Red and Black 2

The 'War Room' was less a set of barracks and more of a glorified manor-sized dining room with ancient maps tacked to the walls. It had little else, save an excessively large table and enough chairs to adequately house the entirety of the guard unit. The only other thing of note was an odd rectangular box, black in color with a button on one side and a camera-lens-looking object sitting smack dab on the other, facing a far wall.

Foxfire strode to the object, but not before everypony sat down. All eyes fell on the glaringly strange device, wondering what it was and where it came from. "Two things," Foxfire began, causing the Task Force and Surgeons to turn to her with curious brows raised. "One, you guys fucked up, plain and simple."

That managed to make Patient and Rekka balk. "H-how?" they asked in unison.

Foxfire turned to the device and her horn glowed, and she stepped aside before turning to the device as her magic pushed the button and held it down. "You'll see shortly," she answered cryptically, and for a few seconds the machine did nothing. But the instant she released her telekinetic hold on the box, it gave a single click and produced a whirring sound before it projected a hologram onto the wall from the lens.

The hologram showed the complete destruction of Asgard from an entire continent over, along with several forms flying away in a hurry. Then the scene shifted violently, as if it were a jostled camera, showing a battalion of unfamiliar faces stationed on a beachfront. Patient could've sworn he saw a changeling, a diamond dog tall enough to look Celestia in the eye, something skeletally thin, a gryphon and two hippogryphs, and what looked like a crystal unicorn amidst the scene at the beachfront.

All of them were armed, but with what he couldn't discern as the view shifted violently to Asgard again. "What the fuck did they do over there?" a masculine voice grumbled indignantly, slightly foreign-sounding but nonetheless irritated. Then the machine clicked again and the hologram faded in the span of a second.

"In case you haven't figured it out yet, let me spell it out for you: you left a whole swath of surviving diseased alicorns behind, with juuust enough time for them to haul ass," Foxfire hissed, a displeased frown forming on her muzzle. She eyed Rekka and Patient specifically. "And one of them came aaaaaall the way to Canterlot and tried making Celestia and Luna marry him and kill anything that WASN'T an alicorn."

"'Tis true, I'm afraid. We told him he wouldn't have his genocidal rampage before Foxfire… gave him a final farewell," Luna piped up, shaking her head as the Surgeons and Task Force all looked to her with paling faces.

Patient closed his eyes for a brief moment before asking, “Sooo, what the hell are we gonna do now? We can’t just break into every building in Equestria to find those remaining alicorns.”

"The Valkyrie Brigade's already taking care of it. They've probably filled all the trees in Manehatten, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare with alicorn heads by now," Foxfire replied, garnering Patient's attention with her utterance. "Unlike the Task Force, which are a bunch of corporals if they were thrown into an army, the Brigade has years of fighting experience. They'll clean up that mess… which brings me to thing number two."

Foxfire gave a heavy sigh and shook her head. "I have to drag your sorry asses to the Changeling Kingdom while the Brigade cleans the leftovers, because reports have been cropping up there left and right lately. We got hybrid alicorns on our hooves, which makes things worse as they could potentially have access to both magics of… whatever they are. Think of Sombra and Chrysalis having a foal…"

Foxfire's words sank in, and everypony gave a collective shudder. She took that as her cue to continue, "Ain't pretty, is it? But wait, there's MORE."

Patient smiled widely in exasperation, and he solemnly nodded. "Of course… why am I not surprised?" he whispered.

“This is fuckin’ insane. Hybrid alicorns?” Trigger asked; he almost was annoyed with how ridiculous this whole situation was becoming. “That can’t be a thing, right?”

Foxfire turned to Trigger and donned a sinister smile that sent chills down his spine. "Really?" she tersely asked. "I'm afraid I beg to differ." Before Trigger could open his mouth to ask what she meant, her horn glowed before cyan will-o'-wisps formed and seized her cloak and immediately burnt it away to nothingness.

What stood in place of a cloak that used to exist made Trigger open his mouth to emit a scream that was so high-pitched it gave the impression of having come from a filly. Ember gaped, and Patient and Distrance balked. Black, hole-riddled legs gave way to a white fluffy barrel, alongside red shoulders and withers. A dark blue carapace and ribcage connected front and hind quarters together, framing a fox mask cutie mark.

The unkempt, wild mane and tail both started out red, but gave way to white tufts that appeared brush-like. Blackened ears swiveled upright, looking more at home on the face of a mule than the creature that stood before them. Surprisingly, the twisted thing before them lacked wings of any sort, but that did little to mask the unsettling reality that had gobsmacked them all in the face.

There was a black and red monstrosity in the room with them. A hybrid black and red monstrosity. And one who could conjure fire magic on a whim.

“And I thought Patient’s berzerk-state was a sign of the end times.” Distrance laughed. “Though, since we kind of are in the end times, we’ll take any allies we can get.”

Foxfire turned to Distrance and smiled at him. "Fortunately for you lot, I'm not like most red and black alicorns in that I have two braincells to rub together, and enough sense to see that if the world ends, so does my existence,” she chirped. "But in the meantime, I've taken to helping curb the plague as best as I am able. Think of it like this: I'm one of the few red and black monsters that can be spared because I've more or less turned over a new leaf."

“Which is why you’re under the employ of the Princesses themselves,” Shining Armor interjected, garnering a series of looks as he spoke. "That, and your circumstances are unique."

Patient turned to Foxfire and raised a brow questioningly. Foxfore shrugged. "Discord, before Luna and Celestia confronted him, had me, a then-regular-changeling, eat a fox and then a foal for breakfast once. He made me merge with that fox and foal after I ate them, through… means I am still trying to make sense of. Oh, and petrification, because that's always fun," Foxfire answered, sighing. "And the fox was naturally red and black before I ate it, thank you kindly."

Foxfire turned to Ember and added, "Besides, you already put up with Tentacles—what's one more monster with a functioning brain to you?"

Rekka slumped in his seat and proceeded to let his face land on the table. "Tragically, she has a point," he conceded.

"So… aside from murder any red and black ponies we find, barring you and I," Ember began slowly, her third eye blinking as she spoke, "what do we do once we hit the Changeling Kingdom?"

Foxfire sighed and swished her fuzzy tail for a few seconds, pursing her lips in contemplation. "That… is a question whose answers escape me. I don't know much about how bad it's gotten over there, partly because I've been holed up here running errands, but if we have another Asgard on our hooves… we'll need to scour for more victims to rehabilitate," she answered. "I only have a smidgen of what the red and black alicorns want, thanks to the one who dropped by making insane demands last night. But only a smidgen, I must stress."

"Sadly, that means we'll very likely have to come up with a plan in the heat of the moment," Foxfire concluded before turning her attention to Shining. "And how is… our new possible recruitee doing?"

“She’s doing better. Still kind of twiggy, though,” Shining replied.

"I'd suggest letting her… I dunno, pack a few pounds before trying to interrogate her. Give her some time to chill and recover and all that, but that's just me," Foxfire stated, turning to Patient again. "So… does heading out tonight sound good, if another alicorn doesn't show up here making demands that make Discord look sane?" she asked.

“Sounds like a plan.” Patient nodded. “We need a bit to get ready, of course, but we should—” he was cut off suddenly by the door to the War Room opening abruptly. What stood beyond and trotted inside with an erect golden phallus surprisingly rivaling that of Ember's length and girth made the group groan collectively.

“I demand that you release Patchouli Knowledge immediately!” a red and black alicorn blundered his way into the room, swinging a golden horn left and right as he did so. The door behind him closed, and he flared golden wings that were big enough to completely cover the entirety of his hind quarters.

"K-Know—" Rekka stammered before he stood up and slammed his front hooves on the table. "Okay, I'm officially calling shenanigans!"

“Yeah, I’m calling bullshit too,” Shining Armor spoke up, pulling a hafted blade from under the table the projector sat on with a flash of magic.

"Answer: no, please die in a hole," Foxfire snarked, looking at the golden-winged twit with fire building around her horn.

“No bullshit,” the alicorn spoke up, fanning his wings indignantly. “She belongs to the people of Asgard, or the survivors of Asgard,” he growled and stared angrily at Patient.

“What do you plan on doing with her?” Luna piped up, rising up and then trotting over until she was standing between the now agitated nurse and the new alicorn.

"There better NOT be unborn foals involved, or I'll ream you like I did Genesis!" Ember cried, standing up with tentacles snapping open as she turned all three eyes on the alicorn.

“Patchouli Knowledge belongs to the Socialist Foalcon Ponies Guild of Asgard. Release her at once, and I won’t have my people besiege Canterlot and steal your mares and foals for ourselves!” the alicorn shouted angrily as several guards burst into the room, all magically wielding halberds.

Rekka's eye started twitching, and Koto reached for her boomerang. Nagare gave a low, guttural growl at the mere notion of the alicorn's proposal; who was he to barge in making inane demands?

Collectively, and with scowls affixed on their faces, Shining, Foxfire, Ember, Rekka and Patient gave a firm and very loud "NO!" that shook the room briefly.

Just like that, Luna nodded to the guards. Before the alicorn could react, he found himself pinned by halberds aplenty, with at least two of them stabbing him in the wings and holding them to the ground. One guard forced the alicorn to lift his ass into the air, and affixed it in placed with a blade hovering behind the alicorn's testes. At least one jabbed him in the ribs, breaking some on impact. Another one pushed its way through the alicorn's spine and out his stomach, spilling blood. "I believe it would be appropriate for the Task Force and Surgeons to carry out your punishment here and now, filthy cur," she hissed to the alicorn.

“By the way,” Patient began, trotting over to the pinned alicorn. “How’s your friend Crimson Charge doing?”

“Y-you know… about him…?” The alicorn coughed up some blood, staining his lips and cheeks. “H-he esc—” more blood was coughed up. “Escaped.”

“Really now? Because last time I saw him, I hung him from the rafters by his own guts.” Patient smiled warmly as Rekka cantered over to the sorry sod in an upright stance with his blaster aimed at his head. Koto and Nagare did likewise, both upright and with weapons poised to strike.

"This Guild you mentioned… did they survive as well?" Rekka asked darkly, stopping just behind the circle of guards where the alicorn could still see him.

“One… d-did… “ the alicorn spoke softly. “Everf-free… F-Forest… Y-you’ll never f-f-find… “

Koto shook her head. "Baka," she said simply, looking at the alicorn with a small, ghoulish grin forming on her muzzle.

"My marefriend has a point," Rekka agreed, sneering at the alicorn. "Now, how did you get here… and what have you been doing to Patchouli?" he asked.

“I'm still wondering how he even got here. Are these bastards learning how to teleport all of a sudden?" Foxfire piped up, cantering past the table to join Rekka and the guards.

"D-doesn't… matter… P-Patchouli… belongs to…" the alicorn began, but paused to cough up more blood. "A-and s-so… t-too will y-your mares and f-foals…"

“You know a colt called Alec Smart?” Patient asked. The alicorn slowly shook his head ‘no’. “You wanna know how he died?” The alicorn's eyes narrowed coldly at Patient, and all he could see of them was a deep red on par with Foxfire's coat. "Well… I'd tell you, but I'm pretty sure he'll tell you once you join him in Tartarus. Princess, would you be a dear…"

Luna nodded, and one of the guards swung the blade of his halberd downwards, chopping into the neck of the alicorn, killing him instantly. Foxfire huffed and turned back to Luna. "Great, now we gotta send a search party…" she scoffed. "You think we could spend a day searching through the bloody forest before heading to the Changeling Kingdom?"

Luna shook her head. "No. I and a platoon of guards will do so ourselves. You already have enough on your plate as it is," she replied solemnly. "It's no use trying to expend energy doing two things at once, unless it revolves around a chained alicorn that you're in the process of interrogating or helping a fallen comrade."

Foxfire nodded in understanding. "Good point." She turned back to the body and eyed up the golden limbs up and down. "Can I keep those? They'd make a good set of pillow-stuffing and dildoes."

"Necrophiliac," Rekka muttered under his breath.

"Let her have her fun. Besides, they seem to be made of solid gold. It could come in handy," Luna piped up.

"Just keep the gold away from me," Ember hissed, causing Patient to turn to her to find a pair of ears pinned back and dilated pupils. "I don't care how shiny and solid gold it is, just keep it awaaaaay."

Foxfire set about using her magic to wrench the feathers, horn, and cock off of the cadaver. The first item came off easily, though oddly the wings didn't bleed as they were plucked clean. Neither did the horn or cock when they were snapped and ripped off, for that matter.

“Really? His dick? That thing ain’t shit.” Trigger puffed air from his lips. Then Foxfire turned around and beheld the three items, and she shook them to be sure. The feathers bent as they would normally after a good jostling, yet the cock didn't flop and flail even as it was waved like a twisted kid's toy. She turned the blunt ends of the horn and disembodied phallus to Trigger, who then gaped upon seeing a distinct lack of flesh, bone, and marrow in places where they should have been present.

"Uh, yeah… that be solid gold. How the hell did he manage this?" Foxfire asked as she made the trinkets vanish in flares of light.

"That's a good question," Rekka agreed with a nod of his head. "But neither here nor there." He turned to Luna and dropped to all fours. "Uh… should we board the train now?"

Luna shook her head. "We wait until tonight to see if more alicorns decide to drop by. If they don't, then you shall depart at twelve," she answered glumly. "Dismissed."

Everypony nodded in agreement and began to wander off, busying themselves with their preparations.

*********

Patient busied himself at the castle’s hospital well into the night, tending to the sleeping Patchouli as best he could; he ordered the castle nurses around, going so far as to demand a hot meal to be prepared and at the ready the very second she woke up. That aggravated the nurses to no end, since he essentially took over her treatment for the remainder of his stay in Canterlot.

Luna walked in to see Patient giving a list of instructions to an obviously flabbergasted nurse, who was having none of it. A cloak-wearing Foxfire trotted in after her a second later, only to sit on her haunches when the nurse Patient was ordering about began exploding in what amounted to a magical surge converted to a fireworks display.

“The doctor can order me around, not some small-town burn nurse,” she angrily snapped, eyes narrowing as she leaned in to glare extra hard at Patient. “Why don’t you sit this one out? From what I hear, you just met this one less than a day ago. You commoners are way too fussy with medical care; you all think you’re deserving of the best! You deserve no better than a starving homeless foal!”

Patient took in some air. “How about you saunter on down back to the fuckin’ palace you were born in and shove that silver spoon up your ass! Unlike you, I actually give half a shit about my goddamn patients, and I won’t settle for anything less than optimal care for any of them! They can be an old homeless stallion, or a young mare who just was rescued from a fuckin’ rape dungeon for all I care, I just want them to actually get some goddamn half-decent fuckin’ medical care!”

His good work-ethic was showing. He saw Luna nod in approval in the corner of his eye.

Foxfire donned a grin. She turned to Luna, only to find her conjuring a popcorn bowl, complete with fresh and warm puffy kernels.

The nurse's eyes seemed to turn colder, and they averted to Patchouli's sleeping form for the briefest of instants. "Maybe she deserved to be in the rape dungeon. If she was really lucky, I'll bet she had some foals here and there," she stated in a low, cold voice that would have frozen the room if it were a palpable force.

Patient wanted to slap her upside the head, but he resisted the urge as he averted his gaze to see Luna and Foxfire watching them intently. “You haughty, arrogant, ignorant fuckin’ bitch! How dare you say such a thing! Get out of my sight before I have a word with your fuckin’ boss!”

He added the last few words with extra vigor, causing his furious voice to boom throughout the room, albeit one that somehow failed to rouse Patchouli from sleep. The red faced nurse simply turned her nose up in arrogance and walked off. It was then that Foxfire took a bundle of popcorn for herself and popped it in her mouth, chewing loudly to signal to Patient that she and Luna were at the ready. That left Patient with his stomach forming into a knot of dread, the all-too-familiar 'it ain't over yet' cramp.

“Fuck…” Patient finished to himself before he turned to Patchouli and sighed.

Using magic, he changed out Patchouli’s I.V. bag and listened as two sets of hooves walked towards him from behind. He did not turn to the source until after the bag was successfully changed, and only then did he find that the nurse returned—having brought with her a unicorn stallion no bigger than Shining Armor.

“Oh what the fuck now?” Patient groaned. “I told your employee that I could handle Patchouli’s care from—” the doctor raised a hoof.

“The nurse says you snapped at her out of the blue and called her a whore,” the doctor deadpanned.

Patient shot daggers from his eyes to the other nurse, who wore a shit-eating grin. Slowly, he turned his gaze over to Luna and Foxy, who he just noticed were there, still munching on some popcorn with amused grins.

“Did either of you see what happened?” the doctor asked.

Slowly, Foxfire nodded. "Your nurse is a lying sack of elephant shit," she snarked. "And she suggested that Patchouli be raped until she has a foal."

The doctor sighed and quietly muttered: “I fuckin’ hate this place…”

He simply walked out, the now ashamed nurse who trailed behind and gave Patient a death-stare.

“Such bullshit,” Patient muttered to himself as he grabbed a nearby hairbrush from the patient-table and began to run it through Patchouli’s hair comfortingly. He stopped when a low, weak moan hit his ears, and blinked as Patchouli shifted a little. Yet still she didn't wake up.

“Your dedication to your patients’ well being is impressive,” Luna started, walking over to the nurse. “I wish I could say the same for the medical staff here.”

“It’s whatever. I at least got them to back off,” Patient replied, continuing to brush Patchouli’s mane.

“Indeed. Pray tell, may I look inside your mind?” Luna asked.

“What?”

“I’ve been working on a spell to peer into the memories of ponies, in the same vein as Dreamwalking, but this can be taken place while the subject is awake,” Luna elaborated. "Of course, it's still in the testing phase… and I need a volunteer."

“Uhh… sure? What are you gonna look at?” Patient nervously asked.

“I wish to view the events of what you saw during your ‘cleansing’ of Asgard,” Luna replied. Seeing Patient flinch, she reassuringly added, “I understand your anxiety, I will only look at that day, and nothing else. Besides, I usually pry secrets from my subjects from their dreams, anyways.”

Patient took a long, painful sigh. “Alright. Let’s do it.”

Luna’s horn glew and Patient could feel his eyes roll back into his head. He saw blackness, but remembered the events he took part in perfectly. The beatings, the killings, his rage, all of it. Minutes passed as he was forced to relive the sheer slaughter of Asgard, all before it culminated in him looking out of the window just in time to see violet and roiling flames.

His vision swam back into focus, with Luna’s expression grim.

He didn’t regret a thing he did.

“I see… “ Luna began. “Your brutalization of those communitarians. What you did to their leader. Your rage. Your hatred for their ideology. And that raw, finely focused power... that wasn't your own for once." She turned to regard Patchouli's snoozing form. "I saw it all. Heard it all. Felt it all."

“I don’t regret a thing,” Patient responded.

“Typical,” Foxfire chimed in before she heartily laughed.

“Tell me, I’m only curious. Why do you have such a deep hatred for involuntary communitarianism based around the preservation of the state?” Luna asked.

“I think you just answered your own question,” Patient mumbled.

“But that’s monarchism, to a degree, and you obviously don’t hate me or my sister, let alone Cadence or Twilight, who I hear you are good friends with.”

“That’s because you’re not incompetent or corrupt, or obnoxious,” Patient smirked.

“That is true,” Luna mused. “Now that I think about it, I think I know of something you can use in your upcoming battles.”

“What’s that?”

“Come with me, to the armory.”

"I'll get somepony more competent around here to watch Patchy in the meantime," Foxfire piped up as Luna trotted out of the room, leading Patient away.

*********

Even in the dead of night, the armory was loud and bustling. Endless patrols of guard squads marched throughout the many halls and stacks of wooden crates; each area filled to the brim with the highest quality of weaponry and armor that only royalty could afford. Weapons of every size and shape hung on the walls, and sets of armor were put on stands.

Patient was lead past a gigantic pyramid of artillery shells and was shown to Trigger and Distrance, who were eyeing up and fiddling around with an unloaded Maxim gun. Ember was decked out in a steel set of armor resembling that of a knight's that was forged with an open back to give her tentacles and rocks plenty of space. With said tentacles she was juggling a sword, a spear, a hammer, and a wicked scythe. She took to eyeing them like she couldn't decide which one to keep.

“Holy shit Patient!” Trigger piped up, noticing his friend with the Princess. “Dude, Dis and I are gonna be using a fuckin’ machine gun!”

"I have the strange and inexplicable urge to charge onto a large bridge and stage a fight upon it…" Ember remarked, her gaze lingering upon the weapons.

“Hot damn,” was all that Patient could remark at the spectacle of “killy-gubbinz”.

“Come, your chosen wargear lies further on,” Luna beckoned.

The two pressed further on, and into a section marked for the highest quality of armor and weapon sets. Gods only knew what kind of masters of smithing could create such protective gear and pointy sticks. Eventually, Luna lead Patient to another guard, standing before a smaller wooden crate; he was holding a crowbar with magic. Luna gave the guard a nod, and he pulled the crate open, revealing its contents.

Inside the crate was armor, painted all red. It covered much of the torso and shoulders of its wearer, and the helmet, while somewhat open in the face, bore wings on either side; they resembled the horns of a demon. The crate also held a bardiche, whose blade was so shiny and new that Patient could see his gaping reflection in it.

“Try it on,” Luna urged.

Patient didn’t hesitate; he fitted the armor over his torso, making sure the leather straps were nice and snug, yet able to give him enough room to move around. He held his fanciful axe with magic and took a few practice swings, chopping at the wooden crate they came from. Finally, he pulled the helmet over his head; it was a little heavy, but he could manage. All in all, the armor was perfect; maybe a bit too big for him, but he could use the breathing room.

“I love it.” Patient grinned.

Luna smiled back. "Not too overbearing on your withers, is it?" she asked. Her smile widened when Patient shook his head. "Excellent."