Somewhere over Canterlot
Cloud Runner, AKA Tempest

“Tempest to Warlord, south side of the city is clear.” I said as I finished my dash over the south end of Canterlot. From below the gloss-black coating on my new set of human-issued Mjolnir must have been invisible, entirely indistinguishable from the night sky.

“Copy that Tempest we’ll… Wait, stand by.”

Whatever had interrupted Constellation came quickly, she barely had a second to tell me to wait before disappearing from the comms. “Uh, Warlord? What’s going on?”

Yet instead of the old mare returning to the radio, a new call came in on our band. “This is Commander Comet, ESF Polaris Squad. Canterlot Castle is under attack and the perimeter has been breached, we need support!”

I didn’t wait to kick in my armor’s thrusters and rolled to point at the castle. To my surprise it was entirely dark, lit only by the flashes of rifles and other energy weapons across its dark facade. “Tempest to Northern Guard, converge on the castle!”

“Cloud, what’s going on?” Constellation called, likely hearing the last half of my radio call.

“It’s game time Consti.” I curtly replied. “Now go tell Dusk that it’s time to go to war.”

***

Meanwhile, back at the Grotto…
Archer

After what felt like an eternity I was finally back in that familiar smoke-filled room… But looking around I noticed something rather important.

There was no smoke, simply the image of Dusk standing and watching me. “So now you know…” He said.

“Yup, Kovac is a psychopath that has seemingly unlimited resources and an unknown number of robotic lackeys. What else is new?”

“Well I wish I could debate you on this, but I can’t. Kovac is making his move as we speak. We’re out of time.”

Well that’s just peachy, isn’t it? “I take it that he brought his toy soldiers with him?”

Dusk nodded. “Cloud won’t be able to hold them off for long so you need to move. Now go, stop Kovac!”

In the blink of an eye I found myself slumped down against the wall of Dusk’s armory, having ditched that smoke-filled ‘room’ that I’d become rather familiar with over the last few days. “Damn… How long was I out?” I mumbled as I got to my feet. However long ago I ended up going for this ‘visit’ probably isn’t all that important with a mad one-eyed stallion running amok. By the time I was grabbing a rifle off the rack, a group of armored ponies was already of the same mind as they rushed in to grab their own weapons.

“So have any of you heard what’s going on?” One of the soldiers asked.

The apparent leader of the group shook his head as I watched from outside their periphery. “I know it has something to do with Kovac but that’s about it.”

“Great, so more end of the world bullshit!”

“Can it Claybar, you know the drill. Get the guns, hit the hangar and then we roll out. Doesn’t matter where Kovac is, we’ll just bring the hurt right to him.”

By then I decided that I had heard enough, and decided to head for the hangar where this response to Kovac was gathering. Given the power armor and some obscenely large guns, I could take a wild guess at the expected plan.

Chew bubblegum. Kick ass. Maybe get some sort of chopper involved. The point here is that Kovac will suffer immensely for whatever he was up to. Finding Dusk was easy enough, as he was standing at the bottom of a sloop’s ramp with Constellation as they poured over a tablet. “-and you said Polaris Squad put out the call for reinforcements?”

Constellation nodded. “You got it. And that was the last we heard from our agents that were in the city.”

Dusk suddenly took notice of my presence and cracked a smile. “You ready to go bust some heads Archer?”

I nodded as Dusk led me up into the passenger compartment of the sloop. “As ready as I could hope to be.”

“Good, at least one of us is…” Dusk muttered as he took a seat by the door. “So far Kovac hasn’t set off the Havoc, so we at least have that going for us.”

“Then level with me Dusk.” I said as soldiers began marching up the boarding ramp and into the compartment. “What do we have going for us?”

***

Canterlot Castle
Meteor Shower

“What the hell do you mean we’ve got nothing?!?”

“I mean exactly what I said General.” Comet spat in retort to my own harsh lines. “We have no communications, no reinforcements, no intel, nothing. We’re fucked!”

“I’ll second that.” A human called out as he rushed into the war room.

“Commander Tremble, where the hell have you been?” I asked.

“Dealing with our visitors. Only had a chance to break off once Tempest showed up.”

“Tempest… Cloud Runner is in play?” I muttered, turning to the holotable at the center of the room. “That means somepony must know that something happening up here.”

“I would assume it must be the UNSC. Apparently Admiral Osman personally reequipped him, but that’s not why I’m here.” The commander said as he plugged a small chip into the side of the holotable. After a few seconds a still from his helmet’s camera rose up from the table’s surface. “Crossbow engaged this guy right here, along with an entourage of his robots.”

Personally I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Son of a bitch… That’s Kovac.”

“You know him?”

“Knew him, and thought that he was dead.” I replied. “We all thought that Dusk killed him during Operation Scorpion.”

“Well, you see what he’s carrying?” Tremble asked, pointing at the silver cylinder that was in Kovac’s hand, with a green LED strip shining brightly on both ends of it.

I studied it for a moment, and a feeling of dread slowly washed over me. “Please tell me that isn’t what I think it is.”

“I wish I could…” Tremble muttered. “He’s got a Havoc warhead, and it’s armed.”

“Wait, he’s got a nuke?!” One of the guards yelled in surprise.

“Does the man need to repeat himself? Yes, the crazy unicorn has a nuke!” Comet yelled.

“But how the hell did he get it?” I asked. “It’s not like we have any nuclear warheads in our arsenal, and Osman’s own records of equipment transfers to the Enclave didn’t list anything remotely as destructive as a Havoc…” For a moment I stopped to think. About a week ago these synths first made their appearance at an old property of mine, Manehattan Wire. And if the intelligence reports have been accurate, some force had been establishing site security there for the better part of the last two years. “Unless somepony else had one.”

“What?” Commander Tremble asked.

“You heard me. What if somepony else had one of these warheads?” I retorted. But as I was going on, I began putting some of the pieces together. Admiral Osman had already reequipped Cloud Runner… Furthermore she’s been a near constant presence here on Equis for the better part of the last decade. I had until now wrote it off as an attempt to atone for her actions during the war, but one important tidbit of information finally clicked into place.

And on all of those visits that I had run into her, there was one pony that was always with her.

“Dusk…” I muttered. “That warhead was his.”

“Uh… What?” Comet exclaimed, echoing the sentiment of confusion that was circulating around the warroom.

“Don’t you get it? Kovac went after Dusk first, during that party at Blueblood’s. He was upset, Specter showed up, who I might add has been reported as dead for eight years, and then Cosmo cornered him… Dusk knew that Kovac wasn’t dead. He’s been waiting for him to make a move and if my hunch is correct he hid the last quantum mirror in Manehattan Wire, probably hoping to define the eventual engagement.”
“But where does the warhead come in?” Comet asked.

I glanced at Tremble and nodded. “You know a lot more about these things than we do. Aren’t they variable yield?”

The aging human nodded. “If memory serves, you could get the detonation yield down into the kiloton range.”

“So you could level the factory without causing extensive damage outside of the site boundary. You could either engage Kovac and use the nuke as a last-ditch solution, or simply confirm his presence and use it to off him without putting others at risk.” I couldn’t help but feel somewhat impressed. “You know, if we weren’t dealing with a weapon of mass destruction I’d probably consider giving Dusk a medal for creativity…”

“We are dealing with a WMD, so put a pin in that idea.” Tremble curtly replied. “Now what do we do about this Kovac guy? Better yet why would he bring a nuke into Canterlot?”

“Well if he’s trying to off the Princesses, he’s in the wrong place… Tia and Luna are in the Griffon Kingdom for a trade summit. Maybe it’s some sort of payback for the loss we dealt him… Wait, Don, where did you run into Kovac again?”

“Ground floor foyer, solar wing of the palace. Why?”

“Right next to the entrance… What if he intends to take that thing down to the Nexus?”

“You mean that cave with all the freaki-deeki magic-” Comet stopped on the spot, obviously seeing where I was going. “Oh shit. Uh, didn’t we try to measure the energy that pit was putting out?”

I nodded, glancing quickly around the room before returning my attention to the two Special Forces commanders. “We did. Fried the instruments, but we got enough data to try to find an equivalent in energy output…”

“And if I remember correctly that data was very similar to readings that the UNSC took of protostars.”

“Right. A very unstable and unpredictable protostar…”

Now Commander Tremble was starting to look concerned. “So how bad is it going to get if this Kovac guy detonates that Havoc down there?”

All I could do was shrug. “At bare minimum he could take this entire mountain and turn it into a mile deep crater…”

“Well that’s definitely not good.”

“And at worst he could create an explosion on par with a nova that could wipe out a sizable chunk of the solar system.”

Hearing that made Tremble’s face turn from a dull shade to near bone white. “My god…”

Well now I definitely have to say something. “Allow me to make it perfectly clear. It doesn’t matter where we run to or where we hide. So long as anyone is on this mountain, there’s a damn good chance that they’ll end up dead.”

“Alright… Then what do we do?”

“General, I’ve got radar contacts!” One of the guards called out.

***

Somewhere over Canterlot
Dusk

“Commander, our screens up here just lit up.” The pilot called out over the intercom. “We’ve got a radar lock. Looks like the city’s short range sensors are still up and running.”

Just the short range, eh? Looks like Kovac didn’t think that jamming them was worth the effort… “Canterlot Control, this is Alpha One. Can anyone hear me?”

For a short moment my radio was filled with static, but that immediately died when someone picked up a transmitter on the other end of my call. “Dusk, you motherfucking son of a fucking bitch!”

“Ah, Commander Tremble… How you been?”

“How have I been? I just ran into your buddy with that nuke of yours. You tell me how I’ve been!”

“Oh, joy… Kovac is there. Did one of you at least off him?”

Whatever was going on in the war room, Don was clearly taken away from the transmitter. “Dusk, it’s Meteor… Where are you?”

“Inbound with air support and reinforcements, we’re just looking for a place to touch down.”

“So I can take it then that you were also responsible for those airstrikes on the factory a few days ago?”

“Well if it involved robots toting laser rifles and gratuitous use of high explosive ordinance, then yes.” I admitted.

For a moment there was silence, likely Gramps trying to maintain some level of self control as all hell broke loose around him. “Alright, let's get down to business. We need to secure the castle, then we worry about Kovac. What exactly can you do to help?”

“Well I’ve got four sloops ready to drop a full company of my marines, with another making the march up to the castle on foot. The lead elements of those units are at least fifteen minutes from the city limits as of right-”

“Hang on!” The pilot suddenly shouted as the sloop banked hard to the left, sending me tumbling to the floor from my seat.

“Dusk, what just happened?”

“I don’t know, what’s with the evasive maneuvers?” I asked as I got to my feet, directing the question at the pilot who was now broadcasting over my channel.

“Group of drop pods sir. I didn’t see them until they were almost on top of us.”

“Drop pods? From where?”

“No clue sir, but they touched down in the palace garden. I’m already seeing flashes up here. Whoever it is, they’ve been engaged.”

“Gramps, you catch that? I’m thinking that’s our landing zone.”

“Damn right I did. I’ll send Crossbow and Polaris.”

“Alright you bunch of pansies, you know the deal!” I shouted as the forward hatch slid open behind me. “That garden is our door. Now let's go kick it off it’s fucking hinges!” Turning around I could see that the pilot was already well on the way to putting the sloop on the ground. I could see three drop pods that had crashed down into the courtyard, and it was very evident that a small team was exchanging fire with laser rifle-toting robots. As the bay light turned green and I hopped out onto the grass below, I quickly recognized one of the soldiers clad in silver and red armor.

“Captain, looks like backup is here!” One of the Spartans shouted over the din of his rifle.

I slid down next to the drop-pod hatch that Palmer’s team was using for cover. “Hey Palmer, fancy seeing you here. So who are your friends?”

I would assume that Palmer was doing a double-take under her helmet. “I thought that your armor was roasted?”

“Oh, that was the old set.” I said as I got to my knee to peer over the top of the wreckage-turned-barricade. “Osman’s been pretty good to me, so getting a new set wasn’t that much trouble.”

“Call me crazy, but I doubt that all Serin gave you was that suit of armor.” One of Palmer’s teammates, a tall Spartan clad in blue heavily built armor pointed out.

“Well I don’t really have factories to supply my army, and Osman must still REALLY feel bad about helping out West Wind.” I said as I ducked back down behind the cover. By now the first platoon of Marines was already on the ground, and Archer had joined the four of us armored titans behind the main piece of material that was protecting us from the blue laser pulses that were being hurled towards us.

“So what’s the plan?” Archer asked as she gave her pistol a quick visual once-over.

I shrugged, unclipped a grenade from my belt, armed it and tossed it blindly over our barricade. “Well-”

BOOM!

“-we were just getting to that.” I quickly glanced over at Palmer. “You’ve been on the ground longer. Any thoughts?”

“Fred, you’ve been doing all the shooting.” Palmer said, deflecting the question on to tall, blue and brooding. “What do you think?”

As the tall Spartan ducked down I finally saw the black and blue logo on the collar of his chestplate. A bird of prey under a star, with a roman numeral for ‘2’ in the bottom right corner. “From the looks of it those things are focusing on whatever is a threat. If I’m shooting, they’re all focused on me. If there’s two of us, they split their fire.”

“What if they’re distracted?” Archer offered. “If their backs are turned we might be able to get to the castle without getting shot at.”

I would ask if Archer was volunteering to test her obviously shaky theory, most sane ponies wouldn’t take that risk. Also of note, most sane ponies aren’t walking tanks. “Alright, I’ll draw their fire. You four keep me covered!”

“Dusk, wait!”

As if it was something shocking I ended up ignoring Archer’s plea and vaulted over the chunk of drop pod that was blocking the synth’s shots. A handful of those blue beams of blazing-hot light slammed and died against my armor’s shielding, but they did nothing to stop my dash towards the castle. What did successfully stop me was a massive impact on my left side that sent me flying across the open garden and into the castle walls that surrounded it. In the split second it took for me to come to my senses there was already a mechanical-looking maw reaching to clamp down on my head.

“Oh shit!” I yelled, grasping both parts of the maw and holding it open as it slowly advanced around my head. “I could use some help over here!”

“And didn’t I tell you to wait?!” Archer yelled back from outside my periphery, likely duking it out with some of the rather numerous (and annoying) robotic soldiers.

All while this was going on, a faint orange glow lit up in the mechanical maw, and I quickly figured out what was coming next. “You did and in hindsight I probably should’ve. Now if you could just help me, that would be great. I’d rather not turn out extra crispy!”

Over the sound of thuds and gunshots, I did manage to make out a groan from Archer. “Too bad Dusk, you’re on your own!”

With that, one option came to mind… And like when you think you’re being watched I had a sinking feeling that something was amiss. As I started dropping down to my knees that feeling not only became worse, but became more clear as I saw the synth-dragon’s maw start to rapidly slam shut.

CRACK!

Even though my horn was armored the maw of the mechanical dragon seemed to ignore that, and I felt a searing pain along the upper quarter of my horn preceding that fateful sound of bone and armor cracking. But through that rather intense distraction I realized that I had to do SOMETHING, and on instinct I unhooked my pistol from my thigh, clicked off the safety and stuck the end of the firearm into the exposed side of the Synth-Dragon’s jaw.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three bullets flying at near supersonic velocity tend to do plenty of damage, especially at point blank. This time was no exception as they cut through the alloys that made up the dragon’s jaw and sent it clattering to the ground and leaving the now dismembered joint sparking, all while the dragon fell backwards and crashed into the ground.

“Dusk, are you alright?!” Archer yelled as she finally ran over and helped me get to my feet.

At first I didn’t say anything, but tried to remove my helmet. That didn’t go far, as the moment I tugged on it the entire length of my horn started crying out in agonizing pain. “Honestly? I don’t know.” As I finally looked around the courtyard I saw plenty of synths now in pieces on the ground. “Well… I guess you weren’t messing around.” I said as I took notice of the copious amounts of grease that coated Archer’s gauntlets.

“You didn’t really leave me with much of a choice.” Archer countered as she turned and started walking for the shattered door that led to the interior of the castle. “Now are you coming? We still have work to do.”

***

Canterlot Castle Interior, ten minutes later
Archer

Actually navigating through the castle was a lot worse than I would have expected. Guards had haphazardly thrown up tables as makeshift barricades, there was still the occasional synth milling about, and there were plenty of dead and wounded guards that we kept coming across. But even with all of the broken treasures, blood and iron, there was no sign of Kovac…

“Dusk, over here!” A familiar voice called out, and as the two of us found ourselves in a trashed foyer, I quickly realized from the gaping hole that occupied the same space as a previously hidden door that we were running short on time. Off to the side of the door was my father, kneeling down next to a pony that I had long considered an uncle. “Help me find the helmet release!”

I stayed back to give the two ponies space, and Dusk quickly had Cloud Runner’s helmet off and clattering across the floor. “Cloud, what happened?”

“What do you think?” He groaned as he struggled to get to his feet, using both my father and Dusk for leverage. “Kovac steamrolled us. Again!”

“Well then where’s the rest of Polaris team?” Dad asked.

Cloud shrugged. “Well I know for a fact that Private Fletcher is right there.” He said, pointing at a pile of ash in the far corner of the room. “As for Comet and the others, I’ve got no idea.”

Suddenly something lit up on Dusk’s arm, and he lifted it up to read what was showing up on the tac pad that was built into the armor. “Oh no…”

“What is it?” Dad asked.

“Cosmo, you need to start evacuating the castle. Hell evacuate the city if you can.” Dusk said, all while he dropped the partially-used magazine out of his pistol and slid in a fresh one. “Kovac just armed the warhead.”

“Oh fuck…”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!” I said, shoving past the two older stallions and into the old passageway.

“Archer, wait!” I heard Dad yell after me, but I ignored him. Kovac had armed a weapon of mass destruction, and dealing with that was a hell of a lot more important than whatever pleading my father was going to try and lather on.

Bounding down the stone stairs, it only took a few seconds to finally reach the wide-open Nexus chamber. At the bottom I saw Kovac, with the Havoc warhead at his feet, standing with his back to me as he stared at the pool that marked the center of the chamber. I did the only sensible thing and drew my weapon, aiming it right at the back of the franken-unicorn’s head. “Step away from the warhead and put your hands up!” I shouted.

Dusk was immediately at my side, having swung his rifle off his back at some point between the foyer and the Nexus chamber. “You heard the mare Kovac, now do it!”

Now I may be crazy, but I don’t think that either I or Dusk was prepared for what we saw when Kovac turned around. His eyes… His eyes, they were pitch black. “It doesn’t matter now Dusk. All is as it’s supposed to be.” He said, slowly raising his hand towards the two of us.

BANG!

Dusk’s aim turned out to be spot on, punching a hole through Kovac’s head under his horn, sending him falling down into the pool. “Uh… What the hell was that?” I asked after a few tense moments of silence.

“I have no idea.” Dusk said, swinging his rifle back onto his back and marching over to the Havoc warhead. Kneeling down he turned it over and I heard him sigh. “Shit…”

“What is it?” I asked as I walked over.

Dusk got out of the way so I could see the countdown timer. “We’ve got less than two minutes until this thing vaporizes the castle, possibly the entire planet.”

“Could we get it to a Pelican and have it flown out of the city?” I suggested.

Dusk shook his head. “Not in time to get it to a safe distance…” He finally seemed to come to a conclusion, and started tugging at his helmet.

“What are you-”

CRAAACK!

“Agh!” Dusk shouted as his helmet jolted upwards as it tore free of his head…

“By Celestia’s beard…” Along with half of his horn, leaving Dusk bleeding and clearly pained.

He tossed his helmet to the ground, and shook his head to clear some of blood from his face. “Archer, you need to go.” Dusk insisted.

“What?!”

“You’re not a unicorn. There’s no way you can even try to contain this blast.”

“And you think that you can?” I countered, pointing out the chunks of his horn that were missing.

“I’m the best chance we’ve got kid.” Dusk said while he casted a small inverted shield around the warhead. He seemed pained, for rather obvious reasons, as he poured more and more magic into the barrier. “Now get going.”

“But Dusk-”

“I SAID GO!”

There was no changing Dusk’s mind. As I turned to run I realized that I knew exactly where this change came from. Dusk had figured out that he was going to die, no matter what he did. Somehow, some way, he resigned himself to his fate. Clearing the top of the passage I saw Meteor Shower finally entering the foyer. “Move, move, move!” I screamed.

The assorted Guards and Operators didn’t need any explanation and tore off into the hallway. But as I ran, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. One of the Solar Guards, dragging himself along the ground, one of his legs clearly broken. I stopped and wheeled around, scooping up the wounded soldier. “Archer, what are you-”

“Don’t stop!” I yelled, practically hobbling as I dragged the soldier along. But suddenly I felt the ground shake, and I knew exactly what that meant.

“ARCHER!” I heard my father yell.

At that point I started running on autopilot as everything seemed to slow down around me. Turning my head I saw a cloud of black smoke and dust making it’s way down the corridor towards me. Instead of just dropping the soldier I tossed him to the ground and threw myself on top of him, clenching my eyes shut as I waited for the inevitable.

***

Canterlot Castle, Eighteen Hours Later
Archer

The better part of the last day feels like a blur. Go here, answer some mundane question, go there and answer some more. It feels like I’ve been room to room overnight answering questions of some of these military brass type, at one point even getting into a grilling territory. Even the Princesses had their time with me, but of every single pony I had sat down with through the night and well into this afternoon the questions were all the same. What happened? Who was Kovac? Where did the nuke come from? How long have I know about the nuke? Why did Dusk stay behind? What do I know about the Nexus?

I broke off right after daybreak and visited the collapsed portion of the castle, now a pile of rubble and a hole in the side of the mountain, only for Blueblood to find me and inadvertently deliver me right back into the hands of Equestrian Intelligence, specifically some stallion going by Trigger. That one was the last meeting I had, and while the questions were the same I think that this Colonel could tell I was burnt out and cut me loose. He said something about me not being any use to him if I passed out. But I didn’t pay much attention, and instead found my way to some dining hall dedicated for the castle’s guard detachment. For some reason the cook didn’t question what some soot-coated mare was doing in a clearly restricted-access part of the castle, but he ended up whipping up a simple hayburger and sitting me down in the far corner where he could see me.

“Why?” I heard somepony ask as I finished the first half of my burger.

I looked up and saw a earth pony standing over me, clad in blue hospital scrubs while he supported his weight on a cane. “Excuse me?”

“Why did you save me?”

It took a few seconds but I finally put two and two together. “I’m sorry, where are my manners?” I said, getting up and pulling the chair opposite of me out for the stallion. “I’m Archer by the way.”

As I sat back down I noticed that the stallion nodded. “I know… I’ve been hearing your name around the barracks for hours. But why? Why stop to help me?”

“Well… What was your name again?”

“Oh, uh, Mahan.”

“Well Mahan… I don’t know.” I admitted. “I just… I saw you trying to drag yourself along the ground and something just clicked. I couldn’t just leave you.”

“But you don’t even know me. Hell, you’re not even one of us. What made you even think of stopping?”

“Like I said, I don’t know.” I replied. “This last week has been insane for me by any measure. If you came to me at the start of this whole crazy ride I would’ve thought you were crazy to suggest that a simple interview would devolve into shooting, death, destruction and somehow fit in a nuclear warhead.”

Mahan slowly nodded. “That sounds…”

“Different?”

“For lack of a better word, yes. Yes it does.” Mahan replied. “So… Do you want to talk about it?”

“You know what? Why the hell not.” I admitted. “Sit back and relax Mahan, because we’re gonna be here for a while.”

***

Location Unknown…
???

Watching the images on the wall I could tell that I had done it now. The red-haired alicorn had her back to me as she watched. There was Dusk, a pony that for my entire life I had been told was off-limits, just about to die as his shield around a nuclear weapon began to fail, only for me to teleport in, take over the shield and toss him through the destabilized nexus portal that had opened as a result of the explosion as black ash blasted out from the barely intact shield. “How many times did I tell you that Dusk was off limits?” The Alicorn matron asked.

“Honestly I’ve lost track.” I admitted, staring down at the ground to avoid the goddesses’ gaze. It’s not like I hadn’t lost track. Faust had practically drilled that into me nearly every day of my life for as long as I could remember… And in the span of thirty seconds I threw all of that out the window to break her single golden rule.

I had never actually done something this stupid before, but as Faust put her hand on my shoulder I looked up and saw that same soft smile that I had grown to know very well. “Good job.”

I couldn’t believe what I just heard. “Uh… What?”

“I said good job.” Faust replied.

“You’re not mad?” I asked, still confused.

“I raised two mares that now rule over a country. In my experience the use of reverse psychology tends to help me get exactly what I need.”

I still couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but what I began to put together is that I had been tricked. Manipulated. Bamboozled. They all fit the bill, and no number of adjectives could really help me feel any better. Oh no, it was doing a fine job of pissing me off. “So you’ve lied to me for years… There better be a damn good explanation for this.”

“Oh there is Dawn.” Faust assured me. “Now then… I think it’s high time I tell you about your parents.”

Author's Note

IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!

The first chapter in Reflections. After many months of drafting and planning, the ball is finally rolling on the next story in the Mirrorverse. As this goes on you'll all eventually see how much of a chess game that the entire story of Dusk has been, and it's a chess game well beyond his control. There will be multiverse! There will be plenty of that wonderful pew pew to go around! Ancient History will be uncovered! There's even a literal heart-stopping moment or two! Maybe we'll even figure out why am I using so many exclamation points! All of that in more in newest installment to the Mirrorverse!

Get in on the Mirrorverse Discord here!

Anyone got questions? Like what you're seeing so far? Hell, maybe have some gripes? There's a comment section and the Mirrorverse Codex. Read and comment away, because I want to hear from you fellow denizens of this corner of the internet. Until next time gang!
-Striker