I was The Wanderer: Brothers of The Wastes

To think I am a weapon would be idiotic if it weren't true. Having a curious mind had taught me that no matter what I switch, what I take out, I'll always be the same just different in some ways.

I've killed many people, no matter what race, guilty or innocent and all because of my anger. The same anger I felt when I saw my wife die in front of me, the same anger I felt when I fought Steel and the same anger I felt when I lost my son only days after finally reuniting with him. Those of the Commonwealth feared my presence, not just because of my technologically advanced prosthetic limbs but it was because of what they heard, what they've seen, what I've done.

I am and always will be a weapon.

             -Salvador De Rivera

I've taken the mare to the hospital and waited for any news regarding her. I've been waiting for almost an hour with my brother, Steel.

He came in seconds after the doctors took the mare in, he asked what happened and I answered but that did not mean he was happy with the answer I gave him.

Even after his initial reaction, he responded in kind and brotherly manner, telling me that I did what had to be done but he doesn't know, he’ll never know.

He left saying that he'll find the ones responsible while I waited.

“Sir?” I felt someone shaking me lightly.

“Sir?” Another shake. It was then that I opened my eye and saw the nurse from earlier holding a little bell.

“You dropped this.” She said, handing me the ball before leaving. I let out a yawn as I stretched my only good arm before taking a look at the bell.

It was the size of a pocket watch, it even had a string attached to the tiny hook. I kept staring at it, knowing nothing about it before hearing a voice speak.

“If you are in need of assistance, ring the bell four times and say your issue, if I deemed it worthy I will come.”

A Displaced. I looked left down the hall before looking right, seeing the cafeteria sign while spinning the string in my hand before stopping as I heard the bell chime.

Looking down I couldn't help but groan at my mistake. After a minute of nothing I saw the mist came around as some sort of arm reached up and handed me a roll of paper. I took it, unrolled it and read what it said.

“Saying nothing when you ring the bell doesn’t do shit you dumb ass” the note said.

“Fuck you too, bud.” I muttered out before looking at the bell.

“Only issue here is that somepony is hospitalized and the fucks responsible are still breathing.” I growled to myself. After a moment another note came up.

“Need help hunting them down?” The note said. Shrugging I said.

“Sure, why not.” I said. The mist dissipated for a moment then it slowly lifted up from the ground making a tall archway. After a moment I saw something coming out of it, He was… tall. I saw he wore black leather armor and a clawed gauntlet over his right arm, a gun and weird sword looking thing and on his back there’s was a weird looking bent staff. He looked at me and I saw that his face was covered with a hat and face mask. All I could see was his eyes that were Dark blue. He bowed at me.

“Greetings, I’m Jace Belaguard, Hunter of Ash and Cinder.” He said to me.

“A simple name would do.” I said to myself before standing up.

“Salvador De Rivera, nice to meet you.” I said leaving out my title of terror of the Wastes. He nodded and looked around.

“Well this is a weird place to come out of but I seen worst, so who am I hunting?” He asked me.

“Two stallions, one looks like he's either been in the gym for way too long or is on steroids and his lacky. Both have bullet wounds so it's easy to find them.” I said to him. He nodded and looked off down the hallway.

“Do you want me to be seen or not be seen?” He asked me as I saw his eyes glow a bit.

“Let them see you, a way to show them the consequences of raping.” I said to him. Jace tilted his head and started to head out until he stopped.

“Want them alive or dead?” He asked. Was it me or did his voice sounded… cold.

“The edge of death, I'm trying and failing, to not reduce to killing.” I answered. He nodded and turned away.

“Wait two hours and come to the center of town.” He said as he turned to mist.

“Right.” I said before sitting back down. Not a second later, I raised my wrist as it showed a digital clock. Setting an alarm for two hours, I continued my nap.

Jace

I walked out of the hospital and looked around. I saw many ponies walking around and it was the middle of the day. I sighed and started my, very short, hunt. With a tracking spell I found the place where the two stallions were at and saw some blood on the ground, this made things easier as I followed the trail. I saw many ponies look at me with curiosity and fear but I didn’t blame them for seeing a 6’5 man walking armed to the teeth. What surprised me is that there wasn’t that many of them.

I finally found the place that the trail lead me to, a rundown apartment building. I looked at the front door and walked in and followed the trail to a room that looked like it been used as a punching bag, now that’s rude what did the door did for this much abuse. Looking over at another door and saw a do not disturb sign I took it and knocked at the door.

“What the fuck do you want?!” Someone yelled out. I smiled at this.

“Candie gram~” I said in a sing song tone. After a minute and some grunts from inside the room the door opened revealing one of them. My spell showed me that this was one of them.

“Who the fuck are yo-” I cut him off by kicking him into the room. I bented down to go inside the room and placed the sign on the door and closed it as I placed a silent spell on it. I turned and cracked my knuckles as I went to work.

one hour and thirty minutes later

I sat up on a rooftop looking down at my handiwork. Those two stallions, now beaten to a bloody pulp and have all of their bones broken, tied up in their underwear in the center of town as the towns folks gather around them. I chuckled and looked up at the sun and saw that I did this with thirty minutes to spare. I got up and took out one of my blue elixirs and drank it.

Gods it tasted nasty and my head was being pulled in many directions. After that was done I saw that I was now stealth and jumped down to the ground and began to explore for the next thirty minutes.

I walked down the street I saw that it was a nice day, so nice that I remember a song that I heard a long time ago. After a minute I started to sing the song.

“Sky lanterns that we've made,

lifting off from the cold hard ground,

will set the skies ablaze

'cause the stars in our eyes burnt out.”

I saw the ponies that were passing me started looking around to see where the singing was coming from. I smiled and continued.

“You know what I mean

how we cling to the darkness.

We know what it takes;

to be something we're proud of.”

“Don't wait for the sunlight

to brighten your day.

Take up the torch and be strengthened.

We can light up the darkness

and fight through the pain.

Work up a dream worth the chasin'.”

As I was singing I remembered the time when Tia sang this song as she grew up. It was a nice song and it has an uplifting beat to it. I continued on with singing as I confused more ponies.

Salvador

As much as I loved to nap and ignore those around me, I had to go and head towards the center of town. On the way I had checked my arm, remembering that it glitched when I fired a few times.

The arm split into three and revealed three gun barrels. A chain gun, plasma rifle and pocket rocket launcher. As I tried switching between the different gun types, I noticed that it kept getting stuck halfway before completing its cycle.

After a few more cycle spins, I pressed a tiny button that was hidden between the guns. Once I pressed it and quickly pulled my hand back, the arm sparked a few times signaling that it was being self repaired before closing up and forming an actual arm again.

During all that, I had managed to make to the center of town and what I saw was most delightful. Though I could've walked through the crowd and finished the job, I had to oblige the new laws and push the thought back.

“Nice.” I said outloud. Hearing the beeping of my built in sensor, I looked back and saw the man that did the job for me. It wasn’t hard since he was a giant of a man, he looked like he was looking at some sort of bottle.

“I see you've done what I've asked, I do hope they learned their lesson.” I commented. Jace looked at me for a moment and looked back at the group.

“Well they should since with what I did they are stuck in the hospital for a long time healing and I did leave them a warning if they try to something like this again.” He said. I didn’t have to ask what with the way he said it. I could feel the threat from his tone. He looked over me and narrowed his eyes. “Someone looked pissed.”

“I have a feeling who it might-” Interrupted from my sentence, I fell to the ground after being hit in the back of my head.

“Do you ever listen to what I say?” I heard his voice, I knew by the calm tone that he was beyond angry. I've seen him like this back when we were still human.

Placing my hand on the ground before pushing myself up, I looked at Steel.

“You know they had it coming, you know that I could've killed them before but I didn't.” I said to him as he crossed his arms. He didn't say anything but helped me up.

“Last chance, blow this one and you'll be dead before you know it.” Steel said with a glare before turning to look at the man.

“And you are?” He asked. Jace looked at Steel for a minute.

“Names Jace, and you are?” He said as he stared at him.

“Steel Breaker, Former Lone Wanderer of The Wastes.” He said. Jace snorted at him and looked away.

“Yeah, going down in a war blimp does that to you.” He said then blinked a few times.

“It was a Zeppelin and more importantly, how did you know that?” Steel said as he looked at his synth arm. Jace looked at him for a moment and grunted as he holds his head.

“Ugg the hell is going on!?” He yelled as he looked at Steel. “Who the fuck are you and who is Ulysses!?”

With that he disappeared in a mist. I watched as the mist go into an alleyway.

“Before we follow him, I've received this and it has both our names.” Steel said as he showed me an envelope with a strange mark on it. Looking at him strangely he shrugged before putting away the envelope and following the mist.

I looked back, seeing that no one had noticed the commotion that Jace caused, I then followed Steel.

Jace

I dropped the mist form after getting away. I felt my head pounding as if I got hit with a sledgehammer. What’s worse is the images that I was getting in my head.

I have seen Steel before but where? Who the hell is Ulysses? Ugg this is giving me a headache. I found a spot that I could meditate for answers. I crossed my legs and removed my headpiece to breath better, I looked over to a broken piece of a mirror and saw my reflection. Dark blue hair and beard and eyes with a scar over my left eye. I sighed and closed my eyes and headed to the Hunter’s dream.

I opened my eyes to see I was in the dream. I stood up and walked into the workshop and saw that the Doll was there.

“Good evening good hunter, is there something wrong?” She asked. I walked over to the workbench and put my weapons back and browse the other ones.

“Just a headache and weird images in my head.” I told her as I pulled the Claymore rifle and the Trigger cutter. I chuckled at this since they weren’t in the normal game but I built them anyway.

Looking at them I began to tune them so they were up to standard.

“Good hunter, maybe these images are memories from a past life.” She told me. I stopped and looked at her. A past life huh. I holster my weapons and turned to her.

“Maybe but I think this ‘Steel’ figure know’s more about this.” I said as I left the workshop.

“Good hunting.” She said as I returned to the grave I came from and kneeled down and felt my soul return to my body.

The first thing I realized that there were people around me and one of them were poking me. I waited until they were going to poke me again then grabbed them and hold the cutter at their throat.

“Stop that, it’s rude.” I said.

“Says the man holding a blade to another's throat.” Steel said.

“Well can’t help it, force of habit you're lucky that you’re not dead.” I said to him as I pulled the cutter away. I stood up and dust myself off and looked at Steel as the memories slow came to me. “Good lord I didn’t realize how short you are, maybe I just got taller.”

“Size don't matter, pun intended.” Steel said. I stared at him for a bit with a smile.

“Well other than the… odd meet up it’s good to see you again Steel… Barker?.” I said with a frowned, dang memories messing up.

“Breaker, you never answered my question. How did you know about the Zeppelin and Ulysses?” Steel said while Salvador was doing something to his arm. I looked at Steel with a smile.

“I’m the one that helped you blow it up, and brought you back from the dead and I told you that I was an asshole.” I told him. He stared at me for a bit until I saw the light bulb in his head lit up.

“I see now, you're as ugly as ever Jace.” Steel said with a little grin.

“You haven’t seen Aldrich, now that’s ugly.” I told him as I put on my mask and hat. I looked over at Sal and saw him tinkering with his arm and saw that it was really a chamber gun. I frowned at him as he tried to fix it. “You’re doing that wrong.”

Sal stopped and glared at me but I continued. “Look I seen a chamber gun before and I know for a fact that you’re doing it wrong. Now let me see it.”

“Please you don’t even know how this thing even works.” Sal told me I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Your arm is really a syntactic arm that holds either three or four chambers that shoots different ammo, one is probably shoots just normal rounds, but you are having one of a few problems: you can’t switched back to having a normal arm, you can’t fire the rounds or lastly you try to switch chambers but it get’s stuck between cycles now shut up and let me see.” I explained to him. He blinked at me as I grabbed his arm and took a look at it. It’s a bit high-tech than what I’m used to but they have the same parts, I also see that there’s a self-repair function that looks like it needs an update. I pulled out some tools and went to work.

“I didn’t know you know how to fix weapons Jace?” I heard Steel said to me. I started to take some screws out and replaced them with new ones and some other things.

“Well that’s because I lived in a world that most hunter weapons are trick weapons and we hunters need to know how to build, repair and take apart them when needed.” I told him as I saw the problem, a rusty screw and some faulty wiring. “I learned from a stallion named Djura, an old hunter of the Powder Keg Hunters and his wife Sparks.”

“What are the Powder Keg Hunters?” Sal asked as I pulled a wire which made him wince a bit. I eyed him for a second before continuing.

“The Hunters are just that, hunters but there are different factions within it with different ideas of how to hunt, one such faction is know as the Powder kegs Hunters, they had a motto that they followed ‘If a weapon ain’t got kick, it just ain’t worth it’ “ I chuckled at the memories of Djura and some of the engineers showing me their latest creations. “All the others factions labeled them as heretics due to their crude genius but the Powder Kegs didn’t really mind.”

“And why’s that.” Steel asked. I replaced the last wire and screw and stood up.

“Well they knew that the others can’t help but accept that trying to kill a behemoth with out a cannon is a bad way to go.” I told him as I looked at Sal. “Ok that should do it, give it a whirl.”

Sal looked at his arm as it changed to its gun form and I saw it spin without getting stuck. He blinked at it and made it turn back to his arm.

“So, what happened to you? Just a day ago you're were a mage from Magic the Gathering.” Steel said as leaned against a wall. Salvador had reformed his arm again before looking back at me. I looked at him for a moment.

“I… I don't remember all I know is how I came into the world and a lot of heartache.” I told them. I was about to continue until I hear something coming from somewhere, it sounds like… yelling. “What’s that?”

“Don't know.” Steel said. Sal walked towards the source of the screaming. I looked up and run towards the wall to climb it. I got to the roof and began to run towards the yelling and screaming.

After a minute of this I stopped to look out to see what’s going on. I saw all the towns folks gather around a big group of armored soldiers. I looked around and saw more of them on the rooftops with rifles. Taking out my Monocular to take a closer look at these soldiers. I saw that these soldiers look more gruff looking and didn’t have a symbol of anything, I guess they are mercs, I looked at the snipers and saw that they were aiming for someone. Following where they are aiming I saw… Chrysalis? No wait this isn’t the same one in my world. She looked like she was protecting something behind her and yelling at someone. I shifted to see who it was and started to wonder who would bring a large group to Ponyville and…. it’s Blueblood… god dang it why is it he’s a pain in every other world.

I looked at the soldiers and snipers around and frowned, there’s too many for the three of us.

“Sal, give your handgun.” I could hear Steel as he and Salvador walked out of the alley. I don’t know what he’s going to do but with these snipers things are going to be bad. Closing my eyes and focusing I began my chant.

“Wolves of old, hear your lord’s call, I summoned you for one last service.” I chanted softly. At first nothing happened but then I felt a chill up my spine.

“We are at the ready my lord.” Voices speaking as one. I nodded as I mentally told them what to do and out of the corners of my eyes I saw shadows go off. I turned my head saw one of the merc snipers aiming at Chrysalis. Shaking my head I sneaked up to him and knocked him out, it didn’t take fifteen seconds.

Taking out my rifle I set my sights on Blueblood and waited.

“Alright Blueblood, your move.”

Steel

If there was a word that could describe how enraged I am right now with everything that happened not even an hour ago, that word would probably not even exist.

Once Sal gave up his handgun, We both walked out of the alley with one thing in mind. Everything went green and focused on three of these blood suckers.

After picking my targets, I fired the gun at them. A 9mm pistol round to the side of the head can cause a bit of a mess. Once the three now deceased mercenaries fell, I saw familiar face before walking up to him.

He noticed me and tried to grab the nearest weapon but that weapon was shot away by Salvador.

“Do not dare touch me you insect!” Blueblood yelled as he walked backwards. While this occurred, the remaining Mercenaries had turned to my location. Using the remaining ammunition, I fired the pistol a few more times. Three mercenaries were fell to the ground for cover while the other four fell to the ground dead.

“You, I've had enough of you.” I said to the stallion in front of me. He was shaking in fear as I glared at him. I was about to knock him unconscious against the wall but was shot in the back by one of the mercenaries.

Slowly turning around, I saw that the one who shot me held an AR rifle with a detachable scope. I closed my eyes before taking a deep breath.

“Oh boy.” I heard Sal mutter before I snapped my eyes open, revealing that my eyes were now that of a reptiles.

“You're dead!” With that said, I sprinted towards him and halfway I started running on all fours as I felt my entire body shift and change.

Jace

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three down from the rooftops as the others took care of them. I smiled at this until I heard screaming. I looked over and saw something that made me blink in surprise.

I frowned at this as it tore through two mercs with ease as it turned to Blueblood.

“My lord the monstrosity is going to kill everything in it’s path to it’s bloodlust, should we take it out?” a voice said in my head. I stood up and holster my rifle.

“No, stand by and let me handle this, if things go south get everyone out of the town as fast as you can.” I told it.

“By your commanded my lord.” it said. I took the rifle and pulled out the sword from it and backed up on the roof and sprinted forward. Jumping off the roof I landed in front of Sal and looked at the monster. I glance over at him.

“What the fuck is that?” I asked him.

“A very pissed of Steel.” He said. I looked at it and back at him.

“...really.” I said to him.

“Yeah, this only happened once before and I ended up near an irradiated zone full of Super Mutants. He's got an impressive amount of tolerance but once you've passed the limit, pray.” Sal said as he crossed his arms. I looked back at Steel with one thought in mind.

“Is he in control or on a rampage?” I asked him, I prayed for one of two answers.

“He's got full control, you can bet your ass on that.” He said as Steel had ripped a Merc in half. I looked over and saw Blueblood leaving through an alleyway, I shook my head at this.

“Oh no you don’t.” I said as I began walking to the alleyway. After taking some turns I found him in a dead end. It was dark and no where to go. “Hello Blueblood, we need to talk.”

He spun around and saw me, at first he had the look of fear but it turned to one of a snobby noble.

“And who pray tell are you?” He asked. I began to walk towards him slowly.

“Someone who had enough with your shit, now I want answers,” I said to him as I shoulder my sword. “Why did you bring mercs here?”

He looked at me for a moment and snorted. “And why should I tell you? You’re nothing more than a comm-.” I pulled out a throwing knife and threw it at the space by his head, imbedding itself into the wall.

“Watch what you say, my patience is running thin.” I told him. I never really had the patience for snobby nobles, one of many downsides of being a lord, and I had to keep him alive, I’ll leave him with Steel or Twilight.

Though that thought was thrown away as the large beast slowly appear behind Blueblood. The beast had blood splattered around it and its claws were drenched in the same liquid. I had to hold back when I saw it, but my old hunter instincts were screaming to fight it.

“I’ve got half the mind to put you where you belong.” It said as it picked up Blueblood.

“But I'm not a monster.” With that he threw him to a wall, knocking him unconscious and breaking some bones in him. I looked at him for a moment as shadows fell from the roofs and took form.

They all looked at Steel and went to a battle stances but I walked forward.

“Stand down.” I told them as I kept my eyes on Steel. “You ok?”

Steel moved his head to look at the wolves and looked at me.

“I’ve been better.” He said. He took a step forward and the wolves twitched a bit. I eyed them for a second and saw that Steel looked at me. “Who are they?”

“Old fighters, knights, and hunters. They are known as the old wolves.” I told him. One of the old wolves walked up to me and I looked at him.

“Do you need our services my lord?” the wolf said. I looked over at Blueblood as he groaned.

“Yes you can leave.” I told the wolf. The wolf bowed and then all of them turned into dust and shadow, after a moment I was alone with Steel.

“Before we continue our conversation from earlier, I need to go check if Chrysalis is alright.” I heard Steel as his voice turned back to normal.

“Alright,” I said to him as I looked at Blueblood and went over to him to picked him up. “I’m going to take bag of shit here to Twilight, since she’s a princess and this town is under her protection I think she will have a few words with him.” I told him and started my trek to the castle.

Salvador

It had been a trip down memory lane, seeing Steel finally losing it and going ape shit again was something to behold but what I find even more interesting is the gear the poor souls had.

They stood no chance with their pea shooters. I had been looting the corpses for either money or anything remotely useful.

I felt a sudden surge of pain in my chest, it meant I needed a power core soon or find a way to charge my current core but in the meantime, I had to keep that to myself.

I had looked through another pocket and found a small pouch of bits, a few gems and a used needle of med-X. Finishing up with the upper body that had been impaled onto a street light, I moved on to the lower half that was lying on the floor near the street light.

Next to the legs was a bag and inside was mostly chems, Buffout, Psycho, Turbo and a few others. Closing the bag and standing up, I looked towards Chrysalis and her daughters and on the ground next to them was another changeling, a synth. He seemed to be fine but had suffered a bullet on one of the joints in his left leg.

Steel sprinted out of the alley and stopped just in front of them before checking them and asking if they were okay.

Looking a bit past them I saw Jace carrying a body and heading towards the castle. I watched as he stopped as a cyan bler passed him and crash into a building, he shook his head and turn himself and the body into mist. I saw Dash step out of the building looking for Jace.

Wondering what she wanted, I walked towards her but stopped as I kicked something on the floor. Looking down, I saw what it was. Energy cells.

I bent over to picked them up and as I grasped them in my hand and straightened back up, my arm locked up for a second or two before going back to normal. My vision was blurring and I quickly entered an alley before anyone noticed.

I raised my robotic arm as it shifted slightly into an energy transferring module. A slot opened just under my wrist and I placed the energy cells in it before it closed.

The fingers of my hand soon extended slightly into electricity rods. Taking a deep breath, I raised my shirt up until the center of my chest was exposed.

I hovered my free hand over my chest as little hatch opened and extended out my core. With that the transfer started.

While the core was out, my entire body was shutting down slowly but as soon as the transfer was done, the core went back inside.

“Power levels sufficient, I knew I should've brought a backup core.” I said to myself. I leaned against the wall before slouching onto the floor. A message covered my field of view.

Energy Core levels: 70%

I felt my breathing slowly going back into rhythm again. I leaned my head back to the wall with a sigh.

“Tick tock, I ain't got much time.” I said to myself. I looked down to my arm and saw that my right sleeve was rolled up, showing a few numbers on my upper arm.

SD-450

I rolled down my sleeve before standing up and dusting the dirt off me.

Jace

I looked up to the crystal castle as I walked up to it. I saw that there was two guards stationed at the doors. One of them was going to speak something but the other one stopped him and muttered something.

“Gentlemen,” I said to them as I walked past them. I opened the door and headed towards the throne room. After a minute of walking and hearing Blue stirring I came up to the doors. Putting my hand on the door to opened it I went in to see Twilight there talking to her brother and Cadence, I also saw two others that were there. They stopped talking and looked at me, Shining’s hand went to his weapon.

“Who are you? How did you get in here?” He asked. I looked at him for a moment.

“Front door, the two guards let me in.” I told him as I walked over to a random normal chair and put Blueblood on it. I pulled out a rope and tied him up so he didn’t get away.

“What’s going on? Why is Blueblood here and why is he beat up?” Twilight asked me.

“And more importantly who are you?” Cadence asked me. I looked at them as I stood up.

“My apologies but I can’t say much until Steel comes back, as who I am just know that I’m a friend.” I told them. I walked behind the now bound Blueblood and leaned onto the wall and started to shift through the memories that started appearing.

As I did so I notice that Twilight was looking at me with an odd look. I didn’t say anything for a few minutes.

“Yes? Do you need anything?” I asked her which seemed to make her jump.

“Oh umm… sorry it just that… I sense something about you, something… odd, so I have to ask what are you?” She asked me. I sighed and closed my eyes.

“All I can say is that I’m a monster.” I told them as the doors opened, Steel, back to normal, Sal and Chrysalis with three changeling kids followed her. One of them, one with red hair, looked at me as if she knows me. I looked over at Sal and saw that he was… off.

“Steel! What’s going on?” Twilight asked him.

“In short, Blueblood showed in town with a band of mercenaries and intended to get rid of and I quote, Parasites from the face of the planet and only managed to injure Liberty but he's fine. Silver lining, I had lunch.” He said before letting out a small burp. I stared at him for a moment and heard a groan coming from Blueblood, he’s waking up.

“Ugg.. what… what’s going on? Why am I tied down?!” He said as he started to strain on the ropes only to wince in pain. I rolled my eyes at him as Steel looked at him, if looks could kill, Blueblood would be dead right now.

“Shut it, before I rip out your spine and force feed it to you.” He threatened him.

“You can’t tell me to shut up, all I was doing was getting rid of those Parasites from the land.” He said to him. I saw Chrysalis, Twilight and Cadence frowned at him. I pushed off the wall and leaned forward so I was next to Blue.

“Hey dipshit let me tell you something, technically those so called parasites live in this town and you, a noble of Canterlot, just openly attacked them. So by right of the Princess Twilight she could have deem you a traitor to the land.” I told him.

“Which could leave you banished or hung.” Steel said and I could hear Chrysalis add something about crucifying him. Huh... deja vu. I saw Blueblood pale a bit.

“You… you can’t do that! Do you know who I am! I’m Prince Blueblood! The nephew to Princess Celestia.” I saw him smug a bit. “Do you want to kill someone in her bloodline?” I looked at Steel for a moment and grinned.

“Oh that’s a good point Steel, how about this let’s get Celestia down her and tell her what’s going on, heck bring Luna as well I think she want’s to hear this as well.” I told him as I looked at Blueblood. “I wonder what they would think about you attacking someone.”

Steel looked at me and Blueblood and slowly looked over at Twilight.

“Alright, give me a couple of minutes to notify them.” He said as he walked back out of the room. I looked at Blueblood for a moment and stepped away from him and back to my spot on the wall.

I was lost in my thoughts until I had a feeling that someone was watching me. I turned and looked down and saw the red haired changeling staring at me.

“... Yes?” I asked her. She simply stared at me. I looked around for a moment then back at the changeling who was still staring at me. I do remember that I sent eggs over here for some reason but… there’s something else about her. I saw looking sad then went to hug my leg, I simply stared at her… what?

“Uhh… why are you hugging me?” I asked her.

“Changelings have the ability to sense the feelings of others.” someone said to me. I looked over and saw Chrysalis walking over with three other kids. “I’m guessing that she sense that you're sad about something.”

I looked down at the changeling and frowned, I’m sad? If I am about what?

“I don’t know.” I said as I saw Steel walking into the room.

“They will be here in a few minutes.” He said. I saw Blueblood with a smug look on his face, I shook my head and went back to the spot on the wall. I saw Steel walk up and did the same next to me. Chrysalis and the four changelings went to talk with Twilight about something.

“So, what is it that you can remember?” Steel asked me. I closed my eyes and went to my memories.

“It’s… fuzzy but I do remember some things, I remember meeting with my sister who’s now a displaced now and… something else.” I said to him. He turned to look at me.

“You have a sister?” He said to me. I chuckled a bit as I pulled out a notebook and pencil. Doing a quick scribble and tearing it out I handed it to him. It was her smiling and doing the peace sign.

“That what she looks like now just to let you know she can be… a pain at times but means well.” I told him.

“Alright, anything else or you’re still in the dark?” Steel asked. I caught a glimpse of Salvador leaving the room unnoticed by anyone else. Something feels off about him. I was taken back by Steel snapping his fingers in front of my face.

“Earth to dumbass, come in dumbass.” He said. I looked at him then back at the door.

“Uhh bright flash of light and that's it, say is there something wrong with Sal?” I asked him. I turned to see Steel looking around and I pointed at the door.

“No, at least to my knowledge.” He said with a shrug. I looked back at the door and narrowed my eyes.

“I'll be right back.” I said as I turned into mist and went out of the room. I went through the castle until I found him walking in one of the halls. I dropped the mist form behind him. “What's wrong with you?.

I watched him jump a bit and spun around to look at me.

"Why do you always do that?” he asked with a growl. I shrugged.

“Reasons, now answer the question what's wrong with you?” I asked him again. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked away.

“Nothing, there's nothing wrong.” he told me. I crossed my arms and stared at him.

“Yeah… bullshit I lived long enough to know someone is hiding something now tell me the truth, what's wrong with you.” I asked him for the second time.

“I don't have time for this.” He said as he turned back around. I frowned and used a bit of magic to see what's going on. I saw nothing wrong with him.

I began to turn when I saw something on his arm. It was covered but for a second I saw something. Knowing that he would straight up not tell me I went mist form and charged him.

As I was on top of him he started to wave his arms around to push me away. I waited until I saw my opportunity and made my hand solid and grabbed his arm and reformed. I turned his arm and removed the cover to see numbers.

“What the?” was all I said when Sal punched me in the head. Deciding that this is getting old I tapped into the flame a bit. I twisted around and punched him on to the wall making cracks.

“Start talking, what's with the numbers on your arm and don't lie to me.” I told him. He stared at me for a long minute. and he hit the wall..

“Fuck yo…” I slammed him on the wall again a bit harder and then lifted my clawed hand.

"If you're going to be a pain maybe some… motivation will help. I wonder what will happen if I fill you with lava?” I said as burning flames form around my hand, drops of it fell to the ground and made blackened holes.

“You wouldn't.” he said as he kept his eyes on my hand.

“Try me you have five seconds, 5…” I began as I moved my hand to near his chest.

"4…”

“3…”

“2…” I moved my hand closer to home and I saw his jacket began to catch on fire.

“1...”

“ALRIGHT! Alright I'll talk…” I stopped moving closer and moved back a bit but didn't stop my burning hand.

“Talk, what with the numbers on your arm and don't leave anything out.” I told him as I waited for him to talk. He moved his arm a bit and I saw a light. I got sent back into a wall.

“You know, fuck this.” standing back up and dusting myself, I turned around and started walked back to the main room. I froze in place as I heard the sound of metal shifting.

“Never got to say thanks for the repairs.” I heard him say as a ball of green blasted passed me and hit the wall. Looking back, I saw that he had used his built in gun.

“I've got enough rockets to level this place, now what the fuck do you want.” He said as the barrel of the gun switched and the tip of a rocket appeared out of the new barrel.

“Answers, I want to know what’s with those numbers on your arm and what they mean.” I told him. I didn’t say anything until I saw him blink. In that window I dashed forward and stood in front of him, grabbed his gun arm and placed it at my chest.

“What… what are you doing?! You know that I can kill you right now!” He yelled at me. I stared right into his eyes.

“Then what are you waiting for pull the trigger and kill me, you said that you were failing to stop killing so what the harm of killing me.” I told him. He stared at me as I leaned in a bit. “But just to let you know I’m trying to help you I just need to know what’s wrong.”

We stayed like that for minutes but it seemed longer as I waited. I watched his eyes and waited for his choice. He then sighed and turned his arm back to normal.

“You know how Steel is the Hero of the Wasteland back when it was still a Wasteland?” He asked. I stared at him for a moment and slowly nodded.

“Bits and pieces but yeah, he made the Wasteland… greener.” I told him. He stared at me and chuckled a bit.

“That's one way of putting it. We are different sides of the same coin, he's the good side. Can you guess mine?” Sal asked, crossing his arms. I looked at him for a moment as he said that. I sighed.

“I understand what you are saying but let me tell you that, sure you’re not Steel and you did… I don’t know what and I’m not asking but all I will say is that you shouldn’t paint yourself as the bad guy.” I told him. He started to glare at me.

“I'm not, I never did. But that doesn't change anything, I was the bad guy, even described as The Goddamn Devil after killing off an entire city for ten thousand caps.” He explained with a glare. I looked at him and pulled my mask down.

“We all did things that we are not proud of, you, Steel” I gripped my right arm as a old throb returned. “Even me, but that was the past and this is now and if you’re the goddamn devil then start showing everyone that even the devil has a good side.” I said to him.

“Would you not try to pity me, I wasn't even done explaining.” He said. I blinked at him for a moment and angry sighed.

“Goddamn school counselor…” I muttered at myself. I saw Sal looking at me with an odd look.

“Anyways, since I was the Devil, of course people wanted me captured or my head on a pike. Skip two decades after Steel left this world's version of Boston, I turned myself in. Back then I was in no condition to be walking freely, I was still..heartbroken over the loss of my wife and son. My journey to find my son only added more fuel to the fire.” He said as he turned to look out the window.

“So yeah, I turned myself into the N.C.R, New Canterlot Republic. This isn't even a tattoo, they branded it onto my arm as a memento and had taken my heart, literally.” Sal said, turning to look back at me. I looked at him for a moment.

“So what happens next, after they did that to you?” I asked him.

“They tortured, locked me up in the most solitary cell and even killed me once.” He said. I nodded at him as he continued.

“But with this still attached and pumping blood into my veins I can be brought back as long as the Energy Cells has enough power.” He said as rolled up his shirt, showing a small hatch in the center of his chest. I looked at it and thought of Iron man. I looked out of the window.

“I’m guessing that Steel doesn't know about this?” I asked him.

“No, he doesn't and even if he did, nothing would've changed and I'll still be battery powered.” He said. I thought about it for a moment and looked at him.

“I might know a few ways to make it that you don’t need a battery to keep you going, if you want it I can help.” I told him. Sal looked at me for a minute.

“Sure, I'm getting sick and tired of almost dying again and again and again.” He answered. I nodded at him and frowned.

“There’s two ways that I know that will work… well one of them will work and the other… kind of will.” I said. I saw him going to ask but I continued. “There’s a beast back in my world that has the ability to regenerate, and I don’t mean just it’s arms and legs I mean everything it can regenerate, head, heart, bones you name it. It took me forever to gets its blood to study it since it was trying to kill me.”

“Ok… why are you telling me this?” He said as he crossed his arms again.

“There’s an old practice of blood transfusion that will give you the ability to regenerate by will alone, but there’s a chance  that it will turn you into a blood crazed monster.” I told him.

“You mean like a cannibal?” He asked me.

“No I really mean a blood crazed monster you’ll kill everything in you path and keep going, I perfected the treatment but… I never tried it and there’s a small chance for it to make you a monster.” I told him as I tilted my head a bit. “The other way will work but it will hurt… a lot and you won’t be able to regenerate. So which hell do you want?”

“The first option, if what you say is true that I'd be a normal griffin again.” He said as his metallic hand clutched into a fist. I chuckled a bit.

“If this works you’ll have your old body back but you would be much, Much stronger than before now do you want to do it now or later?” I asked him.

“Later, I was planning on taking a stroll through town before stopping by the hospital.” He said as he placed both his hands in his pockets. I nodded to him and looked down the hall.

“Well I’m going to get everything ready for the operation, and after Blueblood gets yelled at.” I said with a smile. “Call me a heartless bastard, but seeing him squirm a bit never get’s old.”

He eyed me for a minute then nodded, he then walked off as I turned and headed back to the room. I sighed at what’s going to happen, this is going to be one hell of a time.

Steel

It's been fifteen minutes since Jace left, probably went after Salvador but I digress. During the time, I had talked with Twilight's parents about my colorful past and career.

They had mixed reactions towards the country's horrid past but I wouldn't blame them. Shining had paid absolute attention as soon as I had mentioned an army of highly trained soldiers with state of the art laser weaponry.

I didn't leave a single detail out, I wanted to be truthful to the marefriend’s family. Blueblood had also been paying attention for an odd reason, his reason being that he had never known that Equestria, along with the world was a war torn, Post-nuclear apocalyptic place.

He had stopped trying to free himself after Twilight tightened the ropes, giving him no freedom to move whatsoever.

 I heard the doors open and saw Jace walking in. He nodded to me and went to one of the walls and lean against it with his arms crossed.

Minutes later the doors opened once more, revealing both Celestia and Luna walking in. Celestia wore a magenta colored top with cream skinny jeans while Luna wore a shirt that expresses her gaming habits to the world and a pair of baggy jeans, oddly enough.

“Afternoon everyone.” Celestia greeted with smile. Luna only waved without a word while Celestia gave her sister a smirk.

Nightlight and Twilight Velvet stood up only to bow at the two casual wearing royals while I waved at them and Twilight just smiled. Jace simply looked over to them and nodded, Celestia looked over to me and raised an eyebrow.

“Don't even, It's hard to explain.” I said, waving my hand around. Her eyes then landed on Blueblood and her mood soured.

“I'm sure you knew what you were doing.” Celestia said to the Prince. The latter nodded while Celestia crossed her arms.

“Then I hope you realized that what you've committed was treason against Equestria’s law of Equality and must be punished.” She said as her eyes shone white. Everything went white for only a second before I saw the aftermath.

“Be grateful that I haven't gone another step and banished you as well, dear nephew.” Celestia said as all eyes were now on the unicorn prince..scratch that, former unicorn.

His horn was gone with no trace of it ever being there.

“You are stripped of your title as Prince as well as your magic, rendering you to an Earth Pony. You are no longer allowed in the palace of Canterlot without an appointment.” She said as everyone saw Blueblood. His reaction wasn't one of horror but one of shame, he'll soon learn the error of his ways.

“Understood, Auntie.” Blueblood said. I saw Jace looked up at Blueblood, nodded, and picked up a big bag. Wait where did the bag come from?

“Where are you going?” I asked him as he was heading towards the door.

“Hospital, I have an appointment and I want time to prepare since there's going to be a lot of screaming.” he said as he went out of the room. I saw Twilight looking at me confused.

“What?” She mouthed. I just shrugged at her. I saw both Celestia and Luna approach me.

“Now, I do hope nopony got hurt during your...purge.” Celestiasaid to me. I looked at her with a serious look.

“The only one's that were the ones that were hired, a band of Mercenaries from Old Canterlot. They wore the uniforms, so it's pretty easy to tell.” I said to her. Celestia only looked at me with a frown before walking towards Twilight.

I walked towards Blueblood before untying him. He stood up as he rubbed his wrists.

“You and I are going to have a little talk.” I said to him, earning a nod from him. We both walked out of the room. I wanted to know how he came into contact with The Talon Company Mercenaries. They wore the same uniforms from way back when and didn't act like other mercenaries from this era.

Jace

I walked towards the Hospital with everything I needed for the operation for Sal. I had a notebook out checking the process of the operation. When I made it to the place I asked the head desk if there was a room in the basement that’s fortified, she said there’s is one and asked why. I told her that there’s something going on and no one should head down there also I told her to send Sal down there when he get’s here.

I made it down to the room and saw it was a bunker. It was big enough for what I have planned and almost strong enough to hold it but with some inforce spells should do the trick. After that was done I started preparing for the operation.

When I finished with setting up the table, bed, and the runes I heard a knock from the door. I looked over and saw Sal standing there.

“You called?” Sal asked. I nodded and stood up.

“Everything is ready, now I know that you may not want to hear this but do you really want to go through with this?” I asked him. He stared at me for a moment and walked towards the bed.

“Let’s get this over with.” He said. I nodded, I turned to walk to the door and closed it and locking it. I placed the last inforce spell on it and headed back on to the table.

“Alright just to let you know that this maybe a simple blood transfusion but it’s going to hurt, a lot and there’s going to be a lot of magic flying around so we’re going to attract every magic user in town and then some, all I want you to do is to think about something to anchor yourself so you don’t lose it.” I told him as I took some embers and begin the spell. Sal laid down in the bed and waited.

I looked down to see the runes begin to glow reddish orange, I walked over to the table and put in some needles into Sal to draw blood out of him and moved around to put in the needles for the beast blood. When that’s finished I took two more embers and crushed them to pour over Sals body. I watched as the blood pour into him, at first nothing happened.

“Uhh you said this was going to hurt and so far nothing-” Then it started to happen, runes lit up all at once and Sal’s body jerked and he began to scream. I watched as his arms claw the bed and at points turn into more beast like and back again. He started to thrash around but I used a binding spell to hold him onto the bed.

I pulled out a small bell and began my chant. His screaming became louder as I continued, I then heard some sort of banging from the door. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the door glow white and blue for a second then died, I shook my head and continued.

Sal began growling a bit as the runes on the ground burst into flames and they went into him. After a few more minutes of him screaming he stopped as the last of the beast blood went into him. I finished my chant and went to the other side to take the needle out. He was breathing slowly but I didn’t take any chances as I reached for my sword.

“Sal… you alright?” I asked him. Slowly he looked over to me and I saw his eyes were glowing embers but turned back to normal.

“Ow.” He muttered out. With a sigh I went to grab some water and helped him sit up to give some to him. He downed it in one go and threw it behind him.

“Well you're still you, that’s good so let see if you can use the ability.” I told him. He looked over at his arm and pushed a button that made it come off. After looking at it he tried to regain his arm with no success. He frowned then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He grunted as his shoulder twitched a bit as a arm shot out of it. He looked at it while opening and closing his hand. He started to laugh.

“My arm… it’s really my arm.” He said as he looked at it.

“Well congratulations, you’re now even harder to kill now.” I told him as I heard the banging from the door. I looked over at it and saw dents in it. “By the way now that you can regenerate your heart and anything else that was replaced with robotics with slowly grow back and will absorbed the metal, so you don’t need to worry about your iron intake.” I joked. He shot me a glare and I sighed, no one understands my jokes.

I turned to the door and waited for a second and opened it. Rainbow, AppleJack, and Pinkie came tumbling in as they were trying to get in. I looked out and saw Steel, Twilight, Tia and Lu and the rest of the mane six there. I waved at them.

“Howdy.” I greeted. Steel walked right in and glared at me.

“What the hell is going on in here!?” Steel shouted. He didn’t look happy at me and I crossed my arms.

“Like I said at the castle I had an operation I had to do and I just finished.” I told him. I looked over at Tia and Lu and nodded to them. “Greetings, it’s nice to meet you.”

They looked at me for a minute as I saw Fluttershy walked into the room. Steel looked beyond pissed off at me but I was used to it.

“I offered to help Sal out and he agreed to it.” I told him. I looked over at Sal and saw that his regeneration was going smoothly, his cybernetic eye was gone and some of the other robotic parts were gone as well, fallen off or absorbed I don’t know. I walked over to him and pulled out a estus flask and handed it to him.

“This will help but mind the taste.” I told him. He eyed it for a second and took it and drank it. He shook his head and looked at it.

“It taste like Sunny D.” He said.

“Huh it tastes like bubbly lemonade to me..” I told him as he handed the flask back. I looked around and saw that Twilight picked up one of the books on the table. I got up and took the book out of her hands.

“Hey!” she said as she glared at me.

“Don't read this book, the others are fine but not this one." I said to her. I put the book into my bag with some other things. I saw Steel talking to Sal with Fluttershy.

“What was that?” I was taken out of my thoughts when someone asked me a question. I looked over to see Tia and Lu looking at me.

“What was what?” I asked them.

"Some time ago we felt some sort of magic, it wasn't like anything we have felt before.” Tia explained to me.

“It felt… old, really old.” Luna also said.

“Oh that, yeah you can call it old magic but really it's just some runes, pyromancy faith, and blood magic.” I explained to them. They frowned at the last part and I pointed at them. “Don't look at me like that I know what I was doing.”Tia didn't look any happier but I didn't blame her since she was the goddess of light and all that.“These runes, what so special about them?” Luna asked. I looked at her for a moment.“Runes are like words and there's a lot of power in words.” I told her as I pulled a book out and handed it to her. “This is the basic starter book for the runes, just keep it out of the hands of Twilight.”I looked over at her and saw her reading a book of arcane from Big Hat Logan. The other two, a book of pyromancy and Faith magic, where gone but I bet she had them.Steel walked up to me, he didn’t look as pissed off than before. I looked at him with a straight look as he shrugged at me.“Not mad at me anymore?” I asked him.

“You helped my brother, I can't be mad at that.” He answered.

“Happy to help.” I said to him. I looked at Sal as he was talking to Shy, he looks genuinely happy for once.

"So what going to happen now Steel?” I asked him.

“I'm sure this would bring him one step closer to be reformed.” Steel said to me.

“Yeah, also just to let you know that you don't have to hold back if he messes up, he’s… well he's now almost un-killable.” I told him.

“Nothing is unkillable, everything has it's ways to make one seem immortal but nothing is unkillable.” Steel said. I stared at him for a minute and snorted, he hasn’t met Annalise.

"That's why I said almost, if the thing was unkillable then Sal would still be a cyborg.” I thought about it and chuckled. “It would also give us hunters a hard time to kill it.”

“Then how did you kill it?” Steel asked. I thought about it for a bit.

“A lot of explosives, fire and luck.” I told him. Steel nodded as Sal and Fluttershy walked towards us.

“Hey I guess I have to send you back, but before that I want to say thanks for everything.” Sal said to me.

“No problem.” I said with a smile.

“Anyway, Jace your services are no longer required.” Sal said. We waited for a few minutes but nothing happened. “Uhh did I do something wrong?”

“Oh right I go by a different phrase, it's ‘Your duties are finished good hunter’." I told him. Sal looked at me and at Steel. Steel shrugged.

“Alright… your duties are finished good hunter.” as soon as he said that mist gathered and made a pathway.

“See you around.” I said to them and walked through the portal back home.

Steel

After the portal closed, I looked over to where the ritual took place, seeing Salvador’s metallic arm and legs before looking at Sal. Seeing a genuine smile had given hope for him, maybe having him back wouldn't be such a pain after all but as long as Talon Company lives, I can't be sure of anything but I'm sure Sal knows what to do.

I felt a pair of arms wrap around me before a chin rest on my shoulder. I turned my head slightly to see Twilight before finally realizing what time it was.

“Crap, I forgot to pick up the girls.” I said out loud. Twilight unwrapped her arms and let me go before giving a quick kiss.

I broke into a full sprint, seeing that I had only three minutes to get to the school before the bell rang. Last time this happened and was only three minutes late, I was punished with non stop pranks by the girls.