I turned to the voice and was forced to pause. In front of me sat a thrice-damned amazon. She was tall enough to match my seven-foot body, with black hair cropped short in a pixie cut. Scars marred her face in a criss-cross that looked like she lost a fight to a Beyblade with razor blades taped to it. All this would be acceptable if it wasn't for the blue and white dress that clashed horribly with her whole warrior-goddess aesthetic. I raised an eyebrow as she stood up from her prone position and looked down. "Oh fuck you and your jokes you zebra looking asshole." She dusted it off and turned around, looking at me and Sunset with a raised eyebrow, before turning to me. "So, I take it your the charity case I'm supposed to help for the asshole who gave me some stuff?"

I nodded. "It would appear so."

Sunset was less calm. "Oh Buck no, I am noponies charity case. I'll let Duty do it since he owes me, but I'm considering us square after that stunt with the weird thing he passed to the mare in the cloak."

I shrugged. "No luck there young one. I promised you a guide, so until you decide to return to Equestria you're stuck with me. I am many things. Most of them are horrible, but a liar is not on that list."

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine whatever, but I fail to see how we're her charity case."

The woman scoffed and shook her head. "You ain't my charity case Sunny. He is." She pointed to me. "He's apparently a case like mine, who don't know anything about his situation. So Trader grabbed me to teach him a few things." She grumbled and looked around. "Not that I had much choice." She sighed and cupped her head in her hands for a moment before sighing. "Either way, I'm being rude." She extended a hand. "Spartan - 1865, Alice. Reporting for duty."

I looked at her dress again and sniggered. "Shit, when I asked for backup didn't think they'd send a Spartan." I may not remember a ton about my past, but I played enough Halo to get some quotes stuck in my head. Probably incorrectly, but still.

She groaned as I shook her hand. "I've heard that a thousand times, which leads us into our first lesson." She broke the handshake and smiled. "How many folks do you think ended up displaced like us?"

I tilted my head at her. "Like us?"

She laughed. "Oh come on now, I can read you like a book. You were at a con right. Dressed to the nines as something or another and bought just the perfect thing from the Merchant, then suddenly. " She smacked her fist into her open palm. "Wham bam thank you, ma'am, you're in Equestria talking to pastel ponies."

I nodded slowly. "Yes, that covers the basic way I arrived. It's been a frak-fest ever since. Fighting daemons, making friends, and killing fools for ten years as I tried to find a way home. Until I couldn't."

Alice nodded and walked up, moving an arm around me. "Well, that's about everyone's story. Or at least a rough version. But there's a cubic butt-load of us, and we can visit." She moved her arm off me and began slapping her sides until she pulled a small object from a pocket. A dog tag. It had a blue holographic interface. She tossed it underhand, letting me catch it, and hear her voice as if she was whispering in my ear. "I am Alice, the Spartan of the Badlands. For those seeking solace from overwhelming odds, call on me. I shall give to the hopeless a final hope. And to aggressors a swift and brutal death."

I stared at it and looked to her. Before narrowing my eyes. "Explain your warpcraft. Quickly." I rested a hand on my blade and she raised her hands.

"Hey, cool it chief." She then paused before her eyes widened. "Oh shit, I know what you are now." I stared, tapping the grip of my chainsword with obvious impatience. She kept talking. "Your an honest to God Space Marine huh? Sweet, you could probably take me, I don't have all your not so fun upgrades. Anyways, I'll fill you in before you chop me up like a sushi dinner. That right there is a token. Any displaced can make them with a bit of effort. Once you throw one out other displaced get 'em, and you'll get theirs. A real nice trade in my mind."

I smiled wide, that was a hell of an early Christmas gift. "Well then, we should cover that as soon as we have a spare moment." I moved my hand from my chainsword to offer a handshake. "Crucius Marx, last champion of the Terran Elms." She took my hand and shook it before we broke apart.

Sunset spoke up at that. "As nice as all that is I have a question." I turned to her and she had her arms crossed, looking between us with a bit. Alice nodded to her and Sunset gave her a thankful nod. "You said he was a space marine. I may have read a few things about him in some..." She paused a moment, shuffling her feet. "less than appropriate books. I know he's from some bucked up place, but you two act like your from the same place. And this is where I'm having an issue." She pointed a finger at me and Alice interchangeably. "She said she's a Spartan, which is never mentioned in any of his stories." She paled a bit as she thought on it. "And there were a lot of things in his stories."

I sighed. "Well, I was hoping to keep this kinda under wraps, but I suppose I should come clean to the young one." I peeked at Alice, who was rather obviously concealing giggles. I flipped her off before continuing. "I guess you could say that I never told the full truth of my past." I took a deep breath. "I do not lie, I have said that before. But I am... protective of my past. The world Crucius Marx is from is not my own." Sunset stared at me as I began tapping my thigh with my index finger. "I just got his form. I fell into it once I started having to fight daemons, and the rest fell into place. Before all that though." I spread my arms wide. "I was from a place very similar to this, and because of that you have lucked out young one." I smiled at her. "Because I know how to get a good place to stay. So c'mon. We need to go house hunting."

Sunset growled a little at my non-answer, but seemed satisfied enough. Alice shrugged and nodded. "Yeah, since I'm stuck here for a while I'll help out." she looked me over. "Hey, you know the social ladder here?"

I shook my head as I stood up, working my hardest not to limp. "Not in the slightest. But I figure all else fails, I'm an immigrant. Any faux pas can be easily forgiven."

I hoisted my bag back to my shoulders and began walking off. Alice fell into step behind me while Sunset slowly walked beside me. "So what's the plan?" She looked to the tall buildings behind us as I made my way to the smaller buildings on the opposite side of the statue. Sunset looked between the two sides of the city. "Hey, shouldn't we head to the city?"

I shook my head. "No, that way will only have either expensive housing that we don't need or cheap housing that we don't want." I tilted my head towards the smaller buildings. "Meanwhile, the area with smaller buildings means it's city outskirts. There we can get more space, for cheaper prices. More bang for your buck as it were."

Alice giggled behind me. "I do really like things that go bang. So I'm all for that plan Marxie."

I stared at her as I began walking, and felt myself falling into the normal half limp I got used to when using a prosthetic. "Did you really just call me Marxie?"

She shrugged. "What? I like nicknames, and it's less annoying and silly than Duty."

Sunset scoffed. "Hey, not my fault that M-my mentor put that on his stupid plinth." I grimaced another m slip-up. I was starting to guess at the relationship between Celestia and Sunset. And it was one that I had desperately been hoping to avoid. I looked to the horizon and ignored it. It was like a battle, burn the bridge after you cross it, not before. Alice spoke up as we walked. "So you got the statue treatment huh?"

I nodded as I followed the path to a sidewalk, and began the walk away from Canterlot high. Alice followed behind me silently for a moment before airing her thoughts. "Were you awake for it?" I nodded again, and she gave a sharp intake of breath. "How long?"

I sighed as I watched a car roar past, and even Sunsets quick retreat behind me from it's roaring engine didn't make me smile. "Three-thousand years." Alice paused, and I felt Sunset freeze behind me. I shrugged. "It wasn't as bad as it could have been. Mentally Space Marines can kind of shut down. It's supposed to be used for healing, but it has been recorded as being used for suspended animation. I just made sure to set my internal alarm clock for every hundred years or so. Wanted to make sure I was awake around the time everything went to pot." I glanced to Sunset. "Honestly young one, you lucked out a bit. I had been awake for about a week when you trotted up. I was about to conk out for another six years or so."

I looked down the street and pointed towards a small police station down the street. "There, cops always know where to find a house."

We made our way down the street in silence for a moment before Sunset spoke up. "So... what were you petrified for?"

I sighed and felt my limp get a bit more pronounced for a moment. Just a nervous tick I had acquired when I first lost my foot. I had ditched it a little after I moved from Earth. I guess with the change in body and prosthetics I could ignore it. Now the feeling of absence was there. Like a ghost supporting me despite the impossibility of it. I ignored it and decided to answer. "For trusting someone I thought was family." She was silent at that and left me to my musings.

***

My blade sent a shower of sparks as it revved across the necrodermis rib of Trazyn, pushing him back a few inches as our melee continued. He raised a staff upwards, and I rolled to the left. I felt wind bite against my back as his staff narrowly missed me, and came to a stand a few feet away. I raised my pistol as he lowered his staff. I fired a shot as he gave a wide swing of his staff. His staff grazing my armor across my gut, and my shot cracking into his skull. The elongated skull jerked back, as the rest of his body followed. I charged forward, intent not to let him rise again. I hacked and slashed with my chainsword. Sparks and bones flew from his prone form until it began to fade in a ghastly green glow. I wanted him to be repairing for centuries, stuck in stasis until the freaking heat-death of the sun.

I was hunched over Trazyn's prone form as it faded into nothing, heaving breaths escaping as I tried to calm my frantically beating heart. I stood slowly, holstering my pistol. I winced and moved my gauntlet over to the area where his staff made contact. I looked at it, grimacing at the red liquid that slipped between my fingers. I flicked the blood off my gauntlet and tried to center myself fully. I winced as I straightened my back to stand tall, instead of bent in pain. I Ignored it as I looked behind me. The shield Luna and Celestia had erected around the area of my little duel held strong, though I could still see cracks and tears where the whirlwind of attacks I had traded etched their mark. The daemons outside the shield were frozen, staring at us in fear. Celestia and Luna had held Trazyn while I whittled down their ranks, and now I stood tall after defeating him. Three creatures who could stand against their king simply waiting, and standing tall.

I tapped the side of my head in a gesture to both young alicorns, trying to figure out if it was safe to speak. I heard Luna speak from behind me. "Thou can speak, knight of ours. Our shield hast hidden our voice well."

I nodded and flicked my chainsword, flecks of metal flying off it. "Then we need a plan." I turned to them and they both blanched when the saw me. I refused to ask why, if only to avoid going into shock. "First up I need a patch job on my armor." Another lance of pain jolted through my body, as my hand went to my gut again. "And maybe something to heal me."

The shield lost it's dark blue tint as Luna approached slowly. Her horn glowed brightly as she flashed me a cheeky grin. "Really, and thou hast always made certain your view on our so-called warpcraft." But the horn still sent a spear of energy that fed my HUD with a sudden stream of messages. I ignored them as the pain in my stomach faded, and the black carapace reported that my internal organs were now fully repaired.

I composed myself as Luna walked up and investigated chest piece. "Thou hast managed to protect thine runic arrays. The damage should repair itself shortly." She sent a few pulses of power into my armor, which lowered the red flashing chest piece in the corner of my sight to a small yellow glow.

I grabbed my pistol and calmly reloaded it. "Thank you, sister." I looked at Celestia, the strain of holding up the shield beginning to show through her mask. I spoke loudly, to make sure she could hear me. "And excellent work on the shield sister." I saw her flinch at that, but she was always awkward about my use of familial ties with those I trusted. I moved towards the daemons and smiled as the stepped back even through the shield. "But the time for shields has passed." I revved my blade, so sure of our inevitable victory. I pointed the blade towards the gates of Tartarus glowing with hellfire in the distance. The shield fell as I ran forward. "NOW LET YOUR BLADE DO THE WORK!"

Author's Note

I lost a finger. Last two chapter were written on hella painkillers. I am both proud and horrified at this fact.