What if: The Justice Ponies

Elemental and Galaxy finally made it to the Canterlot Castle. Although Galaxy had some time accepting the fact that he was back, a part of him was kinda glad that he was back. It just took a little time getting used to.

On the walk there Galaxy Dust had looked around quite a bit, surprised at how much had changed during his absence. While he had expected things to change, actually seeing it still took him aback. Even so, he was still rather careful. He’d be surprised if anypony actually recognized him, but a stallion his height and posture was still bound to catch the attention of others. His head hung lower than usual to make himself look smaller.

While heading to the base, a familiar voice caught Elemental’s attention and said “Long time no see, Ruby”.

Elemental turned around to see…...Jenny 10. Elemental was rather surprised when she saw Jenny. She hugged her and noticed that she had brought Luchador with her.

“I see that you completed your objective. Galaxy, this is my friend Jenny 10 but just call her Jenny. She’s a robot”.

Galaxy simply averted his gaze. “Nice to make your acquaintance” he said stiffly.

Luchador trotted over to Galaxy. “It’s an honor to meet you, amigo,” he said as he bowed his head.

“Nice to meet you too, I suppose” the taller stallion muttered.

“Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he speaks a little bit of Spanish where he comes from” Jenny explained.

Galaxy rolled his eyes. “I think we all noticed”.

Then all of a sudden, another familiar voice popped up behind Galaxy and said “Aww, you started the party without me?”

Jenny and Elemental turn to see….it was Wolf-Spider!

Meanwhile, Steel gazed around at his temporary quarters, an eyebrow slightly raised under his cowl. It was surprisingly spartan, with only a bed, a simple dresser, and a bedside table. As a matter of fact, it reminded him of the barracks when he had been in the Corps. However, someone had clearly done their homework and provided him with a worktable, an armor stand, and a weapon cabinet.

“Huh. Not bad,” he mused, setting his duffel bags on the bed, “Not bad at all. I’d have preferred a cloud bed, but those are pretty darn expensive.”

Making sure the door was locked, he took off his cowl and let it hang from the umbilical that ran from the power/life support unit on his back to the faceplate. He wiped the sweat from his brow and reached back to close the valve that fed oxygen to his respirator.

“Note to self,” he muttered, fanning his face with a wing, “Figure out how to cool the cowl.”

Without the vocal scrambler active, The Spectacular Steel Renegade was just an average-looking thestral with a mildly gruff, but otherwise pleasant, voice. With the cowl on, he was the terror of the underworld, the bane of criminals. With it off? He was just Thunderhead: the unemployed veteran who lived in a wagon in the abandoned lot at 3806 Dill Avenue.

He unzipped one of his bags and took out one of his relatively few external weapons. It was a slim, carbine with a powerful sight and a silencer screwed onto the end. It was a heavily modified version of the SKS he had used during his time in the Marines.

It often came as a surprise to ponies when they learned that he not only used firearms, but he also used live ammo. However, after his disastrous attempt to take down the Last Laugh without killing anypony, he had decided to stop giving a buck and kill if necessary. It hadn’t exactly made him popular with the FPD, but most of the civvies seemed to understand that a pony had to do what a pony had to do.

He gazed out the window of his room at Canterlot as he field-stripped the Stalliongradian carbine. Given his sudden departure, and his general inability to see long distances after wearing his cowl for extended periods of time due to fogging, he hadn’t actually seen the city. He’d spent plenty of time in the city during his time in the service, but never in the castle’s lodging wing. He’d only ever been stationed outside the throne room as an honorary guard to “Princess Luna” at night, and even then it had been before he’d been re-assigned to a combat unit. In reality however the throne room had always been empty during his shifts, what with Luna being in the moon at the time. By the Luna had returned, and the guards were actually NECESSARY, he’d been retired for years.

Canterlot was spectacular to him, not just because of its splendor, but also because of what it was beneath its exterior. It was one of the very few virtually crime-free cities in Equestria. The only other two he knew of were Ponyville and Vanhoover.

He sighed wistfully and allowed himself to fantasize about a crime-free Fillydelphia. A Fillydelphia where he was no longer needed, and he could perhaps spend the time he now spent fighting gangbangers pursuing something a little more pleasant than justice…

He shook his head and re-assembled his gun. If he didn’t get his head out of the clouds and back into the game, there wouldn’t be a Fillydelphia to purge of crime.

With renewed energy, he stuffed his cowl back on and headed out. As long as he was in Canterlot, the hub of all Equestria’s military power, he had a few errands to run.

Wolf-Spider walked up to Jenny and Elemental with a smile on his face. “Sorry it took so long. I had to go get a few ponies. Galaxy, Elemental, Jenny, Luchador, meet Steel Renegade and The Crimson Colt”

Steel, clad in a brand new suit of Lunar Guard Special Operations kit, nodded to Jenny, Luchador, and Elemental. “Nice to meet you all.” His gas mask hissed as the filters purged themselves and he held out a hoof to Galaxy.

Galaxy Dust carefully accepted and shook hooves. “To repeat my earlier words: Nice to make your acquaintance,” he said in a rather monotone voice. He looked at the ponies around him, towering over most of them. He then looked away, feeling out of place between all these special ponies.

Steel cocked his head, then smiled under his mask.

“Brawl likes you,” he said mildly, pulling out his rifle and taking out the clip. “Says you have an air of potential about you.”

Galaxy raised an eyebrow at the device the pony was holding. “What’s….” he hesitated “What’s that?” he said, pointing at the firearm.

But before Steel could say anything else, one of the royal guards ran up to them, exhausted and said “Thank Celestia, I’ve found you all. There’s a problem. Princess Celestia is in a coma! She’s at the hospital, over there!”

Steel looked over at the guard, his mask’s glaring scarlet eyepieces boring into him. “Does she have a guard contingent?”

“No…...she’s….dying….without her magic, her life support is fading slowly!”

Steel groaned. “Did you consider an arcana siphon? Or maybe a thaumic regeneration matrix?”

“NO!...this is bigger than that. I’ve seen it. That...thing took her horn...and is controlling my brother, Fly-Boy,” Elemental stopped Steel.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t try,” Steel growled, “Remember: I was in the military. I’ve seen unicorns lose their horns before. Now with a mage of Celestia's caliber a simple thaumic regenerator might not do too much, but it’ll buy us time. Maybe as much as a few days.”

“Alright, everypony. This is where we fight. I’ve got a call that the creature is in Ponyville right now. So, here’s the plan. Steel Renegade, and Galaxy. You two will take on this thing and me and Elemental will take it in. Got it?” Wolf-Spider explained.

Galaxy twitched. “No, not really. I’m not entirely sure how I’m supposed to fight a creature that stole Celestia’s magic. At least not head on like you describe it.”

Steel’s eyes glittered at the prospect of getting back into the military game. “How do you want to do this? HALO insertion? Drop pods? Subterranean infiltration?”

“My girlfriend, Twilight Sparkle, built a special container for us to capture this thing. It’ll be defenseless. Galaxy, you are not Celestia. You are you. This thing doesn’t know what you’re capable of. It will be the perfect surprise attack”.

“I suppose. How does it work exactly?” The taller stallion asked.

“Easy, You push this button and make sure you’re close to the virus and it will do the rest”

Galaxy looked at the device. “If you say so” he said, taking it from the other pony.

“We are Equestria’s last hope against this thing…..let’s go!”

To Be Continued......