Hours have passed since Krieg disappeared after hearing the message from the device that Ocellus currently have in her hooves, the crusaders and Big Mac have left as well leaving the students, Spike, and Bad Maw in the castle. The Nomad was still recovering from Krieg's heavy punch that almost broke Bad Maw's ribs, he was lucky that he's resilient to some damages.

Since it seems to be getting dark already Spike had allowed them to stay over night since it's a long walk over to the school, the students were actually glad since the whole Badass Krieg thing was an emotionally draining moment.

And it also looks like that their teachers are gone and since the attack on the Crystal Empire was so sudden, the school didn't get any substitutes, and it was the least of their problems with the bandits making their presence known.

So here Ocellus was in one of the guest rooms of the castle, trying to figure out the device that Krieg seems to be familiar with, as she was so deeply focused on the Echo, an orange claw had been placed on her shoulder, she let out a high pitched scream and nearly threw the device at the owner of the hand.

"Ocellus!" Smolder held up her claws in defense, with the dragon was Gallus and Bad Maw.

"S-Smolder, I'm very sorry!" Ocellus quickly spoke. "You guys scared me for a second-"

"Is it true?" The dragon asked. "Are you really going...psycho?"

The changeling glances at Bad Maw before staring at her friend, she remembered what Bad Maw had said, keep your friends close. "How much did he tell you?"

"Bad Maw says you were seeing things," Gallus spoke. "if that's the case, I think you should tell us everything."

"He didn't tell you about Krieg?"

The two stared at her with confusion. "What do you mean?" Gallus asked the changeling.

"Hold up!" Bad Maw raised his cloth covered hoof in the air. "Ocellus, you can tell your friends everything about lord Krieg, but we need to put you on top of the priority list."

The changeling looks away. "I- Y-you're right...they can find out later..."

"Is it serious?" Gallus questions. "The whole 'psycho' thing I mean."

"No, maybe, I don't know! It has been a while since my first...hallucination, but sometimes I hear things, like someone breathing heavily down my neck."

"Jeez, that does sounds bad." Smolder commented.

"T-thats not all, I keep catching moving shadows from the corner of my eyes and when I try to look at it they just vanish."

"Ocellus, it's all in your head," The dragon reassures her. "just end the day and go to bed, the experience you've had from the city is obviously the cause of your hallucination, just go to sleep and it'll be all okay in the morning."

Ocellus smiled, feeling less stressful from her friend's word, but she was still worried about the other orange dragon. "But what about Krieg? Did anyone check on him?"

"Lord Krieg is fine, your friend Silverstream had found him pulling grass out of the ground by the forest a few minutes ago, seems like finding out that Sanctuary is gone has really hit him hard, especially after he met that Celestia pony." Bad Maw spoke.

"I see...guess I'll just go to sleep..."

Gallus grew a smile on his face. "Yeah, and you better tell us everything when you wake up, because big guy here has his lip shut."

The changeling let out an adorable giggle. "Yeah, I should."

"When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother 'What will I be?'"

Baron Flynt hears the deranged cult leader sing as he walks towards the mare's location with the purple Eridian ring that the bandits was sent to find, the song echoes loudly through the halls and it is heard even further in their base. It had been hours since he left the Crystal Kingdom, the city was slowly starting reconstruction from what Baron had heard from No Toes, the psycho stayed to keep a close eye on Hyperion in case they do something.

"'Will I be pretty, will I be rich?'"

The bandit had just entered the large room in time before the chorus of the song, there he finds his brother and nephew, as well as his fellow bandit leaders from Pandora.

Incinerator Clayton, the psycho was also a cult leader like Mint, but back when he was alive he was actually worshipping Lilith, the siren that took Baron's life, he was very happy to find out that she just betrayed the psycho, sadly, after the psycho was revived, Clayton had been convinced by Mint that Krieg was the true Firehawk which the psycho accepted. But one thing Baron had to ask, did Clayton succeed on whatever he was sent out to do? Who knows.

Next was Flanksteak who was a diamond dog, fitting if you ask Baron. The Marauder and the Psycho doesn't really see eye to eye from what Baron had heard, Mint informs him that Clayton was a Bloodshot before becoming a cultist, Baron also learns that Flanksteak was pretty much an idiot because of the fact he didn't understand the situation when Hyperion attacked, "20$" is what he would ask for catching Roland, honestly, Baron doesn't see any use for that bandit but he doesn't really have a say on who to hire, at least Krom was useful.

Then there was Mortar, not really an interesting guy actually, but he was a pegasus so that's cool, I guess.

At least Sledge was here, he was a large minotaur but was still as dangerous as he was back in Pandora, though he's still as dumb as he was when he died, well, at least they got some muscle around. Now that he sees it, they could have brought back more bandit leaders, but Mint says they have enough so he'll have to trust the Equestrian's judgment.

Speaking of Mint, Baron joins the others as an audience to the psycho's performance, she held a corpse of a pony in her hooves as she dance around a wooden pedestal with a long gray unicorn horn on it, the mare continues to sing as she waltz with the corpse.

"Here's what she said to me, Que Sera Sera! Whatever will be, will be, the future's not ours to see. Que Sera Sera, what will be, will-. Oh, Baron!" Sweet Mint ceased her singing and threw the corpse away. "Back already? Well, the victory cake is done, so you're just in time!"

The other bandits just nodded in his direction as a form of greeting. "Cake would be a really good exchange for the men we lost." Baron sarcastically said.

"I know right!?" Mint did not catching the bandit's sarcasm at all.

"Sledge hungry! When Sledge have cake!?" The idiot spoke.

"Later Sledge, we are still doing business."

"I notice the other two are also back..." Baron said as he glances at both Flanksteak and Clayton. "So, you two got what she asked?"

"Grogar has a powerful beast working for him!" Clayton began explaining. "Though there were no casualties, we could not get any information of the bell, forgive me master."

"Oh, yes, I forgive you Clayton, it would be bad to lose an asset like you." She said without missing a beat, her voice was as cheerful as the happiest pony on Equestria.

All eyes then lands on the Marauder, the mutt looks away and began picking his beard while whistling the same song Mint had sang.

"Flanksteak?" Sweet Mint spoke, her innocent and motherly tone caused the bandit to freeze on the spot. "I heard you came back alone, care to tell us all why is that?"

"T-the... I-I... Uh..." Flanksteak stutters. "I-its not my fault! You sent us looking for the zebra in Ponyville to find the the location of the Alicorn Amulet, but that damn carrot pony jumped us in the forest! By the time we reached the zebra, there was only half of us, then she chased us away back to the carrot pony, I was lucky to be alive because she got her axe stuck on a tree! That damn dirty zi-"

"OKAY!" Baron quickly shuts him up and silently dared him to continue, when Flanksteak said nothing more, Baron then went over to Mint and gave her the large ring. "Why do you need anymore powerful artifacts other than Eridian tech?"

The mare inspected the ring before placing it on top of her head and wore it like an accessory. "Well, for you all to understand we need to go back, back to where lord Krieg found the horn."

The horn itself sat on the wooden pedestal, all eyes became focused on it as Mint tells the story of how the cult began.

"As you've all know, this unicorn horn is not normal. A long time ago, our lord was sent to the deepest depths of Tartarus by the false god, there he released his rage upon the other imprisoned creatures, and soon enough he discovers this horn embedded into the walls and out of curiosity, he took it and strapped it on his belt. When his hand made contact with the horn, it started feeding on the eridium that was in our lord's blood, slowly charging itself to perform what it was meant to do. He didn't know what the horn was made for at the time, and when he was led into the caves back at Ponyville to be imprisoned once more, Celestia had made the mistake of leaving the horn with him because when she was close enough, the horn had taken a large amount of magic from the false goddess without her knowledge and accelerated the horn's power."

As she tells the story, a few unicorns began coming into the room, Sparky watches them closely trying to figure out why they are here.

"Weeks after his imprisonment, five ponies of unknown race were summoned by the horn after it was fully charged thanks to our lord and the false goddess, four were Equestrians but one was from Pandora who was written down in the archives as the first Prophet, the human was a bandit who have heard of our god's tale of ending the menace who is Handsome Jack, the Prophet went high and low searching for anything about lord Krieg, but after months of searching, his life was ended by our god's hand after one encounter."

"Wait, he got smoked by Krieg but he was still a fanboy?" Sparky spoke before getting hit on the back of his head by his father.

"Shut up and listen!" The dragon scolded Sparky.

"Well yes," Mint Continues. "you can put it that way. The Prophet instead of seeing it as betrayal of his faith saw this as his destiny, he would soon teach four blind ponies the name of Krieg, they were hesitant at first, but they soon saw the light and became the pioneers of our beautiful religion."

"Yeah, but what does this have to do with the horn?" Asked an impatient Mortar.

"I'm getting to that. Ahem, years goes by and more and more ponies were brought to our god, soon came the third Prophet, he was also the first griffon to be a follower of our god's name. The third was very intelligent, after years of researching, he had discovered that the horn was the cause of the strange magic that brings everyone to lord Krieg. Soon, he would understand how it feeds off magic to activate when he had made a few tests, and after bringing enough unicorn volunteers, he had charged up the horn and brought the second human into Equestria, sadly the Prophet had to kill them for they were too dangerous. So our story ends there for now, and that is why we needed those artifacts so we could easily power the horn which was named 'Valhalla's Key'."

"Awesome, but what does that thing do?" Sparky points at the large ring on Mint's head.

"Well, you all must be curious as to how we discovered the other two pieces of the artifact, it is because of the tenth Prophet, he was also unicorn and a trained one at that! He tapped into the horn mentally and saw through space and time! He witnesses the terrors from your universe, he had also saw the Eridians taking their first step on Equus! Though it is still a mystery of why the Eridians chose this planet as a Vault, we had at least discovered that there were three artifacts, and we have two!"

Captain Flynt snorted a laugh. "So a bunch of aliens made some kind of dimension traveling artifact and hid three more in this universe, and that one does what exactly?"

Mint faces Flanksteak, a twisted smile hidden under her mask. "Flanksteak," As she spoke the ring on her head began glowing. "sit."

Without even knowing it, the marauder unconsciously sat down, this caused the other bandit leaders to stare with widened eyes.

"W-what!?" Captain Flynt spoke, the Nomad and the rest of the bandits began understanding what had just happened.

"That's right! The 'Angel's Halo' can control humans!"

"And what's keeping you from forcing us to do your bidding?" Just as Baron had asked, the other bandits sans Clayton secretly reached for their weapons.

"Because I want a healthy relationship between us, I don't want some mind controlled zombies, no, I want friends. Friends that-" A bullet zooms over her head, Sledge became confused as he was aiming right between her eyes but somehow missed, the Minotaur felt intense heat coming from his left, Clayton was preparing to blast the bandit with holy fire from his incendiary gun for attacking their leader, but Mint herself stopped Clayton from barbecuing Sledge. "Settle down now! Oh my, a little bit too eager to kill me, if you really want to have the ring, then take it."

"You're gonna just hand it over?" Flanksteak questions.

"Yes."

Baron knew that something was up. "Alright, what's the catch?"

The mare looks away in a shy and cute way as if she was caught with her hoof in the cookie jar, it would have been cute if she wasn't wearing a face on her mask, scratch that, she isn't cute at all. "Well, the thing is, unless you are outside of the vault then the artifact would never work with creatures that were not from Equus or so our research team have learned."

The Nomad growls and nearly just shot her on the spot, but his brother held a hoof up to keep him from doing so. "What's keeping us from putting a bullet in you here and now?"

"Oh?" She tilts her head to the side, the ring began glowing brightly before fading back to normal. "Well Baron, now that I have this ring, I was actually confident to let all of you free to roam Equestria! But now that you all seem to be thinking about...backstabbing me, I feel like maybe I do want zombie underlings."

The bandits didn't like their choices, keep working for her or be forced to, being a mind controlled human or other with no free will didn't really sounds so well, but she is actually allowing them to leave their base and do what they wanted, so they all chose the only choice there is, loyalty.

"But what about Wilhelm?" Baron questions.

"Oh leave him be." Was her answer.

"W-wait." Flanksteak spoke. "What the hell do you mean!?"

"Yeah!" Sparky spoke. "Shouldn't we make him a mind controlled slave?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Said Mint.

Mortar slaps his hoof on his head. "Please tell me you are joking."

"Sledge does not like!"

"You all don't understand, where would be the fun if I just took away Wilhelm's free will? He is the perfect opponent for lord Krieg, and it would best if we leave him untouched and untainted, or else their battle would be tasteless to lord Krieg. Now, do you all have a problem with it?"

"Fine." Baron spoke before the rest agreeing as well, like it or not.

"I uh, also got a question!" The dog raises his paw in the air. "Where's Bad Maw?"

"Last I heard from No Toes, your Nomad friend was seen with a Raging Goliath, few minutes later, there was only a GOD-liath rampaging around." Baron informs the Marauder.

"Aw man... He was the best gatekeeper I know... Now who's gonna watch the gate of our base!?"

"This is wonderful, we can use his death as an excuse to use the horn, even though we were going to!" Mint said before facing the unicorns. "Now, who wants to see the key works it's magic!?"

Shining sighed as he stood on the balcony of the castle, he stares upon the aftermath of the attack, though there were less damages near the castle, the edge of the city was almost only a pile of rubble, the bandits did not spare even the simplest of homes. Everything was being cleaned up but this was already planted deep in the minds of the citizens of the city, he have heard from his sister that they began alienating those that wear the bandit masks as seen from how they treated Steve, which is bad but reasonable and justifiable. Though he was worried, princess Celestia as well have the same idea as Shining, both ponies did not like the hatred they have in their hearts, if left unchecked, it could grow into something that could not be controlled, and it concerns the alicorn and Shining.

"Oh honey, I'm home!" Shining silently groans as Jack made his presence known. "What's with the long face?"

"You've made that joke already." Said Shining.

"Aw, come on and humor the dead for once!"

"Jack..."

The ghost frowns and rolled his eyes. "Alright, its too soon to be joking. Anyways, I lost track of the artifact, did you deal with Krieg?"

"We...we lost..." Shining looks away, he noticed the disappointed look on Jack before he did.

"You had Wilhelm right?" The unicorn nodded. "Then how the hell did you lose!?"

"I don't know what happened, okay!?" Shining snaps at Jack. "Wilhelm almost had him, but after Celestia came, the bandit just grew bigger and manage to knock out Wilhelm! You have any idea of how many soldiers we lost before he transformed!?"

"Of course I have an idea, I know how it feels Shining! I have lost things, but I don't let it slow me down, you know why!? Because they needed me, Pandora was chaotic as it always was and they needed a hero, I was so close..."

"..."

"Do you understand? You have blood spilled all over your hooves, but you shouldn't let it get to you, especially now that these bandits have an Eridian tech, who knows what they'll do, innocent lives are at stake out there and Equestria needs a hero, and that's you."

The unicorn was silent, he held on to every word that Jack said, a small spark in his mind lit up into a blazing light, the ghost was right, Shining can't stay in the past when he's needed in the present. Though Equestria already has it's heroes, but Shining actually believes that it needed more after the bandits showed themselves, he, Nisha, and especially Wilhelm are the ones that could truly fight off the newest threat to Equus.

Shining trusts his sister and her friends, but this is bigger than them, and more dangerous.

"Shining?" The unicorn looks behind himself and Jack followed his gaze, Twilight stood there with obvious concern. "I-I heard shouting so I checked to see if you're alright."

Shining let out an honest smile. "I'm fine, just very stressful after today...and I'm also tired."

"That's good..." Twilight looks over the railings of the balcony to stare upon the wreckage that the bandits left behind. "I heard from Wilhelm that they were looking for something."

"Yeah, some kind of powerful artifact."

"That's right, but Starlight found something as well," Both Jack and Shining listens intently to her. "she says that there are three pieces..."

Jack's eyes widens and the unicorn became even more curious. "How did she know?"

Twilight let out a sigh before speaking. "She said she interrogated one of the bandits while looking for survivors, there is one piece out there."

"Only one!?" Jack spoke but his question will only be heard by Shining, thankfully the living relays the question.

"Yes, Starlight also said that the bandits already had the first piece, now they have the second."

"Shining, a word?" Jack demanded from the prince, not requested.

"Oh, I think my Echo is ringing!" Shining quickly took the device up to his ear and pretends to answer a call, Twilight watches him with her own curiosity, both on what the caller wanted and what that device was. "Hello, Shining here!" He said with an awkward smile.

"Can we speak in a more private way?"

"Sorry sis', but I kinda need to take this. In private. Alone." The unicorn explained himself as he began trotting away from Twilight and towards the doors.

"O-okay... Oh yeah! Cadance also wanted to talk to you!" She tried to tell him but the stallion was already gone, leaving Twilight alone on the balcony- oh hey, it's Steve!

"Heyoo!"

"Alright, what's so important that I have to ditch my sister?" Shining spoke as he glared at Jack, the Echo still by his ear.

"Shining, change your priorities from looking for that bandit monster to finding that artifact."

"What!? I can't Jack, he is too much of a high level threat to ignore and I can't waste resources looking for whatever that thing is!"

"Listen! If they get all three then you're done! We need to get it before they do, and it is important that we do so or else they get what they wanted! Shining, those bandits are obviously here for them, and they'll stop at nothing to get their goal and if you have that last piece then-"

"They'll come back to the Crystal Empire." Shining finishes Jack's sentence.

The ghost smiled. "Now you're getting it!"

"And if we have it, then we can lure them into a trap!" Shining practically could see a floating light bulb hovering above his head.

"That's right! If we can find out how it works then we can also turn it against those filthy bandits!" Jack took a second to calm himself down, he placed a hoof on his chin as he began thinking. "You know what?"

"What?"

"Ever wanted to be a Vault Hunter?"

Author's Note

Disclaimer, the Que Sera Sera song is not mine, just wanted to throw that out there cus I'm scared that it might get me into trouble, so uh... Yeah.

You know what I like about BL3? Female Psychos, yeah boy, imagine one coming up to you and tells you to "STRIP THE FLESH!!!", damn, that's kinky...

Also, just to be clear, every mutant in the story is from Pandora, this means Goliaths, Midgets, and Badass Psychos/normal Psychos, this does not include Psychos from Equus, they are only normal and influenced crazy, not strange vault magic crazy. Again, creatures that's from Equus does not have mutants.

I actually might make an exception with Midgets and Badass Psychos because of the way the story goes, but who knows.