw off. The sickening crunch and cracking of wood was heard as the jaw came clean off. The creature tossed the wolf to the other side of the clearing. "It's like a monster fight." Rainbow Dash said. Unheard by her friend who was watching with a curiosity like no other. The wolf looked towards the mysterious creature and began to try to escape. As the wolf limped away, something that sounded like laughter emanated from the creature. "...Like hell you're going to just get away from me. You wanted me dead, so now I'm starting to want you dead." The creature ran at the wolf and grabbed it by the wooden tail. A yelp escaped the wolf's broken maw. The creature then held it in its arms as if it were hugging it. The wolf had begun squirming in the creatures grasp. "Suit, engage lockdown mode. Get ready to purge the suit of any and all excess heat." The forest went deathly quiet as the sound of gears whirring were heard. And soon after a large thud as the creature visibly sunk into the ground. "Wait-" Twilight yelled out before being cut off. "Feel the heat you little wooden shit! Radiating Light!" Not a moment later the creature began to glow as if it were on fire. The wolf began to cry out in pain as it had caught fire and began to die. The creature began to speak again. "Suit! Cool this bastard down, let everything out! Solar Flare!" Twilight stood and saw as the back of the creature opened up and a blinding light had been released from the opening. "Hell's going to be a lot nicer than in my hands you shit..." Twilight turned and leapt back towards her friend. She pulled her down as she used her magic to create a bubble shield. As soon as the shield was up a large explosion was heard as fire immediately shot out towards them and deflected off the shield. The fire stopped and Twilight passed out from the exertion the shield and explosion put on her. "Twilight you need to wake up! The things going to get away!" Rainbow Dash whispered as she tried not to yell and let the creature know they were there. "Wha...? What's going on?" Twilight asked, a tiny bit disorientated. "The thing's going to wake up any moment now! We have to get the drop on it!" Twilight got up from the ground and shook her head, trying to dispel any feeling of uneasiness. The two heard the creature in the now burned clearing say. "Suit, disengage lockdown mode." The two ponies hurried up to where the bushes had been and saw the creature fall over and spew what looked like vomit from what they could assume was its mouth. "Never again... I'm never doing that again. That was the first and hopefully last test of the fail-safe mode." The creature got up from the ground and dusted itself off. Twilight used her magic to trap the creature and hold him in a stasis of sorts. "Why did you do that?!" "..." "Well?!" Twilight shouted. "What ever you're doing, you better stop and drop me right now." "Is that a threat?" "Only if you want it to be." The creature said. "That's it you're coming with me and your going to answer some questions." "Oh no I'm not." "Suit! Engage lockdown mode!" After the creature said that, Twilight felt the weight of the creature crash down on her as she held it in her magic. The field that held the creature flickered and dropped him to the ground. "Suit! Disengage lockdown mode." He brushed himself off again. "You, little Missy, are going to answer my questions." The creature said as he proceeded to turn towards Twilight and Rainbow Dash. The creature stopped as he looked at the two ponies. Nothing was said for a good while. Until, "Looks like the heat's getting to me too..."
New...Friends?Click "...So I just speak into this? ... What for? ... Okay? I guess... H-hello, my name is Johnson Barder, I am currently twenty eight years old, this will be the first of my many recordings as we try and discover a way for the human body to become better than what it already is. What should I say about myself? Uh, oh, I was born in Washington D.C., a place also known as... yeah? What?! Hold on! Don't let him go anywhere! We can't just let him leave! Well stop hi-" Click "Now the heat's getting to me too." A moment of silence passed between the three associates. Nobody dared to move, or even cough lightly. All of the silence was broken as the purple mare known as Twilight Sparkle moved forward and asked, "Why did you do that? He gave up!" "..." "Well?" Twilight asked as an eyebrow raised. The creature proceeded to turn and walk towards a tree. "This isn't happening... Need to find water soon, if I don't cool down this is gonna get worse." "Hey I was asking you a question!" The creature grabbed at the tree and reared its head back and brought it forward with the eventual thunk of the head meeting the tree. The creature turned its head back to look at the now wide eyed ponies still standing there. "Well, that's it, I'm dead, and I'm in hell as punishment and now I'm stuck with talking animals." "What did you just say?" Twilight asked, not quite hearing the creature. "Nothing!" It yelled back. "Well, since you can talk to me now, why don't you answer my question?" "Because I don't have to! Those things tried to eat me and I killed them. Where I come from that's pretty normal." "You better watch your tone buddy! This is a princess you're talkin' to!" Rainbow Dash shouted at the rude creature. "Oh I'm sorry, forgive me your highness. I wasn't right in the head." The creature bent at the waist in what seemed to be a bow. "Stop, don't do any of-" "I didn't know I was in the presence of a princess and her bodyguard; Skittles. Oh I'm just quaking in my boots." Rainbow Dash gave the creature a glare like no other. It did nothing. "Can we please stop this? We all got off on the wrong hoof. You said you k-killed the Timberwolf in self defense and I'll believe you." Twilight said, trying to get the two off of each other. "..." "..." "Glad we could come to an agreement. Now, I'm Twilight Sparkle, this is my friend Rainbow Dash. What's your name?" Another moment of silence passed between the three. "My name is Johnson, Johnson Barder." "Okay, Johnson, I'm going to need you to come with me, we're going to be heading into town and we'll need you to stay close." "Can I ask you a question first?" "Sure." "Is there a lake around here? I really need to cool off." "Yes actually, the path we're taking will go past another one of my friends house, she has a pond just outside of her house." "Okay, lead the way." SPLASH "Oh god this feels amazing!" Johnson said as he splashed around in the water. Steam rising off of his suit as he did so. "So Johnson. What is that you're wearing, is that a suit of armor of sorts?" Twilight looked at Johnson in the water. The suit itself was just a metallic grey, the areas where she could assume where his arms bent were joints like a wind up toys joints. The helmet though, it was the most off putting design of the whole thing. Twilight was unable to see anything inside the helmet for some reason it was like the eye and mouth holes were blocked out. The holes for the mouth and eyes were rectangular, but the mouth was pulled up in a creepy smile, it didn't curve like a regular smile, it was just another carved out portion of the mask. "Please John is fine, and yes. In a way it is a suit of armor." "What do you mean by that? If I might ask...?" "Well, normally, I wouldn't have been able to fight that wolf back in the forest. But this little, allows me to do things I wouldn't be able to do. Mainly speaking, lifting more weight, putting more power to punches and kicks, react quicker, run faster, that sort of thing." "So the suit is an enhancer of sorts?" "Of sorts, yes." "So how fast can you go?" Rainbow Dash asked, her curiosity peaked. "Uhm, right now I can only go so fast as something like a cheetah, which could hit ninety for a bit. But if I divert some power and give main priority to the legs I could hit two times the speed of sound, but if I do that, I put the arms out of commission for a good three hours. It's all some stuff I haven't gotten the chance to test and make sure it won't break my legs." "No way that thing can make you do that." "Again, it's all something I haven't tested yet." "Wanna race and see?" "Okay, can you give me a moment to ready myself?" "Take all the time you need, just delaying my soon to be win." Rainbow Dash said as she started to stretch. Johnson got out of the water and shook the water off of him and out of the suit. "Suit, redirect power from the arms and into the legs. Give no priority to the arms and move everything to the locomotion of the suit." Twilight was listening with fascination at what John had been saying. A moment after the commands were given a noise began to sound off from inside the suit. The suit itself began to shrink down as piece by piece the suit shrunk. "Ah, god that feels weird." "What did you do?" Twilight asked. "When the suit goes into this sort of mode, it factors in the resistance it will get if it reaches tops speed in the regular form so it tries to create less surface for the wind to catch on." "You ready yet? All this egghead talk is boring me." "Sure." "We're going to be going all the way to Ponville and back. Just follow the river until you get to a bridge. Once you get to the bridge, cross it and follow the river back. Got it?" "Yup." Rainbow Dash and John lined up next to each other as they readied themselves for the race. "On three. One." Rainbow Dash gave a smirk as she got lower to the ground. "Two." John put his hands to the ground, one leg bent and in front of the other and the other straight back and planted into the ground. "Three!" The two were off. Twilight flew up to see everything that was going to happen. "Damn she's fast..." John thought. As he watched Rainbow next to him he turned his head to look down the path they were heading. The bridge was a good distance away. "I'm going to have to pick it up on the return." When John turned to look back at Rainbow Dash, she was gone. And there she was again. Zooming past at incredible speeds. "How the he-" BOOM Johns thoughts were cut short as a wave of sound bombarded him as he ran. "She just broke the sound barrier... Shit, I guess it's now or never." "Suit, deliver everything we have to the legs, let's win this." "She just did the sonic rainboom, there isn't any way John can catch up now, she's already halfway through the return and he's just passing the bridge." All of a sudden, the little grew dot that was John burst forward. In his wake was a giant grey tear. He was doing his own sonic rainboom. All of a sudden John disappeared entirely. Twilight looked around the whole track to where he could be. She then spotted the tear. It was right next to Rainbow Dash and her trail of rainbow. This was going to be close. "I wonder if I could boost myself even further with the solar flare. If I put a direction on it, it could maybe add half of my speed on top of what I already have... Here goes nothing." John looked over to the rainbow trail that was Rainbow Dash and nodded. "Technology ain't losing to magic, not now, not ever." "What is he doing now!?" Twilight yelled to herself. John leapt up into the air and tucked his legs into his outstretched linking arms. All of a sudden a giant flash of light and fire began to fire from his back and he shot up the trail even further. The fire stopped, John dropped back onto the ground and continued to run. He was already at the finish. He won. "He won?" Twilight asked in bewilderment. She began to fly down to the area where the race began, and now, had ended.
Old SorrowClick "So, me and my team of six others made another breakthrough, we began to toss around an idea for a suit that could physically enhance a human without the need of any outside assistance, a.k.a drugs, medicine, bodily enhancers, what ever you want to call them. So we tossed the idea around and we came to the conclusion that this could help, not only with future projects that might need some lifting but with so many other things as well. There are other projects going on as this one does, but those aren't mine. Let's hope this goes well." Click Twilight flew down to the races starting line, as soon as she got close enough, she could hear screaming. She squinted and looked down at the two, John was on the ground screaming while Rainbow was by his side trying to discern the problem. Twilight's head shot up and her eyes widened. She dove down trying to get down faster to the two. "What's wrong?! Are you heating up again?! Rainbow Dash asked as she tried her hardest not to freak out as the creature was on the ground, not moving, screaming in pain. "Fuck! My fucking legs!" Was all John said before he continued with the nonsensical screaming and swearing. "Is there anything I can do?!" Rainbow yell over his screaming. John quit yelling for a moment, instead it was replaced with low growls of pain. "Not really. I can't take off the suit and I can't do much from in here." "Why don't you loosen the suit up then?" Johnson's screaming stopped altogether. A moment of silence passed between the two before Twilight landed next to them. "What's going on?! I heard screaming." ... "Well?" Johnson's suit expanded and he let out a sigh of relief. "Nothing is going on, just had a moment of stupidity. And it hurt." "Are you sure you're okay? I could here you screaming from where I was." "Yeah I'm fine now. Just give me a minute and we can continue." "Okay. So, what I want to ask now is, how in Equestria did you win?!" "Win what?" "...The race of course!" "Oh yeah! Yeah that, um, I don't know." "What do you mean you don't know? How do you not know how you beat me?" Rainbow Dash asked, sounding slightly appalled. "I don't know! Okay? I just remember running and this grey shit formed around me before I shot forward. What ever, okay? I won. That's it. Can we get to your town now?" "Sure but you're still answering some of my questions on the way." Johnson slowly lifted himself off of the ground. "What's this town called again? I think you mentioned it before but I'm not quite sure." "Ponyville. We're going to Ponyville." "..." "So, what's with the suit and where can I get one?" "That's something I can't answer." "What? Why not?" "I wouldn't tell you even if I could." "Even if you could?" "Yup. I am incapable of telling anyone or anything, about my suit and or where it came from." "So where do you come from?" "A planet called earth." "Where on earth?" "A country called The United States of America." "Where in America?" "Washington D.C." "Is that where the suit came from?" Twilight asked with a smirk on her face. "Nope, that's where I was born and raised." The smirk fell off of her face the moment he said that. They continued there walk until they got to the very edge of town. The sound of hooves clopping on the stone walkway filled the air. "So, what's the plan to get me through town without causing mass hysteria?" "I didn't think this part through just yet." "How about I pretend to be a robot and you can say you built me...?" "That might work, or it might not. Let's just try." "This is going to be fun!" John thought as a smile was creeping its way onto his face. The three continued walking into town. As soon as they had been seen, all attention was focused on them. Nopony dared to move as the giant behemoth of metal made its way with the Princess. A single pony broke from a group and approached the Princess, Rainbow Dash, and the giant metal thing. She was yellow with long pink hair. She was carrying a basket and being followed by a small rabbit. John turned towards the pony and said in the most robotic tone he could muster. "Halt! You approach the Princess herself. Identify." "I uh uhm." the pony stuttered, sweat visibly showing up on her face. "Identify or I shall consume thine children." The pony pony looked as she was about to faint before the princess grabbed onto her and said with a fake smile. "No it's okay Fluttershy, he's just playing around, right?" Twilight looked to Johnson before he replied in his normal tone. "Yeah, I just had to do that, I apologize." Johnson said as he gave a mock bow. "See? He's friendly, enough." "Yeah, I don't actually eat babies anymore, too chewy." It looked as if Fluttershy was about to faint again before Twilight caught her. Again. Johnson started laughing as Twilight looked back with the angriest face she could muster. "Will you stop that?!" "You ponies are just to easy to scare." He said clutching his gut. He looked up the gathering crowd of ponies. His arms shot up and he waved them around as he shouted. "Oooooh! I'll eat your soul!" Some of them ran away in terror, some of them started to shake in fear, and others just kept staring. Johnson began to laugh even harder. He fell on his back as he clutched his stomach and rolled on the ground. "That's not very nice." A new voice said, for some reason, this one demanded his attention. Johnson sat up from the ground and looked over to the one who was talking. It was Fluttershy. "You don't go and scare ponies for no reason. What did they ever do to you? Nothing. You just walk into town and start scaring ponies just because you can. You're nothing but a big bully." Everything went silent as Fluttershy gave Johnson, the stare. Johnson got up from the ground and picked Fluttershy up and he carried her like a large cat. "...Okay, I'll stop, just... don't ever do that again. Okay?" Was all he said. Fluttershy nodded. "Okay. Can we get inside somewhere? I'd like to see if I can get out of this thing." "Just- Just over here." Twilight said, not sure what to think about what just happened. "Welcome to my home, let's get to one of the rooms and see if we can relax for a bit." "Hm, sure is nice in here. Very spacious. Oh yeah, before I forget, do any of you know anybody close with fingers?" Johnson got no reply. "These things." He wiggled his fingers in an attempt to find someone who didn't lack digits. "Oh, yeah, We've got Spike, he's my little brother. Hold on." Twilight moved forward a step and shouted out his name. The pitpat of feet could be heard as whoever Spike was got closer and closer. "You called Twilight?" Spike said as he popped his head around a corner. "Spike we have a new guest, come here and say hello." Spike came around the corner and noticed Johnson almost immediately. His eyes widened and his walk became slightly slower as he got closer and closer. Spike was roughly just below knee height when compared to Johnson. "H-Hi, I'm Spike." "Hey, I'm Johnson. But you can just call me John." He extended a hand in an attempt at a handshake. Spike took his hand and they both shook. "Well, now that we know each other, Spike, do you mind if you do me a favor?" "Y-Yeah?" "There is a panel on the back of my helmet, I'm going to have you open it and flip the switch twice. Can you do that for me?" "Sure." Johnson got down on both knees and gave Spike a clear view of said panel. Spike used his claws and opened it. He saw the switch and flicked it upwards. "And now back down please." Spike nodded and did like he was asked. He closed the panel after he was done and moved away. The whole suit began to shake slightly as piece by piece the suit began to move away from the front. As soon as the whole front was open and Johnson hopped out of the suit. Everyone in the room gasped. Here was this hairless ape like creature with scars running down almost every inch of his body. The most noticeable ones were. From Fluttershy's point of view, a large column of metal that ran down his spine. From Rainbow Dash's point of view in the air, a bunch of tiny protruding pieces of metal from his almost bald head. And from Twilight's point of view. A mass of electronics in a particular spot on his chest. Presumably where his heart should be. "Heartless?!" "Brainless?" "Spineless?" All of these thought words described the being in front of them. Johnson.
Law & Order Click "So, we finished fixing some kinks with the suit. Heat should not be causing the suit any exterior damage anymore. That's a plus. One of the test subjects for the medical project had a breakthrough. It seems though that after extensive surgery. He seems to perfectly fine. Some minor degradation of thought processing, but this was far from unexpected. What was unexpected is that he kept any at all. The others will be keeping a close watch on him... I still think that he should be kept in a cell. The problems that occurred in the medical field was that, even with the loss of thought or even reasoning sometimes. The subjects would begin to feel extreme emotions. Happiness, sadness, anger. Mainly anger, that's what scares me the most." Click "Hello Princess, I wish I could have made less of an entrance, but when it comes to this suit, I have a problem with people touching it. Especially when I told them that I didn't want them to touch it." John said as he looked Celestia in the eyes. "No harm has come to anyone here so it is fine. I wish that we could speak face to face, speaking to mask is quite odd, especially yours in particular." Celestia said as she stared at the mask. The metal smile unsettling. Even if it was just a mask, the smile itself didn't seem to fit the person speaking from behind it. "If it would please you that I remove the suit, then if you could, could you open the compartment on the back of the helmet and flip the switch twice. Please be gentle." John turned in place and pointed to the panel on the back of his head. Celestia used her magic to open the panel. A multitude of tiny lights and a single switch were revealed. She flipped the switch twice. John then spread his arms and legs out as if he were going to fall back and make a snow angel. Sounds emanated from the suit as Celestia saw panels move out of the way to let John out of the suit. The sound of feet stepping down onto the crystal floor filled everypony's ears. John walked around the suit and greeted Celestia with a bow. "Your majesty." John said with a smile. He raised from his bow and Celestia's eyes widened slightly before returning to normal not a moment later. "It's the scars isn't it? Don't worry, they have that effect on everyone." "N-No. It was the machinery showing from your body. I haven't seen that kind of work before." Celestia said as she tried to ignore John's body. "It's fine." John said in a calming tone. "The piece in my chest enables me to resist poison, even more so than the old one. My new brain allows any medicine I take to be strengthened as it is processed more than ever to help me. And my spine allows me to take minor blows without them harming me while also strengthening me." "And all of the scars? Those don't seem to be of any beneficial nature." Celestia wanted to know what caused the rest of those scars. She could care less about the machinery. She had seen veterans of war come home with less scars then what this creature had. It was either he had been in more action than she had seen or someone was very cruel. John ushered her away from the group that was listening and began to whisper. The smile on his face now gone. "I can tell you, but it has to be on my own time. I am entitled to my secrets just as you are to your own." A small frown made its way onto her face. "Hey, if you have any other questions that might need to be answered, I would be gladly to answer them... On one condition." Celestia's ears perked up. "What is this condition?" "I want to punish the purple princess for touching my suit. And I need someone who can do magic to help me." Celestia was intrigued. A mischievous smile crawled onto her face. "What are you planning?" "Trap her in the suit she wants to tinker with without her magic. Can't move, no magic, give her what she wants, a front row seat to the most technological thing in here and she can't even mess with it." "I can cast an enchantment on the suit itself. Any magic near it will be negated. Is that fine?" "Perfect." John said as a twisted smile formed on his face. "So, how do I work this thing?" Twilight asked as she stepped her way into the suit. Standing up on her hind legs. "You have to be in it for it to listen to you, and you can ask it any question you want." John said as he watched as the unicorn tried her best to fit in the suit. "This is a bit uncomfortable." "Yeah, different species and all. Suit, engage lockdown mode." "What's going on?" Twilight asked "Punishment." Celestia said as she casted the spell. "Punishment? For what?" "Messing with my stuff. I always get payback." John said as he gestured for Celestia and the rest to follow him. "Wait. Guys! Don't leave me in here." Twilight tried to cast a spell, just for the result to sputter out and die like a candle being blown out. "I'm sorry! I won't do it again, just let me out of here." Twilight pleaded. Her pleads fell on deaf ears, or in this case, no ears. No one was in the room anymore. And so, it was going to be a long three hours before the spell was going to wear off. "So, what to you ponies eat around here?" John asked as he rubbed his stomach. "Hay, flowers, wheat, stuff like that." Spike said as the group walked down the hall. "Do you guys eat meat?" John asked. Unfortunately he didn't get an answer. He turned to look at the group of ponies before him. "What?" "Y-you eat meat?!" Spike asked, his eyes wide with fear. "Yeah? Why? Do you guys not have things in this place that eat meat?" "The Griffons do that but they mainly eat fish." said Celestia "Hmm. That sucks, Oh well, do guys have any fruit? I can eat fruit." "We have apples!" Spike declared. "Nope, not eating those, I can't stand those vile things." And so, the group of ponies and John made their way to the kitchen in hopes that they could find something to eat. Author's Note Little short, but I thought I would end it on that note. Let me know if there are any mistakes, grammar, spelling. Anything.
Friend... or Foe?Click "The subject I mentioned last recording seems to be doing really well, we found he still retains most of his functions after some testing, something odd though, it seems that the auto-doc that preformed the surgery decided to go off course and messed with his larynx or voice box. After a whole day of testing we found out he can imitate anybody he has been listening to for a good amount of time. He's still very violent of course that was expected but nothing else! ... The suit is coming along as well, it seems that along with the enhanced capabilities of the wearer it comes with a downside, anybody who wears it for to long either gets cooked to death or succumbs to heat stroke. More testing is needed." Click "I wouldn't let Apple Jack here you talking like that. Might not get off so easy." Spike said as they continued down the hallway. "Who?" "Friend of ours, owns an apple farm, she wouldn't be to happy if she heard you say that." "Should I care? That's just my opinion, it shouldn't matter unless she decides that it matters." John didn't care if someone had a problem with him or his tastes. He's had problems like that in the past but those got settled ages ago. "To each their own." "What?" Celestia asked, deciding it was time to ask questions of her own. "I have my opinions and you have your own, let's not fight to see which one of is right, because in the end, neither of us are." "Are you quoting someone or...?" "Someone I met, real book-smart kind of person. Smartest person I knew really." "Knew?" "Dead, or so I assume. Can't really know, not unless I saw her again." John said shaking his head and chuckling. "Oh, I'm sorry." "You have nothing to be sorry about." "When are we gonna get there? We've been walking for ages!" "Just the next door over to our left, this place is huge." John rushed ahead and swung the door open. It was just a normal kitchen, except for the fact that it was all crystal based. The kitchen counter, the sink, even the stove was crystal! "Is everything in this place made out of crystals?" "This place was grown from a crystal tree." Spike stated. John walked into the room and sat down at a large wood table. The table itself was adorned with a cloth and a few bowls filled with various fruit, along with a number of plates. John reached over to the bowl and pulled out an orange. He began to peel as soon as the rest of the group joined him in the room. "So, do you all want some pancakes?" Spike offered. "Yes please, I would enjoy some." Celestia said as she sat across from John at the table. "Oh, that would be nice, if you wouldn't mind..." "Sure, I needed something to eat anyways." Spike looked towards John. "Hm? Oh yeah, sure, thanks." He was just finishing peeling the orange and had been distracted. Spike walked towards the kitchen area and began to pull out everything need for the pancakes. "So, John. Would you mind if I asked some questions?" "Sure." "How did you end up coming to Equestria?" "Not sure I can answer that. I honestly don't know." "You don't know? "Nope. All I do know is that I was taking the suit out for a joyride and poof. I'm in the middle of that forest and I'm being chased by a giant wood wolf." "Hmm. Odd. Okay then, are you planning on doing something... bad?" "Whoa, where did that come from?" "For the time you have been here you seemed to be extremely complacent. My student messes with your... suit. And she gets a slap on the hoof, but that suit is more than just a toy or something that you take on a joyride." "True, but I am not the one who should be handing out punishment. Someone of power should be doing that, someone like you or the police." "But seeing as how you are not of this land, or of this world it would seem, you would be held with the same regards as a dignitary from a far off land. While they can't fully punish someone, they can however call for punishment if the offence is high enough." "So, will I do something bad?" John asked himself. "Yes, that was the question." "...But the term bad, just like good, is subjective, something that you find bad might be good for me. Just like eating meat, while not inherently bad it is frowned upon. Not something that can get me locked up, but something that makes me lose a few 'social points'." "So you are going to do something bad for us, but good for you?" "No... well maybe... most likely good for both of us." John finished with nodding his head. "...Okay?... Can I ask you something about the suit?" John nodded as he ate half the orange he had peeled. "What is it made for?" "Tasks to hard for regular people. Lifting things, breaking things, crushing. That sort of thing." "So it's not made for war?" John was silent as he slipped another half of the orange in his mouth. "It is, isn't it?" John swallowed. "Not necessarily. While the main reason it was built was for arduous tasks. It can be used in battle. Skittles over here can answer that for you." John pointed at Rainbow Dash. The pegasus in question was eating an apple while listening to the conversation being had. As soon as her name was mentioned she looked up to John and Celestia. Celestia was looking at her, expecting an answer to the question that was asked. "Um, yeah, he totally destroyed a timberwolf that was chasing him. It was huge, maybe like four times bigger than the regular ones." Celestia was shocked, but she didn't show it. Even most of her guards couldn't take down a timberwolf of that size, a group of them against one wolf, sure, but one of that size... "How did you accomplish such a feat?" "The suit itself has a power source. And that source tends to heat the suit up beyond what most can handle, so we built in two systems that could let heat out without harming the person inside of it. One is the slow release of heat, the suit slowly expels any heat within it and cools down the source. The other way is a rapid explosion. Letting everything the suit has built up all out at once. Anything within thirty to forty feet become a nice pile of ash unless it has something to cover it." "Wait, Twilight is in that thing, wouldn't she overheat as well?" "No, the suit heats up slowly yeah, but unless if you are using it continuously for about ten minutes, it can't reach any higher than a sauna. The most that's going to happen to your student is that shes gonna get really sweaty." A look of disgust washed over Celestia's face. "Wouldn't that mean you have to deal with that later?" "Nope, what do you think happens to me almost every time I wear that thing? Besides, jump into a lake and it's all better." Celestia was interrupted as Spike came into the dining area with a big platter of pancakes. "Here you all go. Eat up." He said as he forked pancakes onto everyone's plates. John looked at his plate of pancakes. "Something wrong?" "Wha— What? No, nothings wrong." John picked up a pancake with his hands and rolled it up. He took a bite... John was overcome with a feeling euphoria. "These are some of the god damned best pancakes I've ever had!" John declared, right before shoveling more into his mouth. Everypony stared at him, unsure whether this was normal or not. "So fluffy, so sweet." John whispered through a mouth full of pancakes. Everypony decided that they should begin eating their pancakes before John tried to eat them. Time Has Passed "So... did you learn your lesson?" John said to a sweating panting Twilight. Who only replied with. "Never...*pant* again...*pant*..." John sniffed. His face contorting into a look of confusion. "Why do you smell like candy?" "What are you talking about?" Rainbow asked. John looked back to the group of ponies and Spike to see them all covering their noses with hooves. All but Celestia seemed to be repulsed by the smell. "She smells awful!" John sniffed again. Deeper this time. "Not to me, smells like... black licorice." "Please stop." Twilight said as soon as she got her breathing back to normal. John looked at his suit before a rumbling shook the whole room. "What was that?" John asked as he looked at the ponies behind him. They all shook their heads and shrugged. John moved towards his suit and began to put it on. "Let's go check out what that was." John walked to the door and opened it. The light blinded him for a moment before he saw what the rumbling was. In the distance moving towards him, was a giant timberwolf, this one wasn't made out of branches and twigs, but whole trees. Twice as big as the last one he fought. "Nope" Was all John muttered before shutting the door and walking back inside.
GuardianClick "I'm going to ask you some simple questions and you're going to answer, easy right?" "Yes, simple." "Good, now let's begin. Do you remember anything before arriving here?" "No." "Are there any kind of urges that you have? Violent... maybe...?" "Yes." "Are you planning on acting any of those urges out?" "Yes." "Do you mind telling me what you're going to do?" "..." "..." "I'm going to break free." Click "What? What did you see?" Twilight asked as she approached John who was standing at the door. "Nothing. Why?" John said in an oh-so convincing tone. "Let me through. I want to see for myself." "Okay, go ahead." John raised both of his hands up and backed away from the door. Twilight trotted to the door and opened it with her magic. She peeked her head outside and a loud crash was heard a moment later. Her head came back inside and only thing was said. "Nope." "See?" "All I saw was a giant timberwolf attacking Ponyville!" "Yeah, you guys have any plans to get it out of here?" "What do you mean 'you'? You fought off one of those things before, what's so bad about this one?" Rainbow Dash asked with an eyebrow raised. "Try like ten times bigger!" John exaggerated. "If I tried to fight that thing, I would probably last like three minutes." Celestia stepped forward and asked. "What if all of us stood our ground against him?" "We might have a chance, you two with your freaky magic, skittles up in the sky doing what she does and... Fluttershy?" The pegasus 'meeped' at the attention. She didn't want to fight, let alone something that was bigger than buildings. "You can stay out of this if you want, I wouldn't hold it against you. Just look after Spike." John turned towards the door and opened it, as he stepped out the sound of crashing and screaming was clearly heard. In the distance the timberwolf was seen rampaging. "This is gonna hurt." John muttered to himself as he began to sprint to the large beast. "Hey! Kindling!" John yelled as he walked towards the timberwolf. The wolf reared its head up and looked around. "Right here!" John yelled again. The wolf finally spotted John and his gang of four. It bared its teeth as it let out a snarl. "Yeah! How about you pick on someone your own size? And by that I mean leave peacefully and don't hurt anybody." The wolf just snarled even more. "Yeah, I thought so. So, Twilight, Celestia, you take out both of its front legs and I smash its skull in. Yeah, sounds like a plan." "We shouldn't try to kill it, harm it and let it limp back with its tail between its legs." Celestia suggested. But it was to late, John was already charging towards the wolf. Celestia let out a sigh and charged her magic. "Come Twilight, help me with this." Both of the unicorns released bolts of magic. John sped towards the wolf but stopped as two bright lights passed him up and pounded into the legs of the wolf. The wolf let out a yelp and fell forward as the two legs were swept from underneath it. John chuckled and leapt onto the wolf's head and proceeded to slam his fists into the wooden head below him. Punch after punch, crack after crack. The wolf struggled to get back onto its paws. So instead, it lifted its head rapidly and tossed John into the air. The wolf quickly climbed back onto its paws and looked up towards John. "John!" Twilight yelled out. John was soaring through the air before he reached the highest point he could go. And soon after, began traveling back towards the ground, and towards the wolf's gaping maw. "I can't do shit! I don't know what lockdown would do at this height, this thing is going to eat me!" John thought as the wolf got closer and closer. The jaws of the wolf lined with wooden teeth, the hole that had been the throat was pitch black. John fell into the wolf's mouth and the wolf quickly swallowed. Time seemed to stand still as everypony stared at the wolf. It licked its muzzle and looked towards the two princesses. It leapt towards the and tried to scoop them up in its large jaws. Twilight threw up a bubble shield wither her magic and protected both her and Celestia. "Hey! Stay away from them you over-sized pile of firewood!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she pushed a cloud above the wolf's head and began to strike it with her two back hooves. Lightning struck from the cloud and slammed into the wolf's head. The wolf raised from his position on the ground and snapped at Rainbow Dash and her cloud. The cloud burst and floated away with the breeze and Dash had flew out of harms way. The wolf looked back towards the two shielded alicorns. Just as he was about to leap a second time, the wolf gave a pained yelp and fell to the ground. Everypony stared at the wolf with wide eyes. their gaze shifting to the midsection of the wolf where a bright light was shining through the now burning gaps. The wolf began to whimper in pain as his midsection was burning away. A moment later a large glowing figure fell from the stomach of the wolf. "John's okay!" Twilight yelled from inside the bubble shield. Celestia looked to where Twilight had been looking and she saw John, on his hands and knees heaving. John got up from his position on the ground and looked to the wolf with half of its midsection missing. "You thought you could kill me?!" John shouted as he walked towards the wolf, each step burning the ground around him, the grass sizzling away. The wolf looked towards John and let out a pained cry. "Yeah! Guess who's top dog now?!" John grabbed one of the wolf's hind legs and swung a fist at it, cracking it and burning some away. "Me!" John proceeded to punch away at the leg until it broke under his fists. The hole leg shattering into hunks of wood which lit on fire as they shot away from the scene. "John! Stop this insanity at once!" Celestia demanded. "Twilight, deactivate the shield, we're safe." The shield was dropped and Celestia took flight towards John and the timberwolf. John moved to the other leg and smashed it to pieces just like he had done with the other one. "Tried to fucking kill me! I'll piss on your god damned ashes you waste!" John said as he moved to the head of the wolf. The wolf looked up to him with a pained expression. John raised his fist and was met with a yellow bolt of magic. He recoiled and lowered it back down. "That is enough John! There is no need to kill it." Celestia said as she stepped beside the wolf. She recoiled at the smell. It was something she hadn't smelt in a while. "This fucker tried to kill me! The shit in his stomach almost did!" "You mean to say that—" "What you're smelling is my fucking melting flesh!" John raised a fist up and brought it back down onto the wolf's skull. The sound of metal meeting wood sounded with a loud crack as the head of the wolf cracked slightly. "Tried to kill me and you're defending it." He raised hist fist again. Noise assualted everypony's ears. Celestia stared he eyes wide with fear. "Tried to destroy a town and you're defending it." The action was repeated. "Tried to kill ponies and you're defending it!" The wolf's head caved and in a green liquid squirted out onto John. As the liquid oozed down suit it pulsed with energy and John fell to his knees. Celestia wretched as what looked like blood shot out of his mask. John collapsed onto the ground and darkness swam in his vision before blacking out completely. Author's Note John lost a bit of his skin and if you know what I'm talking about, you'll know what he'll get back.
Leave it to MeAfter John passed out, Celestia had the suit stripped from him and had him be taken by a pair of guards. She had brought him back to the crystal castle for a nurse to look at him. "Is there anything wrong with him." Celestia asked as she watched the sleeping figure of John. The heart rate monitor giving out soft beeps as the humans heart beat away. "Besides the fact that we could barely get the needle through his skin? No, there is nothing wrong with him. He seems perfectly healthy... I think." Red Heart said, muttering those last words. Celestia said nothing as her horn started to glow. Conjuring a pair of magical shackles, locking his wrist to the crystal bed post. "Guards." She called. And two royal guards stepped into the room, spears in tow. "Yes my princess?" They both droned. "Make sure nopony enters this room without me." She stated. "Yes princess." "And make sure he stays in bed." They both nodded. As soon as they began to move to their positions, Celestia heard John move around his his bed. She turned to see him sit upright. He struggled against the shackle. Grunts of frustration were heard as he tugged the chain connecting him to the bed. "Celestia~ you better have a key for this." He said, pointing at the magical handcuff. "I do. But for now, you're being held until I can determine if you're going to be a problem." "I'll be a fucking problem if you don't get rid of this." His tone getting more irritated. A guard stepped forward and lowered his spear to John's face. "You shall not disrespect the princess beast." John looked around the room, ignoring the guard. "Where's my suit?" "I'm having Twilight look at it." John's face took on a look of anger. "If she lays a fucking finger— hoof on my suit, I'll—" "You won't do anything, you're not escaping this room." Celestia interrupted. She activated her horn and began to push John back into his bed. The heart rate monitor began to beep at an accelerated rate. Adrenaline began to pump through John's cybernetic brain, enhancing the effects as he began to push against the magic. Celestia struggled at the humans new found strength. John tugged harder at the magical shackle, this time the bed post broke with it, he swung it and caught the bed post in his hands. The guards rushed him with spears and lunged at him, he was able to dodge one, but the other caught him in the stomach, his hardened skin barely letting it pierce beyond a couple of inches. John brought the crystal club up and swung it downward into the closest guard's helmet, leaving large dent in the helmet as the guard collapsed. The other saw his comrade fall, he lunged once more, only to be stopped as a hand caught it it and ripped it from his grip. John dropped the spear to his feat and clubbed the remaining guard. John looked up to Celestia who had her horn lowered, as if she was going to spear him with it. "This is your last chance!" She yelled. "Give up and you'll be spared!" John let out an inhumane snarl that would have put a Manticore to shame. He pulled on the club with one hand, while pulling the shackle with the other. The shackle finally broke and he tossed the block of crystal at Celestia, and he ran to her. Celestia saw the crystal, but not John, she teleported to Twilight to let her know that it was not safe, but as soon as the teleportation finished, she saw that she had brought John with her. Twilight saw both John and Celestia pop into existence. Fear shot through her when she saw the human. "Twilight! Run!" Celestia shouted. But John was already on her. He kicked her away from the suit, launching her body into the wall. She wasn't harmed too much, she was just going to be sore in the morning. John laid down into the suit, which activated and closed around him. He got up from the floor, the metal plates of the suit grinding away at each other as he did so. "Suit." John said, his voice guttural and scratchy. "Activate Operation Lock and Key." As he said that, Celestia heard and saw the suit tighten and lock around it's wearer. The floor below him cracked slightly as the suit entered the modified lockdown. A pained grunt escaped him. "You want me to be a problem Celestia? I'll give you that and more." He stated before breaking into a sprint towards the alicorn. Raising fist and lunging forward, only to punch the wall that Celestia had been up against. The wall cracked under the suits strength. Celestia had teleported herself and Twilight out of the room. She was met with a number of her guards. "Guards! Subdue the creature at all costs!" They nodded at the command. All of them jumped as metal fist burst through the door behind the princess. The fist was drawn back and a mask was seen on the other side of the door. "Here's Johnny!" The human yelled in his guttural tone. Before ripping the door from its hinges. Click "Today went well. My employers wanted me to install a fail safe directive into the suit. So, should the wearer be captured and needs to stay in the suit at all costs, he or she would need to activate Operation: Lock and Key. Lock and Key makes the suit unable to open from any outside source. The wearer would need to deactivate it themselves. The whole thing makes it like a mobile Lockdown Mode. No bombs, bullets, or technology will get that thing to open up again. You may move a bit slower, but it makes everything that gets thrown at you seem like wads of paper against a brick wall." A scream sounded off in the distance. Click "What's going on?!" John yelled. His voice echoing off of the walls of the large room. "It's the subjects! They escaped, the new one helped them!" A woman shouted as she ran into the room, closing the door behind her. "Oh fuck." A look of pure fear ran over his bearded face. He brought a large recorder up to his face. He looked to his peer and said. "Suzy, it's been a pleasure working with you." He looked away. Click "If anyone finds this, I just wanted to say. I'm not sorry about what I did. I wanted to make peoples lives better. My name is Johnson Barder. I'm a scientist for the Big Mountain research team. An organization of scientists brought together by the U.S. government to further the technology we already have." The man sighed. "We had a good run, but some... technical difficulties won't allow us to work anymore." "John! They're trying to bust the door down!" Suzy screamed. "Okay! Let's get out of here." Click John dropped the recorder and ran to Suzy. He guided her to an escape exit meant for emergencies, and this seemed like the time to use it. He looked back to the room to look at everything they had made. A giant white tarp covering the suit he was building and a number of other technologies. He looked down into the hole to see Suzy looking back up at him with worried eyes. He jumped down to her and closed the hatch with a push of a button. As soon as the hatch closed, what seemed like hundreds of people stormed in, snarling like animals. Waving proton axes about. One of them that stood out walked forward with determination, a number of the Big Empty technologies sticking out of his bare skin. He saw the device on the ground and picked it up. He looked at the device as his brethren left the room, snarling and screaming in anger. He pushed a button and recordings began to play. A smile crept up to his face. An hour later. "...Okay! Let's get out of here." Click The man dropped the recorder and said in a pitch perfect copy of the recordings voice. "My name is John Barder. I'm a scientist for Big Empty." He stomped on the device, making sure to destroy it. The man looked to the tarp in the far corner of the room. An even wider grin spread on his face. "And I'm going to escape." Author's Note PLOT TWIST! You all probably saw that coming, or maybe you didn't. Hope you liked it though. What's going to happen next time? Is somepony going to die? My response:
All It Takes is TimeClick "We are in the first stages in the production of the suit, right now we are trying out our first prototype. I'm gonna be the one entering and driving the suit. I have no enhancers helping me, it's gonna be all me when I'm commanding the suit." "First run was a success. Well, as much a success as any other would go. The suit itself runs like a charm, but it doesn't have what we need. Some of us have been noticing the shortage of supplies that we have. Been talking about going out and getting what we need since our deliveries stopped, don't know why they did, they just did. I'll record some more again if something happens." Click Everypony stared at him. Nopony said a thing. "So, see anything y'all like?" John joked, trying to get their attention elsewhere. It didn't work. He couldn't blame them, even his own body still scared him sometimes. "You have a very lovely home Princess, thank you for having me as a guest." John moved towards Twilight and grabbed the bottom jaw of her agape mouth. He began to move it up and down and started to make a high pitched voice and speak. "No problem Johnson, make yourself at home, I hope we can be friends, oh yeah, and I'm sorry for making things awkward by staring at you, I hope you can forgive me." John let go of Twilight and began to laugh. The three ponies snapped out of it when they heard his laughter. "What happened to you?! Who did all of that to you?!" Twilight asked, frightened by the large amount of damage to John's body. John stopped laughing. "I'll tell you about these." He said as he point to his chest, head, and spine. "But the rest of this." He gestured to rest of his scar covered body. "This is my secret to keep." Twilight nodded. "The stuff you all see right now, this is advanced machinery given to me by the auto-doc of where I had been before all of this." "Auto-doc?" "An automated doctor. A robot doctor if you must. Basically, he cut into me and replaced my brain, heart, and spine. With stuff that works even better than the originals. My head can rarely ever get hurt anymore and I handle chemicals better. My heart can make the chemicals I take work better and I can't be poisoned. And my spine makes me stronger, also, any blow I take to the chest, won't ever break anything." "Fascinating." "Yeah... Fascinating." It was still really awkward among them all. "Do you mind if I take a look at that suit of yours now? Since you're out of it and all." "Yes I do mind." "Why won't you just let me look at it? I won't damage it or anything like that!" "I don't care, if any of you touch it or even look at it funny without clearing it with me. It's gone, with me in it." "Fine." Twilight said with a small pout on her face. "Good, glad we understand each other. Now, is there a bathroom in here that I could use? I tend to get really sweaty when that thing heats up." Everyone made a face at his remark and Twilight pointed down a hallway to her left. "Second door on the right. Towels will be in the bottom drawer underneath the sink." And with that, John gave a small bow and made his way to the bathroom. The moment the door closed behind him and Twilight was sure he couldn't hear them, she moved from her place and towards the suit. "Um, I don't think you should be messing with his stuff Twilight. He even said not to." "It's fine Fluttershy what he doesn't know won't hurt him right?" "I'm more worried about what will happen to you if he finds out." "That's why he won't know." Fluttershy gave Twilight a look of worry before turning her head to Rainbow Dash and Spike. The two were chatting away. Something about when a new Daring Do book was supposed to arrive. "Look, I'll tell you when I know okay? No need for an interrogation." Spike said as he raised his claws to either side of his head. Fluttershy looked to Twilight and then the hallway John had gone down to take a shower. She nodded to herself and made her way to the very same room. Behind her she could hear Twilight. "Spike, we need to get Princess Celestia down here." "All in all, leaving my suit there with her was probably a bad move." John said as he rubbed away at his skin, soap suds dripping off of his body as time went on. The fruity smell of the soap tickling his nose. "I have a feeling I might need to enact for some premature revenge." John looked over at the sponges. He felt for which one was the softest of the bunch and took it. "This'll do." He took the band of his shorts and stretched them out, and so, John began to scrub his unmentionables with said sponge. After he was done, John stepped out of the shower and proceeded to wrap a towel around his waist. He hastened as he heard the door open. opening. "Mr. Minotaur? I'm sorry for intruding but—" "It's fine, I was just finishing up. What's going on?" John asked as he turned towards the yellow Pegasus. "Um, promise you won't be mad?" "I promise." "Pinkie Promise?" John raised an eyebrow to this. He then shrugged and lifted his arm, clenched his fist and extended a pinkie towards the yellow mare. To this Fluttershy raised a brow and asked. "Um what are you doing?" "A pinkie promise, although, I don't know how you're going to do this without a pinkie." "That's not a Pinkie promise. You're supposed to say Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Fluttershy said as she went through the motions without jabbing herself in the eye. "Cross my heart and I can't fly, and I'm definitely not doing that last thing. happy?" John followed the motions, but not with much conviction. Fluttershy gave him a confused look before nodding. "Twilight is messing with your special suit. Please don't be angry at her." She gave him a pleading look. John was silent for a moment before he moved for the door. He grabbed the knob and opened the door. He marched out to the main area of the castle. "Twilight, it's alright, I'm sure what ever he is, he doesn't wish ill intent on us." Celestia said reassuring her student. "But he has this... thing! He even used it to destroy a Timberwolf even after it was trying to run away." "I'm sure it was for a good reason. Timberwolves are dangerous after all, he may have even saved someone from becoming a victim in the future." "I even found some recordings! The suit played them when I was messing around with it and they—" pat pat patpat pat patPAT A moment later a blur passed between Celestia and Twilight. The suit animated as power flowed through it and the hiss of said power could be heard. The suit itself stood just a head taller than Celestia herself. If you included her horn than they were the exact same height. The suit walked up to Twilight and dropped to a single knee. John grabbed Twilight by the back of her head and pulled it closer to his mask. "So... Is it okay if I break a Pinkie Promise?"
