Metal Gear Rising: Marevengeance

Chapter 4: Not everything is what it seems

“.........”

“Sis, are you okay?” Applebloom asked as looked at her sister standing still.

“.........”

“Big Mac! I think AJ’s broken!!”

“She’s not broken, just standing still.” Big Mac said as he tossed a basket of apples into a juicer machine.

“Why is she standing still?” The filly asked only for Big Mac to point at a poorly disguised tree. “Oh….Twilight’s at it again isn’t she?”

“Eeyup. She been at this since yesterday when AJ returned from Canterlot.”

“Should we do something about this?”

“We could, but something tells me not to get involved unless things get out of hoof.”

“Yeah… I think you’re right on that one.” Applebloom replied back. “Does AJ know she’s being watched?”

“Yeah, she can hear us. But rather not respond to us. I think doing nothing is actually her plan to irritate Twilight more.”

“OH COME ON! DO SOMETHING OTHER THAN JUST STAND THERE, APPLEJACK!” yelled Twilight as she quickly hid herself from her outburst. All Applejack did was just still stand there. Eyes closed and taking in a deep breath. Unknown to her siblings or to Twilight, Applejack was trying the one thing she saw as useful with Luna’s teachings. Meditation. So far, it had been two weeks since the Metal Gear showed up in Ponyville and right now, things were actually quite peaceful. Right now, she was ignoring all the voices around her and just focusing on the sounds of the wind that was blowing through the orchard. To calm herself and to feel one with her new body.

“I get the feeling something’s about to happen if this keeps going.” said Applebloom as she swung upside down from a tree branch.

“Probably, but it’s more likely that something is you falling from that branch if you aren’t careful, Sis.” Her brother warned her.

“Hey, I’ve been doing this for years, there’s no way I’ll fall off-.” Applebloom was cut off mid sentence the branch broke, causing her to fall on her head. “.....You saw nothing.”

“I saw nothing, but heard something.” Big Mac smirked. “Plus, You’re the youngest of the family. Maybe you should listen to your older sister every once in awhile.”

“Oh yeah, well as your younger sister, you should listen to me more often.” Applebloom said as she pulled herself up from where she laid the ground. “For example, you just threw your favorite T-shirt into the juicer.”

“Applebloom, that’s the dryer. We don’t even have a juicer.” He pointed out to her. It was around then though that the two of them noticed something as they looked back at AJ. Something caused her to move her right hand upward and catch something that was about to fall on her head. Opening her hand, it looked to resemble a dragon scale that was pitch black and not like Spike’s scales in color.

“What you got there AJ?” Applebloom asked.

“It looks like… a scale…” She said to herself, before getting up. “Twilight! I know you’re hiding there. Get out here!!”

“How did you know I was there?”

“You aren’t the best at disguises.” Applejack told her. “Now Twilight, is that dragon migration thing going on? Because a dragon scale almost fell on my head.”

“The dragon migration doesn’t start until spring, and we’re in the fall season so no.” Twilight said as she got up close to the dragon scale. “But I have to say, this is a rare looking dragon scale.”

“You’re not taking it for your studies, Twilight,” Applejack deadpanned, extending her arm to prevent Twilight from looking at it. “Finders keepers.”

“Oh come on, you gotta let me examine it to see what type of dragon the scale came from.”

“Can’t ya tell by just looking at it?”

“Not everything can be studied just by looking at it.” Twilight said as she tries to reach for the scale.

“Coming from the know it all that can tell other things by just glancing at them only once.” Applejack shot back.

“But this is different.” whined the alicorn princess, still trying to grab the scale. “This is something nopony has ever seen before.”

“You said that before a few hundred times, Twi. You’re really beginning to use it as an excuse now.”

“That’s not true, name one time I did something like that?”

“When ah got my new body.” Applejack bluntly told her. “When ah got my sword and also every time you come to the farm, something new pops up. Remember when you were trying to study Big Mac to see if he was limited in his vocabulary? You hypothesized that he was limited to Eeyup and Nope. Specifically those two words… Not to mention that you were wrong in the end.”

“Wait, what?” Mac asked, now hearing this. “Why am I hearing about this NOW!?”

“Hey you can’t blame for wonder, plus Big Mac rarely says anything else besides those two words.”

Applejack groaned. “You are really pushing yourself. Plus, ah thought that Spike can contact the princesses anytime you act like this.”

“Yes but right now I need to examine the scale before I have him send a letter to the princess. Now if you could.” Twilight once again tried to reach for the scale. “Let me have a look at it.” It was only then that the Alicorn was only able to touch it once with a finger and with it, it sent Twilight flying backwards with her face hitting the ground. “Ow….”

“And what does that have to tell you now, Twilight?” Applejack asked, snickering to herself at what just happened.

“Shut up.” Twilight said as she pulled herself up from the ground. “What the hay was that all about?”

“You tell me, smarty pants.” Applebloom chimed in.

“‘Bloom. Ah thought you were going to check in on Granny Smith?”

“She’s sound asleep upstairs-.” Applebloom stopped, looking back at her sister. Or more specifically, her hands. “Uh… is that normal?”

“We’re in Ponyville, nothing around it normal...to some degree.” Applejack said as she looked at the scale in her hand that was starting to glow. “Oh….this is new.”

“Was that because of you causing Twilight to hit the deck?”

“More like a shockwave causing her to hit the dirt.” Before either member of the Apple family could respond, the scale glowed a bit brighter and with it, a shining flash of light went off, blinding to two of them. Even though Applejack couldn’t see, she did hear something hitting one of the orchard trees. So when she opened her eyes again, she looked towards the orchard and where dust was beginning to pick up.

“Whoever you are ya’ll better get off my apple orchard or else.” The cyborg pony said as she place a hand on her sword.

“Whoa, partner. Can ya take a sec to calm down?” Applejack froze. That voice… was hers. What was going on?

“Applejack, please don’t start picking fights…” A second voice spoke, this time more of a male voice than females.

“I’ll ask again, who are you?” That was when the dust began to settle. Next to a tree was one of the human like figures that she had seen before in talks with Raiden and his team, but with one of his arms looking… draconic and a leather bag over his left shoulder. Next to him was a four legged pony that was standing her ground, unsure if the cyborg was a threat or not.

“Well, that is surprising…” The male spoke. “Never thought we would get summoned by another AJ.”

“...... That’s it, I’m done.” Applejack said as she begun to walk back inside her house. Only for Twilight to stop her.

While the Alicorn was talking to her friend though, the young man began to get up, brushing the dirt off of his clothes and turning around. “Whoops… guess that’s something we need to fix.” Using one of his arms, he placed his draconic hand on the ground. The life force that was poured out afterwards began to heal the ground he landed on and fix the tree that he was slammed into. Like nothing ever handed. “There we are, good as new again.”

“Like I said before Twilight, I’m done with this weird stuff going on in Pony-.” Applejack said as she pointed a finger at the displaced humanoid dragon. “And that one other there count as weird.”

“Oh come on AJ, you can’t be the least curious at to who they are and how they got here?”

“I just wanted a month or two without anything weird happening. After fighting a giant robot, being taken against my will into Luna’s private training room… get you head out of the gutter, Big Mac.”

The male then stood up, noticing that Applejack was holding onto his token. “Technically, you were the one to summon me. Anypony else that tries to use my token for their own greedy purposes gets sent flying by my life force.”

“Yeah we kind notice when Twilight here tried to get her hands on this.”

“I had a good reason, it was for science.”

“More specifically, you’re greedy for knowledge. And some things, you would rather not want to know.”

“But it’s something that never been seen before. You can’t expect me not to wonder what it is? It’s like if you tell somepony not to touch a red button, but they end up pressing it so they can know what it does.”

“Why else do you think it’s red?” The other AJ asked, trotting over. “To have people STAY AWAY from it.”

“Yes, but some ponies will let curiosity get the better of them and press it anyway.”

“Hence, curiosity killed the cat.” The man snickered.

“Oh like you never done something out of curiosity… who are you anyway?”

“Name’s Ken. Ken Ahkrin.” He said. “And is it normal for you to be acting like this? Because unlike my Twilight, you seem to have a habit of not letting things go.” The earth pony that was next to him was looking at the two of them, before looking at Twilight specifically. “Because isn’t it obvious that you were looking at an Onyx Dragon Scale?”

“What’s an Onyx Dragon Scale?” Twilight asked as she pulled out a piece of paper and pen. “Is it some kind of rare dragon species?”

“Nice going Ken.” Applejack said as she rubbed her head in annoyance. To her surprise though, She soon noticed Twilight’s clipboard whisked out of her hands by the energy glowing around Ken.

“I was asking a question. Not giving a lecture.” He groaned, giving the clipboard and pen to Applebloom on the side.. “Good lord, did she fall on her head when she was a filly?”

“I’m still here you know?” Twilight said as she glared at Ken. “And no, I didn’t fall on my head when I was a little filly.”

“...... Ugh…” Ken groaned, looking back at her. “Look, I would prefer to talk about this with Applejack only because it feels like you’re a crazier version of my Twilight back home. So could you please respect that… or do I have to have Revaan supervise you?”

“B-But-.”

Thinking for a minute, the Displaced groaned. “Applejack… want to give her something to… well… Occupy her?”

“What, like throw her a bone or something?” Ken’s Applejack asked.

“More or less… Because I’m sure that… if I’m correct… with Twilight gone, Spike is free to go after the crystals she had stored in the pantry. After all, when that cat’s away, the mice will play.”

“.....Oh buck.” Twilight’s horn began to glow as she quickly teleported back to her castle.

“....How did you do that?” AJ asked.

“Honestly… I took a guess. Think about it… with Twilight here, Spike is left home alone. The rest… was just a guess.” He shrugged. “At least that might occupy her for a while… and good thing I didn’t have to resort to plan B.”

“What’s plan B?”

Ken just smirked a little, looking back at his Applejack as she closed her eyes. She glowed for a brief second before taking on a new appearance. An appearance that was more… draconic. “Plan B would be having me create a golem from the earth to chase her around the outskirts of Ponyville. But I’m glad that we didn’t have to resort to that.”

“Well that’s one way to deal with her to some extent period of time.”

“Trust me, I’m not sure if you would want for up to be here long.” He told her. “I thought from what you said earlier with being done with the weird stuff that you would rather not want to talk with us.”

“Normally yes, but seeing how you’re not annoying me to some degree I guess I can talk to you two for a while.” Aj said as she extended her hand at Ken. “I’m Applejack.”

“Nice to meet you Applejack. I’m Ken… but you might already know that.” He chuckled. “Should we talk about this inside? I just thought that if Twilight were coming back, we should stay out of her line of sight.”

“Yeah let’s head inside before she comes back.” With that, Ken and his AJ followed Applejack inside her home as they made their way towards the kitchen table. The three of them sat down, after Ken’s Applejack was struggling a little with getting up on a chair and soon, the Displaced began to speak.

“So, do you have any questions for Applejack and I?”

“A few yes, but my biggest question is….what the hay are you suppose to be?”

“That… might take some time to explain. But to be brief, I’m a Scalebound.”

“Okay and what’s a Scalebound?”

“You see my arm?” He asked, setting it on the table. “It’s a sign of the bond that I have with a dragon back at my home since our souls are linked to one another. However, he’s the last of his kind. I promised to help him and find out what happened to his kin and with it, I gained some abilities.” Applejack remembered something along that line earlier in the day when he yanked Twilight’s clipboard out of her hands earlier. But still, she was wondering what else Ken could do. And who was this dragon he was talking about.

“Who’s this dragon you’re bound to back home?”

“His name is Revaan. He’s… interesting to say the least. He’s a friend, teacher and also one who cares for others. He just reunited with our Spike a month or so ago and found out that he was his son. But with that though… there are some drawbacks to our souls being linked.”

“Drawbacks?”

“With their souls being linked, anything they feel is split between them,” The four legged dragon that was next to the Scalebound spoke for him. “Which means if he’s hurt, Revaan is hurt and also… if he dies… Revaan dies too.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah. Still though, that’s just us. We’ve been doing our best to try and help one another because we’re all one big family back home. Applejack here,” Ken said, pointing to the mare on his right. “is my marefriend.”

“.....What?”

“Not you I mean. MY Applejack. You see, I’m a Displaced. We aren’t from this Equestria, but another one. However, what I might say next might make me sound like a certain Egghead you know, so I’m going to have to do my best to make it brief.” He explained, waiting on the response of the cyborg Earth Pony that he was talking to.

“Oh okay… So are there more of you… Displaced?”

“Trust me, there is more. Some are good, like myself. However, there are others who are not so good. Thankfully, I haven’t ran into any of them. But then there are those that are… well weird. Not to mention that not every pony we meet is in a world similar to ours.”

“Define weird, because the definition of it can be different for some ponies.”

“Think weird as in one being part dragon, part undead lich.” Ken explained, conjuring a reflection of the Lich he knew as Asphyxious. “He’s just a bit of a… friend. But sometimes he’s… random. One time when he went full dragon, he was moaning at me like a puppy.”

“He even tried rolling over.” Ken’s Applejack added on.

“......Should I be worried about that?”

“Not really, he’s cool and gets along with others very well.” Ken replied, easing the cyborg’s worries just a tad. “Any other questions you want to ask us?”

“Yeah, why did your version of me turn into a dragon?”

“Mostly because ah wanted to not have any confusion between the two of us. It can get weird seeing another version of yourself. Would you happen to mean how I can turn into a dragon by any chance?”

“Pretty much yeah.”

“Well, that might be a bit. I only figured out that I can turn into it recently. Mostly because of my instincts and the feelings I had for him. Before then… it was something else.” She looked back at Ken, blushing a little.

“Okay…..”

“And that’s where things get awkward.” The Scalebound replied, making sure to look around and not have any filly stumble on them. “Want me to continue or no?”

“I think that’s enough questioning for today for me.”

“Okay, but would it be okay if I ask you some questions though?” He asked. “I answered some for you. It would be fair that you could answer some for me right?”

“Fair enough, so what do you want to ask me?”

“Well, I was wondering why Twilight was always… well pestering you. Judging from my encounter with her, you seemed to be really annoyed by her.”

“Let’s just say after a certain incident at the swap meet, and what happen two weeks ago. She’s been trying to figure out how my body works, that and see if she can figure out a way to copy it to better Equestria.”

“That just sounds like an invasion of personal privacy.” Dragon AJ groaned. “I mean, what’s so different about your body? It looks normal to me.”

Applejack sighed as she activated her visor and showed a digital model of herself to Ken and his Applejack. “Half of my body is cybernetic.”

“Woah… Sorry for my language, but that’s just badass.” Ken commented. “But one thing though, what do you mean by half?”

“The other is pretty much flesh, bones, and organs. I’m still able to eat and all that stuff, even though my organs are coated in some kind of flexible metal cyberskin.”

“I see… Well, if I have to be honest, I couldn’t really tell that you were a cyborg at first glance. Oddly enough…” Ken stopped for a moment before looking back. “You reminded me a lot of when I first met my AJ.”

“How so?”

“Well, there’s personality. But also, excuse me if this sounds weird, but you looked quite… stunning.”

AJ’s cheeks blushed red when she heard that comment. “O-Oh come on, I-I’m not that stunning, really I’m not.”

“Actually, you are. And personally, cyborg or not, you look quite… beautiful.” He said, looking back at his Applejack before returning his gaze to the cyborg.

“Um….well this is getting….um...awkward.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make it weird or anything-.” He tried to apologize, only to be cut off by Applejack.

“S-So any other questions you have for me?”

“Well… um… where’s the restroom? I think I might need to catch my breath.” Ken asked, a slight bit of red on his face.

“Down the hall, to your right.” Ken thanked her as he excused himself from the table. Leaving his Applejack with her for the time being. The thought on the other Applejack though was something she wanted to address.

“Ya know sugarcube… he wasn’t lying to you when he told you that you looked beautiful.” She told her, catching her by surprise.

“I know, it’s just that no pony ever said something like that to me.”

“Well, that’s the thing with Ken. He’s very caring and understanding of other people. Unlike some jerks who would try to use nice words to get something in return, he’s not like that. He cares for other people… and ah think he cares for you all the same.” She said to the cyborg.

“I don’t know how to respond to that.”

“Sometimes, you don’t need a response. Heck, he cares for me all the same and we already are beginning to start a family… Just give him a chance, sugarcube. Trust me, ah won’t be mad at you if you want to spend some time with him.”

“Thanks, but I’m an old fashion kind of mare to be honest.”

“Suit yourself. Still though, you won’t need to worry about him giving you anything that you aren’t ready for though. There’s a reason for it.” She explained. “Sorry if this sounds abrupt, but Ken’s pony sterile.”

“It’s okay, but I’m not really interested in the whole open relationship sex stuff really.”

“To each their own then. Still, if you need him for anything, he’ll be glad to help. He’s one of the most kindest ponies I’ve met and trust me, he will help you out in any way possible.” With that, Ken soon stepped out of the bathroom after he finished washing his hands.

“Hey, I’m back. Did I miss anything?”

“Nothing much really.”

“I guess then if there isn’t any other business to attend too, then maybe Applejack and I should get going before Twilight comes back.” He replied, his marefriend nodding in response. “Oh and Applejack, if you have any questions… just use the scale to call upon me and I can come help you, okay?”

“Is that how you talk with other ponies?”

“Most Displaced have a summoning token that other Displaced can use to summon them. But it works two ways. You either summon them or they will summon you. I have only met a few every now and then, so I’m not completely sure of the possibilities at this rate.” He explained. “All you need to do is focus a little on the scale and then I’ll come okay?”

“Okay, I’ll do that when I need your help.” With that, the Scalebound waved goodbye, using a copy of his own token to open up a portal to his own world, which closed soon after he and his marefriend entered it. Leaving the cyborg back in her home as Applebloom and them were coming back from Ponyville.