Strength Beyond Strength

The sound of soldiers roaming across the the campsite outside his tent reminded Chris of how many times he'd done this same routine before. Some nefarious individual would orchestrate a B.O.W attack, and the BSAA would be called in to clean up the resulting disaster. Years of this song and dance left him with many memories and regrets to go over in his mind. All he could hope for now was to get this over with quickly so he could return home. The later it got into the night, the heavier his eyes grew. Soon enough, regardless of the commotion, he would collapse into his sleeping bag and be consumed by his subconscious for at least a few hours. He would be thankful for what rest he could attain. The closer he got to that border, the more he found himself remembering something Leon described about a month prior.

"Let me get this straight; you're telling me you had a vivid nightmare about magical talking horses?"

"What was really strange about it was how I was holding conversations with them through the entire night."

"And you ended up killing them all?"

"The way it was explained to me, they'd somehow been reincarnated time after time to commit some kind of atrocity or another. They needed me there to finish the job and break the cycle."

"Guess it's something to think about at least. That's where the responsibility part of possessing power comes in."

"Yeah..."

The images of their conversation eventually subsided from his mind. He began thinking back to Sheva's comments on his capabilities as a fighter. What kind of damage would he have been forced to inflict had it been him in the dream instead of Leon? Would he have been able to do it at all? It was disheartening to believe more than one world was being destroyed; even worse, to believe what was destroying the other world may be even more frightening.

"Something worse than Raccoon City, huh...?"

Chris closed his eyes, drifting out of consciousness bit by bit. The world soon went dark.

When Chris opened his eyes, he felt a slow, cold chill. The bluish-gray sky staring back at him marked the beginning of his confusion. He sat up only to be greeted by the sight of a cliff edge.

"What is this place?"

He quickly stood up and a scanned around the perimeter. There were no signs of life.

"Either someone's playing a prank on me or I've been abducted. But, why leave me out here?"

Chris thought for a moment. He couldn't be far from camp, right?

"Oh well. No sense wasting time."

Chris walked away from the cliff.

There's no telling how much time passed before Chris found his way to a nearby town.

"Is this like the Los Illuminados incident?"

Indeed, the buildings resembled some of Leon's descriptions mentioned in his report.

"What's the Los Illuminados incident," a female voice asked from nearby.

Chris quickly turned around and drew his gun.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you."

Looking closer, he saw a purple figure in a baby blue hoodie.

"What are you," he asked.

"I'm a pony. I know what you are too...Chris."

"How do you...!?"

"I assumed. You know someone named Leon, right?"

"I do. So this is the world he was talking about before."

"Did he tell you who I am?"

"He told me you were dead."

"He was always tense. I guess death was something he was used to seeing."

Chris lowered his weapon.

"What's your name?"

"Twilight Sparkle."

"Pretty mellow name for a serial killer."

Twilight's breath for that moment reflected the severity of her defeat.

"Ex-serial killer."

"Ex?"

"I'd really rather not talk about this in public. Can you follow me?"

"Why should I trust you?"

"Because I remember everything; every act of evil that ever emanated from our hooves and claws."

"How can I be sure you forgot?"

"Because the killing isn't the only thing I recall. There's so much more than I realized."

"More?"

"Please; I really don't want to say here."

"Alright."

Chris holstered his gun and began walking behind Twilight. If necessary, he could make a quick escape.

"What's all this about?"

"Now we understand why everything kept going wrong."

"Why?"

"There was no balance."

"Meaning...?"

"Every action is supposed to have a reaction, but that wasn't true here. Sure, we suffered consequences, but they only served us until we died of natural causes. After that, everything started all over again. It was one event of travesty after another."

"Is that why you needed Leon?"

"He was the first one capable of doing anything. To counter our unrestrained killing mentality, someone of virtue with pure intentions needed to stop us. Without knowing we could be put out of our misery, we were doomed to repeat the system of pain over and over. Just ask Rarity and Rainbow Dash."

"What happened to them?"

"In a previous life, Rainbow suffered severe physical and psychological abuse from her romantic partner. Rarity lost her sister in a timeline before that."

"I'm sorry..."

"For what?"

"Me and Leon are supposed to protect people. If we'd been here in time, we would've tried to help."

"I know you would've. Don't blame yourself. It couldn't have been helped."

"I know what it's like to face my inner demons. It's been a hard battle from day one."

"What matters is we can live normal lives now; aside from the PTSD."

One of the castle doors opened, revealing a humanoid dragon-like figure.

"Hey, Spike."

"Hey, Twilight."

"So that's Spike."

"He's all the family I've really got in this forsaken place."

"I'm detecting a bit of bitterness."

"Aren't you about the zombie thing?"

"I am, but you have to make a choice. You can sit here and be pissed off for the rest of your life, or you can make a positive change with the knowledge you've gained."

"Easy for you to say. You're a big muscle man who uses his limbs to solve problems."

A shrill scream suddenly rang out across town.

"That sounded like a filly!"

Chris immediately started bolting out of the castle.

"Come on! We've gotta' help!"