A Man In A Mask

"What in the wide, wide, world of Gaia were you doing in such a..." asked Rarity as she worked on Claus’ suit, which consisted of black dress pants with a black leather belt, a black tailcoat, a white dress shirt, a crimson bow tie, black gloves, and black dress shoes, pausing as she tried to find the right word. "...combative outfit on such an elegant occasion as this? I mean, is that lightning weapon really necessary? It's not like we're at war. And, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you become a cyborg?”

"Well, I didn't have time to get into a tux before Shining Armor beat me in that fluke," replied Claus cooly. "As far as the lightning sword goes, I have a funny feeling that I'm going to be needing it before the engaged couple are declared stallion and mare. And honestly, I’d prefer to keep how I got my cybernetics to myself, thank you very much."

"You really should work on your manners, you know. Language like that most certainly will not impress any of the Lords and Ladies at the wedding," said Rarity as she finished up with Claus bow tie.

"And I would care what those stuck-up rich ponies would say because...?" asked Claus.

Rarity gasped in shock. "'Stuck-up rich ponies?’ I'll have you know, sir, that I have many Carousel Boutiques all over Equestria, and my largest store and corporate headquarters in Ponyville rakes in over 17,000 bits a day, so don't you go referring to ponies like me as 'stuck-up!'" snapped Rarity.

"Whoa, sounds like I just hit a nerve big time," said Claus with a smirk.

"I'll say. I could hear you two screaming all the way down in the throne room, and that makes supervising the decoré exceedingly difficult."

Claus and Rarity looked towards the doorway to find a pink alicorn princess wearing a maroon dress, high heels, and a small golden tiara on her head.

“And… what are you, exactly? A cyborg monkey?” the pink princess asked.

Claus sighed and smacked his forehead in frustration. “Okay, that is getting really old, really fast. I’m a Chimera and/or a cyborg, and my name is Claus. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Chys-” said Claus before he gave a false cough. “Sorry about that, milady. As I was saying, pleasure to make your acquaintance, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,” Claus finished, giving a low bow.

Mi Amore Cadenza stared at Claus for quite some time. “Yeah, sure, nice to meet you too, now run along and do cyborg-y things. I need to get ready for my fitting,” she said.

“As you wish, my qu-er, my princess,” said Claus, before he climbed off of the platform and left the room, Mi Amore Cadenza watching him go with every stride.

Although the Princess’s face showed no emotion, her mind was racing. That cyborg, Chimera, or whatever he is… he knows something about my plan… maybe this won’t be as easy as I thought… then again, I truly wish I didn’t have to do this in the first place… but, what choice do I have? Besides, the big machine can’t be stopped, as the wheels have already started to turn, thought Cadenza as a pang of guilt ran through her.

“Princess? Are you ready to begin?” asked Rarity.

“Whuh? Oh, um, yes.”

…

A short while later, Claus, clad in his regular uniform once again, entered the throne room and saw Twilight Sparkle talking to a tall white alicorn with a flowing mane and tail of green, blue, and pink wearing a beautiful golden dress with matching heels and a golden tiara with a matching crown.

“I don’t know about this, Princess. I mean, I know it’s been a few years since I needed to be foalsat, but I didn’t think Cadence could change so much in so little time,” said Twilight.

“I understand your concern my faithful student. Truth be told, my niece HAS been acting a little short and bossy ever since the threat against Canterlot surfaced,” admitted Princess Celestia. “But, then again, it could just be exhaustion from the wedding preparations.”

“It might be, and it might not,” said Claus. “I don’t think Cadence’s recent behavior and the timing of this threat are just a coincidence.”

Celestia and Twilight turned around to look at Claus. “You must be that new arrival that Shining Armor told me about,” said Celestia.

“Yes, I am. Name’s Claus Ryuka,” said Claus got down on one knee before Celestia, who turned bright red. True, she was the monarch of Equestria, but it always made her feel uncomfortable.

“Er, you can get up now,” said Celestia. Claus stood and Celestia continued talking. “Shining Armor also told me about how you suspect Princess Mi Amore Cadenza of being the one behind the plot against Canterlot.”

“What?!” said Twilight, looking from her mentor to Claus in shock. “Cadence may be acting like a big jerk as of late, but to say that she’s the one behind the threat to Canterlot… it’s just not possible.”

Claus chuckled and shook his head. “Like brother, like sister. That was actually how your brother took that little bombshell. I’m telling you two, it all adds up. I mean, don’t you find the timing just a little bit suspicious?” he asked.

“What I find suspicious is the timing of your arrival and the timing of the threat. Maybe Applejack is right, maybe YOU’RE the one behind the threat,” said Twilight.

“I can assure that I’m not the one behind this,” Claus said sternly. “In any case, I want to have a word with Rainbow Dash. Do you know where I can find her?”

“She’s on patrol, I’m afraid. She usually doesn’t get back until dusk, after which she usually heads down to the training yard and practices late into the night.She won’t let anything stand in her way of becoming the best. An admirable trait, in Luna’s eyes at least,” said Celestia.

“Well, then, perhaps she’d like a sparring partner tonight,” said Claus before turning on his heel and walking away.

…

Later that evening, we find Rainbow Dash out in the training yard, practicing her swordplay skills with a group of enchanted training dummies.

“All righty, now… let’s get to work,” said Rainbow as she put on her helmet and stepped into the center of the training ring, thus activating the training dummies. The dummies’ eyes lit up with magical energy as they focused their attention on Rainbow.

With a smirk, Rainbow lunged forward, pulling out her sword and attempting to impale one of the dummies, only for it to jump backwards out of the way. Rainbow blocked a swing from one of the dummies before kicking it in the stomach, giving her enough of an opening to stab it through what would’ve been a throat on an actual pony.

1 down. Five more to go Dashie, thought Rainbow as she turned to the others. She grinned as she swiftly moved through the dummies, their straw and fabric innards spilling onto the ground before finally there was only one. This particular dummy has been giving her more trouble than any of the others… mostly because she happened to have been assigned to the only dummy that adapted to a fighting style for becoming Lieutenant.

“READY FOR A REMATCH?” The dummy asked as it took a stance.

“Always,” said Rainbow.

And with that, Rainbow shot like a bullet towards the dummy, which barely ducked in time to avoid the Pegasus’s strike.

“YOU’LL HAVE TO DO BETTER THAN THAT!” taunted the dummy.

“Oh, don’t worry, I will,” said Rainbow, before she looped back around and flew up towards the ceiling, and out of the dummy’s sight.

“Hmm… running away? But-” said the dummy before Rainbow’s sword was rammed directly through the top of its head, cutting its sentence short.

“And that’s all she wrote!” said Rainbow, taking off her helmet and wiping the sweat off her forehead before making her way towards the water bucket. However, she stopped short at what sounded like applause. Turning around like lightning with her sword ready to strike, Rainbow discovered that it was Claus who was standing behind her, an interested look on his face.

“Well, I can safely say that I’m actually impressed with your skill, Rainbow,” he said. “And from my perspective, that’s saying something.”

“Oh yeah?” asked Rainbow, lowering her sword and raising an eyebrow. “And what perspective is that exactly?”

“Well, Miss Dash, that would be the perspective of someone else who’s been a part of a military force before,” Claus said casually while Rainbow rolled her eyes in disbelief. “Actually, that reminds me. Why did you choose the Royal Guard over the Wonderbolts? That seems a bit odd for you.”

“Well…” said Rainbow, thinking Claus’ question over. “Tell you what. If you beat me in a sparring match, with a real sword instead of that lightning one you’ve got, I might tell you why.”

“Sounds fair enough. What if, by some miracle, I lose?” asked Claus.

“Then it’ll be you who spills the beans. You’ll tell me where you came from, how you got your cybernetics, and most importantly, how the Tartarus do you know all of our names.”

Claus smirked. “You’re on. Where’s the swords?”

Rainbow jerked her thumb over her shoulder. Moments later, Claus and Rainbow Dash were in the practice ring, their swords ready to clash.

“So… when you were in this army of yours… what was your rank?” asked Rainbow.

“I wasn’t really anything special, truth be told, I was just... the Commander,” said Claus.

“Like Tartarus you were,” Rainbow said disbelievingly. “You, a full-fledged Commander when you look hardly any older than me? Don’t make me laugh.”

“Well, I had certain skills that the big boss was looking for, so naturally he made me his right-hand man,” said Claus.

“Well, then let’s see those skills in action, shall we?” said Rainbow before she slashed her sword at Claus, who blocked the attack before kicking Rainbow in the chest, knocking her backwards. Rainbow sprung off her back foot and used her wings to attempt to deliver an aerial strike, which Claus was able to block at the cost of causing him to stagger a bit.

As Celestia’s sun began to sink lower and lower, and Luna’s moon rose higher and higher, the two warriors continued to fight, neither gaining a decisive advantage over the other. Until, finally, an elbow to the face from Claus caused Rainbow to stagger a little, allowing the young Chimera to knock the sword from her hand before literally sweeping the Lieutenant off her hooves. Claus then placed his foot on Rainbow’s chest, keeping her pinned down while he aimed his sword directly at her throat.

“Do you yield?” asked Claus.

After a moment of trying and failing to get Claus’ boot off of her and recover her sword, Rainbow finally muttered, “Yes.”

“Good,” said Claus, removing his foot and offering his robotic hand to help Rainbow Dash up. “Now, start talking. Why did you choose the Royal Guard over the Wonderbolts?”

Rainbow sighed in defeat. “My mother was Captain of The Wonderbolts prior to Shitfire, and was probably one of the best Wonderbolts in recent memory before she died from cancer,” she began to explain. “So, the pressure was on me from day one to live up to the family legacy and follow in her hoofprints. And I really, really wanted to. I couldn’t stop thinking about being as great, if not better than, my mother. I even swore it on her grave. Finally, about six years ago, I was finally offered the chance to attend the Wonderbolt Academy and make my mother proud.”

“And let me guess, you totally choked, didn’t you?” said Claus.

“Yep.”

“Okay… still not seeing why you hate the Wonderbolts, though,” said Claus.

“I hate them because they rubbed my face in my failure,” said Rainbow. “They told me my mother would be rolling over in her grave at the sight of my performance, amongst other things. After that, I joined up with the Royal Guard, and one thing led to another, and that was that.”

“Wow… the Wonderbolts in this dimension are total assholes… how could they say something like that?” asked Claus.

“Pretty easily apparently,” said Rainbow, before giving a loud yawn. “Look, I’m tired, so I think I’ll hit the hay. I suggest you do the same, we’ve got the wedding rehearsal tomorrow morning. Good night, Commander Claus.”

“Night, Lieutenant Rainbow Dash,” said Claus.

And with that, Rainbow and Claus turned and went… but not before looking over their shoulders at each other… neither of them aware that they were being watched.

…

The following morning, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza stretched as she climbed out of bed. Last night had been interesting in so many ways. That Claus character certainly knew his way around a sword… it was almost a shame that it was nothing more than a trick to ensure the wellbeing of her kind. However, one needs to crack a few eggs to make an omelet.

“Speaking of... breakfast sounds good about now.” Mi Amore said to herself as she headed downstairs to the Dining Hall, where she heard the others talking and laughing together. Once she reached the door, she flung it open. “Hello everypony,” she said, causing Claus to look up.

“Ah, so the sleepyhead finally wakes up,” said Claus, munching on an omelet while Mi Amore Cadenza sat down at the table.

“Well, with the big day tomorrow, I’m going to need all the sleep I can get,” said Mi Amore. “So... someone mind telling me what the cyborg is doing here?”

“Well, Shining Armor invited me down for breakfast so that way he could keep a better eye on me, and also so we could discuss the security details for your wedding, what with this threat to Canterlot and all,” explained Claus.

“Oh, is that so? I was under the impression that my fiance's shield spell would keep out anyone who had ill intentions against Equestria,” said Mi Amore with a skeptic look at Claus.

“So did I,” said Shining Armor. “But, Claus here seems to be under the impression that the enemy may actually already be in Canterlot, waiting for the opportunity to carry out their plot.”

“And what makes him say that?”

“Call it… intuition,” Claus said, a smirk on his face. “Now, then, where is Twilight and her crew of merry mares?”

“They should be coming here soon,” said Shining as he looked outside. “Rainbow’s a bit… obsessive about being on time.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it started back when she was still just a recruit in the military. One time, Rainbow overslept and was over two hours late to her training station. After she got her ass chewed out by her CO, she found herself enduring some… cruel and unusual punishment.”

“And that would be…?” asked Claus.

“Take off her clothes and do sit ups until told otherwise... she kept at it until night fall.”

“Holy hell.”

At that moment, Rainbow, Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Spike, and Pinkie entered the breakfast room.

“Whew, made it just in time,” said Rainbow, checking her watch.

“Good. With everypony here we can start talking about plans for the wedding,” said Shining Armor.

As the ponies, dragon, and Chimera talked about what the plan was for the wedding rehearsal later that afternoon, Mi Amore kept casting looks at Claus, and Claus did the same to her. Both of them knew that the other was a major threat that needed to be dealt with if either her plan or Equestria’s peace was to make it through this wedding in one piece.

I’ll have to snag him while he’s sleeping. That way, he won’t be able to stop my plans and ruin my kind’s hopes of survival, Mi Amore thought to herself.

Knowing Chrysalis, she’s probably planning to attack me in my sleep when I can’t fight back, thought Claus. I’ll need to be on my guard tonight, maybe work out or something.

In the end, both Mi Amore and Claus knew that when the wedding bells started to ring, there were going to be some fireworks… and only one of them would be left standing.