Salvation through Harmony

by Roran Dreamon

Rating: mature
Tags: Romance, Original Character, Queen Chrysalis, Princess Celestia, Crossover, Sex, Tragedy, Main 6, Discord, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Human, Sad
Length: 247907

As the first Guardian Class N7 for the Earth Systems Alliance his goal was simple: Protect All Life.

Year is 2186 and Earth has fallen to the reapers, while Commander Shepard is off saving the galaxy a group of mercenaries, soldiers, agents and other species that can hold a gun, forged a group calling themselves the 'N7 Special Operations and Tactics Group', these men and women faced the worst of what the Reapers and Cerberus had to offer. As the war went on and lives started to reach staggering heights only one quote was now common within this group, 'Desperate Times calls for Desperate Measures'.

To tell the Truth...we lost, and I took a Reaper blast to the face, and instead of being turned into a pile of nothing I was instead turned into a bloody statue, and in my time as a statue, which was literally so many years that I have clearly lost count after the 35th year, I can clearly say that all hope is lost and that I am most likely the last human alive on Earth, or in my case, comatose, or...something similar since I can't feel anything and I can only see whatever is in front of me and I can clearly hear still so that is a plus. Being found in this underground dank cave is clearly remote, being brought back to life is beyond impossible, but knowing me I will be found...sooner or later....

First Crossover story ever for me so be gentle and truthful/harsh.
Crossover material:

Mass Effect 3/MLP

Rated Teen, for Violence and Language, and something else...

I do not own Mass Effect 3 or MLP: FiM, but I do own my character.
Some of the things in this story are from a few others, simply done a bit differently, they get full credit.
On Hold: Reason: College Work and playing Final Fantasy: A Realm Reborn
Time of Return: When College Work is done for the day or grow bored of game.

Published 2012-09-05 15:24:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-07-21 06:55:57 UTC

Chapter 1: Uncovering the Past

Freedom or Insanity?

Memory Sequence 2

"You know I am no longer part of the Alliance Steven...I left that shit behind after you asses side-lined me when that freaken building fell on top of me and I had to get both of my arms and legs replaced with cybernetics and mechanical limbs, so tell me what you want before I under-hand toss your ass out of my home, last time I checked I never granted you access to it." I said dropping onto the sofa and pulling out an old bottle of Earth Style Vodka and took a very most generous swig before shoving back into the folds of the cushions.

Shaking his head in disapproval before tossing a data-pad at my feet, and just giving me a glance before turning his back at me, expecting me to take a look before he says anything else.

Roran Zidane

Age: 26

Ethnicity: Caucasian/ Latino

Home System: Sol. System, Luna Base

Hair Color: Black Eye Color: Cybernetic Replacements (Blood Red)

Height: 5'9'' Weight: 214pounds

Year Born: 2160 April 1st at 12pm

Alliance Military Rank: Lt. Commander (~~Retired~~)

Alliance Training: N7 Trained, Alliance Sentinel Training, Alliance Adept Training

Cerberus Connection: Level 4 Clearance

Status: Wanted for Treason.

Subject Delta is highly dangerous when being told what to do, acts very childish when dealing with higher ranking officers, has a deep fondness for cheese, apples, and cheap booze. Grew up at the Luna Base on the Moon, fell into a street gang and rose through the ranks before leaving it all behind for a better life, joined Alliance Military at the age of 17. Has a past criminal record involving Armed Robbery, Extortion, Bribery, Assault with a Deadly Weapon, Assault, Battery, Grand Theft, Petty Theft, Arson and Grand Theft Auto.

Subject Delta was part of the Ascension Project and was under lock-and-key until his training as a Sentinel was complete in basic Biotics and low-level tech training. Delta has also been known to be very loose with rules and will break or bend them to however he see's fit, and when on a mission he is ruthless efficient, but is very rough when dealing with prisoners or hostages, best not used when that situation arises.

Subject Delta was one of the Alliance's best operatives before the battle of the Citadel left him crippled and unfit for duty, was discharged from the army after receiving cybernetic implants to replace the missing limbs of his arms and legs. After leaving the Alliance he later signed up with Cerberus and worked his way into their rankings, later becoming a Lt. First Class, what we do not know on how well he was trained, we do know that he was forced to leave Cerberus on the bounds that his mission began to target civilians and government officials.

Warning: Subject Delta has left the Earth Systems Alliance as of 2163 March 23rd, 10pm, considered highly dangerous even without Alliance-grade weapons or armor, be wary of physical, tech and biotic attacks when engaging.

"Well you caught everything about me but still what does this have to do with me? I quit remember, or did Sanders not even bother with registering my leave through the channels...either way whatever you have to tell me will not change my mind, I said I quit so I quit, get off my back and get the hell out of here..." I said with rage in my voice, I already lost my entire squad in that attack on the Citadel and to the damned Geth. "I swear if this is some sick mind fuck than get the hell out!"

"Zidane this is not about coming back to the alliance, this about what Commander Shepard has started back on Eden Prime with Saren and the Geth. This is about the Reapers."

Raising my only eyebrow, losing the other one to my horrible cooking skills, lets just say that it involved fire and cooking oil. "Reapers you say, pray tell that you don't believe them since only Shepard and the rest of the Normandy believed in that tale...but I also believe in it since there is no way in hell that Sovereign was Geth technology. The weapons on that thing was beyond them, even its armor plating was beyond what the Geth can produce. So tell me Hacket, why are you here."

"Like I said Zidane, the Reapers. I know that Commander Shepard said that they are coming and the Council seems to disagree, but with what we say at the battle of the Citadel we know we will be in the fight of our lives." the Admiral said while his back was still facing me, wanting to let whatever tension build before he says anything else of importance.

"And what does this have to do with me?" I said while pulling back out the old bottle of booze from the sofa, needing another swig since this little talk was taking longer than I had originally intended.

"Soon...everything, but for now I am reinstating you back into the Alliance but on a short leash. Welcome back to the military life son." Hacket said while tossing to my feet my old Alliance dog tags. Oh the memories those have...oh crap...those dog tags.

"Oh fuck me..." I said before downing the last of the vodka before keeling over and passing out onto the floor face first, leaving a nice trail of drool on the tile floor before being dragged out by the two soldiers waiting by the door. Taking me back to the parked shuttle that was waiting at the docking tube before going back to the MSV Shanghai and leaving the Omega System back to the Arcturus System, taking me to my old shit home and lifestyle against my drunken will.

End Memory Sequence 2

Canterlot, Royal Gardens, Morning]

"Got any three's?" Discord said with a bored expression on his face,

"Nope, go fish asshole" I said while shuffling my hand again, trying to hide the fact that I did have a set of three's.

"Now now Roran, remember what I said about using such foul language. Don't make me get the bar of soap again."

"Yea yea yea...bar of soap, and when was the last time you actually used a bar of soap on yourself. You smell like you haven't seen a bath or a shower in years."

"If you keep talking like that to me than I will have to go medieval on your metallic flank."

"My god you stink, even stink would say you stink. Oh god that stench could gag a maggot, oh lordie lord it smells like hot sick and ass and a dead corpse." I said while laughing my ass off while coughing loudly, over all screwing around with the spirit. After a while my laughter stopped and I gazed into the eyes of a very pissed off spirit while the gryphon spirit was also busy laughing his ass off, lightening my mood I decide to do something incredibly stupid. I decided to give Discord a hug, and by hug I mean a bear hug while trying to crush every bone in his spine and chest.

By the time I was bear hugging the bastard, he was busy trying to break free and the sounds of bones cracking and crunching means it is working, but unfortunately my hug was interrupted by something heavy hitting me upside the head, making me break the hug to hold my head in pain which sucks because it felt like someone was stupid enough to hit me with a sledgehammer.

"Now Screwball that was not very nice of you to do to him, sure he was trying to snap me in half like a twig...which almost worked but still, now go apologize to him...hmm...in fact, don't apologize...I have a surprise for him." Discord said while my vision was slightly blurry and everything looked like the time I almost drank that one krogan under the bar table at the cost of one of my kidney's dying, which was totally worth it in the end, watching a krogan nearly passing out drunk would have been great if I didn't get shot in the back of the neck by a batarian pirate thinking that I was his target but instead he shot the wrong man.

Lets just say that I was kicked out of the bar for not apologizing to the owner for making a pretty big mess and not cleaning it up.

After the ringing in my ears cease and the double-vision dies down I can clearly see that Discord is laughing like a hyena while holding his sides, the gryphon king also laughing but is under control, and a small purple pony with frizzy hair and a propeller cap. Right now it feels like the time I tried red sand and was tripping out to the point where I saw the walls melt and I felt like I was 9,000 feet above the floor, holding onto a drawer for dear life. My friends were busy laughing at me when that happened while I was having the biggest trip of my life and it ended with me puking in the toilet for at least 30 minutes. Not fun at all....

"Discord...if I ever get out of here...well along with if you ever get out, than I am buying a round of shots on me...I swear being encased in stone sucks so much ass...I can barely move, haven't eaten in....ages, and I have this urge to beat something to death just to get my pent up anger away...."

"You are so strange Roran, you say you are the last of your kind correct? So if you are the last of your line what are going to do about it? Seeing how you hate all life and just want to keep killing I am sure that the gryphon kingdom could take you in...if you know what I mean."

"Dude...Discord, if you could see anything in my head you should know the man creed, 'If it has a hole, we fuck it!' and trust me, that creed worked...on many occasions....one time above all others...except shit loads of alcohol was involved and I was shitfaced beyond comprehension. I couldn't even talk without fucking up."

During out little mental battle of banter, stupid comebacks, and even dumber remarks we finally agreed to something that even I can say somewhat proudly if I wasn't pissed off that I am the last human alive. I will fuck anything...as long as it is a female that is.

Canterlot Palace, Princess Celestia's Room, Morning

As the sun slowly poked its top over the edge of the horizon the solar princess stood at her balcony and with a glow of her horn and a flick of her magic the moon slowly shifted off the side opposite horizon to make way for the sun her ears perked up and shifted over to the gardens after she thought she had heard somepony say something that they would never say out loud or near her presence.

"Hmmm...sounds like somepony is willing to buck anypony...I wonder who is so bold to proclaim such an act...and at this time of day."

Canterlot Palace, Royal Gardens, Morning

"Hey Discord." I asked while slowly turning my body to Princess Luna who was watching us in her balcony as she slowly lowered the moon.

"What is it this time Roran? I am busy trying to find a way out of this tombstone of mine...that and I am also planning on how to give old shiny butt and dark snooty a surprise that they will ever forget." Discord replied while doing the same thing and slowly twisted in place to be somewhat looking at Luna also.

"Have you had that feeling that you regret what you said and when it happens you regret it even more?" I said while turning and also trying to figure out how I am even turning in place.

"No. Why?" he said while using his powers to make it rain cupcakes and muffins in my head.

"I don't know...I just had this funny feeling that someone heard me and they plan to give me a ride of my life...possibly in both terms...that and it felt like my spine was just dipped in liquid nitrogen...I just hope that it is the two of us that can hear each other." Looking at the falling cupcakes and muffins I tried to grab one but my hand just phases right through it, the snickering of Discord was loud enough for me to give him the middle finger.

"What? Fear that somepony is gonna buck you to the point where your bones turn to jelly and you can't even crawl to escape? That will be priceless to watch!" as he laughed I gave him a kidney shot while laughing at his pain.

"I bet you would enjoy me getting my brains fucked out by something of this planet wouldn't you Discord, and besides...I am hoping their is something better than ponies cause from what I saw I am almost easily twice their size...I just hope their are things larger than them cause if I am stuck here and if worst comes to past...yea I am so fucked."

"And I fucking hate you sometimes friend...sometimes I hate you so much but I can't stay mad at you forever...we have been after all friends for four thousand years, and you are somehow better than me in Poker...how the hell are you even better than me in that game?"

"It is called skill my dear human friend, and also that I cheat when we play just each other, like I said I have an ace up my sleeve." as he said that he pulled out all the aces from the deck of cards out of his lion paw as if it was nothing.

"Fucking cheater I knew something was up when you kept getting all the aces at the worst possible times!"

"Hellooo? I am the spirit of disharmony and chaos, of course I cheat! Playing fair is boring and has to many rules to follow. So I just simply break and bend those rules so I win and get what I want, and besides half the chaotic things I have shown you inside of that melon head of yours is that it is amazing and delicious! Like my maltnado or my candy cane forest, you can't simply hate everything that is chaotic!"

"Yea well watch me hate it...just give it some time cause so far it is pretty fucking sweet. Oh and Discord...can we talk to anything that we see?"

"I suppose we can but why? Are you getting bored of me already?"

"No, I have an idea...and their is a dark blue horned pegasus looking at us from a balcony...wanna pull a prank?"

"Not even gonna ask how we are going prank old Lulu from down here as statues but than again I am bored so...what do we do?"

"Just follow my lead old friend."

Canterlot Palace, Princess Luna's Room, Morning

"TIAAAAAAAAAA!!! The statues are moving again!!!!!"

Canterlot Palace, Royal Gardens, Morning

"Totally worth seeing a princess freak out over statues moving on their own accord, best way to start the day do you not agree Discord?" I said while laughing my ass off, turning to look at the princess was hard, looking at her and contacting her with out thoughts was harder, but simply saying 'We are watching you' was fucking hilarious as hell to see her turn tail and scream like a little girl.

"Oh that was priceless to watch old black snooty scream like a scared filly! If only I wasn't a statue and I would have chased her and make all the paintings and suits of armor turn their heads and eyes to follow her than it would have really made my day!"

Looking around I started to notice that the ponies were setting streamers up, placing tables and sofa cushions everywhere, I saw large tables being placed along with a wooden stage being set up inside of what I can clearly see as the ballroom. Looks like from my current angle and sight is that they are setting up for a party...I bet it was some snobbish noble that loves to get his ass kissed on a regular basis.

"I wish it was just a birthday party but sadly it is something alot more dreadfully boring than a party. It is the Grand Galloping Gala...the worlds biggest and most boring party in existence."

"The fuck is a Grand Galloping Gala?"

Canterlot Palace, Royal Gardens, Late Afternoon

"Oh my fucking god I have never in my long ass life seen so many fucking ponies in one spot...and every single fucking one is wearing a suit, a dress...is that one wearing a bloody top hat and monocle? What the fuck have I stepped into? The fucken twilight realm while higher than a fucking kite?"

"Are you really this surprised to see this many ponies dressed up or are you just trying to ignore the fact that all of them are all dressed fancy and trying to lick the hooves of their leader to fall into their good graces?"

"Does it really matter what I think about these ponies?"

"Nope, I just want to get out of here, ruin the party and quickly leave so I can plan my next reign of chaos. Other than that I can really care less what they wear, I am just hoping to see somepony get drunk from the wine and cider they offer here."

After what felt like two hours I finally had the nerve to ask him a stupid question.

"You wanna play a game of 'Fuck, Marry, Kill'?"

"Eh...not right now...I am busy trying to find a way out of here."

"Eh your loss...like seriously what is the worst that can happen?"

Canterlot Palace, Royal Gardens, Night

"Can you believe it girls! A new species that have lived here in Equestria before ponies! Oh the things they have accomplished and the marvels they could have created! I bet they were a scholar race of intellectuals that were masters of magic! All the things I want to ask this being and all that we can learn from it!" was all I heard from my quiet spot in the garden, the overly loud squeals of joy from somepony talking about me, just keep feeding my ego see where that leads you.

"Ya know sugarcube this new creature for all we know could be nothin more than a brute or maybe even more dangerous than them dragons in the wastelands far to the east. Ya sure this is a good idea to try and talk to this thing?" Oh great...a farmer...and this one already hates me...I swear why does everything hate me? Sure the Reapers hate me since I was meant to be harvested and all but come on, I don't even know this pony and it hates me.

"Oh come now Applejack this is just a statue we are talking about so we can easily handle it, and besides what can a statue do to us? Stare at us to death or to boredom? And besides as long as I am here we can handle anything that is thrown at us!" My lord this pony loves to toot her own horn....hehe...toot their horn.

"I do say Rainbow Dash that you can handle that ruffian back in Ponyville but we are talking about a species that was never before seen by pony eyes since yesterday, so we have no idea what they can do. And besides I just hope they have a thing for fashion as I do, Celestia knows what they possibly wore for royal parties or on a day to day event! Of all the possible materials they used it was probably only the best of silks and gems!" Gems? Who the hell puts gems onto clothing and armor? That is just stupid as hell, gems are hard enough to find as is...except for when they power my suit's armored core, that thing needs to be replaced by a diamond fast or otherwise I will have to ditch the suit behind till I find one the size of my fist. And silks? Please we use synthetic materials...and leather seats on ships was a must.

"I just hope that this new creature is nice..." OH I am nice little shy pony...but if you piss me off I will rip your spine out of your ass and show it to you before you die.

"I hope he likes parties! Everypony likes parties!" God kill me now......I feel a massive disturbance in the force that is sanity and it is coming out of that pony.

I overheard all of this strange conversation from my position as I slowly turned to creep out the ponies that walked by me and to my own enjoyment laugh at those that actually fell over when I started to turn in their general direction. In all it was a night that I did absolutely nothing but scare the crap out of noble ponies and they could do nothing to stop me...until those six ponies from earlier came back.

"So...this is the recently discovered species that Daring Doo found...wow...it surely is....large." said the purple mare with a horn on her head. 'Oh yea, large in more than one way little mare hehehe.'

"Well...it...it looks really....scary." Well little yellow pegasus it seems you are afraid of your own shadow, no wonder you are afraid of me, I bet if I wasn't a statue and was alive right now you would faint.

"Ah bet me and Rainbow Dash here can easily handle this critter easy peezy, it may be large but we can handle anythin' that it might throw at us." Yes you orange pony and the rainbow pegasus can easily handle a full blooded soldier of death with hooves and wings. This will amuse me greatly if I wasn't already amused by my pranks earlier this afternoon.

As soon as they all drew near my stony form I felt something slam into my left side and than I felt a slight dis-connection to my left hand, and when I slightly looked down at the ponies, and turning my eyes even lower to my left hand I saw that it was simply not their anymore.

"Shining! What have you done! You broke the statue! Oh no no no no no....this is not good...this is not good at all! Quick somepony get me some extra-strong sap and a sanding tool to make it look like nothing happened!" Wow this mare was going ballistic, its just a hand I can simply pull out a spare exo-skeletal hand from the lower arm port, its not like I can not just remake a new hand, I bet I can make a heavy iron hand here and be able to pimp slap one of these ponies with it and send them flying.

"You know Twily you can just use that restoration spell that Princess Luna taught you, its just a statue and it can be simply repaired with that spell just put the broken part back where it was attached and cast it, I am sure it will work out alright." Really now....restoration magic? Where the hell was this when my armor was bent all to hell when I needed it?

"Oh...right...hehe....sorry about that but...I think someponies heard the commotion...lets just quickly fix this before they see that it was broken in the first place." Oh thank you Satan for allowing my shitty luck to go unannounced to every snob noble in the building.

Watching the ponies in front of me debate on how to proceed with fixing my broken stone hand and it was amazing to see them squabble over a hand, if they met the woman of my time they would have been at each others necks over a broken nail or a split end...wait that would have been hell on Earth times ten.

After a while they all decided to quickly reattach my hand by magic and hope for the best, and I would have been happy about that if they weren't yelling at each other on how to get it done and by than I saw that Discord's statue now has a small crack on his right kneecap and another on his beard and snaggletooth. Ignoring that his statue also took a possible beating I glared downward to see that the purple unicorn's horn was glowing brightly and I felt my hand go back to its original position and with a loud snap it was back to where it belonged.

'Oh thank you little mare for fixing my hand and putting it back where it belongs. I am sure I can do something to make it up to you...if I was not stuck as a statue that is.' my own thoughts were wondering around a bit as I saw a muffin on a tray being held up by a hoof until that muffin was taken by a pegasus with blonde hair and crossed eyes, and who somehow managed to take the muffin without alerting the waiter. Looking back down I saw that the unicorn was looking right at me and just to fuck with her I choose to slowly turn towards her while all seven of them were looking at me. The looks on their faces was beyond priceless.

"Shining...I thought I heard that statue just thank me...and now I thought we all just saw it slowly turn to face us..."

"I know Twily...I think we need to get Princess Celestia to see it..." Oh thank you Satan and Jesus...I was starting to get bored when worried about my impeding sanity level if I only saw regular ponies, I want to see something fucking exotic now...maybe a dragon if they exist...hell I would do anything just to see another asari again, those girls really know how to blow your mind away.

Five Minutes Later

"What the hell is an asari? You have yet to tell me everything about your past except for the last thing that you bucked nearly left you boneless from the waist down."

"Shut it Discord...and besides that was a bet and I lost with no dignity left, and when I walked out of that room I left with no dignity and without any honor. That krogan really knew how to make me beg...I am just glad that I left alive at all...she was fucking crazy as hell...I rather deal with Jack than deal with her...."

"Your stories rarely affect me but that one right now just disturbs me to the core...you roughly had sex with a wingless dragon, I am just amazed that you left alive is all."

"I swear if you tell anyone about my stories I will destroy you...and just because you are a spirit doesn't mean I can't kill you with fire. And I was just lucky I had any bones left when I was done..."

"So Twilight what was going on with this statue? You said that it was alive and it talked to you let alone that it turned to your general direction?"

'Uhh...no shit their winged unicorn, just because I am a statue doesn't mean that I am simply an empty husk, I would have been if Discord didn't tell me any knock knock jokes or told me about the funny ass pranks he did over the years.'

"I heard everything you just said statue...and your tone is something that is yet to be desired, and that you have dealt with Discord for years without cracking is something to be desired....so what do we call you?"

'Wait what? You can actually hear me? Oh Happy days someone finally can speak to me! You have no idea how boring it is being able only to talk to Discord, the gryphon king, that statue of yourself who never talked back....I think that was just a statue but anyways who do I have the pleasure of talking...or well...mentally talking to.'

"I am not boring you, you are boring me!"

"I am Princess Celestia, Regent of the Sun and Co-Ruler of Equestria."

'I am Roran Zidane, Human scientific name Homo-Sapien, N7 Operative, Paladin Sentinel and death-dealer on the battlefield. An avid lover of fine cheese and wine, devoter to books and wine, and lastly worlds greatest party animal when it comes to the right party.' As soon as I said devoter of books the purple unicorn's eyes were beaming, and I could have sworn that another attendant of the party looked in my general direction when I said that I loved fine wine, and I felt something creep up the back of my neck as a pink pony started hopping in place and sometimes defied gravity for a few seconds before landing. I honestly wanted to know on how to do that.

"A pleasure to meet you Mr. Zidane but I was hoping to speak to you but it seems circumstances have proved that wrong, as you can see many of my ponies wished to speak and study you and your people but it seems the place that we found you is dangerous."

'Ah yes...I saw all of that, you found me in an old London street along with the bones of my fallen soldiers and the remains of the Reaper forces...and I also saw those guards go against a damaged Banshee that I crippled before I got turned to stone. But to get studied by ponies? I am not even sure if I even want to get studied...come back to me when I am not statue, until then no.' At that point when I said no I thought I heard a few gasps that somehow resembled me basically slapping her in the face. At that point I just want to slap the person responsible for breaking my hand.

"I see....well..that can be arranged."

'Ah ha ha ha ha ha no....wait what? You can make me a flesh and blood again? Oh thank fucking god finally I can be free from this god damned shit hole and be able to breath again ...wait what is the catch?' I know that somethings are to good to be true, I just hope I don't have to bed any of these ponies otherwise I am pulling out my Talon and blowing both heads off.

"The catch is that once you are free you are officially a citizen of Equestria, and you have to answer any and all questions all of us have, and afterwards you will have to be studied by our top researchers and scientists to make sure you are safe to be around without us having to worry that you will get us sick. So what say you Mr. Zidane."

'This shit is too good to be true...I know there is something else you are not telling me...but having my freedom means I can finally stretch after nearly I think ten billion years....fine...I accept...but on one condition that I will call upon once I am free....and get a five second head start.' I am going to enjoy this.

"Alright...but this condition I guess you will tell me in private I hope."

'Yea yea...just make with the strange magic...being a statue is worse than you think it is...you have no idea how many times I saw two ponies make love out here...and trust me...I rather not be on this pedestal anymore than I really want to...' Trust me when I say this but when it was just me and Discord here talking two guards walked by on patrol and they both stood around waiting for something until Discord started to laugh his ass off and when I finally asked why he was laughing like a crazy bastard he told me to look down and low and behold those two guards were going at it like rabbits in season. They left a mess to which I haunted them my slightly letting out a ghost like moan and turned to look at them and they ran off as if Discord was after the pair, would have been funny as hell if he did.

With the silence came the slow humming sound as Celestia's horn started to glow, and with that hum was also my own as I started to hum the old world Russian National Anthem and I could have sworn that a few of the ponies were liking that song but all good things must come to an end but I kept on humming as I felt my stony exterior started to crumble and crack as I began to feel things again. The feeling of synthetic leather on my chest, the rough hardened carbon helmet exterior holding my head in place, hell even the feeling of rocks on my robotic arms was a strange feeling until I finally felt free enough to have a little bit of a show with these ponies.

"Yes....yes...YES! FINALLY! I AM FREE! FUCK THE POLICE I AM FREE!" and with that shout I drew both of my arms together as I used my biotics to create a supernova in my arms and as I released it I sent all the fragments of my stone skin everywhere along with a few ponies being knocked down and even one actually got some air time as he went flying off to the the right. After everything died down I felt the spear tips of a dozen pissed of guards bearing down on me to which I only smirked at their hostility. "You know...I saw all twelve of you fighting that Banshee in the cavern...I was not impressed that you managed to kill one that I left crippled but than again you are using spears and swords so I should be at least moderately amused, to which I am...but for now I have pressing matters to attend to." Looking around I saw that they wouldn't let me move without forcing them away so I did what I thought was best at the time, phase out of existence and reappear next to the princess and the others and helped all of them up, but when I saw Shining Armor I only grinned.

"You broke my hand. Pony you broke my hand and tried to glue it back on...do you know what is going to happen next?" He shook his head no. "Good cause this is gonna hurt you alot more than it is going to hurt me."

I took my omni-shield and pimp slapped him with it.

"Okay I am good now...lets get the study over with so I can go visit the graves of my people and die with them.

Chapter 2: Recording the Past

Questioning the Past is Never a good thing.

Memory Sequence 3

Arcturus Station, 2184 CE, Two years before Reaper Invasion

"So any real reason as to why I am wearing this god forsaken collar and this bloody uniform? Last time I checked I hated these damn things...the collar on the other hand is just to damn kinky for me...unless were in my bedroom and and I brought a pair of handcuffs." I said grinning at my liaison officer which in return scoffed in annoyance at my antics and gave me my own one-finger salute before throwing me a data-pad at my head which thankfully caught the pad with my teeth like a well trained dog, would be wagging my tail if I had one, and be begging for a treat but knowing what would happen I rather keep my perfect number of teeth intact and still in my head. Returning the salute back to her I look at the pad and what I saw made me wish it was Christmas day and that what I was holding in my hands was the greatest gift I have ever received.

Requisitioned per Orders of Admiral Hacket:

x5 Crates of Thermal Clips (Bulk)

x5 Crates of M.R.E. (Bulk)

x5 Crates of Grenades (Bulk and Variety)

x5 Crates of Medi-Gel (Bulk and Variety)

x1 Old Earth iPod Charger Station (Micro station) (Give to Zidane)

x1 Polycrystalline-Composite Combat Shield (Give to Zidane)

x2 N7 Valkyrie Assault Rifles

x1 N7 Typhoon Light Machine Gun 'I call Dibs'

x2 M-15 Vindicator Assault Rifles

x5 M-4 Shuriken Machine Pistol

x3 M-3 Predator Heavy Pistol

x2 M-6 Carnifex Hand Cannon 'Also Dibs'

x4 M-23 Katana Shotgun

x1 N7 Piranha Assault Shotgun 'And also Dibs'

x2 M-92 Mantis Sniper Rifle

x2 M-97 Viper Semi-Automatic Sniper Rifle

x1 M-98 Widow Anti-Material Sniper Rifle 'Aka Widow Maker, Also Dibs'

After staring over the list of arms and supplies I nearly squeed in joy for half the crap me and my 'squad' were going to be retrieving and using when out in the field, but when I saw that M-98 on the data-pad I literally squeed out in joy and bear hugged my liaison for giving me the best gift ever. "Oh thank you for this gift Mrs. Sanders I will never doubt your word or your incredibly crude sense of humor ever again! Unless of course you plan to leave me to dry than you can take that data-pad of yours and sho-" before I have a chance to finish my verbal threat of stuffing that pad up her ass, my body seizes up and falls over in a heap of withering flesh and the occasional curse word flying out of my mouth.

"It is best if you keep quiet Zidane, you are already on thin ice and anymore of your shenanigans and I will keep a hold on this button until you pass out from both exhaustion and electrocution, do you understand me?"

"Oh go shove that switch up your-" and once again before I finish my threat of taking that button and placing up the hole that never sees the light of day, I get shocked but this time I start rolling around the metal grating in pain. And on another note, rolling on the floor made of metal while getting shocked is never the smartest idea ever.

"Are we done acting like a bastard that hates everything?" said Khalee Sanders, my answer was a middle finger as soon as she stops pushing the button, her response was a deep sigh before walking out of my cramp room leaving me alone to my thoughts.

'Owwww......owwwwww........owwwwwwwww.......owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...ow....hate you...'

And before I have a chance to get off the floor and finally get some rest after being shocked twice and dragged here, Sanders returns back to my room and drops another data-pad onto my head which I fail to catch it only for it to land squarely on my face, inflicting no pain but causing a great amount of annoyance to me.

"Read this and get ready to move out in 15 minutes, you might as well put your armor on, and by the way don't get yourself killed now, hate to bring you back only for you to die to earlier."

"Oh fuck you....bitch...ugh I hate you so much now..." I said while pulling myself off the floor and towards my armor rack which is currently hanging by my bed, seems perfect enough place for it to be stored since it will be the first thing I see next time my ass needs to be alerted for a mission...perfect...

Pulling on my old armor I recognize it as the prototype T5-V Battlesuit, except I painted over its normal colors with my own signature colors, Primary and Secondary White with Silver Camouflage, and just for added fun I tuned the lights of my armor to whatever I am currently feeling, which is currently red for pissed off.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Earth Systems Alliance Reaper Squad Delta

Name: Roran Zidane

Rank: Lt. Commander

Squad Position: Meat Shield

Species: Human

Class: Guardian

Status: Alive: Traitor/Criminal

Gender: Male

Name: Katherine Jerricho

Rank: Sgt. Second Class

Squad Position: Sniper/Spotter

Species: Human

Class: Infiltrator

Status: Alive: Recent Recovery from Geth Ambush

Gender: Female

Name: Liselle Keo'Mennau

Rank: Lt. Grade Two

Squad Position: Biotic Reaver

Species: Asari

Class: Adept

Status: Alive: Hates Anything that tries to kill her.

Gender: ?

Name: Hilo'Jaa vas Idenna

Rank: Chief Engineer

Squad Position: Hacker/ Sapper

Species: Quarian

Class: Engineer

Status: Alive: Tech Savant

Gender: Female

Name: Krusk Brahat

Rank: Private

Squad Position: Riflemen

Species: Batarian

Class: Soldier

Status: Alive: Criminal

Gender: Male

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

After looking it over while strapping on my old armor, which still fits like a latex glove to me, I scramble out of my room and towards what I hoped was the squad meeting room, I was partially right.

"Good to see you here Operative Zidane, we have been waiting a while for your presence and now that you are here we can begin with Operation: Snowblind. Zidane I want you and your squad to infiltrate the Cerberus facility and retrieve any and all reaper artifacts that they have in the research labs. The location of this mission is on Noveria. Good luck." Admiral Hacket said before giving me a salute, myself giving him one back before turning around and heading toward the shuttle bay, my day keeps going from bad to worse, and soon to total shitstorm.

End of Memory Sequence 3

Canterlot Palace, Main Hall, Midnight

It has been only two hours since I shield slapped Shining Armor and what came after that was funny as hell for me. Discord was laughing his ass off, the party guests were shocked that a statue came to life and slapped the captain of the guard, and basically shook off a dozen arrows as if it was nothing. But more importantly was the fact that I still heard Discord laughing in my head as I thought I would lose that crazy bastards laughter as soon as I turned to a meatbag again. After I slapped him I gave him my real half-assed apology and he didn't understand a few words that I said to him, that being that half the things I said was in German and it was funny as hell to see me talk like a crazy German. After our little detour and talk I was led away not in chains but in a magic bubble that lifted me off the ground and off we went into the palace.

In retrospect I expected everything to be exploding with colors since everything I see now is beyond color to me, it seems like someone took the color contrast on an old television set and cranked that shit to full blast, even the softest of colors were slightly blinding to me, but thankfully my visor was enough to dull everything down to grey scale. Thank god for polarized visors or else I would have been blinded by these colors, or worse started to enjoy the frilly colors.

'So tell me again Roran why you are going to be willingly talking about your past to the same ponies that locked me up in this statue? I mean look at them! They are barely come up to your chest let alone be able to do anything to you!'

'Well they are ponies and when I was alive last time I checked ponies were somewhat small...but this is just fucking crazy. Techno-colored ponies is one thing, but ponies with wings, horns, ponies with wings and horns, what the hell have I done to deserve this insanity?'

'*cough cough*'

'Oh yea...I had to deal with the god of insanity for four thousand years....that makes perfect sense.'

'You still didn't answer my question as to why you willingly going with them and answering their questions.'

'Yea and? It's not like they are gonna understand anything that I am going to be telling them, and lord forbid that they do understand it what could possibly happen? The pink one is fucking crazy and looks like she drank an entire canister of Hallex, the yellow one is so fucking afraid of me that if I just wave at her she would faint, the white small one is just eying me...and I wish she wasn't..., the purple one is staring at me and seems to be taking notes so no harm no foul, the orange and cyan pair are just watching me for any sign of danger. Like those two will detect the ten grenades strapped to my side canisters, the pistol on my right hip pocket, the machine pistol on my left hip pocket, hell I doubt they even think I have any weapons besides my fucking Typhoon that the large white one is levitating beside her...'

'So do you even have a plan than?'

'Come back to me in like ten minutes, if I don't have a plan distract them.'

'You do know that I am still in the statue right?'

'Yeah I know...I just wanted to say that in case you somehow got free.'

While me and Discord were talking about how to go through this half-assed plan of mine all of them seem to be looking at me at the same time when I walked into the door head first. All of them seem to be thinking that I am having trouble adjusting to being alive again except that Celestia was listening in to my private mind chat with Discord and he didn't even bother to tell me that she was tuning in on us.

"So when were you going to tell me Sir Roran that you were still armed?"

'Oh shit how did she find out?'

'I can read minds Sir Roran, and it is within your best interests that you hand those over while you still can.'

'Fine...but I want those back when we are done, I still have to go back into those caves to clear out any other Reaper forces that are still alive. I am positive that Banshee was not alone done there.'

'Alright, you have a deal, but you must tell us everything than.'

'Yea....everything.....perfect.'

"Well...ladies. I was not not entirely true about being disarmed by Captain Shining fool over there. And since your princess here found out I was still carrying my tools of the trade with me, I will now disarm myself now." as I said that I took off my grenade bandolier and tossed it over to a guard standing near the door who was messing with one of the pins who earned himself a slap upside the head by me.

"Don't play with that grenade guard, if you had pulled that pin than everything within eight meters would have been killed or maimed by the explosive blast and shrapnel." He got a stern glare by Celestia for nearly killing all of them and a slight chuckle from me since I knew that would have just drained my shields by 50%, everyone else would be dead if I hadn't had stopped it.

Taking off my Talon pistol I handed it to another guard as he gripped the trigger guard with his teeth and the barrel was pointing at his neck to which I just sighed loudly through my helmet's speaker system as I took out my Tempest SMG and handed that to the same guard holding my grenades, he simply took it and placed it on his back. Moving my hands behind my back they all took a step back and was prepared for the worst as I pulled out my Piranha and placed it near Celestia who simply took it within her strange wavering mane along with my Javelin sniper rifle, I will surely miss that piece of lethal Geth equipment and the last thing to be taken from me was my monomolecular sword that I kept in its sheath on my left hip, and that was being examined by Shining Armor who has taken a quick liking to it as he saw the designs on the blade and sheath.

"Just don't cut yourself with that blade Shining otherwise that wound won't close and you will bleed out." He ignored me completely when he accidentally tried to grip it with magic and he fumbled it as the blade cut deep into his right fore hoof and he was bleeding out like a fish that was freshly gutted. "Told you idiot...now I got to patch you up."

Rushing to his side I quickly apply a layer of medi-gel over his wound and let it attach itself to his fur as the bleeding stopped, and with a sigh I get back to the door and opened it with a quick push of my hands as everything within the throne room went gravely silent as everyone inside turned to look at me. "Oh...shit..." those two words sent everything into chaos as I clearly heard Discord laughing again inside my head. 'Shut it Discord before I break my foot off in your ass.'

"Everypony calm down please, this person is a guest of honor here so treat him as one and not as a monster. So please go back to what you were previously doing and continue on." At least this princess has authority over her people otherwise I would have been met with a fate of an angry mob or worse a massive ass witch hunt. The loud shuffling of hooves on tile was my only warning as I saw a white unicorn with blonde hair along with two guards stormed into the room and all three stared up at me, expecting a pony to be the one causing the disturbance not a giant.

"Okay before this gets out of hand I am not a threat to any of you ponies as long as you don't try to threaten me in any way...as of that go on to your duties." Waving my hand at them some of them immediately ran off as a few stayed to watch me as I strode by them with liquid grace with an occasional stumble as I try to get used to walking after years of being stiff as hell.

"My little ponies I wish we can talk not but it is late into the night and I need to rest for tomorrow morning will be a very busy day for all of us. Twilight please lead your friends to their rooms for the night, it is in the same wing where you used to stay when you were my private student, as for you Roran..."

"Just place me far from everyone...I prefer solitude and silence." I usually slept alone when I was with my squad or with my group of soldiers in the war, I always slept far from the group or in the wrecked remains of a sentry tower since I was always the first one to wake up on the drop of a pin or a tip of a hat.

"...you will be staying with me in my royal chambers except that you will be sleeping in the study chambers." 'Oh shit...erm....uhh...brain think of something quick! I can not sleep in the same room as royalty, especially if that royalty is a pony...hell...I slept with alot of different alien races but this...this is....aww fuck what was that word again...'

"And do not object to it or I would have you placed in the dungeons until the sun rises. Those are your options."

"Than you should know my answer...I will be heading to the dungeons alone." I said through my helmet and if she could see into it I was giving her a smug grin of victory as I could barely see her lips twitch as she was defeated. I may be a soldier but my past life was pretty fucking crazy as hell cause I got around with the ladies of the galaxy...I knew exactly what to say or what to do to gain their respect and trust...except for Katherine that bitch be crazy.

With what I said alone I was quickly escorted to the dungeons and locked within one of the large cells that were meant for something large like a Brute or an Atlas but at least I was alone now. Taking a look at my room I saw that it was mostly empty except for a bucket, a hammock made of moldy hay and torn cloth, and from my suit's exterior sensors it was cold as fuck. "At least they gave me a bed to sleep in..but I rather keep my armor on...fucking 30degrees in here."

Canterlot Palace, Dungeons, Morning

The very next morning the sun shone brightly into my cell as the light entered my visor and with how high I polarized that shit it was like someone took my face and placed it over a roaring fire trying to melt it off. Turning in my hammock I heard someone knocking on my cell and turning around I saw the purple unicorn from last night waiting for me to get up, in which I did but in a slow manner since they still hold almost all of my weapons beside my omni-blade, omni-shield, and my biotic and tech powers.

"So...Mr. Zidane...before we go to the dinning hall I have a question to ask you...if you would be so kindly to answer it." she said timidly since she saw that I was capable of moving extremely fast within short distances and being able to also teleport to my targets within visual range.

"Yea...since I am in a cage and all of my arms currently being held god knows where being looked over which is a very terrible idea."

"And why is it a bad idea to look over your weapons?" my god is this girl daft or just terrible with ancient tools?

"Because I rigged all of them to explode if someone kept tampering with it to many times trying to get it to work properly that is why. I can't trust any of you as far as I can throw you...and since I haven't been able to throw any of you I can't trust any of you. So it is within your peoples best interest to leave my weapons alone before they end up as burning cinders or with missing limbs." By hearing of what I just said of what could possibly happen to whoever was looking over my guns and grenades she gasped loudly and galloped of to Satan knows where. "So I guess I just stay in here all morning than? Alright that's just cool than.......fucking ponies..."

After ten minutes of sitting in the cell playing a game of minesweeper I heard the sounds of more hooves on cobblestone before the cell was thrown open and that I was levitated out by a pissed off pega-corn...thing...whatever the fuck they are. "They tampered with my guns didn't they?" My answer was a deep sigh before getting dropped onto the floor.

"You should be glad that they listened to Twilight Sparkle before they tried to take them apart, maybe a little warning of what would happen with your weapons before anything else alright?"

"Yea right, serves them right for messing with them, I did not give them permission to tamper and dis-assemble them did I know? No I did not so if you tried that again I will not tell of what could happen, and if you try to take my armor off without my permission this will get ugly real fast so just take me to the dinning hall already before I start talking to Discord again since he is the only company that seems to listen to me." I said while flicking my right hand at her and creating a biotic field around myself as the two guards accompanying Celestia were shocked that I was capable of creating a force field with little concentration while Celestia herself was somewhat grinning at me...that grin scares the shit out of me.

After convincing the guards that I was not a threat they let me go and we approached the dinning hall an hour late as most ponies has started to eat without us but as soon as we entered they all stopped and bowed before her. I simply watched and laughed at one of their servants as he fell over with a bucket filled with cold water fell over him and ruined his attire and it was a good thing I turned off my speaker system or otherwise everyone would have heard that loud ass laughter. "What is so funny Roran?"

"Oh nothing...nothing its just that I realized that none of you know anything about me and since I had time to study you nine somewhat with ease since being a statue means that nobody would expect a statue to be watching and listening. I know that you Twilight Sparkle....from what I heard and saw that you are a top student for Celestia, you Applejack are a hard working apple farmer, Rainbow Dash I can guess is some sort of...stunt devil? Fluttershy hmmmmm an animal doctor perhaps. Pinkie Pie I can guess is a party planner of all kinds as Rarity you are a fashion designer. Am I not correct?" I said while acting like I was cleaning out my finger nails.

The looks on their faces was beyond fucking priceless, their jaws hanging as I said each of their profession with ease and that I knew all of their names, even more shocking was that I knew about them because of the way they carry themselves, the way they talk, and the way the sound.

The next person...well pony to speak was the white unicorn named Rarity who was eying my armor with a stare that means that she was rather intrigued about it or was wondering what it was made out of. "Mr. Zidane, I am sure that you are wondering about so many things but I have to ask you, what are you wearing and what is it made out of?" Oh boy, she had to ask about my armor...

"Well...I am wearing body armor, and what it is made out of is classified ma'am." I said while standing at attention with my arms behind my back. She gave me the stare that said 'Oh no you didn't just pass my question' and in response I slightly lowered the tint on my visor so they all can see my eyes and to them all they saw that my eyes were nothing more than two red orbs staring back at them with malice and boredom. "Anyone else have a question to ask me?"

"Yea I have one!" my god the pink demon that can defy gravity is talking..."Do you like parties?" Oh thank god...I thought she was gonna ask if she can have some of that purple liquid that I have stored on my hip. Note to self: Do not give pink pony any Hallex, fear for what she will do once she has it in her system could mean end of the world again.

"Yes, I do like parties, and it all depends on the party and the mood I currently am in." I saw her hair and tail deflate to complete straightness before going back to its poofy norm, another thing to ask her when I get the spare time...

Next up was Rainbow Dash "So...how awesome are you Zidane?" Oh yea, I am loving this pegasus already, I can just tell we are going to be the best of friends already. "Awesome enough to do this." as I said that I grabbed the nearest potted plant and chucked that fucker into the air while hitting it with incineration tech and as it was on fire I than hit it with a cryo blast and the resulting tech explosion was pretty to me but to the ponies that saw that thought that I just used magic and made it explode by the two opposite elemental's tearing each other apart. The faces that all of them had was beyond amusing as it was like teaching a krogan how to properly kill a geth trooper by blowing its head off with disruption rounds. Basically it was pretty easy and I didn't have to worry about getting chucked out of a window for disappointing them. The only sound I heard was a certain cyan pegasus going "Wow" and I smirked under the helmet and said "Told you I am awesome."

"Anybody else have a question to ask me?" I asked while raising a small ass tea cup to my helmet, placed a straw into the tea, placed that straw into an emergency induction port, and took cautious sips of the drink until I realized that it was herbal green tea, a tea that reminds of me of my past on Luna Base that I rather want to forget. As I was taking a sip I swore that every single pony was looking at me to see if I would remove my helmet to drink but alot of them sighed in disappointment as they saw the straw and the small opening in my helmet, their sad sighs brought smiles to my heart, if it wasn't already destroyed and replaced with an augmented one.

After a while of them staring at me as if I just broke some sort of universal law by drinking tea with a straw while wearing a helmet was over, and oddly the silence was enough for me to make a coughing sound to get them to stop staring until finally the yellow one seemed to finally have the guts to speak up. "Umm...Mr. ....Mr. Zidane....do..do you like animals?" really now? She was that nervous to ask a simple question like that? My god if she met my sister those two would have been the best of friends without even asking each other to be friends. With a deep sigh that might have meant 'fuck off and leave me alone' she lowered her head and hid behind her mane but she stopped when I waved a hand at her "Yes, I do like animals, I prefer the company of a cat or dog since both are loyal and adorable...next to birds." In truth I love cats, those cute eyes, the soft fur, the fact that they purr loud enough from one room to be heard into the next one is amazing enough, but the fact that they can jump from the floor to the kitchen counter was what really got me to love them, besides the fact that they kept eating all the rats and mice that tried to eat my cheese that I left in the box near my rifle rack.

"Roran I have a few questions if you are willing to answer them" Oh great...the egghead...and I didn't even need to figure that one out when Twilight pulled out a pair of glasses and was levitating a large empty notebook and a quill and ink next to her. This was gonna be a long ass day of questions for me and I know some of my thoughts can be heard by Celestia or Discord...at least Discord is not an asshole with my thoughts...except for the time I told him about my 72 hour Hallex trip...that shit was intense.

"Ask away but if you ask certain questions I will not answer them...so ask away." I crossed my arms after cracking an apple in half and sliding the halves into the mouthpiece and sealed it shut.

"Where were you born?"

"I was born on the moon, in the Hospital 'Pale Hope'." My answer was greeted by looks of disbelief, blank stares, and one pony had the balls to cough horseapples. "If you don't believe me than I guess I have to show you my birth certificate than." And with that I tapped my omni-tool open and scrolled to my profile and pulled up a hologram of my self and it showed of exactly where I was born. The looks on their face that I just proved them wrong and the fact that they are looking at something that appeared out of a glove was even more mind blowing.

"Okay than..." *scribbling down notes* "You said you were a soldier...of what nation?" Oh fuck. 'Damn it mare why did you have to ask that question!'

"Well...if you must ask that...I would have said no and kept on going but since I made an agreement with your princess here...I have to answer all of them that I am comfortable with." 'Don't even think about digging into my head for the truth.' "I was a soldier for the Earth Systems Alliance which was at the time my peoples military arm."

"Okay..." *more scribbling* "What did you do as a soldier?"

"Simple question gets a simple answer." She huffed at my answer. "What I did was easy and simple, protect the civilian population from raiders and pirates, serve the people, and fight any hostile forces that would attack us."

"Your people weren't unified?" 'My god this girl needs to be quiet...'

"Yes our people was unified but we were also splintered at times since we all have different points of view and most of the time they are not very agreeing so yea you can say that were weren't. But as we colonized different worlds we sorta came together under one banner but sometimes we still had outcasts that wanted to be free...we allowed it until they fell to raiders or pirates and we come in to clean up the mess."

"Are their actually aliens out their?" 'Oh this mare is gonna get it real good.'

"Yes their were aliens out there in the galaxy but since the Reapers came back and started a war of extinction I doubt that any of the ones I know of are still alive. Hell I doubt that we won the war since I am here and not back in the barracks."

"What do you mean?" 'Here it comes hehe.'

"What I mean is that me and my people, and every other species that fought against the Reapers are dead and gone. For all I know I am all that is left of my people. I am the Last of my Line." As soon as I said the Last of my kind they all gasped and I think Fluttershy was it, she let out a gasp and fainted right on the spot. I am sort of guessing that is a defense mechanism for her.

As soon as she tried to say that she was sorry or something I raised my hand to stop her. "Don't even say anything lass, I do not care for apologies or anything anymore. Of all the things I want now are signs of pity or signs of sadness for me for I do not care about it." Yea...one point for being a cold heartless mechanized asshole. "Let us just keep going with the questions while I still have some manners and my rage is still in check." They all nodded and agreed to it before they saw what a fully pissed off biotic and tech master can do to soft squishy ponies.

"Before we keep asking questions I have a riddle for you ponies, and if you can answer it correctly you will all get to answer one question that I usually keep to myself." They all brightened up and even Shining Armor seemed to smile when I said that, a winged unicorn was next to him at the moment which sorta scared me a bit since when I last saw him he was alone...these ponies are masters of popping up at the strangest of times. Turning to my right I saw that princess Luna was also here and was giving me a cold stare, my guess is that she is still angry with me and Discord for scaring her last night.

With a grin I said the riddle in a creepy ghost like voice "What is the color of night?"

"Black?" 'Nope' "Dark Blue?" 'No' "Black?" 'No' "Black?" 'My god No!' "Blue?" 'Now you are just silly' "Dark Grey?" 'Nope again' "Grey?" 'Hopeless' "Silver?" 'Wrong Answer Celestia.' "Dark Purple?" 'Not even close Shiny' "Sanguine my bipedal friend." 'Oh fuck me she is right? What the fuck how did she know?'

"Erm...uhh....Princess Luna...how did you know that riddle?" I was honest to fucking god confused as hell, hell I almost forget the answer to that riddle since Discord keeps getting it wrong whenever I bring it up.

"Because my bipedal friend we have dealt with a cult of vamponies before and that was the correct answer to them." 'I call bullshit on that, vampires are not real.' "Oh but they are real Zidane for I keep them all in line." 'Oh damn, recluse of a princess rules over vampires...good thing that can't open my armor.' "Oh don't worry about that, if you anger me or my sister than we will find a way." 'Hah! Good luck with that!'

"So what is this question you wish to ask me princess since all nine of you got it wrong and really Blueblood? Blue? When was the sky ever blue?" His answer was a snort as he sat their eating what was left of his meal before waiting to hear my questions about myself.

"My question is, Have you ever killed somepony before?" Silence filled the room.

"Uhhh....no shit? I killed almost three thousand Reaper soldiers and nearly two hundred batarian, vorcha, krogan, turian, asari, and human raiders and pirates, I almost forgot my kill count on total amount of lives I have ended but last time I checked in was close to four thousand bodies now lie motionless out on some random planet, some cargo ship that is now floating debris, or on the Citadel. Either way I killed so many organics and synthetics that I no longer feel anything anymore. I think I need some help with that...eh..." The way I was talking to the royalty was enough to make Rarity to overly act out and faint on a randomly appeared couch, the pink winged unicorn was just staring at me as if I was the evilest thing on the planet, everyone else just looked at me before assuming defensive positions around Celestia and Luna while Shining Armor tried to move around to protect the other one, I just laughed at their advances. "Anything else you ponies want to know? I have to go visit the only burial site of my people that I know of..."

"Actually yes, I do have a few questions to ask you." 'Damn it!'

Celestia was next on the line of ponies. "I wanted to ask you this...Do you ever regret the people that you have killed?" I laughed a bit "No I don't regret killing them because it was them or me and since those bastards choose to break the law at the time, and besides I also do not regret it because it fills me with joy to kill raiders and pirates. Getting attacked by raiders is like opening a birthday present, you might never know what you are going to get."

"Roran, I have to ask you something since I first heard you speak at the Gala..." 'Come on Cel, if it is about my love for fine wine and cheese than good luck finding me a cheese wheel or a bottle of white wine.' "What does N7 mean?" 'Fuck...'

"Well N7 is a vocational code in the Systems Alliance military. The 'N' designates special forces and the '7' refers to the highest level of proficiency. It applies to marines who have graduated from the Interplanetary Combative Training program at Rio De Janeiro. The ICT program is by all means a cruel and grueling training program that breaks the weak willed and those that are strong enough to advance on." as I said the basics of N7 I was standing at attention with my arms behind my back and was staring at the wall on the far side of the room.

"My next question is something rather private but I think that all of us should know..." 'Just say it than, no need to beat around the bushes for it.' " Why were you underground when we found you?" 'Oh that....'

"Well I guess I should tell you how I got there....as you can see that I was a statue at some point hint the dust and rock fragments, and at the time...me and my squad were clearing a path for Hammer squads to move in and place the Thanix Missiles in the correct placements to take out the Reaper guarding the only path into the Citadel and activate the Crucible. During the fight we were ambushed by hostile forces, my squad was taking cover behind anything that will shelter them from hostile fire while I used my shield to serve as a distraction. I took the brunt of the attacks and as we were turning the battle around we were shot at by one of the Reapers that were still planetside...I lost Private Krusk Brahat to falling debris...we began to evade and strike out at any Reaper patrols we ran into but we were growing desperate as we began to take injuries at a rapid pace...eventually we made a last stand in the back allies of South London...the enemy kept pouring from all sides...we were being torn apart as Ravagers...Banshees...Brutes and Marauders kept hammering away at us....eventually Lt. Liselle Keo'Mennau died from her injuries...she lost to much blood...before she died she told me that she finally saw the truth within the webs of lies..." I sighed deeply as I clenched my fists together, my biotics flaring up as my anger grew to the boiling point. "We had been fighting for three hours now and the Reapers didn't stop sending their soldiers after us...we were eventually saved by a passing group of roving M35 Mako's but we were barely breathing by the time they got to us..."

"Eventually we got patched up with quick applications of medi-gel, the same one I used on Shining Armor for nearly cutting his hoof off with my sword...idiot." He snorts in my direction as I give him the middle finger, everyone in the room is confused by it. "Anyways me and the last two members of my squad got back into the fight and resumed our current objective which was to clear a path towards the Conduit and get inside the Citadel...with only the three of us that was more of a suicide mission but since the stakes were so high we agreed to do it to till the end. We got as close to the Conduit as we could but than their was the open field that lead to it....'No-Man's Land'....before we even had a chance to run it we were attacked from all sides...my second in command Katherine was killed by a Banshee...she was impaled on its left arm...I cut it above the elbow with my blade...she didn't make it. I blew that Banshee all to hell with everything I had. It was just me and my only friend...Hilo'Jaa vas Idenna. Me and her were like the best of friends....hell we even watched each other get drunk in public once after a mission we did together on Caleston...when the Reaper showed up we both got engulfed by the energy beam and that was when I was giving my last rallying cry since I knew that we were all going to die, everyone in Hammer Company knew that we were all going to die that day." they all could hear my voice slowly breaking down as I began to lose my posture and started to revert back to my old ways of slouching while standing and not really caring about appearance.

"After getting hit by that laser I was turned to stone somehow and was kept alive...not really caring at the moment but I was watching everything happen around me...the Crucible didn't fire, the Reapers came back in full force, and from what I heard of a barely functioning radio that the Reapers were winning on all fronts of the war until finally I only heard the voice of a Reaper say that they just claimed the last bastion of the resistance...the war was over...we lost...but I am all that is left..." I finally caved in and just slumped onto the floor pulling out an old photo (Thank you God for keeping this piece of colored paper intact) of my squad....'I miss you all...except you Brahat you still didn't pay me the 10,000 credits you lost to me at a match of poker...'

Looking back at them all, they all just looked at me with eyes of sadness, the yellow one, Fluttershy was crying alongside the hyperactive pink one, Pinkie Pie (Duh...that makes sense...hmm...pie....I could go for a pumpkin pie about now), and by the sounds of hooves approaching I barely looked up to see Shining Armor and the other princess...a slightly smaller than Luna...don't even know her name is, approached me and when I sense that one of them tried to give me a 'hug of pity' I created a barrier in front of me to prevent such an approach.

"No. Don't even think about it...I just want to be alone..." I said quietly as I got off the floor and approached a stain glass window that was emblazed with the picture of six ponies shooting a ray beam of sorts to a certain Princess Luna. Odd how she is still here not in chains or being watched by any guards. As I approached the mirror I felt a hoof on my side trying to get my attention, turning my head I saw that it was Shining again but this time giving me a stern look. "Don't even try to act all tough little pony...I killed things larger than this room alone, so if you want to stay in one piece than you would take that hoof and place it back on the ground. I am in no mood to be talked to, I only want to be alone for a while..."

"I am sorry but I can not do that, Princesses Celestia and Luna has ordered me to watch over you, I am no matter what under any circumstance to leave you alone." he said while trying to be the overseer of the prison watch.

"Well than...I guess I can always do this than." and with that I do do a back flip and warped outside the window hoping that it would lead back to the gardens...I was wrong.

It lead me to a cliffside in which I overshot and was now falling down.

"FUCK!"

Not even two days alive and I inadvertently jumped off a cliff...how quaint.

Chapter 3: Solace in Silence

Rumble in the ground.

Memory Sequence 4

Planet Noveria, Cerberus Facility, Midnight

"So tell me again why do I have to be the one to run into their lines of sight and take each and every single bullet and act like nothing is happening? What the fuck am I a bullet sponge?" I shouted while in the shuttle as it flew towards are LZ, a Cerberus Research Lab, apparently it was large enough to also act as a dry-dock for a frigate that was currently being refitted with new turrets and armor plating.

"Because you idiot, you are the only person here that was trained to use that shield of theirs and also your armor is the thickest amongst us, that and your shields are alot stronger and recharge a hell of alot faster...which reminds me on how come only you have those power cells in your armor..." said the other human in our group, Katherine, that bitch got an attitude problem and a large as ego to boot, but hell when she fires that gun of hers I can count on her to watch my ass in the field...and I bet she can count on me to watch her ass when she is moving to cover...mostly watching her ass nothing else.

During my temporary thought of watching Katherine running on a battlefield and my field of vision only looking at her ass I felt something hit me upside the head roughly before hitting me in the gut with a rifle. Coughing up whatever I had for dinner that day, which was nothing since I was not allowed into the mess hall for being both a 'traitor' and that I also worked for Cerberus...they should be happy that I didn't just use my up-link network and alerted the Noveria station that we were coming to kick their asses up and down the planet side.

"Ow...fuck you Krusk...was hitting me upside the head really required...it feels like you just hate me because I stopped your brother's merc group from sending that shipment of red sand and e-zero on Omega. He should have known to not double-cross Aria, now he is alone in the void of space since I kicked his ass out the airlock without a helmet." I said grinning while giving him a middle finger as our shuttle shakes a bit, making me lose balance and fall face first into Liselle's chest, by chest I mean into a pair of marshmallows softer than a fleece pillow.

Two seconds before anything else happens I get literally thrown out of the moving shuttle over the base, and I land face first into a pile of snow, left behind. Again.

After pulling myself out of the snow I hear the sounds of alarms going off and the repeating boom sounds of AA Batteries currently shooting at my shuttle and making it fly around like some idiot was drunk beyond recognition and took the keys to the shuttle and decided to go for a spin. My only thoughts at the moment was: "Hahahahaha fuck you assholes, get shot down! Throw me out the shuttle and blew your own cover like a bunch of idiots! Ha the house always wins!" I shouted which was lost to the sounds of a blizzard rolling in, and since my helmet was covering my entire head and that fall left me without a moment to switch to squad channels I was in essence talking to myself...again.

"Eh fuck it, imma just walk my merry ass over to the base and just shoot my way in and out, I bet those idiots are having a blast without me..."

Meanwhile

The sounds of explosions and gunfire fill the night air as rounds from both parties send at each other fill the airspace, the sounds of someone crying out as they get shot and the occasional person jumping over a barrier only to get shot in the head sending helmet fragments and brain chunks everywhere, later the sounds of a loud thunderclap fills the night air, the reporting crack of a Mantis. As both parties keep shooting at each other from their limited cover, both decieded to try and advance into the 'no-mans-land' known as the landing pad, currently filled with 23 dead Cerberus shock troopers and one dead combat engineer who was unlucky enough to be set on fire while the turret on his back exploded, blowing him up into a nice bit of human chunk delight.

"BOOM Headshot!"

"Come on! At least leave something for me to kill!"

"Oh bite me Krusk your aim is so bad you can't even hit the side of a barn door."

"I don't know what that is but it sounds insulting."

"Only to you four eyes, only to you."

"Can we please focus now, I rather not get my suit punctured while you two argue about how many kills you both have."

"I agree, and my biotics are not working on those shields of those Centurions or Nemesis's, I need you to bring those down before I can use a singularity on them!"

While my squad was talking on combat tactics the Cerberus Security team was talking about something completely different.

"We need to advance onto their position now while they are distracted!"

"No, send up the Guardian's and flush them out, snipers will pick off any that try to run."

"Yes sir! Guardian's move out!"

Back to me

Yea they are doing just fine, maybe doing better but eh I tried to give a rats ass about them but being thrown into a freshly made squad of random people, yea that is just stupid beyond ignorance. After walking for almost an hour I finally reach the lip of the cliff where I have a birds eye view of the battlefield below me, which was to say pretty epic considering the piles of bodies that litter the landing pad, thumbs up to the soldier I just saw get their head blown off, classic death.

Scanning the battlefield with my omni-tool I noticed that all the hostile soldiers are trying to flank my squad with Guardian's, not bad of a plan but since my squad has armor-piercing ammo mods in use that just eat right through that metal plating, they will eventually have to fall back, what a tragedy...well time to start killing.

Pulling out my Widow Maker (named Shelia) I look over the edge and set my sights on the nearest target I could find, and that target was some soldier trying to get into an Atlas mech, not on my watch, which is currently broken since it was a cheap piece of crap from Omega. Breathing in deeply I slow down my heart-rate to get a perfect shot on my target, which was immediately killed by my own team-mate. "Kill Stealer" I shouted over my channel which earned a laugh from Katherine which I know is probably flipping me off in a random direction since no one knows where I am, shifting my aim quickly and a little to speedy on the trigger, I fired by accident and instead hit a shield pylon, making it explode outward from an incendary round penetrating it, sending metal shrapnel everywhere, killing the closest soldier by driving a metal plate right into his neck, making him drop his rifle and go limp over the railing.

"Boom! how do you like me now Katherine!"

"Still bad on the aim, I would have blown his head off"

"Oh bite me..."

"You would like that wouldn't you?"

"Ya know how I like it Kat."

"Call me Kat again and I will castrate you with a rusty spoon."

"Good luck with that."

End of Memory Sequence 4

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" was all Canterlot heard during the afternoon and many of the rich ponies turned their heads when they heard such harsh language being said at an unbelievable volume and at such time of the day.

Looking down I saw that I was at least give or take two miles above the ground and the way I was falling meant that it was a slow decent into hell, if only hell was an overly colorful planet filled with talking ponies with wings, horns, or both, nope this is more like 'Alice in Wonderland' on ADHD medication. At least this is not my mind otherwise I would be tripping out so bad that I would have taken the first gun I can find, put it in my mouth, insert the thermal clip, and squeeze the trigger, my mind is that fucked up.

Taking a glance upward I saw that the sun was in the middle of the sky, afternoon, and that by looking downward I saw that there was a large lake close to the mountain, a way to survive the impact with small-to-no injuries. Spreading my arms and legs out to slow myself even more and thinking while falling I noticed that my batteries in my armor are still full and that all other processors are also filled to the brim with extra energy, my guess was that all those years of being inactive meant that it was all stored into critical and non-critical systems. Meaning that my shields can handle the sudden flux of energy being shoved into their capacitors.

"Okay...just gotta angle myself just right...and hope that the impact doesn't entirely drain my shields to nothing...I just hope I don't land on a pile of rocks in the water..."

Getting closer to the lake I saw that there was ponies swimming in the lake and that even a few were in a boat, and that got me to start thinking. 'Should I land near the boat and the ponies or just crash somewhere farther from them....'

'Nah'

Adjusting my angle I steered away from the boat far enough so that they would still get wet but not get crushed and killed by a large ass human going at terminal velocity after a two mile drop. After about ten seconds I finally crash into the lake, my armor taking the impact as my shields barely take a dent in its charge only drops by 2%. The helmet seals itself as internal oxygen tanks activate and signal me that I only have 10 hours of air left before I am required to surface and breath again. Turning my head I saw that I was sinking to the bottom of the lake and was relieved that nobody tried to dive down to see what fell out off the cliff, good thing they didn't otherwise they would have freaked the fuck out and ran like their asses were on fire. Wait...I did see that happen once, back on Omega I set at least six batarians on fire by covering their booth cushions in napalm and when the last dude sat down I lit that fucker up as if it was the fourth of july. The looks on their faces was beyond priceless.

After a good hour or so I turned on my helmet lights and saw that I was not only at the bottom of the lake, but I was in fact still sinking down into a hole that for me was like slowly drowning and never being able to reach the surface cause your feet is covered in cement and that you were bound to die. Turning my head only thirty degrees to the left I saw that I was now in an underground cave and that the water I was in was a waterfall...which means that I am back home in a metaphorical sense...

"Well I'll be damned...this place might make out for a good base for a while...if I can find any old supplies that still work I can use this as a bunker...now if only I had my weapons...fuck, the white one has them...perfect...just fucking perfect. Now I have to go topside just to pick them up and jump back down....fuck that shit." speaking to myself within my helmet as I slide out of the water and land with a loud thud onto the stone floor only to be met with four spears being pointed at my face.

"Oh...shit." looking up at my attackers I saw that all of them looked like dogs except that they were standing on their hind legs and that their front paws were hands, they still seemed to have kept the dog face except it looks more...different, still have the tails except one of them looks like a mace with spikes. Awesome...

"Who you, what you doing here?" My god these dogs can't even speak right...broken English....fucking fantastic.

"I am no one of importance...that is who I am." I am actually going for the smart ass approach since I know they can't do jack shit to me while I am still wearing my armor let alone while my shields and barriers are still up.

"A smart ass...and refined talker...take him Alpha...he decide fate..." an Alpha male...seems like these dogs are lead by pack leaders...runts of the group are probably killed off or are just used as a labor force along with what most likely...slaves or prisoners.

As we walk down what felt like hours in the tunnels I occasionally looked left and right and saw ponies mining the caverns, looking for what I saw was large chunk of mixed gems, and to my surprise I saw something that looked like a pony except that it looked like an insect and a pony somehow got mixed together. Whatever the hell that thing was its horn was glowing revealing what was around him, making the ground slightly transparent enough to see the gems inside. If we had that shit we could have efficiently mined out resources without destroying the environment....

After a few minutes we all entered what looked like a throne room except it was a fucking treasure trove of gems, gold coins, stolen loot, shit they got from raids...whatever they had in the old days they got it, they even had a fucking throne sitting sideways in a pile of gold coins. Now that is impressive, even by my standards since sitting on a pile of credit chits would hurt like hell since that crap is fragile and if it breaks your ass is broke.

"So...who is this....outsider? Spot who is this?" My god I swear if I hear any more names that are dog names imma stab a bitch.

"Don't know...we found it in water...we think it surface dog." my guess surface version of these dogs is one of them sticking to the surface...these underground versions look like shit and most likely will burn in the sun if they are ever exposed to it...or maybe just go blind by it, either way I win.

After hearing that dog for exactly five minutes and standing and looking around like someone that grew bored by a speech and was searching for something to occupy time, the sound of someone snapping their fingers got my attention until a pick axe was thrown at my feet. "You will work in mines with others. You mine gems for us, you get to live." Hmmm....mine gems for douche bag dogs....or kill them all and free ponies plus insect thing...eh fuck it.

"Alright but fir-" interruptions are a bitch. Getting hit upside the head by a spear shaft I turn around to see that one of the guards was signaling me to pick it up and go follow him, I only shrugged and picked the damn thing up, thing was light as a damn feather.

"What is your name outsider...or would you prefer that name?"

Thinking. Brain loading in process....

Thinking...

Thinking...

.......oh look a golden sword.

Looking back at him I said in a slightly bored voice, "my name is Regi..."

"Rover" Fucking know it "Take Regi to the newest tunnel so he can begin." and with that I was shoved along with my new somewhat light as fuck pick axe, and marched.

For reasons of my own I felt ungodly weak, I haven't eaten a decent meal in a week, counting the last days of the war and not counting the years I spent as a statue. In all I was beyond starving, that tea didn't do shit to me beside gave me something to wet my whistle.

Under Canterlot, Diamond Dog Mines, Midnight

Well that was better than expected, from what I guessed it was midnight down here since the air shaft I was near was dark and that I saw the moon from it, and looking up at the air shaft I received yet the twentieth shove that day from Rover, since his duty as a guard must have been boring as fuck and watching me smack the cave walls for what my heads up display was approximately ten hours. If I was forced to watch someone mine for ten hours I to would be bored as hell to the point where I would take a Hallex to brighten the day.

"So Rover...what do you do all day besides guard duties?" I had to ask him that, cause if an Alliance marine or Cerberus trooper asked me what I do besides guarding VIP's I would say that I kill others for a living and do smuggling jobs to help pay the bills and pay for the next round of hard ass liquor.

"I raid Pony towns. We Diamond Dogs need pony slaves. They dig up gems, we use gems for selves. When they mine enough we let go. Simple needs." Mmhmm....to lazy to do that shit yourselves you are is more like it, can't do it yourself when I saw at least thirty of you bastards in the mess hall tearing apart a fucking large ass beast with a scorpion tail and bat wings, whatever the fuck it was I wanted to take a large bite from the meaty looking legs.

Shrugging to his answer he called for me to follow him, apparently I am done for the day and that it was time for my meal for the night and then straight to the cells. Happy times...sitting in a jail cell wasn't so bad for me, I always managed to break out of them since MP always left one guard on duty and hacking the security locks was simple when they hardly ever bother to change the codes on them. But the cell I was staying in...holy crap this was fucking medieval even on my standards, the cell was currently filled with at least 17 occupants, all of them varied and look half frozen since it was cold as fucking hell down here and the looks that all of them were giving me were the stares of hollowed hope, broken dreams, and pure sadness. Every single pony...insect pony...and if my memory serves me right, three gryphons, all 17 of them huddling together for warmth and now hoping that I don't notice them.

"Get in cell Regi...welcome to your new home." and with that he pushed me in as I stumble and fall face first into moldy hay. Getting up to dust myself off I saw that all of them were just staring at me as if I was crazy, shrugging I got up and moved over to the bars, waiting for Rover to get out of earshot before speaking up.

"Well...since we are all stuck here....anyone up for introductions?" for me this would have been pointless since they were all slaves but apparently they all still kept themselves sane. Going from pony to pony to pretty cool insect pony, I learned a few of their names, Vinyl Scratch, Octavia (Human name....what the fuck?), Cherilee, Sunny Smiles, Storm Breaker, Cloud Kicker, Boxer, Ditzy and the insect pony, Ditto. Looking at them I saw that many of them flinched whenever I got near them, a lot of them were shivering not from cold but from absolute fear. Not knowing why I finally asked the two little ponies that were hugging each other, "Why are you afraid of me?" my voice sounded so cold and icy that I might as well have been a phantom.

"Your...your head....its a skull...." the silver one said...Silver Spoon I think, and looking at her flank low and behold it was a fucking silver spoon. Under my breath I quietly say "Fucking knew it..." and looking at the other one it was a diamond tiara "oh for fucks sakes...".

Moving my right hand to touch my head I realized that it was just my helmet, what these ponies don't know is that I painted an elaborate skull picture onto my helmet and if I wanted to I could lower the tint on the visor so my read eyes glare out of the eye holes. Officially creepy as hell to anyone that sees that shit.

"It is not my head Silver Spoon, its my helmet, protective head gear for technical terms. I just choose this image to be carved onto my helmet so it will force fear onto my enemies and inspire my allies to continue to fight to their dying breath." whatever I just said only made the two little ponies cower more in fear and the other ponies move farther away from me, but the insect pony and the gryphons now looked at me with some respect and fear. Good.

Looking at the bars I saw that they looked old and rusty, the patches of rust and grim on it meant that these were never maintained and is very old...and very easy to break and destroy.

"Anyone of you here strong enough to fight back?" A few of them nodded. "Are any of you that nodded unicorns?" Only two nodded this time. "And does any of you two know how to lift heavy object with magic?" Only one nodded. At least its something..."Alright...whats your name?" Night Shield. "Alright...you three gryphons..any of you know how to fight with weapons or with your talons?" All of them nodded and what I can tell are grinning, one of them even cracked his knuckles. "Excellent. Any of you want revenge on these dogs?" Everyone in the room nodded slowly while a few started to stomp their hooves in hopeful approval. "Than in the morning, we are going to break out of here..." as I paused the gryphons knew exactly what I was about to say next, "...and kill any dog that gets in our way to freedom, spare only the mothers and children, any of them holding a weapon and is in our way to the surface, show no mercy." at that all of the ponies gasped and began to shake, the insect pony grinned at that and walked over to me, and just now I noticed that it had fangs...seems legit.

"Get some rest ponies and gryphons...for tomorrow at sunrise...we will fight back and be free.

Diamond Dog Mines, Holding Cell, Sunrise

As soon as it hits 6:30 AM the alarm clock in my helmet went off waking me up with a loud ass annoying sound. The sound of a real clock going off. If there was a real one I would have grabbed that fucker and threw it out the window. Opening my eyes I saw that my visor was covered by something silver and lavender, my body felt like it was being held down and my arms and legs were covered by something warm and soft. Activating my sensors I found out that I was covered from head to toe by pony and gryphon bodies, all of them alive but asleep. Slightly rising my head I saw that the two ponies that were on my head were Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara...completely a surprise since they were afraid of me last night.

"Erm...ahem...ponies...gryphons...can you get off of me?" Trying my best to not be an asshole, mostly because I really want to just get up and fling all of them off of me but since by the looks of the ponies that at least 80% were female and from the scan I did of the room that it was cold as hell...my guess was 50 degrees, my HUD said it was 40 degrees...and my suit does radiate heat all the time...I guess they just used me like a large thermal emitter.

After a few minutes of trying to tell them to get off of me I decided to take the more physical route. And by physical I mean forcing myself up and watch ponies pile ontop of one another which was amusing at best. As they all look at one other I quickly moved through the crowd of ponies and moved over to the cell door and looked at it, giving it a quick once over before putting my hands on it and before I had the time to yank that fucker off its hinges and use it as a battering ram five armed dogs walked into the room and told us to stand near the wall for their meals. All of the ponies immediately got out of throng of bodies and galloped to the wall, the insect and gryphons glared at them before going to the wall, but when I refused to go to the wall they opened the cell and all of the ponies expected a brutal beating to begin but as soon as the first spear was sent to smack me in the left leg it broke in half and skidded over to the gryphons, all three looked at each other.

"My turn." and that was when the true beat down began. I went off on them as if they slipped me red sand in a shot of pure whiskey, and that happened twice, the end result was never good.

"Alaria...please play Ass Kicking Soundtrack Number Five."

"Affirmative Captain Asshat." Fuck forgot to change that...

As soon as that spear snapped against my leg I grabbed the rest of that spear and broke it against the dog's head behind, sending him onto the floor clutching his head in pain, the one on my right recieved a fist into the gut in which he coughed up blood and chunks of beef from his morning meal. The other two looked at me with anger as soon as both thrusted their spears at my I ducked and jumped forward headbutting one of them while the other took a fist to the gut knocking the wind out of him. Looking at the dogs I saw that all of them were mostly incapacitated, and that when they were standing at their tallest, they came up nipple high...classy.

"Feel free to help me anytime gryphons...otherwise just stay the fuck out of my way...cause I don't care about any of you...only myself, you are not my squad or my people. The day I change who I am is the day I lay in a wooden box six feet under. So if you want freedom and to go back to your lives than follow me otherwise stay in this cell." and with that I ripped the cell door off its hinges and bent them into nothing more than a pile of rust and broken metal.

Walking out of the cell I found out that the dogs were still alive and breathing shallowly...time for some justice. Dragging the four dogs into the corner of the cell, pushing their bodies ontop of one another until I was satisfied with the pile of dogs, creating a biotic field I encased the fuckers in a stasis bubble, a very awesome bubble that looks like a black sphere. Sweet. Turning my head around I saw that every single pony and gryphon was staring at me with eyes the size of dinner plates, which to me was so hilarious that I fell on my ass and started laughing till my ribs started to hurt like hell.

"What? Never saw or been in a fight before? Well guess what? Where I am going there will be plenty of this." waving my arms at the pile of knocked out dogs in the corner "and most likely more blood covering the walls and floor...so if you want to wait it out that is fine with me. Just stay here and wait, otherwise follow me to freedom." and after a few seconds I saw that Smiles and Cloud Kicker got away from the group and came over to me, the looks in their eyes was all that I needed to see, determination, hope, and anger.

Lowering the tint of my visor so that they can see my eyes, my glowing red orbs that only made the two small ponies whimper in fear, the other ponies slightly coward away, insect pony just stared at my with eyes that are trying to figure out my motives. Good luck with that one my friend. Giving the gryphons a glance and the two ponies I stepped out of the cell and saw that on a hook hanging opposite of me was a key ring that held at least 15 other keys, for what rooms or cells I don't know but know we have a way to enter sections of caves without getting caught...stealthy approach...not my style but since I don't have my Talon I guess quick executions are now important....fuck.

Quickly sprinting toward the door to the prison cells I found out quickly that it was still unlocked and that the keys were still in it...these dogs are really freaking stupid...honestly who leaves the keys still in the lock? Taking the keys from the door and quietly sneaking out I noticed that this one section was ghostly quiet and the sounds of our footsteps bounced off the walls so moving loudly would kill any chance we have at being stealthy so walking is more of a must...

CRASH!

Motherfucker...

Turning around for only a second a gryphon stepped onto a pile of metal buckets and caused the entire pile to come crashing down ontop of him, the sound was loud enough to wake the dead from their well deserved slumber and probably alerted every single dog in this facility.

"Fucking idiot...you know what...all of you stay here...fucking clumsy feet...stay here and any dog that gets in just gut them like a fish. If you allow them to enter than I will gut you like a fish along with those dogs." I growled at the idiot that stumbled onto the buckets, he slightly looked away shamefully, I just flip him the bird and with a huff extended my omni-blade out from its hiding spot of my right gauntlet and with a grin kept the visor only on my eyes so they only saw a skull with red orbs for eyes.

Taking one step out I was met with a spear to the chest that exploded into wooden shrapnel and shame, the dog was confused on how I did that, that was the last time he ever looked surprised as I sank my blade into his throat, the heat from it sealing the wound preventing any blood from seeping out and the dog only let out a small whimper before falling down onto the ground dead in an instant. "Stupid dog..." taking a look behind myself I saw that the gryphons took the weapons from the dogs that were still intact and took up defensive positions near the door in case any of them got in. Smart but that leaves me wiping out a whole cavern filled with unknown number of hostile dogs...fucking gryphons.

"When this is over you all owe me...not in money but in information...anything helpful..after that I am gone." they all nodded quickly, expecting me to be a dog like the ones frozen in place, I might as well have been a dog...

Leaning out of the door way I glanced around, seeing only torches on the walls to illuminate the halls and the sounds of the dogs barking and laughing at each other. The sounds of laughter will soon be filled with the screams and cries of death and pain when I am done with them. Extending my omni-blade again and for added brutality I tapped my gauntlet a few times to change the color of the blade to black and overcharged it to the point where it was crackling with energy and with that I quickly walked over in the direction of the laughter, the sweet innocent sounds of laughter of slaver dogs.

Taking a peak inside the room I saw that all of these dogs were different from the others, they all appeared to be a bit younger than the guards I saw, a few of them were holding smaller dogs in which I now saw them as puppies...and that the ones holding them looked slimmer and to me were more feminine like.....

...this was a nursery...right next to the slave cells....

"Terrible..terrible dogs...teaching the young to collect ponies and other species as slaves....such a sad day to do this but..." activating my other gauntlet and turning the shield off and replacing it with a shorter wider blade and than tapping into the right hand to make it black and overcharged as well. Taking one glance into the room I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, thinking back to a time that I was happy and actually wanting to be alive, and then crushing it like a glass wine cup in my metal hands.

Turning the corner slowly and walking in quietly until one of the pups saw me and waved at me, thinking I was a special guard that had to wear armor like what I was wearing but as soon as his mother turned to see who he was waving at, she dropped the little pups bottle and immediately covered him with her body. At the sight of that mother covering her child from someone that all turned to look at me and they had the same reaction, I only smirked under my helmet and made the visor darker so the eyes were more evident and was the few things that they can see of me besides my blades crackling of energy and soon death.

"Sorry dogs...but using others as slaves is a crime...and where I am from it is a crime punishable by death..."

They started to back away from me as soon as I took a single step forward, getting into a combat stance.

"...to be carried out immediately to the offenders...you all remain here and you shall be spared...but be prepared to be father and husband-less." and with that I slowly backed out of the room, their faces filled with horror and shock on them, and the look of sadistic glee and uncontrolled anger on mine.

As I backed out of the room I sealed it shut by melting part of the door to the wall with pyro tech, melting the lock as well so they couldn't try to force their way out, leaving their only exit to be me when I get back. Smiling at my demolition of the door I took a step back before taking a left turn and continuing my way, using my HUD I saw that the path I was taking was leading me toward an expansive cave that was at least three football fields wide and two football fields long and most likely three stories tall. My only thoughts was 'Wish I had my Javelin...' shaking my head in defeat I kept going until I came to it and if I had any cement in my body I would have most likely and literally shit bricks.

The cave wasn't a cave, it was a section of London.

Flashback

"So did you accept the offer?" I nodded "Are you sure this was a good idea...I don't want to lose you like how we both lost our entire gang...all of us were taken away from us by them...I don't want to lose you" I nodded again, and then walked over to Alaria and hugged her tightly, afraid that if I let her go I would never see her again. "Ro...just promise me this...when you get done with your training...just promise me that you wouldn't change...still be you...it hurts me to see you like this but we both know that if you don't do it that you will soon burn out and die." I only sighed and looked out the window, 'London City...Big Ben still standing and still working...' turning back I looked around in my room, empty as the day as me and Alaria moved in it together but now that the Alliance has found out that I was a Class 5 Biotic and that I was running on fumes since I didn't have any implants to control it and that if I keep going without one I would eventually fry my brain and be killed by it. Looking back at my room-mate and by only friend still alive...and secretly my crush, the type of girl that loves to go out clubbing and partying but when provoked she becomes the scariest fucking thing imaginable, beautiful electric blue hair, long enough to reach the center of her back, slender frame but I misjudged her once when she challenged me to a arm-wrestling contest...lets just say that I lost and that I had a bruised arm. Her eyes a cute red and that kinda scared me when I first saw them when we first met, but by now she got herself a pair of shades to cover them from others since she is shy to hide them, I just laugh everytime she hides them, she punches be in the gut to shut me up.

"So Ala...what are you going to be doing when I am gone? You do know that this training is an entire year and that if I am lucky enough I will get recruited to join the N7 program...if I do get recruited, with the credits I would get we can finally live an easy life...after all the shit we went through this training can finally save us both from the streets." she scoffed a bit and sighed. "Ala...we both know that we can never forget what happened...what those bastards from the Red Fury did to our friends...what we did to them was alot worse. They should be glad that we killed them all and left their bodies were they lie, but it still doesn't tell us how the Alliance figured out how I was a biotic...a C-5 biotic at best..." I shake my head before going to the fridge and pulled out two cans of beer for me and her and used a little biotic to yank her towards me, the sounds she makes when I do that are adorable at best, my reward for bringing her to me was a rough kiss and a knee to the gut. Best reward from the bitch that completes me.

"I somewhat deserve that." she gives me the finger while cracking her beer open "Okay okay...I deserved it...maybe a little bit." she grins at me before throwing her empty can at me and I catch it with my head a she laughs at me. I shake my head to get rid of the dizziness and laughed it off. If only the-

End of Flashback

"GET THAT SURFACE MUTT!" oh fuck me to tears...

Turning around I saw that it was the Alpha Dog wearing full combat gear, pointing a ragged looking blade at me while at least thirty other dogs bearing down at me crossbows, spears, axes, swords, maces, even one of them was using a frying pan as a weapon which I thought was fucking hilarious as hell.

Staring back at the dogs I completely turned around and looked at each one, my glowing eyes giving each of them a piercing glares, the one with the frying pan actually threw it at me which bounced off my shields and bent inwards by the impact. After that dog threw the pan the one next to him elbowed the other in the gut for throwing it, while I was pointing and laughing at that one the entire time, thinking that it was hilarious, in a sense it was.

After my laughter died down I found out quickly that these dogs can burrow into the ground pretty damn fast, and by fast I mean it can probably beat a digger at making a tunnel. By the time they got to where I was standing, I was already running into the ruins of the military district of London, and by the piles of rubble everywhere this was where the Reapers first attacked...they attacked my new home....and I was not there to defend it....

My rage started to boil over as I kept staring at all the destroyed, melted, and just plain obliterated buildings of my old life, the ghosts of the past are coming to greet me and they do not want to let me go until they had their fill of life. Looking at them all, they were all nothing more than pale corpses with missing limbs, melted bodies, faces scratched and burnt off...my people...my friends...soldiers...comrades...all dead because I was not there to defend them when they needed them most.

"Chase after that mutt! Chase it into the cursed lands and bring it back to me alive!"

"Oh" I turned around slowly to look at the dogs.

"Shut" As they got closer I re-activated my omni-blades.

"THE" Once I saw them get within 25 meters of my sights I turned my blades to pyro-tech.

"FUCK" At the 15 meter mark I got into a combat stance while turning on my microphone.

"UP!" 5 meters I let out my inner hatred of life. They never stood a chance.

"The true world revealed in blood of the fallen." was all they heard of my voice before the sounds of screams echoed throughout the caverns.

Everfree Forest, Diamond Dog Cave Entrance, Afternoon, 15 Minutes Later

Standing at the entrance to the lair of the Diamond Dog stood Captain Shining Armor, his hoof in a cast, Princess Cadence standing next to his right, Princesses Celestia and Luna to his left, and behind the four stood a contingent of 50 royal guards, all of them wielding spears and swords with their hooves, mouths, and magic.

"Princess Celestia..are you sure the tracker spell you placed on him when he first awoken is working? And if so are you sure it is really pointing to this cave?" Shining Armor asked while he looked around, the cave looked slightly concealed by vines and rocks, some skeletons of dead animals from the forest, even a pony skull is on a pike. Shuddering at the thought of getting killed like that and never being laid to rest.

"Yes Captain...I know he is down there...and I saw through his eyes before he forced me out that their are at least 17 of my little ponies being held down there...this was the last straw with those dogs and now we have no choice but to force them to leave." her voice stern and is glaring down the entrance, daring any of the dogs to come out.

A few seconds later the loud echoing of dogs screaming out in pain shoot out of the entrance stunning most of the guards and even made Cadence hide behind Shining by the blood curling screams that came from within. One of the guards said the thing that was on every mind of every guard there. "Princess...what was that?"

There was no reply from her, only a saddened look. "Private Corrosive...that was the sound of death...we must hurry if we are to save them from their attacker." The looks she got was a mixture of both confusion and surprise. They all looked at her as if she was crazy or just wanting to get this done peacefully, if it was planned and hired someone to attack them and then come to the rescue to get on speaking terms for peace.

As the guards try to figure out what to do, Celestia and Luna walk into the cave by themselves, leaving the rest behind until they all charged in after them, forming a defensive line in front and behind them. The screams of pain and death grow louder as the go deeper.

What they saw next was a scene filled with death and ruin.

Diamond Dog Cave, Ruins of London, 14 Minutes Ago

As soon as they came within striking distance I unleashed my rage and let it have its fun while I take a backseat lookout within my mind, letting out my own roar I charged forth and the first dog to come close enough to me was cut in half and set on fire as he let out a silent scream of pain as his insides were slowly incinerated and as his blood began to pool out from the open wound, swinging with my right arm first followed through with my left I sliced another dog into three pieces starting from its left arm, the next blade cut him in half from his right arm to his hip. Staring back at the other dogs they all started to back away until their Alpha stomped on the ground and barked out something I had no idea what it meant, but it forced the other dogs into a frenzy of sorts and they all charged at me with reckless fury. Their own demise.

When a small bunch of them grouped together and charged with their spears, my left omni-blade folded upon itself as I changed it to something that these dogs will never be capable of doing. My left hand forming a purple sphere and unleashed it upon them, an explosive force originating from the ground as multiple explosion began to rush toward them at the same pace as they are charging, both collided at the same time lifting all of them into the air. A shockwave and now for a finisher, throw. Shooting another purple sphere at them as it splits itself in half, both hitting the farthest dogs from the rest of the group creating a biotic explosion of bloody body parts and expended biotics. Staring right at the rest of them with a sadistic grin, a few slowly stopped moving until they were pushed forward by the others.

Cutting another two apart I slowly begin to walk toward the Alpha, murderous intent in my eyes as I crush the severed limbs of the dead dogs, not even carrying if they are barely alive, just crushing anything under my boots and occasionally cutting any of them still alive so I can hear them make music with their screams of pain. The Alpha slightly unnerved but the few dogs that are left are now staring at the two of us as he slowly took a step forward and prepared himself until I sheathed my blades and brought up my fists. "You may keep your weapon...I will kill you with my own hands." I raised them into a boxing position as the other dogs thought I was crazy and all rushed me, the last 15 of the male dogs, such a shame.

As they charged I grabbed the first spear thrusted at me and broke it on the back of his spine as I punched another in the face breaking his face, one managed to get behind me and jumped onto my back and tried to remove my helmet but as soon as his claws found purchase under my helmet I jumped into the air and angled myself as I fell on my back, landing ontop of him, crushing him instantly as the sickening crunch of bones cracking and organs being squished under it. Three of them step over me and as before they jam their weapons into me, I push my hands forward and activating the ports in my wrists releasing a cloud of cryo freeze, flash snapping them into ice dogs and standing back up I re-activate my right blade and cut all three in half, making them shatter like glass on the ground.

"Come on dogs..roll over...sleep....DIE!" I shouted while rushing the others, tuning my left blade into the glorious self, the orange pyro shield of death. Smacking the nearest dog in the chest he spontaneously combusted and screamed as he burned to nothing more than a charred corpse as the two nearest started to yelled in pain, swinging wildly as I side stepped out of their flight paths, kneeing one in the gut while slashing the other in the throat with my shield, cutting it open and spraying out his life essence like a water fountain. Grinning like a madman I rushed at the next group of dogs and completely incinerated the four with dual blasts of incineration tech, leaving nothing but piles of charred bone and molten slag.

"Just eight of you normal dogs and your Alpha...I shall spare you few if you leave me to fight your leader alone...otherwise I will kill all of you and then go for your families. I spare no one that breaks the law, you broke it by keeping slaves and enslaving those with rights given to them....I shall drink to your bones if you want to fight me, and I will use your skull as a codpiece and your skull as a drinking cup!" I was speaking out of my ass at the time but I couldn't give a fuck at the moment since one of the princesses still had my lucky 'Box o Fucks'.

After a short stand-off seven of the eight left scampering with their tails between their legs, some of them were even whimpering in fear for their lives when I picked up one of their spears and chucked that bitch at them, nearly spit-roasting one of them as the spear hit the cave wall, sparks flew from where the metal hit the stone. I could have almost imagined that he shit himself when that spear hit the wall next to him. The last normal dog looked at me with determination that he thinks he can land a blow on me but for added laughs it was time to scare that shit out of at least one of the two.

"I don't know who you are friend but you have at least 10 seconds to leave my sights before I lop your arms off and use them to play a set of drums when I get a pair." That got the last one running, and by running I mean he ran as if his ass was on fire and that Satan himself was chasing after him with a pitchfork. The Alpha was barking and growling at the dogs that left him behind, not sure if that is their native language or he is just reverting back to his primal self...either way his head will make an excellent trophy.

As he charged forward with animalistic (pun intended) rage I simply dropped my arms to my sides and started fucking with him by dodging each swing as if it was child's play, for me it was, for him....eh not so much and with each swing he just kept getting more and more angry till he finally snapped and threw his sword at me up close. Not the smartest thing to do in a fight.

I caught the blade, twirled it around and threw it back at him. A grin on my face while on his was one of at first, pure rage, the next, pure shock, than finally my favorite, pure shitting bricks.

His own sword turned against him nailing him right in the left eye, about four inches of the metal blade exiting out of his skull on the other side while the rest was stuck in place, the rest of his body was going into a spasm of sorts while I was to busy laughing my ass off, finding the fact that throwing your weapon at your enemy just to have it thrown back and getting killed by it.

"Oh man that is fucking rich! If only there was someone to see that! The look on his face was goddamn priceless!"

Looking down at myself I saw that whatever blood that got on me was somewhat still dripping wet and that my once regal armor is now nothing more than blood-stained, barely dented, foul-smelling set of N7 Paladin armor ever. The sounds of hooves on stone earned my attention, the sounds of gasping and one of them throwing up earned my attention even more.

And priceless it was...the looks of 50 royal guards, three princesses, and one captain of the royal guard was enough to make me stop laughing and to extend my blades out on instinct.

"Bring him back to Canterlot...he has alot of explaining to do." that voice belong to Celestia...and there is no way I am going back to that cliff city until I find out what this place is.

"I ain't going back princesses, if you want me to come back, you might as well force me to come back."

My snappy comeback was met with more gasps and the same pony throwing up again. Like come on? Its just blood, dead bodies, torn to shreds dead bodies, scent of unwashed bodies, and soon rot.

"Fine than...seize him." Fuck you.

And so I ran, ran back into the London I used to know.

The Truth is in there...I just have to find it. Find out how all of this makes any sense.

'Make sense? What fun is there in making sense?'

Chapter 4: Running from the Past and the Present

Running is always an option.

Memory Sequence 5

"GET DOWN GET DOWN!" was all I heard until I felt an explosion on my back sending me end over end onto the main landing pad where a fighter was taking off from its launcher, my body landed right in its path and I knew even if my shields were at full strength the heat from those engines would eat right through them and my armor, incinerating me into ashes in seconds. Getting up quickly I ran my ass off the to the ledge and took a leap of faith off, hoping to land on something...that something was huge and metallic.

"Get that alliance marine off of the Atlas!" so that was what I landed on....

Taking my chance which was already slim enough since I was inside of the chassis of the Atlas and was surrounded by what I presume was maybe fifty troopers, a couple Centurions, a few Guardians, and maybe a nemesis or two. But this was goddamn insane, the amount of troopers was enough to probably fill a cruiser, fully operated and ready to go.

Quickly hauling ass I got moving in that chassis, closed the cockpit, turned that fucker on, and activated my shields as the first grenade blows up near my head and nearly shitting myself since that explosion could have taken my head off and I would be a corpse surrounded in two metal coffins.

Flipping more switches I activated the main gun and turned the left claw until it was ready to be smacked against a soft covered target, IE a trooper. "Hey Katherine! Go suck a dick you bitch these are my kills! Hey trooper! Suck on this!" yelling over the mic I turned my cannon on a Cerberus Trooper and blew that fucker all to hell, his body was no where to be found, except on the floor, the walls, part of his body was glued to the ceiling of the hanger bay. Without even thinking I smacked a grounded Kodiak and for a brick it flew pretty good, that bitch rolled over four times before crashing into a fuel tank and blowing up sending metal fragments everywhere, the door to the Kodiak crashed into my Atlas and finally I took another grenade and my canopy cracked and I nearly lost focus on the missile flying right at me until it was stopped in mid-flight by a gravity-well.

At first I thought that I was gonna be killed by that missile but thank you Satan that biotic lass saved my sorry ass from being blown off, swinging my left arm at a group of troopers I fired off my cannon again, blowing a few more up and watching the body parts go flying off, amusing as hell until I saw another Atlas mech coming in to join the fray but lucky for me that it didn't notice me yet and that it was now firing at my friends. Sometimes it pays to be the person in the giant mobile death machine.

"Hey! Fuck face!" That got the Atlas's attention mighty quickly, "Suck on this!" I fired my rocket at him, that thing fucking did spirals in the air before it impacted on its right arm, blowing that bastard off and leaving it weaponless and making it a melee fighter but with my cannon that bitch was fucked. Firing again I blew its chassis apart and its pilot fell out dead and it later exploded since the damage was to much for its power core to keep in circuit, forcing itself to overload and explode, killing pretty much twenty Cerberus bastards with it.

"And that Katherine, is how you kill in style. Any questions?" I said while thudding over to them, occasionally shooting any Cerberus soldier I could find while moving my way toward them. After stepping on a Centurion that was busy trying to stand up and punting a Nemesis over the edge I laughed as I merrily blasted a Guardian into bits as I got closer to my squad. Looking over at them I saw that they were all shot and not wounded but the marks on their armor was enough to know that they were hit by a few nemesis rounds and that Brahat was giving two pairs of stink eye.

Ignoring it I just tell my team that I still have my old Cerberus authorization codes and I can get us into the base, Katherine gave me the middle finger, Brahat told me to go fuck myself, the other two just shrugged and followed me over to the door as I hopped out of my mech, put the code word in, and watched the magic unfold as the two bulkheads unlocked themselves and slid apart. Quickly hopping back into my mech I closed the window and as soon as the door was fully opened I pointed my cannon inside to see if anyone was waiting for us, the quite sounds was a welcoming change of pace for me.

"Come on lets get going, grab this data, and blow this bitch all to hell." and for once everyone agreed with me and with that we ran as fast as we could since they had to occasionally stop for me to disengage the security lockdown on half the bulkheads but once we reached the heart of the facility I had a sinking feeling.

"Guys...why the fuck is this place so damn empty? We should have ran into at least seven squads on the way here, but not a single soul is here? Why is that?" my response was an explosive sigh, an angry batarian telling me to fuck off about my worries, the quarian saying that we are lucky that it was a patrol shift perhaps, the asari just said that most of the squads moved outside when we started to attack. I guess I just have to believe in their answers.

Going back to the bulkhead we found that it was destroyed and that we had to find another way out, that other way was through the security office and I had to leave my beautiful and yet damaged mech behind. Getting out of it and giving a kiss on the giant cannon I told it 'Later' while rubbing it a bit. I was the first person to walk outside as the blizzard started to get rough, thinking that it was over I spoke up.

"See? Easy as...fuck." I said as I looked down the blade of an old friend of mine.

"Welcome home Delta." go fuck yourself Kei Leng.

Memory Sequence End

Diamond Dog Lair, Old London Ruins, Afternoon

I have been running for three hours now trying to lose them in the ruins of my peoples old city, hoping to lose them in the piles of rubble and bones of the fallen.

"Get back here! Shadowtail, Grace, Golden Daisy, fly up and tell us where he is going!" Fuck I forgot they have pegasi guards...

Turning my head to look over my shoulder I saw that the one called 'Golden Daisy' flew up higher than the rest and was basically acting like a living UAV...what a bitch...should call her Daisy Cutter instead, grunting under my breath I turn a corner and nearly run directly into Shining Armor himself, nearly shouting out loud I turn tail and run in the opposite direction, almost tripping over an M-8 Avenger, kicking it out of the way as it unfolds itself and just lays there armed and ready to be used...if only I could get to it without getting trapped.

Running back I nearly crushed a guard since he tripped and my boot crushed a skull that was right in front of him, sparing him from a near certain death by my boot. Jumping over his back I kept running past the other two guards that were with him as I barrel through another group of guards until I come face to face with Princess Celestia and Luna, both of them staring right at me with stern glares as the rest of the guards surround me like a criminal.

"Fucking hell..."

"Now now...now reason to say such language...please come with us peacefully Roran, you did not need to run from us, we were just trying to help you." Oh...she did not just say that I needed help. Oh fucking no she did not just say that to me.

"Princess...you did not just say that I needed help..." she nodded at me as if I was being hard to get, two can play that at that child's game. "Girl...you have no fucking idea who you are messing with. I have killed hundreds of my own kind that has turned against us during the Reaper War, the Skyllian Blitz, on Omega, hell I even had to kill eight people on the moon...they had to die...every single person that was on the other end of the barrel or blade tip had to die." I said with my rage starting to rise again after the blood bath that I made.

Extending out my omni-blades I took a step forward at the two. "Just because you are royalty does not mean anything to me. Blood is blood, it all spills the same way, in puddles or in fountains, yours will be the same if you try to stop me. This was my peoples home, these buildings, my peoples legacy, these skeletons that litter the floors!" Grabbing a skull from the ground and crushing it in my hand, "OUR DEMISE! I will not be stopped by you, the royal guards, or any pony here. I will watch this place be destroyed by my hands than watch it given to anyone else!" I was losing my fucking mind by looking at all the dead bodies that littered the floor, all the skeletons of my race that are in piles or heaps did nothing to the ponies since they thought those were recent.

Looking into their eyes I saw that Luna has some tears forming up while Celestia was trying hard to hold them in.

"Alaria. Play Ass-kicking Soundtrack Number 3."

"Affirmative Captain Asshat." God damn it...I really need to change that.

As soon as it started I heard the sounds of attempted muffled hoof steps behind me and in a split second I turned around and deked the guard, forcing him onto the ground as a pair of hoof cuffs...hand cuffs? Whatever the fuck it was that shit fell with him, running away from the princesses I ran full tilt and kept on running while avoiding the incoming blasts of magic as it hit the ground near my feet, and turning only my head to see the pegasi guards taking flight again and telling the guards below where I'm going...always cheating...I need to cheat than to make it fair.

Running back around a partially melted tower I saw that the M-8 was still on the floor waiting for me and as soon as I ran by and picked it up I saw that it was modified and that the heat sink was partially popped out, not sure if the sink had to be replaced or just needs to be inserted properly I didn't care. Smacking that clip into its home I read out on its ammo counter that it had 75 shots in capacity which is good for me if I am careful in my firing, and that it had an omni-blade attachment which meant no more punching things and than stabbing em, now just bayonet em and throw them off and keep running.

Taking a left turn and than a random right behind a building, skipping over more bones and reaper soldier remains I ran full tilt while dodging hooves from the guards, not wanting to get caught while searching for the loaded rifle, a way out in case of shit hitting the fan, and lastly to find my old room. While running I spotted a half melted Kodiak and quickly climbed into it, a few of the guards galloped by me while one looked at the front, seeing himself in the reflection until he saw the omni-blades orange glow and started to kick out the windows and after a while he managed to make a whole large enough to fit his head, in which I gently stabbed him on the nose, forcing a yelp out of him and a loud ass laugh from me. The sounds of our little game of hide-and-seek was heard and I resumed my running until I spotted a garage and ran in, closing the door to it behind me, and as soon as I saw the dark blue aura on the door I knew that it was Luna, seeing how she is dark blue or purple it had to be her, so I began to randomly tap on the door controls until it said that I was a thief and it entered locked down, and as it rose a few feet to allow a pony to enter it quickly closed after her, leaving the lone mare against me.

"Wrong place wrong time motherfucker." I said while smirking, my voice was enough to scare her, being alone with me while her backup was outside was enough to make her shake with fear. Laughing loudly I jumped down from the keypad and walked over to her, deactivating the rifle and placed on its respectable slot, and as I got closer to her she tried to find a way out but instead walked into a maze of destroyed cars, power lifters, a few Kodiak's, even a wheel-less Mako which pissed me off since I was gonna use that to get out while I still can get away.

Walking after her I grin under my helmet, slowly catching up to her since she kept trying to climb over the cars and bodies but ends up tiring herself out, slowing down to the point where I can her panting and eventually I hear her body drop to the floor, dead tired.

"Little mare...I know you are tired...I know where you are so don't try to resist me..." I said while stepping over human skeletons and stepping on husks, marauders, cannibals, even a dead brute was lying on the floor. After a few minutes I finally found her, curled up into a ball, shivering out of fear and most likely afraid that I am going to kill her, and stepping closer I saw that she was crying as well and that I can clearly tell that she was trying to make herself as small as possible.

Looking her over I saw that she was a little to small compared to the others, she looked more frail than the other earth ponies and that her mane looked more stylized than the rest, along with the fact that she had a faint smell of perfume that is now mixed with the smell of sweat and dirt. "Little mare...I won't hurt you...I promise I won't...you are an unarmed civilian...on my orders I can not harm a civilian. I will get you out of here...you just have to let me touch you." as I said that she slowly moved her hooves from her face, her eyes are red from all the crying and very slowly she moved a hoof over to me, and by my guess that she wanted me to help her up so she can leave but when I got closer I saw that she hurt herself on something, and taking a closer look her rear right leg was bleeding a bit, helping her get on her hooves again I saw that it was a fragment of a marauder's head spike and that it was at least a good inch or two into her. I sighed deeply as I put my hand on her rear, and suddenly heard a yelp, looking at her I saw that she was sensitive there and looked to where my hand was, and behold that it was on those marks on their asses.

Logical Guess: Ass Marks=Ultra Sensitive.

Stupid Guess: Fun Spot!

Illogical Guess: Marks=What The Fuck?

Shrugging a bit I quickly put my hand back where it was and with my other yanked the spike out and as soon as it came out she freaken mule kicked me in the head, snapping it to the side as she looks at me. The pain it gave me hurt like hell, it was like firing a Claymore shotgun right at my face, trying to use the iron sights on it and not entirely keeping the damn thing in a firm grip.

"S...s...sorry...I...I panicked...the pain...it hurts...." she was whimpering from the pain, and I was moaning from the sudden hard kick to the face but at least my helmet kept my head from exploding like a watermelon.

"It is alright Little mare...and now...since we are stuck in here till they rather knock the damn gate down, I unlock it and raise the gate, or we find a way out....and I am guessing you have a few questions about me than." I said while my lights slowly turn to white for normal status, and at that change the pony stopped being scared by a small amount and nodded at me. "Well than let us go find us a safe place to set up camp for a while...the security office is nice...if its still there." she agreed to follow me but as we got half way there she started to slow down until she couldn't keep going, turning around I picked her up with one hand and carried her like a baby with that arm, she weakly hit my upside the helmet with her hoof, saying that she was not a foal and was an adult, so far doesn't look like it.

As soon as we got to the room I had to set her down on a partially decayed hammock and started to remove dead husks and cannibals, stomping on their heads to make sure they are dead and not just playing dead. After a good ten minutes of head stomping the room was clear of corpses and I went back to the injured guard, tending to her wound by finding a med-kit and pulling out partially good bandages and wrapping them around the punctured flank, which to me sounded so wrong in my head, like how was I going to explain that to everyone else outside? 'Oh yea the mare? Yea her flank got penetrated by a large metal object...no no its alright I helped her with it...' my god that will get me killed horribly if I said that and her brothers or sisters heard that...

Ten minutes after disinfecting and dressing her wound I left her to rest while I explored the building I was in, and from the looks of garage security that this was the first place to be hit, and as soon as I got to the lobby I saw that the windows were somewhat still intact, cracked and missing a few pieces but intact, and taking a look out the window I saw that all the princesses were waiting out by the gate, all the guards hammering at the gate, trying to force it down, looking up a bit I saw that the few pegasi were flying circles over head, thinking that I will try to slip out the back but knowing this building, the only way out besides the front is the roof top landing pad...and I know that is a long shot. Moving around more corpses, bone piles, even a severed arm still attached to a fireman's axe...at least this person died fighting.

The climb to the second floor was simple since their was no bodies on it, and by the looks of it I am in an apartment complex for military personnel and officers...entire second floor is empty, not even a lone weapon left behind, third floor was a bit corpsy, a few used thermal clips, a box of grenades that is covered in a thick layer of dust and blood, and one dead brute that is missing its head. Props to the soldier that blew that thing off.

Fourth floor...

Why are you none existent?

When I got to that fourth floor I saw that there was nothing of it left but support beams and piles of ashes, and when I mean piles I mean fucking piles, I could have jumped on them and create a cloud of it. Sure that would be fun but I respect the dead...well dead of my people, the dead of other species I can give a rats ass, hell I even ripped the eyes of a batarian once, and they said that their eyes are important when they die, so well....I ripped them out and crushed them while they were still connected to his brain. In all I was a douche for doing that while he was still alive. No I just don't give a damn about respecting the dead.

Fifth Floor....

Why must you be so full of dead bodies?

I shit you not, the entire floor was littered with corpses, mostly husks and brutes, but still the amount of dead bodies surprised me. My guess was that they made a last stand here and anyone or everyone fought to the death waiting for extraction but it never came. I saw mothers still holding their children close to them, men still holding their rifles or pistols, fighting to the last man...seeing the ghosts of the dead is haunting as hell...seeing it all happen as I walk into the room was even more haunting...and I knew this happened...this happened during the first weeks of the war...London was an all out dead land. No life on the streets except for survivors running place to place...reaper forces looking for survivors to be processed....

Sixth floor...

What I saw on that floor before it was the roof was...it was hell...I saw bodies...not skeletons or rotting bodies...these are...ashes...the bodies that have turned to ashes on the outside but hollowed out on the inside...I knew that they were alive at some point...but watching them get burned alive in an instant....their was holes in the walls of where the Reaper Destroyers fired...clean through the building and anyone caught was an ash statue...

Walking quietly down the halls I saw more and more holes in the building, looking around only to find piles of dried slag, ash bodies, destroyed rooms...otherwise nothing.

Looking at the doors that were still intact I saw that this building was my old apartment complex before I was shipped to the Traverse Systems...and found Cerberus...so much went so wrong in a few days when I was sent out to Eden Prime...I was one of the few people that was there when Saren attacked it...with those blasted Geth soldiers of his. Him and anyone else that works for the Reapers will pay for betraying us...and killing them has been my main goal for four years before Earth was attacked...and now look at this place...we had every fleet in the galaxy...but from what I can tell that wasn't enough to save us from complete and utter annihilation...we have failed...and we lost everything...

The sudden sound of hooves banging on a door was enough to kick me out of my depressed state of life and made me realize that the chase was still on and that the roof door didn't have any lockdown gates...which meant that they can just buck the damn thing down in a matter of seconds.

And I was right. As soon as I got to take a look at the door I saw it crack inward from a powerful kick to center mass, and turning tail I looked at each door number, hoping to find my room and hide in it till it blows over, knowing these ponies they will respect the dead and leave since their bodies are to long to proper move in these hallways with ease without destroying a corpse in the process.

Without even turning my head I started moving back to the doors, looking at the numbers and silently swearing with each unsuccessful room not being the one I am looking for, and time is of the essence when a swarm of angry ponies that are capable of flying and using telekinesis, and having three ponies capable of doing both is a nightmare...I can only do one and flying...only if I was tossed out cause I consider that flying if I can angle myself just right and not go face first into the ground splattering myself everywhere like a tomato.

After 10 ten doors of wrong numbers I finally found the door to my old room, still intact except that their was a huge blood splatter on it and four bullet holes in it. That worries me...I know that she knew how to use a pistol but the way this looked...it looked like she fell down while firing...like she tripped or was shot herself...either option was bad enough. I knew that she was dead but I want to know how she died...old age...disease...forced to join the battle for humanity....or was she turned into a husk and put down before she killed anyone....so many options of how she went out...but none of them was assuring to me...

"THERE HE IS!" Ah....fucking hell...

Turning my head I saw an armored pony head poking out of a hole in the wall, trying to wedge his way in and get to me but lucky his fat ass couldn't fit or even go further without hurting himself which would be amusing to me greatly. As he kept trying to wedge his way in I tried to get the door to open but it wouldn't budge like something was blocking it, so I did what any sense able man would do when a girl locks a door on him when he needs to get inside.

I fucking blew that door open with a sticky grenade placed at the center of the door, blowing it everywhere while leaving it still attached, making a nice human sized hole large enough for me to fit without as much of room to spare. Throwing my rifle in the hole first before my half-assed bandolier of grenades with it, not wanting to throw grenades in first than myself...that would be silly, putting grenades first than myself, hell if those went off early for some crazy reason than my own ass would explode cause of a pre-mature detonation. Hehe...

"Alaria...play a random soundtrack. Something good."

"Affirmative."

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uMyamvpFS1Y]

Outside of the Military building

"Princess, we found him in the ruins of an old building. He has no where else to go but the roof of the building." one of the pegasi guards, Golden Daisy, said while panting from the constant flying in the caves.

Without even turning around to look at her Celestia smiles and speaks up, "Good. You may rest now Daisy, and tell the other flyers to come down and rest as well. It is only a matter of time before Roran gets tired of hiding and leaves that building." a loud thud was heard by them and they look to see a small puff of dust fly out of the sixth floor.

"Seems like our friend found a trap and set it off...we need to hurry."

Back Inside

Taking a look back at the pony who decided to put his head in the hole I noticed that he was darker than the rest, and by darker I mean he looked like he got dunked in dark paint and never bothered to wash that crap off his coat, that or he was born like that, first thought is the funny one since I did that to at least three different marines all in the same day. End result was my ass getting drugged and drunk off my ass and waking up next to a very satisfied krogan....my memory was a bit fuzzy but I do know that I did the walk of shame while strangling one of the marines.

Pointing and laughing at him I made my way into the hole I made and picked up my things, taking a glance around I saw that it was the hall, and the room in front of me was the living room, taking another glance around I saw that it was clean, some burn marks but nothing else odd. This was very odd...even for her...

Taking a position by the door to our bedroom I counted to three and kicked it in with a loud thud and a crack from the door breaking and splintering from the force and impact. Looking down the sights of the rifle to see if anything was still or barely alive in the room, not wanting to be ambushed by anything still in there. After my rifle gave me an affirmative that nothing was alive in the room by vibrating the grip twice and with a quick prayer to any god that has my attention at the time which is currently Satan, Chick Norris, Leroy Jenkins, and all time favorite myself.

Looking int other room I saw nothing out of place except a large hole in the wall and nothing else below it so something must have misfired. Not noticing anything else I inch my way into the room, searching for any signs of well...anything at this point.

To describe my old room in its current condition will be a freaking miracle on its own, I mean it is totally a fucking mess that even I would be proud to call it my own except that if I made it, it would smell like stank and shame and I would be the king of the cloths pile with my beer can and pistol, except since it wasn't my pile, I call it a shame and should be burned for trying to be like my pile of crap. From left to right this was my room's condition, books on the floor, shot up window, dead husk, dead marauder, dead marine, more books, a field ration, a half melted corpse that I had no fucking idea what it was, broken vase, a not smoked cigar in which I picked up and added to my collection of smokes, a mass-produced doll from the movie called Halo and I took it and tied it to my waist near a new 'Box of Fucks', another dead husk, and lastly an ash statue sitting on a chair looking right at the door....looking at me.....a familiar face looking right at me.

Oh...my...fucking...god...

The ash remains of my old girlfriend, Alaria.

Back Outside

"Any progress on finding a way inside Captain Armor?"

"None yet...the rooftop is closed off and the basement is still sealed shut...I am sorry Princess Celestia but Roran has officially barricaded himself into that building with one my guards...I will not leave my guards behind for any reason."

"I know that Captain but we can't get in as you said...the only other options are we blow a hole into it or we find a way to destroy the blockage at the roof and the basement...and these buildings look ancient and if we put to much force into it, they might collapse and crush us."

As the two argued about how to get the human out and how to get their pony out safely without causing any damage to either of them until the sounds of a loud yell snapped them out of it.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! GOD DAMN IT NO! NO! NO! WHY! WHY! ALARIA WHY! GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!"

They were silent when they heard that loud outburst until it finally stopped and then the sounds of metal groaning under stress as the unicorn guards finally managed to force the garage door open by putting enough force and pressure at its center, making it cave in on itself.

"Uh...guardsponies...get in there...get our missing guard...get her out now...and if you find Roran...just tell us...from the sound of that yelling...he found someone he cared for...lets just...avoid him at all costs."

But it was to late to avoid the on coming rage train.

Back Inside

""NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! GOD DAMN IT NO! NO! NO! WHY! WHY! ALARIA WHY! GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!"

The ash shell of my old girlfriend, staring right at me, and by her feet was the remains of a syringe and a saddened look on her face. I dropped down to my knees, dropping my rifle and anything else in my hands to the ground. Staring back at the remains of Alaria, tears come to my eyes, my hands shaking as I tried to feel her skin, only for it to slightly leave a dent on her cheek.

"Alaria...why...why...why did you kill yourself..." I croaked out while crying inside my helmet, the tears falling onto the visor as I just stared at the floor, on my hands and knees not even caring about the world around me or outside of the building.

"We promised each other that we would never kill ourselves by our own hands or the hands of others....why....was the fighting here so horrible that you couldn't handle it? Why...why why why....Alaria why...." I slowly got closer to her by crawling to her left side, avoiding the syringe and avoiding any contact to ruin her still form. my tears blurring my vision and my crippling sadness was enough to get me to not even care about who might be watching.

Taking off my helmet for the first time in what would have been 2 years of constant fighting against Raiders, Cerberus, Reapers, and even against my old friend Kei Leng, but only to have myself petrified to stone and to watch my world and my race get reduced to ashes and echoes.

Looking at her body I saw that by her feet was a data disc, covered in a thick layer of dust and ashes, picking it up with a wobbly hand and putting into the data port at the rear of my helmet. Once the disc was placed in the port it began to play an old recording of Alaria started to appear on the wall to my right, the recording was rugged and shaking as whoever or whatever was holding it must have been in a hurry or that they were under attack.

"Roran...the Alliance can't hold on any longer here in London...they are evacuating any survivors to Rio Grande.....they tried to hold the line but the Reapers just....they just annihilate everything in their way...they have already set up harvesting plants...I..I saw my friends get turned into those...those monsters....they are killing everything Roran....please...please come home....get us...get all of us out of here....we can hide somewhere...put ourselves to sleep and wait it out....use your Cerberus connections to get us out...please...just please...." it gets slightly cut off as a loud thud was heard and the loud humming of energy is head in the background as the energy is charged up and than is fired at an object outside. "No...their here...Roran...I'm sorry...but I will not be claimed by those things...sorry but I must do this...I wish I can see you again....but I will not be turned into a Husk to serve a monster that wants all of us dead...good-bye my love...good-bye..." and with that she sighs sadly before picking up a small case to her side, clicking it open, taking it a small syringe before injecting it into her neck, and a few moments later she goes limp, the syringe falling to the floor, and a moment later a loud metallic roar goes off than finally a bright beam enters the room for a few seconds before it stops, the room shakes and the feed goes dead.

"Alaria....I...I failed you....I failed Earth...the Alliance....I failed everyone....if only I was fast enough...if only I was strong enough...if only...if only we were fast enough...if only....if only..." I slammed my fist down on the ground, making a large dent in it, the sound of the floor creaking and groaning, than slamming my fist again, and again, and again until I fell on my back, just slamming my fist down until I couldn't feel anything in my head. Just losing myself to the pain of loss and agony.

The sound of hooves was behind me, their voices loud enough to be heard from my lying position.

"Sir...I hear crying...are you sure this is a good idea to try and spy on him...we don't know if this is a trap or if he is crying because he found something he didn't want to find?

"Oh be quiet Featherweight...who cares, the princesses want him alive so we bring him alive to them. Now come on lets go get him while he is not paying attention."

Wrong move assholes.

I got up off my ass, grabbed my rifle, my grenades, and finally grabbed my last piece of memory of my past and put my helmet back onto its respectable place on my head, and took a step near the door. I counted to three and kicked the door open and found four ponies waiting by the door and each one wore the facial expression of shock as I butted, kicked and pimped slapped my way to the hall way, leaving four knocked on their asses guards, and for added insult to injury I picked up one of the male guards, put him on top of another male guard in the 69 position, and laughed evilly while running to the roof.

Upon getting to the roof I found out how strange my luck system is so far, first I lose my arms and legs, than I get lucky and win the lottery on the Citadel, than I got kicked really hard in the nuts by a pissed off krogan warlord, than I get shot in the foot by the same krogan warlord, after that I got promoted to the rank of Lt. Commander, than I got lucky enough to retire early because of my accident and joined Cerberus, got unlucky when I was paired up with Kei Leng and on our first mission got fucked up, I now have a few replaced organs, and lastly my bad luck stuck to me when I got re-instated to the Alliance Navy and got blasted by a Reaper. In all....fuck my life.

On that roof I was on, I shit you not, was a Kodiak, still in one piece, still looked like it could fly and if I could bet all the money I had on me, could fly on the first time I push the power button. Running to the side panel I tap the button that opens the door, and in that exact moment, I thought my brain exploded from how lucky I was, the door opened up with ease, I get in, close it behind me, went straight to the cockpit, and my luck took a shit on me when it said that power core was damaged and needed to be repaired. I went into a fit of rage, punched the cockpit window, the door, the side panel, and just to try and calm down I throw a grenade off the ledge and it exploded on the roof of another building, making it shake a bit from the small shockwave and explosion, and my luck decided to take a large crap on my head by making it partially collapse on itself, blowing whatever cover I had left.

In a matter of seconds every single pegasus guard flew up to the roof and all three princesses also flew up and landed near the Kodiak, my back facing it. I was once again my back against a wall.

"Okay...I know what you are about to say...'Was this human that stupid to make a building cave in on itself?' Well..honestly yes...I do believe so, but than again...last of my kind, these are my people's structures, my inheritance, so yea...I guess I have the right to do what I want with it...and besides...your guardsmare is fine...she is in the security room in the basement if you haven't gotten to her already..." I said while keeping my rifle at my hip, leaving it pointed at them since none knew if it was loaded or not.

"So are you ready to give up and come back with us? We just wanted to help you." said the shorter pink horned pegasus, still don't know what they are called or what her name is, so for now I will just called her Short Pinky.

"Yea...I guess I am ready...but first let me do one last thing..." and with that I ran right at them, putting my barrier field up, and jumping over them, and with a fast motion jumped over the ledge. To most humans, jumping off a six story building is suicide, for a man with robotic parts, cybernetic implants and organs, and a soft landing spot...somewhat possible and survivable.

The looks on their faces when I jumped over the edge. Priceless.

"Fuck this shit I am out of here!!!" I said as I went over the edge, Celestia had her jaw dropped, Luna was busy trying to figure out what 'fuck' means, and Short Pinky was completely oblivious to what was going on.

Note to self: Jumping off a building while there was pegasi guards in the air and unicorns on the ground was probably not the best idea since they can easily catch me. About half way down I felt four pairs of hooves around my arms and legs, which to me sucked since I was gonna land perfectly fine, but I guess they thought I took the suicide route.

One thing about me. I never, ever, take suicide as an option even if it was my only escape from pain or torture.

Quickly shaking my arms and legs they tightened their hold until I smacked and kicked a few of them, forcing them to let me go, and a four story drop while spread out...yea...that is a very painful belly flop if landed like that, but for me, it was more like I landed on left leg first, than my right, entered a roll, and broke through a window before getting stopped by a counter. Even after millions of years, hitting my head on a hard object while wearing a protective helmet still hurts like a bitch.

After ten minutes of cradling my head and swearing to the point where if I hadn't turned off my mic, the ponies would have thought I was saying all those words to them, and they would not have known any or all of them, and if they knew some of them than I wonder if I was talking in my sleep or they read my mind when I was a statue that night...either way...imma have to explain a bit....or not.

"Are you done fooling around Roran, because this is starting to become silly and a waste of time." my lord...does the short pink one ever shut up....

"Ya...yea yea yea...I would say fully done...but I just landed in an old safe house...a fallout shelter..." which was true since the sign on the back door said 'This way to Bunker #404', and truth be told that sounded pretty fake since most bunkers would have a long serial code not three numbers. "Don't try to stop me from opening it and finding anything inside."

As soon as I opened those doors a pile of skeletons fell over and landed on top of me, which scared the shit out of one guard, made a few gag, and even made Short Pinky cover her eyes, to me I just laughed it off and threw the skeletons aside where they burst into ashes from being so old and fragile.

"Okay...not what I was expecting...but it is a good start. My people got here in time...but something got in and killed them all...gotta clear this out...be back in...oh lets say...an hour?" and once I got up and began to close the double-doors, I heard the sounds of life behind me...and the sounds of a couple hundred or less Husks behind me.

"Fuck." was all I said before a hand grabbed my leg, yanked hard on it, and dragged me a few feet until the ponies entered after me, all three princesses had their horns glowing, my guess that it was like a biotic blast in my books.

I looked down and saw that the Husks looked like they are running on fumes, their energy reserves look incredibly low and they energy lines on their bodies look like they are about to fail at any moment, taking my chances I kicked the one holding me in the face, its head looked like it took a shotgun to the head, just caving in and squirting its black gunk you would call blood everywhere. Turning on my helmet lights, I saw that I was right about a couple hundred or less, it was most likely the hundreds that fled here and turned into a harvesting facility, and these unlucky fucks were the harvested.

"Pony Princesses! Get the fuck out of here!" I shouted while punching another in the head, pulling out my M-8 Avenger and using single shots while aiming, making sure each shot counts. I heard a half-ass response from them before I shouted louder in my mic, "Get your fat flanks out of this god-damn bunker now before I start kicking each and every single one of your flanks out myself!" That got their attention and once I turned that corner my ammo counter ran out, and they were waiting for me to get there to seal it off.

My Luck Counter which is always placed near my small radar symbol near my left eye suddenly turned to zero.

My luck telling me to go fuck myself...again...

I felt my hands grab the handles of the doors to pull myself through and close it behind me, but the grip of 7 Husks was enough to only get my hands on the edges of the door. More and more began to grab onto their comrades and pull, the door slowly closing as slowly got pulled into the hell behind me. Turning my head back I saw some of the Husks trying to claw at me while being held back by the ones grabbing me, looking forward I saw the ponies trying to get the Husks off of me...my decision was suicidally insane.

"Don't look back Princesses." I shouted while slowly closing it behind them, their faces turn to shock as I slowly trapped myself with them. "Don't look back!" was all they heard before the doors were shut and sealed from within.

Chapter 5: Selfless Sacrafice or Foolish Thought

Memory Sequence Six

"Welcome home Delta." go fuck yourself Kei Leng.

His blade was mere inches from my throat when he pointed it at me, and in a few seconds it was almost right in my throat if I hadn't backed away at the last second and tripped over a dead trooper. That sword of his was literally an inch away from cutting my head off if I had not moved back and tripped.

Rolling to my right and than getting up I barely ducked in time to avoid another decapitating blow that would have left me a head shorter and bleeding all over the floor, and quickly jumping over the next swing until my team finally decides to open fire at the bastard ninja, making him do flips till he got to the ledge and jumped over it with ease.

"And that is how you say hello to your old Cerberus friends, they try to kill you by cutting your head off any questions?" I said sarcastically while brushing myself off. One hand was raised.

"Yea...let me guess...Kei Leng...did the Illusive Man send you to kill me or to possibly get me back...after all he did spend a couple million credits on my sorry ass..." I said while getting up, grabbing my big ass machine gun, turning the safety off and pointing at the edge.

There was only silence as I slowly moved forward until I felt a hand clamp down on my gun, rip it out of my grip, and another hand grab my should and threw me over the ledge, landing back first on a crate before rolling over and quickly getting up and looking up to see that Kei Leng jumped down and followed me. Pulling out my close combat weapon of choice, my monomolecular blade, just like his except that mine was slightly curved to give it an extra 'Fuck you' to anything that gets cut by it, straight blades are for stabbing, mine was slightly curved, cutting through shit that gets in its way.

Looking around I found out quickly that he planned this because the blizzard not only set in, the blizzard was raging and I can barely see anything as far as five meters, anything else and I might as well try to spot a person on Earth from the fucking moon.

"Come on out Kei Leng....let us settle this like men....first to kill the other bastard wins and gets to leave this rock in one piece...how does that sound?" I said while looking around, my visor is on the fritz and can't even lock onto any heat signatures, forcing me to rely on my own crappy eyes.

"No, we are going to settle this as we should have on our last mission together back on the Citadel. With my sword in your back and leave you drowning in a pool of your own blood." have it your way asshole.

As he spoke I turned to my left to see him quietly sneaking up only for him to take my left fist right in the face, knocking him off balance only to regain balance and nearly slice off my left arm....would have said again but that blasted building beat him to it. We swung, stabbed, slashed and sliced at each other for over two hours, both of us getting cuts, gashes and scrapes as we brawled it out, Cerberus troops were busy keeping my team busy and it looks like they are actually losing...gotta wrap this up fast.

"What is the matter Delta...afraid to lose your squad like you did the last time. You were held back as they were wiped out in front of you, and you just stood their scared for your life. You are pathetic and should not be allowed to live, the Illusive Man thanks you for your service." and when I thought I had him he manages to get out of my sight long enough to do what he was told to do, eliminate me. I heard the sound of the sword coming at me, I moved my right arm to take the hit but he was stabbing at me, the blade going into the forearm, and with enough momentum and force, shoved the blade into my chest cavity.

"Fuck....you....Shithead...McFucklips...." was all that escaped my lips as I pitched over and fell face first into the snow, my blood already leaking out of the crack in my armor and began to pool around me.

As he turned to go assist his forces in the raging battle above us I weakly grab his left leg, and yanked hard on it, sending him down to the floor and dropping his sword along the way, as he tried to reach for it I yanked his leg again, dragging him closer to me as I crawled near him and punched him in the ribs, forcing him to cough blood and grabbing his neck I threw him away from his sword as I was busy trying to get to his to use against him.

"Your move....McFucklips..." I said weakly as I took that sword of his and threw it over the ledge and pulling out my pistol and fired at him, which he took three of my five shots to the right leg as he fell over and moved behind a crate to avoid my last few shots before I pulled myself up on a different crate and sat there bleeding out, even an application of medi-gel would not entirely help with a punctured lung, punctured stomach and a few broken ribs.

Not hearing a sound was bad news for me since he can still move unhindered and can easily find me because of my blood trail. Looking around slowly I had to keep my eyes peeled and my breathing slow if I wanted to get out of this shithole alive but taking a sword to the chest and bleeding out was never on my part of the deal when I rejoined the Alliance.

"Katherine...I'm done...fucking Kei Leng stabbed me...punctured lung and stomach at best...bled out a bit but sealed wound with medi-gel...how is your end up top?"

"We just saw Kei Leng a minute ago, looked like he was leaving...wait...he just took a shuttle out of here...Cerberus forces are retreating...."

"Wait for me by our shuttle if it wasn't shot down...I have a loose end to tie up...over and out."

After I turned off my channel I limped my way over to the ledge and saw that his sword was gone, sighing that I didn't get a trophy from this skirmish I turned and got off the lower landing pad, took the elevator up four floors until I was on the roof, spotting an ant-air battery I hobbled over to it and slammed on the controls, re-writing its purpose I saw that there was 10 shuttles flying out, and Kei Leng was somewhere on one of them.

"Burn you son of a bitch....burn...fucker burn..." I said as I slammed my fist on the panel, the first round fired off as one of the shuttles exploded, a dark grin spreading on my face as I finally couldn't keep my weight up and slumped over, falling on my ass on the ground.

"Alliance HQ...mission success...returning to base now....I am to tired for this shit..."

End of Memory Sequence

Everything hurts...my back hurts...my head hurts...my fucking chest hurts....hell if I still had arms and legs than they would be hurting right now as well. Opening my eyes I saw that my visor was cracked and that it was not even working, it was constantly turning on and off, and when it was working I only saw Husks pulling and clawing at me, trying to take off my armor but only give it scratches or small dents that would go unattended.

Barely moving my head I felt that my leg was being gripped tightly by a few of the Husks and being led down a long hallway, and by dragged I mean my ass was hitting skeletons and dead corpses, hell it even hit a table and the Husks didn't care, they just kept dragging me. as I was being dragged I saw the ghosts of those that died in this shithole and found out that all of them were blank eyed and looking down at the floor...indoctrinated and harvested....poor fuckers.

Ten minutes of dragging I slowly got my bearings and felt like shit...but than again fighting hundreds of Husks with only 75 rounds and stick with my back against the wall...getting my ass beat was bound to happen, no matter what I tried to do. After a while I finally started to get feeling back into the rest of my body until I noticed that I was in a large central room covered in ancient dried blood, bones, dust and in the center looked like chairs...until I saw three skeletons hanging from a nearly concealed pole....dragons teeth.

"Ah...fucking...hell..." I said through my mic, which came out all garbled and broken, they must have cracked and damaged my helmet alot worse than I thought it was originally. The bastards first ruined my helmet, beat the crap out of me, and now gonna turn me into a fucking Husk? Oh hell fucken no.

After seeing that they plan to turn me into a Husk like them, I made up my mind that dying and being turned into a mindless machine is not how I want to spend the rest of my existence, quickly searching myself for anything explosive I found my only grenade that didn't get dropped on my way here, I activated the damn thing, dropped it, and within three seconds, the bloody thing exploded, sending dead and wounded Husks everywhere, and leaving me going end over end until I landed right ontop of the death spike.

At that point in time, my life flashed before my eyes, my childhood: sucked ass, my teenage years: sucked major ass, my early adulthood: sucked ass again, my military career: amazed that I did not die yet, my sex life: probably the best in the galaxy, finding a way to redeem myself for failing myself: still searching for a proper response.

Yea...my ass is not dying here today.

Just as the spike began to activate I slowly began slide to the side, and right when it sharply rises and would have impaled me onto it, my helmet got stuck to it, ripping right off my head, and if anyone else saw that, they would have seen a helmet get skewered onto the metal spike and a body fall down from it. I rolled 3 feet before I got onto my own pair, and started to run, with no idea of the bunker layout I just fucken ran as if my ass was on fire, and if the timing was right it could have been.

Right behind me, I shit you not, a fucking hoard of Husks were chasing after my fat ass, and I know that if I trip, slow down, or overall fuck up, I know that my ass will be torn apart in such a way that if my remains are ever found I highly doubt they can even recognize what is what. Turning my head to look I saw an Abomination and with what power I have in my suit that wasn't used up and locked down to preserve as much as I can, I fire off an Overload on it, and from what Shepard said about them, that they explode when hit by an electrical charge or inferno rounds. He was fucking right, that thing just explodes into bits and gore, I could have sworn its head flew past mine as it was letting out a primal roar. If I can get out of here alive I am coming back to find that head and mount it on the wall.

Five minutes of running corners, dodging random Husks, and occasionally using whatever power my suit can snatch up from the dead mechanical corpses to kill them to make more bodies, turning to my left I ran into a room, closed that door and locked it, doing a quick scan of the room I placed a crate in front of the door, just enough to buy myself time to charge up my biotics since I turned it off when I opened the door thinking it would have been a quick burn-and-sweep job and find any weapons or anything but so far its more like run-my-ass-off-for-dear-life job and also a fuck-my-life moment.

Only two minutes catching my breath and I can hear the pounding on the door, the sounds of the Husks yelling and screeching on the other side, trying to claw their way in to get the fleshy prize inside, being me, but I have no intentions of going back to get spiked. My eyes dart back and forth, looking for anything to use, but on the wall was the fire-alarm, and to my right was an old Geth unit, a Geth Hunter model that has been modified with better power cells and armor plating but still looks like it had the crap kicked out of it and was no longer functioning. Will have a use for you later Geth....little fucker...

Hobbling over to the alarm I push down on it, hoping it works and knowing how my luck was running it would probably say 'No Water' or 'Requires Fire' or something stupid like 'No Water for You'...if it was that last one I will find the spirit of the engineer that built this system, and kick him in the balls so hard that they explode. Smirking at that I wait a few seconds until I felt something wet touching the back of my head, looking behind me I saw that the sprinklers were working but the water was dirty as hell and looked like someone threw mud into it, but doesn't matter for what I am going to do.

Opening the door just a crack four arms launch themselves into the room trying to claw at me, and with a quick prayer to anybody and a big middle finger to the first Husk I see, I used Overload on them, the slickness of the water on them and that it was now on the floor and the walls, electrocuted all of them, frying them and from the smoke, burning them to a nice gentle crispy metal parts and if they had any flesh that would have been turned into human bacon.

"Fucking Husks....at least I now have a weapon against them....get em wet and shock em...just hope my suit can hold on." I said to myself, seeing how my AI is still in the helmet, and since that spike just destroyed it...I am alone.

Removing any blockage from the door I kept my right arm pointed outward, an Overload at the ready, turning the closest corner I saw that the water was everywhere and that the swarm of Husks that were chasing me were now drenched and compacted together....the smell of burning metal and circuits was all I smelt for the next hour...

...until I got deked by a Husk and dragged off again...

Old London Ruins, Outside Harvest Bunker, 7 Hour Later

"It has been seven hours...he should have came back by now....why isn't he back? I thought he could easily handle a few dead things..." the solar princess said while waiting outside the ancient shelter in her private tent.

"Are you sounding worried for him....he said that he was a soldier and he has killed many of those creatures....I am sure he is doing fine." said the lunar princess, obviously thinking that her sister was overreacting over something like a missing lost race that was technologically advanced than them, still thinking that that human was a waste of time.

"I am worried for him...he is the last of his kind...being held captive by the undead of his kind...what part of this should I not be worried about? The fact that it has been seven hours or the fact that we have not heard the sounds of fighting from within." she retorted until the loud sound of an explosion behind the tent, sending a burning Husk corpse right into the tent, landing right between the two. "See what I mean...." she sighs a bit before levitating the still burning corpse and throwing it out of the tent.

"Fine than....get Cadence and a few of the royal guards...we are going in after him, and getting him out.

Inside the Harvest Bunker

Sitting in the center of the main room, surrounded by dragons teeth, and around those teeth, are piles of burning, melted, and still boiling piles of Husks and Abominations, and I was covered in my own blood, whatever blood those Husks have, and my armor was cracked and damaged, my shield generator was damaged, my body damaged all to hell, and I was busy coughing up blood like there was no tomorrow.

"Fuck...Turians...fuck Krogans.....fuck Asari...........especially the Quarians.....the Geth, Batarains and the Vorcha can go fuck themselves....Volus....nope...good in my books...hehehehe....handled my money real good...hope it is still in the bank..." I was talking to myself, after planning for an hour I routed all the gas lines in the bunker to the central chamber, and blew that thing all to hell.

"I swear if I die here than I am going to haunt the shit out of those ponies and diamond bitchs....hell...haunt the crap out of everyone!" I said while injecting into myself a dose of Hallex, and thanks to good old Discord, he did something to the vial so it would constantly refill itself.

"Ohhhhhhh yea....thats the ticket...hehe...." and in that moment of time, I thought it would be totally worth it to give myself that shot....it was the worst fucking idea I ever had in my entire life...right next to challenging that one krogan to a drinking contest, losing, and later fucking her in my room, and later doing the walk of shame while drunk as hell....ya...way worse than that.

10 seconds after I took that injection, the world went from a hellish ruins to a fucking god damn nightmare that even made me nearly shit myself out of fear. The walls began to melt and I saw the ghosts began to be all deformed, they all started to reach out to me as I began to flail my limbs at them, trying to swat them away. The burned and burning Husks were dead but began to move again, all of them moving about on the ceiling and walls, I was tripping out so bad that I could see my spirit leave my body, give me the middle finger and just fly off.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HOLY FUCK! KILL IT! KILL IT WITH FIRE! FUCKING KILL THE FUCKING FUCK! HOLY FUCK JUST FUCKING KILL IT!" I yelled as I was tripping beyond normal bounds.

Worst.Day.Ever.

Outside the Harvest Bunker

"You ready everypony, we must get him back alive." Celestia said while wearing her full combat armor, which appeared to be tighter than normal.

"But what if he is dead? That explosion was probably something extremely dangerous, for all we know it can still be in there!" one of the guards said, his voice shaking.

"Than we go in there protected, my sister and I shall surround us in a shield to protect us from harm. We will find him and bring him back....that is final." said Celestia, giving a reassuring smile to the guard before her sister Luna and herself braced themselves near the two doors, and very slowly pulled it open, revealing another pile of corpses except that these were metallic and were burned to a crisp, any metal was boiling out and any dedicates were smoldering and ruined.

The guards had their jaws dropped, not sure what to make of it or even if they were once human or something, Celestia and Luna wore worried expressions, thinking that I was dead and burned like they were.

"Now...once we are in, those left will close the doors, we have exactly one hour to find him...and bring him back. Any questions?" Luna said, not entirely sure why they had to bring my sorry ass out of there.

Not one pony raised a hoof, afraid that if they do find me I might be dead or on a murderous killing spree, they even fear that if they do find me that I might not be willing to come back or even be so fucked up that moving me might be a mistake.

As they all slowly marched into the bunker, they found dead Husks, a few blown up parts, a deactivated Geth unit which they took since it was not scratched, only dirty and wet, and found a few piles of crates that were quickly taken to the doors, and even data tower that was slightly damaged and burnt which they took as well. 10 minutes into their search they all stumbled into the main chamber and what they saw only made the lot of them gag in disgust, a few actually vomited, and one passed out from how horrible it was.

They saw piles upon piles of dead Husks, all of them appeared to be climbing over each other trying to get to the center, a few were crushed under their bid to get to that center area. As they got closer to the center they saw that the piles got larger and more thicker, the bottom of the pile the Husks look like pancakes, even in the back near the walls the bodies were crushed. After only a minute of skirting over the corpses and pushing a few of them aside, they found the center to be empty except for a single body, a badly burned, fucked up all to hell, left eye hanging out of its socket, and chewed to shit body.

"Oh..sweet...Celestia...princess....Princess Celestia! I found him! But...but I think he is dead....he isn't moving...or appears to be breathing...oh...oh" the guard says as he pukes ontop of a barely functioning Husk before it dies from power loss. The guard that found my body was busy trying not to lose whatever was left in his gut all over the floor by looking at the ceiling, and even that was fucked up by what I did earlier.

As the guards moved back from the badly mangled and fucked up body of mine, I let out the lowest groan my body could muster, which at the time sounds like a zombie moaning out for brains. My very groan was enough for the guards to concentrate there weapons at me, each and every single one point their swords and spears towards my general direction, and let me tell you, if I could see properly at that moment, I would laugh at them but in my current state I only want to just take a large drink of hard Vodka, and just drench it over my wounds for it to do what the lord have intended alcohol to do. To burn wounds and sting like a motherfucker.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh.......fuck...me.....to tears......" was all I can manage before I fall over and my left eye just falls out of my socket, the wiring holding it together just snaps and it rolls around till it is staring back up at me. I am a fucking wreck and I put my body on the line many times, and every time my body gets fucked up it always gets better but this was beyond what these ponies can fix, and I do not want to be buried to look like a fucking mess.

"Quickly get him out of here. Whatever we are taking with us take them as well. We are getting out of these caves and ruins immediately." Celestia said and all the guards even Luna herself made a happy sigh, finally knowing they are getting out of my ruined home and these blasted caves.

The last thing I can remember before my body told me to sleep and also to not pay attention to the fact that I am now a cyclops with a shitload of issues.

Canterlot Palace, Medical Wing, 2 Weeks Later

My body slowly kicks my ass to wakeful status, my eye couldn't open and when I realized I have only one eye I was mentally yelling at the top of my lungs till a ghostly looking Discord shoves a wad of cotton candy into my mouth to silence me.

"It has been two weeks princess...he has not shown any sign of movement or life....for all we know he is in a deep coma that even your magic did nothing to stir him...let us just hope for the best." my lord....if that is Doctor Quaker I am gonna stab a bitch.

"I know it has been two weeks....I just worry for his safety...we don't know if he has contracted any diseases of any kind or anything...I just wish he would wake up." Katherine is that you? I swear to god I am going to fucking fuck you up, maybe in both ways if I am lucky.

Jesus...if I am in heaven I am going to kick your ass for sending me here...I have a poker game with my team in hell and I am in the wrong fucking place at the wrong fucking time...send my ass back to hell, this shit is boring up here.

This isn't heaven and I am not this 'Jesus', Roran...your in a coma.

Oh....god damn it, I blame you than Satan for fucking with me like that....now get me the hell out of here for all the souls I sent you, and for shooting that one Cerberus officer in the face with that shotgun upclose blowing his bloody head off.

Not Satan either...and sounds brutal to do to another living being.

Bite me.

"Princess...he moved a bit...I think he is coming to."

I slowly began to stir and barely cracking open my right eye I saw a happy Celestia, a slightly confused pony wearing the full doctors uniform, and a Geth unit that is still turned off and probably collecting dust.

Looking down at myself I saw that I was not in my armor, hell I wasn't even wearing my uniform that was underneath it, and I knew I had a set of it on because I felt that shit.

"Where the flying fuck is my clothes? And why the motherfucking hell am I naked?"

Chapter 7: Hunter Killer

Hunting the Hunter

Memory Sequence 8

Arcturus Station, Command Center, 2 Years Later

"So let me get this straight...you want me, just me...to go to the Citadel...and wait near the Human Embassy, and see if Commander Shepard is alive? Do you know how much of a long shot this is and how much bullshit you just said that he is alive right?" I said as I was holding up a data-pad holding information of the findings of the Normandy and how it is a Cerberus vessel.

"How many times must we go over this Captain Zidane, you are still under investigation for joining Cerberus and half of the crew on this station still think you are secretly feeding them valuable information. So just do this for me as a favor to me, and when you find out if he is alive or not, you are allowed to take a leave of absence...after all that rocket you took to the back should have killed you back on Mindoir...even our medical experts are having trouble wondering how you are still alive."

"Well Shepard somehow survived his ship getting disintergrated with him in it...if he somehow survived that than I can sure as hell survive a rocket to the back...same thing in my book on pain." I said while placing the pad onto the table and

"For all we know this could be a trick by Cerberus to get you back into their hold or to assassinate you...but if this is the real Commander Shepard...than Cerberus must have kept him as a captive when his ship was destroyed by the unknown vessel...be warned Zidane, if this is an ambush than you have full authorization to use any means necessary and to get back to Alliance Controlled Space immediately. But if it is him, bring him into protective custody and keep him alive until we can fully prove it is him. Am I understood?"

"Aye...I understand...but remember this, on my leave of absence, try to keep your watchdogs away from me...I almost had to scrape one off the floor when I threw him out the window at Eden Prime...and at least give me a warning that you are going to have your people spy on me." knowing that he will still spy on me but giving him a warning and what I did to the last spy he sent after me was amusing to see him faceplam and sigh before going over to a screen and tapping on it.

As I turned to leave the station I ran into my partner who was waiting for me by the docking bay doors, Hilo'Jaa was busy scanning the door panel for some reason but whatever it is I currently did not care at the moment. Taking a look at her I saw that her enviro-suit was different, it looked like it was made for actual combat instead of space repairs or simple engineering projects, not like any of our past missions or postings were firefight free.

"Hilo'Jaa...please tell me you are not rigging those doors to be locked once we are on the other side...I rather not get another angry call from Hackett saying that he had to remove the bulkhead because of a certain someone sealing it shut."

"Oh come on now Ro, we both know that it is amusing and that we both will have a week of absence and both know that you are going to spend it at some bar or at the gun range. "

"And I know that you will be following me to the bar or gun range because we both know you can't get enough of me honey." as I said that I received a rough hit upside the head as I laughed out loud and took another hit to my head.

Boarding our ship the "Two-For-Flinching" we both found out quickly that this was not a normal Alliance ship but instead it was a cargo freighter and that it was manned by mostly turians and the occasional volus lumbering around.

"Well...better than dealing with my own kind I can tell you that much..." I grumbled as I grabbed my cargo bag and watched as the crew stared at us, one of the volus that I saw was staring right at me and when I saw that on his right shoulder was a slightly blurred out insignia but I knew that it belonged to the Shadow Broker. I knew he caught my gaze at it and he nodded at me slightly before turning to walk off down the halls into the inner layout of the freighter, and I followed after him leaving Hilo'Jaa behind to deal with the captain of the ship.

5 Minutes of walking after him I found out that he had two members of the crew watching out for him as they came out of hiding from the sides of the next set of bulkheads. Both of the turians were holding Phaeston's and were pointed at the ground instead of at me, than when I thought they were just security guards acting like I was at a checkpoint they searched me for any weapons but only found my M-358 Talon, with no thermal clip, and let it be.

"So...what can I help you with today Mr. Zidane...any information you require...or maybe any news that has yet to be released...to the general public." damn this guy is good.

"Well Shadow Agent...yes there is information I do require...and maybe some news. I require any recent information about Commander Shepard being alive and in Cerberus hands, as for news...Anything on the Council." I said while handing him a secure data-disc and a credit chip for the transaction.

Watching him handle the disc he inserts it into his omni-tool, and a few seconds later my credits, and lastly he hands me back the disc but not the chip. "The transaction is complete and I hope...that the information you wanted is worth the price...Mr. Zidane." with a nod of his head he goes back to his path of motion along with the two security guards, while I on the otherhand was walking back to Hil'Jaa who at the time was busy on the E-net looking at ship parts and the prices.

Typical.

"So...what did you get from the volus...was it some advice while we are on this ship or was it a place to go once we are off."

"Better than advice or a bar, information on our objective...for now let us go to our room on this floating tub and figure out what I just bought with my three paychecks...this better be worth it."

In truth, the information was well worth the price.

Citadel, Embassy, 2 Days Later

"Are you sure this is even safe Roran...we are ontop of a building in the Presidium, you are using a sniper rifle to see across the lake, and you are hoping that if Shepard does arrive that you are planning to see if he is wearing a Cerberus unifrom that you can shoot him in the head."

"You worry to much...and...wait for it...the hell?" I said while looking through the scope of my Widow, seeing if my target would arrive but instead of what I was hoping for, I instead got something different.

"What is it? Is it him? Is it Shepard?"

"Yeah...it's him alright...not wearing a Cerberus uniform...wearing his N7 armor, I see a turian on his right...cobalt markings, his armor looks it went into a blender with him in it...to his left is...is that Miranda?" looking through my scope agan I saw that it was indeed Miranda, she was wearing her usual Cerberus uniform, a Phalanx pistol at her hip and that she was somewhat looking in my general direction as Shepard was talking to the new human council member, Anderson.

Moving my finger to the trigger, I slow down my breathing as I moved the crosshairs over to Miranda's head and sighed a bit, wanting to pull the trigger and kill my old CO but I know that if she is working with Shepard than something that was not in my info package must have been left out.

"Hilo'Jaa...get to the Embassy...wait outside and if you see the Cerberus Officer...do not engage, instead follow and pursue...I will be watching from a distance."

After a while I heard static before a new voice came over my headset.

"What the bloody hell do you think you are doing?" Oh crap.

"Just doing my job...now shut up and look pretty Miranda...I need to see if that is the real Shepard and not some fake..."

"This is the real Shepard...we are not the enemy anymore Delta...and it is about time you figure that out so get that crosshair off my head."

Damn it...looks like I don't get this chance either...maybe next time....

End of Memory Sequence

"How the fucking hell did you let him get away like that! I thought you had your eyes on him!" I shouted while trying to get off the bed and put my uniform shirt back on, not really in the mood for any jokes from anybody since a Geth Hunter is on the loose.

That geth is a freaking killing machine of pure hell and knowing that it is probably the only active Hunter than it will seek out a new target worthy of its full operative status. That thing hunts targets of importance or priority...and being royalty might be the thing it is willing to hunt besides myself...fuck.

"Well Roran, we were busy trying to clean up the mess that you made and also understand how that a machine like it...can even move. In all honesty it looks like nothing more than a skeleton filled with tubes and flashy lights. Also we are still looking at that sword of yours, that black metal that the sword is made of is so far in Equestria's history as the strongest metal ever created." well at least my sword gets some praise for being nearly unbreakable.

"Well thanks for the reward that my sword gets but we have more pressing matters to attend to...such as finding the Geth and pulling his plug before anyone dies, and the other matter is how much did your smart ponies learn from my gear." getting out of bed I looked over at my armor and saw that it has more scars and burn marks than usual, has a dent on the chest piece and that the helmet has a hole where the top of my head would be...piece of crap helmet did its purpose.

Strapping the armor onto my legs first, the plating easily locking onto my legs as the metallic/ ceramic plates latch onto each other and formed a solid barrier between me and the outside world. As I put my armor on I saw that every pony in the room were watching me do it, wondering why it came in pieces instead of a whole suit.

"Didn't you parents teach you that it is wrong to watch someone get dressed...but you ladies can watch, for a price that is." the two mares that were on my bed were slightly red in the face blushing while Shining just turned away after me telling him to turn away, Cadence was just watching, curious on how I put it on. Fair enough.

After my armor below the waist was in place I began to strap on my armor for my arms, letting the magnetic locks attach to my metallic limbs instead of being easily to be yanked off. As I placed the armor on my hands I let the locks to magnitise and securely lock itself, then attaching the plating to my chest, letting the locks attach to the ones for my back, the sounds of metal screws rotating themselves into place as I took my helmet, looked at it and placed my hand inside of the empty cavity until a spark leaped from the helmet to my hand, grabbing a small earpiece and putting it in both of my ears before placing my helmet back on the floor.

"Okay ready to go...now Celestia...my weapons if you will." she just gives me a blank look.

"May I please have my guns back...before I end up being covered in something else besides Geth blood." I said while extending out my omni-blades, not even liking that she is holding onto my tools of the trade with even an explaination. Our little stare-off only lasted a while until a loud bang went off and a statue outside exploded into a shower of melted marble and dust. After that little show was seen by us I just gave her my stare that everyone alive knows it as the 'Just do it already.' and as she turns to look outside again the remains of the statue finally rains down near her, the head of her statue hits the floor in front of her hooves and with that she tosses at me only my Typhoon, my Avenger and lastly my Talon but as soon as she gave me my pistol she very quietly pulled me closer to hear what she has to say.

"If My little ponies get harmed by that machine...their deaths will be on your head." her voice filled with ice and venom that I thought she sounded like my old CO in bootcamp. I just snort a bit before leaning closer to her, my head next to hers and everyone in the room tried to lean in to hear what I had to say.

"I can care less if any ponies die...you brought it back when it should have stayed down there...their deaths will be on your head, not mine...and also...you smell nice." with that just to piss her off or to get a five second head start to run like hell I kiss her on the cheek and ran out of the room, unfolding my Typhoon and slapped the clip into its home and ran like a duct rat with a stolen omni-tool.

Canterlot Gardens, Morning

'It has been a few days since I last spoke to that human....I know he is still alive since I placed that tracker spell on him...and I know he is close since the beeping is getting louder...oh wait there he is...and why is old Sunny butt chasing him?...And why is her face red? Wait...is that a smug on her cheek....oh...oh this is funny....he actually kissed her?'

'Bwahahahahahahahahahaha!'

Canterlot Palace, Halls, Early Afternoon

"Get back here Roran and face your pain like a man!" was all I heard while I ran like a bat out of hell and while trying to not get caught by a very flustered princess and her guards.

"Fuck that noise! There is no way in hell that I am allowing myself to get caught without a chase! And besides Celly you seemed to have enjoyed it since you didn't throw me out the window or hit me in the gut like the others!" I said while sliding under the railing of the stairs, falling down two floors before hitting the ground will my full weight and resumed my mad dash away from an angry royal horse and a shit-ton of guards that are most likely angry that I did such a thing or jealous that I succeeded in my bold yet stupid move.

Her response was to levitate a vase from a small table and threw it at me from behind, it shattered against my shields but the impact felt like I was kicked with the handle of a Claymore that just went off. I fell over into a roll but used the momentum to get back up and kept running until I came upon a fork in the halls, and always following the rules of the Goonies...man that movie is old as fuck but funny as hell. Sticking to the left I ran past a few servants who were dusting pictures or cleaning windows but as I ran by I unknowingly ran into Blueblood who was walking with two random mares I have never seen before in my few days conscious in this era.

"Watch where your going knave." he said while sneering at me as if I was a freak of nature.

"Watch where you are going ass-goblin." I said while sprinting past him, dropping to my knee's to avoid getting clothes-lined by two ponies holding a large tray holding a triple layered cake. That cake to me at the time was so good that if I was not being chased by a pissed off royalty, hunting down a rogue geth, and also trying to figure out what to do with my life since I am alone, I would have taken a small piece of it off, and eat it right there but since the chase is still on I had to take a mental photo of it and think about the cake at a later point of time.

After running past the cake I somehow found myself in the Royal Archives and realized that this was probably all the knowledge the ponies had and it probably had their history as well. Knowing that I have only so much time I ran towards a sign that said 'Equestria's History and Origins', ran to the nearest books and scanned two at a time with my omni-tools, coping them and storing them for later to read and as soon as I finished with two stacks Celestia, who was still flustered, and her guards who were trying hard not to snicker at what I did were blocking my seemingly only exit here.

Looking around I saw that the windows were high up and that it lead to the gardens, the statue of Discord was looking right at me and I can clearly hear his voice in my head. 'You know I thought it was very amusing to see you running away from Old Shiny Butt and her army of armored foals. So what are you looking for? A book.....why read a book when you can just watch the history!'

'Because Discord reading occupies my mind and that I can use the book as a weapon in case someone annoys me...also that I am looking for a skeleton filled with metal tubes, you seen it or are you going to give me a riddle about where to find it...'

'No, I was just going to tell you that he is outside in the gardens...when I turned to look at the thing it vanished, that thing is running on chaos energy and even I can't seem to find it...'

'Well...at least I know that it is in the garden area for now atleast, all I have to do is not get caught and beaten to near-death by ponies...any advice?'

'Jump the window?'

That was possibly the smartest thing he has ever said to me.

Canterlot Gardens, Afternoon

It was a beautiful day out in the gardens, the birds were chirping, the wind was lightly brushing the grass, the gardeners tending to the wildlife and the plants. As the ponies went along their daily routines a class was on a field-trip to Canterlot, talking about the statues and what they meant and their importance on Equestria's society. As the fillies and colts ran around the statues, talking about how pretty a few were, how ugly the others were but when they came up to a new statue that has been placed next to the statue of Discord they gathered around to see who or what it is.

"Okay class and can any of you guess what this statue represents?" said the teacher, a mulberry mare with a cutie mark of three small flowers with smiles in the center of them.

One of the fillies raised their hoof into the air. "Yes Pip?"

"Does the statue mean Courage?" a few of the fillies and colts begin to giggle amongst themselves as Pip slowly lowers his head.

"Not entirely wrong Pip but from what the Princesses tell us that it means Retribution and Defiance. This is a non-equine or species that we have ever seen or heard of, only in very old legends and myths. These beings are called human and they are now an extinct race, from what we have learned from the only one alive today, they were made extinct in a battle over their rights to be alive...a very sad tale I was told it was, they are also known for being highly advanced in many fields that we know of today and others that we do not know of."

"By why it this statue represent Retribution and Defiance Mrs. Cheerilee?" said a round colt named Snails, and he earned a few confused or wondring stares, trying to figure out why he asked that question.

"Well Snails, it represents Retribution because from what he has told us that he served as a soldier and when his people went to war he fought to protect his friends and loved ones, and as for Defiance....he has defied his enemies by being the last one alive and by defying death for staying alive longer than his species can normally live...I wonder how old he really is..."

As she was thinking on my true age the sound of glass shattering in the distance was easily picked up as I jumped into the window, breaking it, and rolled onto the grass near the school ponies.

Looking at them for a while I saw Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon with her classmates and when they saw me they began to gallop towards me before jumping into the air to hug me. Educational Note: Ponies of any size running at full speed and jumping at you while you are unbalanced will equal to getting knocked onto your ass.

As soon as the two fillies launched themselves at me I was busy looking behind myself to see a very pissed of Celestia throwing shards of glass at me which only turned to ashes as it hit my shield but when I was flat on my back I saw the two familiar fillies sitting ontop of me before breaking into a hug which I thought at the time, would have been *shudder* adorable but being chased by a goddess is not the first thing to do in the morning...unless your me, I tend to piss everything off.

"Little fillies...now is not the right time for hugging...and maybe later about my explaination of myself." I scooped both of them up in my arms, ran to the teacher, dropped them onto her back and kept on running, their faces were confused as hell, seeing me running about when my statue was right there...

'Wait a minute, I have a statue? How fucking long was this here?' As I realized I had one I stopped, turned around, went back to the statue and inspected it. They had everything right about me, the armor, the dents and scratchs in the armor, my weapon and shield...except it was not wearing a helmet....and I don't remember my nose being that....pointy.

'How rude...my nose was never that pointy or my head that freakishly large...imma have to talk to Celly about this....my head is not that large...'

'Yes it is you just don't want to notice it and also, your nose is like a jagged rock.'

'Go fuck yourself.'

As I was in deep thought about why my statue needed to be shipped back to be fixed I felt a pair of hooves wrap around my head as it pulled me to the ground and once I snapped out of my stupor I saw that Shining Armor got the drop on me somehow and that ten of his guards were around me with spears pointing at my head, which sadly was not protected by my helmet that I left behind. Taking a glance around I saw Estoc right above me to my left, Daisy Cutter to my right and Celestia at my feet, who by the way can easily give me the worst cause of crushed nuts if I was not wearing my codpiece.

"Just let me get up before you arrest me and also Celly...that statue of me needs to be fixed...my nose is definitely not that big or my head that large. So stop trying to make me look like another Discord cause I ani't having it." pointing at the statue's ungodly large nose and freakishly huge head.

'I take great offense to that you know.'

'Yea I know, but still your statue is you in your last moments so your perfect but me on the otherhand looks like someone beat the shit out of me with an ugly stick.'

"I can hear everything you are saying Roran...and I somewhat agree with you on that but before we get off-track. Roran Zidane, you are under arrest for...the destruction of royal property, attacking a royal guard, disorderly conduct, drunk in public, resisting arrest,and just to further the punishment, kissing me. How do you plea to these charges?" oh she is gonna hate me for saying this.

"Well...guilty on the destruction of property to escape being arrested and to find the rogue Geth, guilty on attacking the guard, he was in my way at the time, drunk and disorderly? Oh come on I was just tripping over my self and was acting like a complete idiot with the guards. Resisting Arrest? Not the first time with me Celly and besides, those guards of yours looked like they enjoyed the exercise. Kissing you? It was rather that or flick your wings, and from what I learned while talking to Estoc and Daisy, you ponies wings are sensitive...in more than one way I can half-assly guess." I looked over to Estoc who is now looking away from me while Daisy was blushing a bit, her wings seem to me have been spring-loaded since they are fully flared up as if she was threatened. I just point and laugh, the rest of the guards snicker amongst themselves but Daisy just huffs, takes her spear and hits me upside the head with it, cracking my neck which felt great since that kink was getting on my nerves for hours.

The look that Celestia was giving me was 'Are you Kidding me' and sorry to say I wasn't kidding at that moment, I always got drunk off my ass at the bars, when I am drunk I mess with the soldiers and police force around, and when I run from the law I go all out when running from them by throwing tables, chairs and even people at them. The destruction of private property is not new to me since I once set a mans private car on fire before blowing it up all to hell with a demolition charge.

"Just get him out my sight..." as she says that I hear the faint sound of a Javelin sniper rifle charging up, and in that moment everything went into slow-motion like in those old fashioned movies I was forced to watch since I was bored out of my mind as a statue. I ran towards the princess, grabbed her by the neck, turned her around to where I was and I to where she was, and when I heard the sound of thunder going off, a sharp and enormous pain in my chest, than watching as my blood just splatters all over her face, mane and chest, than looked down to see a hole the size of a softball in my chest before falling over like a sack of hammers. As I watched my world go blurry I saw that Celestia was yelling at the guards, the Geth was than ripped in half by magic from an unknown pony, and I was rolled onto my back as a stretcher of sorts was pushed under me.

Barely conscious I saw Celestia by my side, well my eyes were probably at that point just looking around cause the things I was seeing constantly shifted to shitty blur to perfectly clear and I saw that Shining Armor was indeed covered in some of my blood and was holding in a strange levitation aura of his parts of my ribcage and my chest armor. Looking down I saw that I could see my intestines bouncing around, the smell of burnt meat was strong and the aroma of blood was all it took for me to realize that I got shot by the Geth and got fucked up badly. Before blacking out I only had this to say...

"Gerere sine me Solarem Filia Reginae." and than I closed my eye hopefully for the last time...

...but knowing these ponies, they won't let me die...just yet.

Memory Sequence 9

"So Shepard....how the hell did it come down to this again.?" I said while pointing my shotgun at his head while he has a heavy pistol pointing at my dick.

"To tell you the truth, I have no idea. So just lower you weapon and I will lower mine." we were both standing in front of C-Sec and the security force wasn't taking any sides since it was an Alliance force standing against Cerberus force with Shepard at the front.

"No man you first cause there is no way in hell that I am lowering this shotgun until you get that damn pistol away from my mini-me, in fact just point it at my foot so I don't have to worry about never being able to have children in the future." neither of us willing to lower our weapons since Miranda was pointing her M-9 Tempest at my hand, Garrus was pointing his M-97 Viper at my head while Hilo'Jaa was pointing a Geth Plasma Shotgun seemingly at one of the two.

The stand off lasted for only two hours until we both realized that this was getting us no where and that I had an appointment with a bottle of Captain Morgan and a shot of Jack Daniels at Purgatory. "Lets just get this shit over with, are you the real Shepad?"

"Yes I am, so who are you, Alliance?" I lowered my shotgun and a moment later he lowered his pistol. 'Thank you god for allowing Mini-Me to continue to exist.'

"Yeah, you can say that." I kept a hold on my weapon, not entirely trusting Garrus or Miranda.

"And who told you to spy on me?" Well this is gonna suck but my week off of working is so close I can smell the scent sweat and shame.

"Admiral Hackett...he heard you were back and working for Cerberus, so he told me to find you, execute you if you are working for them, or to leave you be if you are not and since they are working for you I get to go to my bar and enjoy my down time." I hoistered my beauty of a shotgun and nodded at Hilo'Jaa to do the same, she did after giving me what I hope was the middle finger....if they can even do that.

After our confrontation was over I turned to call for a taxi to Purgatory but was stopped as Garrus tried to ask me something.

"Have I seen you at Omega?" Oh this is gonna be awesome.

"Yea you did, you shot my Merc boss in the head and gave me a pay raise, thanks for the credits." he just shook his head and went back to Shepard.

"Maybe I will be seeing you three around...or maybe not, and Shepard..."

Memory Sequence Interrupted

Chapter 8: Minding Limbo

Bloody Awakening

Limbo

My life flashed before my eyes, everything was going by in blur of memories starting from when I was born which I only saw a bright ass light and an ugly ass doctor. Than me getting a fist to the face by one of the street urchins from a rival gang on Luna Colony. Me stealing an omni-tool than later altering to be only usable for myself. The time I purchased my first gun than using it to shoot the urchin that punched me in the face with it. First time getting arrested and thrown into a police car.

Canterlot Palace, Royal Gardens, Afternoon

"Keep pressure around the wound, make sure he doesn't lose any more blood than he already has!"

"Princess Celestia, we need to get you out of the gardens and back into the palace before all of Canterlot goes into a lockdown. We do not know if there are anymore assassins waiting in the shadows out here."

"I am not leaving my savior's side for a moment, if it wasn't for him that assassin could have killed me with that weapon of his...it tore right through Roran's armor...he gave his life to save mine and I will repay that debt to save his. Just get him to the medical wing now."

I let out the weakest groan I can come up with as my body began to shut down from blood loss and from the gaping hole in my chest.

Limbo

The first time I met Alaria and the time we shared our first kiss. The complete anhiliation of both our gang and the rival's along with our both of our 18th birthday...our first time. The joining of the Alliance military than the recruitment training along with my first mission which led to the lose of both my arms and legs. My 21st birthday which ended in a complete clusterfuck which ended up with me waking up next to a krogan with my lower half feeling like it was crushed by a tank. Me and the asari sniper. Me getting both of my eyes ripped out by a pissed off krogan warlord and in return I kicked him out of an open airlock while we were in orbit. Quitting the Alliance than getting quickly recruited by Cerberus and trained under Miranda Lawson, and later leaving when Kei Leng tried to kill me on our last mission together.

Canterlot Palace, Solar Wing, Night

"We got a pulse but it is very weak, we need to seal this wound and repair any internal injuries that he has received. Shining Armor give me the pieces of the ribcage that you have recovered from the attack so we can reattach it to the piece that was shot out of."

"Nurse Feather, get the anti-biotics, stiching needle and silk threading. Nurse Redheart...get the other doctors in here, this is going to be a long day for all of us."

My eyes were barely open as I saw them move some of my organs back into my chest forcing a loud groan to come out of my mouth, my fists clenching from the pain as my eyes roll to the back of my head, and pass out from feeling my organs get re-arranged by ponies in medical outfits.

Limbo

The first time I met Hilo'Jaa on her journey of proving along with seeing what she looks like under her helmet by placing a hidden camera in her room. My 23rd birthday which ended in the greatest night of my life by waking up with Hilo in my bed, both of us drunk out of our minds and completely exhausted, and later that next morning having her chasing me with a combat drone shooting rockets at me while we both were laughing our asses off. Our first mission together which ended with us getting the hell out of dodge by a band of overly pissed off batarian pirates and their varren. The creation of our squad when Admiral Hackett forced me back into the Alliance when Shepard bit the bullet and got spaced. The meeting of Shepard on the Citadel which nearly ended with me being dickless and almost most likely dead by being filled with heated metal and possibly biotic energy.

Canterlot Palace, Solar Wing, Morning

"The patient is stable but it appears to be that he is in a comatose of sorts...not responding to external stimuli or internal stimuli...with the amount of blood the patient has lost it is short of a blessing that he is still alive. Princess Celestia you may see him now but be cautious because everytime we operate on him he seems to wake up and only whisper out words."

"And what has he said?"

"Well...so far I only got 'Death before Dishoner'...'War is fear cloaked in courage'."

As the two talked I let out another groan, slowly trying to get up only to be knocked back down from the pain in my chest and sides, the stiffness in my legs was enough to tell me that my sorry body went to hell after getting shot in the back.

"Doctor...you said that he is in a comatose."

"I guess he is fighting to wake up...whatever he is dreaming of must be haunting him to his very core."

Limbo

The battle of Horizon was one that I will never forget, the Collecters came to harvest the colony for whatever purpose they had for us. I was on my break from the missions and from the bullshit that Hackett sends me but when the Collecters arrived I knew my time off went to hell. The swarms of bugs the size of softballs was enough to tell me that those things are shootable and will go splat when shot with heat rounds. Large swarms of seeker bugs flew everywhere stinging colonists and militia alike, none was spared from the assult as they were being packed into floating coffins and sent to the ship that landed in the fields. I was one of the few the swarms missed but being the few that are not captured meant to them that we are not worthy and must be eliminated, I fought back until Shepard came and got the defense cannons online and forced them to leave. The piles of dead Husks and Collecters was enough to snap me out of my delusions that a war is coming and death will be on a massive scale.

Canterlot Palace, Solar Wing, Afternoon

"Anything new from him Nurse Redheart?"

"No princess, he is still unconscious but he has been groaning and saying whispers, we do not know what he is saying but whatever it is it has to be from whatever he is dreaming. His dreams must be of his past or some traumatic experience that he has endured."

"Private Estoc, go get my sister, rouse her from her slumber and tell her to come to Roran's medical room. I need to know what he is going through."

"Right away your majesty."

A few moments later I groaned again, trying to rise my arms and legs but was strapped to the table, not even being able to move a muscle, even my head was strapped down. The blood slowly moving in my body was still taking its toll on me by making me sluggish and lead heavy.

"Yes dear Sister...what is it that you need of us?"

"I need to see into his dreams...I must know everything he is seeing right now."

Limbo

My final mission with my squad before me and Hilo are put into a small N7 squad, just the two of us when Shepard blew up the batarian relay and killed around 300,000 batarians in the process. Exactly six months later the Reapers showed up on Earth's doorstep and the cycle of harvest has begun. I spent a month on Eden Prime with my partner when Cerberus invaded it to find a Proeathian artifact which turned out to be a real live Proeathian, I lost 500 credits that day. Spent many days at Benning when Cerberus began to take people away, many weeks later we forced them off world before the Reapers arrived. The attack on the Citadel by Cerberus, that sneaky move was used to get the Human Council member to kill off the Asari, Turian and Salarian members, it ended in failure when Shepard arrived to assist with the rescue and defence of the Council, at the death of many Cerberus soldiers and Council member Udina.

Canterlot Palace, Solar Wing, Morning

"The princesses has not moved an inch or made a breath while looking into his mind...Princess Cadence if I may be so bold to ask, what do you see in this dying creature?"

"I see a being that is out of his time and thrown into one that he should not be in...a loyal soldier that almost lost his life in the defense of Celly...and a troublemaker that might almost rival that of Discord's pranks and antics."

Limbo

Humanities Final Stand began with the siege of Cerberus HQ, the Illusive Man's home, and I was one of the many insertion squads that was sent in to disable or cripple the defenses in and around the base, it was also the final battle me and Kei Leng had before he retreated with a bullet to his leg and a small stab wound to my neck. Shepard killed Kei Leng, found out that the Catalyst was the Citadel and that it was moved to Earth to be protected by the Reapers, and we all gathered for one last battle that will determine the fate of the galaxy. I spent that last night free from death with Hilo'Jaa, and we made that night count, the following day we were put into our Kodiak and shipped off to land at London...the battle for our very lives and our very existence began...and we lost...and I lost everyone.

I lost...everything.

Canterlot Palace, Solar Wing, Night

The first thing I noticed when my eyes openned up was that everything had a red tint to it, and that the ceiling looked like it was hot pink and that it probably tasted like cotton candy. As I slowly rotated my head to my left I saw a heart monitor hooked up to me along with a bag of probable medical fluids, slowly scanning my left I saw an old fashioned blood-pressure machine, an oxygen machine, even a glass filled with hopefully hard cider. Turning my head to my right I saw something that I thought I would never hope to see in my life, someone actually waiting by my bedside asleep while resting on my shoulder as if it was a pillow.

At first I was just seeing things since my eyes are a bit fucked up and need to be calibrated again or just plain replaced with something workable and that fits in my eye-sockets. But sadly to say that the pony in question looks pink as well and I have only two guesses as who it could be, the small cotton-candy maned pony with the energy capacity to power the Normandy five times over, or the winged unicorn that I now know to call them as 'alicorns' Cadence...and if it was the first option I would try to get out of bed, get to the nearest window, and try to scale down the wall and get the hell away from the demon that can defy the laws of the universe. If it was Cadence I would just pray that she would wake up and leave me alone since she has to tend to a blood covered Celestia...which reminds me I should probably tell her to give me back my blood so I can think coherently.

Slowly undoing my straps on my hands I even slower lift the pony in question head off of my shoulder, I untie the straps on my feet and just now noticed that the hole in my chest is gone but the bandages around my chest is dark red and feels like that I juat got my bell rung, than smashed and hastily put back together with duct tape and silly string. Lazily getting to my feet I stagger to the door way, openning the door slowly I noticed the lack of guards or the lack of servants roaming the halls to do their daily tasks, which is unnerving to me when the few times I saw any of the ponies up and about as if their jobs was like clock-work. Looking out the door and taking a few tentative steps out I had the feeling that someone was watching me or was waiting for me to leave the safety of my med-room, either way I am getting out of here with my armor to go back to my home to repair myself and my armor.

Only 18 steps out of my room I felt a small prick on my right shoulder, looking over to see that it was a syringe and that it was completely empty, pulled all the way down injecting me with whatever was in it, the feeling of dizziness and weakness slowly began to creep up onto me but I yanked it off my shoudler and kept on moving toward my room. About half way to my room I felt two more go into my other shoulder but when I yanked those two out, my left arm went numb and I could not even lift my head, the sounds of someone giggling got my attention but when I turned around I felt four more go into my chest around the hole and that feeling you get when your body just says 'fuck you' and quits, well mine is trying to say it but I am fighting back. Now running to my room, I was clearly on the verge of just keeling over from all the sedatives in my system and going face first into the floor, upon openning my door to my room I saw a figure waiting in the shadows and another syringe went into my neck and all I can let out before I fell asleep was "Heeyyyyyyy" going face first into the foot of my bed before bouncing off and going head first to the floor.

Six Hours Later

"Bleeeegh.....oh god....the fuck was in those shots...." turning my head again I saw that their was a guard looking right at me with a frown on his face, just looking right at me as my mind drifts off to some random spot in the room until I looked up...

..Oh look a red feathered bird...that smells of smoke and ash.

The red bird that smells of ash and smoke was something I would never expect to see in a castle but now that I am looking at it, it seems to be looking right at me, than a the pony on my shoulder, than back to me before it let out a screech that sounds like a parrot, taking off into the air before flying off to do god knows what. In mid-flight it bursts into flames and just falls to the floor in a pile of ashes and feathers, I start to laugh my ass off but the instant that pain in my chest hits me like a bottle to the dome I start coughing haggeredly before feeling a needle get jammed into my neck and feel my world go quiet and clear, my eyes following the direction of the needle, than looking to see that the pony on my shoulder had a horn and it was glowing a golden aura, than my eyes rolled up a bit to see that an owl was directly above me before I lose consciousness again.

Two Hours Later

My eyes slowly flicker open, the bright light that was the sun, looking over to the window I saw that the sun was glaring right at me and it was a bright red orb, next to the window and the sun was Celestia, who was levitating another syringe in her magical grip and as it flew right at me, my reflexs kicked in as my hands shot up to catch it, snatching the thing out of the air and shattering it in my grip.

"No more sleeping for me...I had enough sleep...just let me stay awake for a few hours...." my voice groggy and flimsy since taking 9 needles in a single day was enough for me to feel like shit.

"Alright, but promise us that you will stay in this room till you are better." that made me raise a brow but the sight of another fully loaded syringe was enough to tell me to just agree and go with it. "Good." she put it down and came over to my bed with a grin.

"You were the one that stabbed me with all those syringes yesterday or however long I was out..." she nodded while trying not to laugh, "If that was you than who was the pony in my room with the other syringe?" she looked away for some reason before I felt another presence behind me. "It was Luna wasn't it?" no response. "Cap. Armor?" still nothing, "His wife?" she nodded and as I turned to look I saw something I did not like, my armor with a large ass hole in the middle of my chest and that it was still stained with my blood.

Looking at my armor I noticed that they tried to clean it up but the hole was still blood crusted, the dents were gone, the carbon scars were missing, all the claw marks and scratchs also gone, most of my armor was polished to a high mirror shine and the seal of Celestia was stamped into the right shoulder guard, right over the Alliance insignia.

"Armor clean...hole still present and accounted for, an insignia that I did not want...but is acceptable, shiny plating...and you managed to get rid of the damages? Amazing but odd....hmm, thank you ponies...but why is she still looking at me as if I am some deranged criminal?" Cadence was just looking at me without even blinking until I realized that I owe her a talk of sorts that I had forgotten or just didn't care at the moment. "You wanted a talk to me about something didn't you...well lets hear it, don't care if its offensive or wrong, I had listen to so many things while I was alive, stoned, petrified, and near dead so just lay it on me."

After a while Estoc was signalled to leave the room as he acknowledged it and closed the door behind him, the window was closed, the blinds lowered and the room was encased in a golden and pink glow that I thought was pretty awesome since it looked like I was inside of a bubble until I actually realized I was in a bubble with two immortal ponies while I was helpless in a bed...a situation I didn't like.

"Roran, we need to know who that person was in that room back underground when you first left the castle." Cadence had to ask that dreaded question...

I sigh explosively, rubbing my temples with my favorite hand Lefty before speaking up, "That person made of ashes was my old girl-friend...she killed herself when I wasn't there to protect her...." I look over at my right hand, flicking on my omni-tool which they have failed to remove I switched, tapping the small screen I went to my photo collection which was partially corrupted until I came upon a picture of me and Alaria. As I grabbed the screen and turned it for them see, Celestia blinked before making a remark while Cadence simply just stared, amazed that my omni-tool is so many things except I can't make it turn into a motorcycle....or can I?

"Why did you kiss me two days ago?" Celestia was lightly blushing when she asked that, Cadence was busy trying to figure out what she just said while I was stumbling a bit on my words before I pulled myself together to come up with a mildly proper response.

"Well..erm...uhh...oh well Celly because I can...and maybe because it looked like you needed it." trying hard not to embaress myself further until I saw Cadence looking at me like she knows some big secret or something.

"I also want to know why you put yourself between me and the assassin."

"Because it is my duty as a soldier to put my life down to protect the innocent and that if you died than this world my destablize and fall apart...from what I learned from your people and from the only book I managed to read, you control the sun so I theorized that if you died than the sun might vanish or well explode."

Both of them looked at each other before shaking their head dismissing my words.

"Since you are the last of your kind alive, what do you intend to do?"

"In all honesty I have no bloody idea...maybe travel the world, see what has changed, meet the beings that now inhabit my world...all I do know is that the one thing I do want can never happen...and so far it came back twice to bite me in the ass. First and so far still going is you Cadence, the second was the little fillies and colts that I saw at the garden." flicking my hand back onto my omni-tool, going to my music section and I enter my favorites, scrolling down until I came upon my song and pressed play.

"Initiating Favorites Soundtrack Number 3"

At one point in the song I decide to sing with it, my voice adding a much deeper tone to it.

"We come from distant lands we travel so far Can you see the bleeding scar? The prizes of life we fail to win Cause we doubt the power within" I said while keeping and wearing a solemn mask not letting it betray any conflicting emotions that the song causes to rise up within me since that song is old it also manages to have a voice that can be translated to so many thing that I thought was foolish at the time.

As they looked at me while I sang that segment I just stare at them letting a single manly tear slide down my face as a picture of me and Alaria came up, and as appeared that song kept playing except it was our voices doing the singing and that it was a video of us. When it was just the last few seconds I begin to shut it down and let it rest as I layed back down onto my bed, gingerly tapping my chest to see if the hole was there but lucky it was just my ribs keeping everything in.

"So anything else ladies or can I go back to sleep...or is there anything you want me to know or vice versa." looking at the window to see that it was mid-afternoon and that hopefully lunch would be served since I haven't eaten any real food in three weeks.

"Actually friend there is something you can do for us." Friend? When the hell did that happen?

I stare at Celestia for a fraction of a second before sitting back up to listen to what she had to offer me.

"When you are fully recovered from your injuries, I need you to go to Ponyville..."

'Oh god there is a place here called Ponyville? Who the hell thought of that name for a town?'

"...and go with my student Twilight Sparkle and assist her with..."

'My lord...Sparkle? That obvious closet bookworm that needs to go outside and get laid? How the hell is she going to help me?'

"...the rescue the ponies that have been ponyknapped by the local Diamond Dog gang..."

'Ponyknapped? I swear to the new and old gods that my life is gonna be one horrible existence in hell.' "and to bring them back home safely, do you understand?"

"Oh yea I understand, this isn't the first rescue mission I have done before, since the enemy is not advanced as I am, I can simply just slice right through their defenses like a hot knife into butter. But I do have a few questions though before I completely agree with this whole plan of yours." Celestia was sitting on her haunchs, waiting for me to speak up my mind.

"And what are your questions friend?" she is gonna get an ear-full of my mind alright.

"First off, how am I going to get to Ponyville, second off what is to stop me from just hiding out and avoiding getting killed again in the defense of your people, third, wouldn't your ponies just run in terror on the sight of me? I mean come on with my armor they thought I was just a giant D-Dog in metal armor...so what are you going to do about that? And lastly, when the hell did you start calling me friend?" I honestly wanted to know how I can get from A to B, not scare the shit out the local populous, get in and out with the objective, and also the whole 'friend' thing.

It took a minute for Celestia to think of a reasonable response to my questions which surprised me since from what I am told she has an answer right on the spot, but this was a shocker to me since my superior officers always had a response and so far she was acting like my CO.

"Well...you are going to get there by chariot ride."

'Awesome...wait what?'

"Second, that if you do run and hide than I will go out and find you, and besides I placed a tracking spell on you when we first met."

'Oh fuck...I need that removed like the plague.'

"Thirdly, Yes they will run in terror just by looking at you, so that is why I came up with a solution to that problem."

'At least that problem is solved...hopefully.'

"And you do not need to worry about armor this time."

'Wait what? Not worry about armor? If I was not wearing armor that time and was not trained I would have been spit-roasted and be served as a meal to the dogs or just as bad be a slave to them.'

"Lastly you became my friend when you treated me like one instead of royalty."

'Well duh, because I think royalty blows and that they hold to much power...like the Citadel Council and my fist.'

Looking at Cadence I saw that she was half way out the door, talking to some pony that was waiting outside until a servant came in with a doctor behind him, in the servant's mouth which I may say is being expertly held up with just his teeth, and on that plate was hopefully apple juice not cider, some toast, what looks like pills of sorts and lastly jelly...grape.

"Please tell me that is jelly...and are those pills? Please let them just be muscle relaxers because I can use the rest..." grabbing the toast and destroying it in seconds I took the pills than downed it with the juice before swallowing whole the jelly and in seconds I passed out, being drugged is one thing but to be drugged by ponies is just fucking sad.

Being poked twice Celestia nods at Luna who was hiding in the shadows of the room walks over to her levitating a bottle in a midnight blue aura and taking it from her sister, Celestia than poured the contents into my mouth while I unconsciouslly drank it without tasting or knowing what it was, just guzzled that thing down without a second thought or else I would have drowned.

"Please let this work on him..."

I don't know what it is but I do know that it partially tastes like crap and shame.

Canterlot Palace, Solar Wing, Morning

Yawning quietly I open my eyes to see that the sun was just rising over the horizon, knowing that Celestia is raising the sun or that the sun is rising on its own but when I went to stretch everything felt off and not balanced. As my eyes adjusted to the light I saw that it was back to normal and that I now had a larger field of vision and that my hearing was better than before...

'Was that the pills? And how the hell can I see that lamp? My eyes can never see that lamp when I am facing forward? What the hell is going on?'

Raising my right hand to my forehead I heard a slight clop sound, which I knew was impossible since that was a hoof and last time I checked human hands aren't hooves. Taking a glance at it my heart skipped a beat.

"What...THE FUCK!"

My day just went from bad to total shitstorm.

Chapter 9: Soldiers Doctrine

New Shit Different Day

Resuming Memory Sequence

As Hilo'Jaa and I left C-Sec and Shepard behind, we boarded a shuttle to get on board the next Alliance ship, I began to question my current motives for re-joining the Alliance Military, but I knew that the longer I questioned myself the more likely I begin to lose my sanity to my own thoughts. During the shuttle ride to the frigate I began to wonder how Shepard is alive, why did he join Cerberus, and how the hell did Garrus know that I was on Omega. Shaking my head I go back to looking at Hilo, she was busy doing a battlefield cleaning of her favorite shotgun, using a cleaning rag to get rid any dirt or grime that somehow managed to get on her best toy.

During the quiet shuttle ride I saw that during her cleaning the crew compartment of the shuttle released a spray of sorts and on my visor it said that decontamination was in process and before I knew what was exactly going on the sounds of a case popping open and the sudden force of being slammed into the side of the bulkhead was enough to get me out of my hivemind of a thought process. As I turned to face my attacker I saw that it was Hilo and that her mask was off along with the hood, and that bet I made with Garrus while we were talking on the elevator ride up to the docking area, I now owe him 5,000 credits and a free rifle.

Looking at her I saw that her skin was, from what I thought was purple or purple-tinted from the visor, I was wrong when I saw that it was a bit of silver colored and that her hair, which at the time was short to be able to in her suit and helmet, was the color of almonds and the smile she was giving me at that moment told me a few things that made me glad to be single at that moment...

About 20 minutes later into the flight the com system spoke up, the speaker slightly annoyed.

"You both got three minutes to put yourselves back together before Admiral Hackett gives you the next set of orders...and for the love of god use the decontamination chamber..."

We both looked at each other, me trying not to look embarrassed at the predicament we both are placed in, Hilo'Jaa trying not to destroy any of the camera's or listening devices in the cabin we are in. As she was putting her combat suit back on while I was busy trying to find all the pieces of my battle armor, it was currently scattered all over the cabin, my helmet was somehow in the trash bin, my gauntlets were strangely in a glove compartment, my boots were by the door while my greaves, wrist guards, chest plate and weapons were magnetized to the ceiling.

It took me all of the three minutes to put my greaves and chest plate back on but as soon as I put my boots on the doors began to unlock and as soon as the twin doors slid open my gauntlets and wrist guards were where they belong except upside down. My helmet was still in the trashcan but I could give a crap at the moment since it was a get-in/ get-out reporting and I know that Hackett is probably gonna chew me out for almost killing Shepard and getting killed myself.

As we both walked into the corridor I saw that the soldiers were running place to place and the officers were going to different stations, checking on everything.

"Zidane, Idenna...under normal circumstances this would have been professional but as of current events and the constant disappearances of colonists in the Terminus Systems. We are sending you and your team into the Terminus, find the Collector ship, trail it to the next colony world to be hit and force them back off-world." as we both do a mock salute he cleared his throat again grabbing only my attention.

"I also heard you almost got into a shoot-out with Shepard and his team....what were you thinking at that moment?"

I look around a bit, minding my surroundings before giving my reply, "At that moment, to make Shepard lower his pistol before he put a heavy round into my balls rendering me sterile for the rest of my life. I don't mind being shot at, being shot in general but trying to shoot my boys is off-limits." a few of the passing marines and workers that were listening in our talk stopped and was in shock to see and hear a soldier talk like that to a high ranking officer.

It took the both of us a full minute to realize what I just said, but as soon as we did we both shared a deep good hearted laugh until tossed a small pad at me, Hilo'Jaa caught it and scanned it over before passing it over to me to see what it said.

"Sir...your sending us to Horizon? That is pretty damn far and are you sure you are right about this information? For all we know it might not even be attacked let alone be marked as a target." that planet was somewhat brand new and that it was now being fitted with defense turrets to protect itself, all other attacked colonies were defenseless.

"Just get to the damn planet..." agitation and annoyance now in his voice.

"Understood....sir." the same in my own.

'Old man you will die...not today...not tomorrow....but you will die.'

End Memory Sequence 9

Canterlot Palace, Solar Wing, 1 Hour Later

"What the fuck did you do to me? I fell asleep a human being with severe anger issues...and I wake up as...as...the hell am I? Wait a fucking second...that bottle you had...what the hell was in it? And why the hell does it feel like some....somepony hit me over the head with a...did that bottle of yours also fuck up my head? I am a human being not somepony! I said it again! Someone, some one! Not some pony..." both Celestia, Luna and Cadence start laughing at my childish antics while I try to figure out how to get out of bed.

"I hate you....I hate you so much....I hate you so much that if I try to put my thoughts into words on a piece of paper it would explode and light up like thermite." I said while thrashing in my bed before I fall off the side, covered in my medical gown and the blanket that was on-top. As I kept rolling around I eventually and somehow formed a cave of sorts with my blanket, looking out the hole I saw that Luna was on her back laughing her flank off, Celestia using the wall as a support to keep herself standing, and Cadence was leaning on the bed to stop herself from falling over.

Checking myself out in my blanket cave of awesomeness I realized that I had no wings or a horn, which meant that I am normal and lacked anything to give me an advantage if I ever got into a fight but I appeared to be larger than most ponies...maybe twice normal size? But one thing I realized that I did not know was that I could feel with my stumps, hooves, whatever it was....

'Wait a minute...I can feel with my hooves? I couldn't feel shit when my arms and legs since they were robotic, how the hell can that be possible? The only thing that can have feeling if it was organic and there is no way that....'

Looking at my hooves I tried to flex them and just barely I saw them move, taking a small nibble at them I almost had a heart-attack when I got an actual taste from them and actually felt my teeth. Shaking badly in my cave I than bit down on my right front-leg, and pulling back quickly as I started to bleed from the bite wound.

'What...the fuck....did they do to me?' and without a second thought I pounced out of my cave and slammed into Celestia who than was finally knocked out of her laughing streak and was shocked to see me on top of her, my hooves trying to claw at her neck while some of my blood fell onto her now clean coat, which I just ruined with my blood.

"What the fuck was in that bottle! What the fuck did you do to my metallic limbs! Why do I have organic arms and legs again! The fuck!" I was clearly losing my mind and dealing with Discord for 4,000 years was enough to crack the nut, what Celestia did broke the shell right off the nut.

Trying to choke someone with hands are easy, with talons probably just as easy, with hooves? I might as well try to run over a Husk with a golf cart and that is a hard task even with one crawling on the ground while being shot at. After five minutes of only slightly crushing her throat which was than stopped by Celestia rising up off the floor with me in her levitation field while I flailed about trying to inflict pain onto anything within reach.

"Are you done yet?" I shook my head no, "Well just let out your frustration of me turning you into an Earth Pony and the fact that I gave you back your arms and legs with that regeneration spell. You should be happy that you have them back than those fake ones."

'Happy? Why the flying fuck should I be happy? My arms and legs were the main scare factor I had besides the fact that I had biotic's and tech powers...without those legs I can't survive high falls and without those arms I can't punch through weak walls. You just single-hoofidly...single-handedly made me into a common Alliance soldier.'

Looking around in the air, seeing where she put my favorite set of metallic limbs I could not even find them, only seeing a pile of clothes which is now clean and ready to be worn but in my current condition I rather not ruin them or accidentally tear them apart. Hoping they are not trying to figure out how to replicate my arms since that requires actual science and machines to rebuild those gifts from gifted minds.

"So...how the hell do I even walk like this? Sure I knew how to crawl when I was a recruit but come on! I have no idea how you ponies manage to grip thing with hooves let alone manage to even lift things with hooves...just thinking on how you ponies manage it just makes me want to find the nearest glass bottle and bash myself over the head with it....how long does this freaken thing last cause if its permanent than I am going to drown myself in soup or just swallow lethal amounts of poisons." poking the field around me with a hoof I noticed that walking and maybe running may be easy to master but holding things, gripping things or just eating might be a problem that will take me a long ass time to master.

Every pony in the room looks at be before facehoofing, not my fault that they decide to turn me into something that I am at my most useless, being a dragon would have been awesome, whatever the hell Discord is would have been even better, A D-Dog would mean that I can at least use my weapons and maybe my armor...gryphon? Talons and wings= awesome.

"We will give you three hours to learn everything you can about your new self before we outfit you with the royal guard armor and send you to Ponyville, try not to mess up with the learning." with that all three of the royal sisters leave me to my grim fate of learning.

15 minutes after they left the room I begin to rethink my current position in life in my head while trying to learn how my hoof can grip things. Going over to my limbs I saw that they still had my omni-tools attached to them, and since I am going to a place where logic doesn't make sense and most likely will need something logical with me to ensure that any and all sanity that I have left stays with me. Pushing my hooves down at the center of the arm my omni-tool came off and pushing it onto my right fore-hoof before I felt it slightly squeeze down and attach itself onto me before doing the same thing to the other hoof.

"Okay...that took only about 30 minutes but it was worth it...now I just got to practice with using this thing...hopefully not set myself on fire like last time when I was issued a military version..." I tapped a hoof on it and an error window popped up, barely tapping a hoof on it I figured out that I had to be freaken gentle with this thing and take my time with it instead of my usual rapid tap-n-go method.

2.15 Hours Later

"Are you sure he is ready sister?" Luna said while approaching the door to my room.

"I am sure he is, he spent the last three hours practicing and I am sure he can do anything a regular pony can do." Celestia responded while leading a servant who was wheeling next to them an ponyquin wearing armor of the royal guard, along with a single spear and a sword.

"You hold him in high regards for his actions but being as he is I have my doubts that he will act like a pony let alone not cause harm to anything while in the Diamond Dog lair." Luna countered, looking outside the window to see her lunar guards exercising.

"Well how about a bet than. If he follows my instructions to the letter than you will have to raise the sun for me for the next two weeks." she said with a smirk while extending a hoof out to Luna.

"And if he doesn't follow your instructions than you will have to raise the moon for the next three weeks along with my part of the paperwork." with a shake of their hooves the bet was placed.

As they opened the door they saw me trying to write something with my right omni-tool holding in place a quill and ink, so far only managing to write down my name and age before tipping the quill back into the ink well. Looking up at them I saw the armor and made a small smile since I would not go barging into a probable fortified lair with no protection, looking at the two weapons I saw that the sword was the one I came here and was polished to military presentation standard and the sheath it came with was cleaned of its old dusty appearance. As I got up to go change into my new gear I saw that the armor was not the same as the guards outside or inside, it had more armor plating, the helmet was a complete cover, besides the metal plating's I saw small chain links beneath it and cloth below the chains for hopeful comfort.

"Erm...new armor, my favorite sword, a spear that I pray is for looks only...quick question: What kind of armor is that?" I pointed at the pony version of medieval full plate.

"That Roran is called Tortoise Armor, it is like your armor except...its made of steel and is more easily to break and bend. It will cover you from head to tail and provide the best protecting for you in case you get attacked or in your case since you are not used to your temporary body, walking and tripping."

'Well at least the armor can protect my entire body...rather not lose a limb as a pony cause its hard as fuck enough when it comes walk moving or writing.'

Looking it over I press my hooves onto the helmet and placed my head in it, looking out the small holes placed for where the eyes are I thought that it would have been much more efficient if it was crystalline glass but remembered that these ponies don't even know what that is. Sighing sadly and with a huff and some assistance placed the armor onto my body, which at the time I did not notice but my coat if you can call it that, was a light brown, farmers tan at best, my hair...or mane was the same color, black, and my eyes that I saw in the armor's reflection was still the same two red orbs, so I can at least see in the dark or very far distances.

"So than...when do I leave?" I nervously said while inspecting myself, making sure everything was on right and felt right, doing a few laps around the room before sitting down, looking at Celestia with eyes that said 'When this is over, you will pay for this BS.'

"You are to leave now."

'No lunch break I guess...'

Canterlot Palace, Main Gate, Afternoon

"So let me just get this straight, you are telling me to not kill any of the dogs that have captured your ponies...you do know that they are using them as slaves and will probably eat them if their usefulness has ended. So follow your rules, do not insult anyone, and try to answer and of Twilight's questions....simple enough."

"And try not to do anything foolish please." I tried to give her the middle finger but since I have hooves instead of a hand she only got me waving a hoof good-bye to her before the pegasi that was hooked up to the chariot took off which thankfully I was strapped into it cause if I wasn't I would have fallen off face first into the cobble ground...and get a very bad mouth full of pebbles.

About ten minutes into the ride I realized that it was quiet as hell, it was cold, and that I was starving. Looking to my pilots I saw that both of them looked the same except that one was a dude the other wasn't.

"So...since we are far from Canterlot and the royals...you two wanna just speak your mind or gonna be like statues the entire time." the silence was thick enough to be cut in half with my sword or stabbed with the spear that I was given. Taking that silence I pointed my left hoof at them, dialed down the charge and used overload on both of them, using it only at 1% charge, and 1% is the equivalent of a static discharge from when you are wearing wool socks and dragging your feet on the carpet.

That got their attentions mighty quickly. "I said you two can speak freely or do I have to start a very boring story of my life to you two." as soon as I said story of my life they spoke up immediately. Fucking assholes.

"Okay, what do you wanna talk about than human." At least they know what I am, would be awkward to explain that to them.

"Well, since no pony is listening in on us, lets talk about ourselves some of the more adult questions." none of them spoke up. "When was the last time you two had sex." not a single sound, "The Couples Tango? Horizontal Dance? Happy Time? Roll in the Hay?" the last one actually got them to make a sound of acknowledgement.

"Uh yea...two weeks ago for me." damn dude, you are outscoring me.

"A few months ago..." she needs to get laid just by the tone in her voice.

"For me...if I was not trapped in stone for billions of years...I would say give or take a month. Maybe less I don't know." Actually if I remembered correctly it was somewhat exactly a month ago.

"Okay, strangest thing you have ever eaten?"

"Strangest thing I ever ate was a shrimp, look like ugly little insects to me." that I can agree with you on.

"For me I would have to say cat food." you serious...you ate cat food? Both me and the stallion just looked at her with a face of at first creeped out than flat out 'what the fuck'.

"The strangest thing I have ever eaten was pyjak burgers. Damn thing was nasty as hell and tasted like I just brushed my tongue with a shit log." all honesty that was what the thing tasted like...a shit log.

Both of them looked at me, questioning looks on their faces before I saw a small town beginning to take shape a few miles away.

"Okay one last question, if you could fuck anyone in the world who would it be." please let it be someone that I can use to blackmail them with.

First one to speak up was the mare which surprised me a bit since the stallion was gonna speak up before sealing his mouth shut. "I would probably want to rut with...Blueblood." That pompous asshole? I'm still a bit shocked to learn that even he somehow manages to get some tail when he acts like such an asshole to everyone and mostly everything.

"For me...hooves down Luna." Oh let the blackmailing begin.

"Well..nice choice dude...lady, Blueblood is the biggest asshole I have ever met, you should have gone with someone else." the landing could have gotten smoothly but the two talked quietly to one another and made the landing feel like I was in a Mako that just went over a small cliff and did a craptastic landing.

Ponyville, Afternoon

"Okay, Twilight will send the letter when the mission is over. Take care and try not to make the next landing rough." waving barely my hoof at them since wearing a probable half-ton of armor would be very tiring without any modifications to it. The pair took off again after only a minute of touching down and dropping me off, so far Ponyville...god I am going to gag if I keep hearing that name...so far the grass is green the ponies are happy and it is boring as fuck.

Grabbing the only things I brought, which was my sword, the spear that I will use as a torch or as firewood and a knife, and my bag which is currently holding my clothes for when I do change back in about...18 hours or so, looking at the town I noticed that every single pony was busy setting themselves up for an attack against the dogs and by the sound of the the hammer on nails and the overly loud voice yelling at them to work faster, my guess of an attack was rather correct or they were doing this for practice. Upon barely stepping within an inch toward the town I was magically yanked in, dropped to the floor, and was almost kicked in the head until my would-be attacker stopped.

"Okay...not even five minutes here and I get captured...not so bad." a pink blur came up to me and at that moment I wanted to rip my ears off and eat them just to not listen to the pink menace. Half way through her rapid verbal assault I shoved my protected hoof into her mouth while shudder at the thought that if she kept talking I would have to cause bodily harm to her.

"Easy there sugarcube, no need to get all uppity for my friend here. We need ya help to keep 'em pesky dogs out of our here town." Well at least she didn't change in the time I was out cold, on an operating table or having my world turned upside down for fun.

Looking at Applejack than Pinkie Pie I just shrug my shoulders before going to a turned over cart and looked over it, seeing Rainbow Dash keeping an eye over the town until she came flying down to me. If I had known that she would be flying at a high rate of speed I would have thought to duck and hope for the best but wearing shiny metal armor in the middle of the afternoon is like shooting a flare at night while wearing a suit made of neon lights with a large sign pointing right at yourself. The impact from the collusion was roughly equal to getting hit by a concussive round, it will knock you on your ass and leave you breathless for a while.

As the dust settles I found myself to be on my back while Rainbow Dash was straddling my chest, if I was not wearing armor, or yet was even interested in ponies, than this would have been a very...embarrassing moment until I realized that she was glaring right at me until she looked down at herself to see the position we were in until her wings slowly began to extend but before I saw them go to half-mast she got off and galloped off, leaving me with a very confused look on my face while I began to wonder what the hell just happened.

"Guard get up please! We need your help with these ruffians that have invaded our home and ponyknapped some of our dear friends." Well at least the white mare didn't try to talk to me to death or crash into me. Getting up was a problem since my armor was heavy and that I was stuck on my back meant that I had figure out a way to get up, but luckily I had the attention of a unicorn at the moment and was magic'd up and was back on my hooves.

"Thank you kindly ma'am, I am to report to Twilight Sparkle before I head off to the Diamond Dog lair to retrieve the missing civilians." looking over to see that Rarity was busy handing out some scarfs to the few fillies and colts that are safe behind the barricades, as I looked at her she pointed toward the giant tree, at first I thought she was joking but I shit you not her home was actually a tree and that out front it says that it was a library.

'You got to be fucking kidding me...she lives in a tree...what is this fucking Middle Earth? I saw a gingerbread house that was an actual candy store, a circus ride that is a clothing store, but really now...a tree that is a library. I swear if this shit goes anymore south I am going to hit Space Mexico...'

Upon entering the library I found out quickly that I just entered at a really bad time when the nerd was busy levitating books around the room left and right,a few hitting me in the head but since my head was protected by a strong helmet I hardly felt it...hardly. Coughing loudly I saw that Twilight hasn't slept in at least two days by the small bags under her eyes and that her mane was unkempt and wild...just like me when I am on sniper detail and haven't moved an inch in days while waiting for my target to show up.

"Oh sorry...you must be the mercenary that Celestia has brought in to help us."

'When was I a mercenary? Oh right...' "Yeah, I am the merc, but tell me how much do you know about me."

She was shocked by that question but she straightens up, levitates a pair of book reading glasses onto her muzzle, pulls up a scroll from her saddle and begins to read off my so called 'record' that Celestia made up while I was apparently knocked out.

"From what Princess Celestia sent me, it reads here that you have served with the Royal Guard for 7 years before quitting, than you joined the Crimson Talons in the Gryphon Empire, it says you have...killed gryphons and diamond dogs....and a short temper..." "Oh my...I...I'll come back later..." oh perfect...the queen of all that is shy was behind me the entire time...

"Yes I have killed before, and I do kind of have a short temper, only with ponies that question my motives. I will get the job done and go home, I could have said no to Ol' Celly but since she currently is hanging something over me..."

'More like a horrible curse of a bottle of unknown liquid that made me like this but don't care until I am back at the castle.'

"But anyways just tell me where the ponies were taken so I can bring them back and get my paycheck, I have a barrel of cider with my name on it."

I was lying like a champ since from what I know that most ponies don't know how to lie and those that do make a funny face while doing it, so its like a failure rate of 90% in lying...it could be more I don't know I'm not that good with society statistics.

Before any of them could respond I heard Rainbow Dash speak up loud enough and the sound of a bunch of dogs howling loudly was my signal to go outside. Running as fast as I can with all my armor on I made it to the barricade and saw that their was at least 15 dogs holding crude looking swords, axes, and spears while wearing even cruder armor that looked like they raided a kitchen store and took all the pots and pans at the outskirts of the town near the forest, which to me at the time looked like something out of Scooby Do.

"You lost ponies to them?" I pointed a hoof at the idiots in tin, "I can easily wipe them out in twenty seconds or less! Just tell me where their cave is so I can just bum-rush it and get this job over with." but before I put my front hooves on top of the barricade I was yanked down by Twilight and was held down on the cobblestone ground.

"Yes we lost some of our friends to them but they are holding some of the fillies and colts in their lair...they said that if we try to rescue them than they will kill them..." tears were starting to form under her eyes, a few of the other parents of those children were crying as well. A hostage situation...perfect.

Looking over at the dogs I saw that one of them was an alpha and the smaller dog next to him was holding up a white rag tied to a stick, my guess they wanted to talk to them and make demands before they release their captives. Sizing them up I spotted that all of them was wearing pot lids on their arms and chests, only five of them was wearing actual armor made from probably iron or steel...maybe both I don't know but those dogs were bulky and looked bored at the moment.

"Well...I am not going to be standing here all day waiting, I'm going over there to speak to them, hear them out than waste them before moving onto their lair and getting those civilians out of here. If we wait to long than they might start kill off their captives until we give into their demands." Glancing at Twilight I saw that she was still on the verge of crying until I noticed that her purple lizard assistant was nowhere to be around, that was when I noticed that he was taken as well.

'So that is why she is sad as hell and looks like she was in a wrestling contest and lost, lost her assistant...hmmm'

As I took another step outside I saw that none of them were paying much attention to the things around them and that gave me a slightly brilliant and evil idea. Looking back at Twilight and the others I got a glimpse that they got into a fight like this before but never when killing and death is involved.

"Okay...this is my plan and you are probably going to hate it and most likely try to talk me out of it but it won't work on me, not even with weaponized cuteness or sugary food will tell me otherwise. I am going out there to talk to them on my terms. Do not ask how I am going to get them onto my terms..." as I got quiet I raised my voice so everyone within the town can hear me "...For those that are not about to die please look away from me, thank you for your cooperation." almost instantly every single pony stopped staring at me and turned their heads, one of them even got up and flew off over a building to not look at me.

Going to the edge I heard the faint sounds of hooves and wings behind me, tilting my head to the side I saw that Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Twilight were coming over to me until they moved into what I thought was a staggered formation behind me and that I was the spearhead of the group. I guess if they wanted to see the show I am about to enact than they better have brought their raincoats.

As soon as we left the barricade it was quickly closed up behind us, leaving us that left to fend for ourselves but at the time I could care less about myself since I was covered in armor and held a rank of badassness of infinity, the others on the otherhoof...hand were not even making an attempt to protect themselves, so if they got whacked off than that is on their heads.

Our slow march to the outskirts of the town I took in the landscape to asset the area and try to find anything that might hold a tactical advantage but so far only the tree's serve it since they can conceal movement and is most likely a good place to hide, now I just got to find a reason to use it.

5 minutes into our march we came somewhat face to face with my opposition, looking them dead in their eyes, not even blinking since my eyes are still robotic and I toned down the redness to give it a semi-normal appearance to anyone that might remove my helmet. The mares behind me were slightly scared by the dogs while I just stood there acting like they were nothing since in hindsight they are nothing to me and that I can easily reduce them to mounds of ashes or piles of frozen dog meat or whatever tickles my fancy at the proper moment of execution. As I was looking them over their Alpha left his group behind to meet us half way, I turned my head and nodded at the three before leaving them behind to speak to whoever this mutt is.

"So...you be pony that we speak with...you want ponies back? We want gems and metals. You no get ponies back. We get what we want...you look stronger than other weak ponies...you come with us now or female ponies get hurt." This dumbass is the worst leader for a species I have ever met right to Udina, I guess it is time for my rebuttal.

"You listen here mutt, you will give me back those ponies or I will cut off your head at the shoulders and mount it on a spike or hang it over my fireplace a a trophy. You have only two choices here dog, give back the ponies you kidnapped and get to keep your head and your lives or I get to kill all 15 of you, go to your lair and slaughter every single bitch and cub there to rescue those ponies. Either way I win so choose." when I was done talking that dog was fuming, I swear that if there was a hot-plate on his head it could probably turn an egg into a sunny-side up.

As he moved his right paw to his back to probably pull out a club or some blunt object to beat me over the head with I used my omni-tool to lift my sword from my back and place it right next to his throat in only two seconds, he did not react at first but when he felt the cold metal touching his jugular veins and as he slowly moved his paw to the grab the blade I slit his throat before using my other omni-tool to lift the spear off my left side and threw it at the dog holding a crossbow, the spearhead entered his left arm and exited his ribcage, his body hanging off the forest floor as his right hand grabbed the shaft of it in mid-flight but the force of it was ejected and the power behind it left him hanging two feet off the ground blood spilling out until he croaked and died.

"Anyone else want to break the deal?" All of them charged together in staggered lines.

As they charged towards me I had a slight epiphany about how to take care of these dogs and still manage to not kill them at the same time, figuring that would be boring but the way I would extract the information I need from them would easily make up for the lack of bloodshed today.

Watching them advance unto me I activate my omni-tools, put the setting of 'Cold Snap' at its lowest so it wouldn't straight up kill them in an instant but instead leave them from the neck down a ice block. At the 15 meter mark I sit on my armored ass, pointing my fore-hooves at them, the dogs seeing the shiny gloves and charge even faster to try and rip them from my body, not knowing their impending freeze. At the 3 meter mark I change the settings from narrow hose to wide breath, and as soon as I can tell they are close enough to see the whites of their eyes I cut loose. The sound of a sharp loud hiss and the billowing cloud of icy air turned 9 of the 15 dogs into fresh ice blocks but the rest climbed over their frozen comrades and at 1 meter I took a mallet to the dome and flew into a tree as my sword flew off in a different direction, my eyes a bit blurry and out of focus but immediately clear up and go to 50% glow, my bell being rung by a mallet to the head.

"Owww....owww.....fuck....owww....your ass is grass." getting off the ground I charge up another wintery blast of doom to the beasts with the IQ of a red sand addict, who at the moment was rushing towards me, some of them with their jaws opening and closing in a simulation that if I die they are going to gnaw on my corpse which is not going to happen. Taking my sword and placing it into my clenched jaws and got into a defensive stance waiting for the impact of at least one body.

As the dogs slammed into me I managed to stab at least two of them before my sword was knocked from my teeth which hurts like hell, the two I stabbed are clutching onto their injured shoulder's, the bleeding not stopping but the pain is very much there and is causing it to get only worse. The remaining dogs begin to pummel, stomp and even chew upon my body as it lies on the floor, their teeth cracking and denting my armor while at the same time also cracking and destroying their own teeth which amuses me as one of them reels back in pain from his fangs cracking and probably shattering to the floor.

Slowly getting lifted off the ground I was than dropped to the floor and than the feeling of a hammer bashing my helmet in was enough for me to quickly scramble to my hooves, the feeling of metal touching my nose...I think its called a nose that is, was enough to tell me that I need to stop dicking around and finish this crap before it gets out of hand. The clicking sound that came out of my hooves was enough for the dogs to look at them, and than later paw and claw at to try and steal them from me before they were both blasted by another cold cloud of ice to the face, their facial expressions forever stuck as shocked, surprised, and one of them, cold as hell.

Huffing and puffing I claw at the ground to get back up, exhausted from the armor, the heat inside of it being unbearable, the metal that is bent to hell is annoying me all to hell and being banged upside the head by a mallet was enough to ruin any happy thoughts for me currently for the day.

"Twilight...is there any buildings nearby that we can borrow for an interrogation...these 15 popsicle's are going to sing like little songbirds when I am done with them...but I am not going to do it when they are out here...and maybe some water will do me some good..." I stumbled a bit to my hooves, trying to yank my helmet off to get some fresh air that wasn't polluted by my breath, the stench of sweat and the soon to be scent of blood.

As the mares behind me were watching me fight I noticed a few things that made me realize that they are cowards when it is straight up confrontations when the enemy has weapons or any tactical advantages.

'How the hell did these ponies even survive this long? With the freaken dogs, dragons and other mythical creatures I saw in the picture books they should have died out or at least be in hiding....if they were protected the the two royal ponies the entire time than I am ashamed to even know that kind of cowardice.'

Clopping my hooves a bit to get her attention she snapped out of whatever kind of daze she was currently transfixed in and spoke up. "Yes, there is the barn over at Sweet Apple Acres but it is currently being rebuilt...are you sure it is safe to place them there?" I yanked my helmet off my head and threw it down onto the ground, grunting a bit from the exertion that I placed upon myself from the fighting.

"Missy, they are only going there for as a temporary interrogation room, if they tell me what I need to know than no harm will come to them, but if they resist than well hey, that's torture for you." picking my helmet off the floor with my omni-tool which by the way was nicely hidden away in the armored sleeves that form around my front-lets and protected by what I can guess half an inch of solid steel and probably two centimeters of small metal chain-links.

As I placed the helmet on my shoulder to keep it from dropping, attaching the small loop around the hook on my right shoulder I went over to the barn with 15 frozen dogs in tow, I began to think of a way to torture and interrogate them to force feed me the information I need for the rescue and I better to it fast and right, I rather not be stuck in a situation where I begin to turn back to my normal self wearing pony armor....that might break me or worse fuck me up. Ten minutes of walking to the barn I realized that it in appearance similar to the barns of old Earth except not as advanced and not....light red. Getting Twilight to move the dogs in a large circle was easy but getting her to leave was hard because she wanted to be with me when I 'question' the captured raiders but I know deep in my hopefully still fake heart that I will not allow her to remain in the same room till its over.

Sweet Apple Acres, Unfinished Barn, Afternoon

"Okay Twilight, leave the room so I can begin and don't bother with trying to stay inside....it will get messy." with that I began to push her out the double doors but I landed face first into the soft dirt when I heard the sounds of a loud pop behind me. The lavender mare just looking at the dogs with inquisitive stares, trying to piece together how a regular pony used ice magic to freeze the diamond dogs, for me all I had to do was use Snap Freeze on them on the lowest of settings to prevent them from exploding into dog chunks instantly.

Sighing in defeat I just close the doors with her still inside, she is levitating what I think was an old-fashioned notebooks, a quill and a bottle of ink, which I might try to steal to use as prank material if I return to the castle....if...

Going to the first dog I unfreeze his head by cracking it with plated hooves till he shook his head a few times and looked right at me, my red eyes glowing slightly to try an intimidate the poor bastard into giving me what I want. It did not work it only resulted in him spitting on my face. Shaking the dog slobber off I go to my tools of the trade in the barn and came back with a small hatchet being held in my mouth and using the blunt part of the small axe I crack the ice on his right arm till his elbow was free from the ice, placing the blade against his elbow I stare at him.

"Now we could do this the easy way or we can do it the hard way, the choice is yours. Tell me where you're hiding the hostages and the location of your hideout. Speak quickly for you only have seconds to tell me and walk out of here with your life." bringing the sharp blade against his elbow I turn my head a bit to make the sharpened edge bite into his elbow creating a papercut wound and watched the blood slowly weep out of the cut. Looking at him I saw that he thought I was bluffing with my threat since almost all the ponies I've seen were weak and flimsy when they see death or gore present and he thinks that I am one of them, well prepared to be proven wrong.

Rearing my head back I bring the blunt handle of the axe to his elbow, breaking it and forcing it to bend partially in the wrong direction, the dog howling out in pain as the broken joint slightly moves back into its previous position. Glaring right at the dog I move my head back again and return the blunt edge back onto his elbow, a loud crunching sound was heard and I saw that I crushed a few pieces in his elbow, now looking like an old saggy bag of flesh. The dog now whimpering in pain as he glares right at me, his resolve still holding out against me.

"Tell me what I want to know. Tell me the location of the ponies and your lair and you get to walk out of this place with your life. If you try to lie to me about either of them you will lose your life and I will hunt down your family and kill them as well. So TALK!" bringing the axe to his head I placed it right at his neck, letting it rest there temporary and to let him feel that his next choice will get him killed if he refuses to speak up.

Silence filled the barn as we stared at each other, the faint sound of growling was my cue to bring the axe back and to look him dead in the eye. Sighing a bit I take the axe and brought it down upon his neck, his neck now bleeding as the axe gnaws down and forces his life essence to spill out onto the ice. He howls again but still doesn't speak up and growls even louder at me, shaking my head I yank the axe out of his neck and in a swift motion brought it back down onto him but striking his head, the sound of his skull cracking reverberated inside the barn until it was once again silent.

"Useless.....time for prisoner number 2." I said while casually yanking the axe out of the skull of the deceased dog, Twilight was in shock that I just killed a sentient being without any regret or remorse. Moving over to the second dog I chisel my way toward the head but instead come up with an even more devious plan to extract the information out of him. Slowly cracking over his head I begin to carve out a bowl shaped reverse dome began to form until I reached his head and allowed him to breath and speak again.

Going over to the side of the barn I found a few buckets filled with water and a step ladder and brought them behind the dog, rearing up I got to his head and looked down upon him, seeing that he was slightly scared and whimpered by the sight of me.

"You look oddly familiar...have we met before? No no that can't be right...I remember telling you a few weeks ago that if I ever saw you or your pack of dogs again that I will massacre all of you and play with your bodies and your bones...so tell me what are you doing all the way out here?" I asked, bringing a few buckets up and placed them near his head, the sounds of whimpering and the probability of him crapping himself was evident as he only stared at me.

"Tell me now or else I will just go ahead with my promise and kill you and everything you cherish and love." Bringing a bucket to his head and dumping the water in, making it slowly rise to his chin. The very thought of slowly drowning was enough to send that dog over the edge and started to talk rapidly and partially incoherently.

After a while of waiting for him to lose his breath and try to reclaim lost oxygen I stood on my rear legs and staring right at him with a soul piercing glare, his ears folded downward as he spoke up but in a frightened and scared manner.

"I..I don't know....we told steal ponies....please no kill me!" okay...at least I got a little bit of intelligence from the scared bastard. Bring another bucket to his head I slightly spill some water in to get him to keep talking. "Th...the dogs are holding ponies in the forest!" I poured the rest of it in as it reaches his lips forcing him to tilt his head back. "That all I know! I promises it!" I smile grimly as I put the third bucket down and kicked the ice a few times to let it crack and crumble around him.

"Get the fuck out of here...and if I ever see you again trying to cause harm or sew the seeds of chaos here. I will kill you, slowly and painfully." the dog scampered out of the barn and ran off somewhere out of sight, turning my head to the other 13 dogs I brought back the hatchet and started to undo the third dog, releasing his left arm and than stomping on the elbow to break it, I than release his head from the icy prison only for me to raise the axe and bring it down near his fingers.

Looking at him I point with my hoof his hand, than to my hatchet than pointed to the dead dog in the corner of the room before looking at him and shook the axe a bit to get his attention again.

"Tell me what I want to know and you get to live, don't tell me you end up like that fool in the corner...start talking." walking to his head I checked to see if he was even staring at me and when I got within spitting distance he made a futile attempt to bite me but instead got nothing but air. I waited two minutes before I took the axe and brought it down onto his thumb, severing the digit and making it bleed out onto the small wooden table, moving my hoof to it I set my omni-tool to Incineration but lowered it to 2% power and sealed the wound shut while burning his fur off his paw.

Waiting another two minutes I yanked the axe out of the table and swung again, cutting off his pinky finger and sealed off the wound before he bled to death until he yelled out.

"Alright! Alright I talk I talk! Ponies you seek are in forest! We took them to old stone castle! It our home!" Okay, know where they are but where are they kept and how many enemy foot troopers are there....

I slowly bring the axe onto his pointing finger, letting him feel the warm metal rest against it. Turning my head to Twilight I saw that she was slowly turning green from the smell of iron in the air and from the sight of blood and a dead body in the room, clopping my hooves she wrote it down and than proceeded to cover her ears and eyes from what she thinks I am about to do.

"Thank you for your cooperation...and now, get the fuck out of here and if I ever even hear or see your sorry ass ever again, I am going to cut it off and mount it over my fireplace, right next to your head." I broke him out of the ice and than turned to the other 12.

"Hmmm....12 frozen dogs...I guess I can talk to one more...see how many beasts and dogs lie in wait for me..." Dragging one of the smaller dogs to the table and picking up the leather straps and placing it along side the dog, I started to chisel my way to his arms and legs, freeing them and tightly strapping it down with my teeth since hands are currently not an option for me at this point in time. Breaking more of the ice I noticed that this dog was different from the others, had a slightly thinner body frame, arms and legs look weaker and more slim....a female dog...bitch...

Looking the now 'female' dog over I saw that she must have been young by the counts of no scars, no torn clothing, frail and weak in appearance and also seemed to be brand new to the game of raiding and pillaging. Waiting for her to wake up from the sudden freeze induced sleeping I decided to see her from an better view, climbing onto the table I was now directly over her and saw that she must be at least young...a teenager of sorts not even an adult...that she for some reason oddly smells like weak perfume made from roses and lavender...

"Okay...wake up now....come on now....hey...hey....wake up...wake up....hmmm..." I began to poke her face with my hoof, seeing if that would wake her up but instead I got a groan as she rolled her head away from my hoof, climbing down from the table I went and grabbed a wet sponge with my teeth and arced the angle of flight and chucked it, the sponge landing on the side of her head, my result from the toss was the bitch rolling her head again letting the sponge hit the floor with a loud thud. Annoyance and Defiance was this female and every attempt I made to wake her up has failed, looking over at the water buckets I found one filled with hot water, brought it over to her, and dumped the contents over her head with a smug grin on my face as she wakes up.

"Now that you are wide awake and probably wondering what is going on, let me explain it slowly to you so you can understand me. I have taken you and fourteen other dogs captive from the outskirts of Ponyville...and in return that you fourteen get to walk out of here alive and mostly in one piece. Tell me how many of your kind are hiding out in the forest castle?" talking slowly to the girl I walked around the table, minding her paws in case she tries to take a swipe at me even with while being strapped down.

The girl just looks at me as I circled back and was looking down at her from above her head, just staring downward until she blinked and looked away. Taking that as a sign of defiance I went over to my hatchet, still covered in still blood and fur, and brought it over to her face for her to see.

"This is how it is going to work, you act against what I want, and this hatchet will remove a random part of your body, I am going to do a mental coin flip and see what gets cut off and than with the severed limb I will show it to you. I will give you a numbing agent to prevent you from knowing what I am removing from your body." dragging the axe across her body I saw that she actually tried to worm her way out of the straps but couldn't, and as I kept dragging the blade against her fur I saw that she was shivering and will soon become useless to me.

Removing the hatchet from her fur I threw it near Twilight's horn, which she was lucky to duck her head in time to record everything I was saying but when she turned around to find the source of the loud thud she saw my hatchet and saw me standing over the dog, my face close to hers. Returning my gaze to the dog I resumed my soul-piercing glare, my red mechanical eyes beginning to glow to a hauntingly hellish red, slowly becoming nothing more than twin red orbs in my skull bellowing red lights down upon her face until she finally screamed out for me to stop with the stare, making myself slowly turn down the brightness.

"Please stop that!" At least that got her to speak up... "There was the fifteen of us, the fifty-eight from the tribe that was under the mountain city, and hundred-and-twenty-three from my tribe, we are forming a new city within the forest for our freedom from the dogs to the east." Information is key and this girl just gave me exact numbers....she may be useful...

Moving off the table a bit I went over to Twilight, told her how many dogs there was, than told her to leave the room, for what I am about to do might not be something I want an egghead to see. Closing the barn doors behind her as she protested against being forced out but I ignored her words by taking her quill and notebook, and locking the door behind me.

Walking back to the dog in question I climbed back ontop the table, sat down ontop of her and used her stomach as a writing table and began to write down what I had to say so she wouldn't freak out from my eyes glowing again.

If you want to live you will do exactly as this page says.

You will take the remaining dogs back to your castle with me in tow, you will tell your leader that I gave myself up to free the youngest and weakest of the ponies that you captured. If you fail to follow this order to the letter I will kill the rest the dogs I have captured and have fun with you. In more than one way when I am free. If you follow the order you will be free from your prison and any laws you have broken will be removed.

Tearing the page out of the notebook I held it up in my teeth for her to see and as she read it she turned slightly pale from the part of me killing her comrades and I thought I saw something else but shook the thought as she kept reading, as she came down to the last part she nodded her head yes as I slowly undid the straps on her feet and legs.

"You made the right choice...now hold still and if you try to flee by yourself than you will be caught, and I will do whatever I please to your slender form."

And now to bear fruit my haphazard plan.

Canterlot Castle, Afternoon

As the sun rose to the center of the sky, the castle activities was in full swing as the servants, nobles, diplomats and royalty were up and about, tending to their business like any other day, except that today was in a slight uproar when a few of the wealthy ponies and the not so wealthy came to the castle to ask about the mysterious figure that rescued their son's and daughter's from the Diamond Dogs two weeks ago and just now hearing about the location of the hero.

When the ponies that wanted to see the being in question that was responsible for rescuing their young and for kicking the Dogs out of their lair near their country's capital, but when they ask for the location of the hero all they get is that he is currently 'Indisposed' at the time, which to few of the ponies acknowledged it and went back to the lobby while a few were persistent and a few even demanded to see the hero but only got the cold shoulder.

During the time it took Celestia to return to her duties and go through three meetings on the economy's current condition and what it will look like in the coming weeks and months a guard walks into the room holding a letter in his mouth, quickly handing it off to Celestia before quickly leaving the room before he got dragged into the boring world of economics.

As she opens the letter she slowly grew a smile, noticing the hoofwriting of her student and merrily read the letter at a gentle pace but as she looks at it, her smile gradually began to turn into a frown than into one of shock.

"He did what!" every pony in the conference room turned to look at their now frustrated leader.

Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres Barn, Twenty Minutes Ago

"Okay here is the plan...you all take me back to your lair, said that three of your comrades deserted after seeing the sight of royal guards approaching, and managed to capture one of them and brought said guard back as a slave and that more ponies will be coming to try and reason with your leader. I get into the dungeons I than break out, sparing your lives while killing anything that tries to stop us and than break out of the castle with the captives and get the hell out of the forest...any questions?" one dog raised his hand while slightly yawning.

"Yes Oswald."

"Will boss get angry if we only bring one pony?"

"No he will not get angry, he might be happy that you all managed to 'capture' a royal guard wearing full plated armor, he might even let you eat first...probably."

"Any other questions? No? Good....alright lets do this."

"On the count of three, we burst out the back door and to the forest...got it?"

"One....two....THREE!"

Canterlot Palace, Afternoon

"Yea...he would do that...."

Everfree Forest, Afternoon, Twenty Minutes Later

"God damn this place sucks....its just like the jungles of Vietnam all over again....fucking hated that part of my training..." grumbling out loud for all to hear it, the forest as I would put it sucks major ass. The trees are all twisted and gnarled, the beasts are annoying as hell as they try to find a way to get the tasty meat that is me, and the occasional ghost sighting. In all this forest sucks so much ass that I could not even find a person or a thing that is the same level of ass suckage.

We have been walking in this forest for give or take twenty minutes and it was starting to bother me because I hate the silence of it, the semi-depressing trees and the constant barking and yelping of both the dogs that surround me and the wolves that are around us. Looking over my shoulder I saw that female dog was using me as a riding horse, which to me was pretty fucking ironic at the time, me being a horse/ pony thing, and the female riding me...hopefully in a good way. Earlier she told me her name as I told her mine, in case we ever get separated during my part of the plan where I kill any dog that tries to impede my path to the forest and freedom, she called herself Kara and she is the 'runt' of her pack of dogs. From what she told me being the runt is like being the nerd in school, everyone ignores or hates you, you will never get far down the road and that you can only be successful if you push yourself to the breaking point. That and she is at her maximum height and will most likely never grow another inch or two in her life

A few minutes later down the beaten path we have taken we come across and old creaky and shitty bridge that amazed me for it hadn't collapsed and fell down the abyss below it. After we have crossed that cursed bridge I saw what looked like a decayed castle far ahead of me and that the wildlife around it has slowly begun the process of reclaiming the keep and to extend the forest onto and into it. Within five minutes we were at the main gate of the castle which to me was embarrassing, the guards were asleep, the dogs on the wall were playing a game of sorts with cards while one was smoking a cigar at the moment. At that moment an old picture of four dogs playing poker while one was smoking a cigar while another was wearing those poker hats popped up into my head and I snickered a bit while enjoying the funny moment alone before getting kicked in the sides by Kara, which only made me snicker harder until I was stopped by going head first into a door.

Entering the castle I saw that it matched its outside to a T, it looked decayed and in shambles, everything was a mess and hadn't seen a good servant or maid in decades in its current condition. Taking a rough kick to the sides again we all moved forward to the throne room, where sitting upon the also broken chair was a dog that was just as big as the damaged throne but short, like a fat dog only expanding in a spherical shape.

"So...runt....you managed to capture pony...guard pony....good...you make us happy...send him to mines...afterwards when he is done, he is yours to do with."

'Wait what? Do as she pleases with me? This can't be good...'

And with that I was led to the mines, stripped of my armor, my helmet and spear since I left my sword behind at the barn, rather not take that valuable weapon on a suicide mission. After my stripping was complete I heard the faint sounds of metal hissing and as I turned my head I felt the hot iron press against my flank, burning something into my fleshy hide, and from all the times I was burnt, set on fire by my hands or hands of others, or just unlucky to be hit by an inferno grenade, this pain takes the cake by a shitload. Clenching my teeth and letting out a groan of extreme discomfort and pain I shut my eyes and waited for it to be over, but as soon as it was done I felt another hot iron press onto my other flank, burning it again but this time I yelled out in pain.

"AHHHHHH! You fucker that shit hurts!" clenching my teeth shut and closing my eyes the searing hot pain shoots up from my back and spreads before receding back to its point of origin on my flank. After the pain fades a collar was placed around my neck and was snapped shut and locked, than once the collar was on I heard the jingling of bells and a trio of bells was fastened to my collar along with a tag with the name Blank on it...I am not a blank...

"Move it Blank...your shift starts now. Use tool to mine gems and metals...you eat when you fill cart." Well...slave labor first than prison break, not the first time my plans had to be altered for it to work...

Slowly walking down to the mine shaft, minding the two fresh brands on my flanks...shit hurts like hell if I tried to move faster than a walk and it stings like a motherfucker whenever I move my rear legs. Going down the mine shaft I saw the kidnapped ponies working, stallions and mares swinging away with the pickaxe at the walls, trying to get to the ores while the fillies and colts gather up the fallen debris and moves it aside. As I walk by them they saw that I was a new slave but saw that I had no mark on my flank except for the branding burns, and I also noticed that without my armor I was indeed taller than the rest of most of them, the height advantage might allow me to rally them to fight with me to escape...might be able to give me some information as well...

"Start digging ponies!" the slave driver above us on a small wooden alcove said while using his whip to crack the air, sending a few of the ponies to the ground while others quickly resumed their work, leaving me to my task of mining a lone wall far from the rest of the ponies but still within visual range of the slave driver.

As I began to swing my pickaxe a thought had popped into my head and I found that the dogs were only watching us with a single slaver, and if my thoughts are right than if we take out the one dog we might be able to sneak out way out...assuming if the halls are cleared at night and that we don't have to worry about anything random happening...

Old Castle, Everfree Forest, Night

Mining for 7 hours straight is hard, mining for 7 hours while being talked to by a pony that wouldn't shut up about his whole life story is plain torture, this pony that came to dig next to me a few minutes after I was sent in was annoying as hell and every attempt at me threatening to bash his skull open with my tool was neglected by him laughing and saying that I am a silly pony, and at one point I thought I heard him say he likes silly ponies...that worries me deeply. Half way through the talking he moved closer to me while slightly lowering his voice and with each shuffle closer to me I felt my body slightly shiver out of fear for something I only heard that happens in prison ships or actual prisons. With one final shuffle we were almost face to face and I felt his tail slightly brush my sides, avoiding the burn marks and slowly went down to reach for my...

"Move that tail of yours any closer to the royal jewels and I will promise you that it will be the last time you have a tail or a functioning set of balls." moving a bit away from him, still swinging my pickaxe at the wall, knocking out a large ruby the size of my hoof onto the floor, kicking it close to the cart so I can pick it up later and move out away from the stallion lover in question before anything strange happens.

"Oh come now, we both know you want to have some fun before the big dog has his turn with you." wait what? Oh hell no I am not getting butt fucked by a large alpha dog in this form or any other form.

"Try to make a move on me again and I will send you to the cooking room in this castle in pieces...and I have killed before so try me." with that he smirked a bit before whistling a short tune as a few dogs comes around the corner, slightly moving at running pace before skidding to a halt behind me, three dogs in total.

Turning my head to look at them I saw that only one of them was heavily armored and armed, wielding a large iron rusted mace in both paws, the other two were wearing clothes made from animal hide and probably from dead pony hide as well by the mismatched colors on it. That shit was disturbing to be worn, even to me that was kind of sickening, I would proudly wear a skull into battle if I could but wearing just the flesh, not modified in any way, I see that as crude and barbaric.

"Okay...seems to me that I have a problem....well, good thing that I take care of my problems head on." quickly turning my head while opening my mouth, the pickaxe flew off spinning, impaling the the small dog on the left in the gut, most likely piercing his intestines and his stomach, but other than that he is going to be a goner. As the dog on the left was going out for the count the one on the right charged forward, pulling out a curved dagger out of a sheath from behind, while I stood there waiting for the perfect time to move. Just as he grabs my tail to yank me I had failed to notice that the large dog with the mace swung as the smaller one was stabbing downward, the mace on the other hand reached its destination first, but was off by my ears and one dog. That mace was in full swing and when it hit the other dog, it sent the poor bastard flying down the mine shaft and before we know it all three of us head the sounds of metal screeching on the stone wall and for a split second we saw a small flash of light before a firewall of pure death came flying right at us, I barely had time to jump into the mine cart that was meant for gem and ore's, but when I was in that cart, the pony that tried to buttfuck me jumped in as well, just as the wall of flames rushed past the top.

Looking at the now shaking and scared shit-less pony, I just sighed in relief that I did not have to tell Celestia that the reason why this particular pony in question is dead because he tried to butt rape me while I was held captive. As he kept shaking in fear for his life being snuffed out by a methane explosion, I was thinking that if he stays on top of me for more than thirty seconds after the explosion, than I will have an even harder time explaining to Celestia why I had to shove the shaft of a pickaxe up a certain pony's ass and use him as a puppet to escape from dog paws.

"The explosion is over...you got ten seconds to get off of me before I popsicle you, and trust me you will not like it when you get popsicled...and the way I said it doesn't help it either..." I slowly began to count down the seconds, mouthing each number and by the time I hit 'eight' he quickly got off of me, left the cart behind and ran back to entrance of the shaft, and by the time I reached the entrance they were shutting the gate, and by shutting I mean the thing was coming down like a slow guillotine and I galloped my ass off until I slide under the gate but the blasted thing crushed half of my tail.

Snorting in annoyance I asked for assistance, three dogs came by, two went to hold me down while the third just took an axe and chopped off the part of my tail that was caught under the gate, thank god that it was just hair that I lost and not any flesh and bone. Taking a glance at my tail I saw that it was just two inches from the meat of my tail and that I was now like those old dogs from Old Earth that was short-trimmed, it was demeaning to me for some reason.

After getting back onto my hooves and followed the rest of the slaves to their section of the prison I was than intercepted by Kara, who at that moment was holding a leash which connects to my collar, and at that moment I was think of three things inside my head.

'Oh fuck me.'

'First time doing bondage and I am stuck as a pony...to be dominated by a bipedal dog...fuck my life.'

'Oh god I can see the pain now.'

Slowly backpedaling away from the now grinning Kara I had three options and those were so far not going to well on my end except for one but I was afraid that if I went with it I might be scarred for the next few weeks.

Lowering my head in defeat I slowly trotted toward my current 'master' and was than leashed and somewhat dragged a few times as I was basically showed off to every single dog this girl knew and a few times I had my flank rather slapped or smacked by a few of the seemingly single or just dominative females. Half way on the march I saw the same statue and group of dogs until I realized that Kara was showing me the place, to memorize it and be ready to escape with the knowledge of the place at hand.

After the third time around the same area I got the place mapped out and as soon as I somewhat told her that I knew this place she led me off somewhere else, but this somewhere else looked a bit....old. I mean like really old, you can just tell it's old by how much decay and fragments in the room.

"This is the execution site....near the edge is a small cliff, at bottom is a lake. You ponies jump and swim to shore, run back home, I will wait for you and others here, I will not be safe here soon." wow, her plan is way better than the one I was trying to come up with.

With a quick nod she yanked my collar a few times to implicate that I am her slave when we were near the guard dogs or just random civilian dogs that are roaming about. Once I got back to the slave cells I waited a bit before realizing that I already went through this shit once. Looking at the slaves I saw three familiar faces, and a beak.

Starting from the left wall to the right wall, for the ones I do know was Ditzy, Sunny Smiles, Ditto and as for the beak I can clearly guess it was Helena and as the gryphon stood up it was indeed her, except that her wings were tightly bound to her body, my guess rubber bands.

"You got to be kidding me...how did you four get captured again by these dogs? I mean come on all four of you can fly and yet you got caught?" clearly they were confused on how a seemingly random pony knows that they were all captured before by the diamond dogs, sighing explosively I began to tell them who I was...again.

15 Minutes Later

"I call horseapples on that, you did not save the princess. There is no way that Princess Celestia would ever be put into harms way let alone be able to be killed by an assassin. You are so full of it you know human." well at least I tried to explain it.

"So says the gryphon that is currently wrapped up like a lobster ready to be boiled for seaside dinner. I took a high-powered round to the back and out the chest and lived, I like to see you take something lethal to the back and live. Hell my body took so much crap from so many people and machines that I think that I am just impossible to be killed." I said while laying down near Ditto, who by the way did not tell me anything about his people but he did tell me that his kind feeds off of positive emotions as food...not sure how the hell they do that but I can bet that it looks pretty cool when it happens.

"Tell me again human, how did you exactly end up as a pony? And why are you taller than most of them?" Ditto said while trying to look at me, his eyes were like sapphires except there not gems and most likely not hard as a rock.

"Well after getting shot and almost killed trying to save Celestia..." the gryphon calls out horseapples again "...I was put into the medical wing of the palace and was I think operated on, I woke up once during the operation and saw my own intestines and my ribcage, I passed out cause I have never saw them almost hang out of my body before, I wake up to take a syringe to the neck than a few hours later woke up a third time, go to the halls to my room before getting pin-cushioned by more syringes and knocked out, woke up for the fourth time to finally get my medication but did not know that whatever was in it turned me into this....form..." a few of the mares were eying me a bit, the thoughts I hope was going through their heads was praying for a way out of here, "...I lost most of my means to be strong enough to just break out of this cell and get all of you out....Celestia said I had 24 hours until this potions wears off...I lost count how many hours its been."

With all lying aside I had no fucking ideal how long it was since I turned, I putting all my credits it was less than 8 hours ago.

Canterlot Castle, Midnight

"Dearest Sister...it has almost been a full 24 hours...are thou sure it was wise to have given him that brewed potion on him, We do not know where his loyalties lie to..."

The silence in the throne room was thin and the air was thick with worry and wonder, both of the alicorns wondering what I am up to and wondering if I will make it in time before the potion wears off.

"Yes, I do say it is wise...but the problem is that he is now in the Diamond Dogs hands...we do not know how long it will take him to escape let alone free our ponies...they have been ponyknapping for too long..."

"Do you think he will make it back in time before it wears off?"

"No."

Everfree Castle, Prisoner Cells, Midnight

"Urgghh......gods....Ditto...." groaning in pain, feels like I just got hit in the gut with a baseball bat.

"Yes Zidane?" the changeling said while keeping his eyes shut/

"You know that feeling you get when it just feels like you got your stomached kicked so hard that you just want to puke everything you ate for the entire day?" that feeling you get when your gut rejects what you ate feeling, I got it.

"No." lucky bastard...

"Well...than this is going to suck to be me...god damn this hurts like a motherfucker..."

"Not to be rude but what is a 'motherfucker'? This word I have not heard of before."

Sighing loudly I turn my head to face the back wall with the overly tall barred window.

"I don't get payed enough to do this shit..." to tell the truth, I am never payed enough for this shit.

Next Morning, 3AM

"What do you think it is?"

"Don't know...looks like a shaved Diamond Dog...but with no claws or a tail..."

"Looks like what he was saying wasn't horseapples....you owe me 10 bits Helena."

"You get your bits when we find a way out of here..."

The sounds of hushed words and the random prodding of hooves and talons was what eventually woke me up from my stangely odd perfect slumber. As I yawned and stretched I noticed a few things were off and yet familiar, my eyes were back the were, I got my old limbs back but with holes in the palms and that they are now made of metal, and that I for some reason smell like moldy hay.

Looking down I saw that I was greeted with a very familiar sight, my body back to its normal self except that the brands are still on me but are now on my thighs and that it still stinging and painful as hell.

"Oh thank fucking god I am back to normal! I swear if that fucking change was permenant I was gonna kill myself with the closest brick I can find." turning to my left I saw that every single pony, gryphon and changeling were looking at me, their faces I can't even describe.

"What?"

One of them pointed at me with a hoof, and at the angle it was pointing at I had to guess it was towards my dick, and taking a glance downward than back to the pony in question I use whatever decency I had left to use the torn curtain on the window and made a make-shift skirt of sorts to cover myself.

"Fucking ponies...couldn't all of you just looked away? You know its called modesty, surely you all heard of it?" ignoring a few rude remarks I go to the cell door and looked it over. It appeared to be brand new and that the hinges were even oiled for easy opening and closing.

Taking a look at the ponies I saw that the four I knew had told them how I escaped last time and are now just waiting for me to get the door open.

"Just to be clear, Celestia has no idea where I am this time so are going to have to get out of here the old fashioned way, follow me to the old room."

I can clearly say that once my omni-blade was out I thought I heard a low sounding whistle, most likely a pony was impressed by the weapon of semi-mass destruction.

Cutting off the hinges of the door and letting it swing open before slowly putting it against the wall, I walked out first, no guards in sight and signaled everyone else to follow me and to keep low to the ground. Half way to the execution room I saw two guards talking and standing at the only entrance to that room, thinking fast I told everyone to stop and let me handle the guards.

Turning the corner to face them I took notice of the horns on their belt and the slightly crude swords on their belt as well. Counting to three I got a running start before using a Biotic Charge on the guard to the left, knocking him slightly off balance before getting a grip on his head, and sharply jerking it to the right, snapping his neck instantly before moving to the one on the right and doing the same thing. Their bodies hit the ground with a soft thud and I was blessed with luck for if they were wearing their armor I would have been screwed over big time.

Going back to the group I told them to step around or over the bodies, make way to the execution room and wait for me there, all but one nodded. After going back to the room I gave Kara a thumbs up to tell the ponies the rest of my plan and for her to follow them to lead them safely back to town, but what I did tell her that was a priority was to go back to the barn and wait for me there. Looking at Ditto I crossed my arms, gave him my usual death glare out of annoyance with him and waited a second before speaking up.

"Ditto...is there something you need to tell me? Do it now because once we start to run back to Ponyville we would split up, I know what your kind did to the ponies, crashing a wedding is what I do but trying an invasion at the same time and failing, I doubt they will give you any sign of mercy for coming with us."

'You know Roran, those changelings are still in Equestria and have taken form as a few of the residents.'

'He never told me his kind can shapeshift into others.'

'Now I did, and also you need to shave that beard off, only I can have a beard and look good with it.'

'Bite me Discord, I am keeping this beard until I can find a shaving tool to shorten it...'

At first he was silent but as soon as we got to the stairs he spoke up in a hushed and quiet tone.

"Human, if what you said is true about what you said...being the last of your own species...why are you doing things that would prove to be fatal to you. You should be trying to find a way to live your life not spending it as a servant."

My response is a middle finger and a silent curse, not even caring about the insect anymore.

"You can rather jump off or I can just throw you off, if you are the last one and you don't want to jump than I am jumping with you in my arms. Only three choices so be smart and jump." the crossed eyed pegasus Ditzy jumped over the edge first, and from the look of things was kinda not paying attention to my plan at the time of me saying it.

After she jumped over the ledge a few more followed after her, and when it was just me, Kara and Ditto as I was standing near the edge waiting on him to jump. I motioned for him to jump and he shook his head no, I stormed after him and when I got a firm grip on his neck I chucked him over the ledge, not even thinking about the fact that I had to jump right after him now that he was gone and I was left behind. Taking a glance down to the water I saw the ponies now swimming to the shore and none of them getting spotted by the dogs hanging out at the wall, and with that I took a look at my hands, saw the metal under the flesh and breathed a short sigh of relief that I still have my metal limbs but now I have to skin myself to get them back to normal.

"I don't know how to swim..." Oh fuck me...why must the one being that was the last one have to be the one that can't swim to save their own life...

After a long and deep thought I came up with an idea, but knowing how that these dogs are somewhat my height and are probably strong enough to do what needs to be done, I can only hope that it works cause if it doesn't than I would have to save a drowning dog.

"Well I guess you have to hold onto me than, and don't be getting any funny...your doing it wrong...hook your legs around my waist from behind....yes like that...and wrap your arms under mine across the chest....no under my arms not over them. Yes, just like that, okay now when I jump you prepare yourself, hold on tightly to me and before we hit the water hold your breath until we resurface and once we are back onto land you can let go unless you are afraid to move after we are out?" I am honestly hoping that she lets go of me once we are on land cause I am not carrying a dog all the way back home while wearing nothing but a crappy skirt made of a poor excuse of a curtain.

Counting my blessings and also praying that when I jump I don't land in shallow water and end up eating shit and going face first into a pile of sharp jagged rocks and the dog on my back not getting harmed either, she has her uses for a probable infiltration spy...probably. Taking one last look over the edge I breathed in deeply before going back to the wall than taking a running start before jumping off the ledge trying to get as much distance away from the castle and as close to the other side as much as possible.

As I got within a few feet from the fastly approaching water I braced myself for impact, a loud yelping sound behind was what caught my attention until I got a face full of ice cold water, a passing fish, and lastly seaweed that slightly tickled my face until I quickly forced my arms to move my heavy ass and the cargo on my back to the surface and upon breathing the sweet fresh air I heard a splash to my left and a few seconds later a spear floated beside me.

"The prisoners are escaping!" Oh god damn it Kara...why did you have to yelp when we were just seconds from freedom...

Swimming to the shore was easy, not getting speared by dogs standing on the top of the wall was somewhat hard, not getting speared while making sure I wasn't followed was hard, watching for enemies while not noticing dry land covered in rough rocks only meant that this was going hurt without any protection...

Upon reaching land I saw the ponies were waiting for me but when as soon as I shouted for them to run back home they all agreed with me immeditaly and without a moments notice galloped off without me, leaving me and Kara behind for the dogs...just like Katherine and the rest of my squad back at Noveria except I actually got a friend to run with to escape capture.

Ponyville Outskirts, Morning

Me and Kara spent seven hours walking and running back there, evading the hostile dogs within the forest and also losing a few of them at what I thought was a shallow lake but was actually a bog of sorts at which when I got there I nearly shit myself at the sight of a mythical creature staring back at me. If my history lessons have ever stuck with me it was called a Hydra, just like the missile launcher that a few of the Blue Sun's use in their heavy armor squad. I kid you not when I first saw the beast I almost wanted to just bite the bullet and let it eat me but than I realized that it had four heads, four heads equals four hungry mouths that would want a taste of meat, which means instead of a quick death it would end up as a brutal and painful death.

Not something I would want to end up as on an early morning.

Running away from the beast was easy work because instead of what it said in the old history books that they were like dragons except no wings and had at a minimum four heads and twelve max, this thing had two legs and that thing looked ugly as sin and slow as fuck. Losing sight of the hydra was by so far the largest thing I ever managed to escape from after it saw me and had me firmly within its sights.

After we got away from the few dogs that followed us into the bog and the hydra that tried to turn us into an early morning meal, we were back in the forest but at a part that looked a bit less creepy and strange but a bit more wild and untamed. A few minutes into the new part of the forest I had this feeling that I was being watched by the trees, and on the rare occasion I saw a face on a random oak tree, blinking to see if it was really there but it as gone when my eyes fell upon the faced tree only for it to have moved to a different tree.

'Discord are you fucking with me again? You should know how I feel about you fucking with my mind when I am busy.'

'Roran if I was messing with you head than you would be seeing strange pictures flying around and it would be raining candy from the skies, since I know that you hate sugary treats.'

'I swear if I start seeing those things while in this forest I will take a hammer, go to your statue and bring it down upon your tail and horns, seriously, no mind-fucking.'

Taking a glance at a tree I saw that the face slowly formed on the trunk of a tree, the face itself looked like it was in agony before it slowly faded away and reappeared on a nearby trunk but this time in large shit-eating grin and than it to began to fade. Blinking and rubbing my eyes I thought I was just starting to see things cause I was running on fumes and most likely spare time from the lack of food in my system.

10 minutes later I saw twinkling lights in the distance, at first I thought it was just a lake and the sun was shining onto it, but as we got closer I realized it was the outside world, the sound of safe birds chirping and the voice of something intelligent was nearby. Looking back at Kara I saw that she was somewhat happy to be away from the rest of her people and was giving me a smile of sorts until we saw a cottage near the edge of woods, upon reaching that edge I was more than thrilled to see a familiar pony but upon seeing me she let out a gasp and galloped back into her home and shut the door.

"God damn...am I really that ugly or just scary?" turning to Kara who just shrugged at me.

"I think scary? Those cuts don't look very safe to be around though." Oh right...running in bushes and thickets was never my brightest of ideas when on the run from enemy patrols.

As Kara and I approached Ponyville from the eastern side of the Everfree Forest, exhuasted, covered in mud, twigs and leaves, and smelling like we just stepped in shit we finally saw our salvation as we came across the first sign of pony civilization by spotting the apple orchard and seeing a large red draft pony pulling a plow with ease and a smaller pony seemingly trying to kick an apple tree, adorable at a distance.

Reaching the entrance to the farm the red pony came up to us and as soon as he got within smelling distance I thought he reared his head back a bit and coughed, my theory on we smell like shit was correct.

"Applejack's brother...just get us two buckets of water...and throw one at the each of us....we can handle the rest." and without a moments hesitation he ran back to one of the barns, got two buckets filled with water, and I grabbed one from his mouth, dunked it on myself and every fiber of my being wanted to yell out loud for how freaking cold that water is, and when Kara dunked the water on herself nothing happened except that she shook herself dry, and I got the receiving end by getting dirty water flung at me.

Giving her a deadpan stare of not amused I just wipe myself clean with my hands and flicked the excess water onto the ground before looking back at the red pony. "Is hopefully most of the smell gone?" the pony nodded yes, "Good, working for Celestia and going in under-equiped is not what I signed up for...got an apple or two to spare if not than can you give us directions to the....Ponyville Library?" I was a bit confused since most small towns back in my time never had one let alone a hub for omni-tools.

"Well...head back down Apple Street, left on Forest Road, tis the large oak tree." Perfect directions from a simple farm worker.

After saying our thanks for to the pony known as Big MacIntosh, which is true because his head reachs my chin and that his eyes holds untold amounts of wisdom and patience, that and he seems to be chewing on a wheat straw like the farms of old, the wheat straw that never seems to age, wither or decay.

Once we were out of the apple forest and nearing the edge of town I quietly spoke to Kara, "This place is filled with nothing but ponies, from what a royal guard told me is that this place as seen its fair share of strange shit happening so expect the unexpected, prepare for the worst, and if you see a pink pony walking up to you, you turn around and run, just get away from her and try to find me. If you get caught just say my name and ask on where to find me, they should lead you straight to me." she nodded to me at first until she looked confused and asked me why to run from a pink pony.

"Cause that pony be fucking crazy thats why, she defies every single law of gravity and physics. She might even be able to teleport even though she has no magic and is not a unicorn." I bet she could do such a thing.

"Are you talking about me?" at that moment my blood turned icy cold and every single hair on my body was standing at attention. The presence of the pony that willingly breaks the laws of the universe is the very few things I can not stand, that and being told to follow orders from someone I hate.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" I ran full tilt down the road, not even caring that I just shouted that outloud and not even care about who even heard me say that. Pinkie Pie was bouncing in place while Kara just stood there confused as hell, looking at Pinkie's mane and began to play with it, seemingly happy to feel something soft and bouncy.

Ponyville, Library, 2 minutes Later

"So tell me again why are you wearing that collar? Just for a reference that I may use it on Diamond Dog culture when they capture a pony...er a human in this case that they have taken a liking to and claimed it as their own...and what is that on your legs?" I knew talking to her immediately was a bad idea without as much of a thought to tell her what I went through.

"I already told you once Sparkle that I am not telling you about the collar and those are brand markings on my legs. Can you or can you not just get this thing off of me, cause every time I tried to get rid of it the damn thing zaps me..." I hate this fucking collar so much that I now hate it with a passion.

"I am sorry Roran but I will not remove that collar unless you tell me everything that you saw while you were a captive, this report is going to Princess Celestia and she must know if they have done anything to you or her ponies that they had held captive for Celestia knows how long." from what I can tell they were most likely there for a few weeks...give or take a month or two.

Sighing in defeat that I have to regale her in my plan from after me and the dogs left the barn and took a mad dash through that damned forest, the part where I was stripped of that crappy tin can excuse for armor than the branding I took which still stung like a motherfucker, working in the mines but I excluded the part of the gay pony...rather not be asked what he looked like, rather not even remember that part. Than their was the glorious part where Twilight slightly gagged when I told her about the three guards I killed in the mine than the other two watching the execution chamber, than me telling every single pony to jump the ledge and swim to safety, tossing the changeling over the ledge seemed to have brought a smile to her face until I told her that Kara couldn't swim so I had to do that for her and nearly chocked a few times from when she held onto me too tightly.

When I started to tell her about the part where we were escaping from the patrols Kara and the pink demon walked in, Pinkie was hopping in place which by now reminds me to tell her to stop eating so much candy before her heart explodes...on second thought I better not tell her that...

'Now now Roran, what did I tell you about with-holding information that can save lives?'

'You told me not to listen to whatever you said that was not important. Twice.'

'Just tell the pink poof ball about it before I make your mind into a chocolate bar.'

'You do and I will bring a hammer down upon your statue.'

'Just tell her.'

'Make me Admiral Dickweed.'

"As I was saying, as me and Kara ran from that old ass castle we ran through bushes and thickets, we even ran into a bog to escape from the dogs only to run into a hydra, we out ran that thing like the plague. We eventually came upon the outer layer of the forest and finally came out near a cottage on the edge of the tree line, later came down to the apple orchard and finally here...also does this place have a shower or a bathtub cause I really need to get the stench of sweat, shame, filth and whatever the forest decided to attach itself onto me." she pointed upstairs with a hoof.

"Thank you kindly..." once I was hopefully out of earshot "thank fucking god...I thought I would never get clean in this lifetime...and away from a pony that loves to learn, that girl would have been accepted to Grissom Academy in no time if she sent a single application form."

Finding the bathroom wasn't that hard in a building that was a tree, getting into the bathtub that belonged to a pony that was half my height and that the bathtub area would force me to go into a kneeling position to clean myself let alone properly do it without breaking something. Closing the bathroom door behind me I turned the lock so nothing can get in on instinct and taking off the only article of clothing that I had on, the cloth skirt, and let it drop to the floor, and after thinking for a moment I somewhat crawled into the bathtub, knelled down and turned it on, the feeling of cold water was the one thing I always hated about taking a bath, first the icy cold spray than the water heats up to the right temperature.

"Oh thank the lord...this is the best shower I have ever taken....in years....my god this feels so good, my lord this is amazing....now if only I had my radio, my soap...and my cleaning knife than this would be like the good old days." in truth when I had my radio, soap and knife I would always clean my nails and add a small marking on my hand for each kill that day.

A few minutes into my shower I heard the faint sounds of giggling and laughter, I thought I was just hearing Discord laughing at me in my head again but when I heard the sound of a body hitting the wooden floor I knew that I was somehow being watched. Turning my head to the only door to the sacredness known as the bathtub, taking a glance at the door I could have sworn I saw something move but dismissed it as Twilight or some other pony walking by, shrugging to myself I turned off the water nozzle, got out of the tub, dried myself off with a towel that seems eerily odd for it is roughly the same shape and size as the ones I used to use back home.

After being clean I put back on my shitty skirt, opened the door to see my Alliance uniform on the floor with a note on it, picking up the clothes along with the note I closed the bathroom door again, putting the clothes on the sink I gently picked up the note and slowly scanned it over with my eyes, reading it at a leisurely pace.

From the desks of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna

We both have received a report of your mission that we have given to you and we have many things we wish to discuss with you about. First off is the torturing and killing of prisoners for information, we do not allow such barbaric practices to be done here within Equestrian borders and you will cease any further actions. Second, The killing and slaying of the enemy may be seen as necessary to free our ponies but killing more than that is required to save the lives of the captured is seen as crude and...

I didn't even bother to keep reading it and instead threw it away into the small trash bin and took my new clothes that will actually cover my body in stead of that skirt that barely covered up to my knee's let alone my ass, rather not let anyone see the tattoo I have there...

Once my underwear, shirt, pants and going back to the trash can to pull the crumpled up note out, reading it where I last left off.

...and as such should never be done unless it is the only resort left. Thirdly, why did you never tell either of us your plan to rescue our little ponies? Twilight Sparkle just barely told us your plan to have them freed until you ran off with them back to their lair. Lastly, How many Diamond Dogs were in the lair you were in. We need to know how many guards to send to Ponyville to ensure that they would never come back to try and capture another pony.

As I read the last bit I saw a slightly off shaded segment below the original part and squinting my eyes a bit to see if I can read it I than enhanced zoom on the part until it was slightly readable.

If you are able to read this than this is from the desk of Princess Celestia

I have heard from my student that they have put a collar around your neck and have also branded you with the letter 'K', and we think that it belongs to the Diamond Dog known as Kara, and from what she has written down that you two are friends. Do not let that dog get close to you, her kind are not to be trusted because they constantly attack and raid fringe towns and villages for slaves. On another note, you have been given a home within the borders of Ponyville for your deeds for the crown, your new home was meant for the zebra Zecora but she has refused it for unknown reasons. That home is now yours, just promise me that you will not set it on fire or damage it.

'Wow...she gave me a home...and not set it on fire or destroy it? Well there goes my plan to tear the house apart and rebuild it from scratch....eh I could have only gotten a shack instead of a hopefully nice cozy house. Might as well send them something in return'

After writing down a short message on the back of the scroll, rolled it up, tied it back up and put my Hallex canister in the center of it, I found the little dragon walking outside the bathroom and told him to send it to Celestia which he did. Hopefully she takes the damn thing along with her sister, the shit they will get into will be priceless.

Thinking about what the house would look like gave me pause onto how I would next speak to Celestia and Luna, and also praying that my new home is not so crappy and shifty that I would have to repair and replace the damn thing with better furnishings to make it presentable to life.

Once I left the bathroom I noticed something odd and most likely out of place, the library lights were off. Back in my time whenever there was a library the lights would always be on until it was time to close up for the night, and by the looks of the window it was Early-Afternoon and was way to damn early to close up shop. Glancing around I saw nothing moving down the stairs, nothing moving in the bedroom across from me, and nothing to the possibly guest bedroom. Taking gentle baby steps down the hall I very faintly heard the sounds of hooves moving out and about but in a hushed manner and possible in a hurried manner as well.

Tip-toeing down the stairs to see what the disturbance was, I slowly scanned the room to see if anything was wrong but the lights were off and everything was darker, almost like it was nighttime except it was the afternoon, the air was slightly stuffy, and that if the day and night timer was off than I am going back to my cave to wait it out. Slowly making my way to the kitchen to find the light switch since the last time I was in there I saw it, and nodding to myself I slowly made my way to the bringer of artificial light but was stopped when I was in the middle of the room by a cacophony of voices and a very bright ass light.

"Surprise!" was all I heard before I jumped towards the nearest wall hoping to hit a window.

I instead hit my head on a bookshelf making it dispense all of its knowledge filled books ontop of me.

Very slowly I rose from my book tomb, my head rising with a giant tome perfectly balanced on my head, and very slowly climbed my way out of the book pile with the most sheepish of grins.

"Erm....yeah?" shrugging a bit before the pink pony demon bounced her way over to me.

Every single pony began to party and dance as soon as I confirmed to what was going on, looking up I saw a very girly and extremely decorated to death sign.

"Welcome to Ponyville and Thank you for Rescuing our Friends Party!"

I shit you not, that thing was glittery and it almost looked like those signs that are used for baby-showers. Slightly ignoring the sign I lowered my gaze to see who was here, and sure enough it was ponies I had no idea about except for those I rescued once and most likely twice. The ponies I was looking at were somewhat busy enjoying the party that Pinkie Pie was throwing but they were also trying to pay attention to the savior of their friends and family, which was easy to do when I was the target of their gazing and seriously how hard is it to not notice my size? I am easily twice or in some cases three times their size, depending on how old they are.

After a while I was busy in a drinking contest with Rainbow Dash who said that she can easily out drink me in the fruit punch, and me who said that I can out drink her at any time and any place, accepted the challenge and with each cup it only got worse because their was more and more cups that ended up empty. 15 minutes into the contest I was on my last cup for the round until I saw Rainbow Dash just up and went up the stairs in such a fashion and speed that I threw my arms up into the air in a victorious fashion shouting out loud in victory. The sounds coming from upstairs on the otherhand was the sound of defeat, failure, and shame.

After my short victory I felt something poke my left leg, than upon turning to face my next victim at a drinking game a pink cupcake was shoved close to my face. The limb that was under the cupcake was pink just like its frosting and following said limb was Pinkie Pie, trying to give me a cupcake filled with sugar, diabetic death, and of course if I was high, the munchies.

"No thanks I'm good." the voices around me stopped, the music was turned off and the sounds of glass shattering was all that could be heard.

I swear to god, when I said no Pinkie Pie had a flip in personality and appearance, she turned darker and not because of a few balloons covering the light on her, no she turned darker like in those old-fashioned movies when the villain arrives and fucks everything over.

"What did you say?" Oh fuck me.

Chapter 10: Pink Demon Rising

"Get back here and try these cupcakes I made for you!" the pink demon said as she throws a blue colored cupcake at the running target but only to miss and hit a passing Ditzy in the head and from how hard it was thrown I could have sworn I saw small stars circling her head.

"No! You almost killed me by shoving one down my throat! Get away from me!" and as I turned the corner I heard the sound of three squishy objects going splat against someones home, and turning to see it was three cupcakes but they were red, white and blue and I could have sworn that they had small star sprinkles on it.

"No! You will eat a cupcake and you will like it!" like hell I would enjoy those overly-sugary snacks, if I ate one of those I would be in the hospital for sugar overdose.

"Pinkie Pie stop assaulting him with cupcakes!" one of her friends said, not sure which one but for all I could care for at the moment I prayed that it worked but sadly it failed with little impact on the demon.

"I am not assaulting him with cupcakes, I am throwing party cupcakes at him! Now hold still Roran and eat a tasty cupcake!" I would love to eat one but you are throwing them at such speeds that I am afraid that if it hits me I would end up with bruises or worse broken bones.

"I don't get paid enough to deal with this shit!" its true, I don't get paid for dealing with crazy party ponies or eating their food.

When did my day go so wrong...oh...right....I told that Pink demon that I wouldn't eat her cupcake...my god why did she turn into a freaking psychopath hell bent on killing me with cupcakes and probably any other sugary snack.

Turning another corner I saw a large gingerbread building, hoping to lose her inside it and run out the backdoor if it has one and keep on running till I find a supposed abandoned house and hide it out till it all blows over. As soon as I opened the door the smell of sugary sweats, candy and cake hits me like a brick wall, the sheer amount of sugar in this place is enough to probably give Old America a run for its money.

"Holy shit....so much....sweets..." in my sugar-induced daze I heard the faint sounds of hooves hitting cobblestone which was my mental timer to stop dazing and get the fuck moving again and without a second thought I grabbed the door and shut it behind me. What I did not know at the time was that behind me was a line customers behind me along with the ponies that own the actual building.

Turning around to search for a back door I saw five ponies waiting for whatever pastry they have ordered and the two ponies behind the counter are just staring at me. The large copper toned pony spoke up first after picking his jaw off the ground.

"Erm...can we help you sir?" one of ponies behind the counter, a pastel blue mare with an absurd hairstyle said while holding a plate with I think lemon bars on top of it. How they manage to speak clearly while holding objects in their mouths will forever confuse me.

"Yes...does this place have a back door, I am busy running away from Pinkie. Please tell me their is a way out of here before that crazy pony chokes me to death with cupcakes!" I was pleading to the owner of the establishment and as soon as he pointed behind him I ran past him, opened the nearest door I could find and took one step in it to freedom but instead fell down a flight of stairs at ended up hitting my head on a sack of flour.

"Fuck my life..." getting up and dusting myself off of the powdery substance before running towards what I think is the closet that most restaurants have and my guess is that it was the cleaning supplies closet, and opening the door ended up with me being smacked in the face with a broom. The pain was only temporary but what came next was what drove the second to last nail in the coffin for me this week.

The sounds of a pony giggling behind me and the ominous sound of a lock being turned into place was the last of the dirt being pushed over a doomed man's coffin. Turning my head very slowly to see who it was, the faint color of pink curly mane, the world's most evil stare and grin, and the sounds of impending doom slowly approaching me and in that moment where someone can hear nothing but their heart-beating and the sounds of footsteps, in that moment I ran to the window that was at the level of the street and quickly tried to climb out.

What I did not know at the time was that their was two passing ponies on the other side and as soon as my head and arms popped out into the open world both of them screamed from the surprise but when I started to shout for help and to pull me out they both somewhat shrugged and bit onto my hands to try and yank me out of the basement. As they yanked on my hands to try to pull me to freedom I felt the pink demon bite down onto my leg and slowly pull backwards and with each pull I felt myself slip back into the basement.

"Oh god no no no no no no! Get me the fuck out of here! I don't care what I have to do or who I have to work for just get me the fucking hell out of here!" I was that scared shitless of the pink pony that defies everything not only because of the darker scary persona, but because she was trying to kill me with sugary snacks by force.

Within moments I heard the sound of something going crack and looking at the window frames they have begun to crack and weaken and with one last tug I was yanked back into the basement and before I could try and get up to run to the door to escape I felt something clamp down onto my left leg. Looking down at it I saw that Pinkie was somehow holding onto it and was not giving me a chance to flee, quickly scanning the room I saw nothing to use to my advantage except for one lonely cupcake to which she was holding on a plate, and on the cupcake was a strip of paper with my name on it.

Looking at her than toward the cupcake I was piecing everything together in my head and hopefully I was right about my very shitty guess.

"Would you let me go if I eat that cupcake?" I crossed my fingers and praying to anything at this point that she says yes. Just as she nods yes I quickly crawl to the cupcake, scraped the icing off and put it on the paper that was acting as the cradle and as soon as I put the cupcake in my mouth I had the desire to just gag and cough it up but knowing the doom that awaits me if I don't swallow it is probably a hundred times worse.

"Now you have to eat the apology cupcake." the fucking hell is that?

With my face all confused about what it was Pinkie somehow dragged me upstairs while I was trying hard to not puke up the overly sugary snack, my own body rejecting it and trying to force out the body killing snack. Sitting on the counter was the largest fucking cupcake I have ever seen in my life, it was approximately the size of a watermelon and it had my name written on it in chocolate. I heard my stomach and body screaming out in impending pain and even my own thoughts were screaming out for me to just run away and not look back but figuring out how she found me would only make it worse on myself.

"That is the largest fucking cupcake I have ever seen in my life...well stomach...you got me through worst things before..." sighing deeply before going over to the cupcake, looking at it before I felt Pinkie shove my face into it and seeing how I am already face deep in pastry I might as well get it over with.

1 Hour Later

"Oh god.....here it comes again.....blug....blruuuuuuuuugh!" I made that toilet my bitch after finishing that dreaded monster of a cupcake and than my stomach doing a complete flip-flop forcing me to rush to the closest toilet their was, unfortunately said toilet was back at the library and making a mad dash through the town while holding my stomach and not puking in mid-stride. Halfway to the salvation of the porcelain throne I bowled over an unsuspecting Twilight Sparkle who at the time was being followed by her assistant which at the time carrying scrolls, quills, ink and even a large book almost the same size as him. When I bowled over her I had no idea who was on the other side but as soon as I was falling down everything went into slow motion, Twilight was slowly falling to the ground, Spike was just shaking his head sadly fully knowing what is going to happen and I was busy trying to not ruin the scrolls with my stomach contents and the dirt from the floor.

After we hit the ground I quickly grab the scrolls, dusted the book off and ran straight to the library and upon entering the building I threw the scrolls by the check-in book and ran straight up the stairs and got to that bathroom, locked the door behind and let rip.

It has been only 15 minutes when the ponies that are considered my 'friends' came over to check up on me but at each attempt to see me and also to console me or even provide with some sort of stomach medicine just to kill the pain that I am going through was rejected over the sounds me just puking my guts out. 30 minutes into the worlds worst stomach crushing vomit coaster I was on the verge of just grabbing a water hose and doing a half-ass stomach pump just to get rid of the beyond sugary treat I was forced to consume to please the demon in pink.

After an hour as passed there was a knock at the door and an eventual jingling of the knob being moved until I heard a click as it slowly swung open revealing to the ponies that I was exhausted, face first into the sink with water pouring over my head and that the smell in the room was just terrible enough for one of them to quickly open a window just to vent it all out before gagging and leaving the hall to some part of the tree to breath clean air again.

"What the fuck....why was that damn thing so sugary.....never again...." between each set of words I was drinking water, swishing it around my mouth, gargle it than spit it back out before grabbing a bar of soap and brushing it on my tongue until the taste of sugar cupcakes was gone. After washing and soaping the taste out of my mouth for greater part of 5 minutes I dried my face off with a wash cloth and prayed that the demon was not behind me amongst the ponies that did just try to kill me with a giant ass cupcake. Sadly I was wrong yet again.

Taking a look at Pinkie I saw that she was, I think giving me an apologetic smile of sorts but I was having none of it and as soon as I started to walk toward her she slowly began to backpedal out the door and once I was out of the bathroom she ran down the stairs with me in pursuit. I was not going to let her get out of this shit that easily.

As soon as she ran out the front door I stopped to give her a fifteen second head start and to get my song going for the hunt. Tapping my omni-tool to soundtracks and going through the list I found what I was looking for.

"Play Search and Destroy File #2...starting....now!" as I said now I sprinted off after the pink mare that almost killed me with in the most humiliating way that I can think of, with food.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KUS_N7-ukJM]

And the chase was on.

3 Hours Later

How the hell did I lose something that is neon pink and is always bouncing and moving around as if she was on the worlds biggest sugar high and not once came down to earth for a refill. I swear she must be on some sort of drug or something and if she was that made her happy on the time than she better hand that shit over cause I am on the verge of just ripping what little hair I have on my head off. Turning to the next house I began my usual searching method which was to thoroughly scan the area, see if it has any abnormalities and if it did than I would begin to shoot singularities at it till it pops out or the little pink demon shows up and tries to escape.

It has not been working so well in these last 2 and half hours, the last thirty minutes was just plain hell for me since she sort of can out run me and also has this habit of being behind me and tapping my shoulder making me turn my head to see who was catching up to me and was dexterous enough to even tap my shoulder while sprinting at the same time.

"MY god..." coughing raggedly since I haven't had any liquid in my system after the vomit attack and the sprinting was not one of my bright idea's when it came to chasing something that moves on four legs and can leave an after-shadow at will. "If that mare was human....I bet she can easily beat the Olympics with ease.....and be like lightning under the bed sheets....man....that mare can move..." In this world their is only three things I hate above the everything else, being stuck in bed sick, losing, and being in debt to anyone but myself or Satan himself and that mare just made me lose for not being able to find her location.

Looking at my omni-tool to see what time it was and knowing the response it would give would beeping noise and saying that it requires new data to come up with a response, I shut the thing down and just stared at the clock tower till I saw that it was currently 1 in the afternoon and that every single pony out working and doing their daily business but for me it was hunting down a pony that is to me the master of hiding and most likely a ninja as well.

Going to what I think was the town's park and sat down on a bench that was to low for me to sit properly which forced me to sit down in a lounging position that is ungodly uncomfortable and also that the fillies and colts can just go under my legs if I was not paying attention and if my legs were arching. Catching my breath from the hunt and failing to get the pony responsible for the rude awakening of my stomach which is demoralizing but was good for me because now I know that exercising still sucks ass even in this new era. The sound of metal wheels on stone and the sounds of a motor in the distance got my attention since I thought there was no technology to even make a gas engine but as it got closer I had to rethink my life purposes and also where to find mechanic tools and a pack of cigars and some meat cause these meals of leafy greens is fucking terrible.

Keeping my eyes on the horizon I saw the strangest of things I have so far ever seen on this planet and I have seen many strange things on Earth. I saw a small pegasus, wearing a helmet, riding a scooter while pulling a red wagon with two ponies sitting in it while also wearing helmets and the sound of the motorized engine was in fact the pegasus wing's beating so fast it reminded me of a Humming Bird but this really takes the cake. As the three started to get closer I saw that the one doing the pulling was orange and had what I think is rather lavender or a very strange purple, the white one I can now tell was a unicorn and had two-toned hair which was both a shade of lavender, than their was the yellow one with red hair which I can now say is still my favorite color, next to black because if you wore anything bright on Omega your ass would have been mugged, shot or both.

As they got close to about 10 meters I saw something I probably did not want to see happen to children of any species. When they hit 9 meters the one in charge of driving the scooter hit a rock or something and pool-vaulted over the scooter, did a complete flip in the air and landed with a sickening crunch and as soon as that one fell the other two followed in pursuit and almost like a cartoon show gone wrong. The sounds that came after the crash was what got me to stop thinking of what could of happened to them if they gone around the rock, getting off the bench and moving at a brisk pace to the scene of the crash and I saw what was by so far the worst scrapes and rug burns I have ever seen.

The shit I put up with as a soldier is annoying at times but seeing children hurt or alone is what really tugs at my heartstrings, that and watching the last piece of ham disappear off my plate.

By the time I got to them they were crying and holding onto the spots that hurt and calling out to their parents for help and since there are no ponies around and that being alone in a park with injured fillies will most likely ruin whatever reputation I have along with whatever hope of reputation I can get in this town without getting hurt or killed. As they looked up at me I did what any responsible adult would do in the moment they are comforting an injured child after an accident or that they hurt themselves doing something ungodly stupid.

"Are you alright? Do you need any help?" I was praying that they know where the hospital is cause I got no fucking idea where pretty much anything is besides the library, the barn and now the sugary snack shack. The response I was hoping for was no cause if they knew exactly where it was than these three must have been doing stupid shit for far too long or are just not very lucky.

"Yea...we do know....its that a way..." Erm.....I like a little bit of directions for my directions.

"Alright than, any of you hurt and if so how bad does it hurt?" My response was groans of pain and even a whimper from one of them since I don't even know the full extent of their injuries and problems.

Picking each one up gently, placing the pegasus on my head since she seems to be lighter than the other two and that in theory that she is indeed lighter, my guess that pegasi are like birds since they must be light for their wings to even lift them off the ground let alone carry them for prolonged flights. The unicorn I can tell just looks like the unicorn at the royal party when I was first free....what was her name again....Rachael....R.....eh fuck it...yellow one on the other hand...or arm in this case with the way her voice sounds like, is probably the orange normal pony's sister or cousin.

Going off in the direction that the little pegasus pointed at, which I can say is pretty damn lucky or just that I need to spend my time exploring this town and get a feel for it...or just create a map on my omni-tool to save time.....fuck it I'll just do both.

Ponyville Hospital, 5 Minutes Later

"So let me get this straight....you three just got out of school and decided to go straight to your clubhouse with all possible speed....without even caring that you had homework to complete...all for the sake of a tattoo on your flank?" All three of them nodded as I spoke to them while a nurse was putting bandages on the scrapes. "Well I give you an A+ for determination to get your mark and also an A for going pretty damn fast on that scooter while carrying two friends and a wagon." the orange filly seemed to have beamed with joy at my praise of being able to haul ass while carrying two heavy friends and a probable just as heavy wagon.

"But you get an F for safety and just plain sad face for not slowing down when entering a public area...like come on, is getting your marks really that important?" I crossed my arms at them, and gave them the stare of contempt for even doing such an act without taking any precaution or thought as to what could of happened to them. Sighing out of annoyance and also because I now know what it is like to be a parent, which to sadly say sucks ass and is alot of work but than again being able to do the finger wag and also the stare that says 'Oh...he/she is that stupid...' and I know I have been given that look by at least from two officers and a council member.

As if on cue the nurse left the small room we were in, shut the door behind us and walked off which to me is slightly odd since I was going to follow her out and ask if there was any paperwork for me to do but as I turned to walk to the door I was than tackled by three small ponies who not only surprised me but also made me wonder if I just angered them for saying if it was that important.

It was that important to them apparently.

The orange one, apparently known as Scootaloo...'Scooter...Scootaloo...my god I am doomed to die here on this god forsaken rock...' was giving me a glare that would have made the near non-existent wills break down in fear, but for me I thought it was fucking adorable.

"Oh don't get mad at me little filly, you know would never do anything foolish to me while we are in this hospital...besides if you did than how would I be able to explain this to Celestia that I had to harm a foal for trying to inflict an injury upon me. That and you are just to damn adorable to do anything mean and spiteful to anyone." Right?

Wrong.

With that said she took a hoof of hers, raised it up and brought it down upon my chest and which to say didn't hurt in the least but what I still did not know was that each time she hit me only caused me to think that she is mad about the marks on these ponies flanks to be not important. Might as well spare her the time to cause me any harm by asking for an explanation or something...those hooves are annoying as hell.

Picking her up with my right hand I got up, making the other two just fall off, and placed the filly on the small bed and asked for an explanation on why is it important. On que the other two jumped onto the bed, seemingly putting on small cloaks with a symbol on it that I thought that three fillies wearing cloaks that makes them look like super heroes was enough to make me give out a silent D'aww but what came next made me wish for earplugs.

Fifteen minutes later I was just sitting on the floor cleaning my ears out trying to get the loud group yell out from my head. For three small fillies that are adorable in capes their damn voices are loud enough to probably break glass if they had a microphone and a loudspeaker but their explanation to me was somewhat quick, efficient, and above all else, it was awesome when they jumped at the same time and did a high-five.

"Well...I guess that make sense...rather not be a blank slate forever and have a clear-cut path in life...but still you should have taken it a bit slow so that hitting an obstruction would have only made you swerve a bit before regaining control. That and the way you make out Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon as bullies sounds a bit.....far fetched. When you told me about the times they made fun of you....I will have a talk with them...if I can even find my way around this town." the looks on their faces when they said that I was basically lost have most likely gave them an idea which I will soon remember the most valuable lesson in the army, keep your mouth shut.

Ponyville, Market square

"And over there is Town Hall and right over there behind that tree is the flower shop and just right there is the...dentist office." ............what?

"This place has a dentist office? Where? All I see is a building that looks like a...tooth...wow that is highly original." I said with a groan. The one thing I hated when I joined the Alliance was the full medical check-up they give you and let me tell you something...getting your teeth cleaned hurts like a bitch.

"Ya'll talkin about the Dentist? It ain' so bad, they give ya a lollipop when it's done." yea...to rot your teeth so you have to come back again sooner rather than later.

"I have been to the dentist a few times when I was in the army....let me tell you this...don't move or squirm and ignore the pain and everything will be right as rain." I was straight up lying cause I know for a fact that it is one of the few ordeals that I would never want to endure but I know in the future it will happen.

Looking over at the dentist building I realized that the pony that was standing at the doorway was most likely staring right at me with the creepiest smile I have ever seen, and not once have I seen a creepy smile like that. That feeling you get when you know that someone is just staring at you and you can feel them just looking you over, I got that feeling but it was that and I can feel her just rather undressing me with her eyes or just staring at my teeth.

"How about we go somewhere else that is away from the dentist....does this place have a music store or something similar?" I asked while slowly backpedaling away towards the fountain, just doing anything to stay the hell away from that death trap of a building. At the mention of music I heard the sounds of hooves somewhat picking up speed towards me until I felt something tapping my shoulder, turning to see it was Vinyl and Octavia except that Vinyl was carrying a miniature turn-table while Octavia with a cello of sorts.

'Okay...how the flying fuck do they even have turn-tables? That requires electricity and other mechanical technology that is so far beyond these ponies...if this was an old relic of the past and she fixed it than she deserves the damn thing.'

"I heard ya wanted to hear some tunes and that you wanted to know where you can get it. Well just stop by our store and we can get ya hooked up in no time." at that moment I thought I heard the sounds of holy music and the sound of angels singing, I saw a slight golden aura around the two but it only lasted a while till I realized that I was just tripping out because of the fact that I now have music to listen to, and from those turn-tables the best kind I was used to listening to.

My god send for techno music from a pony that has a vinyl record on her flank.

"Lead the way, I haven't heard any kind of music from ponies before, and I bet that your music does not stand to mine from my era." I laid down the challenge.

"Oh it is on metal man." and the challenge has been accepted.

Ponyville Music Emporium

As soon as I stepped into the store I was assaulted by juicy tunes and the sounds of sweet music, taking the second step into the shop I heard the bass drop and I knew that this straight up reminds me of Purgatory on the Citadel but alot more cleaner and actually sells things that I can use later on and not end up drunk on the couch or drugged in the elevator.

"My lord....this...its....its so beautiful....this place....I thought it would never exist in my life time...." tears of pure joy were starting to form on my face, the pure beauty of a music store that has modern day music in an era that is medieval will forever stay with my memories until something else from my past shows up to out do this.

"Well get used to it cause when I am done proving to you that my sick jams are way better than your grandma's dancing tunes than every pony will hear that my stuff is better than any music from the past." challenge accepted.

Looking at her I motioned for her to start playing her tunes, wanting to let her go first to be a gentlemen before I completely crush her with my own sick tasty tunes. About 5 minutes into her set she stops as it slowly dies down and ends. "Alright big man, your turn."

"Alright, just stay where you are and listen to this." tapping my omni-tool I go to one of Earth's oldest and yet still somewhat one of the best techno players that ever existed even in my time.

I cross my arms as Vinyl's jaw slightly drops, her shades fall down as well revealing her red eyes underneath and Octavia was busy covering her ears with two pillows to try and drown out the tunes.

"I believe I just won." Vinyl doesn't even acknowledge my remark or even bother to raise her lower jaw back up. Going over to her I put her glasses back up, closed her jaw than proceeded to walk over to the counter, picked up a small wooden guitar and walked out the door. Only ten steps out the door I was lifted off the ground and levitated back into the shop and was face to face with a still stunned Vinyl and a less than happy Octavia.

"I thought this was my prize?" cause I really wanted a guitar so I can play my tunes when I am bored and hopefully earn a living the old fashioned way instead of killing for fun, killing gets boring after a while unless your outnumbered, out gunned or just plain cluster-fucked.

When I was back at the counter Octavia just motioned me to put the guitar back and I do so reluctantly but when I was turning around to leave since I probably won't be allowed back into this place but when I heard her cough for my attention I saw that she was holding a much larger guitar, one actually meant for a human or my guess Discord if he shrank himself a bit...still wondering why he hasn't spoken to me in a while.

Taking the guitar I gave her a handshake of sorts, since hooves lack fingers and that she was finally happy to see that her friend was beaten by someone else with better techno music.

Ponyville Town Hall

Well I can now safely say this, even in this time period elected officials fall asleep while on the job. Cause as soon as I walked into the mayor's office she was asleep face first into the desk and was somewhat snoring out loud. In my position I couldn't even help it but start to laugh, cause had I known that this job was boring I would have just asked to wait till she was awake but since I wanted to know where my so called 'new home' was located I might as well ask the pony in charge. That or just walk around blindly until it was night time and find a house that is completely dark as hell with no life in it.

Waiting almost an hour in that room, just looking through books, reading old letters that were on her desk and even playing with that strange device that was five metal balls attached to a thin wire and if one end hits the center the one on the opposite side gets hit as well, but as soon as I went to mess with the duck that always dips its beak in a small cup of water and back up the sleepy mare woke up with a yawn before going back to sleep with a very amused smug grin look on her face. At that moment I did what I always do to sleeping people on the job, got a glass of water and poured it on her head and she woke up immediately.

"Yea...sleeping on the job...maybe you should just paint on your eyelids the colors of your eyes to make it look like that you are awake...and now...tell me about this house I was given here, seems like that Celestia gave me one but never really told me where it is." her response was something I would have never guess or even dared to have thought of.

"Your house is near the clock tower in town...." before going back to sleep...my guess she was exhausted from this job.

Ponyville Clock tower

When I saw my house I was completely surprised to actually find out that it was not near the clock tower, it was in fact 'the' clock tower itself and that thing was large, my guess four floors up and if my math skills have ever came to good use, ten feet wide and was I can clearly say fairly furnished with pony sized goods. The couch I can easily say would fit just me and a pony or three ponies...might have to get a much larger one later on, the coffee table reminds me of the ones in Japan but even lower to the ground, a grandfather clock in the corner of the room that looks exactly like my home. The kitchen was something that I would not have to fix, everything was oddly human sized, but when I went to look at the chair, written on it was 'From Gryphus' and than at that moment I realized I had griffon sized kitchen goods and pony sized living room goods....why can't everything be griffon sized for me, it would go so well for me to relax.

Going up to the second floor was a bit of a problem since the stairs was not entirely meant for my height so I had to slouch and slowly move up otherwise I would hit my head on the ceiling. This floor I can probably guess was the guest room or my room, there was two beds side-by-side and one was sadly pony sized while the other was a blessing from god human sized. I swore that these ponies were watching me because not only were they giving me pony-related furnishings but also a small book was on the bed meant for me, and it was about the history of Equestria...I was gonna just read what I scanned but a book would help...maybe.

Third floor...I can't even think it as a floor cause it was more like empty storage filled with crates and one of them was open. Trusting my instincts to just leave it alone I go back down to the kitchen to find something to gnaw on until I can get some actual human food or at least some damn fish but when I got back down I saw someone I rather not see for a while.

"So how are you enjoying your new home that my mentor gave to you as a gift? I helped pick the furnishings and the books." of course you helped with the books...no wonder why I found so many information books on so many things that I currently do not care for.

"Well...new home is nice, near the middle of town, has a nice breeze when the windows are open, the bed is actually my size and also that the third floor would be perfect for what I have planned for it. Now all I need is a cellar and I am set...and maybe a couch that I can actually lay down on without having my legs hang off the side but other than those two this is pretty damn nice." I said while trying not to cringe at the sigh of what was in my fridge.

Inside was nothing but sugary snacks hanging on the fridge door, in the small compartments was fruits and other greens, above that was a brightly colored array of drinks, a few of them remind me of soda bottles while one of them looked just like a regular bottle of water. Haven't had a single drop of water yet I decided to go with water but when I took my first sip I knew something was wrong, it was fizzy, it was sugary, and it tasted like watered down juice.

"Oh right, I forgot to mention that Pinkie Pie was the one who came over to put some of the left over party snacks into the fridge, Fluttershy with the healthy greens and Rainbow Dash brought over her soda and sports drinks." So that explains the god awful after-taste...

"Well...tell Fluttershy thanks for the food, Pinkie Pie to stay away from me for a while, and tell Rainbow Dash thanks for the soda...." and when I turned back to the fridge I ever so quietly spoke to myself "...I sure as hell need a taste of home when it is clearly gone and into ashes..." turning back with a bottle of orange soda in hand "...but to keep the sports drinks out, they got some strange after-taste that I can't seem to enjoy. Just the soda would do next time she does this." I fucking hate sports drinks...

Going back to my fridge I saw something I have been dying to taste again for a long time.

"Is that...is that what I really think it is..." I said while drooling a bit and staring wide-eyed at the desired item in the fridge.

"Oh you mean the apple fritters that Applejack left for you? Yes but why do you ask?" oh this is gonna be good.

"Because those things are fucking amazing and I have almost literally killed someone just to eat one of them...so yea apple fritters are badass and I must now go find Applejack and thank her...right after I finish these fritters...." and so began the first great massacre of the apple fritters of Ponyville.

1.5 Minutes Later

"I still can't believe that you just did that..." said a very disappointed Twilight.

"What? I told you how much I love them, that came in the standard soldier rations except it was cold and bland, this was not only fresh but hot, steamy and tasted like freshly plucked apples. For the love of god I need more!" there was one problem when I ever eat apple fritters that are fresh, I get the worst case of the munchies and get the craving to go out, find more, and straight up decimate them with extreme prejudice.

"Well looks like you would need a job than, try asking around for one but in the mean time you have questions to answer and from a letter that Princess Celestia sent to me, you have to answer them honestly and truthly and also answer them to the best of your abilities." well fuck, I rather not do a questioning today...

"And she also said that you have nothing better to do for many months since winter is coming so answer our questions or...not sure what she wrote but I guess she has a task for you." answer the questions of six mares and a baby dragon, or do a task for a princess that has a smile that can most likely make me do the task, and of course magic that can rip me in half like the Geth Hunter.

"Fine...but first where is Kara? She seemed to have vanished on me back at your place." in truth I haven't seen her all day long.

At first she seemed to shrug at my question and kept trotting along but what I failed to notice was that it is getting colder and by colder I mean the temperature took a total drop and was freaken cold. The first thing I did was move at a more brisk pace, moved my arms more while walking and also opened the door and closed it behind Twilight as we got to her place, outside the weather slowly got cloudy and the first thing I noticed was that the leaves on every single tree was orange or brown, than my internal clock went off and told me it was Fall.

"So Twilight...I have a quick question." she nodded at me after writing something in a large book near the door, "Is today the beginning of Fall weather and is Winter coming up?" I crossed my fingers cause if it was than I can finally put my plan of making snowman into action. Her response was of mixed confusions until I told her the season where the leaves fall down and it gets colder till it starts to snow, birds go south for the winter and the weather becomes a bitch to those with no fur or coats, eg. me.

"Oh yea, I was a bit confused about some things of what you said, the leaves don't fall on their own, and we help with the ending of Winter when it is time." okay...so it seems that these ponies control not only the weather but also the seasons...well I can now clearly say that I am fucked.

As we both entered the main room of her tree home I took notice of something that was very odd, her couch. At the party it was gone and no where to be seen, when I came back to report the mission was a success it was right there in the corner, and right now it was on the other side of the room with Spike and Pinkie Pie sitting right on top of it. Before I opened my mouth I stopped and just thought of what they would say and came to a conclusion, this world is trying to mess with my head. The other mares were sitting on cushions while Kara, who was looking at me with the maddest of eyes, was wearing a frilly dress and some light blue lipstick. I almost burst out laughing my ass off at that sight and calming down to a regular state of mind, without laughing or thinking of ever seeing that sight I turned to face Spike so he knows that I was about to speak up, since he was holding a quill and a large ass scroll.

"Sooooo....ladies...Spike, you all had questions you wanted to ask me? Well, now is your chance but remember this, nothing to private about my life and we all get to walk out of here happy and not missing any limbs. You got it?" there nods of approval and one Pinkie repeated nod of approval was all I needed, Spike just sat there and shrugged at me. I can tell we are gonna be the best of brofriends.

Well lets get started shall we...

Author's Note

For the next chapter, I would like you, the people, to put down some questions that you would like answered, I just might use them.

Chapter 12: Roaming Insanity paid in Full

Looking at Discord with one eye while looking at Celestia and Luna in the other I began my internal through process while trying to figure out how to not piss off three beings that can reduce me into a pile of ashes. Looking at Discord I saw that he was holding two ice-cream cones and each one was holding something different, one was rainbow colored but had a bite mark in it while the other was a purple cloud with white dots in it which also had a bite mark, than taking a look at Celestia and Luna I saw that their hair was gone. Looking back and forth at their bald heads to the cones I burst out laughing while holding my sides so I wouldn't hurt myself from excessive laughter.

"Discord please don't tell me that what you are holding behind your back is their hair turned into ice-cream." he only smirked at me when he tossed Celestia's hair at me which I caugh with my right hand and experimentally took a small lick and immediately coughed and spat in response.

"Dude...this tastes horrible...why would you want to even eat hair flavored ice-cream? I was expecting it to taste like rainbow sherberd not rainbow shitberd." I was partially gagging as I threw the god awfual ice cream at Celestia which to my somewhat partial amazement caught it with her head and just like that it turned back to normal hair.

"So let me get this straight...Discord...buddy...friend....after you got out the first thing you did was to turn these two's hair...into foul tasting ice-cream..." he nodded at me before teleporting behind me, using me as a human meat shield. "Discord that is the dumbest idea I have ever heard and put into motion and trust me I have seen, heard, and even done some of those stupid ass ideas...now stop using me as a shield, there are only two people that can use me as a shield and so far both are dead so stop it now before you get a heavy boot to the royal jewels." my threat went unheeded so as I raised my right foot to about two feet in the air, angled at 45 degree's than brought the hammer down and as it was travelling to meet its fleshy target the sound of air being sucked out and than sucked back in was all I heard as my foot hit a brick wall, going through it but getting stuck in the process.

"Seriously dude, give them back their hair and apologize...afterwards go to my room that I was given, and you will follow my orders or I will beat you within every inch of your life and trust me those four thousand years of listening to you talk almost made me want to find a way to kill myself when I was still a statue." and I was not joking when I extended my omni-tool and pointed it right at his skull. He gave a huff and snapped his fingers, the other ice-cream cone flew to Luna's head, stuck there for a moment before falling to the floor as Luna got her hair back, than before Discord could apologize he does a little prance and vanishes into thin air.

I just looked at the spot he was at than to the princesses before shrugging and deactiving my weapon and took a stroll to the window to see if he was outside, and what a view I got as I saw everything on display at the gardens, there was so many statues and hedges that I gave up and just called it an 'Ancient England garden' and went to the throne and was about to sit down until I heard the cough of not one but two alicorns who were just giving me a stare that I read as 'Do not sit down if you value your flank' and knowing that I care for my ass, since there is a tattoo there that I love to show off when I am drunk off my ass.

"So...that was the reason why you brought me here? To get your hair back?" Luna nodded but Celestia just stared at me with contempt, "You want him gone but on a leash don't you." she finally nodded.

"Well...my people created restraints for those that are overly powerful physically and also for those with biotics...but putting it on Discord would most likely result in it being turned into a ring of flowers....or silly string." I sat between the thrones as they both gave an unreadable stare but only gave the slightest of shrugs before returning to their respective throne and sat down.

Looking at the door from here was like waiting for a meeting with the Council or while waiting to use the bathroom at Chora's Den, that line is always fucking long. Getting off the floor I started to walk to the double doors but as I took only 10 steps I heard Celestia speak up.

"Since you managed temporary pacify Discord, for what its worth which is alot more than we have ever done..." I snorted and thought of a few reasons why "but for now you may stay here if you like, we are still studing the ancient pieces of technology we recovered from that building you were in and managed to turn on a machine of sorts with a shield painted onto its surface but it has locked down when we tried to open it. We could use your help with it if you are able to." I know that I could refuse her but than again pissing off a princess that I saved is probably never a good thing, expecially if that princess can yank a geth into a pair of legs and a torse with arms.

"I will see what I can do...usually I just force things open if it was locked or in a few cases, blew it all to hell with explosives to fix the problem. So...since I am here I do have a single question....where is the mess hall for the guards? I feel like knowing where they take their daily meals...and maybe grab a bite to eat as well." before Luna had a chance to speak up a shoe-covered hoof was placed over her mouth as Celestia spoke up.

"Thank you for your assistance on these matters and why would you go to the barracks when we had prepared lunch for us and the delegates from the Griffon Kingdom." she said while still wearing her warming smile, I tried to take another step but thought against it since I had a few thoughts that would probably end with me hearing an earful of words from one or both of them.

"There is nothing I can say or do to get out of this gathering is there?" Celestia just stared at me with those eyes of hers that can only mean 'you are going to this function and be responsible', I responded with an explosive sigh and looked out the window.

"When is it so I can try to find something suitable to wear cause the last time I went to any important meeting I had to wear formal versions of my uniform." and the difference from my formal and normal uniform was that the formal was clean, shiny, steam-pressed, had all of my medals and awards and also had no blood on it.

They told me that the delegation meeting was in three hours which was enough time to explore the parts of the castle I hadn't managed to explore since my last trip here was a bust since I took a high powered round to the back and was also running from an angry princess and her guards, but the look on her face when I did it was totally worth it. About five minutes into my wondering of the halls I saw the all to familiar Shining talking to a guard and as the two were talking I slowed down on my approach and tried to stealthly come up behind him, which it would have worked if the guard that was being talked to didn't look at me and gave a salute which confused the hell out of me and Shining Armor at the same time.

"You know...when I am trying to sneak up on a pony you would usually let the sneaker do it so we can all get some laughs...but anyways Shining, how are you and how is your hoof?" I said while looking at it and I saw that the cut was gone and completely healed but a faint scar was there, a chip of his hoof was evidently gone from where the blade touched it.

Before he gave an answer I saw his wife coming up from down the hall and from what Twilight has said about her, since her special talent is love, which I will never...ever let her near me cause I fear that if she tries her talent on me I might just break something fleshy and made of meat.

"Cadence, nice to see you...well I am just going to return to my walk to my room...nice seeing you two." and just before I took my liberating step to freedom I felt a hoof poke my back and as I turned to see who it was connected to I was tackled into a hug by Cadence and than later Shining, the guard he was talking to just stood there and shrugged when I looked at him.

That hugged felt like it lasted for hours but when it was done it was actually 15 minutes, not that hugs are bad and all but come on fifteen minutes? That was longest fucking hug I was ever in next to the longest hand-shake which lasted for 10 minutes because we were doing a secret code with our hands and to those that were watching, it was funny as hell.

When they broke the hug I was busy trying to contemplate on what just happened but decided it was a pony thing and just shrugged it off. "You know...that hug was unneccessary, a simple thank you would have worked." Cadence gave me that stare that most women gave to men when they say something stupid or it makes sense but they don't want to be wrong.

"I know that Roran but you did save my aunt from a murderer..." which is true I can say, the geth were never really liked since the Eden Prime War and even when they helped us with the Reapers but still... "...but there is something I have been meaning to ask you." I put a hand to my chin, rubbing at my thin beard as it began to grow back as I nodded at her to continue.

"From what I heard from a letter that Twilight sent I heard that your people had magic of sorts and that it was all based on your mind, and she was wondering if you can let us take a look into your memories so we can find a way to-" I cut her off before she can even go further with her plan.

"Ha ha no, you can not look into my head to dig up ways to learn Biotics, you have better luck at getting me to find a Reaper and ask it to join us for a tea party." I was being sarcastic about the tea party with a Reaper but was not letting any pony near my head, to many memories that I like to keep to myself and Discord since I practically spent that time talking to him for so long I grew to trust his word, even though if it was constantly being changed to the most strangest of subjects.

I looked into her eyes before walking to my room but left giving her one last remark.

"Don't even try to dig into my memories, they're things in my head that I will take to my grave and I know that if I even feel a single speck of any of you searching my head for the basics of Biotic training, I will snap your horn off and eat it in front of you." in truth I have no idea how strong those things are stuck to their heads or how it would taste like but than again from what Discord said it tasted like chalk candy.

As I walked to my room I noticed a great deal of things was off, first was the door as it was a giant ass KitKat bar, the door knob was a chocolate sprinkled donut and the doorframe was made of Snickers. Second was the floor and walls near the door looked like pink and green checkered prints, and also that the ceiling was made of grass. The last thing I noticed was that on the door was a sign that said 'Enter at your own desire but leave at my risk', which I thought was fucking confusing but shrugged it off and entered my room, the first thing that came to my mind was...

"What...the fuck... did you you do to my room!" I shit you not, it looked just like the old child's game 'Candyland' and I kid you not I was on the fucking candy road with a very amused Discord sitting ontop of a throne made of candy-canes and lollipops.

Discord looked at me as if I had offended him in such a way that would be seen as overly offending but in all seriousness he just smiled darkly at me as I just stared at him, then at the crazy ass room and now at the ceiling, which was now dripping with choclate icicles.

"Okay dude....seriously...this shit just got strange real fast, turn my room back to the way it was and calm the fuck down. I rather have one god upset than have two at ones throat while one of them is trying to beat me to death with whatever the fuck he wanted to use while being strangled." knowing to whom I was talking about he gave a deep sigh and snapped his fingers safely returning my room to its original decor and standards, which oddly came with a giant bunkbed.

"I call dibs on top bunk." "Dibs on top." Guess who said what?

"Coin flip to see who gets the top." I pulled out a coin from my pocket, which oddly was golden in color and when I was about to flip it I noticed it was heavier than what most coins were back on Earth since I found a few old world change. On Earth it was always someones heads and some random rear picture, for these coins it was the sun and the back was the moon which not only made me guess that these ponies print their own currency, but also was the one with the dominating currency currently available.

"Fuck it...sun is me, moon is you." I flipped it and let it hit the floor. The outcome is the same without fail.

"Yes!" Discord shouted and teleported to the top bunk with a sadistic glee on his face.

"God damn it..." I shouted while trying to throw a nearby book at Discord before he vanished into thin air.

After we got cozy with are living arrangements I found myself wondering why I was even thinking on who gets what but whenever I was at a barracks or a encampment I was always the unlucky fucker that got the bottom hammock or worse had to sleep in the same tent with some bastard that snored so loud that it was like a saw was cutting down a tree. Looking at the bottom of the top bed I grinned evilly to myself as I got out and picked up a chair and went to the door.

"Hey Discord? Wanna help me mess with Celestia a bit, I got an idea." at the words 'mess with' and 'Celestia' in the same sentence he instantly got out of his bed and was by my side at a perfect one second. As soon as he got within earshot I started to tell him my plan and what his role in it was, and just as I told him where it was going to take place he began to do the same chuckle he always does whenever something very evil or this cause downright rude.

"You do know that old Sunbutt would punish mostly you than me when this kicks off, but than again I bet it has been sometime since she had any sort of fun in all these months I was a lawn decoration for her garden." he muttered while trying to keep his excitement at a shallow level as we do not want any of the servants or guards catching wind of our devious plans. As I told him my plans I also told him that I would need to go back underground to pick up a little present for the princesses and for whoever is coming to this

From what old Discord told me was that him, Celestia and Luna used to the best of friends until some shit happened and he snapped, went crazy and sent the world into the crazy blender and cranked that bitch to maximum blending, the end result was some thing that I thought was just a myth like the cockatrice and the ever so legendary cotton candy cloud. From what I read in my spare time while I was patching up the first time, I noticed that only alicorns had both wings and horns but unlike them, the changeling I saw back at the 'old' Diamond Dog lair also had both but was way smaller and also looked like it was starving and was insect like, so whatever Discord or whatever larger threat came after turned whatever alicorns into the changelings...which reminds me of how the Reapers turned humans into Husks and other species into their counterparts....

Reapers here before...that is never good.

Canterlot Palace, Dinning Hall, Afternoon

Celestia's pov

"It is so good to see you again Lord Raven and Mistress Oro, we are expecting the other delegates to arrive shortly along with my sister." I said while giving glances to the guards and to the servants as they assumed their original tasks, two of my solar guards talking about recent assassination that failed while the two griffon delegates were talking about a strange creature who saved another griffon lord's daughter from captivity. As the two began chatting the door opened up to reveal my sister and following closely behind her was the delegation for the Diamond Dogs and the Zebras, and as the door began to close it was pushed back open as Captain Shining Armor followed by his wife Cadence and behind them was the delegation for the dragons.

"Well Princess Celestia I do believe that is everypony that will be attending this years conforence, shall we begin?" the captain said as he sat down near the dragon delegates, both of them were small enough to fit in the rooms and slightly larger than the provided cushions but was somewhat pleased to actually sit on something soft for once.

As I looked at all the different delegates I saw that my human friend was no where to be seen and as I started to make motion to summon one of the guards over to me I heard the whistling sounds of something flying in the air at a high rate of speed.

Just as I turned to face the general direction of the oncoming sound a large form of brown shot right through the doors and crashed into the pillar right next to me.

"Discord? I thought Luna and I told you to stay in Roran's room until the meeting is over for the day." I said with a stern glare before turning my head to the sounds of a bipedal being coming closer before it was cut-off by Roran's fist flying down and coming down on Discord's tail making him explode into confetti.

"Oh hey everyone, hows it going?"

15 Minutes Earlier

Roran's pov

"Remember I need a Husk body still intact and active, this surprise I have will be perfect for Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Shining and whoever the fuck is at the meeting. If I pull this off perfectly than I will have something to watch in a prison cell while laughing my ass off as if I was criminally insane." I said while lifting up and moving incinerated or scrapped Husk remains out of my way as I walked back to the now fully burnt-to-hell bunker as I picked up anything useful and gingerly moved actual human remains out of my way.

"Discord...when this task of ours is over and the prank is done than I need your help to make a burial site for my people...and you will help me with this task, if you try to worm your way out of this than I will beat you within every inch of your life." I said while chucking a Husk corpse onto a pile of other Husks.

The truth was I could actually beat him within every inch of his life. Appearently what he told me was because of the chaotic energy within my body I am somehow magically able to cause permanent physical harm to him but otherwise I would have a pissed off punching bag that can distort reality at will and most likely turn my arms into a pair of wet noodles or to be even fucked up to me, turn my metallic arms into chocolate than melt them.

Yanking a dead Marauder up and checking it over I took its still intact and slightly soot-covered head as a trophy and tied it to my thigh and continued on my search for a perfectly clean Husk head that was still working.

Moving over to more charred remains of my fallen species I only grimmly shake my head as I can still see the scared facial expressions on their horrorified faces, their silent screams forever shown as it reminds me that I am still alive and they are not. Looking silently at body after body I saw my left hand shaking unsteadly as it gripped the bayonet of a Graal Spike Thrower...well what was left of the damn thing as the butt of the shotgun looked like it took a large ass bite. Yanking the blade from its attachment bay I placed it where my old spare knife used to be until it turned into a molten pile of slag while I was being glassed and held the grip of the shotgun in my left hand, still wondering if it can still fire or if it even works.

Looking around for my tool of untold pranking I found myself something close to it but was not even working, a perfectly clean Husk head that was out of juice and was dead on the floor looking at my feet. Kneeling down I picked up the head with one hand, gripping it from the skullcap and than smirked when the idea came to mind.

"Hey Discord!" he turned his head as he non-chalantly threw a used cigar behind him as it exploded with the force of a grenade sending the Husk pile I made all over the place.

"Remember that time I told you I once popped a man's skull with my bare hand?" He shrugs before cleaning his teeth with a talon, bored already.

"Check this out." and with a the smallest of grunts I have ever made I squeezed my right hand tight enough that the head imploded from the amount of pressure and force I placed upon it, the jaw falling to the floor as the supporting pieces crumpled inward from the crunch. I was grinning ear to ear from my old time memory of crushing Husk skulls and the occasional human skull that refused to pay Aria's 'protection' tax and tried to reverse the deal and screw her over.

Discord saw that grin and saw that my plan was now closer to being complete as I found another Husk head but was attached to the rest of its body but with absolutely no power, not even the flicker of lights in its eyes.

"Ready to go back to the palace and give old Celly a good time?" We both nodded our heads as he in an old timely fashion of a criminal made a false mustache appear and twirled one end of it while giving a halfass evil laugh. At the snap of his fingers from his lion paw I felt when I first teleported with that pony guard I felt like I was gonna hurl all over the place but now, the second time just made it unbearable.

Just as we teleported back into my room I ran to the holy porcelian throne, got a firm grip of the rim and let loose just as Discord started to create a large rubberband and a paddle for the plan.

"You know Ro-Ro you should have gotten used to having your body torn from one location and forced back into another by now, you have gotten over the smell of burning bodies and screams of dying beasts but you can't control your stomach when it comes to teleporting?" he said while smirking through the bathroom door as I rasied my right hand to give him the middle finger.

Three minutes and one long ass cackle of laughter later I removed myself from the warm hold of the toliet rim as I wiped the residue of shame from my lips as I got back to my feet and went to the sink to gargle the stank of defeat from my mouth, not wanting to offend any dignitaries while there.

"So Ro-ro, you all set for the plan or are you just going to stay looking at your mirror and say how pretty you are?" I turned my head to give him the meanest glare I can muster at the time, which in actuallity like I was having problems taking a shit.

"You have no right to call me Ro-Ro....and how the fucking hell did you even find out that Hilo'Jaa even gave me that pet name?...And if you call me that again I will just have to call you Dizzy from now on." I came up with that nickname on the fly but when I said that he gave me a glare I thought he was just trying to not laugh his ass off.

I was wrong.

"And you have no right to call me Dizzy, only one mare had that to call me that and we have hardly spoken to each other since that day." he crossed his arms and turned his back to me, I gave a shit-eating grin as I came back with a response.

"You mean Jill?" he gave me the most confused look I have seen since Katherine asked if I could help her remove her armor and that was not a pretty sight when my face took a armored fist to the jaw.

"You know Jill, look at your left hand, and turn it around." he did just that and when I went over to him I ran a finger to spell it out. His thumb and pointer finger, J. Middle finger, I. His Index and Pinkie finger, L L.

He caught onto it as he laughted a bit before yelling at me while throwing the paddle he created at me.

"Not funny Roran...not funny in the slightest..." he grumbled as he grabbed the rubberband and followed me to where the meeting was taking place.

"It was for me!" I yelled back as I grabbed the paddle and moved at a brisk pace down the halls.

10 Seconds Earlier

"Are you sure this would work?" said a very unease Discord who reved himself back into the rubberband looking right at me.

"Yea man, of course this would work, I saw it on an old show once...forgot what the name of the show was called but damn the shit those three got into was funny as hell!" I said while cocking back my arms, paddle in hand and ready to drop the hammer.

"Okay, on three."

"One." I got a firm grip on the paddle handle, the sounds of my fingers crushing the strong oak wood is music to my ears.

"Two." Moving my legs into an open stance, changing my center of balance to that of Spaceball players, and yes Spaceball is a real sport, like baseball but in space.

"THREE!" Discord yelled as he shot himself out of the rubberband and without the use of his wings flew at me like a bullet from a rifle, but unlike the bullet I smacked him right in the head with the paddle, making him go back in the same direction we were heading, and with the amount of force I used to hit him and the force he flew at me, the paddle exploded in my hands.

1 Second Earlier

Discord's pov

Boing!

"THREE!" As I yelled that I realized that I was going to be smacked with the paddle I created from a flower vase but it was to late to stop for I was a split second from a paddle to the beautiful face that is mine.

SMACK!

"Whoooooosh!" I said while in dazed flight towards the double-doors that was the delegation chambers as I went smacked into it head first, my eyes crossed as I saw one of old Sunbutt's royal guards look at me in shock before I slammed onto the floor with a silly grin plastered on my face.

"Hey Celly..." was all I can mutter before I heard the loud thuds from Ro-Ro's boots thudding down the hallway and only caught a glimpse of his figure in the air, and that glowing orange fist before I bursted into confetti and teleported back to his room to laugh off the pain in my head.

Present Time

Roran's pov

"Okay now that is out of the way..." I coughed twice before resuming "...now tell me Celestia, Luna...why exactly did you call me here? I can easily tell this is a delegation of every sentient species on Earth but why the flying fuck am I here cause being the only left means that I am more like a...what is that word...oh yea, exotic novelty item." I was looking at the delegates and I could tell that the Diamond Dogs were glaring at me, probably knowing that I am responsible for wiping out most of the dogs under Canterlot and for freeing more in the Everfree Forest. The Gryphon delegation were giving off a mixed response as I could tell that the one on dude was somewhat acknowleding my existence in a positive light while the chick that was with him gave me a grin that made me question whether or not to take a risk.

Turning my head to the dragon delegates was something more of a mistake since they just gave me that look that I was not worthy of their presence let alone their time. The zebra's were quite honestly the only group there that was particularlly amazed by my presence and have been giving me stares that seemed to be scanning every single part of my body which I was used to since I was a bit of eye-candy back on the Citadel when I was on shore leave.

Looking at Celestia she gave me a slight motion to sit down on the only chair that was available to me and I took it with a smirk as I sat down across from the gryphons and sat near Cadence and Shining, who is still giving me the stink-eye for not telling him how I used biotics let alone get anywhere close to my memories to find a way to use it. The dragons that were to my left just stared at me the entire time, unrelentlessly staring at me hoping that I would burst into flames from the intensity of the stares but being stared down by a pissed off krogan warlord, an Atlas mech, and even a fucking Reaper have made me relatively immune to the pissed off glares.

And for those that did not know the sitting order it was clearly like this:

Zebra/ Zebra Me Dragon/ Dragon
Celestia Blueblood
Luna

Dog/ Dog Gryphon/ Gryhpon Cadence/ Shining

Do not even ask me how my mind made that diagramm, when you grow bored for millions of years you learn how to use the parts of the brain that you just wanted to shitcan and replace it with something random or just have it labotomized.

"So.....Celestia," the prince cleared his throat while eyeing me, my guess he wanted me to use titles, fine than. "Princess Celestia," Blueblood smiled as he held his head high in snarky triumph until I brought it back down with my careless self, "what is this about because I have a tomb to construct to house the remains of my people and I have to recollect any and all remanents of my era of technology..." looking at both the dogs and at the gryphons with suspicion, "...before it falls into the wrong hands it ends up starting a war from technology and weapons that no one understands let alone know how to operate." I said while keeping my stares evenly balanced on the two since the books I looked into said that the zebra's are just like the ponies except lack magic and flight but instead use alchemy and others for their services as the dragons could give two shits to the technology of the past since they are content with what they got at the moment.

After a moment of silence and most likely deep thought Celestia spoke for what was exactly two minutes and thirty-four seconds of sheer boredom.

"Mr. Zidane, we are here to discuss the importance of trade routes, relations and above all else, keeping harmony balance." I gagged that balance since that got me something, a big red rod of death crushing me and turned me into cold stone.

An hour passed as they started talking about trade routes and at that time I decided to have a bit of fun.

"Oh Celestia, I forgot to mention this to you." I brought the mostly clean Husk head up from under the table and placed it on the table and everyones reactions was something worthy of my photo-album that was in the process. Blueblood was mortified by it and looked away along with Cadence, Shining had no clue to what it was and just stared at it, the dogs knew exactly what it was and both gave low growls of anger, the dragons saw it than at me and thought it was just a skull from my own that I found and cleaned it up and thought to keep it as a trophy, the zebra's saw the strange markings on it and thought it was used as a binding or something spiritual. What I did with it next was well worth the finger tip injuries.

"Remember that time I once popped a man's skull with me bare hands?" no one even bothered to look at me as I spoke up. Celestia was giving me the stare that I can easily tell was the same as a mother would use while she was yelling at her child for doing something bad or scolding them in public.

"Check this out." they can hear the sounds of the metallic skull creak and moan as the metal slowly bent buckled under the pressure until it exploded outward to the table as the jaw fell without its hinges and as its eyeballs fly out of its head and land in the soup container that was being held my a maid.

Luna was busy having a giggle fit as she watched it happen, the dragons had the look of amusement while the gryphons and dogs just sat their shocked to see me easily crush the skull of my fomor kind without sweating up a storm or even have a hint of regret for defiling someones body.

Three hours into the meeting I was half asleep and was busy tuning out the words of those speaking as I just stared off at the walls behind the female gryphon delegate, my eyes turned off since I was bored out of my mind and just wanted to go to my bed, lay down and catch a glimmer of sleep for an hour or two.

That beautiful dream was cut off when I felt something bump against my right foot, thinking it was someones paw or hoof accidentally touching me I dismissed it as I started to turn my eyes off until I felt it brush against the inner part of my right leg very slowly but as I started to look downward it darted away. Thinking it was just a test by the princesses I just turn my eyes off again and go back to just day-dreaming but when I felt that thing rub my inner thighs I quickly clamped my legs shut and caught the little bastard touching me, sadly the bastard was a tail and it ended in a bit of fluff before it yanked itself from my grip. These pants are to damn smooth and soft for me to get a firm deathgrip with my legs incase I ever had to stangle someone with my meaty legs.

An hour into the rapid assaults from someone's tail I started to count how many times it brushed my thights and very dangerously close to my royal jewels and club and so far I have reached one hundred and seventy-six times. I clenched one hand on top of the table as I brought up the Marauder head and started to polish that fucker for fun since it was going to serve as my alarm clock as soon as I can figure out how to do that particular task without having it activate and annoy me to death with the noises it makes when it was alive.

"And you think that this human's sword can easily cut throw the mythril plates that we mine out in the tundra north of the capital? Princess Celestia many ponies have said that they have a method or way to cut through it but each attempt ends in failure, what makes you think that his sword can ruin such a fine metal?" A challenge? Directed to my sword? Oh ho ho! Challenge accepted!

When I got up and took sword from its sheath slowly and started to slowly cut at the air, every single pony and non-pony in the room turned to the source of the noise and only saw my sword, and when guard came up with an sample of the mythril plate I slashed downward than switched the direction of the blade with a flick of my wrist as it came back upwards. In a second the plate was in four equal pieces as I put my blade back in its home.

"Well now that I proved you wrong sir...maybe we shall have a slight break from this talking, sitting in one place for prolonged periods of time for me makes me....twitchy with my hands, if you catch my drift." oddly they all knew what that meant.

Canterlot Palace, 2nd Floor, Diplomat Wing, Night

"Tell me that part of the story again Mr. Zidane, I find it to be very amusing and tasteful." Lord Raven said while chuckling loudly, finding my story with great pleasure as his counterpart found it to be quite boring.

"Okay, but try not to laugh to hard, I rather not have the pink demon come here out of no where and scare the shit out of me." I cleared my throat for a few seconds before speaking up.

"Round Two Assholes!" I said while telling him again the details of that one foolish Blue Suns platoon leader that was trying to reclaim the controls of the supply frigate that was heading to Terra Nova.

"Wrong Place, Wrong Time Motherfucker." was my reply before I set him on fire with a M-451 Firestorm and was laughing insanely as I watched him burn alive before kicking his still screaming body over.

As we reached his room he waved me farewell as he shut it behind him with a loud click. Turning to Mistress Oro she signalled me to follow her as she started to talk about how dreadfully boring these meetings were and how she wished she could have stayed behind back at the capital with the rest of her family.

"Well Miss. Oro at least you have a family, for me growing up as an orphan pretty much sucked ass since not a single person wanted to adopt me so I just ran away from the orphanange and just forged my own life at first in criminal activites." I said while holding the marauder skull in my hand, looking at it as its eyes seemed to look at mine.

"Oh you poor dear, such a shame to be left out in the cold and to take such a route in life...why if you were here you could have been easily adopted in a loving family, just probably one that would be wondering what you are first." her slightly caring response was all it took for me to almost shed a tear. Almost

"Well ma'am this is my stop, enjoy your stay while I go off back to the undergrounds to start working." I said while holding he door open for her and just as she walked in her tail brushed under my chin very slowly and the feeling of warm smooth fur was great at first until I realized that this was a different species, one I have not fucked before.

'Note to self, make a new list of species so I can figure out how I am going to fuck them and not get attached until I can somehow safely be happy.'

With my thoughts occupied with my sex-drive hungering for something new I had no idea that she had gripped my right hand and yanked me into he room and threw me onto the plush bed as she shut the door and locked it behind her. A large predatory grin was plastered on her face while I was looking at her with slight confusion.

"I heard stories that you have great amounts of strength and stamina...and that you are just like us gryphons with your hunger for meat and also your eyes of the hunter." her gaze turned into a more sultry stare as she took her time approaching me, wiggling her rear with each sauntering step forward as I just sat their as if I had my thumb up my ass.

Her eyes gleamed a bright shade of blue before shimmering to an emerald green and just as quickly going back to the ocean blue. I only thought it was a trick of the light at that moment of time.

What happened next completely surprised me.

This was something I did not have planned on my schedule for the day...

Chapter 13: Pain and Burden

'Pain my old friend, we need to stop meeting like this.'

My eyes slowly creaked open just a crack, the bright sunlight coming in from the window as I felt a slight tremor of movement to my left as something very smooth brushed up my chest before resting on my left shoulder. Looking at what I thought was Discord just sleeping in my bed cause his bed turned into a donut and it he ate it, I half-heartily nudged the figure until I heard the sounds of chirping coming from said figure as it moved its head into the crook of my neck and nuzzled me before snoring softly.

The odd feeling of warmth coming from the avian creature was nice for a change from the constant cold rooms and even colder locations but this warmth was something I have nearly forgotten. Sighing in content I settle into the bed as I stay there for little more than a few minutes until my senses slowly returned to me as my vision came back to me as I turned to my source of warmth and deeply regretted that action.

Sleeping on my left arm was the gryphon delegate Mirias, her head resting in the crook of my neck and a wing resting on half of my body, a look of utter bliss on her face from the angle I am looking at and also from what I can feel is that her tail is wrapped around my left leg tightly.

'My fucking god....why does my head hurt so damn much....what did I drink? Wait....did we...did I score?'

Slowly lifting my right arm as it feels like the ultralight metals replaced with lead weights, my hand gripping the blanket and lifted up enough for me to see if what my thoughts were true or that I was just imagining things. Taking a quick peek and I saw that not only was I stark naked, but the entire mattress we are sleeping on is soaked with fluids that I probably did not even want to know.

'Well that confirms that...but how many times did we go at it? Damn mattress is fucking soaked with sweat and shame and probably something more.'

Determining if I should just stay in bed and wait it out or to just put my walk of shame skills back to use was cast aside as I felt something slowly rising up from the waist down. That feeling slowly turned to annoyance as I can feel my legs weaken until that annoyance turned to pricks of pain as I knew exactly what was coming next. The pricks of pain straight up turned into full blown raging pain as I suppressed it my clenching my teeth and gripping the bed side until the waves of pain began to die down and my death grip was slowly turned down into a much more kung-fu grip.

'Okay...that hurts...I can now clearly tell we went at it till both of us were immobalized with fatigue and limp as a bone fish but damn that night must have been incredible...wait...why can I not remember it?'

Looking around the room to find any reference to last night's rigorous activities was met with several empty mugs all piled in a random corner of the room, my clothes scattered all over the room even my boots were scattered as one was on the doorknob and the other was on the nightstand. Turning my gaze away from the piles of shame and looking for where the bayonet was located and my hunting shotgun, hoping to god that Discord did not take it and modified it to shoot confetti out of it or worse squirt chocolate milk, but shockingly my bayonet was directly above my head, stabbed intot the wall for some reason and I found that my shotgun was resting in the bathroom, oddly being tied up to a bar of soap and a loofah.

'This is just getting stranger but still does not top my best night...just what the fuck did we do last night?'

Last Night, Dining Hall, Night

"Now onto new business, the remains of the human cities that litter the world both above and below ground and how we should take care of them and also how to deal with Discord now that he has escaped from his prison." my eyes slightly crack open as the topic that I have wondered if it would ever be brought up or even thought of but at least the thought counts that Celestia actually cares about her human friend.

Twirling the bayonet in my left hand and idly staring at the clock hoping this boring ass meeting would end so I can eat something good for once and also talk to Discord about the whole tomb idea I got going on.

"Well Princess Celestia, these city remains that you speak of, the few that we have found are oddly well preserved and have also encountered strange beings that have proven to be hostile to us and are not willing to be peaceful but one thing we do know is that they are few in number and yet a few of them are impervious to our weapons. We have only found four underground cities and the last one we found looked like a large stadium of sorts or an airship port." my ears slightly twitch in glee at Lord Raven's words, finding four cities is nice but if he found an actual spaceport and hope to god that anything there works than I am proud to have survived this hell.

"Well than Lord Raven, before you return to Gryphus I am sending Sir Zidane with you so he can explore and extract anything of value or any object that is of use since only he knows their safety measures and knows how to safely disarm any traps without the lose of life or limb." I looked at my right hand and cringed a bit, last time I disarmed something the damn bottlecap mine went off and took half my right arm, losing my favorite hand in the process. That day still haunts me as well as the laughter of the soldiers that saw that happen...those bastards are probably rolling over in their graves for me having to disarm more traps.

Glancing at the clock and taking a short glance at Celestia as she gave a curt stare before turning to the rest of the group, Luna was busy twirling the spoon in her cup of tea, also having the same feelings as I do on attending boring meetings, Blueblood on the otherhand was straight up standing ramrod straight on his cushion and I think taking short notes on the important matters and most likely just scribbling the least important ones, Cadence was busy talking to Shining who was somewhat giving me the stink eye for obvious reasons.

"Roran after the meeting can you meet me, Luna, Cadence and Shining Armor in the dungeons where we have placed the devices we have salvaged from what you said was once lower Britian, do please try to be there when we do." I gave a slight nod, currently not interested in even paying attention but still nodded my head so I don't end up getting a repeat of the meeting and also a talking to by any of the five ponies.

"Now everypony, onto setting of trade routes..." I tuned out at that point and turned on my omni-tool and started to swipe through data until I found a small cluster of code that I have been meaning to apply myself to.

The beginning of Equestria and the rise of the three pony races

This Morning, Delegate Mirias Oro's Room

'Oh yea...the second part of the meeting...boring as hell, even that book was boring but at least I know a bit of history...better than going in blind like the last time I was told to communicate with a species I haven't met yet...fucking Cole knew I never met the Asari and yet his ass made me the man in charge of talking to them for the mission....fucking asshole...'

Yesterday, Midnight

"And that concludes today's delegation meeting, you may now return to your rooms or enjoy yourself to our library or dining hall." and with a short bow they stood up along with everyone else but me as I was just finishing up on a crash course history lesson on Equestria, and I had just found out that it was boring as hell. All three ponies didn't like each other, their attitudes somehow caused the land to freeze and crops to die, they left to find greener pastures, literally, all three found a new place and started to fight over it, weather followed them there, land began to freeze until they all got over their differences and it cleare up. Talk about creepy ass weather for it to follow you based on attutide to races.

"Roran...Zidane....dude...meeting is over now, you can stop reading....you were reading our history the entire time?" I gave him a slight wave of my hand as I used Lift on him, smirking in delight as he flails around as he tries to find some traction in the air before I release the field around him and catch him with the same hand.

"It is rude to interrupt someone that is reading about the past of the ponies he is staying with, and also I know it was over because I saw everyone get up and walk out and also because I heard a dragon said 'finally' under his breath." I sat up a in my chair, looked around and the room was indeed empty now save for me, Shining and a very serious looking Luna who was trying to reflect the light into my eyes with her spoon. A few times my eyes tint setting fluxerated from the sudden brightness and I heard Luna giggle softly before I Pulled the spoon over to me and bent it with my thumb as I clenched it in my left hand. That earned a huff of annoyance before she too got up and trotted over walked out the room, letting me rebend the spoon and placing it back on the table.

The walk to the dungeons was short and simple since I memorized the path to it on my first day active and my day was slightly brightened when a maid with a passing food cart was going down the halls as I quickly swipped something sticky from the tray and looked at it before taking a bite into it and gave a small smile that it at least tasted as good as it looked.

"Do you know what that is?" I shrug at him before taking another bite out of the strange pastry. "You have no idea what it is and yet you are eating it? What if you are allergic to it and it causes you to go into a coma or worse die from it?" I shrug again before taking two more bites, enjoying the cinnamon goodness in peace while Shining just looks at me hoping that I don't keel over and die from it.

This trip to the dungeons was enjoyable, the cold stone walls and floor was still the same hospitable coldness and the air was still thick with chatter between criminals and guards and the occasional guard to guard. Walking down the cells I saw that there was a few ponies sitting or laying down, the ones with horns had a ring attached to the base of their horn as I can guess was a way of suppressing their magic and the ones with wings had a rubber band on them.

At the very back of the dungeon was a door that was different from the rest, instead of simple bars with a lock on it, this one was complete wall of metal with three locks built into it and a small sliding window on the top and slot on the bottom for food. A room for a dangerous criminal to be left alone...or for very dangerous technology that could explode when tampered with.

"I hope this is worth my time...I better not be just unlocking this thing just so you two can take advantage of it, from what I read you are peaceful herbavores but that could always chance when you have the means to rule over everything with an ironhoof...and at least you had the decency to move the explosive away from the electronics and covered up with a hazard sheet." I was looking at the piles of recovered tech that was semi-scattered in the room as everything that was recovered had its own place amongst each other.

"Well Mr. Zidane this is worth your time, this is your peoples history right here, these relics could hold the key to keeping the harmony in Equestria and beyond its borders from those that would see it harmed." I gagged at harmony again, knowing that it was so much full of shit that even very old president Nixon would agree with me.

"Yea well, sometimes history needs to be forgotton and left in the dust of time and space, but since you are probably going to be stubborn about it..." I said while letting my words hang in the air a bit before speaking again, "...where is the first thing you wanted me to see?" Luna took the initiative and pulled back a cover that revealed, I shit you not, an ancient arcade game. My eyes slightly bulging from their protective socket holders I walked to the machine of ages past and blew on it, the dust flying off as I saw the name of it in extremely faded words.

Super Smash Brothers

"Well Luna...your first pick was an ancient Earth Arcade Game, not bad. From my omni-tool it says that this game was very popular with the youth of North America, Europe and Asia. To bad this thing requires electricity to be operated but if you could build a generator for it and a socket to plug it in and hope to god this works, than you have a fully functioning entertainment relic of the past." moments later I thought I heard Luna squee in joy before clapping her hooves together...strange but nice to see her smile instead of being mellow and alone.

"Okay Shining your next." he gave me a nod as I gave him a thumbs up which was his signal to pick something out in the room for me to check and if neccessary, disarm and deactivate.

What he pulls out from under the sheets was something I thought was a joke to me. He pulled out a cart and inside that cart was boxes upon boxes of ammunition of all kinds and explosives.

"Dude put that back and pick something else, thats ammo and explosives and I am not telling you which is which cause there is no way in hell am I going to turn off the safety switches and disengage the weapon locks." he hung his head a bit in defeat as he pushes the cart back and puts the cover back on it as he levitates a very large cube with pieces missing until I saw the orange paint and black letters.

YMIR

"Damn Celestia...where the hell did you find this thing?" I kicked the side of it as I saw this thing sitting there in all its old glory.

"I believe we found this cube of sorts in what we think was a storage crate, why do you ask?"

"Celestia, girl this thing right here is a YMIR Heavy Mech, this thing used to be on the front lines of Blue Suns and Eclipse attacks, these boys were meant to tear apart enemy foot mobles and as allied support. Lets see if this boy still has some juice in him and if I can reconfigure its operating system." Celestia was taken back a bit by me calling her 'girl but when I explained what it was and what I was going to do I was than met with objections.

"Mr. Zidane not to be rude and all but is that clearly safe? I mean you said it rips off moble feet and hooves..." I rolled my eyes long enough for Cadence to see as I scanned it a bit and started to bypass security nodes until I found the base codes and rewrote them to my liking. Placing my left hand on where the power core is I gave it some energy to re-initiate processing and rebooting all primary systems. When this boy purred to life and stood up and expanded its limbs everyone but me scooted away from it when its voice turned on.

"Initiating Activation Protocoles...System Reboot Complete...Awaiting Further Orders." when it spoke up and did not immediately attack us I felt a tear of joy grace my face as it slid down my face.

"That is the greatest thing...I have ever seen...this year...its so beautiful!" I was letting out only two tears of joy as I walked up the mech and gave it a hug, the mech just stood there waiting for a new command as I tapped in a new code for it to go back into standby mode as it folded itself back into transport mode.

The slightly awkward silence built up as I wiped the tears from my face as I turned around and saw that Celestia was levitating a small terminal that was connected to a memory storage array close to the mech as she coughed a bit, a signal for me to snap out from my happy moment to see if her thing of choice works.

"You ponies might want to exit the room and stay behind the door and walls in case this thing overloads and detonates...the mech was a gamble and a risky one at best but this thing is just as dangerous if it overloads....saw it happen once, wiped out a squad of marines when they tried to force break into it, found nothing but charred meat, bones and plating." which was true, our mission at a Cerberus base somewhere in the Armstrong Cluster was botched when the intel said it was a intelligence facility but instead that base was a staging point for raids and attacks and my platoon was wiped out when we broke into the central hub...a day I never want to relive.

Tapping into the consoles security systems I found that this thing was locked up tighter than a tax collecters creditpurse and the few times I tried cracking them open I ended up running from the law several times, shooting a cop in the foot once to escape, was intending to shoot his gun but I was in a rush to get the hell out od dodge.

The sounds of my fingers typing on the holo-screen was that of constant machine-gun fire and the occasional swearing at the terminal as I told it to go fuck itself or fuck you, and what felt like two hours I was blessed to hear a sound of a turbine humming to life as the main screen winks on and a voice crackles to life from the speakers.

"Private Terminal Online, Welcome back Lt. Zidane, Are you here to sent out a requisition order?" the holo-voice said each word with sharp articulation and stuffy tone that I knew which A.I. I was talking to.

"Not this time Alfreido, was just rebooting the terminal back into working order..for...for others to use." I did not have the courage to tell him what happened the last time I turned off the terminal.

"Well than please move to the side than, I see four equines in standby to use this terminal, have a nice day Lt." his voice the same as every, stuffy arrogant and high class like the butlers of old.

"Alright, let me just update your archives to grant those waiting behind me access to all files, even the recent one that I sent...so many years ago..." my voice in a hushed whisper at the last part as it cracks slightly as I recall that moment in time before shaking my head and tapping the keys until the satisified tone of piano notes ring off as the update is complete.

As I tapped the keys I hear a few hushed words behind me, my ears only picking up a few words since the dungeons were so eeriely quiet and also terribly cold for some unknown reason as I slightly rub my arms and tap the last segments of electronic code into the terminal before stepping away from it and turned around to the door and coughed a bit to get their undivided attention.

"Okay Princess your terminal is ready, just ask Alfreido what you want to know and he will tell you, I gave just you full access to all of civilian files, Luna, Cadence and Shining you only get partial access because I know Luna would be trying to find something about fun, you Cadence I have no idea but better safe than sorry, Shining, don't even bother me...now, I just need to go clear my head." I brushed past them as I moved at a brisk pace down the stone corridors until I found my way back to my room and tap a long command code to monitor what they are checking on the terminal.

"Can't trurst them as far as I can throw them...since I haven't thrown any of them than I can't entirely trust them...always safe on the side of caution..." stopping a bit with the code as I hear a knock on the door before I openned it to find that it was a servant pushing a cart filled with mugs and half dozen lid covered plates and from the smell of things it was heavenly.

As I look at her she slightly is taken back a bit as she looks at the top of the door and does a quick apology for disturbing me and for almost mess up on her order for someone else. I just shrug it off and tell her its alright since most likely almost everyone fucks up from time to time, I only fuck up if I don't plan ahead or my plans cave in on themselves when the enemy likes to not play fair.

The maid for some reason does a small bow to me before going back to whoever she is supposed to deliver the cart to but knowing that she made a mistake to go to your room she most likely is new to this route of duty or just was having an off day or worst case both.

Three things caught my attention as I followed her around the castle halls, one was that she along with the other maids that we passed by were wearing french maid outfits with matching hat which makes me wonder how the hell did they know about that look let alone be able to put it on with just hooves. The other thing that caught my attention was that not once did I bother to check the time or look outside until I looked outside and saw that the moon was just barey seen at the upper edge of the window, giving me the view of it being a possible 1-2am timing, which sadly means I almost went a whole day without any sleep let alone smoke my cigar in peace.

The third thing was that our destination was back at Miss. Oro's room and that the maid quickly knocks on the door and just as quickly goes down the hall and turns at the corner and disappears. At first I just thought she got sick of the smell of what I think is cooked fish or meat, either one would be a real change to my current diet of salads....damn diet is killing me is more like it, I rather be dining on pork or chicken but no, stuck in the land of herbivores that frowns upon meat-eaters like me.

Just as I placed my hand on the lid of one of the plates the door swings open and Mirias is standing there looking at me and also at the cart, or most likely at my hand that is holding a lid that is slightly off the plate below it.

"Er...maid left your cart here...well I guess I will be going n-" my words cut off as I was quickly yanked into the room by a pair of talons gripping my shoulders and just as quickly I was yanked into the room the cart was dragged in as well.

Before I even have a chance to recover from the ambush I feel something bump into my chest as I reeled over and fall right on my ass, the cart the closely following as the door is gently closed shut. Pulling myself off the floor I turn around to see that Mirias was already going at the cart with extreme hunger that I have only seen on soldiers that went days without their rations as they turned the one they have into a feast fit for a squad.

As we began to feast on the varies platters set before us I noticed that most of them was meat related and that on one plate spanned a pyramid of crisp bacon, another was two slabs of steak glistening with oils that I know that I must devour with extreme prejudice.

About thirty minutes into the feast of two, the cart is moved aside as the mugs are placed back where they belong, looking at her she smirks at me and takes one, that smirk was a sign.

"I accept that challenge if you think you have a chance to win." I return the smirk as I grab two mugs in one hand, daring her to accept the drinking challenge. My drinking talents was somewhat heard of on most of the bars on Omega and even a few on the Citadel and very rarely do I lose unless its against the krogan or someone else that has better liquor resistance than me.

"Your on human."

Present Time

'I knew that challenge was stupid...shouldn't have declared it....' I turned my head to look at her again, still sleeping soundly on my shoulder with a small smile on her beak.

'But it was oh so worth the hangover and after event.'

As I slowly try to move off the bed I hear a knocking on the door as it slightly cracks open to reveal a snout slightly entering the room.

"Excuse me Miss. Oro but the meeting has been pushed later on into the evening to compensate for last night's conference, the meeting has been pushed to the afternoon." just as she starts to close the door I swear I hear the maid on the other side of the door take a whiff of the room a few times and as I saw the snout slowly peak into the room I yanked the bayonet out from the headboard I threw it near her snout and with a stroke of luck it hit right where her snout was going to be and I heard her scream outloud before running off.

Just as I finally slumped back down to shut my eyes the door was kicked open by a pair of guards and a somewhat pissed off Shining behind them and as they stormed the room Mirias woke up and was shocked to see me in the bed with her and also to see the guards in her room.

"Okay...I now what you are thinking Shining...did I score with this lass and throw a bayonet at the maid for trying to take a peak? Yes, Yes I did and I do not deny the bayonet part because she should have kept her nose out of our business. That maid needs to relearn proper manners...trying to barge into this room after our extra-cardiac activities." the two guards that flanked Shining snickered at that remark clearly knowing what I mean.

As we started to yell at each other the gryphon next to me quickly reeled back and let out a screech of sorts before bursting in green flames, the ponies knew what that was but for me? I was fucking shocked.

"Jumping Jesus on a fucking pogo stick! What the hell!" I fell out of the bed in shock, not even knowing what just happened and also tried to not get caught on fire as the gryphon that I laid with turned into a changeling and as I promptly redirected my bayonet arm at her and tossed but the sudden angle shift made it go off-course as it flew in the air and hit one of the guards helmets with the grip which knockd his sorry ass out.

In that moment of confusion and accidental friendly fire the changeling takes off into the air and flies straight out the window, in my mind I was still sitting there, trying to figure out what just happened as my thought process was currently trying to shuffle the payload of current events out the way for me to think straight.

After a moment of silence I finally broke the ice by shouting outloud, "What the fucking hell just happened? Some pony in here has less than thirty seconds to explain to me what just happened and even less time to tell me that I did not just do what I think I did with what I pray to god was a spy." I hate being used by others but the very few things that gets me into a crazed frenzy is that I was used by a spy, that memory will forever haunt me and helped contribute to my distain for any group of military that are not hard wired and full proof.

As I stopped talking I tapped only two times on my left omni-tool as a two seperate timers start going down, the right one started at directly 30 seconds while the one on the left had only ten seconds as it quickly waned down.

"Roran we don't have much time to explain it to you so I guess I have to say yes to the last one." his answer was something I did not want to hear.

I jumped out of the bed, Pulled my Graal to my waiting left hand and as soon as it touched the palm I riveted it over to my right hand and got a firm grip on it as I aimed down the sights on it and pulled down on the trigger as it charged up the flechete within its barrel and as soon as I lifted my finger off the trigger I heard Shining try to tell me to not fire but I ignored his words as the weapon kicked back slightly throwing my aim off as I placed my finger on the trigger again to charge another shot. Watching the spy try to fly as fast away from the castle as possible and upon hearing the resulting boom from behind she only had a split second to see my shotgun rise an inch from its firing position as she felt the flechete tear right into her body and barely exit right under her neck.

"Take that you fucking bitch!" I shouted while aiming down my sights and firing again, this time ripping a wing off from her body and watched it flutter in the air for a while before moving the gun to my left hand and quickly found my pants and put it on and placed my bayonet in its snug home as I stormed out of the room and sprinted down the corridors to the outside parts of the palace.

A few guards started shouting that there is a downed changeling just outside the palace walls right in front of the gates and on that note I sprinted to the front but was met with a window and I blasted it with Shockwave and jumped right through it, and fell two stories to the ground as I rolled upon impact and quickly got back up and rushed to the changeling spy.

The guards that were already around the changeling had their spears pressed against her chitnous hide and was waiting for pairs of hoofcuffs to restrain and capture the changeling but I had other thoughts on my mind for the litle spy.

"Sir we have everything under control here, your assistance in the capture of this infiltrator is noted. Stand down and go back inside." his deep tone only grinding against my already thin patience as I Slam all of them to the ground and held them until I stepped onto the spy and with my bayonet cut off her other wing and to make sure she doesn't die yet I placed my omni-blade on her wounds, cauterizing them instantly.

"Girl you are in for a world of pain...and you will suffer for it greatly..." I whispered into her ear as I grabbed her by a rear leg and promptly dragged her back into the palace, still holding my shotgun in my right hand and with every step on the stairs I let her hit her head on it as I dragged her near dead body to the dungeons to a lone cell and closed the door behind me.

Canterlot Dungeons

Grabbing the iron cuffs in the cell I hooked them into the holes of all four of her legs until she was held in the middle of the room spread out as I slowly dug my fingers into her wounds, cracking them back open as I forced two of my fingers into her chest cavity and wiggled my fingers around forcing her to come back to consciousness and scream out in pain as I widened the hole a bit and yanked my fingers out slightly pulling up her a part of her hide.

"You will stay awake for this pain...I will make sure of it, now take deep breaths and try not to scream so loud, I rather not let Celestia know to early about this painful torture." I whispered again into her ear as I slammed my fist into her gut, forcing a yelp of pain out of her before burning the hole sealing it shut.

"Why did you use me little spy...why did you take the position of a delegate of a foreign nation...why are you here and what are your intentions..."I keep whispering to her again before I grabbed a metal pipe from the window sill and sliced both ends to free it as I bent it into a hook shape and released her from her cuffs before shoving the sharpened point through her shoulder as it exits out her back as I tied it to the ceiling cuff with chains as I let her hang there.

Tapping my omni-tool to find a perfect melody to go with my interrogation I smile with sadistic glee as I tapped it twice as it began to play.

As the song began I jerk on her lower leg to force the curved end to put pressure on the wound, forcing the changeling to scream out in pain as I twirled her around while singing to the song with a sadistic tone before coming to a stop as I saw blood drip to the floor and yanked down again.

"I shall ask you again...why are you here, what are your intentions...and why did you use me...you have only precious minutes to live." I whispered into her ear while she keeps screaming out in pain as she withered in my grasp, sighing deeply I yank the hook out of her shoulder and slammed it on her other shoulder, piercing the tough hide and appearently bone as well.

With the smallest of touchs I traced my hand over her belly, trying to get a feel for it while giving her a toothy grin letting her see my teeth as I find her center and deliver a blow to the gut as I watch her weeze for air and cough up blue blood onto my chest. Moving my other hand off the hook and moved it to her right foreleg and slowly began to squeeze down on it until I heard the sounds of bones creaking and released my grip to see that I left a dent all around her foreleg.

"We can play this game all day little bug...just tell me what I want to hear or otherwise I have to get very...creative with my torture. Do you dare defy me and keep your information and slowly watch yourself lose segment after segment of your body for my own enjoyment or do you tell me what I want to know and you get to keep your body mostly intact and be still alive?" I extend my omni-blade to her face as I cut off both of her fangs and forced both of them into her chest.

Slowly moving my hand down her sides I find my targets as I point both blades at her rear hooves and ever so slowly stab into the base of her hooves causing her to let out a blood curtling scream of pain and as I slowly twisted my blades to make the pain even worse.

I waited patiently as her screams died down and I pulled her close to my face, hoping to hear the magical words of demanded knowledge escape her lips to my ears, and just as I bring her close she oddly rested her head on my shoulder and with a small shudder she coughed up blood onto my back as I hear her hiss something before speaking weakly.

"I was sent...to spy on the solar princess...and to acquire information....on you..." her words were raspy and tattered and with a small smile I temporarily stepped out of the cell and made my way to the room that was storage of all of my people's achievements and found a small create filled with medical supplies ranging from medi-gel, surgical materials, splints and bandages to replacement parts for false limbs. Grabbing what I needed and returning to the cell to find its sole occupant barely conscious and barely moving, I moved quickly to apply medi-gel to the wounds I have inflicted and even forcibly injected into her neck a stimuli of sorts to keep her from passing out.

Lifting her head up a bit to clean some of the blood off her lips I noticed that for a bug pony that her hide felt soft to the touch and yet was hard and firm when I was crushing it, her eyes seemed odd from the other changeling I met whose eyes were emerald green, hers was a deep shade of purple with a small iris in the center of it. Cleaning her up a bit I noticed that her wings were very slowly twitching, trying to take flight but I saw that the cauterized part of her wing was cracking and before I had a chance to study it the nubs of her wings cracked the scalded membrane as it began to regrow and reform into a set of new wings.

"Now tell me my little bug pony, why did you use me?" my voice was grave and deep, not even giving her a chance to respond I removed the hook from her body and let it hang there in the air as I placed another application of medi-gel onto the puncture wound before looking her over for any other wounds that I caused her before moving close to her so she can speak.

"We...the Hive needed food....your emotions....fed me...and if I made it back....would have helped feed the others..." I can hear a slight wheeze in her voice, most likely that one or both of her lungs are bruised and is having a hard time breath normally.

"Before I let you go and send you to the medical wing for treatment I just have one more question for you." I turned my usual threatning and harsh voice into one that I only give to my few friends, my tone of calm weakness. She barely lifted her head up to me as she looked into my eyes as mine turned a bit, showing her that mine are no where close to real or normal.

"And....*cough* what is it...*cough*?" her voice growing slowly growing weaker from the damage I placed upon her chest, most likely bruising or even damaging her internal organs from my fist earlier.

"Just how old are you...."

"I..I am only 17...this mission...was a test....my rights of passage into maturity." she said before finally losing consciousness as she fell forward onto my knee before falling down it onto the floor.

I just kneeled there, too stunned to do anything as my eyes turned to small pin pricks as I moved to the bucket in the corner and forced myself to heave into it, dislodging whatever I ate last night into the bucket as my mind was raging and screaming.

'WHAT HAVE I DONE!'

'She had it coming, she was a spy and deserved everything that came with such a risky job. Honestly I thought you would be proud that you killed the spy that laid with you and got sweet justice by slowly killing her by torture?'

'THAT IS NOT THE POINT! I JUST ATTACKED AND NEARLY KILLED SOMEONE THAT WAS NOT OF AGE! I AM A SOLDIER OF PEACE AND PROTECTER OF THE YOUNG, OLD AND WEAK NOT SOME BASTARD SCUMBAG THAT DISREGARDS EVERYTHING FOR SELFISH GAIN!'

'Oh please, do not get holier-than-thou on me fool, you turned that life away when you lost both arms and legs at the battle of the Citadel during the Eden Prime War and was dishonorably discharged for disobeying a direct order to save the same fools that you fought oh so hard to protect and keep alive. Where is the justice in that than? You lose your life because you wanted to protect the fools you were told to save? You are nothing but a slave and servent to those with power and you know it.

'IT IS MY JOB TO PROTECT THEM! I HAD NOTHING TO LIVE FOR BACK ON LUNA STATION BECAUSE I WAS AN ORPHAN AND WAS ALREADY DYING FROM STARVATION BECAUSE OF THE PATH I TOOK TO TRY TO STAY ALIVE!'

'Keep telling yourself that fool, we both know that you joined the Alliance for all the tail you could get while out on long range patrols and all the bars we went to, you can deny that for as long as you want but we both know that because of the Alliance you finally lost your cherry at that bar on the Citadel with your friend Alaria for a drunken one night stand. You are nothing but filth and you enjoyed every second of it being scum for working for Aria on Omega.'

'TAKE THAT BACK YOU BASTARD! I LOVED HER AND SHE LOVED ME! IT WAS BECAUSE OF YOU THAT IT TURNED INTO A ONE NIGHT STAND WHEN YOU KEPT EGGING ME ON TO WANT MORE AND MORE! BECAUSE OF YOU I LOST HER AND BECAUSE OF YOU I LOST EVERYTHING I HAD. BECAUSE OF YOUR INFLUENCE I TURNED TO CERBERUS TO STAY ALIVE AND IT ONLY MADE THINGS WORSE FOR ME BECAUSE I WAS THRUSTED INTO JOBS AND MISSIONS WHICH MADE ME LOOK EVEN MORE OF A MONSTER ON HUMANITY'S PART, EVERYTHING THAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME IS YOUR FAULT!'

'You can never admit it that because of me that we are both still alive, because of me you finally had the girl of your dreams but you let her go when you thought you would never see her again from your rotations. I am the reason we are still sane throught the years of being imprisoned in our stone coffin and you should be thanking me for even giving you that push for taking the risk of sacrificing yourself to protect those foolish equines just so you can have another drunken one night stand with their princess.'

'IF YOU EVER SAY THAT AGAIN, I WILL PURGE YOU FROM MY HEAD AND I WILL DO IT IF YOU PROVOKE ME AGAIN, I AGREED TO ALLOW YOU TO STAY IN MY HEAD SO YOU CAN HELP ME FOCUS ON THE TASKS ON HAND AND TO ENHANCE MY BIOTICS BUT IF YOU KEEP THIS UP I AM WILLING TO REMOVE YOU FROM MY MIND AND SUFFER THE PAIN AND BURDENS ALONE THAN TO KEEP YOU HERE AND WATCH MYSELF FADE AWAY TO NOTHING MORE THAN A MONSTER.'

Looking at the unconscious changeling I staggered over to her and gently lifted her up over my shoulder as I quickly moved through the stone corridors out of the dungeon and up the stairs, stumbling the entire time as my body was slowly trying to tear itself apart from the raging mental fighting in my head. The way to the medical wing was empty save for the few servents cleaning the place but as they saw me weakly moving to the castle hospital carrying an equally weak looking changeling on my shoudlers they called the staff to rush to us as I felt them lift the changeling off my shoulder onto a nearby gurny while I was assisted into a room and was laid down onto a bed before I heard them talking quickly about how to treat the near dead changeling.

"Keep her alive...I...have to atone...for wronging her...." my words stumbling as I was forced into unconsciousness from the raging mental battle in my head.

Flashbacks

"What is it Mother Isabella?"

"A baby left at the door, the poor thing was out in the cold for lord knows how long, we will tend to him for now, his new life begins tomorrow."

"Do we at least have a name or something?

"Only his last name but I think his parents changed it for their own good. Zidane...you have a bright future ahead of you."

"Look at what we found, a lost child in our territory, don't worry we will make your death quick and painless as long as you stand still."

"He is getting away! Get the fucker!"

"We lost the little prick...go out and see if he left anything for us to scavenge up and sell at the underground."

"Found the bastard child! Quick get him before he gets away again!"

"What the hell is going on here? Aw shit he isn't a normal bastard orphan he has biotics!"

"So your the kid that killed that gang of fools that has been riping off passers for months? You don't look like much than a starving twig with arms and legs, if you want to survive out here on the streets kid than join us, we know what you are capable of but your own skills won't keep you alive for long if you don't know where to find the nice boltholes to stay in for the night or the right peddlers to not get riped off. So what do you say kid? Friends?"

"Friends...my..my name is...is...Roran....Roran Zidane."

"My name is Alaria, you get to learn my last name if you are able to keep up with us back at our hideout, now come on before the police come and find our little nest of operations and crack down on it."

"Oh come on Greg, that person is an easy target, I want a challenge, hell I need a challenge. These easy targets you have been giving me are so sad and the credits I need are not going to last long for what I have planned."

"Fine than, see that police officer right there at the corner of the street? Take his credit chit and not get caught, if you can do that than you official have balls of steel."

"Oh you are so on!"

"What did you spend those credits on anyways? I mean come on with 2,000 credits you could have fed yourself for five years straight and still have enough to get better clothes to pass off as normal."

"I told you before Greg, its a secret and I still have enough credits to last a month and besides...nah I won't tell you, you have to figure it out on your own."

"Your no fun sometimes you know that?"

"Yea I know, but than again I see a nice juciy target ahead of us not even paying attention to his payload of boxes."

"Yup I see that as well, shall we help lighten his purchases?"

"So do you have what it takes to join the Alliance Navy? From your looks alone that you haven't been eating right and look down right scrawny and can't even hold his own against a man let alone a women."

"I can easily take you on and the next person to walk through that door."

"Are you sure you want to be walking down this word kid, cause we both know that will lead to your ass in the infirmary with broken bones and a busted face."

"Bring it."

"Sgt. tell me again how did a civilian dislocat your left arm and break your right knee?"

"Well...he entered the recruiting station and asked to join, I said some things that might have pissed him off and he challenged me to a fight. I said he would end up eating his own teeth and appearently he can hold his own again someone with actual combat training...I still don't know how he managed to get the slip on me."

"And you Mr...Zidane, hmm...why did you want to join the Alliance?"

"I wanted to join because I am trying to get away from my past life...trying to make a difference instead of waiting for a knife between the ribs in a backalley to die alone."

"Hmm...we will see....return to this station in three weeks, a shuttle will be here to pick you up along with the other recruits to be taken to Earth for training. I have high hopes that you won't disappoint me."

"I am your Senior Drill Instructor, Lt. Mendez, the first and last thing that I will hear spew out of your filthy sewer mouths is Sir, do you understand that?"

"Sir yes Sir!"

"Bullshit I can't hear you sound off like you got a pair."

"SIR Yes SIR!"

"If you ladies leave this base, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon, you will be a minister of death praying for war. But until that day you are pukes, you are the lowest form of life in the galaxy, you are not even human beings."

"You will not like me but the more you hate me the more you will learn. I am hard but I am fair. Here there is no racial bigetry, here you are all equally worthless and my orders are to weed out the weak that are not packed to endure to be in my beloved core, do you magots understand that?"

"Sir Yes Sir!"

"Bullshit I cant hear you."

"SIR Yes SIR!"

"Whats your name scumbag?"

"SIR Private Zidane SIR!"

"Zidane that name sounds russian are you from Russia?"

"Sir No Sir!"

"Where the hell are you form than scumbag."

"Sir Lunar Colony Sir!"

"Who are your parents than Lunar Russian."

"Sir I don't know Sir!"

"From now on you are Private Russian Bastard, do you understand that?"

"Sir Yes Sir!"

"Private Kat, Private Bastard, you two are to clean the head after fixing your bunk."

"Sir Yes Sir!"

"I want that head so sanitary and squared away that the Virign Mary herself would be proud to take a dump in it."

"Sir Yes Sir!"

"Really now? Kat? How the hell did we end up paired together?"

"Maybe because you could use the female company, or maybe because you left your hat in the messhall and because I greased the doorknob to the Drill Instrucrtors office."

"Damn girl, if I needed the company I would have asked some of the other ladies, your to much of a tomboy with your attitude, I bet you can suck a golf ball through a garden hose."

"Oh go suck a dick you fluffer."

"Ouch my pride."

"I can tell we are going to get along just fine."

"That much we will have to see, for now I bet you don't know how to pickpocket or pick locks with nothing more than a sliver of metal and chip of plastic."

"Nope but I know that you can't aim for shit."

"After this to the rifle range, I will show you who can't aim for shit."

"Today, you people are no longer maggots! You are Marines!"

"You are part of a family, from now on until the day you die. Where ever you are every marine is your family, most of you will go off into space, some of you will not come back.

"But always remember this, marines die, that is what were here for. But the Alliance Core lives forever, which means you live forever."

"Sgt. Roran T. Zidane, your actions on the Citadel was valiant, brave and daring to save those trapped by the Geth and Saren's krogan...but they were also brash, foolish and extremely dangerous. You risked your life to save others but you directly went against orders to fall back and regroup with the other scattered soldiers back at C-Sec, you defied a direct order from your commanding officer and because of your actions you saved the ambassadors that were behind enemy lines. Because of your actions that saved the lives of high ranking civilians we have reduced your punishment from dishonorable discharge to an honorable discharge from the military service, report to the administration building on base for processing. Dismissed."

"Roran, I heard that the Alliance discharged you from service for saving human lives and those of other importance, what a shame for such a thing to happen to such a very human soldier like you. Cerberus would have use of your abilities and skills to further Humanity as a whole to uplift our influence and to ascend ourselves into the Council. Cerberus is not fully a terrorist organization and the Illusive Man is only doing what he think is right for us to further Earth and all her colonies to get us to our apex, so will you join us?"

"Mr. Zidane, I see you are taking our training regiment very well and have even been given a command over a squad of soldiers, you have impressed me and more in your few years with us and yet I still see potential in your eyes. I remember when we first met that your biotics was just beginning to flare into existence and your skills as a soldier was that of an N7 operative, so I have a propersition for you, In three days time a shuttle will be coming to Gamma Station to pick you up if you desire to enter the Delta Program."

"You made the right choice, in three days a shuttle will arrive for you so be ready for departure but for now enjoy your time while you can for this day marks a new chapter for humanity's evolution into natural biotics."

"You disappoint me Zidane, you put your morales and thoughts above our rules and order, Humanity must take its power from others to assert ourselves as the supreme race of the galaxy. If you turn your back on us than you will be hunted down for the rest of life."

"Killing innocents and assassinating political enemies is not the right thing to do and you know it Illusive Man, you can keep your shit, but we are done."

"Welcome back to the Alliance Navy Lt. Zidane, get yourself cleaned up."

"Kat what the fuck? I thought I would never see your ass again!"

"Is that all you see? My ass?"

"Hey I said I was sorry when I accidentally put a round into your ass."

"Bow chicka bow wow."

"Shut up Private Urta."

"Get down! get down!"

"We can't keep this position forever sir, we need to head to higher grounds or else we will lose this barricade."

"Kat get your ass into that building and shot any Cerberus bastard in the head, go loud and go hot. The rest of you take overlapping fields of fire in concealed positions, make them pay in full to try and take this stronghold."

"Looks like this is it...the end of all life in the galaxy...you ready for it friend?"

"Katherine, I am ready...I am just scared to be ready for what happens if we lose now"

"One last drink before the war of extinction?"

"One last drink. If we win this, you owe me that hug that you keep denying me."

"Keep dreaming Russian Bastard."

"Fuck off Kat..."

"Roran...I...I feel cold...please...hold me...I..I don't want to go just yet...I still have to save the world."

"I won't leave your side Katherine...just hold on, reinforcements are on the way."

"I never had the chance to tell you this before...before I die...I..I just want to tell you...."

"Don't say it..please just hold on."

"I have always loved you...not in that way idiot...just...as a very close friend...see you on the other side."

"God damn it Kat don't you dare die on me now."

"See you later...."

"GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!

"Rember what I said Mr. Zidane, our deal is that for every life you take, yours shall be spared...and for each soul you harvest and shed for me your life shall be extended. That Reaper you killed at the intersection, all those souls in one shell."

"No, don't you fucking say it."

"Enjoy your life Mr. Zidane being a statue, I will come back when your time is up to claim your soul."

Canterlot Palace, Hospital Wing

"Fuck...you....Grim Reaper...." my voice barely audiable from the sudden use.

"Princess Celestia he is awake!" a nurse said as she clops her hooves over to the door in the room before another set of hooves walks over to the bed I am in.

"Fucking...burdens...." I said again, trying hard to regain my voice. Celestia's head came into view as I see her flowing mane out of the corner of my eye, her face saddened by my current appearence.

"Roran...what happened?" her voice sad and low, trying to hide something from me.

"I went against my own morales and guidelines....I..I failed everyone...I failed you..." in truth that was the first time I had ever harmed someone so badly that was still young.

"But that changeling was using you as a source of food to sustain herself and her Hive. She could have killed you in the process."

I shake my head at her words, trying to sit up but was forced back down by one of her hooves pressing down onto my chest to keep me on the bed.

"I can't die princess...I...made a deal with the devil...all the lives I have taken...are sustaining my own....I thought that it was just a myth at first, but all the times I should have died and felt very cold for reasons unknown...it was Death, watching over me and keeping me alive to keep assisting him on his job." she looked appalled at first but softened a bit for something I can not fathom.

"Just let me rest...I...I need to come up with an apology to the changeling for almost killing her, I never should have gone that far...what I have done was wrong, torturing and harming a young person that goes against everything an Alliance Marine stands for let alone an N7 operative." it feels like I broke every vow and law I have sworn to protect.

"Than rest for nowm when you are able to be yourself again without causing harm to any of my ponies than come speak to me, I have something to important to discuss with you."

"Alright, for now princess...thank you for coming here...I needed to clear my head and your presence...helps a bit." I saw a bit of flush on her face before she quickly hid it from me as she turned away and left the room.

'Mother Isabella....forgive me for my failures....Sister Marble...forgive me for my failures...'

'Humanity...forgive me for failing all of you...'

'Most of all...Alaria...I should have shown it to you before we left each other that night...'

Sighing deeply I placed my head back onto the pillow and went into a deep sleep, dreaming of the things I should have done different, dreaming of the things that I missed the most.

I miss Alaria.

I miss Hilo'Jaa.

I miss mother.

Bonus Chapter: Lair of Discord

Royal Gardens

Two hours, it took me two hours to find this place and not one person is in it. I swear I think this castle is out to get me or just to get me killed cause twice now something heavy fell near me and I had to pick it up before any pony heard the sounds of antique metal clattering or an expensive and rare vase crashing onto the floor.

"You know...I think I am just going to relax here...bask in the sun...get a tan...wait for a guard to direct me to wherever the hell they are....I bet I could use my age card on them to lay off...nah that wouldn't work, stone years probably doesn't count...am I going insane? No...not going insane...most likely just suffering from a form of loneliness...no...no no...yes...most likely..."

A passing guard looked at me for a moment before continuing on his route, seemingly gave me an odd stare since I am shirtless and taking up half of a bench and talking to myself. The sun was just warm enough for me to not feel cold and the small breeze cooled me off as I felt the familiar cold as the sweat on my body is cooled off and evaporated.

"Still can't believe that I am still alive...why am I even alive? The heat from that beam should have reduced my sorry ass into a pile of molten slag and ashes...not stone. If this was a way to start over than they got it wrong, a world where pretty
much logic doesn't make sense...physics only works for me, magic.....never believed in that crap even when I was a kid but now....looks like if I can ever find Robert's corpse I owe him 50 credits...maybe I should just start working on that graveyard by myself...get me to stop thinking and start working...."

The sun was in the middle of the sky by now as I heard the voice of an adult talking to a group of children about the importance of some statue and what it represents. Tilting my head to the left I saw a lightest grape colored mare talking to a group of fillies and colts, the cutie mark on her flank was a bunch of flowers with smiles on them, Cheerilee... the two fillies I could instantly recognize since they stick out like sore thumb, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, which I still think have the stupidest of flank tattoos. No wait I take that back, the two colts behind them have the stupidest marks, a scissor and a snail. I had the urge to explode into insanely laughter but had to lower it to a chuckle as they got closer to me as they came to Discord's statue, which I can still say looks funny as hell since he was defeated in a sad pose. Turning my head back to the sky I focus my stare at the sun, seeing if it would cause my eyes to superstitiously burn out and make me temporarily blind.

It did nothing but leave me with a stiff neck and questionable stares from the passing group. As they left I returned to my self discussion and hoped for the best.

"Why the hell am I so down? I mean come on I survived countless battles, killed two Reapers, held off advancing hostiles with two AT mines and a pistol...and a rocket tied to the back of a pissed off Husk, saved a bunch of fruity colored ponies...twice, saved the same gryphon and changeling twice....got shot in the heart while being used as a meat shield, set myself on fire to incinerate the remains of a harvesting facility...pissed off the edge of the torch on the Statue of Liberty...fought and nearly died on the Citadel...won a drinking contest against a Krogan and had to get my liver replaced...inadvertently got a Volus high of his ass...survived the hellish streets on the moon while an orphan..."

My self chatter soon ended when I got bored of sitting on the bench as I walked close to the edge of the gardens and looked over the side and saw nothing but an endless forest, tops of the old castle spires, a village close to the forest edge and also one large ass mountain opposite of the village. Sighing heavily I return back to the garden and saw a maze that was nothing but hedges and the entrance looked grand but had six different places to begin.

"Eh fuck it, might as well see how long it takes me to get to the other side...just got to start the timer on my omni-tool...and...." stepping right to the middle right entrance and with my left foot in the air ready to begin, "...and go!" I took a mad dash into the maze, not even listening to the voice of some pony calling out to me.

About ten minutes into running the maze and back tracking several times after hitting dead ends, finding the same place where I started and also going into one large ass circle and only after an hour did I make it to the center of the maze and find out just how fucking annoying this was. At the center was Discord, having a tea party, by himself, and several other things that did not make sense...three piles of apples that look like blobs with eyes, a large ass boulder, balloons with smiley faces and a cloud shooting constantly rainbow colored thunder.

At that moment I had an aneurysm of sheer stupidity as I felt blood slowly trickle down my lips and onto my chin before settling down and dripping onto the grass.

"Oh hey Roran, so glad you can stop by, we are just about to take a little break from the party and take a tiny trip to my secret lair away from old Sunbutt and Lunatic, you willing to tag along?" He wasn't even looking at me and yet he managed to appear by my side in an instantly and if I wasn't in the mood for killing I would have jumped back, grabbed him the tail and slammed him onto the ground before trying to rip his legs off on reflex, sadly he was the only friend I had at the time so I took a gamble and said yes.

His lair...really needs to be worked on. It was nothing but a giant ass cavern with a boulder as the door and a large metal locker near sliding glass door. As I watched him I not to casually belched in boredom and picked my teeth while looking at a picture of what I thought was both the strangest and yet most historical picture I have ever seen.

I saw a picture of Discord, Luna and Celestia while they were young and all huddled together in a photo as Discord gave Luna a pair of bunny ears, shit you not real ones to replace hers and turned Celestia's horn into a gummy worm while he was in mid laugh. Whoever took that picture had alot of balls cause taking that and actually framing it with two pissed off ponies looking at right at the lens is not a good way to keep your life expectancy long going.

Looking at that picture I saw that next to it was an exact replica of Discord's head, staring right at me with all of its ungodly strange ass glory. That stare was demeaning and even gave me the shivers, felt like he was trying to undress me with his eyes or something, can't really tell what he is thinking with those eyes of his...fucking mismatched. Next to the stone statue was a another picture of Discord but this time reigning what looks like Britain while it was raining muffins and pies, that is the best rain I have ever seen right next to acid rain.

"You ready to see the masterpiece of my homely abode or are you just going to be staring at myself from the past, you do know that staring to long can cause disorientation or sudden blindness." he voice rang out from the other room and after taking a scan of each picture I walked off toward his voice, hoping it isn't another party or worse a trap to get me to explain what happened the other day but for now I am going to be ignorant.

If only I couldn't stop laughing so hard.

"Discord...I am taking away your man card, that swim wear just reeks of gay! If you weren't my best friend than I would have totally wrecked your shit up and down the cave." I was laughing so hard I almost pissed myself from the sight before me.

Discord was wearing red swimming trunks, with Celestia's cutie mark on both outer thighs, two orange water wings with her symbol on it as well, some thick-ass swimming goggles and swimming flippers which I am wondering how the left one is even fitting on that hoof let alone how the right one isn't torn by that dragon foot of his.

In my fit of laughter I fell backwards and was slamming my left arm onto the ground causing it to crack and splinter from how hard I was swinging it, and tears were falling from my face faster than a hobo on a ham sandwich. Discord on the other hand found it to be very frustrating and was near my head and with a finger on my forehead, and with a slight swizzle of it I felt some part of me go away, and also the sudden urge to be caring and happy hit me light a freighter exiting FTL speeds.

"Why am I filled with happy thoughts of butterflies and snicker doodle and this urge to hug every single soft and fuzzy object in sight?" I said slightly confused before feeling something poke my head again and everything in my head returned back in its proper place.

"You used that mind-fucking magic on me didn't you..."

He just looks at me all innocent while doing the batting of the eyes while holding his hands behind his back.

"...Pfff..."

I just give him the flattest of flat stares I can give him.

"..Tehehehehe..."

My flat stare slowly turned into a weak glare, slowly trying to burn a hole into his head.

"....A-Hum!......"

My glare slowly intensifying, trying to melt his head off his neck while slowly clenching my fists.

"....Phfthpfft...Phffffffth....Pffffffffffphfft...."

I slowly got up off the floor and kept staring at him, slightly leaning forward and moving my legs into a pouncing position.

"*snort*"

Very slowly crouching down, my arms slowly cocking back, the hammers moving into position to be released.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA AHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Discord you asshole! I am going to wreck your shit!"

While he was laughing his ass off and at the same time flying as fast and as far away from me within the caverns while I gave chase to the flying mismatched bastard, trying to stomp a mudhole in his ass and than de-spine him and re-spine with rocks.

5 Hours Later

"Okay I admit it...this pool is fucking awesome...and not to mention the flat screen HD and 3D television...okay now I forgot why I was trying to murder you....meh...hand me another taco fucking starving of meaty goodness for so many weeks, no way in hell can I stay to a leafy diet forever."

"For once I can agree with you, and besides you still lost the coin toss so pick a movie, anything that comes to your mind and it will play, hopefully it doesn't cause the screen to explode like the other movie you tried getting me to watch...you setting fire to a large field of strange green plants that made your vision blur and gave you the munchies is not very entertaining...neither was the part of you laughing like me while setting fire to the four-eyed bald aliens."

"Fine fine...sheesh...you don't like anything that I consider fun.....hmmm....fun...oh yes this is perfect."

"What is? Another memory of you burning some pirate?"

"No, better."

As the beginning of the movie started I swear I got him hooked onto it as his eyes glazed over and I can see from the corner of my right eye that his left arm is trying to paw at the screen wanting more.

2 Hours Later

Both of us were just dying of laughter by the end of the movie and I was dropping lettuce and cheese into the pool as the fifteenth taco was crushed in my hand.

"Roran I must say you humans are by far the most chaotic beings that have ever existed! I have not seen such lunacy and evil pranks and gags in years! Were all you humans like this all those years ago?" I swear I have gotten used to his voice as it no longer made me want to set a house on fire filled with fireworks at a busy neighborhood.

"Yes and by the grace of god we did so much stupid shit and pranks on one another that very early in our history I am not sure where but we created a special day just for pranks and tricks. I shit you not it was called April Fools Day, and in the army at the time I pranked everyone from the medics, the chefs, recruits and even my own senior officer who not only didn't like my pranks but never found out it was me." sadly that movie was just the tip of the iceberg, the other four movies would just blow his mind.

"Oh if only you humans were here doing my reign, you would have benefited the most from my chaos induced pranks and would have ruled as kings and queens amongst the foolish ponies, gryphons and dragons." humans here? Oh we were here...millions of years ago and would have killed anything trying to push us off our land.

"Discord you do know that if you did that we would have fought each other trying to get more power and influence over everything in our sights and than most of us would have been killed off by the time you were in full swing of your rule. So that would have ended poorly."

"Okay, you obviously are not taking this conversation seriously." Discord's face contorting into one of being not amused and from that flat stare, greatly not amused in the slightest.

"What gave it away? MY words or just my thoughts?" I said sarcastically while splashing him with water before taking a water-balloon to the face.

Just staring at him I angled palm at him as it opened up to reveal nothing but a small tube extended out from my elbow and into the pool before sucking in the water and with the pressure of a fire hose, I blasted Discord in the face with pressurized water till he gave up with the ever so classic white flag tied to a stick.

"Discord, you are cruising for a bruising if you keep it up." and on Que he made a small sailboat appear in the pool, he was in it wearing a sailors uniform with a wooden pipe in his mouth.

Smacking my face with my other hand and slowly dragging it downward I let out an explosive sigh before tapping my omni-tool to start the second movie and as it started Discord teleported back to his old spot with popcorn and soda in hand, the small boat vanished as well as to not hamper his line of sight.

3 Hours Later

"As you can see Discord, this was humanity's stupid era but sadly it was also the fun era for most people. And we still got three more movies to go." I said bringing up the screen and showing him Jackass 2.5, 3D and 3.5, and if I was still not amused by his expression I shit you not he did what that little pink demon always does and exploded into a shower of confetti, candy and what I think was whipped cream pies which was bad for me cause those things always seem to find me no matter where I go as I ducked into the water to avoid getting smacked in the face by one.

Resurfacing and taking a look around I can clearly tell that the small wooden stand to the left of the pool was a bar, and how I could tell was that there was a large neon glowing sign that reads it glowing rainbow shifting letters 'Discord's Bar of Random Beverages', sadly I couldn't give a shit at the moment, I needed something hard, strong and enough to get me to the point of catching the stupid.

15 Seconds Later, Princess Celestia's Bedroom

"Roran, I know this is not one of your most 'brilliant' of ideas but are you sure we should be pranking Sunbutt and Lunatic?" Discord said while floating over to a long sofa and laying down on it, clearly not wanting to be involved in one of my many grand schemes of evil fun.

"Of course! And besides I am sure Celly would love it!" I shouted to him while placing a trip-wire near the door and setting it up with a whipped cream pie launcher in front of the door.

"Alright your funeral." he said before snapping his fingers and all of the work I have already set up vanish in a puff of smoke.

"Wait what?"

As I turned to look at my cowardly friend I trip over and fall face first into the pie I had set up for Celestia and mumbled inane words that would make even the most hardened of killers cringe in fear and as I rolled off of the pie I felt my wrists and ankles bound together.

"Discord I am going to fucking castrate you for hogtying me!" struggling to break free from the simple rope bindings I realized that he did something to them to prevent me from breaking out to easily and at that moment the door slowly squeaked open and in walked in all three royal alicorns, looking at my with different expressions but what I do know is that my impending doom is coming.

"Okay...I know what this looks like but let me explain." I said still trying to wiggle my way out from the rope bindings but only managed to make myself look like a fish out of water.

As they watch me try to wiggle my way to freedom which was the open window on the other side of the room but sadly as I got barely within four feet of t he window Celestia's horn let off a golden glow and just it lit up so did my hopes of escaping punishment. The window closed in a dramatically slow fashion and as I get close enough to spit at it, it closes shut and the sounds of a lock clicking into place as my eyes close shut, awaiting the inevitable doom but as I waited for a few minutes I hear nothing moving let alone breathing but upon turning my head I found out why.

All three of them were looking at me with mischievous grins and glowing horns, horns to which that they were levitating numerous items but the glint of metal and frilly pieces told me that my doom will be of being greatly emasculated by royalty.

"Oh hell no!" I yelled as I started to wiggle away even faster, trying to worm my to the window and stand up to jump through it to fall three stories down but it was in vain when I was lifted off the ground towards a pillow by a giggling Cadence, a snickering Celestia and an equally giggling Luna.

Looking at all three with glares of great disdain I just wiggling in the air, trying to break free but sadly even if I activate my biotic barrier it would do nothing since I did not take the preemptive opportunity but even if I did turn it on it would take a while to break through her magic. One thing I learned here is that if I had my barriers up and some unicorn or either of the three alicorns cast a spell on me it would be negated but if they persist for a long enough time and keep increasing the pressure than my barrier will break down and fail, if they cast a spell at me and than I turn on my barrier it would still affect me but it would slowly lose strength over time but sadly I would still be at their mercy.

"Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope!" I shouted repeatily, not liking this at all and seeing the glints of metal and frilly objects only cement my fears that I will have to go through what every young male child has to go through when their older sister and friends show up to play. Make-up dummy.

As I shout in anguish, knowing my doom will be the worst thing any man will ever have to go through, my shouts grow louder in depth and tone as my words echo out from the room and down into the corridors of the palace. For those outside that can hear the sounds of my not-so-manly downfall, it would be the sounds of someone being tortured in the most humiliating fashion there is.

For the servants and guards outside the room, all they can hear are my shouts of extreme displeasue and the girlish laughter and giggles from the alicorns.

"What are you doing? No! No no no! Don't you dare!"

"Oh come on Roran, it won't be so bad, I promise."

"I am warning you Celestia! Put me down this instant!"

"But Roran, where would the fun be in that?"

"I swear that I will--what the hell is that? Wait a minute...don't you fucking dare put that anywhere near me!"

"Oh you mean this thing, well just relax and it will be all over soon enough."

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

"I swear I will get you back for this and...oh dear god no!"

5 Hours Later, Discord's Lair

Slowly shambling into Discord's hideout, my feet dragging against the stone floor and my heavy breathing filling the stillness of the room, my eyes heavy with restlessness. Moving towards the pool and once it was within sight I began to move at a faster pace until I got to the edge of the pool and just tripped into it, not even caring about the impact of water to the face.

Waiting a few seconds to let the make-up and lipstick wash off my face and leak into the water I start to scrub every single inch of my face to get the feminine products off, feeling completely emasuclated by three alicorns who took delight in my weakened state.

"Oh why the long face?" a familiar voice from behind me said in a mocking tone.

"You got five seconds to start running Discord." I replied, extending my omni-blades as I turned to face him and before he even snaps his fingers I threw a barrier over him and as his talons rub against each other for the snap nothing happens and with a grin I slowly begin to walk towards him and he took notice of that and started to run his ass off.

5 Minutes Later, Canterlot Palace

"This isn't funny anymore Roran!" Discord shouted as he avoids a thrown flower pot as it flew by his head and smashed against the marble wall as he turns around the corner.

"Oh yes it is Discord, now man up and take your beat down!" I shouted back, grabbing another vase before rearing back and throwing it at my target, missing and crashing against a mini-statue of Cadence.

"No way!" I lunge at him as he zips by a pair of maids, my body unable to evade the two mares as we collide into a pile of swinging limbs and I as crawled out from beneath them and hauled them up I gave a quick apology before resuming the hunt.

"Than it looks like someone is cruising for a bruising!"

Sprinting after him it only takes a few seconds to catch up and when I do I see him pounding on large double doors and I slam right into his back, forcing the door open and the both of us tumbling into the room in a giant ball of flailing limbs, fists and a fuzzy tipped tail.

As Discord untangles from me he tries to get away but I quickly latch onto his tail with my mouth, biting down hard enough for him to yelp out in pain as I use my hands to yank him down and over to me. Getting back on my feet I spit his tail out, the damn thing tasting like it hasn't been washed in years, and as I step over him I extend my omni-blade out long enough to slash his face before deactivating it and walking off with my prize.

"MY BEARD!"

"Next time you leave me to stew in a failed prank imma take away something alot more valuable than your beard Discord. Your man card."

Canterlot Palace, Medical Wing, My Room

"I hope there was a good reason for leaving this room Roran."

"Not really nurse, just some pay back on Discord...and by the looks of things he is throwing a temper tantrum...its raining muffins outside."

Looking outside I see that it is indeed raining muffins and these muffins are roughly the size of basketballs and they are falling by the bakers dozen.

"Worth it."

Author's Note

Word to my readers, these 'Bonus' Chapters might and/or might not have any effect to the story, but be aware that this is the one of many. I am working on Hearth's Warming Eve and Hearts and Hooves Day Bonus Chapters, if you would like to be imprinted into these two or have any hilarious ideas, please post em while you can.

Chapter 14: Day of Rememberance

Canterlot Medical Wing, Bed, Afternoon

"Mr. Zidane it is time for your lunch." said a sweet and kind voice from the door leading to the halls of the medical wing of the palace, a gentle breeze rolling in from the semi-open window. Looking at the nurse I saw that she had a light grey color coat and her mane seem to be an off white/pink color as it was done into a tight bug of sorts, on her flank was a cutie mark of what I hope was not a pair of crossed syringes over a red cross.

"Oh good...going so many days missing random meals seems to have taken its toll on my system, being able to eat at regular intervals is nice, I just hope it is edible enough for me to consume, plants, grass and hay really wouldn't help me on this matter but at least the thought counts." I said weakly, my head still pounding from the brutal mental whipping that myself and my mental friend gave each other.

"Well than you are in luck because it is soup, celery mixed with carrots and cabbage." the nurse said while levitating the soup over to me while she pushed a table meant for those bed-ridden but since I still have full motion with my body I just sit up partially so I be in a reclining position to enjoy what fleeting moments of helplessness before the bowl of steaming soup lands on the table and a spoon is placed next to the bowl.

Taking the spoon in my left hand, minding the hole in my right hand since it still hasn't been fully closed by the regenerating skin graft that Celestia oddly blessed me with while my left hand is fully healed but is left with a circular indent on the palm of it and most likely I would have to modify both palms so I can use my tech and biotics without the fear of blowing out skin and blood every time I decide to use either of my talents on anything.

As a small breeze rolls into the room and catches the soup in the bowl, wafting its semi-fruity/ healthy aroma into the air allowing me to easily inhale its hearty smell as I dip the spoon into the bowl and slowly drain the soup back into the bowl as I begin to slowly eat the prepared soup. Just as the spoon reaches my lips I feel a small presence enter the room and before I turn to see who it could be, Discord grows in size, scaring the crap out of the nurse and prompting me to throw the spoon at him before raising my right hand at him to freeze him in place but he saw this coming and raised his hands in a peaceful stature, most likely trying to say something first before doing something stupid.

"Easy there Roran, I did not come here to anger you, I just came here to give you a heads up that Old Sunbutt, Lunatic and Pink Love is on there way here to talk about things or something. I also came here to talk about your project, well since you decided to be in the hospital for nearly breaking your thick skull I did half the work for you and also outside of Canterlot I left you a hill with a single tree on it, you better go see before something happens. Ta ta for now friend." and just like that he springs into a jump and half way over the bed he disappears in a pop as I find my spoon back in the soup already drained with a piece of celery sticking out of it. Shrugging a bit that he came here to warn me about a talk since those are always happening with me around, maybe cause of recent events or something they found that needs my attention, either way I get to talk to peop- ponies with higher intelligence to at least not feign ignorance or act stupid.

Just as I was about to push that spoon back into my mouth the door slowly opens up to reveal just as to whom Discord said would enter, Princesses Celestia, Luna and Cadence along with Shining Armor who looks like he just lost a bet with someone in a higher position than him. As the door close I can faintly see Discord pointing in mock laughter, my response would have been the middle finger or a Lift into the ceiling but I knew neither would work since having the gaze of three powerful alicorns and one semi strong unicorn whose eyes are currently fixated onto me.

"So I take it that this is a house call and my favorite ponies are here to speak of matters of if I am alright or that they are here to discuss personal matters or things about my people you wish to know, first one is a pleasure but that latter two have a price to be paid and I am currently not really ready to tell what that price is...even though I know that Shining will not take a 'no' for an answer." I said while moving my spoon in for another bite but Luna gave me a pensive look that possibly meant for me to stop eating long enough to hear them out for what they have to say, along with the inadvertent meaning of 'stop eating you fat fuck', which my response was in spite to keep eating until half the bowl was gone which I stifled a belch so I do not 'offend' royalty along with a captain of the guard who probably hates me for knocking out all eight guards while they tried to capture the changeling I brutalized.

"Actually Sir Zidane, I am here to ask you a few things regarding what happened the previous afternoon along with what you did with my guards and the changeling that is now recovering in the hospital room across from you." Shining spoke while slightly straightening out his uniform, slightly uncomfortable for him at the moment.

"Ask away than, but be mindful of what you ask me cause if you start to drift into a topic I do not like or otherwise will not discuss it openly than you will stop otherwise you get to know the feeling being frozen solid into an ice statue do you understand?" Shining nods quickly as soon as I get done talking, thinking on what he wanted to say I resume my earlier task of eating by drinking down half of the soup in the bowl, letting the ponies watch me devour as my Adams Apple goes up and down like a yo-yo and at the same time exposing another scar near my throat directly under my jaw and as I catch Cadence gasp in shock, Shining slightly reeling back along with his wife, Luna gave it a solemn stair most likely wondering what it is while Celestia I couldn't tell since her mane was covering her face partially.

Catching the stares in the bottom of my vision I quickly lower my head so to conceal the age old scar to them but knowing that they saw it I sigh a bit before waiting patiently for him to ask his questions before moving onto the others.

"Well than, I have been meaning to ask you for a while since I first saw you use your magic, how did you learn such spells and who was your teacher?" well that was something I was somewhat expecting to happen since biotics is instant to damn near instant with how fast it is.

Stroking my stubble of a beard before moving it to my military short hair still growing steadily to recover from its recent incineration cut, giving a subtle smile as I feel the gentle breeze from the window as I come up with my response to give, not entirely wanting to give it but since I did beat his guards ass so easily and also knock one out with the handle of the bayonet I suppose I can give one.

"Well my unicorn friend, I learned my Biotics from two different groups of people, my very basic controlling and use in the Alliance as a Sentinel and after I got discharged from the Alliance my training resumed when I joined Cerberus becoming the few prototypes of the Phantom Class, but since of my abilities with tech I was simply reduced to a Centurion afterwards. My teachers were from the military as they each taught me the fundamentals of Biotics but sadly both are dead so speaking of them would bring up memories we had which I could say...were somewhat nice." thinking back at my time at the academy, taking the focusing and attuning tests while under prolonged stress to see if I would falter and fail.

"Just as I told your sister Twilight, is not magic but instead all mental and force. Using Biotics is only restricted to those that have been exposed to E-Zero during the stages of pregnancy, born on a world with vasts reserves of E-Zero or their parents are Biotics and they naturally become one. This ability can not be taught to those that have not been exposed to it simply because the student lacks the main requirement so do not try to ask me to teach you how to learn it...but I can teach your guards how to be like me if they can handle it." I said with a smirk, training these ponies like the way I was trained might earn me respect from the guards and Shining or just straight up fear me by how brutal it was and how they couldn't endure it.

Seeming to be satisfied with his answer I lean back against the bed I was in, enjoying the fluffy pillow that I was using to rest my head on as I push the table over my legs to the sides so I can feel at tad bit more relax and to not worry about spilling the bowl on top of the sheet and my chest to make a mess. As I wait for the next question I see Luna move a bit forward and in a embarrassed look started to speak up from her quiet tone to a more of a shout until she got poked in the ribs by Celestia to lower the volume and tried again.

"Sir Zidane, We have been wondering for a while now since we saw your body in the hospital when you took the attack from the assassin to save Our sister, We wonder how did you acquire such a collection of cutie marks?" Oh right, they think these are cutie marks...ponies and their magical ass tattoo's.

Looking at my chest I saw that it was partially covered up by the sheet but part of the Thresher Maw's head was still exposed along with what remained of the target's northern tip. Taking a deep breath before pushing the sheet down to reveal the rest of my scars and tattoos that adorned my chest, arms and back and at first I heard nothing but sweet silence until the door opened up to reveal the nurse coming back in to pick up the bowl of soup but at the sight of all three royalties inside the same room along with the captain looking at their human patient before bowing down and quickly exiting the room.

"Well Luna, these aren't cutie marks, these are tattoos, us humans and other species at the time used these as a sort of marking for so many reasons that I could only name a few such as for fun, branding of ownership, clan, tribe or otherwise some form of family unit, displayed purposes or as I said, for fun. But of course getting one is a long process that includes paying a fee if it is at a tattoo parlor or if you were like me, received most of them at the army base for free while talking casually with an even more laid-back tattoo operator. These things hurt like hell when you get them since your taking a very thin needle going very fast and is very hot, having it rapidly stab your skin while at the same time injecting ink into it to permanently color it." as I explain how one receives a tattoo I can clearly tell that Cadence is not a big fan of it since she looks a tad bit green and Shining cringes at the parts of where it burns and stings. Trust me on this but the man that gave me the Target and the Thresher Maw screwed up twice, inking the Target pink on accident which I beat some sense of accuracy into him as he re-inked it black and he fucked up the Thresher Maw but doing a half-ass job.

I had to bribe him by giving him a few modifications to his Avenger Rifle, and with that bribe he made my Thresher as realistic as humanly possible, gave it everything and in one drunken moment while looking in a mirror thought it was real and shot the mirror directly at its head. I was just glad that it wasn't a metal wall or otherwise I would not be here at this moment. Thinking back at the other times I received my tattoos I realized that I was slightly tearing up as I felt something trickle down my left cheek as I moved my left hand to feel what it was and as I pulled my hand back to check I saw the clear liquid slowly seep into my skin fading away before quickly clearing both eyes with my left hand's thumb and index finger.

"Sorry about that...just remembering the past...as I was saying....tattoos hurt like hell but the end result is an image of whatever you wanted permanently marked onto your skin that can be removed in a just as painful process that leaves your skin sore, sensitive and flushed." I said while trying to not remember anymore events from my past from all the times I received, removed and reapplied the special markings onto my skin.

As I stopped explaining what they are, Luna took a small moment to think of something else to say before asking me what does each tattoo mean or if they have any meaning to me.

"Well...for starters this one right here, " I said while pointing at the remains of the Target that was over my heart "...that was a bulls-eye, for military terms it was meant as a target and for me, it was meant as a teaser to people that shot at me but couldn't aim their rifles at me to save their sorry lives." as I explained it Shining Armor pointed to the Thresher Maw that was circling around the target.

"This one right here is a Thresher Maw, these beasts are fucking huge and the largest ever recorded in history was Kalros, the mother of all Maws lived on a planet called Tuchanka, that world was what many humans called Hell. Pretty much looked liked it when I was ground-side, nothing but vast deserts, bombed out ruins and all around destruction all in one hazardous shell of a planet. To me it just means that I will tear apart anything that gets in my way and threatens my territory, namely my home, any technology from my time, my friends, and myself and by tear apart I mean you better get a mop, bucket and shovel cause there might be nothing left when I am done with the offender." I said while showing them a small clip of what a single Thresher Maw did to a whole squad of batarian pirates on a desolate world that Aria sent me to collect protection money for their smuggling ring but sadly I only returned with one of their heads, half of the money and a large talon from the Maw. Aria was pissed at me for not getting all of it and pissed at the head I was carrying since that bastard apparently owe her a large ass sum of credits.

I still get nightmares of the things Aria did to me for bringing back 75% of the credits after the second trip back.

"Now over here, opposite of the Thresher is actually my first tattoo, one that I will never...ever remove not even if it is offensive to someone or if it causes an uproar, I will die keeping it on me." I pointed to a strange beast placed onto my right shoulder as it looks like it is crawling from my back to the front, in appearance it looks like an overly large grey lizard but its feet all have sharp and thick claws, its body covered in spiked scales and even its tail has sharpened bones out in a fish fin pattern, its head looking directly at them as its glossy silver eyes look at those watching it, its forked tongue flicked out to sense the fear and dread of those besieged by its gaze.

"This tattoo, was given to me by my very first friend, she...she gave it to me as a reminder that we are part of a pack that will never die without bringing those that think ill of us down together in a bloody cacophony of death and gore. I was only ten when she administered this on, it sure hurt like hell but in the end...it was well worth the pain and infection." I sighed sadly, looking out the window as I barely spotted far outside of Canterlot near the road to Ponyville, a single hill with a low hanging Willow tree on top of it.

Breathing slowly I calmed myself down before asking if there is anything else or if I am free to go.

"Actually Roran, there is something you can do for us, maybe when you are better can you assist the Royal Guards with a little training from your era as I have seen from the few recordings I saw along with the only battle I have seen you partake in I am wondering if you can train a few of the guards to better protect Equestria like the way you used to protect civilians while you were in the...the Alliance as you called it." Celestia said while giving me a warming a smile that partially subdued my thoughts of wanting to just blow my own brains out all over the tomb sight just so I can finally meet my family and those that have passed in the war but knowing that the Reapers could still be out there that would bring destruction to my new friends, my duty as a soldier is still not over till the fat lady...erm fat pony sings.

"I could, but the training methods that I went through were brutal by my standards and for your standards it would most likely be seen as barbaric but if you do want me to train your guards than I must have free reign in the training regiment and neither you, your sister, niece and Shining along with Blueblood could interfere or try to change it in any way. I will train your ponies to be just like me and by like me I mean every single thing except for the tattoos, the small drug and smoking problem and my necessity to slaughter my enemies into oblivion." I crossed my arms as I sat up and the sheet as well moved a bit revealing another tattoo which Cadence spotted and pointed it out as she asked what it was.

"Oh this thing?" I looked at my left hip, trying to remember why I got it. "Oh this, I got it just after I finished boot camp training me, Urta, Katherine and Benoit were out celebrating for actually surviving that hellish regiment and took a night out of town, doing everything a group of full grown adults would normally do." I said while wearing a small smug grin on my face as Cadence asked what exactly did we do.

"We smoked, drank, unknowingly destroyed public and private property, set fire to the Senior Drill Instructors rose garden, Urta took a shit in the SDI's desk, Katherine greased the door knobs for both the doors and windows, I flipped every piece of furniture inside his office upside down and Benoit magnetically sealed his safe door to the wall so it would require a large section of the wall to be cut off to free it. We basically acted like a bunch stupid teenagers with to much energy and power. Oh we also got smashed on booze and baked off our minds on drugs. Next morning I woke up with Katherine sleeping on top of me, Urta asleep on top of the ceiling fang and Benoit was sleeping in the shower. In all that was a night they wished to remember." I was laughing a bit but it quickly died down as I saw their faces in a ghostly visage before they faded away, all three of them sitting on the bed giving me a reassuring smile in that short span of existence. Celestia saw this as she slowly walked up to me and draped her wing over my back and moved me into a hug of sorts, putting a foreleg onto my shoulder as she pressed me into her chest as I felt the warmth of her pelt on my cheek which caused me to recoil ever so slightly from that notion of kindness.

Just as I began to come down from the case of lone survivor sadness I hear Cadence cough a bit before telling the rest of us that she has to get going along with Shining Armor who gave me a pensive stare before leaving.

"Roran, you are not the only one that is suffering from loneliness, Luna, Cadence and I are the only known Alicorns left in existence as you are the only known human in existence...you may think you are alone but you have us to comfort and talk to if you ever need it. I have seen that look of yours before friend, that look was what I have seen in my own mirror when I was alone after I had to banish Luna to the moon for a thousand years, I felt so alone, so tired and so sad that I just wanted to end everything so I can meet my parents and the rest of my people but I knew that if I left to die now than I would leave my sister alone when she returned and I knew she would be alone just like me so I spared her from that torture as much as I can. Just remember this, when you ever feel doubt eat and corrode your morale's and your thoughts, just know that we are always here for you as you are here for us." she presses my cheek a bit more into her pelt as I feel her heart beating a bit until I felt a second wing brush my back as I barely turned my gaze to see Luna also moving into the hug as well.

Just as we were hugging the door knocks a bit before a guard speaks up from outside the door, "Princess Celestia, we have the changeling waiting out here with us, we are waiting to enter on your orders." his voice gruff and obviously not liking the fact that he is watching over a changeling.

Celestia lets out a small sigh as she releases me from the hug along with Luna as they both move back to their respective positions and calls out to let the changeling to enter. As she enters I feel a stabbing pang of regret as I see the wounds I have inflicted upon her still present, scorch marks from where I cauterized the wounds, her face looking a bit hollow from the lack of food in her system as well as from the extreme amounts of damage and possible organ destruction that have no doubt damaged or broken a couple from my fist. She slowly lifted her head up to meet my gaze as I felt another piercing pang of guilt and pain lance through my chest, my own actions influenced by him that was forced upon her instantly making me not even want to look at her but my own willpower and guilt forced me to keep looking into her until I force my eyes to look at the floor in both shame and overwhelming guilt.

Before she even speaks I at first barely even move my lips to say the one word I rarely use but after seeing her move slightly closer to me I can feel my own mind starting to fracture and crack at the seams before I partially shatter under the stress.

"Sorry...I...I am so sorry...I..I shouldn't have done such things to you..you were still young, still innocent...what we did...and what I did afterwards after you showed who you really were...I..I just couldn't take it anymore....so long ago I thought that the betrayal of that time would fade away but seeing it happen again...I just couldn't let it happen to anyone else...ever...I...I am sorry...so very sorry...it still hurts me to even see what I did to you...the thought of you in that condition while I was addled and fueled by wrongful vengeance..." I was on the verge of full on breaking down, just as I did when I first found Alaria back in our old room nothing more than a hollow ash statue or when my friends died around me on the streets of London and the moon's capital Armstrong. So many painful memories being dragged up just by looking at the fragile looking changeling until I shut m eyes closed as I cried myself to a near passed out state until I felt something wrap me into a hug of sorts as I very weakly opened my eyes.

My eyes opened up to see that the changeling that I nearly killed was the one hugging me, at first I thought it was an empty to strangle me but I feel her chitinous plates rub against my arm as her cheek rubs against mine, her own words slightly garbled since she to was crying as well but from what few fragmented words I could hear, she was apologizing for the deception, for using me as a meal to survive and also forgiving me for the torture and near execution.

Just as I thought I could fully recover, Luna comes from the side and hugs me right arm, her foreleg somewhat digging into my right thigh as Celestia came up to me as well and embraced all three of us until a hug and as the hug went on the changeling and I started to slowly stop crying until all four of us hear a sound that I thought was a belch and we all looked at the changeling to see that she looks somewhat bloated and full as we figure out she got full from all the emotions that was running rampant in the room.

After a few hours of calming down, trying to settle our differences and even saying a few kind and heart warming words the changeling is allowed to stay but can only feed off of me and possibly Discord if he is able to not do anything stupid in the process.

"Celly, that offer you made to the gryphons about me going with them to secure any relics of humanities past, I accept it, but before I go I would like the YMIR mech moved to my home to the third floor along with any and all parts that might go with it along with the ammo crates, I have something in mind for it...and, thank you for the talk...I really needed it more than anything else...it might have not calmed down he raging thoughts that are retreating deep within me but at least it helped me maintain control. And changeling, sorry for harming you...I still suffer from the nightmares of my past along with the symptoms of PTSD...don't worry its not contagious, it is more likely that those guards that I train might get it from the methods I will use but it might be for the best." I yawn silently, trying to not attract any attention and almost on que Luna breaks from the hugging and says that she has spent as much of her free time on this matter and has excused herself out to the door as the changeling followed suit and from the sounds of the guards, escorted her back to her hospital room leaving me with Celestia.

Slowly after a while Celestia breaks off the hug and moves herself directly to my left, somewhat sitting down on the marble floor before she clears her throat to get my attention which always works on me since the years of being drilled to be a soldier and to be at the beck and call of a throaty cough or loud voice.

"Roran, while you were unconscious the previous day, the remaining gryphon delegate and I began to speak on your departure and came to an agreement that in a year you will be going to the gryphon capital of Gryphus to work as an agent of the crown and as an intermediate talon agent for them. This was called for to create an olive branch between the two of us as we were close to starting a war over the caches of human technology, hoping that with it we can further ourselves and to bring peace over all species, the gryphons might have used it to subjugate all ponies, dogs, zebras and if they were mad...the dragons. Because of your intervention at the meeting when you demonstrated that your sword can easily cut through their armor and weapons like it was nothing they rethought their previous decision and this came up." her speech was part way done but I heard enough as I had a stupid thought and flipped my mental coin of fate as it came up heads as I took a deep breath and went with it.

"Celestia, don't need to thank me, because if either you or those gryphons even bothered to try to use it without authorization than either or would have exploded into gore bits but it was the thought that counts. And also can I have my box-o-fucks back, that thing is important to me." I said before I felt a hoof grab my right hand as I got off the bed and slowly walked to the door.

Just as I began to turn around I felt her muzzle press onto my right cheek as I felt her lips pucker up into a kiss and the reaction was immediate, my body heated up and I felt my face flush with red as she moved back and giggled at my body's reaction.

"That was for kissing me all that time ago without my permission, you said that you were a paladin and yet you acted like a vagrant before running off after that assassin to save my life. Now you better start acting like the paladin you say you are or otherwise I have to take that title away from you and replace it with one more form-fitting." she said with a large smirk on her face, my own still shocked at her forwardness.

Shaking my head a bit I return with a rebuttal of my own, "And my dear princess, what is that title that you thought of?" I said with an equally large smirk on my face waiting for my answer.

"Well I was thinking of calling your meat shield, vagrant or a charlatan but for know you can keep your title of being a paladin, for now." she said while giving a small giggle before walking to the door and looked back at me with a soft smile on her face.

"Celestia, if you have the time, get Shining Armor to get as many recruits you want me to train to meet me at an unused barracks, tell them to bring whatever they have to it and to find their bunks on their own and also to have everything I will need to train them as well as a few things that I need to construct so I can help train them in the human art of military marine regimental training." I said while unknowningly bumping into her side in which she retaliated by bumping me back with her flank which sent me into the table holding my soup, which comically flew into the air and landed on my head splattering the soup, celery and cabbage all over my head and shoulders.

The sounds of her laughter was enough for me to wipe myself clean and put most of it back into the bowl, than I gave her a look than at the bowl before I shifted it into a throwing position but sadly Celestia saw that coming and quickly left the room just as the bowl smacked into the door, shattering on impact as I heard laughter coming from the other side as I joined in as well before using the sheet to wipe myself clean and to dry off my short head of hair before walking out to the front of the palace, a guard stopped me as he passed the small ammo box to me and gave me a salute as he returned to his stance.

As I made my way through the streets of Canterlot, I seemed to be earning gazes from the rich ponies who a few saw me at the Gala, and from the few stares I got I can tell that I was rather not welcome or that I should be wearing a shirt but seeing how a few of them are half nude except for one stallion that I see is not only wearing a stuffy collared shirt, he is also wearing black pants...why the hell do ponies even have pants? He was also wearing a black top hat and a monocle, which just screams overly fancy as I just stare a while before moving out of the way of a cart and kept on moving.

As I walked out the front gate I saw that the walk to the lone tree hill would be at best an ten minutes if I ran full tilt or an hour if I walked all the way but seeing how the sun was at mid-day I had all the time in the world to waste it. In that walk to the hill I slowly formed a knot in my stomach, not really wanting to see what Discord has done to the bodies of my people of Lower London but I know that he would never defile them unless he wants to face my wrath and also that of Celestia and Luna since he is on thin ice with them.

I expected that the hill would be just that, a hill with a willow tree but as I got to the base of the tree facing Canterlot I saw that their was a wide stone staircase leading down into the hill, and the stone itself was a very pale shade of marble and as I walked down the stairs I felt the air go colder and filled with moisture until it completely stopped at the bottom as the wetness in the air vanished along with the cold but the scenery itself was what grabbed my attention.

The entire room was pale ivory marble, the floor, the walls and ceiling, even the coffins which was holding the bodies that Discord and I found, all pale ivory marble. In the center of this first room was a large black glassy marble pillar and upon inspecting said pillar it held all the names of every single person that lived in Lower London at the time of the attack. Discord has went out of his way from being crazy and chaotic to go to the terminal in the dungeon and copy every single name to inscribe onto this pillar for my peoples last memory. Hanging on the ceiling was a chandelier made of black wood with multiple candles on it illuminating the room along with torches on the walls lighting up the corners.

As I walked past the entrance to the tomb I stepped into the next room which held a few coffins that are contorted to somewhat looking like the person that is dead and once again another chandelier in the center of the room, hanging part way to the cener and on the walls was the skulls of Husks with candles in their open mouths, burning brightly a bright blue color along with the chandelier candles giving the room a magical glow to it. The room itself was an intersection of sorts with a long corridor leading to the left and right that look like it too are intersections to other parts but both end after about five rooms.

Going forward I notice that things are looking more and more decorative, seemingly like these people are from the military or otherwise a high position but from the names on the coffins I can only guess that they are important until I hit the first gate inside the tomb, all iron bar gate leading lower into the ground as to make it seem like an actual tomb with depth instead of width.

After five hours of checking the entire tomb, searching everything to see that it was indeed filled with the remains of my fallen people but the final gate to what I think is the last room is different, it appeared ornate and golden and as I approached it, it slowly swung open to reveal a garden of sorts and four coffins laid out in an X fashion.

The first coffin, my adoptive mother from the orphanage.

Here Lies Mother Isabella

Loved by her adopted Son Roran Zidane

Mother to many humans that were left to die alone.

You will be missed dearly

Looking at the coffin I can see what looks exactly like her, an exact image of her face in a heart warming smile and holy demeaner, a tear sliding down my face as I silently prayed to her to rest in peace as I moved to the second coffin.

Here Lies Sister Tabi

Part of the Human Church of God

Carried for the sick and the infirm

You will be missed dearly

Staring at her coffin brought another tear to my eye as I remembered all the times she had to pull me out of trouble and scold me for the few thefts she caught me doing, she acted like the older sister to those that lived in that orphanage.

Here Lies Katherine 'Kat' Torus

Second in Command of the Black Death N7 Squad

Best Friend of Roran T. Zidane

Rebellious and Tacturn to the End

You will be missed dearly

I will miss you my friend, you pulled my ass out of many fires as I did for you, and most of all I will miss your sorry ass.

Here Lies Amily S. Zidane

Loving Mother of Roran T. Zidane

Fought for the defence of her son after giving him away to ensure his safety from Cerberus Assassins

Fought in the defense of Humanity in the War of Extinctions

Loved by her son

You will be missed dearly

I carved into the dark marble coffin, adding my own part to it as more tears kept falling down my face.

I will never forget you mother, I will always love you. Thank you for bringing me into this world even when the odds were stacked against you. You will never be forgotten.

My omni-blade sheathing itself as I fall onto my mother's coffin, crying myself for almost an hour, not wanting to leave her side as I just let myself go and moved onto the last one.

Here Lies Alaria E. Rosenthal

Boyfriend of Roran T. Zidane

Leader of the Ravaged Basilisks

Loved by her friends and Lover

You will be missed dearly

Extending my omni-blade again I proceed to carve another set into the marble, my writing slightly carving a bit deep into the stonework.

You have given me the best times of my life and even friends when I would have never been given. Because of you I grew a heart and a will to endure the worst of pains, I will never forget you or your touch.

-Loved You Always.

Pushing back from the coffin I sit there in the middle of the room, hearing my own sobbing and breathing for little more than an hour until I make my way out of the tomb of my people and friends, my ears slightly hearing their collective voices, hearing them speak amongst one another as well as faintly seeing their ghostly forms leaving their coffins to move and even try to grab my arm but their hands phase right through me as I force myself to keep moving until I get outside and close the double doors behind me as I carve one last time the symbole of the Earth Systems Alliance and climb onto the hill and sit onto the base of the tree, watching the sun slowly set as my eyes settle on the horizon, looking at the fields beneath the mountain as my eyes gaze at maximum zoom to see a glimmer of the ocean.

"You know Roran...we have never forgotton about you...even when your mind slowly forgets about us...." a faded voice said from behind me as I just barely feel something tug my hand and as I turn around I see Alaria standing behind me, just as a small breeze goes by as it makes her at first flawless form waver a bit making her transparent and a mirage.

"Don't be sad....this would have happened either way....time was never our ally let alone our friend....if we would have won the war of extinctions and we were together...time would have torn us apart as we die from the ages...." her voice had a partial echo to it as I felt her hand caress my face, stalling my nerves for a second before she pulled me into a hug which she barely faded into me but reformed herself to be able to hug me.

"Alaria....I failed you...I failed Earth...I failed everyone....everything I loved and fought to protect is gone with the ashes of death and time...I should have died with everyone back in London all those years ago...I miss you...I miss mother...I miss everyone...it hurts so much to just know that I survived it and you didn't..."

"Please don't cry for us you russian bastard, we both know this was bound to happen and besides, the bar is open 24/7 here, so don't be so glum you should at least know that even in death that we can meet for a drink or two, and maybe scare the shit out of some poor unsuspecting person. For now big boy, just live your life like you used to and for gods sakes buy yourself a shirt, even in death I have to see your half naked ass running around." the ghostly visage of Katherine laughs while knocking back a transparent bottle in her left hand as she gives me a thumbs up as she phases under the ground back to her new home.

Just as I try to call Katherine back to keep talking, just to know none of this was a hallucination another voices speaks up and startles me all to hell.

"I know what you are thinking...and let me tell you this now, suicide is not the answer and you damn well better not do such a cowardly thing while you still have people that need you let alone do such a thing when the winds of change start blowing. I have done everything in my power to ensure that you lived in peace until you came of age and I did even more so to ensure that Cerberus never caught you, but son...do not let those that would use you for their own advantage escape justice or retribution so easily. You are an Alliance Marine and you damn better live up to our standards. And one more thing son, that girl you got the hots for, try not to fuck it up, I still want grandchildren and if you fuck up in being a father than I will beat your ass down with your own hands. Dismissed and take care of yourself son." my mother stood at attention and gave a salute as I returned one in return before breaking it off into a hug but it lasted only a few seconds before she too phased back into the hill as Alaria returned to stand by me.

As I looked at her I noticed that she was a bit off and from what I can tell she has something important to say, about me for the future I can not tell.

"Ro-Ro, please turn around for a minute, there is something I need to do before you can see me again." her voice soothing and calm and with a curt nod I closed my eyes and turned around and heard the rustling of leaves and branchs and the tall tell sign of them creaking and breaking and all of that lasted for only five minutes until I felt something smooth tap my shoulder to turn around again and my eyes were invaded by something very familiar yet alien at the same time.

Alaria was standing there but now she looked more solid than before but I can just barely see through her, my guess is she is concentrating hard enough to make herself solid or as solid as physically possible.

"Roran, even though we are seperated for the time being, I can still be here for you, in a few ways but that look I saw is not one of them so get your head out of the gutter." she said while giving me a smug look as I scowl a bit before returning that smug look.

"So this is as best we can touch each other I take it...well...mi'lady, shall we have this dance in the dimming light before I have to return to active duty for the defense of the natives against hostiles?" I said while giving her my hand, hoping she takes it.

She smiles bashfully at me before taking it and moving close to me as we both walk a bit far from the tree to the flat part to start the dance we should have shared back on Armstrong.

As we started to do our very slow couple's dance, Alaria began to sing the first thing that comes to mind that seems to oddly fit for this moment as we both know it to be truth to her soothing words.

"Lay down...your sweet and weary head."

"Night has fallen...you have come to journeys end."

"Sleep now...and dream of the ones that came before."

"They are calling...from across the distant shores."

"Why do you weep?"

"What are these tears upon your face?"

"Soon you will see, all of your fears will pass away."

"Safe in my arms, your only sleeping."

"What can you see...on the horizon?"

"Why do the white gulls call?"

"Across the sea...a pale moon rises."

"The ships have come to carry you home."

"Dawn will turn to silver glass."

"A light on the water, all souls pass."

"Hope fades...into the world of night."

"Through shadows falling, out of memory and time."

"Don't say we have come now to the end."

"White shores are calling, You and I will meet again."

"And you'll be here...in my arms."

"Just sleeping."

"What can you see...on the horizon?"

"Why do the white gulls call?"

"Across the sea a pale moon rises."

"The ships have come to carry you home."

"And all will turn to silver glass."

"A light on the water...grey ships pass...into the west."

As her singing voice dies down I am holding her in my arms, her head pressing against my shoulder as I cradle her body slowly, not wanting to let her go and to hold as long as I could as a few tears land on top of her head as I see the moon slowly rises over the edge on the horizon, basking us both in its pale silver glow.

"This was the best dance I have ever gotten from you Roran...even better than the one when we both turned eighteen...you never did tell me what you bought with those credits you took from that one man you pickpocketed when you first joined us and I had to figure out what was so important about an empty ammo box....you should have told me you wanted my hand in marriage. I would have said yes if you just man up and asked me but I guess it would have made this time even worse to see your wife dead in your arms dancing with you in the pale moonlight while you still live. Just remember this you big lug, try to visit us from time to time." her voice sounding like silk as she caresses my face with both hands as she lets go of me and returns to the tree before giving me one last look and phased right into it and left me standing alone on the hill silent.

That silence was broken by the sounds of flapping wings as Luna landed behind me as I hear her clearing her throat to grab my attention which was still focused on the tree but slowly turned around to face the lunar princess.

"Roran We have been looking everywhere for you for the greater half of the afternoon to the early night, where have you been this entire time?" her tone was that of concern and that of an angry mother scolding her child for staying out at night after curfew has been declared.

"I was just...clearing my head, anything to think clearly...." I said a bit to quickly, since me and Luna were not entirely on par with liking each other since we began a prank war with one another since the statue incident when I scared the crap out of her before I was free, than there was the time I dyed her mane lime green, and the time I placed an eye-ball of mine in her ceral or the ever so classic pull the chair our from under the slow sitting person. Her pay back pranks are just as devious if not clinically evil.

"There is no need to lie amongst friends now, I saw that phantom of a friend you were dancing with along with the others but what makes me wonder is how can you see them let alone interact with the ghosts of the deceased? In all of Equestria there are very few who know about ghosts and even fewer that can see them and from what I know of only ten can communicate or interact with them. From what I saw from the sky I could tell that you missed them dearly...were they your family?" the lunar princess asks with wonder and concern, most likely wonder since I have never told anyone but very few people of my family or those I considered friends or close friends.

Tilting my head back to stare into the pale full moon that is just a few inches over the horizon I sigh softly as I keep staring off into the distance.

"They were my family of sorts...you see I was raised in an orphanage till I left, the first person my oldest and best friend...and girlfriend, the second persond was my second in command and drinking buddy, the last was my mother...my real mother...I..I rather not talk about any of them...I rather say things once and get it over with...but I can only guess that you hopefully found me ready recruits for the hellish training I will put them through if not than I am hand picking them from those that I see on patrol." I said the last part crossing my arms, hoping that she did create a list along with her sister of promising souls to take part in the new N7 training regiment.

"We can say that my sister and I have indeed found you able-body recruits, but do be gentle with them Roran, I rather not have to talk to them about what they experienced and try to not make them quit the royal guards because you tortured them with gruelling exercises." I waved her off as I chuckled a bit to what I have planned for them.

"Just tell them to meet me in their new barracks at the crack of dawn, by than everything will be set and one more thing Luna." she turned to face me as I looked back at the castle.

"Does your night guards have a place to hang out since night time is usually the time when most people are out enjoying themselves in some form or another." I said while expecting something stupid like a salon or do I dare say it, a tea party building.

"Well...to answer that question, my lunar guards do have a place that they go to relax and to unwind before and after their shifts end and it is here in Canterlot, as for my sister's soloar guards...they have their breaks at the castle messhall with their talks and the few mares their tea parties." I ask for the location of the lunar guards break room, her answer was something I would never suspect from the dark princess. Appearently her guards go to an underground bar with less than pleasing standards and equally standing patrons but in retrospect it sort of sounds like the Afterlife club on Omega.

"That sounds perfect, I can find my way there if I ever need to relax, and don't worry about the guards for training day, they will get a education of a lifetime and if they don't like I will just beat them over the skull with the training till they take it like a man." and with that I begin my walk back to the castle, already planning the training for the foolish ponies.

Canterlot Training Grounds, Early Dawn

Watching these ponies sleep so peacefully is a wonderful sight, each one snoring softly and quietly as to not disturb their brother or sister in arms but as the time struck five in the morning I press a button on my omni-tool to play out the worlds loudest alarm clock forcing every single pony to launch out of their beds, get into their uniforms and to stand at attention by their bunks. Once they all got in line I began my introduction.

"I am your Senior Drill Instructor, Lt. Zidane, the first and last thing that I will hear spew out of your filthy sewer mouths is Sir, do you maggots understand that?" I said while slowly walking down one isle of ponies of all shapes, sizes, colors and variations, each pony wearing recruit shirts made of an olive green rough fabric bearing their names and ranks in the royal guard.

"Sir yes Sir!" they all moaned out, still shaking themselves awake from the alarm clock of hell.

"Bullshit I can't hear you sound off like you got a pair." I shouted back, clearly not impressed by the lot of them.

"SIR Yes SIR!" they shouted back, now acting like decent maggot recruits.

"If you ladies leave this base, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon, you will be a minister of death praying for war. But until that day you are pukes, you are the lowest form of life in Equestria, you are not even equine fucking beings You are nothing but unorganized amphibious grabasses pieces of shit."

"Because I am hard you will not like me but the more you hate me the more you will learn. I am hard but I am fair. Here there is no racial bigetry, here you are all equally worthless and my orders are to weed out the weak that are not packed to endure to be in my beloved core, do you magots understand that?"

"Sir Yes Sir!" they all shouted in unison this time but still didn't have that ring I was looking for.

"Bullshit I cant hear you." I shout back, my arms at parade attention as I walk to the other isle.

"SIR Yes SIR!" they shouted back this time with that ring of break down for training.

"Whats your name scumbag?" I shout to the one of two gryphons that were in the room, the pair came from Luna's group of guards. The gryphon in question has dark feathers that have a slightly brighter color for the head and legs, her amber/orange eyes make her easier to spot from her counterpart who is on the other side of the room.

"Sir Private Valyrie Sir!" the gryphon shouted while standing absolutely still.

"Bullshit from now on you are Private Snowball do you like that name?" I said while trying to keep myself from wearing a shit-eating grin.

"Sir Yes Sir!"

"Well there is one thing that you won't like Private Snowball is that they don't serve fish and meat on a daily basis in my mess hall."

"Sir Yes Sir!"

I heard a private from behind me in the other isle say something which earned a few laughs from the recruits next to him. I did not like that at all.

"Who said that? Who the fuck said that?" I shouted while moving at a fast walking pace to the direct opposite of my spot to the pony that decided to crack a joke at the worst possible moment.

"Whose the slimy tiny piece of shit twinkle hoofed cockgobbler over here who just signed their death warrent?" I shouted while nearing the general area of the joker pony.

"Nopony huh? The fairy fucking godmother said it. Out-fucking-standing! I will PT you all till you fucking die! I will PT you all till you are drinking cream milk from your assholes!" I was on the rage while saying all that, I at least thought these guards would know when to talk behind someones back not when they are within the same room which was enchanted to allow words to go farther than they were intended to be.

"Was it you you scroundchy little fuck huh!"

"Sir No Sir!"

"Bullshit I bet it was you, you look like a little fucking worm!"

"Sir No Sir!" "Sir I said it Sir!" I turned my head to my left to see the pony in question who spoke out against my orders, looking at his flank I saw two masks that belong to the opera. His coat red and his mane green. Unicorn.

"Well...what do we have here a fucking comedian Private Laughs, well I admire your honesty. You can come over to my house and fuck my friend." I procceeded to punch him straight in the gut, not hard enough to blow a few out but hard enough to knock the wind out of him and bring him to the floor.

"You little scumbag I got your name I got your ass! You will not laugh you will not cry, you learn by the numbers, I will teach you will learn. Now get up get on your hooves." I shouted as Private Laughs very slowly got back onto his hooves, trying hard not to fall back down.

"You best unfuck yourself or I will rip your head off and shit down your neck!" I always wanted to say that to some fool that is messing with me and I beat his ass into submission.

"Now why did you decide to partake in this training regiment Private Laughs."

"Sir to protect the princesses Sir." he said a bit meekly, time to have some fun.

"So your a protecter huh? Let me your war face." getting close to his face, almost three inches apart from each other.

"Sir?" his face contorted into confusion as I grin evilly at his sorry ass.

"Your war face, Ahhhhh! That's a war face now let me see yours." I said while breathing down on him the smell of bacon and hard cider, the breakfest of men. I can tell that the smell was enough to get him wobbly as his face turned a tinge green.

"Bullshit that didn't convince me, work on it." I said before marching off to my next victim.

"Sir Yes Sir." Private Laughs coughed out, still trying to stay on his hooves from the gut shot.

I walk down to the pony that I accused of being the speaker.

"How tall are you private?"

"Sir three foot nine Sir!"

"Three foot Nine I didn't know they stacked shit that high, are you trying to squeeze an inch on me somewhere huh!" I for one did know that you can stack shit higher than three feet off the ground, I seen it happen before and by god when that thing burned I was gagging and trying not to puke, that smell took a week to wash out.

"Sir No Sir" his accent was that of one that spends there time away from education and more into hard labor.

"Where the hell are you even from private?" I had the desire to know so I can give him a proper name and insult.

"Sir Appaloosa Sir!" Old Earth equivilant of Texas or the South.

"Holy dog shit, only apples and colt-cuddlers come from Appaloosa Private Cowpony and since you are not an apple that kind of narrows it down. Do you suck dicks?" my reports that I got from Appaloosa was that there was a fair share of cuddlers there, if that is true than I am going to avoid that like the plague, rather not get molested with eyes down there.

"Sir No Sir!" he probably does.

"Are you a beater buffer?" another variation of suck ducks.

"Sir No Sir!" hopefully honest.

"I bet you are the kind of guy that will fuck a man in the ass and not have a god damn common courtesy to give him a reach around, I'll be watching you." a few ponies in the room snicker at that but the sound of a loud whip cracking silenced them as my assistants walked in wearing their own specially designed uniforms to fit her odd shapes.

Walking a few ponies down I found one that was straight up butter face.

"Does your parents have any children that live?"

"Sir Yes Sir."

"I bet they regret that. Your so ugly you can be a modern art masterpiece. Whats your name fat body." and indeed this pony looked fat, I can see a few flabs of extra skin and can even tell that his face look busted, like he repeatilly slammed his head against a brick wall till some pony actually had to drag him away from it to apply the bandages.

"Sir Private Gold Chalice Sir!"

"Chalice that sounds like royalty, are you royalty private?"

"Sir No Sir."

"From now on you are Private Husky."

"Sir Yes Sir.

"Do you think I'm cute Husky do you think I'm funny!"

"Sir No Sir."

"Than wipe that disgusting look off your face."

"Sir yes Sir.

I waited a full minute and Private Husky still was wearing that smug grin on his face.

"Any fucking time sweetheart." I was already hating this bastard.

"Sir I am trying Sir." that look on his face was that he was trying very hard not to shit himself or trying to remove that grin from his face. I was not buying it.

"Husky you got three seconds, exactly three fucking seconds before I gouge out your eyes and skull fuck you. 1. 2. 3."

"Sir I can't help it Sir."

"Bullshit get on your knees scumbag." time for the moment of truth in a lesson of obedience.

I move my right hand out in choking position.

"Now choke yourself." he slowly brings his hooves to his neck, "God damn it numbnuts with my hand, now choke yourself." he stopped moving his hooves to his neck and tried to bring my hand to his neck as I smacked those hooves away, "Don't move my hand towards you, now lean forward and choke yourself." he finally got it and as I barely felt his neck enter my hand I immediately clamped down and started to squeeze the shit out of his windpipe.

"Are you through grinning?" his reply was a weak yes and a weeze

"Bullshit I can't hear you." he speaks again but this time with more force in his tone but not enough for me to stop.

"Bullshit I still can't hear you, sound off like you got a pair." this time I heard it loud and clear.

"You best square yourself away and get yourself sorted out or I will fuck you up."

"Recruits, go to the courtyard and away new orders for training."

Unknown Location

"You got what you wanted...now let me go...."

"Not yet my foreign peasent...if you want to keep your new found freedom you will do as I say...he will come here soon enough and when he does...you two shall breed me a new generation of loyal protectors...and when your task is finished, you shall be free."

"Bosh'tet."

"Everything has a price my little peasent, you just never asked the full price."

Chapter 15: Training Months

"Okay recruits, this is your first day here on the mountain and here my word is law, if you fail to abide by the rules I have set down before you than my two assistance's will give you your reward for failure to comply. This training will be brutal, it will be hell, and above all else it will be the worst thing you have went through. But when you finish this training you will better trained than the royal guards and above all else you will be a weapon of destruction meant to take out the enemies of Equestria and be able to save those you care for. I will teach you the first step of the N7 program but since the princesses do not have the same resources that I had during my N7 training, I will improvise." marching in front of all 60 faces looking at me, the two gryphons were standing in the front, their eyes glaring right at me the entire time as I can feel them trying to stare a hole right through my skull as the rest of the ponies shared looks between me, my diamond dog assistant Kara and pony consultant Oakleaf.

Marching down an isle to my left I keep my eyes peeled to see who is fidgeting or feeling restless and to my pride not one pony moved as I continued my inspection, sadly not only did a pony or gryphon not fail inspection, which meant I couldn't chew their ass out for dress code failure.

"Okay maggots, time for basic exercise training, from sun up to the sun gets to the center of the sky and I will be marching with you to see who fails to keep up with the rest of the group. This exercise is to see who is unfit to continue training. Now, march." with a salute all sixty recruits turned to the track and started their march but I did not tell them was that I would be jogging behind them and if I catch up to any stragglers than I will smack them upon the flank with a riding crop that strangely Kara had with her.

With a smile I begin my jog behind them, shouting insulting words of encouragement to those that were starting to fall behind and as I spotted a particular pony falling behind I can tell it was my consultant with additional information but as I increased my pace to catch up with him I saw Husky falling behind and just barely keep up with Oakleaf.

"Keep going fatbody, pick up the pace you fat fuck and go back up with the rest of the recruits before I beat your flank with my discipline tool." I said while smacking it against the floor and the resulting crack not only got his attention but the attention of every single jogging pony and gryphon and almost immediately they picked up the pace.

Just as Husky started to move faster I saw a pony trip in the group ahead and as we were getting closer the pony in question quickly gathered himself and galloped back to the rest of the ponies out of fear of getting smacked by the crop.

"So Oakleaf...anything new to report or is this just a way to get me to talk about something you want to know or is it that these recruits have complaints already and used you as a massive hate mail carrier." I said while twirling the crop in my left hand, enjoying the feeling of joy that will be brought to my face when I smack the flank of a pony or gryphon that falls behind.

"As of now Lt. nothing much except that a few of them are saying among one other that you are a brute and also a vile beast for the insults." I shrug merrily as I watch Snowball slowly falling behind but the speed she was falling behind was that of someone conserving their energy for another use.

"What is it Private Snowball because if you fall behind me you will get a crop to the rear and I will not be gentle." shaking the crop at her as she rolled her eyes to emphasize that she didn't care about that at the moment.

"I am just wondering Senior Drill Instructor, why is there a Diamond Dog here and why is one your assistant?" her tone was a mixture of wondering why Kara is here and annoyance as to why is she my assistant.

"Well Private Snowball, because I called her here and she told me that the ponies in Ponyville were getting on her nerves, this is just a way to get her from killing one of them by accident or on purpose. Any other questions Snowball if not than disappear back into the group before I give this riding crop its first victim." I said while getting my left arm ready to swing.

"Aye aye sir." she said as she pushed herself to go faster to catch up with the rest of the group.

4 Hours Later

"Good work recruits, now time for the training course, hustle up ladies and lets get this started." a few ponies and one gryphon in the group was groaning from the pain in their flanks and rumps from all the swats they took from me, Husky has multiple bruises on his flank since he kept falling behind. Lazy bastard.

"It should take you ten fucking seconds to cross this obstacle, and by the gods if you somehow fuck this up than I am giving you latrine duty for the entire month!" I heard a few groans coming from the recruits, knowing that their fate was sealed if they failed to go through the tire course in ten seconds or less as Husky tripped in one and fell over.

"Your ass looks like about three hundred pounds of chewed bubblegum Husky, get your fat ass up and run it again or else I will stomp your guts out." I shouted while the other recruits skirted around the fallen pony, trying real hard not to earn my ire or the sting of the riding crop.

Moving over to the bars I look at Oakleaf who once told me that ponies can do pull-ups but it was slightly awkward and would result in me getting a show of things I rather not see but if they can do pull-ups than they can do the other exercises I have planned for them.

As the recruits got the pull up bars Oakleaf told them to do three pull-ups and move on, as they all jumped up to do it I got an eye full of things I rather not see in my life time as well as seeing half-ass tits which did not raise my spirits but at the sight of the gryphons doing pull ups which was easy for them since they got fingers of sorts.

"One for the commandant. One for the Core...get up there Snowball...alright the Core doesn't get there's. Get your fat ass up there Husky." Snowball ran off, seemingly flustered for probably displaying something she rather not put on display for all prying eyes to see while Husky was starting to be short of breath.

"Come on get up there. You got to be shitting me Husky, are you telling me you can't do one single pull up? Get the hell out of my face!" he disgusts me.

Mess hall, Lunch Time

"Oh my aching flank...that stick of his hurts..."

"I still can't believe he made us do those pull-ups...makes you wonder if he did that just to catch a glimpse."

"Easy enough for you to say that Snowball, you don't have to worry of him getting an eye-full, I just have to worry of being fast enough and strong enough to not earn his anger."

"I bet you five bits that Husky drops out before the end of the first month."

"I raise you ten bits and a barrel of hard cider at the Shady Trough that he fails at the end of the week."

Training Grounds, Afternoon

"Momma and Papa were laying in bed." I shouted while jogging near the recruits, all of them in formation while jogging at the same speed.

"Momma and Papa were laying in bed." they all shouted back, my guess was that they did the same thing for the royal guards.

"Momma rolled over and this is what she said." I continued the military cadence, hoping to catch them off or stutter so I can beat them down.

"Momma rolled over and this is what she said." they shouted back, a few of them gave each other looks, trying to figure out my game plan.

"Now give me some."

"Now give me some."

"Now I'll give you some."

"Now I'll give you some."

"PT" I shout while watching Private Husky slow down and fall out of line as I jog next to him with my crop in hand.

"PT" they looked at Husky as they watch him get another quick smack to the flank, his face contorted into pain.

"PT" I repeat before smacking on the flank again, this time he trips and falls over as I pick his ass back up and kick him in the flank as he starts to gallop back into the line.

"PT" they shout back, Husky crying a bit as he gets back into his spot in line.

"Good for you."

"Good for you."

"Good for me."

"Good for me." I briefly overhead one pony saying that it was indeed good for him, my guess is that he works out often or he just likes to exercise.

"Mmm good."

"Mmm good." they chanted back as I made a much smaller 'mmm' sound as I watch Kara from behind jogging to keep up which was relatively easy for her but I wasn't paying much attention to her ass. For being a different species that sorta closely resembles of the dogs of my time, she does have a great ass and as for her breasts...ehh C Cups at best. Following the 'man code' me and the rest of the men in the Alliance Marines abide by, If it got a hole we fuck it, and so far that code has not entirely failed me yet.

Barracks, Night

"Ladies, tonight, you sleep with your spear, for the men you will give your spear a female name and for you ladies, you shall give your spear a mans name. For you stallions, this is the only pussy you are going to get and for you mares and chicks this is the only dick you are going to get here on this training mountain. And if I find out that you are fornicating with each other, than I will personally geld any stallion I catch and ovary remove any mare or chick I catch fucking. If you are that pent up, than suck it up and deal with it, out in the field you will rarely have any time to get off and I know for a fact that in the small amounts of time you get between attacks and defending that you must use your time wisely." one of the recruits raised a hoof.

"Yes Private Cowpony."

"Sir how is this training any better than the training we receive as a royal guard?" a smart question he asks.

"Well Private Cowpony, this training is different because I will teach you how to be merciless, I will teach you how to survive in hellish conditions and above all else, I will teach you how to be like me. A killer. Like I said at the beginning, if you want to you can always quit and go back to guard duty, but in the next three months I will break you, reforge you, and make you into an instrument of destruction." the two gryphons seemed to acknowledge that fun fact, smiling a bit even though I still think it is strange that beaks can move like that into a smile.

As I walk to the other side I hear some pony cough loudly, most likely for attention but upon turning around I saw Snowball raising a hand...paw...whatever the fuck they call it.

"Yes Snowball." the gryphon fidgeted a bit before getting a smack on the rear and she stood at attention before squawking out.

"You said that you would geld or egg remove any of us that would wander about and screw each other...but what of us two, we don't exactly have what those ponies have, we lay eggs not live little gryphons." she said with a hint of pride in her voice, the others were now staring at her and the other gryphon, clearly confused as hell as was I.

Tapping my omni-tool I brought up the gryphon biology and went straight to reproduction and found out that she was right and called Oakleaf over to tell him why he never mentioned that or the fact that what I said was politically incorrect.

"Well I'll be damned...Snowball is right... Sgt. Oakleaf, you mind telling me why you never bothered to tell me this before hand... never mind you probably would have been flustered trying to explain it. Private Snowball for actually surprising me you are now promoted to Squad Leader. Now get to your bunks." they all got to their respectable beds and those that had top bunk prepared themselves to either jump, fly or levitate themselves up.

"Mount!" they all hurried themselves into their bunks, a few of them even nearly slipped off the other side and corrected themselves and were laying on their backs.

As I walked to the door leading out, Kara was standing there with a deep grin on her face, in her left paw was still the whip she was given to ensure that not a single pony will fuck up at her training station and at the handle of it was six notches to it, six idiots that fucked up in her presence.

"Good night ladies." I said while standing at the door, facing all of them.

"Good night sir." they replied, covering themselves with their one wool blanket that was rather too short or too thick for them.

Morning

Barging into the room with Kara and Oakleaf at my side I start banging my crop on a metal trash can, rudely waking each and every single one of my recruits.

"Drop your cocks and grab your socks, today is endurance and fear training, I will test to see how well can you last with weight being added to your pack and for each successful lap I will add more weight and if you manage to surprise me by being able to carry all the weight around the track than you will have the privilege to carry me along with the weights, manage that and you will have my respect. As for the fear training, meet back at the mess hall directly after lunch. Dismissed ladies." turning around and walking out the door I glance over to see Princesses Celestia and Cadence walking over to me, seemingly eager to know of yesterday training.

Motioning them to follow me I walk up to a lone building standing out of the parade grounds, my office of sorts. Opening the front door which was sadly not a screen door so I can tell who is approaching but at least this wooden door had a peep-hole so I can see who is on the other side if I was ever inside at the moment of knocking. Holding the door open for the two princesses I noticed that Shining Armor was watching the recruits start there daily marching jog, Kara jogging beside them with her whip in its holster and Oakleaf talking to the changeling which I found out her name was Needlewing.

"So what can I do for you today ladies as you can see I am going to be busy training this lot of guards who couldn't protect a box filled with cookies if they tried to. But if you are here for my reports on each guard than they are neatly stacked on my desk, if you are here just to chat than I am all ears, please have a seat where ever." I moved to my desk and sat on the only piece of human innovation that these ponies have oddly decided to give me, a chair with small wheels on it. Now at first I thought they were just doing to fuck with me but those tiny ass wheels can fucking turn, I went down the mountain on this chair, going full speed and while holding a bottle of hard cider.

Best night ever.

Coughing a bit from the dry throat I opened my drawer and pulled out a water canister and drained half of it in a few seconds, quenching my thirst for now as Celestia smiles a bit as I pass a banana to her, which oddly she caught with her hooves and started to peel it with her magic but as she was about to take a bite I readied my camera to get a quick picture so I can brag to Katherine that I caught a princess eating a banana in a sultry manner. Sadly that moment never came to me because she caught on to my actions by looking at me while I held my breath and that my left arm was flat out across my desk.

"Well Lt. Zidane, I am just wondering why are you being harsh to these ponies, I am sure they did nothing wrong to anger you in such a way to force you to insult them in horrendous ways." Cadence said while Celestia was breaking pieces of the banana up to consume which sadly ruined my current chance at catching royalty eating a banana in a naughty manner.

"Well Princess Cadence, the reason behind my harsh words and actions is that I want to break them before I can teach them. These ponies are soft, weak and to peaceful for my tastes and last time I checked it took the guards to just barely stop the changeling invasion during your wedding and that it took the elements of harmony to stop the queen from completely fucking over Equestria, and it took the same six mares to stop Discord. So let me put it to you in a simple manner..." I leaned closer to Cadence who moved back a bit, my invasion of her personal space worked wonderfully.

"You ponies couldn't stop me when I was disarmed, you could barely stop the changeling wedding crashers and you sure as hell couldn't stop Discord with those six mares so if you are telling me that your guards are the best than do not call on the elements for something that simple to stop. All of these guards will be just like me which means we will not surrender that easily, we will not go down without a fight and we will make sure for each one of us falls, many more will fall with him." and it was true, I sneaked a peek at the reports of the reports of the changeling invasion that happened at least two to three years ago, the Discord incident 4-5 years ago and both times the guards were useless or damn near useless.

"Now if you can excuse me, I have ponies that need to lift weights for prolonged periods of time to see how long they can last under literal pressure." I gave a crisp salute to Celestia who smiled and nodded at me, and a weak salute to Cadence who was still shocked to hear my reasons.

As I closed the door and walked a few inches away from the door I can hear the two talking about me and their thoughts of me, not much that it matters about Cadence, being the so called 'Love Doctor' by a few guards I shared drinks with at the castle at poker night.

"Alright maggots, to the track and for fucks sake Snowball stop dragging Husky around, just leave his fat ass there and keep going."

Two Months Later

"Listen up scumbags and listen good, this next exercise will be a cake walk for those that are doing well for themselves and hell for those that are failures, now go to the climbing station and start climbing." watching these ponies give salutes in unison and manage to march to the station is a miracle from god himself but sadly god would let all sixty pass and not fuck up, ten already dropped out and returned to their posting, sadly Husky was not one of those ten. Looks like I just lost thirty bits to Oakleaf.

"First two recruits go." waving my hand at the front of the line the two top recruits, Ginger Snap and Estoc galloped up the first wooden log, jumped and squirmed onto the second and third and rolled over the side and landed on their hooves and kept galloping to the next set.

"Next two recruits go...Private Laughs let me hear your war cry." I shouted over the sounds of hooves scrapping on wood and dirt, the sound of Laughs war cry was moderately loud but still needs to be worked on.

"Next two go, oh that's right Husky get your fat ass up there." I shouted as Husky tried to jump the first log but as he tried to get a hold on the second he slid off and hit the dirt with a thud but returned to the first log and tried again failed.

"If Celestia wanted your ass up there she would have levitated your heavy flank up there wouldn't she?"

"I bet if there was some pussy up there you could make it wouldn't you private?" a few recruits openly laughed at it but I sneered at them and they all went quiet as a graveyard instantly.

"Sir Yes Sir." his response was weak and was short of breath.

The next station was a slightly slanted wooden plank triangle which they had to climb, turn around and climb back down.

"Come on Husky, the fucking obstacle will be dead by the time your fat ass gets up here."

"You climb like old people fuck you know that Husky?"

"Sir Yes Sir."

"Whatever you do don't fall down, that will break my fucking heart."

"Well up and over Private Husky...are you going to quit on me?"

"Than quit you slimy fat fucking walrus piece of shit, get the fuck off my obstacle, get the fuck off my obstacle now."

"I will rip your balls off Husky, so you do not contaminate the rest of world with your shitty genes. I will motivate you Private Husky, even if it takes the entire fucking platoon to beat the shit out of you to get it done."

One Month Later

Marching down the middle isle, inspecting my now mostly trained recruits for any sign of uncleanliness, calling out signs at first sight in front of the recruit to correct when I am out of sight.

"Toe-jam......trim that hoof...straighten your mane....pop that blister...." I stopped a bit, not believing what my eyes see.

"Jesus H Christ...Private Husky can you explain to me why your footlocker is unlocked?" I shouted while the recruit started to shake, fear already running its course.

"Sir I do not know Sir!" every single fucking time without fail.

"Private Husky, if it wasn't dumbasses like you there wouldn't be any thievery in the world now would there?" another sneak peek into the Canterlot files I found out there is near zero to none crime in the capital, my guess is that the economy is not in the shitter at the moment.

"Sir No Sir!"

"Get down!" He jumped off his footlocker as I yanked it open and pulled up the top half and dumped it on the floor.

"Well lets see if there is anything missing now...." stopping dead in my tracks as I spot a napkin covering something purple and gooey.

"What is that? What the fuck is that? What is this Husky!" I said while holding up the object in question.

"Sir a Jelly Donut Sir!" he shouted back, oblivious to the coming shitstorm he just created.

"Why is there a jelly donut in your footlocker?"

"Sir I took it from the mess hall Sir!"

"Are jelly donuts allowed in the barracks Husky?"

"Sir No Sir"

"Than why is there a jelly donut in your footlocker?"

"Sir Because I was hungry Sir!"

"Because you were hungry..." turning on my heels I resume speaking why walking down the isle.

"Recruits...Private Husky here as failed me...and for you, you have all failed Husky for not giving him the proper motivation he needs to not be a disgusting fat body...from now on whenever Private Husky fucks up, I will not punish him, instead I will punish all of you and the way I see it maggots you all owe me for one jelly donut." I stopped back in front of Husky, donut in hand.

"Open your mouth." He did as I shoved it in, "They paid for it, you eat it...and...exercise." they all got off their footlockers and started to march in place, chanting out the usual punishment cadence.

Next Week

Watching my recruits do combat exercises in the courtyard, smacking wooden dummies with enchanted weapons that will not damage the dummy but still give the same effect if it would have smacked an actual target, including the same sounds of impact and if it was a fatal wound, a gong sound will ring out from the dummies head.

Walking to the end of the courtyard I can see Husky actually doing something right for once, with each swing of his sword he leaves small indents into the dummy, making it look like actual bruises that would have been placed on flesh and hide. Smiling with a sense of fatherly pride that quickly vanished when another recruit fucked up on his swing, lost his grip on the sword handle and sent that bitch flying like a frisbee in an open field.

"God damn it Private Windchester pick up your fucking sword and this time do not let it go in mid swing, I will not be re-attaching any heads that have fallen off due to clumsy hooves." I shouted down the line, watching the two gryphons tear apart the dummies in front of them which reminds me to ask Shining Armor for more target dummies for both the recruits and for my project back in Ponyville.

Looking off the edge of the training field I can see the Everfree Forest in all of its gnarled and twisted glory, a place that does not follow the new Earth enviromental order but instead still lives the old order and appearently is kicking ass and taking names with the foolish ponies trying to claim hidden treasure and loot from crumbling ruins and possible boltholes made by the dogs.

"Such a beautiful yet creepy ass forest...hmm....I can see it now...a bottle of hard booze in my left hand and a shotgun in the right....just killing anything that moves...life would be good about now...eh fuck it." knocking back a small swig from my small pocket canten and letting out a blech before lighting it with a weak flame burst from my hand.

Rolling my shoulders I continue my false inspection of my recruits, taking in the sights of these ex-guards now N1 operatives....my bad I mean P1 Operatives...damn pones are going to drive me to drink way harder than I usually do.

Looking around my training grounds, inspecting every single object in sight due to boredom and the lack of fuck ups in my office, my strolls have been going longer and longer till I heard the sounds of two pairs of hooves steadily going weaker and quieter in the distance. Taking that as a sign of two fools trying to ditch training I pull out my riding crop from its belt loop and rev it up before slowly stalking the buildings trying to keep a low profile and noise.

About five minutes of quiet stalking I peek around the corner of the fourth building to find what I was probably not wanting to look for.

'I must be dreaming...there is no way in hell those two are that fucking stupid to do that in broad day light...behind my mess hall...in the middle of their training session...that ass is mine now.'

Sneaking up quietly to them, watching the pair about to get themselves off but before I get to see a sight of two ponies rutting I crack the male on the head with the crop, his body caving in on top of the mare as she gets a blow to the muzzle knocking her out like a candle.

"Motherfucker I should have known this shit would happen....now lets see who you two are...." pulling them up and yanking off their dog-tags, smirking a bit before putting it back on them and dragging them both to my office. Kicking the door in seeing Oakleaf now asleep on the sofa and Kara eye-balling the recruits, motioning one over to her as I dropped both ponies on the rug.

"Out...both of you, its time for these two to get a gelding and spaying. Kara, make sure not a single pony see's me leave this building with these two, Oakleaf go get me two glass jars and fill it with water, I can handle the rest." both nod and leave the building to follow their orders.

3 Hours Later

Waiting patiently by their beds in the sick room of the barracks I clean the under side of my nails with the bayonet as I whistle a random tune that came to my mind, enjoying the sounds of near silence as both privates stir in their beds and slowly get up.

"Easy you two, try not to move your rear legs, you will be very sore and probably in a lot of pain since I didn't exactly have any pain-killers but I did have alcohol to kill any signs of infection. Take deep breaths and brace yourselfs for this." I said before pulling up two glass jars filled with a slightly green tinged water with two floating objects in each one.

Both recrutis jaws drop, their eyes going wide as saucer plates as I see the signs of tears before their eyes moved downward to their crotch only to see stichings.

"You may be wondering...did I really do it? Did I actually make the both of you sterile for the rest of your lives?" I said in a mock tone, flashing the lamp light onto the jars revealing that the one on the right was a pair of testicales and the one on the left, two ovaries. What happened next, priceless and devillishly evil.

The two started to bawl and cry like a bunch of babies as I swished both jars around before placing them down onto their respectable owner's bed. After about ten minutes of crying it got on my nerves as I snap at them to shut up.

"Shut the fuck up with the crying already, those things floating in the jars aren't even real! Those testicales are actually boiled eggs painted expertly to look like the real thing and those ovaries are actually shrunken boiled eggs, just as expertly painted. So shut the hell up before I actually sterilize the both of you so the next time you two want to fuck each other, go do that shit off sight in a hotel or in your homes. Now get the hell out of my sight." both of them scrambled out of their beds and got out post haste.

Just as the room got quiet a voice in the shadows speak out behind me.

"You know for all of your methods, no matter how cruel or barbaric they are, this one is by so far the crulest." the soft voice speaking up as the mare in question steps out of the shadows as I barely turn my head in her direction.

"I don't need your approval for my methods, I get the job done no matter what the cost may be and you said it yourself, your guards are weaker than they were before the Nightmare Moon Era...and besides those two got a punishment well deserved. Next time those two want to go at it like a bunch of wild beasts in heat than they can do it at home or where I won't look. And besides it was well worth the painting vid I had to watch to paint those boiled eggs to scare the shit out of them." I smirk as I pull an egg out of the jar, peel off the layer and eat the hard-boiled goodness.

3 Weeks Later

Graduation Day, Afternoon

"Today, you are no longer maggots! Today you are officially P1 Operatives for the Equestrian Crown

"You are part of a family, from now on until the day you die. Where ever you are, every operative is your family, most of you will go off into the world, some of you will not come back from whatever mission or job that Celestia or Luna gives you."

"Now enjoy yourselfs for the rest of the week, as of the end of it you will be given a new posting, new armor and above all else, a tatto symbolizing who you and for those that do not want the tattoo you will instead get it painted to your armor. Ponies...at ease." my speech ending, raising a tall glass of very hard cider courtisy of one Sgt. Oakleaf and take a hearty swig before every pony in attendance does the same and begin to party hard like it was 1999 Human Era.

Ponyville, Early Dawn

'Home Sweet Home...five months of bullshit, ass beating and ogling at a nice ass...finally home...I just hope that no one finds out abo-'

"Surprise!" half of Ponyville in attendance to the party in my house, my YMIR mech no where in sight.

'......Fuck'

Chapter 16: Making a Project

"Surprise!"

'....Fuck.'

Looking around I saw that half of the town was in attendance to my homecoming party and that it was now in full swing, the pink demon hopping up and down behind me as I make my way to the back of the room to the stairs to go get dressed into much more form-fitting attire than my current dress uniform. Climbing up the stairs quickly so I do not get questioned for ditching the party let alone get questioned by the pink fluffy demon as to why I am leaving my party.

Turning the knob to my room and quickly shutting it behind me to the protest of Pinkie but since she nearly killed me with sugar which I still think is the gayest way to die, I ignore her and proceed to get dressed into a set of clothes that was oddly already laid out before me. The clothes itself was something to be somewhat desired by a ranking officer like myself but the colors...something I wouldn't wear to a wedding or a friendly get together. Looking at it, the shirt was ivory and in the style of that of a collared shirt with long sleeves that upon closer inspection can be split in half and buttoned to my shoulders to change it into short sleeves, would have been useful in my time. The pants itself was nothing special, matching ivory color with a black leather like belt, Rarity's cutie mark printed into the buckle as to identify the creator in all of its glory which so far is worth a favor from me.

Being pleased with my new clothes I hurried myself so I do not get a Pinkie Pie banging on the door to ask what I am doing and knowing myself I would reply with a very crude and vulgar response but knowing that reality breaking mare she would ask her friends what I mean, than they will come and try to verify what I mean, and I will get pissed off and just blow them off and avoid them but knowing women of my time and since these mares act just like them, my ass would be followed till I explain everything.

Fuck that.

Putting on the new clothes and throwing my uniform into the hamper for cleaning I turn around to leave the room, opening the door and took one step out to feel a pony's head ram right into my gut, looking down to see Rainbow Dash backing up a bit and looks right up at me.

"Girl don't you have better things to do than sneak a peek at me getting dressed? You know, don't you have clouds to ram through or don't you have freaking rainbows to place? Seriously Dash...what do you want?" her stare doesn't waver as I see her tail flick before I watch her gaze goes behind me and following her eyes straight to the hamper.

"You want know why I have a ranking officers uniform and why it smells like sweat, blood and tears?" not entirely the right way to say it but she nods.

"Well I scared the shit out of all sixty ponies, practically traumatized two ponies for trying to do the horizontal tango behind my mess hall, and also almost got Celestia to eat a banana in the manner that I wanted her to....oh and I talked to both Celestia and Cadence about the recruits progress." I pointed to a jar that was now placed on my bed stand, filled with two fake ovaries that are now losing their paint and now mixing with the water.

"Wait...are those...what I think they are?" her voice quivering as she pointed a hoof at it the glass jar.

"No Dashie, those are not real ovaries from a pony, those are two shaped hard-boiled eggs that I painted to look like the real things to scare the ponies that tried to fuck on my training grounds, good thing I cooked them ahead of time I now got me a snack in case I need to eat." I rubbed the top of her head with my hand ruffling up her mane and also scratching her ears a bit before walking down the hall, closing the door before checking the third floor door with the lock now back on it, resting quietly before going downstairs and joining the party.

2 Hours Later

"Okay Roran so can you now tell me why did Celestia's guards come over with two carriages and placing crates inside your home?" oh Twilight Sparkle, ever the inquisitive mare of the group of pony friends.

"I could tell you but than that would ruin the fun of letting you guess what I did for five months away from you mares, but than you would complain about me not being a friend, you would nag me to near death before I cave in and tell you so here it is and listen good cause I ain't going to explain it again." I sat down on my special chair fit just for me and cracked open a bottle of water.

"For five months I trained a group of selected guards from both Celestia and Luna's royal guard forces, and those sixty they chose I trained to be like me. Fifteen failed and dropped out, much better than what I was expecting but those that failed I haven't heard from in a while but eh, that is their price to pay for failing themselves and their country." taking a bite out of a piece of apple pie that Applejack brought over for the party, and the taste of it...enough to make a grown man cry if he wanted to lose his man card.

"So how was your time with the princesses, I always heard that being in her company is so enlightening and comforting, even the few times that I had visited Canterlot to stay in the palace for any related reason was always a dream."

Glancing to my side and taking another bite from the pie, savoring the taste of warm apple goodness before speaking with my breath now smelling of sweet apple, "Well Rarity...being in her presence was...nice." sighing a bit happily while looking out the window which was just level enough to give me a partial view of Canterlot and also giving me a great view of the road leading near the forest to the mountain.

Rainbow Dash caught onto that piece of silence for a while and with a smirked grin took the initiative to pester me.

"Looks like somepony caught himself a special somepony back in Canterlot in those five months, am I right?" nudging me in the side a few times, emphasizing each word with a nudge.

In that moment I nearly chocked on my apple pie and ended up swallowing the piece whole and cough violently from a few rough parts hitting my esophagus before I give a death glare to Rainbow, her ears folding downward from the soul-piercing stare.

Without even giving her a straight answer I give a slight nod before pushing my fork to the side and grabbing a bottle of orange soda which I can say is quite good for being something that is sugary and tasting like fizzy orange juice.

"OH such juicy gossip we have here, the last human in existence falling in love with a different species. So who is this lucky mare huh?" oh Rarity...you gossipy mare oh how I loathe you sometimes.

"Sorry mi'lady but I can not tell a soul of who it is hat caught my eye, if that piece of knowledge ever got out than it will be a catastrophic nightmare in which there will be no escape for anyone." moving in the way one would to be overly dramatic, putting an arm over my head and straight up being a drama queen which earned a huff from Rarity and a fit of laughs from the pink demon and from her friend, even Kara was laughing with them which I found was rare.

Taking that glare from the white pony and smirking evilly before signalling Kara to go over and pick Rarity up before tossing her onto my lap, my eye looking down at her while smiling widely, my sharp canine teeth sparkling in the light earning a loud gulp from the mare before I proceeded to turn her onto her belly and proceeded to scratch behind her ears which I learned from Oakleaf, how he learned that trick or let alone know its reaction still confuses the hell out of me.

Within seconds Rarity went from trying to glare a hole through my head to straight up giving me puppy eyes whenever I stopped scratching her ears before my hand moved from her head to her back, pressing on pressure points that I memorized from Oakleaf's many books on pony physiology, those books worked wonders whenever I was beating the crap out of a recruits in the fighting ring. Slowly moving my hand to her pressure points and quickly poking them and than massaging in rapid succession, Rarity practically melted in my lap as she just laid there with a large dopey smile on her face.

"Looks like what Katherine said about me having that magic touch was correct...to bad this gift will never see the light of day unless I want it to." rubbing another spot before stopping half way through cause I noticed my hand was on her flank as I quickly yanked it away out of fear of having the mare realize where it was and ripping it out of its socket with her magic.

After a few minutes and a ear blowing later Rarity snapped out of her stupor and blushed heavily before jumping from my lap, her hoof slightly pressing on my junk which hurts a bit since hooves have that magical timing to be very soft to hard as fucking hell.

"So ladies, if are done questioning my love life than you should be happy to know that if any of you have any questions for me or want to hang out with me, starting tomorrow you can ask me anything I am comfortable with asking but for now it seems the party has mostly died down so, enjoy yourself and take your time leaving, I know I am going to enjoy that sweet apple pie I have my eye on...maybe some of that wine that mare brought over." eyeing the few pies left with a hunger that only a man can acknowledge with a smile on his face while holding in laughter of sadistic glee can truely enjoy.

Morning

'Hello world...now shut the hell up and leave me alone....fucking hate you sun...turn yourself off and stay away from my window....'

My head was hurting like a motherfucker and it felt like some evil bastard was scraching his nails on a blackboard repeatily and in rapid succession. Getting out of bed slowly so I do not disturb my sleeping partner, not even daring to speak a word as to not induce the wrath of a hammered Diamond Dog, making my way to the shower and turning it to icy cold and stepping into the path of ice needles as I just take the blast of icy sheets like a champ. Feeling slightly better I dried myself off, put on a set of dirty training clothes from the barracks and going to the third floor, unlocking the pad-lock and putting it back on my end as I closed the door to see my YMIR mech, standing there in all of its ancient ass glory.

"Well my friend...I think you deserve a name.....Override Unit Name: YMIR-16129PA, New Name: Cuddles. Confirm last order." crossing my fingers, hoping that its data is still intact.

"Last Order, New Unit Name: YMIR-Cuddles." fucking sweet.

"Okay, Cuddles, watch the door and makes sure it does not open, if it does than shoot the floor in front of the wedge where the door opens, scare away any intruder but stay within the room. Carry out command." the sweet sounds of hydrolics kicking in and the sounds of rotating gears fill the room as it moves from its position to the front of the door, right arm pointing right at the door as I got to work on my project I have been dying to get started.

Tapping my omni-tool and pulling up a file marked as 'top-secret' and placed within the strongest of security measures that money can buy, alongside with things I had to beg, borrow or steal, most cases steal since what I was carrying was going to revolutionize battle armor for Alliance Marines if it ever past manufacture, testing and prototyping phases but I will be damned if it failed me now but since all of that is gone I can now use it for myself now.

Moving the display to my desk and placing it onto a small data-pad that was given to me as a 'gift' from Celestia when she scavanged any worthy bits of tech and just as I thought it still works, displaying my gift to the Alliance, the H.C.M.S., was going to rival the Cerberus Atlas Mech in all means but sadly did not have enough time to do anything for it, not even get it started but now that I have all the time in the universe I can now begin.

Digging into the boxes that litter the room, removing extra armor plating, extra parts for the YMIR, a few untainted power cores along with a few reaper power cores, wiring and circuits, a few biotic implants, a case of medi-gel, even the engineers toolbox. Smiling to myself as I tap again to pull up my music menu to find something uplifting to play and right at the top of random top songs on file I tap it twice to get it rolling and did a infinite symbole on it to loop it.

Waving my head back and forth a bit, picking up my old combat armor that still has the large hole in the chest and back cavity, shaking my head sadly to see my familiar combat skin all beaten and unable to be repaired in its current state but with my supplies of spare parts I have a chance to fix her up. Peeling off the armor plating and finding the chassis that holds our body while wearing, I replace the magnetic locks that are fried or half melted from the Javelin round and reattach the weave back into the locks before placing the new armor plating back into its section and with a smile hear the hissing clicks as the locks seal themselves into place and the double chirping confirms that the plates are holding firmly and securely.

Moving to the spare chassis that brought with me and putting it on myself, making sure it is tight for what I have in stored for it. Moving to the spare YMIR parts and looking at my schematics I smile deeply as I begin the building process.

Building a suit of combat armor is easy when you have a team to help assemble it with you, hard when you are alone, even harder when you are trying to build it in secret from those that will try to copy it and use it against you.

Starting with the feet of the new combat suit I make sure that it is large as the YMIR mech so it can evenly distribute the weight it will be holding up. Welding the parts together and applying more plating to it to cover the rotating parts to ensure maximum protection against attacks that would hinder my mobility as I weld more support struts and armor layers to the feet of the combat suit.

5 Hours Later

Wiping off a large ass layer of sweat from my forehead onto a nearby rag, looking at my achievement so far. The legs are half way done, the feet I will have to test for mobility, hydrolics and support but that can wait for the rest of the suit. Grabbing a cig from my shirt pocket and lighting it, inhaling a large chunk of it before exhaling it out with the rest of the smoke that is lingering in the air, not a single window open, not even the ventilation window since I don't want any pony figuring out what I am up to.

Finishing the cig and burning it on my arm, feeling a slight sting from the new skin and grinning that I can still feel pain even with metal limbs covered in magically regenerated flesh. Going back to my chassis I begin to apply the layers of support, oxygen recyclers, power cords and lastly the power generater for the massive fucker. Looking at the crate I pull out a core and look it over, finding the longevity of it and putting it back into the box and calculating how long it will last and shrugged to find out with all nine cores the suit will last only three days before it needs to be recharged...won't last long if I was in a siege back on Thessia or Palaven but would have made a difference on skirmishes.

Going back to welding, swearing and smoking, I get into the rthyme of swaying to the music playing, feeling pumped up and ready to tear some poor bastards head off if they get in my way, welding life support into the back and front of the armor, in case one gets damaged and I am relying on the suit to keep my air going. Veering off a bit I move the chassis to the leggings and very slowly lowered it till I heard the sounds of safety clamps and inner locks cracking against each other, the sounds of systems synching together and looking at my omni-tool that the synch is 92% compatable, good enough for me.

3 Hours Later

Looking the partial suit over I can tell that I can easily grip and use large weapons with ease and be able to use my left arm for something else...maybe give it a blade for its left arm or a shield...something besides leaving it empty....

Going over the arms I begin to apply the armor plating, making sure it is thick at the shoulders to act as a head shield, the pauldrons coming in perfectly as I rotate them in the socket of the armor, allowing it nearly full range of motion like a normal human body would but slightly less but I can get over it. Moving to the joints in the elbow, wrist and fingers I begin to enlarge the gauntlet so the mech can grip things that would normal take two hands to carry or lift. Putting a synchro-sphere into the palms of it to allow my phase disruptors to fire without having to worry about melting the gauntlet or blowing a ragged whole in it, and even building a large metal blade into the left and right wrists in the event I am disarmed by something larger than a gryphon or teenage dragon.

Moving the arms into their sockets, welding and connecting each joint together until my suit was nearly complete, same size of the YMIR but with my helmet and standing up right I would be at least three inches taller than it but still be smaller than the Atlas mech. Rummaging a box of parts I find what I am looking for and grin evilly before getting back to work.

5 Hours Later

Cracking open a bottle of honeyed mead, courtesy of Private Snowball who was making her own brew of sorts in her home, last I heard it nearly exploded on her which she told me that it meant that the brew was nearly ready to be sold and consumed. And she was right, this mead was ready and I'll be damned to see that brew factory of hers churning in her home get confiscated or destroyed.

Pressing the opening to my lips and downing about 1/4th of it in one go and the feeling it gave me...feels like my nerves are fire and being pleased at the same time, making me nearly fall over face first into the workbench I was working on. That stuff sure has a strong kick to it and by strong I mean just as strong as getting mule kicked while wearing a cup.

Feeling the warmth spread through my body I take the bottle, open the door and close it behind me as the data-pad runs a full system diagnostics on the new combat mech armor, hoping to get it working before Celestia asks me to go help her or some other person that needs my power.

As I open the front door to the outside world, my eyes fall upon three little fillies and a colt wearing a fancy fadora hat and holding up a camera. Upon further inspection I see that all four of them are holding notebooks, quills and for a second I thought they were looking at some random pony but sadly their eyes were looking right at mine but as I slowly back away from them to ever so slowly close the door, Applebloom gives me the saddest puppy stare that she can muster, and almost on que the other three do so as well and the being in the presence of those soul-piercing sad eyes forced my hand to try to close the door again but at that point their lips were quivering and I know that my fate was sealed when I sighed in defeat and let the door open as they beamed in victory and galloped into my home.

Looking at the four I can see that Applebloom has taken the middle of the sofa, Sweetie Belle on left side while Scootaloo conquered my chair by managing to flutter her wings to gain enough lift to climb onto it which sadly was usurped from her by me as I picked her up and placed her on my right leg, the filly frowning to having her spot taken, the colt simply took his spot between Applebloom and Sweetie Belle.

"Okay...what do you four want...its like 7pm...shouldn't you all be home? Wait..." my eyes looking below the sofa to spot three round objects partially concealed but sadly not to well done as I Pulled one closer to my face to reveal a sleeping bag...an orange sleeping bag.

Raising an eyebrow and looking back at them I can tell that they did not expect me to find it so easily but this is my home, I know ever crack and crevice in this place to memory, even the fourth floor which annoys the crap out of me since its nothing but moving gears and giant wheels.

"Okay maybe we were planning on staying over for the night since Rarity is busy filling out an order for somepony in Canterlot, Applebloom's sister is tired and doesn't want to deal with our loud talking and Fluttershy is already asleep." I nod a bit, understanding that if they went to Twilight's home than they will turn all of their books into a book fort or if they went to Pinkie Pie's place, they will just end up sugar high and destroy the town if they are capable of doing so.

"Fine, but first tell me ahead of time....well, I have to make a quick stop to Twilight's place to send a letter to Celestia, Kara should still be here to watch over you, and you will listen to her cause if you don't you will have to deal with Cuddles." I said getting off the chair, putting Scootaloo back down on the soft cushion as I grab a scroll from the table and quickly scribble on it before folding it up and placing it into an envelope and walked out the front door. The weather outside was cold, windy and from what the sky looks like, a storm brewing.

Making my way to Twilight's home was a walk in the park at night since almost every single pony here is in their homes asleep, getting ready to go to bed or just sleeping on the couch and left the lights on. As I made my way to the library the sounds of wings flapping and the clicking noises of talons on cobblestone was my only warning as I get tackled from behind and on instinct I roll with my attacker still attached to my back as I bring my elbow onto the attacking gryphon's side.

"Crows take you Helena, let him go before you earn the wrath of Celestia and your savior!" a male voice cried out from behind me and my supposed attack Helena the gryphon I saved twice.

"I swear to fucking god if this is about what Celestia said about me not going over to your kingdom to recover relics of my peoples past and to stop the ancient reaper forces from killing your miners than this is straight up bullshit." I yelled trying to wrestle Helena off by back which only proved useless until I felt a gag get forced into my mouth which only served to piss me off even more.

Yanking my head back Helena moved her beak close to my head and whispered into my left ear, "I will let you go as soon as you nod yes that you will not attack me once I let you go...deal?" I let a grunt of annoyance before nodding yes and as she starts to remove the gag and jump off my back do I sweep my leg under all four of hers and bring that same foot down onto her throat.

"This is for attacking and gagging me...you should know better that attacking a N7 operative is suicide without proper preparations or a big fucking task group and this," moving down to pinch her cheeks with my left hand, the one that is not holding the now torn letter in my right hand, " is for not telling me that you would be in town to talk to me...well whatever it is it can wait till I drop this off at my messengers house." checking the letter to see that it had a few rips and tears in it but otherwise still useful and intact.

"Sir Zidane, we are here not to attack you but to inform you of another attack that happened a month ago during your supposed 'training' of Princess Celestia's and Luna's royal guards..." his words slightly slow down as I pull out a cigarette, stick my thumb next to it as the lighter part burns the nub end as I take a deep inhale before exhaling a cloud of smoke, never again will I go 5 months without my cancer stick and he continues as I motion him to, "...as I was saying since you trained their guards to the same standard you were trained, We the gryhpon kingdom are here to ask if you could come to our lands to help train a regiment of our finest soldiers the same way you trained the ponies royal guard." his words sink in a bit before I give a flat stare, shaking my head in the most disagreeable manner, pull the cancer stick from my lips before exhaling it somewhat near his head before flicking it onto the floor, taking a few steps in the direction it landed and crushed it under my boot before continueing my walk to Twilight's infamous tree house of boredom.

"Well, since you have rejected our offer I will not press it again but instead send a letter to your princesses and ask if they may lend your services to us." still trying to find a way to get me to give his gryphons a fighting chance against the new P1 division.

'Yea good luck with that buddy...'

Contiueing on my walk I hear the flapping of wings again but it was fading and finally the sounds of them were gone as I smiled for a few seconds until I come to a stop in front of the wooden door. Usually I would knock before entering but since it is the dead of night and not a soul was out and also because a single fuck is not given at this moment I turned the knob on the door and walked in for my eyes to fall upon a sleeping Twilight face deep in a book with Spike carrying a tower of books with ease until he got to the ladder and nearly fell over with heavy payload.

"Dude you are gonna kill yourself by doing that..." the small sound of his foot slipping off the smooth wooden bar and the loud crash of books fall on top of him proved it, "...dude you still alive?" I pulled him out from under the books as I shake him like a rag-doll for the greater part of 10 seconds and he slowly comes to. After he stops seeing stars I wave my letter in front of him, he reads the small print of who it will go to before he takes a deep breath and incinerates the letter with a burst of green fire, which makes sense to me for some reason, dragon fire used as an instant messager.

Turning back to the door I give a small salute to the small dragon as he slowly scales the ladder again but with a much smaller stack of books in hand, and just as he starts to shove one back into its proper place he loses balance for a moment before he regains control and resumes his duty.

'Freaken kid is gonna hurt himself one day for being that mare's assistant...'

Walking back home was no big deal besides the growing speed of the winds and the small patter of rain hitting my head but as I opened the door it look like a freaken bomb went off in here, the table was upside down, my lovely chair on its side and my fridge has been raided, not even a scrape of pie left or a apple fritter...even my soda was gone. A single tear fell down my face, the plate that had the left over fritters clearly covered in crumbs, a sad day for all apple fritters everywhere. The sounds of giggles and laughter soon fill my ears as I move to the second floor to see Kara, hold up in a fort made of books and small boxes while three fillies giggles and throw pillows at one another.

At the my presence she she hops out of bed and runs over and freaken slams into me, pulling me into a hug of sorts while at the same time using me as a shield against the assualt of pillows, the pillows weren't much to worry about but what had me worried was that not only was my shirt wet and you can partially see through it but it also got the blouse that she was wearing was wet as well, and from my vantage point height I can clearly see the twins from the low cut V.

'Note to self, thank Rarity for creating eye-candy wear.'

As my gaze lingers and the mounds on her chest a heavy pillow hits me in the back of the head as it connects with Kara's causing us both hold our heads as we both look to see who threw it, and in a comedic fashion Applebloom points at Scootaloo, Scootaloo points at Sweetie Belle and she than points at Applebloom. Sighing deeply I walk over to them, picking them up one at a time before going to the guest bed in the other room, placed them under the covers before tucking each one in and before I have a chance to turn off the light one of them speaks up in a slightly tired tone.

"Can you tell us a story?" oh Sweetie Belle...a story would involve me speaking of something I rather not...

Slowly getting up from the edge of the bed I am stopped as I hear the faint sniffles coming from behind and I see the three giving the sad looks again but giving everything they had to get me to tell them a story.

'My god what have I gotten myself into this time...if these girls were girlscout cookie salesmen than they would never have to worry about customers turning them down if they just give them that stare.'

"Fine than...well I guess I can tell you a story from my past...how about my first mission as an N7 operative?" I saw the look in Scootaloo's eyes that she wanted to hear this, Applebloom thought it might be another adventure story similiar to that Daring Doo stories that line half a bookshelf level, Sweetie Belle looks like she is already asleep.

"Well I guess it was when I was about 23 years old, it was my first time working with a squad of other N7 operatives that were not judging my every move and action but instead we were joking with each other or worse making bets on who would mess up first. I can't seem to remember their names but I do know is that as we get close to our objective our ship's alarm system blares out a warning and to brace for impact and as everyone just barely grabs onto anything worth a damn the window we were all next to blows out from a space mine. The window is gone, one of the operatives that was near the window gets sucked out but manages to crawl back into from one of the grips that was on the window and managed to yank himself in as the rest of us got out and ran to the nearest escape pod but me, and two others were trapped by fallen debris to our escape pods so we had to get our helmets on, jump out the blown window and make our way to our pod from the outside..." the looks on Scootaloo and Applebloom was so worth telling my first botched N7 mission.

"As we got into our escape pod we had only four minutes to rocket out of our dying ship and get to our objective before we run out of air and choke to death. It was almost the four minute mark as we slam into the ground and let the air seep into the cracks of the hatch, and as soon as we had our lungs filled with precious oxygen we unstrapped ourselves and got out and as we did our pod was hit by an artillery round and we started to run our butts off straight to our objective as mortar and artillery rounds landed all around us. Only three hours after our departure from our base at Arcturus Station and we were already neck deep in shit, when we got close to the entrance of the facility we were ordered to destroy we get ambushed by a squad of A-61 Mantis Gunships and as were being pinned down by crossing lanes of fire, one of our squad mates sacrificed himself to draw away enemy fire long enough for us to blow open the doors and stormed in...well...we finished our objective, got to our extraction point and got off the world in two days."

"The officer in charge of our Ops was impressed that we managed to inflict large amounts of damage to the pirates raiding capabilities with less resources and soldiers to get it done but was disappointed with how many came back..." by the time I was done all three fillies were asleep, Scoots and Sweetie were sleeping quietly while Applebloom was snoring a bit, reminds me of myself during my time time asleep in the bunks of the transport ships.

Getting off the bed and moving quietly to the door and ever so stealthily sneaked out of the room and closed the door behind myself and walked quietly to my room to find that Kara was taking over half the bed and was snoring a bit louder than Applebloom. Sighing a bit as I got into my sleeping clothes which consisted of nothing but my briefs and slipped silently into my part of the bed and relaxed into the blankets as I rested my head on a soft pillow and closed my eyes to sleep the rest of the night away, the winds and rain outside growing slowly.

Morning

As the dawn early lights seep into my room I crack my eyes open and yawned quietly to myself as I stretched a bit on my side of the bed but the feeling of something warm pressed into my back and head as I squirmed under my blanket. Turning my head ever so slightly to the left I feel something warm, soft and furry brushing against my ear as I squint a bit to see what it was to see Kara's head resting on top of mine and the things pressing against my back is her rack. Slightly shaking my head a bit to see if my guess is right and the result was her left leg hooking around thighs as she nuzzles my head and mumbles something incoherent.

My eyes opening widely slowly as soon as I realized the predicament I am in and mouthed silently to the gods for allowing this to happen and hope that she does not wake up and see where my head is located and decide to chew me a new asshole or worse rip my manhood off and throw it into the tall grass to never be seen again.

Slowly trying to shift my way out from her hold I can feel my head rubbing between her bust only to cause her to increase her grip on my body and even started to lick the top of my head for a few seconds before stopping and resumed her soft snoring with what I can guess a smile on her face.

'Dear gods...if I can get out of this in one piece...I will stop drinking before bed...and start enjoying that little pink demon's party....'

My prayer was answered as I feel her paws grip my chest and than just as quickly push me away and I feel her paws pushing me away and just as quickly I fell out of the bed bringing her on top of me cause the blanket was still wrapped around the both of us.

"Ewwww, that is sick!" a slightly drowsy voice says from behind us as we both saw Scootaloo looking at us while rubbing a hoof to her eye.

Me and Kara look at each other for a few seconds, her faces barely three inches from one another as we quickly untangle from the blankets as we scramble away from each other, her face red from blush, mine from embarrassment.

"Scootaloo...shouldn't you have knocked first before entering our room and shouldn't you be going to Rainbow Dash's place or something?" I looked at her while trying to not look embarrassed and she realizes that I was right as she quickly runs out of my room, down the stairs than finally out the front door.

I look at Kara who looks at me for a second before looking away and speaking in a hushed and quivering tone.

"W-we n-n-never s-speak of this...a-again." her face still red, covering herself a bit with a new top.

Looking her over a bit before nodding in agreement.

"Yea...that was...odd....but comforting...." getting up and putting on my repaired N7 Paladin armor and grabbed the helmet that I salvaged from the parts and slipped it onto my head, an old Earth System Alliance Marine helmet before going to the third floor to find a letter on top of my desk next to my YMIR-Cuddles and my new armor system reading diagnostics complete.

Opening the letter and reading it over,

'We are pleased to hear from you after your home-coming party and we are happy to hear that you are done with your armor repairs, but what we are wondering is what you have to show us so this afternoon we will send a chariot to your home to pick you up and your finished 'project' but for now enjoy your week off.'

Signed from the desk of Princess Celestia Dawnbringer

Looking at my helmet's internal timer saying it was 9am and that I had roughly two hours to get ready for my presentation to the princesses.

'This will be good.'

Unknown Location

"It is almost time my foreign guest, ready yourself for in two weeks time he will be here...and soon all of Equestria and Terra will be mine."

"Burn in hell...Bosh'tet."

"Soon I will have the perfect army, an army that none shall oppose lest they have a desire to be annihilated."

Chapter 17: Long road ahead

'Pancakes.....neeeeeeeeeed pancakes.....and pain-killers...lots and lots of pain-killers....'

Slowly shuffling to the kitchen, looking at all the damage that the three fillies managed to do in such a short time, the fridge was practically raided, pots and pans everywhere, the toaster had toast in it but was burnt to a crisp, my boxes of ceral and other dry food was tossed everywhere and on the counter was an empty tin of the last apple pie. It was a tragedy.

"How the hell did those three destroy my kitchen? I mean they are small, sure one has magic and one can barely fly but seriously? What the hell!" in truth I should have realized that these little hellions would have caused such destruction to my home but it atleast gave me a chance to clean up my home and sort through what I have.

Sighing sadly I began my cleaning of the kitchen, throwing away empty boxes of food or anything that is devoid of crumbs, putting dirty dishes into the sink and my eyes caught a sight of something I thought I might never see. A bottle of a dark brownish orange with an even darker orange liquid in it, looking at the bottle it reads 'Barkandi 151', popping the cork from it and catching a faint with I was immediately repulsed by its stank.

"My god...that thing smells worse than krogan Ryncol....which means it must be better!" looking around the kitchen to make sure that Kara was not here knowing full well that this is hers I kick the bottle back and got a taste of the foul smelling liquor...in this case it was a terrible idea. As a drop it my tongue it fucking burned it, the taste was beyond painful it felt like my tongue and throat was on fire and that no amount of water would get rid of the heat but as the fire in my mouth starts to grow hotter it suddenly dies down and is replaced with a strange minty coolness.

'Okay...so far the strangest thing I have ever drank but still better than hard cider...'

Putting the bottle back and continueing with the cleaning I noticed that not only did they manage to completely destroy my kitchen, but they also managed to turn my living room into groundzero of London, books are everywhere, favorite chair overturned, my coffee table is upside down and my miniature statue of Discord is somehow stuck to the ceiling. How they managed that I do not want to know.

'Note to self...never leave these fillies with Kara ever again....no scractch that...never allow them to sleep over, those three are a fucking demolition squad.'

After about an hour of cleaning, scrubbing, setting fire to a stain that would not go away and sorting of whatever that is still intact my house is finally clean and if I were to inspect it as a military instructor it would pass with flying colors, but here in pony land I can guess that flying colors is the norm.

"YMIR-Cuddles, is the prototype ready to be deployed?"

"Yes it is sir but you will unarmed from medium-to-long engagements as you are lacking any weapons. Your wristblades and phase-disruptors are ready to be used. All primary, secondary and tetriary systems are green light. Whenever you are ready to deploy the prototype say the command."

"Good work Cuddles, go into standby-phase and await further commands."

"Logging you out Lt. Commander."

Looking over my shoulders I can see Cuddles trying to figure out how to get down the stairs without slipping or falling, a feat easier said than done when the floorboards are less than a foot long and that it is evenly placed but the thing that amazes me is that the weight of the mech did not crack the carpeted floorboards...yet.

Resuming my cleaning I took the time to recall my past cleaning experiences and each one always ended with some person barging in, yelling at the top of their lungs about something important or that I am needed immediately. Shivering in fear that the same thing will happen I brace myself for the incoming yelling by getting the prototype open and ready to be worn as I put the covers down from the bookshelves to keep my precious books safe, closing and locking all the windows, and as an added precaution, locking the front and back door.

'Good luck trying to ruin this clean home outsiders!'

And almost on cue I hear the sounds of a window exploding and the tall tell sounds of glass shattering and hitting the floor before long a loud thud follows with the glass and a started yelp comes down the stairs. Clenching my fists and grinding my teeth in hopes of crushing an invisible marble in my jaws I begin to ascend the stairs to see what the hell just happened.

'Every fucking time without fail...I hope this place has insurance or else keeping this place safe will be a bitch.'

After a minute of climbing the stairs and hearing the sounds of something falling over and crashing onto the floor and the sounds of Kara yelling or barking at someone or herself, hopefully to someone...

Opening the door I see Kara on top of our bed, holding a spear in her paws while only wearing a towel for her bottom half and what I think was her old leather straps for her top, but what really got my attention was the target she was pointing her spear at, a cyan pegasis sprawled all over the floor, covered in broken glass and a few books. The one and only Rainbow Dash.

Looking at the window than at her, to looking at the bookshelf than back to her, than straight to the shards of glass and window bits all over the floor and around her before shifting my gaze straight to her again as she looked away sheepishly while pulling herself out of the rubble and spreading her wings to get any shards of glass or pinewood from her shaking limbs.

"Okay seriously how the fuck did you manage to crash into my home, break a window, knock over a bookshelf, manage to open the shutters of the bookshelf and get a few of my books on top of you...and why the hell are you not hurt from any of that?" my puzzled and fucking bewildered look has gotten the better of me since everytime I jump through windows or get fucking tossed into a shelf or a bulkhead it fucking hurts and I rather stay on the floor and wait it out but she just shook it off as if it was nothing!

After a minute or two of explaining what happened I get a somewhat satisfactory answer but still pissed off that she broke a window just after I finished cleaning my home let alone break it while knocking over my shelf which is holding my shotgun, bayonet and my box-o-fucks. If that shotgun went off I would had to fear of the spike flying out of the shelf and slam into the wall or worse if it fell out of the shelf, fired at the window and it goes flying...whoever is at the receiving end of that spike will be in for a world of hurt.

"Just get out of here Dash, I will clean this up and replace the window....next time you should go practice somewhere safe or with safety netting to catch yourself...repairing windows was a bitch in my time and knowing the timeline of this place only makes window repairs worse..." sweeping up the broken glass and wood frames in a small sweeper and shovel while the cyan pegasis flies out the now busted open window while Kara keeps growling till she leaves before looking at her shelf which remains upright while mine was still on the floor.

"Don't worry I got it...damn thing needs to be bolted down anyways and besides I heard from Sweetie Belle that you have been going over to Rarity's boutique for what I think she calls 'accent coaching' or something...but eh, its your life to run but do try not to end up like her and get all fruu-fruu, there is such thing as too much." gathering all the glass into the small shovel I place it near my hand as I flick on the incineration tech as it heats the glass till it turns into a bubbling glob of molten glass in which I freeze it with Cold Snap, letting it rest so it can solidify at a later time so I can properly shape it for some use.

1 Hour Later

Knock Knock Knock

"I'm coming!"

Knock Knock Knock

"I said I am coming!"

Knock Knock Knock

"I swear to fucking god if this is a fucking prank I am going to murder whoever is at the door!"

There was silence for a good five minutes as I was finally getting down the second floor stairs as I heard it again.

Knock Knock Knock

"That's it!" I quickly go back upstairs, go to my now bolted down shelf and grabbed my box-o-fucks and strapped it to my thigh, grabbed the bayonet and fixed it to the end of my Graal shotgun and checked to see it has only a single shot left inside its thermal clip but it will be enough for what I have in mind.

Grabbing the door knob and counting to three in my head I throw the door open wide to see who was fucking with me but sadly I knew these two clowns that were fucking with me.

"Private Snowball, Private Bats...what the hell is your problem? Was that incessive knocking so important to pull me away from fixing my abode and you I hope you two are the ones that brought the chariot for me cause if you are than go back, it won't be able to support the weight of what I am brining to Canterlot. I am telling you this ahead of time so you two can tell the rest of P1 Ops that I am coming along with the princesses, Blueblood doesn't need to know yet neither does Shining Armor. Now go forth and relay my news." I said in a stern manner one would hear from a training instructor to their students. Both saluted and as they went back to the chariot they brought for me and hooked themselves up to it I can see Needlewing in the back as she flutters her way to me for a hug, which I knew was a sign that she needed to feed off of my emotions.

I should have known this ahead of time cause what I fed her made her press me for nutrition longer cause I started to feel lightheaded, dizzy and also the urge to go pet a cat. As the strange heartsy feeling died down she looks much better and even has that smile that clearly reads 'satisfied' before fluttering her insect wings back to the chariot just as it gets into the air and waves bye while I try to figure out what I was doing before getting smacked upside the head with a letter that was expertly thrown by Snowball.

Grabbing the letter with a seemingly snaking hand that is just moving on its own accord and managing to tear it open and upon reading it I get the reply sent to me last night with an added portion to it as I remove my helmet and placed it onto my hip, attaching it onto a clip.

Sir Roran I sure hope you know what you are doing, you should know that most ponies today are intelligent but most of the time do not entirely know when something is happening such as the Nightmare Moon incident but almost everypony along with our neighbors knows of or heard the Discord incident.

When you do arrive at Canterlot please try to not make a scene or worse a riot with whatever you are brining.

'Well where is the fun in that? Riots are always fun to be in, mostly the great drunken party riot after the battle for the Citadel against Saren and Sovereign but of course by the time I was out of the hospital with my new arms and legs the riots was in full swing, I got drunk, hammered, plastered, smashed and straight up gone and by the time it was over I had to get a new liver. Well worth the new liver and several hours of me puking into several toliets, potted plants, somes shoes and in an elevator.'

Going back inside my home and placing the letter down onto the coffee table since that all it will ever do in its current condition of pristinely polished. Tapping a wall to pass a few seconds of climbing the stairs and ascending to the third floor I took notice that Kara was asleep again on our bed, this time taking the whole bed to herself just like what Katherine did when we were both given an 'infiltration-and-assassinate' mission and for all that was decent she took the whole fucking bed every damn time that it felt like I was in the dog house and had to sleep on the couch the entire time...it was to short for me to sleep properly...fucking back pains. Shaking my head of that shitty mission I unclip my helmet and placed it onto the small bedside table before going back to the stairs.

As I entered the storage room I can see Cuddles getting ready for departure as it folds up into its storage cube form as the little device attaches itself to the top and lifts it off the ground effortlessly. Tapping only three commands to the floating lift and watch it sail out the window and land directly outside of my front door I move over to the prototype suit, and tapped into its open chestpiece as I make my way into its harnesses and straps to ensure that nothing is out of place.

Wiggling into place and tightening the straps on the harness and sealing the suit shut and after a minute of hearing clamps and magnetic locks move and slide into place as I experiemented a bit with movement for both arms and legs to ensure that I have full range of motion in my new combat mech suit as I can feel the internal compartments fill out to ensure that in the event of a collision with anything my body won't get thrown about like a rag doll. Feeling pleased that I have full motion in both arms and legs and knowing that in the case of a complete clusterfuck that I will survive it and only walk away with dented armor and a concussion, otherwise fuck it.

"All Primary, Seconday, and Tetriary Systems are Online and are at Full Power, Activitating Primary and Seconday Power Cores, Initializing Data Systems and Command Screen, Motion Sensor Online, Thermal and Night Vision Optics Online, All Systems Are A Go."

Smiling with professional glee that my suit is fully functional and that it is working like a charm as I look straight ahead as I feel metal sliding on metal inside my armor until I see pieces of armor sliding in front and behind my head. The armor plating started to angle themselves into a helmet shape of that of an old medieval rounded helmet but instead of multiple airholes it only has three glowing red orbs in a triangle pattern.

'So this is what it feels like to have so much power in the palm of ones hand...it feels fucking awesome!'

Just as I mentally shout that I had unknowingly jumped out of the loading doors on the third floor and landed with an overly loud thunk which kicked up any and all dirt and dust around my two heavy-as-hell metallic feet.

"Oh the horror! The horror!" one of the mares that was working at a nearby flower shop shouts before promptly passing out with a comedy style of putting a hoof on her head before falling over.

'Not even five steps out of my home in this armor and I already got a pony to pass out in terror...new record.'

Pulling myself up and looking up at the road I can see at least 25 to at most 50 ponies gawking at me, a few were at a restraunt as one of them was levitating a spoon to his mouth but upon seeing me he dropped the scalding hot soup and in an instant started to hear pony swears as from what I can tell, doing what every man would do in the same situation, grab at your junk to try and to pat it down with napkins to absorb the hot fluids.

"It is just me everypony, the human agent of Princess Celestia, got a letter to come see her immediately...now if you don't mind get out of my way so I can get to Canterlot post haste since the chariot that was sent to me wouldn't support my weight. By move now I mean get your flanks in gear and make a clear path!" I shouted while pulling myself together from the jump, having to recalibrate how much power I should put into the hydraulic systems to prevent another sudden leap like that.

About half way out of Ponyville I hear the pitter patter of tiny feet behind me and as I turn around to see exactly who is following me I feel it tapping the foot plating with a pointy claw.

"Yes Spike? It beter be...important?" I looked a bit confused as he held up a scroll in a shaking hand, he looked like he just ran ten marathons back-to-back without any kind of water, bathroom or rest breaks. As soon as I take the scroll he does a small salute before collapsing in a heap, to tired to even get up as I roll my eyes, picked him up with my left hand and let him stay there as I ever so slowly unrolled the scroll and scanned its contents to find out that my six friends left earlier than I did to Canterlot to wait for me there, appearently there was something important and that I was involved in it as well.

And by involved I mean my break was cut short to help those mares with their problem. A man can never get a damn break around here...just like in the Alliance.

Looking at the road that leads up to Canterlot, and finally staring at the mountain itself and realizing that walking there is gonna be a pain let alone get there within five hours and be able to act decent without going ballistic to any pony that would question me. Something I was not trained for.

Canterlot, 5 Hours Later

In all of my years of partying, drinking, gambling and causing chaos, not once have I seen this much crap put into a welcoming party, I shit you not I saw pigs flying and not by catapults I mean fucking flying with wings, there was talking balloons and party hats, a carriage was busy arm-wrestling a chariot and I wish I was joking but sadly the normal cobblestone path was replaced with pink and white checkerboard patterned floor. Discord, the ruler of all that is chaotic and sadly stupid as well, is sitting on a throne made of cotton candy and chocolate, and I shit you not he was drinking a cup of chocolate milk but the glass was disappearing while the milk itself remained. The master of defying the laws of nature as well it seems.

"Tell me again Discord why are you outside of the palace let alone the one to be the welcoming committee? No, wait nevermind, you probably did something to make sure you got the job...but whatever you did better not come back to bite me in the ass" I grunt as the weight of my combat suit is starting to get annoying.

'As soon as I get home I am going to start implanting counter balance tanks into the limbs and back so the weight distribution is not entirely forced upon me.'

Walking through the streets of Canterlot is easy, walking through the streets with a floating piece of machinery along with the Choas Spirit doing what he does best makes it hard, trying to walk through the streets while every single fucking rich snobbish bastard ponies staring at you as if you are the wandering freak show and are unable to shoot one of them to get them to not stare is fucking horrible. Clearing my throat as loudly as I can and amplify it through the speaker systems created a sound of that of a loud roar of thunder which sends every single snobish pony poking out of their windows to go back in out of fear.

'I hope this trip is worth it...otherwise imma put my foot up someones ass.'

Going to the gates of the palace was annoying as fuck since the few rich ponies that were not scared off started to follow me, most likely trying to see if my services were for sale or to see what I am exactly since being encased in at least one ton of metal, wires, plating and very soft padding. As I got to the palace gates the guards were shocked to see a hulking armored giant walking up to the front door but upon seeing Discord throwing flowers all over the place while they explode into gum drops than they know that it was me and let me in without even trying to hinder me.

"Warning: Airborne Pheromones Detected! Activating Olfactory Scrubers." my suit's internal VI spoke up as I took a few steps into the palace and as it spoke up I looked around, trying to find the source and after a few times looking back and forth I found the source and quickly got the hell away.

"Airborne Air Quality Normal. Deactiviating Olfactory Scrubers."

After avoiding the appearent mare in heat, which kept turning on and off my helmet's air scrubers I managed to get to the throne room which all six mares were talking to both princesses and just as I stepped in, my heavy steps alerted them to my presence along with the even louder thud of Cuddles unhooking from the loader and assembled herself into its proper form.

"There better a damn good reason for cutting my vacation short Celestia...you and Luna, hell even Discord should know that I needed that break from training your royal guards how to be somewhat like me, Private Husky gave me several headaches let alone the urge to strangle the life out of him. So this better be important or otherwise I am just going to walk all the way back home now." crossing my arms and tapping my left armored foot, each tap echoing across the room.

Twilight and Rarity were looking at me with their mouths open as if I just slapped one or both of them, Pinkie Pie was just hopping in place, Fluttershy...I have no idea so I am just going to say is cowering in fear by my armor, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were acting like I just pissed them off and demanded a challenge.

As I tapped my foot impatiently, Cuddles moved to my right and was in a loose forward guard position and Discord was just watching everything from above my head. Celestia cleared her throat loud enough for me to hear as I stopped tapping my foot, waiting to hear my answer.

"You are here because we have just received a report that one of your friends have been reported to be seen up north in a territory of Equestria..." her words hanging in the air as I uncrossed my arms as she now held my undivided attention, "but neither of us know exactly where your friend is let alone who." as she stopped talking I opened up my roster on my omni-tool to see who was alive or who was dead but the data it was showing was corrupted and I could not fix it since the server it was running on was currently 'destroyed and/or damaged'.

"Okay where am I going, when I am leaving and am I allowed to bring my rifles with me to ensure that my friend comes back alive." I said in a determined tone, standing ramrod straight and at attention, Cuddles was trying to do the same but only managed to fall backwards.

Celestia gave off a faint smile as she got off her throne and moved over to a window, the view was appearently overlooking her gardens and beyond that the smallest sliver of the north.

"You are leaving tomorrow with Twilight and her friends, but I should warn you that it will be cold up there." her words carrying added weight than it should have but since one of my 'friends' was at stake than any danger I might face I will meet head on and trample over them.

Giving a salute as Twilight and the rest file out behind her and as I follow them I had only one thing to ask them.

"Just exactly how cold is it up north?"

Train to the Arctic North, Tomorrow Morning

"Fucking Noveria...."

Chapter 18: The Frozen North

Trains, we stopped using those things after the countless crashes that happens to them along with the seldom purpose of cargo transportation by land when airlifting them was far more economical and time-saving. As we stopped using trains we took great notice in the hover cars we developed and resorted to flying which led to an overwhelmingly increased number of pilots but it also resorted into more crashes and flying accidents but due to the numerous safety measures implimented into the vehicles deaths were lowered. As for trains when it crashed usually leads to many dying and/or being seriously injured, so in all that led to my inevitable fear of trains.

"What's the big hold up? Come on big man just get on the train so the rest of us can!" shouted Rainbow Dash as she impatiently poked the back of my head, my body blocking the doors leading into the first class train compartment. Since my armor was naturally heavy as fuck and knowing that if I boarded the train with it on I know that it would have slowed it to a crawl or worse I fall through the floor and cause an accident so I had to remove my prototype armor and leave it behind for Luna to watch after, and knowing that look in her eyes when I left it in the throne room that she will be messing with it in my absence.

Turning my head a bit to look at the rest of them I can clearly see that Rainbow had the look of annoyance with my blockage of the door but what the others couldn't see is that I was scared shitless of boarding a train, especially after what happened the last time I was on one.

Flashback

"Sir we need to stop this train now before it reaches the civilian evacuation center and blows it all to hell!" a voice crackled over the squad intercom system marked as Private First Class Urta Jenkins.

"Tell me something I don't know Urta! We are pinned down on both sides of this fucking train and we sure as hell know that the bomb is near the front and that an Atlas is waiting for us! If you got any bright ideas fucking say it!" my voice crackled over the com, the readout read Staff Sergeant Roran Zidane.

"Can't we just bum rush it from both on top and inside the carts? That plan worked when we got onto this damn thing." Urta cracked out, firing her Widow up close at a Cerberus Shock Trooper, blowing him clearly in half as the round catches another in the right arm, shearing it off as well as the soldier falls out of a side window and disappears into the blizzard. As I gaze over the cover of a chair a grenade rolls down the corridor and detonates near by foot, knocking it back to me as the shrapnel embeds itself into the surrounding seats and into my foot, the pain of having metal fragments digging into my flesh and the sight of my blood trickling out of the holes was enough for me to pull out two incendiary grenades and lob them over my cover before laying out suppressing fire to keep the few shock troopers in cover and before they knew what was going on the two fire grenades explode, encasing the five troopers in thermite, their screams of pain was music to my ears as we advance further out of the rear section of the train.

"Well no shit it worked for us getting on! Cerberus did not even know we were coming and we got them off guard...hell we barely managed to jump onto the damn thing as it was leaving the refueling station!" I shouted as I fire my Vindicator at a nearby Centurion and as we force our way to about 1/3 of the way to the front of the train a squadron of A-61 Mantis Gunships flies overhead and from instructions of another Centurion began to rain machine gun fire down at our cart, bullets pelting the walls and chairs as they penetrate through the walls and chairs, slowly shredding the compartment apart.

As the five gunships continue firing molten death from above, Major Emile pulls out one of the few Hydra Missile Launchers we have brought with us and manages to take down three of the five gunships, leaving the other two flying straight at us and with a tap on Urta's right shoulder and making a bet at the worst of possible times, he aims is Widow at the flying pair and with a few breaths squeezes the trigger once to blow out one of the two engines on the lead Mantis Gunship, causing it to drift into the others flight path, both of them colliding at a high rate of speed and bursting into flames as payloads within each wing detonates after a well timed Overload by me, making both gunships burst into fiery pinwheels.

"Cut the chatter you two, we got less than an hour to get to that bomb, disarm it or blow it before it reaches the evac center and goes off. Private Urta, Sgt. Roran, you two go topside and pick off and stragglers trying to enter through the windows, Katherine, Diego and Andy with me." the major calls out as Kat looks at us and gives the thumbs up and a wink before rushing after the other three leaving me with Urta.

Looking at each other for a few seconds before giving a high five, both of us clearly pleased that we are paired up and ready to tear the enemy a new asshole. As we climbed onto the roof of the car we barely ducked in time to avoid getting our heads ripped off from ceiling of a cave that we just passed into, the lights from our armor and helmets give us away as a few Cerberus troopers are also on the roof, sending hot lead and rolling grenades down the middle only to fall off course and down the sides to detonate near the windows.

Flashback Interrupted

"Helloooooooooo? Any life in that noggin of yours dude? OH now he wakes up. Seriously just get on the darn train already, you have been standing there looking at the door for ten minutes!" Rainbow Dash was yelling while trying to push my heavy form past the double doors as I give her some slack to force myself into the doors.

After finding a spot in the middle of the room and taking up at least three ponies worth of space, the others move in, place their belongings in the overhead bins as I stare off out the window again. My eyes staring out the window, looking at the Canterlot train station and at the ponies going on and off the soon-to-be-departing train, the few ponies that are sitting down on the benches appear to be waiting for their train or for a certain pony they are meant to meet as my eyes shift to the ceiling to count the rivets and bolts.

"Do you think he is alright? I have never seen anypony stare off into the distance like that before, maybe he has something on his mind?"

"I don't know, why don't we ask him what is currently on his thoughts?"

"Ya sure that is a good idea Twi? For all we know he could be thinkin' about somethin' from his past about trains and somethin' bad by the look of it."

"Oh how bad can his memories be with trains? They just get you to point A to B in a timely fashion."

Turning my head to the four mares talking I just stare them with a blank stare before turning my head back to the ceiling before speaking up, "You have no idea how bad that memory is." moving my left hand to my pocket on my chest I pull out a half smoked cigerate and light it, taking a slow drag from it and exhaling it out just as slow, letting the smoke linger in the air before cracking open a window to let the smoke out.

Oddly enough they slowly trot over to me and take up seats around me, sensing the impending story that I am about to tell them as they get themselves comfortable. As soon as the four are ready Pinkie Pie and Rarity come over as well, the pink demon somehow sitting in one of the overhead storage bins as Rarity makes her way to my lap, knowing full well that the last time she did so ended with my petting her till I forced myself to stop an impending beat down.

"Well now that you are all comfortable...let me tell it to you all from the beginning...you see it was in the early stages of the Reaper Wars...."

Flashback Resumed

As the shards of glass fly into the cabin, hitting both Cerberus and N7 operatives alike temporarily disorientating both sides as Urta and I secure ourselves onto the roof of the car so we don't slide off and disappear into the raging blizzard surging around us.

"Urta imma kill you if we don't die from this bullshit!" I shouted as a rocket streaks by the both of us and hits the ceiling of the tunnel causing a chunk of it to fall off and crash into the fourth car behind us, severing it from the rest.

The sounds of gunfire and screams from below indicated that our squad is taking and giving fire at the enemy within as we stare back at the troopers firing at us as we see the one with the rocket launcher load another shot into the tube and just as he raised it to fire again but takes a 50 cal to the head, blowing his head clear off his shoulders and drops the launcher over the side.

Regaining my senses I aim my rifle at the remaining troopers at the lip of the roof, and with pin-point accuracy they drop off the sides lifeless and now cold as the grave as we exit the tunnel to meet the blizzard head on.

"Dude we got to get back inside! Our suits can handle the freezing cold for so long and this blizzard is pushing past the safety measures rapidly! We are losing heat!" oh fuck me.

Nodding at her as we begin to crawl forward, keeping our heads low as to avoid any incoming fire and the occasional tunnel that this train is going through, at one point in time as we get to the other side and land safely, a Nemesis is directly above us and just about to fire but was smacked against the side of the cave wall, splattering against it.

"HA! You owe me fifty credits asshole!" I shouted as we move to the next car, Urta passing my a credit chit marked with the number 50 on it and as Andy kicked open the next door only to be blown back the concussive force of a grenade exploding where is his foot was.

"I do believe those credits are mine." Urta said back to me with a smug look on her visor as I passed the chip back to her in a defeated motion as Katherine picks Andy off the floor just as bullets start flying out the door.

Pointing my rifle at the doorway and squeezing the trigger a few times as I rush into the car as the rest of the squad files in behind me hoping to kill any hostile foot mobiles injured or still fit, and just as we get half way through the room an explosion rocks the car as we hear the sounds of metal groaning and bending from unequal pressure and weight.

"This car is caving in! Get the fuck out!" Emile shouts as we all start sprinting to the other side, my eyes watching the walls buckle and crumple from the pressure inside the cabin and outside are unbalanced and from what I learned from the academy if a pressurized cabin has lost all internal pressure than it will cave in like a heated empty aluminium can flipped over into ice cold water.

Only seconds from disaster all six of us manage to get out and all of us got a show of the car behind us crumple but not from pressurization but from a Thresher Maw that somehow landed on top of the car and slowly crushed it under its weight.

"Holy fucking jumping Jesus on a Pogo stick! Fucking kill it! Kill it with fire do anything just fucking kill it!" I shouted while unloading an incendiary grenade down its gaping maw as firing off an entire clip as well, the rest of the squad firing as well and to my surprise even a few Cerberus troopers fired at it as well. Looks like even they don't that thing killing them or stopping the train from offloading its deadly cargo.

"Keep moving forward and avoid its acidic spit! Rush past these soldiers and get rid of their Atlas and disarm that bomb! We have less than thirty minutes to get this done!" We all nod in agreement and we resume our jobs, rushing past a few of the bastards shooting at both us and the Thresher Maw who is clearly pissed off at us, most likely me as it barrels down at us and slams against the side of the car, trying to dislodge it from its couplings and send us off into the blizzard.

Firing, stabbing, slashing and running was all that we did as we bum rushed to the front of the train, the severed, obliterated and torn up bodies of Cerberus operatives litter the cars of the train as we make it closer and closer to the front but we get stopped from the Atlas mech standing on an open platform and as we see it it unleashes a rocket right at us, exploding behind us and launching Urta and Emile directly beneath it.

Without even thinking I begin to open fire at the hulking mech hoping to draw its fire from my commanding officer and best perverted joke buddy, my bullets pinging off its shields as it raises a leg and slams it down on top of where Emile used to be as he retreats back to us, his rifle lost to the edge of the train as he had to pull out his standard issue pistol and just as the Atlas was about to stomp on Urta the Thresher Maw came back and tackled directly into the mech, taking it away from the rest of us and opening up a clear path to the bomb.

"Roran! Katherine! Disarm that bomb! We will hold off the incoming Cerberus reinforcements! Just do it before we get to the evac center!" Andy shouted while firing his Crusader shotgun at an incoming Kodiak Shuttle as three more arrive and offloads its cargo of Guardians and Engineers.

Boom Tat-tat-tat Bang Tat-tat-tat Tat-tat-tat Shick-shick Tat-tat-tat Kraboom Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat

Turning our heads back to see our squad firing at the enemy behind their cover, Emile blindly firing his pistol at them as the enemy starts to make their way to the open platform, the Guardians trying to form a wall of metal to allow the Engineers time to set up their auto-turrets, a few of them taking their time as one of them quickly rushes to a low crate but gets his turret on his back blown off sending him up in flames as he rolls on the floor before dying.

Rushing to the bomb and nearly shitting a brick in the process cause the damn thing was a fucking mountain cracker, it had enough explosive force and kinetic energy that it can easily disintegrate a mountain much less a mountain range of them that are closely in a circle. Rushing over to the panels on it and detaching it from the bomb we both started and rushed ourselves to deactivate any active countermeasures or secondary power sources so when we do disarm it the damn thing doesn't restart itself and keeps ticking.

Throwing a panel to the side as it rattles against the floor and slowly rumbles its way over to the ledge and slides off into the powdery snow beneath us as I watched Andy take a bullet to the shoulder, dropping his Tempest SMG before picking it up with his right hand and resumed firing but missing and shooting in a wild fashion.

"Okay...power lines...power lines...ah ha here you are you little bastard...." "Roses are Red...Violets are Blue....This is Bullshit...and so are you..." "Cut the power cut the power cut the power....and it is cut!" "I am going to drink myself to the oval office when we are done with this..."

Rrrrrooooooaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr!

"Oh shit its back! And it came back for more!" shouted Emile as we watched the Thresher Maw return but with parts of the Atlas mech clearly in its open jaws.

I only give myself a glance at the incoming giant worm before it brings its open jaws down onto a Cerberus Kodiak and devours it in front of us all, and with another loud roar it keeps coming after the train.

Looking at the bomb, the exposed wiring's and core than to the Thresher Maw who is getting closer by the second I made a brash, risky and highly suicidal idea.

"That is the stupidest fucking idea I have ever heard. How hard should I toss your ass?"

"As hard as you can Katherine, and for gods sake arc me when you throw."

Getting a firm grip on the bomb and using a spare magnet to secure it to my back I give Katherine a thumbs up as she uses her entire concentration to life both me and the bomb and throws it over the train cars as both the Cerberus forces and my squad look up and watch me and the bomb go over their heads and directly towards the Thresher Maw which reopens its gaping maw and consumes us both.

Flashback Interrupted

"Horseapples!" Rainbow Dash plainly says while trying to not give any hint of emotion on a blank face. The rest of her friends seemed to be offended by that word she just used, pony swear 1/ human swear lost count.

"You know what? Fuck it, I am done explaining things to you ponies, if you don't believe my words than believe the damn video logs!" tapping my left arm and bringing up my mission log archives I tap again to my third mission on Noveria and skipped ahead to the part where I was tossed by Katherine. The ponies around me are looking at the screen I brought up, a small series of numbers appear in the upper left hand corner displaying my name and that it is on 'HelmCam'.

"Playing Mission Log #301-15:49:79 PM"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh shit!" crackled over the com system, my body slamming against a spongy surface as the bomb flies right past my down its gullet, its blinking lights quickly fading to the wiggling flesh of its throat.

"Crap I forgot to set the timer!" my voice yelling over the coms again as I forced myself to jump and slide after the bomb, dodging bits of flesh from previous victims and chunks of debris it has eaten while chasing us down.

"Well arm the damn thing and get the hell out of there or was that throw a suicide run?"

Sliding down its gullet seemed easy at first but as I entered its stomach and splashed down into its juices a series of warning klaxons went off in my helmet, the displays of Grade-5 Acid dissolving my shields and barriers if I stay in prolonged exposure to the stuff forcing me to swim fast to get to the bomb. Looking around for it I find it to be floating on the surface, parts of the metal casing already pocket-marked with holes and scorch marks as I dragged it to the surface of a slab of rocks and ice, using Lift to get to the uneven rough ground before tapping into it three minutes to boom time.

After getting the timer ready a junk of the train slides into its stomach, bits and pieces of Cerberus litter parts of the interior that I can see but slowly begin to corrode and dissolve from the stomach acid, taking that as my que to get the fuck out of their I turn my head back to the bomb and melt the base of it to the rocks to ensure it does not leave that spot and after a few shakes I arm the bomb and turned around and began to swim to the entrance of the beast's stomach.

As I get to the stomach's entrance I begin to stab, hack and slash slowly forcing my way out and even a few times stabbing and pulling myself through the clenching esophagus muscles with each sinking stab and pull yanks me a few feet closer to freedom as the timer ticks down, the squeezing muscles bearing down on me as drops of residue stomach acid burns into my shields and barriers until I am at its closed maw. The faint sounds of rocks and stones giving way to its move and a few seconds of it opening to reveal the train far off in the distance as it catches up to it, the timer on my helmet reads 00:01:21:69 before boom time.

Peering out of its jaw again I can see Katherine signalling me to jump and as I do its jaws close just in time for me to be free as it dives back under the ground to try and attack again. As I leaped at the train I can feel a shift in gravity and force, my body being yanked towards the open flatbed of the train but as I looked up I see the last tunnel before reaching the Noverian Civilian Territory Outer Limits but as I get close enough to the flatbed I feel something slam against the back of my legs and the sudden alarms of my suit rupturing.

Slamming hard against the flatbed of the train and rolling four feet towards of where the bomb used to be as I try to get my bearings and stand up but I only managed to fall face first onto the floor, turning my head to my legs to see why I ate shit but as I look at my legs I can clearly see that I was missing half of them. My feet were gone up to below my knee caps, the synthetic fibers that formed the false muscles are ripped, torn and jagged, the wiring's that formed the nerves and blood vessels were wiggling and writhing as they tried to find their connecting wires only to find frigid air and snow. Only 15 seconds left on the timer.

"Holy shit! Major Emile get over here quick! The crazy bastard is back and he is alive! Oh damn he is missing his shins haha looks like someone is a mid-" Urta gets cut off as a gust of air gets sucked from the general area as it gets directed behind us and in an instant it gets blown back toward us at a higher rate of speed rattling the train cars behind and in front of us as a large mushroom cloud slowly forms up. A large shock wave blasts through all of us as we feel the force of it knock all of us off our feet but for me it just knocks me down onto my ass again.

In an instant all that I heard from my helmet was the sound of strange sonic vibrations coursing through my head, my eyes swirling around my head like crazy unable to concentrate on anything as I forced my helmet to look in the general direction of the blast as I can barely see the mountain behind us disintegrated into large flying junks of debris and mountain rocks hurtling in all directions as a chunk slams into a rear car on the short train wrenching it off the connectors before the secondary shock wave flies directly at us, un-linking the train from its couplings and flinging it off course sending all six of us off the flatbed and into snow.

Video Fed Disrupted, Video Fed Re-Established 03:59:58:01

*cough cough* *cough cough cough* "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck........oh fuuuuuck me....." my voice crappy and weak, the visor on my helmet completely covered in snow and ice, unable to see anything from the sheet of ice.

Slowly pulling myself up I can see chunks of metal scattered around, burning pieces of train are littered about, pieces of body armor and frozen corpses are all around me, crawling to the nearest fire to try to heat myself up, the rupture in my suit causing havoc with my suit's internal heat emissions. Looking around I noticed that everything was doubled and that every few seconds my visor fills with static until it finally hit me that my helmet is cracked and damaged, shaking my vision clear again before crawling around and tapping on my com system an S.O.S. to be picked up for med-evac and search and rescue.

"Calling on all friendly and open channels, this is Staff Sergeant Roran Zidane of the Earth Systems Alliance and N7 H.R.H.R. Operations, any and all friendly forces that hear this I have pinged my location and am awaiting pick up, I am crippled with stunted mobility. I say again I request Med-Evac and search and rescue for missing squad mates." sending that message into a loop as I crawl to another fire, searching for anything useful to find my Vindicator stuck in a frozen grip of a dead Cerberus Centurion as I yank it free and check its thermal clip to sadly find it empty.

"This is gonna be a long wait...."

Five hours of waiting and feeling my limbs slowly lock up and stiffen was a very boring death to be frozen alive but the whine of a pulse engine breaks me from my addled thoughts to see Katherine and Urta jump out of the Kodiak with guns bared and pointing around until I click my com system one last time before falling over from the winds.

"About...damn...time.....fuckers..."

End of Video Fed

"And that is why I hate the fucking snow...." crossing my arms after turning off my omni-tool, the ponies were shocked to see the video and before they even say anything I hit myself hard enough upside the head with the rifle butt of my Typhoon to knock myself out.

2 Hours Later

'So.....Katherine what do you think of this so called Crystal Kingdom? Sounds like bullshit to me cause the only crystal kingdom I believe in was the piles of red sand that littered my room in Omega.'

'I think it is a bit silly but still that seems a bit to much you druggie.'

'Bite me Kat, I got discharged from the Alliance and got the hell away from Cerberus, I earned those mountains of red sand and by god it was fucking good! Fuck normal white teeth I liked my scary as hell glowing red teeth that tells people that I do red sand and I am crazy enough to any suicidal job for another dose, and besides...getting recruited back into the Alliance made me lose my addiction...even though red sand is sooooooo good......snorting salt was a stupid idea.'

'Of course that was a stupid idea! If that was a drug meant just for ponies what would make you think it would work for you?'

'Nothing ventured, nothing gained.'

'Yea yea yea, I know that all to well with you, but still you could have told me you were going to go the bar and get trashed! You should that I wanted to possess some hapless sucker so we can spend some drinking time together and besides I bet I could still drink you under the table.'

'You wanna bet?'

'First bar we find in this new place?'

'Your on.'

3 Hours Later

Snoring loudly in my helmet, the sounds carrying over to the rest of the train car, the train slowing down as it reaches its station to offload its passengers of eight.

Still asleep I feel something poking my shoulder a few times but I brush it off and lean in the opposite direction until I feel something prodding my other shoulder a few more times which earned my hand trying to shoo them away, the barely audio able groans only cause me to groan as well as I shift into a much more comfortable position which leads to something heavy dropping on my head snapping me from my sleep.

"Billy no!" I shouted as I jump through an open window and rolled onto the snow with my fists out in a Irish boxing style but upon the sight of the falling snow and soft blowing wind I remember where I am currently at, "Well would you look at that....were here...." groaning a bit at the endless fields of snow in all directions I look at, spotting a few randomly placed boulders.

Lowering my arms and taking another look around before going to the train to grab my one bag and footlocker from my bin but upon going back to my section I found it to be empty and from looking out the window my friends on the other side with my gear, Pinkie Pie was waving at me and just as she waved the train started to depart back to Equestria and in that moment I jumped out of another window but this time it was not open and I was than covered in shards of glass and snow.

The sounds of hooves trotting in snow filled my ears as I got up and dusted myself off, trying to act like nothing happened.

"Was that really necessary?" Rarity asks while I look over at her, her face had the look of not amused.

"Girl you should know me by now that everything I do is absolutely necessary, even if it looks like it isn't necessary but sadly it is. Remember that next time something comes up and I had to do something displeasing to keep you safe from harm." going over to Pinkie Pie who was hopping up and down in place as I grabbed my bag of spare uniforms, medical supplies, my copy of Fornax that I 'found' in the barracks and four bottles of hard cider from the Shady Trough and hanging it over my left arm as I grabbed my footlocker filled with my extra ammunition, grenades, armor parts, my pistol and shotguns, an extra out-of-date omni-tool and the all important rationed food and shifted it over my right shoulder.

Watching the girls grab their belongings and placing their saddlebags on their backs and Spike hopping onto Twilight's back and as they trotted off in a seemingly random direction I follow behind them, keeping my Typhoon out and ready for anything to pop up and ambush us. Thankfully before departing Equestria I managed to ask Celestia to enchant my armor to look like those of her royal guards and at first she thought it was because I was showing favoritism towards her and partially that was true but the other reason was since I was heading to the frozen north which snow is white and her guards armor is also white I would easily blend in.

Smart thinking for me but even better was that I can scare the shit out of the ponies if I ran around them and popped out of no where.

As we trudged through the snow in this godforsaken tundra up ahead I can clearly see the girls talking but what surprised me was that Spike was trailing behind and was wearing a a snow suit of sorts with the hood up making him look like an Eskimo of my time, and by god did it look awesome with the thick goggles went with it.

"I swear Spike if this is about trying to find a way to impress your marefriend than imma just tell Twilight who it is cause my advice is for those that are interested in the 'High Stakes High Rewards' style and by the way you are trying to sway her into your scaly arms it's not gonna cut it." I said, pulling out an Arrogant Bastard Cigar and lighting it but just as quickly as it lights it freezes and with a deep sigh I put it back into its silver tube home.

"But I was just going to ask you what exactly are you here for? I mean Princess Celestia told Twilight that she had some sort of test to complete up here and we can easily handle any kind of danger that would show itself." he said while waddling in the snow as it gets taller slowly and just as I thought this trip couldn't get anymore boring or uninteresting a figure slowly materializes off in the distance and spotting the being I hook my footlocker to my shoulder as I raise my Typhoon to arm as I aim down the scope and zero in on the target and moving at a fast brisk pace in front of the ponies.

"Star!" I shouted as I stop in front of the six ponies plus baby dragon, kneeling down and switching the safety switch off, the figure off in the distance stops in its tracks, the snow now falling at a faster rate of speed and is now slanted, obscuring my vision to only 50 meters.

"Star! Star or I will fire upon you!" I shout again, squeezing the specialized pistol mold grip and keeping my trigger finger on the switch of death, my eye never leaving the scope as I keep it zero in on the obscured figure in the tundra.

Just as it resumed its approach I almost squeezed the trigger until I saw through the obscuring blizzard that it was a pony and upon slightly closer approach it was Shining Armor but in winter-like apparel that consisted of a jet black scarf and some strange ass black goggles.

"I said Star jackass....you already forgot the response code didn't you? Read my field guide when you get back home..." I grumbled half way through the yelling, lowering my rifle and clipping it to my waist as he got closer.

'Humanity 2, Equestrian 0.'

After watching Twilight and Shining hug briefly, followed by me making a gag sound in annoyance I move past them and looked around, keeping my eyes peeled for any ice beasts or worse case scenario, Thresher Maw.

"We better get moving, there are things out here we really don't want to run into after dark." the look on Shining's face was fear and most likely scared shitless.

From behind me and the two we faintly hear Fluttershy speak up in her usual hushed tone.

"What kind of things?" in my mind I can think of so many things, husks, my father, Geth, Saren, Hitler, Collecters, Stalin, a very drunk krogan, a very pissed off krogan, vorcha, me after last round of drinks at Chora's Den, and the list goes on.

"Let's just say that the Empire isn't the only thing that has returned." he turned his head, his eyes slightly closed with repressed anger towards the mysterious being that came back. I take that mysterious hostile as a challenge to my right to badassery trophy.

As soon as we left the train station, following after Shining Armor while I take his rear flank, keeping my Typhoon un-clipped and in a readied position to immediately open fire on anything that gets in our way, my helmet sealed shut tightly and I turned the noise down only to the point of where I can still hear what they are saying but in a much quieter tone.

"Something keeps trying to get in! We think it is the unicorn king who originally cursed the place." he said as his eyes slowly moved left to right and back again, trying to find the so called unicorn king, I just keep my finger on the trigger while slightly jumping in my armor feeling something cold crawl against my skin.

"But Princess Celestia said that I was sent here to find a way to protect the Empire? If King Sombra can't get in than it must mean it already is protected?" I heard Twilight speak as I roll my eyes, one rule of being hostile enemy trying to breach a shield barrier or outer defenses, keep attacking until they buckle and cave in or lower their guard.

Just as we get past a large mound of rock and snow a wolves howl echoes throughout the snowy plains as Fluttershy starts to flip out and if I was near her I would have backhanded her head and told her to calm the fuck down but knowing that anger her friends and also that whatever it was is close, it would have been a waste of time.

"We have to get the Crystal Empire, now!" Shining shouts while turning around and just as I do the same a large pillar of inky black smoke rises from the ground and a pair of green red centered eyes billowing purple flames at the very top, I nearly shit a brick thinking I have seen everything this world had to offer.

"Holy fucking shit! I was wrong for once!" I screamed over my com system as I brought up my Typhoon and opened fire, unleashing burst fire of fifteen rounds per burst five times as I started to move back as the ponies started to gallop as if their asses was on fire cause in this case it might as well be.

That thing looked at the ponies for a few seconds before locking its gaze with mine and in that moment I heard a strange voice drive a spike into my brain, trying to wrench control.

"Human.....welcome....home.....give unto....my will." its voice was dark and cold, trying to force its will upon my own and smother it to death.

"Oh fuck no!" I shouted, shaking my head and kept on firing before turning around and ran full tilt and caught up to the rest of the gang, turning my heavy rifle around near my shoulders and started to blind fire behind me, trying to keep it away.

"Do not resist....give yourself over....and be spared." it kept speaking, its will exerting more power as it lashed out against my own, but mine is already being protected by a friendly passenger and I am not breaking without a fight.

"Stay the fuck out of my head!" I kept firing till my gun was empty forcing me to eject the thermal clip and snatch it in mid-air, storing it in a side pocket to be recharged later.

"We are almost there!" Shining shouts as he slides to a halt and turns around, I follow suit as I slam a new thermal clip into its home and pulled back the charging handle and aimed down the scope at the pillar of smoke. As I was half way empty of my clip I used my left hand to unstrap my footlocker and travelers bag and threw them through the dome, hoping that it is safe enough to leave there and that Twilight is smart enough to take it to where ever the hell I am staying.

"Struggle if you wish....your mind will be mine."

"Shut the fuck up and die already god damn it!" I continued to fire until I was out of ammo again, the black smoke with eyes keeps staring at me but when Shining blasts a bolt of magic at it, it seemed to dodge and pay attention to him and as it came crashing down it disappeared but resurfaced behind me, and in that moment I grabbed Shining by the tail, said that I was sorry and hurled his fat flank into the dome as it rises up to slam down again. Dropping a primed grenade I got only one step away before it exploded, throwing me far as I felt something cold grab me by the neck in a vice grip and threw me far, my body slamming into ice and rocks until it gave way as I fell down to the depths of the tundra.

"You shall be the first...to witness my arrival." its voice growing weaker as I drift off into the unknown darkness of the void.

Ice Caverns, Under the Crystal Empire, Afternoon

'Pain we seriously need to stop meeting like this, I am getting tired of waking up with a massive head ache and hangover.'

"So our lord has found another human aiding the ponies....just like the ones he found a thousand years ago....."

"Be quiet fool! He can hear us!"

"He can't you blockhead! He is still out cold!"

"Ha ha, funny punny, but still he can hear us. Just cause he is out like a candle does not mean he can not still hear our words!"

"You worry to much...and besides we have to get back to the ice fields to replenish our bodies...his keeps emitting heat like a roaring furnace."

"That I can agree with."

The feeling of being dragged ends as I can feel my body being tossed into a cold cell, my body refusing to move on my command as my limbs feel like they are made of solid lead and that all my nerves are frayed and disconnected, even my eyes refuse to open to my will.

"You okay in that noggin of yours Roran? Come on man this is getting very old real fast, wake the fuck up!"

I felt something slap my face and at that instant I can feel my body responding to my thoughts as my fingers and toes flexed within their hardened compartments, my eyes opening back to the word as my first sight was that of a large ice ceiling and as I sat up I saw that the entire room was made of ice.

"Thank god you are awake, listen buddy we need to get the fuck out of here cause from what I saw from your unconscious fat ass was that great big asshole of a unicorn king speaking about using you as some sort of breeder to raise an army of soldiers to bend to his will, and from what I know of in pony land is that we are most likely unable to even do that, let alone knock any pony up, so worst case is that it works and your will is more broken than Shepard getting spaced."

'Don't make fun of the Commander like that, and we all know what happens when we get spaced, our eyes explode and we expand till we burst unless we are in our suits. Worst case is that he kills me, second worse is that I get chained to the wall and used till I die, best case is that I get the fuck out of...wherever the fucking hell this is.'

"Oh look the meatbag is awake, hold still in your cell till King Sombra comes to speak with you...human."

Giving him the finger as I stand up, looking around to find that I was staring right the frozen tundra, the blizzard still going and very far off into the distance, the glowing blue dome.

"Do not think of escaping from your temporary new home....the last humans that resisted my will were weak but you...you are strong...strong enough to resist longer than others....a trait that is perfect for my general of my armies.....even in defeat you do not give in to a stronger enemy, a trait that fits the role of my general....obey me and whatever you desire is yours....rebel against me and your life is forfeit."

"Thanks but no thanks, I like being free and following someone that was easily defeated by both Celestia and Luna only means that once they are here your ass is grass. You have nothing to offer me let alone the power to hold me here." going over to the window and extending my omni-blade to cut the ice bars out and making a hole large enough for me to fit through I create myself a grip at the top of the window to jump out but his words spoke again.

"Oh my poor mislead human friend, I have everything you can ever want and more, power, wealth, immortality..."

"Yea, I already am strong enough to probably go toe-to-hoof against Celestia so no thanks, wealth? What the fuck am I going to spend it on? I am a soldier I don't have time for crap like that. Immortality? Dude I already got something like that but that cost is a motherfucker."

"...and, the loving embrace of an old friend of yours." his voice slowly saying the last part as I was half way out the window but stopped as I turned my head and jumped back in, my eyes burning now with barely bound wrath.

"You have my utmost attention.....for now."

Crystal Palace

Twilight's pov

"I am sorry Twilly but we can't outside of the shield while King Sombra is out there trying to get in, your friend just has to fend for himself and we both know that he can handle anything, probably even Sombra himself."

"I don't know about him being able to handle Sombra by himself, he probably is just trying to lure him away or is running back home, he doesn't seem so tough to me."

"Rainbow Dash he punched Discord in the head at a conference meeting with the delegates from the other nations. He actually made physical contact which left him with a chipped snaggletooth and temporary blindness."

"Okay maybe he can handle it but five bits says he comes back crying like a baby."

"An' I bet ya five bits that he come back like a champ."

"Your on Applejack."

"Girls...I think he can take care of himself, but for now we need to help the crystal ponies feel like themselves again before Sombra's rule."

Ice Caverns

Roran's pov

"So that is all I must do than....slow my friends down long enough for you to regain your form and break through the barrier and reclaim the crystal throne from Princess Cadence. This is high treason we are talking about King Sombra and I am not planning to be spending my life as a corpsicle or worse banished to the sun by Celestia. Your plan must be foolproof before I even consider joining you, and I must see and feel that my friend is alive and is not just an illusion that you conjured up to trick me." I said while standing in the middle of a large cavernous throne room made of ice and black crystals, a spectral pony is sitting on said throne but the only thing that looks visible and solid are his eyes.

"I see that you are no fool to deals.....the last humans that were here before you....were indeed fools, you are clearly a cut above the rest....but for now I will be true to my word. Ice Elementals, bring out our guest and do be gentle, I rather not lose a potential ally for your mistakes." Sombra said while the two ice ponies that brought me to the chamber bowed down before combining themselves to the floor and disappearing into it.

"If you trick me, I will burn this place down and leave and report it back to Cadence of where you have been hiding, she may be a pacifist but I sure as hell am not. You may be a ghost but that does not mean that your servants are not resistant to pain or death and I will not stop till either you are back to wherever the hell you came from or that my job is done and of no longer of any use." crossing my arms as I tap open my omni-tool to activate a tracking system but quickly changed it to squad chat to see if Spike was smart enough to grab one of my spares and put it on, sadly he wasn't.

Sombra simply stares at me for a while before slowly shifting off from his throne and made his way next to me, his blood red horn glowing a strange purple flame hue as my omni-tool shuts down and my suit starts to lose power."The last humans I have met....they wore the similar armor just like yours....but was all white with black lines bearing a strange golden emblem. They were already weak minded let alone weak willed....controlling them has been...enjoyable to say the least."

Locking my eyes with his I moved down into a crouching position, readying myself for anything and in that moment he smirks and stands before me, looking me over as I slowly pull out my bayonet that I have learned to keep on hand at all times, especially during dinner time at my house, a table with chunks of manticore meat that Kara 'acquired' when she is out of the house.

"Just because my suit may be dying along with my omni-tools doesn't mean I am defenseless let alone not a hazard to ones health and longevity." I said while trying to overcome the slowly quieting of my voice as the helmet's com system slowly dies down from power loss, my bayonet reverse handed.

Sombra simply chuckles to himself as he releases his hold on my power systems and in moments everything turns back on and resumes normal procedures in the event of power lose, reboot and resume normal protocols.

"I had the time to study the armor of those twenty fools that served me, their armor was in every way inferior to yours....for what I have done should have instantly turned you off but instead it was slowly dying.......only to prove that you do not entirely rely on your suit to keep you alive. A true warrior of the field." his voice trying to drill back into my head as I kept resisting his advances, my own body trying to not cave in.

"My lord we have our guest waiting just outside." one of the ice ponies says while holding the large double doors open as another slowly walks in, a figure using him...her...it as support, my eyes were not leaving Sombra's, not wanting to get stabbed in the back as soon as I turn my head to see an illusion but as I let my curiosity get the better of me I turn to see who or what it is.

My eyes could not look away, no matter how hard I try to.

"Keelah se'lai....Roran....is is that really you?"

"Hilo'Jaa vas Idenna....never thought I would see your face again, I thought only I survived that laser to the face but it seems that death or fate has intervened to bring us here....but is it really you are just an illusion created by Sombra?"

"Remember that time aboard the Citadel and you told me that you stole the-" Hilo'Jaa managed to get out before I raised my hand to stop her, knowing enough.

"Okay okay...I believe you, you were the only one I told about the time I stole the turian ambassador's car for a drive and brought it back all dinged up...but still how the hell did you get from Lower London to the middle of bumfuck nowhere?" I said while waving both my hands and bayonet to the entire room, stopping my left hand at Sombra.

"When I was imprisoned in the ice of the dark void, I spread myself out....to find willing and unwilling servants to free me, in my search I found her....and I almost got to you...Celestia's damned pones got to you before I did..."

"So you brought her here.....you have my thanks....but I still don't trust you to keep your word."

Sombra just looks at me before going back to his throne as I rush off to give my old friend a hug, a very tight hug that resulted in her giving one just as lung crushing until we broke it off.

"King Sombra, as long as she is safe and sound....I will do as you say...but the minute you break our deal." I moved my bayonet to my threat and made a mock slitting motion to show him what will happen to him if he fails to uphold his end.

"The same said to you my general....the same said to you."

Crystal Library

"We got to find that book the can help us bring the joy and spirit back to these crystal ponies....but where....where!" Twilight shouted while levitating stack after stack of books down from the colossal shelves down to the ground, removing each one to try and find the correct one.

"I tell ya Twi, this is harder than it looks...so many books and so little time, we just might not be able to do it." Applejack said while flipping through pages of another book, throwing it to the side as Spike catches it and places it on a cart before moving off to the piles far off.

"Did you try actually checking the history section of the library?" I shouted, my hands on the back of my head as I watched the ponies scrambling back and forth until they heard my voice and all stopped to gaze upon me.

I think Twilight was the first one to run up to me before asking me where I was, what happened and why am I all scratched up and partially frozen.

"Well...Sombra hits pretty hard...damn bastard gives one hell of a punch." I said while moving to the history section, quickly moving to the middle of it, climbing the wooden boards to until I stopped at a certain large locked book and jumped down to present it to the others.

"This is it! But how did you find it?" Twilight asks confused as that I found it with ease and did not even had to bother going through piles of worthless books just to find it and before I even speak I just tap her upside the head with it, telling her it was under 'C' in history and Pinkie Pie heard that and started to laugh, immediately knowing that I did exactly what she always did when she was at the library and Twilight couldn't find a book.

Giving her a look before placing it down to the ground so they could read it they began to flip through the pages, saying aloud what they need to do before I inadvertently made them break out into song, and at that moment I sealed my helmet shut and turned off all external com systems so I could not hear what they were saying.

Just as the music died down they left the book behind in my care before rushing off back to Cadence to tell her the news and how to save the kingdom but it left me alone with the book of their salvation.

"This is for you Hilo'Jaa....this is all for you....." I quietly said before opening the book one last time and flipped it to the back and found the last page, detailing that crystal heart must be placed back at the center of the city and that it was lost when Sombra himself hid it from all the crystal ponies so they could never find it.

With only one regret I grabbed the page and tore it from the book before burning it and walked out the door to follow after them.

"This is for you....Keelah se'lai....."

Chapter 19: The Darkness

The sounds of screaming and raging fires fill the afternoon skies with the smell of burning wood and fur, ponies running left and right trying to get away from the coming doom as they run into their old homes and hiding under anything that they think that will protect them from evil. Black crystals rising from the ground as it saps the life from anything nearby corrupting the very soil till it withers and dies from the taint.

Tall thin figures shuffling down the streets of the city, their corroded, bullet-ridden armor partially reflecting in the dull light of smoke covered skies, the faces of the figures are just like the armor they are wearing, corroded and destroyed, their pitch black eyes blankly staring forward as they fire at whatever moves or makes a sound, their shots going wide as ponies run and cower in terror and fear.

As I watched the city burn and crumble as the darkness began it's cursed siege I only watch it unfold until the tiny voice in my head along with single pleading look from an exhausted princess was all it took for me to put on my helmet and grab my rifle before walking to the large doors leading out of the throne room to stop the siege.

Turning my head to the ponies in the room and the princess I can only nod at them before turning on the visor and obscuring my face to their views as I speak one last time to them.

"Last one out, get the lights."

Earlier That Day

"So you are telling me Twilight, we need to raise these ponies spirits..."

"Uh huh."

"By throwing a large ass carnival of sorts that consists of food and games and other fun stuff..."

"Yea."

"And by doing all this not only these crystal ponies will be happy but it will also do some sort of crazy pony magic that will banish King Sombra back to wherever the hell he came from and save the Crystal Empire?"

"In a nutshell, pretty much yes and you can help us!"

"When have I ever agreed to such thing?"

"You did when you were told to help us do anything it takes to save the Empire, oh and that Princess Celestia said that if you don't help us that she will have a surprise waiting for you back home."

"Oh dear god she found my por-...I mean my dru-.... I mean....fine I'll help you...." I sagged as I got off my temporary bed, my armor resting on half a ponyquin and my helmet resting on a small hat rack, my weapons litter the floor except for my pistol which remains strapped to my right thigh encase of an emergency or in the event I need to shoot something that is annoying.

As we both walked out to the halls of the crystal palace I realized that their was hardly any guards present along with the servants, my guess Sombra made his own during his reign. Taking glances around I saw that everything was shiny, and by shiny I mean it was so reflective that you can see yourself, the wall behind you reflecting off the wall you were facing so it would create an infinite reflection, it was oddly relaxing.

Walking down the corridors was near deathly quiet and it was uneventful until we were followed out by the rest of our friends, except that Katherine stayed in my head so no one notices that I brought a ghost that used to love drinking probably her weight in booze...she probably could if she wanted to. As soon as we take out first step out of the palace I noticed how festive the place looked already, stalls were open, food was cooking or already on display, all sorts of games were up and running and in the corner of my right eye, a jousting area was set up with armor and lances.

"Okay I take that back, I am helping you girls with this...and...and is that pie I smell?" I said while looking towards a stall that was absolutely filled with pies, the sweet tasty aroma coming off that stall was enough to send my body on a 'Search-and-Consume' mission which I accepted without a moments pause.

There are a few things in life that I can truly appreciate and even fewer of those things now exist in this world and those things are pies, jokes, enemies, cheese wheels, wine bottles, healthy doses of insanity, drinking friends, affection and above all else, someone to fall head over heels for but sadly that is a shot so long that even the most professional of snipers will have trouble acquiring and firing at. Just as my thoughts started to strangely drift over to the love section of my head I was blindsided by a pie to the face by none other than Pinkie Pie, the notorious prankster and breaker of the laws of physics. Licking and wiping my face clean before looking to where the pink devil has galloped off to in hopes of evading capture by me but since this strange festival has put me into a happy mood for once in a long ass span of time I decided against chasing the demon from hell and returned to my hunt of the pie stand which gladly ended shortly because I was in front of it.

"Hello delicious pies, I hope you have been waiting for me cause I am so hungry and can devour you all and still have room for one more. Now which one of you shall I try first....hmmm....pecan pie....blueberry pie....whipped cream pie....cherry pi- wait....whipped cream...why is that-" I was cut off when the pie shot right at my face but my reflexes kicked in to avoid that a second time but sadly Twilight was behind me about to say something when it flew right to her face and with a loud splat as it exploded all over her face.

I just stared at her for a few seconds and before I even have a chance to laugh her horn started to glow and that was my que to not laugh as the whipped cream was wiped off and placed into a nearby trash can. Waiting for her to clean up I quickly snag myself a free pumpkin pie slice and with the greatest of smiles I can procure at such an hour I make a small moan of satisfaction as I rapidly consume the pie piece before moving onto another and another and seven slices later left the stand in a much brighter mood with Twilight trailing after me, giving me a quizzical look wondering how I can manage to pack away a whole pie without feeling sick or in my case, bloated and slow.

"Tons of practice, when you live on the streets for your entire youth you pick up things relatively easily, eating, stealing, lying, pick pocketing and lock picking are a few things I can tell you, the other things I rather not say in public. And besides Twilight, it was just one pie and that wouldn't have put a dent into my muscularly trim body, best it would have done was give me an excuse to start exercising again to burn off that one pie. If I had eaten three to five pies than I would have forced my ass to go on a diet....so food was good, what was next on your list of things to raise the spirits of these ponies?" I said while licking my fingers clean of pumpkin and cherry residue on my finger tips as we walked down the streets going over to a different section of the city.

Taking a look around I noticed that these so called 'crystal' ponies were steering clear from me as if I was royalty or the plague, either one was good in my books cause I have no time in dealing with ponies coming up to ask me what the hell I am and that to not eat them, pony meat is fucking nasty, tried it once at a eatery on Earth. I wanted to burn that building down to the ground but sadly I was still a recruit in the Alliance and I didn't want to get kicked out to early for arson.

Going around a few buildings we ended up at a large arena like area of sorts, filled with stalls filled with different games and assorted events, a jousting area to the far right, what I think is the hoop throwing game to the left, frisbee tossing, puzzles and other things that do not grab my attention but the jousting area did.

Jogging over to it and picking up the gear required to play it, the armor it appeared to look almost like the roman armor worn by their soldiers and the lance that was to be used seems to be attached to the left side of the chestplate . The helmet and armor alone looked like royal guard armor just lightened and reinforced to prevent the lance from caving in the armor and maiming or killing the occupant.

"Not sure how you ponies manage to put things on but this I can guess is that this is a full on physical game....I can probably do this...." thinking on it a bit and looking around I can tell that this will require me to be moving alot and exerting myself for the sake of the jousting but it will be so worth it when I slam into the unsuspecting pony that thinks that they can beat me in brute strength.

About three hours into the day everything is in full swing, or more apparently slow-as-a-fucking-turtle swing. These crystal ponies all have their heads down, barely touching the ground as they slowly shuffle from place to place, all sad and gloomy.

"I'd find more cheer in a graveyard." I said to Pinkie Pie who strangely understood it and giggled at it.

"Silly Rorry, graveyards aren't full of cheers but tears!" I rolled my eyes before explaining it to her.

"Pinkie, if you have seen the graveyard I was in than you would understand but sadly you didn't see it and you weren't there. It was a glorious shooting gallery and I won so many prizes that day. So many trophies, lamps, codpieces, cups and bowls....hmm....now that I remember it was kinda sad now that I think about it....eh better to forget about certain things and focus on- is that a knife throwing game? How the hell do you ponies even manage to grip those things and throw it?" I stared confusedly as I watched one of the few stallions I have seen in this city managed to grab a knife in his hoof and very carefully threw it at the wooden board that was like ten feet away.

Looking right at Twilight and trying my best to give her my sad child face, wanting to start having fun with the violent and fun games and as she gave the smallest of nods I pumped my fist into the air and sprinted off in some random direction.

"WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!"

As I ran off around corners, stalls and buildings the sounds of hooves steadily catching up behind me meant that I was still being followed, most likely to make sure I don't accidentally harm any civilian. Ignoring the trailing pony I ran to the first game that caught my attention and it was a pony version of the strong arm game with matching tiny mallet and metal bar.

'Huh...pony sized mallet....I thought they needed fingers to work a pole.'

'Haha nice one.'

'Thanks.'

Going over to the game I stood near the end of the line, watching pony after pony take a turn at swinging the large-for-a-pony sized wooden mallet at the ramp, sending the metal bar up and come back down, a few of them walked away with a slight smile on their face and a spring in their step while others grumbled under their breath and with their heads low. As I waited for my turn I saw Pinkie operating the game for a moment before walking behind it and suddenly appearing right next to me which earns a loud cursing from me and a facehoof from Twilight.

"Pink Demon I swear if you scare me like that while I am armed with anything large than a pen cap than you would be scaring yourself to an early funeral." her ears lowered for a moment as I continued, "But I will play your games, it has been so many years since I had any real enjoyment in these types of activities, and besides this one looks like my sort of thing." Pinkies ears went back up as she rumbles a bit before somehow launching into the air and somehow an explosion of confetti showers everywhere as I start to question how long my sanity can hold on when that reality defying pony is near me.

Facing Twilight I just look at her with a look of quizzical 'what the fuck' stare as she shrugs and just mouths 'Pinkie being Pinkie' which to me currently is the most legitimacy of an answer that will ever be created for that pink fluff of sugar coated energy of doom.

Going to the small mallet and ramp I stood a fair distance away so I could have a clean hit on the small white painted target on the wooden board and as I placed on hand on the mallet I took notice that I would only need one hand to grip it and looking at the target I could easily smack it into kingdom come and than some more. Smiling broadly I covered my eyes with my free hand, stood on one leg and raised the mallet above my ahead as I started to laugh like a normal person.

"Hey look! One hand only!" I said before bringing the hammer down on the ramp, the metal bar flew upwards and with a resounding KLANG sound I hit the top but the sound did not die off it instead kept going but in a garbled echo until all the crystal ponies and normal ponies plus baby dragon looked up to see the bell as a clean hole the exact shape of the bar going through both ends. I stared sheepishly at Twilight who was just staring at the bell, amazed that I smacked the ramp with such force that it probably sent the metal bar into orbit, Spike was busy trying not to die from laughter from all the slack-jawed expressions from everyone around me and Pinkie, I had no fucking idea what that crazy mare was doing cause I couldn't find her at all.

After a while the crystal ponies still maintained their slack-jawed expressions and Twilight finally snapped out of it and was slowly backing away from the game with Spike in tow, I took that moment to slowly backpedal away from all of them and ever so carefully crawled under a tent flap and moved through it, trying to be as stealthy as possible which achieved nothing cause I was at the receiving end of a throwing knife which landed near my head with a soft puff sound of it landing on hay.

The pony who through that knife seemed to look like an off-duty guard and when he saw me he almost went for another throwing knife but thought against it and allowed me to get pull myself off the dusty ground and walk off the target range and as I did he grabbed a knife with his hoof somehow, tried to focus on the wooden plank on the other side and let loose, this time his aim was true and it got a bullseye which he did a small hoof pump in the air and I shit you not I saw his color go from depressing-as-fuck grey blue to a not-so-depressing-as-fuck light blue.

"Hey big fella, you up for a match of long knives?" he said while grabbing a third knife and threw it at the target, hitting near the center but was slightly off course. Looking at him I saw that his armor was resting by his right front hooves and his helmet on the counter, and inside said helmet was a sandwich of sorts and if my eyes were being crappy and were failing on me now I can instantly recognize that strange brown and purple colored combination.

"Okay I'm in, winner gets the sandwich, loser has to do twenty laps around the palace before sundown." I said back to him as he raised a hoof and we shook on it.

First up was me and sadly the poor bastard did not know was that I was a fucking champion knife thrower back at the Earth Systems Alliance N7 HQ, and everyone always bet that I would win, I never disappoint my fans. Grabbing the first knife on the counter I twirled it in one hand before giving it a soft fling into the air, letting it spin rapidly before grabbing the blade and threw it not as hard as I can out of fear that the knife will go right through the wooden target, the tarp, the wooden pillar behind the tarp and into an unsuspecting ponies skull. The knife sailed toward its target and with a resounding thunk it landed directly in the middle, resting flat horizontally.

"Your turn." I said with a bemused smile, my arms crossed as he grabs his knife with his teeth, and with a slight turn of his body and a massive turn from his neck and head, his knife flew and smacked sideways into his target, getting a near center.

By the time Twilight found me I was eating a delicious otherworldly peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich, I was in pure and utter childish bliss, taking the smallest of bites from it while watching the guard march around the palace his head hung low in defeat. Twilight stares at me for a while, just looking at me very slowly eating my easily hard earned sandwich than to the guard that was now doing his second lap around the palace, head still hung low.

"Don't say anything Twilight, just don't. Do not ruin this moment for me." I said while taking another bite.

After finishing my taste lunch of sorts I followed Twilight and Spike to Rarity's area of the carnival-like event, her spot was a hat making of sorts with what I think is wicker basket material and that the way she was making it seemed easy enough that an idiot can do it.

Walking over to her booth I sit down on the grass instead of the stool to save what little money I have, Celestia never really telling me what I can buy with 500 bits but than again she might just think that I know and might ignore my ignorant ass. Grabbing a few strands of hat material I began to assemble the headband of the simple hat that I was making but little did I know that I had no fucking idea what I was doing.

"Erm....a top hat? A wicker top hat? Not sure how I even managed to make this." placing the all beige one and a half feet tall top hat down I had a very quick brainfart and made a matching wicker monocle eye piece to go with the top hat and in an even dumber state of mind went over to Spike, placed the hat on his head and put on his eye the monocle.

As Spike looks up at me I just shrug and mindlessly wander around, the crystal ponies still avoiding me like the plague but a few do not move away, seemingly thinking that I am safe to be around until I turn to look near their general direction and they act up and try to leave my gaze.

"So Spike," I said while sitting next to him, watching Twilight talk to Rarity about the crystal heart and some other BS that I am to bored to pay attention to at the given moment, "Is this mare always so inquisitive about every little thing and does she really go to bed with a small doll?" pulling out a cig from the train ride in and lighting it a second time and taking a good inhale of the smokey death stick.

Spike takes a few moments to think before giving his reply, "Yea Roran, she does act like that when she finds something interesting or new to her, and besides I thought you liked receiving the attention."

"Not like that, I like the kind of attention when the hero returns from something very important and has defeated the evil demon and rescued the damsel in distress, being the subject on a rotating disk getting prodded with a stick for a science experiment is something more like a salarian might enjoy, that or an asari scientist....I bet you ten bits that Twilight is gonna ask me more questions once we get back home."

"I raise your ten bits with five bits and a ruby that she won't ask you any questions once we go home."

"Deal."

Shaking hands with Spike I get moving to the next attraction that has captured my gaze for the moment and moved over to the jousting area and took a seat on a fairly sturdy stool that seemed to support my weight. Taking a few glances around I can see and hear that these crystal ponies are looking and talking about me behind my back, saying things that I thought ponies would never say to someone.

"How did a human get here?" "I thought they were all defeated when the royal sisters banished King Sombra back into the darkness?" "I hope he doesn't try to harm us just for being in his presence." "He seems pretty docile for an agent of Sombra? Maybe he was a new recruit and was spared from the spell?" "He doesn't look like an agent of Sombra....is..is that Princess Celestia's symbol on his shoulder?""

Without even turning I just sigh and slowly roll my shoulders, giving them full view of the stitched in symbol that Celestia decided to behind my back sew into both of my shoulder-pads of my uniform but what I do know is that these ponies seem to respect her enough to stop questioning my presence and who I owe my loyalties to.

As the ponies behind me talk amongst themselves again I see two familiar ponies walk out from their respectable areas, both wearing the jousting armor and each hefting up the lance that they are to use against the other.

'Oh god...Fluttershy how the hell did you get yanked into doing this?' Shaking my head shamefully as Fluttershy ever so nervously moves her way to her side of the rail as Rainbow Dash, who appears to be into this match and most likely begged the nervous wreck of a pony into doing this with her. As the two charged towards each other, or in this case Rainbow Dash charged and Fluttershy I think hopped her way to about 1/4th across before coming to a grinding halt and getting the receiving end of the lance and goes sailing off into a pile of hay.

After watching about an hours worth of Rainbow Dash beating other victims I got off from the stool and went looking around for more food or something to distract me until my eyes came upon something I thought I will never see again.

Off in the distance I spotted the glorious claw machine, sitting there in all it's beautiful glory. The machine glistening in the sun's light, sparkling metal gleaming and casting numerous colors all around and within it's metal confines dolls, dozens upon dozens of plushie dolls.

And I must have one.

Slowly walking towards the machine of destiny and skillful credit eating I moved like a man possessed by a spirit, which was technically true since Katherine is in my head for now, and as I get closer to the machine I see a little crystal filly playing it but the claw dropped the little plushie doll as it was close to the bucket and from the sniffles the filly was making she must have lost numerous times at trying to get the doll she wants. After I was within spitting distance she was called over my her parents as they went to the tables to try and comfort her as I dug into my pockets and pulled out a small bag of bits, courtesy of Celestia, and slipped in two bits and started the game to try and win the sad filly her doll.

2 Hours Later

"Son-of-a-bitch!" I shouted while moving back a few inches from the game, I can just hear it laughing at me. As I moved back in to try again the sounds of hooves and pitter-patter of feet told me that Spike and most likely Twilight were behind me and as I picked up the doll for an umpteenth time and just as I was getting close it drops as I grab a rock from the floor, threw it into the air and blasted it with my biotic energy from my palm.

"Your really want one of those plush dolls don't you Roran?" Twilight asks with an amused grin while I try my hardest not to punch a hole in the glass or slam my fist down onto the controls.

"You god damn right I want one of them!" I shouted as I turned my head to look at her, Spike was busy laughing on the floor, thinking it is funny as hell to see a seasoned war veteran getting his ass kicked by a child's game. Without even looking at her I turn my head back to the game, preparing myself with another tango with the machine of evil. "Bits."

Holding my hand out to Twilight and Spike since I know one of them is holding my spare coin bag that I gave to them in the event that I spend all my bits in the bag that is currently strapped to my belt-loop, which sadly it is more empty than a convicted criminal stuck on death row.

Twilight still holding her amused smile on her face speaks up after I had my hand open for a while. "Sure but even a ruthless agent of Celestia has to use manners." I swear I could hear and feel a blood vessel in my head explode from what she just said.

'Fucking hate you...' The sounds of my teeth grinding against one another can clearly be heard by the two, my fists clenching tightly to the point where they can see the veins in them bulge out from the tightness of the skin being pulled and they can see the false knuckles from the angle they are standing in.

"Please." I grumbled while trying my hardest not to break out into a killing spree and strangle the purple mare.

Taking the one bit that Twilight held in her magics grip and slide it into the slot and gripped the small hoof-joystick and ever so carefully lifted up a small miniature plushie of Celestia and just as it gets half way to the waiting basket, the claw slightly wiggles and the little dolls falls free and lands back into the pile of the other dolls and prizes. Slamming my hands down on the control panel in disappointment as I glare at the infernal machine.

"This fucking this is obviously rigged somehow..." I stalked the machine, looking for any hints of structural weakness's or any means of getting that blasted doll.

"I am going to hunt down this shit-for-brains inventor of this crooked game and pull out his fucking spine and put in the game so he can try to win it back." tapping the glass mirror with a knuckle and stalking all around the game, glaring at it with the evil eye, wanting it to burst into flames.

"Probably some smart-ass, unicorn professor." Twilight took offense to that as Spike is still giggling madly as I give a quick apology before looking back at the doll.

'I want that fucking plushie...' "I'm going back in....bits." Spike hands me one of Twilight's bits and I get a quick grip of it before pushing it into the machine.

"Here we go.......got it...." with a loud yell in triumph with a fist pump into the air, Twilight clapping her hooves together with a smile while Spike was still laughing at my repeatable failures, but the doll of Celestia was well worth the attempted murder of a game machine in public.

Going to the little filly that failed to grab her doll the earlier and walking over to her and dropped it in her hooves with a small smile , "Here you go pony." the little filly finally stops crying and with a smile on her face that is still ridden with fresh tears, hugs my left leg before her parents quickly try to pry her away but I just wave them off and let the filly finish her hug before she lets go and takes the little doll and goes back to her parents.

Looking at Twilight with a grin plastered on my face and with a small spring in my step before stopping in front of her and and resuming my usual shit looking attitude as Twilight asks with the same smile on her face, "Where do you want to go Roran?"

"The hell should I know? Brown Tart's Cafe, the Rust Red Stadium..." I look over at the claw machine, contemplating if I should try to play it again, "More Claw?"

As Twilight tries to stifle her laughter along with Spike I resume another game of the claw and for the first time ever won back-to-back and pulled out a mini version of Cadence and placed it into my left pocket before walking away from the machine and wandered over to the food carts for another slice of pie but as I grabbed a slice of apple pie I overheard the conversation between three ponies that I distinctively remember.

"Of course we got it, we can't have the crystal fair without the crystal heart!"

"Of course you can't, the whole purpose of the crystal fair, is to lift the spirits of the crystal ponies, so the light within them can power the crystal heart so the empire can be protected!" and in a flash for two seconds she went from gloom to joy as she speaks again, "I do work at the library." at that I facepalm in failure, my ruse to slow them down just ruined in a matter of seconds.

At that moment Rainbow Dash who was quickly accompanied by Applejack says in a slightly confused tone, "What was that about powering the crystal heart?" the look of worry clearly written on both of their faces.

"I just can't believe you actually found it! King Sombra said he hid it away so that nopony can never see it again! I only hope that it is still as powerful after all these years." the old librarian said before turning her gaze to a nearby food cart, "Mmm funnel cake."

As the librarian goes to the funnel cake stand, Rainbow Dash bull rushes into the air before flying off in the direction of the fake crystal heart, grabbing the flag on top of a building and with my eyes optics zooming in at maximum just in time to see Rainbow Dash drape the flag over the heart and half of Twilight who at the moment was reading a book before saying something and looking scared shitless.

5 Minutes Later

Standing by the railing with a third lit cigarette in my mouth, watching Twilight flip through the pages of the book, trying to figure out where she went wrong. I scowl at the sun as I hear the sounds of pages flipping back and forth, my plan to slow these ponies down long enough to let Sombra roll in and reassert himself onto the thrown so I can save Hilo'Jaa is well worth the damnation I know that my ass is going to get.

"I didn't know it was an actual relic, the book didn't even mention that the crystal ponies powering the heart." she flips the pages in the book to the last page only to reveal that the final page was ripped out, "There was a page missing, how'd I not notice!"

I smirk at the horizon, smirking in victory knowing they they will have to haul ass just to try and stop Sombra but knowing that they left their trinkets behind back in Canterlot and that Cadence is weak as hell from exhaustion and that Shining is in no position to even assist with the shield spell.

"It's alright Twilight.." Cadence says while swaying a bit, her eyes are heavy and that she is having a hard time even staying up and conscious. And in that moment her hooves fall out from under her as she falls into Shining Armor's forelegs, catching her as her horn sputters out and the magic around it fades away, and as it sputters and fades, so does the barrier protecting the city.

"Twily." Shining says as all four of us hear the howling sound of the arctic winds as I spot in the distance with my optical eyes, the ghastly visage of Sombra's phantom eyes.

'Their fucked.'

As I smile at the impending victory I hear the sounds of hooves moving around and then ever so slowly the barrier begins to reform the same color as Cadence's magic and moments later I hear Sombra roar out in pain as I barely see the tip of his horn get sheared off by the barrier.

'That sounded like it hurts like a motherfucker.'

Turning around to leave I make my way to the throne room and since that Cadence was tired of fuck and that Shining was busy keeping her standing and conscious and Twilight busy trying to find her answer in that book of hers. Upon entering the throne room and closing the door behind myself and finding that not only was it empty, it was boring as fuck.

"These ponies really need to put some fucking potted plants and paintings in here...this place is as colorful and entertaining as a krogan bathroom." in reality it is fucking horrible to even enter one without holding your breath or letting the smell get stuck to your gear.

Taking my sweet time walking to the throne I take note of things that I would change if this place was mine.

'Flower pot right over there and another across from it...a painting of a Reaper getting blown out of the sky right there and one getting blasted by an Alliance Dreadnought right over there....maybe a statue of Shepard bitch slapping Udina and a statue of me riding on top of a Kodiak into battle with two Typhoons...hehe...a statue of a Thresher Maw looming over Discord as he cowers in fear....or a group of ponies....flower pots near the throne in case of an emergency techni colored yawn or a hidden weapon compartment...'

Deep in my musing I didn't realize that the ground was shaking for a while before it died down and that was when I found myself sitting in the throne with my pistol out on my lap, my right hand firmly gripping the grip of it and my trigger finger resting on the guard as I was staring at the door before shaking myself from the thought of waiting for that king to come in and relieve me of duty.

'Man you gotta keep it together, your mind is on the fritz and I ain't gonna help you put it together if that dark wizard pony thing fucks it up, being a therapist is not my job, that was Urta's.'

'It's hard to keep my shit together when one of my few living friends is currently held in the hands...hooves of someone that was considered a real McAsshole by their own kind.'

'Well that pony reminds me of someone right now.'

'Haha very funny Kat.'

"Of course!" a voice snaps me out of my rabble with Katherine as I point my pistol in the direction of the speaker only to stop to see it was Twilight and Spike. "What did you find it?" "No, because this isn't Sombra's Castle." the sound of her hooves approaching me as Spike gets off the floor and starts to follow her as I put my pistol away.

"But wasn't this where he lived when he was in power?" he said before I had a chance to tell him he was right Twilight cuts him off with an answer of her own, "It is, but it didn't look like this." looking at the one stray crystal on top of the throne.

As her horn started to glow I remained seated, hoping for the best that she does not blast me with magic to reveal a hidden passage or worse, blow up my seat. At first it was the same lavender color of her usual magic but than she started to concentrate harder as she began to sweat and her horn started glowing back as her eyes began to leak green mist before blasting the gem with a black beam. The dark light reflecting out of the black crystal causing it to reveal a hidden floor in the center of the room.

"Well...ain't that a kick in the head...pretty cool hidden exit." I said, getting up and looking down the largest staircase I have ever seen." Spike and Twilight going to the stairs as I wait for one of them to make a move until Twilight lit her horn purple as she started to go down the stairs as Spike barely took one step forward before he was told to stay behind.

"How's it look outside!" I barely need to turn my head to see the shield sputtering again, smirking in victory as Spike says it's looking bad.

"Eh fuck it." I said before jumping over the edge, turning on my biotics to slow my decent until I reached the bottom and stopped behind Twilight to find her tracking down a door that is moving around the room.

Watching the lavender mare chase after a door is funny as hell, hearing the sounds of a body thumping down the long ass winding stairs before crashing to a halt is just plain fucking hilarious as Spike pulls himself up and dusts himself off as I my gaze back to Twilight who was standing dead still staring at an empty door, the door itself leading nowhere but the wall. After a while I had to poke her a few times with my foot a few times till she snapped out of it and looked generally confused until she remembered where she was.

"Okay, door leading to a wall, what now cause I don't see anywhere else to go but up." I said, crossing my arms cause I have no idea where the hell I currently am besides being under the throne room which I think is odd as hell since this would lead to being outside of the palace.

As Spike moves to the door the top of the door a black gem shoots him with a beam as he starts to speak nonsense until I heard clearly that he didn't want to leave home again, but with tears in his eyes as if he was facing an ultimatum of some kind by someone significantly more powerful than him.

'Okay...a door that makes you see some crazy shit...never saw that before.'

"That door makes you see your worst fears...how do we get past it?" I shrug before taking a step towards the door and just like the other two I get blasted by its dark cursed beam as my eyes start to fade to black before it resumes its normal vision but of someplace else.

"What are your fears.....what is it that you are afraid of the most....face it and you can continue on your path....failure to face your darkness and you shall be consumed by it..."

"My greatest fear has already came and went, taking everything that I cherish. The Reapers may or may not still be out there but I do know is that they failed to kill, corrupt or change me and I am not afraid of them. My greatest fears are gone like ashes in the wind."

"I may be the last of my kind but that doesn't mean a damn thing to me, I will carry out my duty and my oath till my dying breath and so far I don't see a worthy challenge that would leave my gasping for air and for mercy, so bring it on, I got nothing to lose."

That was all it took for the door to click open and ever so slowly creak towards us three to reveal the city but at a much higher elevation. Going through the door I am met with a winding staircase and taking a short lean off the side and looking up before going back to the safety of the room behind me.

"You know that feeling you get when you just want to question the intelligence of someone else? I just got that feeling..."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Big ass spiral staircase leading up to the top of the spire, and by big ass I mean like the infinite staircase or the stairway to heaven. I ain't climbing that, you two can but I ain't." I said before starting my climb back up the stairs but the sounds of something exploding caught my ear as I turned my head back outside to zoom in on the outer edge of the city, a house was on fire and thin figures started pouring out of it and in their hands, old Mattock Assault Rifles.

'Motherfucker...Sombra you bastard you said no one would be harmed or killed when you came to seize the thrown!' I slammed my first into the wall making the two jump a bit until I gave them the look to make like a baker and move their buns as they started to scale the spire.

As Twilight and Spike sprint to the top of the spire I look down over the bottom of the stairs to find that the area I was at was slanted at a near perfect 45 degree angle. Taking a chance I jump over the side and with my feet slanted at an angle I managed to keep my speed at a slightly suicidal rate as I slid down till I reached the bottom but my foot caught onto a vine as I tumbled a few feet and slammed into a tree before pulling myself up and ran to the gathering of ponies that was surrounding the fake crystal heart.

"Girls we got a problem." I said before jerking a thumb over west to the rising mists of black smoke on the horizon and as if I let out some big cat out of the bag the crystal ponies started galloping around like chickens with their head cut off but when the approach of an incoming rocket alerts me to the coming clusterfuck storm but with enough time to use Overload on it, and as it trails off course and skids on the ground, rolling and tumbling towards the palace before coming to a screeching halt in front of Applejack who has no idea what it is and just as her hoof is about to touch it I Pull it towards me, revved up my throwing arm and threw that rocket as hard and far as I can before it reactivated and detonated in midair over someones house.

"Get everyone into the palace now and keep those doors closed! Do not let anyone in that is not a pony, even if it's me, get going!" I shouted at them as another missile arcs its way towards the palace but tracks a target just as it goes under one of the support struts holding up the palace, the missile itself hurling towards a building and explodes on the other end, not meant to hit soft buildings.

As the last of the civilians entered the palace and the doors were closed shut behind me and the tall-tell signs of it being sealed shut by something heavy when the sounds of a heavy weight being pressed into it was heard by Katherine, who told me as I watched the smoke on the horizon.

'So fake heart equals Sombra stays and wins, real heart equals Sombra goes back to whatever hell exists for ponies...and most likely Hilo'Jaa goes with him....any plans come to mind besides the two I got?'

'Well one comes to mind but...how do you feel about being a backseat observer?'

Thinking on her idea and the few sounds she makes while impatiently waiting for me to respond I give my thought of what she has in mind.

'Well, like I said, your going to be the one that will be the observer for me for a change while I am the one running around, since we both know that you are not the most stealthiest of people...'

'Cause being a ninja is for cowards and people that can't fight for shit.'

'And that you make more noise than a buffalo in a china shop. My plan is that I take over your body, you watch my back while I take out as many of the enemy as possible while remaining undetected and hopefully, we can get out of this frozen country in one piece.'

'Ya know...that sounds better than my idea of running in headlong and destroying everything in sight with biotic and tech powers while shooting anything that moved.'

I heard Katherine laugh in my head, her laughter filling me with a luke-warm warmth that I have come to miss during the times we were apart but as that feeling started to rise I felt my body slowly giving way to someone else, my nerves dying out and eventually going numb as my body begins to refuse my commands until the only thing I can do is just stare forward. Slowly bit by bit my body began to move on someone else's accord and will, my hands reaching up to touching my face before moving to my hair and feeling it between my fingers.

'Feels so good to be alive...now I know why you enjoyed every second of living when we were in the same unit together, you were getting high on life hehe.'

'Not really but than again taking a shot of ryncol and a small dosage of Hallex did help me a bit...oh how I will miss those days. But enough reminiscing of the past, get to the silent executions so we can go get our squad mate back from the clutches of a douche-bag.'

'Aye, let us be off!'

Katherine's Point of View

'So tell me again oh sweet buddy of mine,' I said to Roran mentally while slowly getting accustomed to his form, stretching out his arms and legs while keeping him at the ready in the event that black unicorn arrives earlier than intended, 'Why did you make a deal with this asshat when you know it was going to somewhat end like this?'

'Well I was hoping that by the time he started his siege he would have teleported Hilo'Jaa in my room in the palace or at the front door, but since he didn't it and that he just fired two rockets at us which is telling me that the deal is now off...just, start tearing him a new asshole, alright.' Roran said while crossing his arms, his mind crossing them for me since he still has partial control over his body.

Taking a look back at the palace I now realized that this building was as large as an apartment complex except that it had a bit of an asari influence on it and that it was made of a very shiny blue marble or some form of crystal, but whatever it is made out of had a very high probability of not withstanding the explosive power of the rockets that the black unicorn was using against Roran and his pony friends.

Moving towards the nearest building to the west of the palace in the direction of where the two rockets came from, I crouched down and turned on the two omni-blades that Roran had with him and grinned with a manic glee that he had his upgraded to the N7 Destroyer blades, reverse style and perfectly curved for maximum swinging through enemies throats and limbs. Taking a moment to adjust the blades so that they activate at the right moment when needed I turn them off for the moment, I moved through the empty streets of the city, knocking on house to house and telling them to move their flanks to the palace as quickly and quietly as possible and to try to spread the word to other houses they get to when going to the safe zone.

As I traveled along the streets edge and houses I came across the sounds of gunfire and the screams of ponies before they died off and started back up again, the sounds of torture or amusement coming from around the bend, towards the food carts from the carnival if the occasional glimpse Roran's eyes during his festive activities serve me right. Quietly stalking the noises, I crouch down and move towards the disturbance as quiet as the grave, and within moments as I spot my prey, three Cerberus soldiers with Mattock rifles, all three firing from the hip at a family of ponies, all of them cowering together in fear and slowly moving towards a burning building, and from the sounds of it that the support columns within are going to give way soon.

Looking at the family of three my eyes catch the glimpse of a small filly holding tightly to her mother and next to her hooves, a small plushie doll of a white winged unicorn with a rainbow mane, and in that instant it was hit by one of the soldiers as he laughed at the little filly who kept crying.

'Oh hell fucking no, he did not just shoot my prize for the little filly! Tear his fucking head off now!' I hear Roran shouting in my head, his voice filled with unrestrained rage and anger.

'It was just a plush doll dude, no need to go ballistic over...' I stop myself as I squint a bit at the little filly and the doll before thinking back to when he was playing the claw machine for two hours straight trying to get the same doll over and over again before finally winning the blasted thing and giving it to a crying filly, 'You won that doll for her didn't you?'

Roran's Point of view

'You god damn right I did! It took me two fucking hours to win that thing and in only a few fucking minutes they fucking shoot it! Tear them apart or I will resume control over my body!' my yelling reaching new heights of loudness as I feel the tugs and pulls of my false arms and legs moving on my accord only to realize that it Katherine is no longer moving me, and in that moment of control, just as I started to scale the house in front of me and slowly crawled onto the roof.

Rolling my eyes to my Katherine's outburst I crawl ever so slowly on the roof, making my way across it and into the perfect position to strike at the right moment, and that moment quickly approaches when two of the three Cerberus soldiers move closer to the family of three, aiming their rifles at them as the third one stays behind, looking like he is saying something but nothing is coming out.

At that moment they raised their rifles at the defenseless family, I leaped off the roof and raised both my arms above my head, the omni-blades forming perfectly and as I bring my arms down I yell as loud as I can, distracting the two soldiers from shooting the family long enough for them to see me take out the one behind them, both blades brought down onto his head as it crushes its helmet, causing it to cave in as the body falls over limp and lifeless.

Just as they turn around to raise their Mattocks at me, the little filly levitates a small chunk of brick from the rubble behind her and throws it at the nearest soldier, the brick manages to connect with his helmet making him stumble from the impact giving me enough time to roll the corpse that I am on top of over and bring up his rifle in his limp hands.

As one of the soldiers starts to fire at the corpse trying to get the bullets to penetrate the armor to get to me, the soldier that stumbled turned around to fire at the family, but only in time to see a large chunk of lumber smack directly into his helmet, launching him back and dropping his rifle onto the ground.

"Now you die Cerberus scum!" Roran shouts as he regains control long enough to use his biotics on both of the living Cerberus soldiers, the one firing on him is frozen in place from Stasis, his body completely stuck in the standing firing position while the one that took a broken support column to the face is hit with a Lift and as he is several feet in the air, Roran throws out a Warp and as it connects, the Cerberus soldier explodes in a bloody mess of slowly disintegrating limbs and armor chunks, scattering blood and gore everywhere and as the Stasis'ed soldier slowly begins to move again, Roran raises his palm right at him and biotic energy begins to focus at the center of his palm before it gets blasted out and hits the soldier in the head, blowing it clean off.

"NO one, dares to harm my ponies, and gets away with it alive." Roran says as he walks over to the ruined plush doll and hands it back to the filly as he picks up one of the Mattocks and searches the area for spare thermal clips and anything else of use. Not noticing the little filly Roran turns around faster than normal and picks up the little filly that was directly behind him and lifts her up in one arm, the other still holding the rifle as he moves to the filly's parents.

"We need to go, now, the enemy must have heard the rifle fire by now and are on their way here to investigate the disturbance, I will escort you three to the palace where you will be safe, just follow my lead and keep low. Stay alive, that's an order." he says with the utmost of authority in his voice as the two adult ponies nod and slowly trail behind him, looks of worry and fear clearly evident in their eyes but for the little filly, it is one of hope.

Moving at a rushed speed, I keeps a firm hold on the filly in my left arm, while her parents stick close behind me, just as my rifle aims around the corner and I give the 'all-clear' signal, we rush to the next house and as we all get within spotting distance of the door to the palace across the wide open area the sounds of thundering thuds, the sounds of numerous hostile forces rushing in.

At the sound of rolling thunder we all sprinted towards the safety of the palace walls, gunfire surges in the air as rounds start hailing down at us, the barrage of fire unorganized and wild as each wave of bullets hit anything but us four but as we get close to one of the support columns for the palace, I turned my head in time to see a rocket blaze towards them but before I had a chance to temporary disarm it, it detonates four feet in front of us, throwing both him and the filly more than four meters away from the nearest piece of cover.

'Roran!'

"Skylight!"

My senses rattled and my vision blurred badly from the rough landing and concussive impact was enough to leave me disorientated and wobbly but the sounds of more gunfire and the cries of both the filly and her parents shake me loose from my stupor. Slowly getting to my knee's I activate my barriers and angled it to the left of myself, placing it between me and the oncoming barrage of bullets from hitting me and the little filly who just now started to come to her senses.

As the little filly got to her little hooves the bullets starts to slow down enough for us to find a clear path to the safety of the palace columns but that only meant that the enemy themselves were setting themselves up for a much large and more orchestrated barrage of energized lead.

"Okay little filly, when I count to three, you gallop as fast as you can to your parents and when you get to them, go straight to the palace doors and the ponies inside will let you in, you will be safe there from these monsters of evil. I will keep you safe, I promise you that."

"On three, One." I said while getting to my feet as the little filly turned to her parents and I can see from this distance that they started to figure out what we were about to do and were trying to tell us not to do it by waving their hooves at us, trying to warn us away from this area but it won't work on me.

"Two." the soldiers started to form an organized firing squad by the front row laying down as the second and third rows move behind them and all three are now formed into a right angle of Mattock rifles aimed right at us.

"THREE!" I shouted as the filly galloped as fast as her tiny hooves could take her as I got to my feet and held between us and Cerberus the only barrier that I could muster in my slightly disorientated state, the one thing keeping us alive.

Running as fast as I can while keeping pace with the little filly in tow, doing my best to keep my barrier up between us and certain death by the Cerberus firing squad. As we get half way to the palace columns they opened fire with everything they got and every few stray shots ricochet off the floor and nail me in the legs or feet but it does nothing to distract me from protecting a child, the pain of having the heated metal burning into my skin forces me to grit and gnash my teeth in pain as each round strikes my lower legs.

As we finally get to the column the filly leaps at her parents and gets caught in heir waiting hooves, crying and bawling over their poor foal, saying words of encouragement and other things that parents would say to their beloved child but as they keep talking I knock on the door and hurriedly sprinted back to the family, telling that they had to go inside now before the enemy gets close enough to open fire again on all four of us. I had use Lift on all three of them just to make them snap out of their short reunion, making them realize that they were still in danger of dying and as I watch them go through the doors as they slowly closed, I could have sworn that the parents were mouthing a silent 'thank you' and the little filly was waving at me before the doors sealed shut behind them.

'Brave thing you did back there, but that was highly suicidal and stupid, no wonder you were discharged from the Alliance during the Eden Prime War.' Katherine said while I peered around the support column and fired a few shots from the fallen Mattock I have taken from one of the three soldiers I killed earlier.

'Bite me Katherine, I don't have time for this shit.' I growled back, peeking out again as I took aim this time and started taking headshots, watching their bodies go limp and fall to the side or just drop like a sack of hammers, blood seeping out of the holes in their helmets, their blood black in color and appears to be a thick ooze, almost like jelly.

Taking the time to look around the bend of the column, I peer over to see just how many are still alive and with a heavy explosive sigh there was still enough of them to form a platoon, about fifty-five soldiers still alive or in this case, undead. As my head was sticking out of cover a few of them opened fire again just as I ducked back into cover but the sound of glass breaking was the only indication that a stray bullet shot through a palace window and most likely scared the crap out of whoever was on the other side at the time.

'Okay...at least fifty enemy foot soldiers on the other side of this column and at least one of them has a rocket launcher...looks like I have to be lucky and time my shots and peeks carefully, otherwise my ass is grass.'

'Well think fast cause they are moving up and they are not taking the slow route, they are coming in hard and fast!'

Peeking my head around the corner again I saw what she meant by hard and fast, the hostiles were breaking ground and they were charging right to the palace, a few with their guns raised while the others had them down for maximum running speed, perfect targets. Taking a deep breath of air and a quick prayer to whoever is listening in at the time, I reloaded the Mattock and turned the corner, my rifle aimed high and started to squeeze the trigger at the first target to be lined up with my sights, and as the first squeeze of the trigger a Centurion's head exploded from the bullet's impact as my rifle moved a few centimeters to the left to be squeezed again as a troopers body tilted to the side and fell over, its body tripping those behind it as a few stumbled and roll over the corpses of their fallen comrades.

"Bring it on motherfuckers! I can take you all on!" shouting as loud as I can, raising my left arm as the omni-blade extends outward as my right arm recoils back a bit as I kept squeezing the trigger, watching the rifle kick back every metal round flies from its barrel to meet its new home in the head case of a Cerberus soldier.

'Biotic Barriers at 73% strength, vital signs pushing into blue zone.' my micro HUD showing in my left eye, the bullets coming in from all directions as I feel them pelt my barriers, reloading my rifle in time to resume firing at the enemy as I watched more bodies fall to the ground, a few with wounds while others fell dead.

'Biotic Barriers at 47% strength, cover is advised, vital signs are pushing into the green zone.' my HUD flashing a bit as I get slammed with a high powered round from a Nemesis before I used Slam on the bitch, her body turning into a pancake on the ground as her rifle slid across the ground next to some ponies mailbox. My body starting to slow down from the running as I slowed down to take careful aim at my targets, a few are still standing while others are getting up from their wounds to continue fighting while others are crouching down to make themselves smaller targets. It doesn't matter cause they will all die the same.

'Biotic Barriers at 11%, barrier collapse imminent, seek immediate cover to recharge, vital signs pushing into the yellow zone.' my teeth clenching in pain as I start to feel weak from all the bullets slamming into me, my body still in pain from the rocket blast and the high powered rounds from both the one Nemesis and a Cerberus soldier who picked up her rifle before I Lifted him up into the air as high as I could and let him fall to his end to be impaled on a spike on top of some ponies home.

'Biotic Barriers have collapsed, vital signs are pushing into the orange zone.' my vision blurred in time to watch the last soldier fall dead over a pile of his own comrades, my body slowly giving way as I slowly began to turn around and limp back to the palace, my legs feeling like they both got crushed under an Atlas's foot.

'LOOK OUT! I heard Katherine shout before I felt something wrap around my left leg and threw me into the air before slamming me back down onto the ground.

Rolling over by whatever is wrapped around my leg I shake my head to open my eyes to a sight that I thought was a hallucination. Standing tall, proud and most likely very dead, a Dragoon, Cerberus's finished product of Project Phoenix, and one hell of a foot soldier they are, instead of shields they have armor plating at least an inch thick and that fucker looked like he spent plenty of time in the same suit of armor from all the wear and tear on it. Both of his hands were empty of any weapon but at his palms were his biotic lashes and one was tightly crushing my left leg to which I can no longer feel because of damaged sensors and servo's.

I looked directly at its helmet and saw that there was a bullet hole in it and through that hole I only saw the thing's eye, it was a golden amber and it was not showing any sign of decay or glazing...a sign that it was not dead.

"Well I'll be damned, another human that is still alive, and managed to get his hands caught in the cookie jar while being watched, what a damn shame. I knew I would face you again in one way or another but I didn't know that we would be going at this again this damn soon. And it looks like that it will be me that will be walking away from this city with my life instead of left to rot in the alleyway in Berlin." the strange said in a voice that I partially remembered, its tone was something of a machine and that of a sultry dancer at Chora's Den.

Looking back to my leg I twisted it a bit to see how much leverage or motion I had at my dispose but neither were even a snowballs chance in hell that I could easily break out of this mess in one piece.

"So...it seems that you managed to evade the grave just like me...to bad you are fighting for the side that favors subjugation and fear over peace and prosperity...and here I thought Cerberus favored the peace for humanity." I said in a brash response, pointing my palm at her to fire off a quick pulse to throw her off her guard but she quickly caught onto it and grabbed my right wrist with her other lash and lifted me back into the air before slamming me back down with bone shattering results.

The Dragoon only smiles coyly under the helmet the left eye that I could see turns the same color as mine than reverts back to its original golden ember color.

"You were always so pious in your actions, you always acted in the way you thought was right, in ways that you know was wrong, hell even evil but yet you still hold fast to your beliefs like a drowning man would cling to a piece of driftwood in the middle of a raging storm. Your actions are commendable, but your actions are also condemning...Sombra knew that you were going to help these ponies all along so he decided to go ahead and give you back your bitch with her new immune system but we both know that it was out of kindness that you delayed these foals long enough for his tools to lock down this kingdom. You will die here and this time you won't be left to be waiting in some cavern to be discovered by whatever species come after the ponies." the Dragoon said while lifting me back up and with both arms, whipping them behind her as I felt the lashes tighten around my right wrist and left leg as I get thrown through three houses and had the wind knocked out of my lungs when I felt something pierce my back.

As I looked down I saw that there was a piece of rebar, coming right through my left shoulder-blade and effectively killing it by destroying the small power cell within the shoulder compartment, giving it life but now it hangs limply by my side, useless and dead weight.

Grunting in pain I moved my right hand to the piece of rebar, I gripped it as tightly as I could as I began to yank it out from my back and shoulder, grunting and groaning louder in pain as the pieces of metal rub and grind against the muscles, bone and flesh, blood coming down the wall as the rebar slowly dislodges itself from the wall.

"I swear when I get my hands on that bitch...I am going to kill her for real this time...that bitch should have died in fucking Berlin!" I grunt out quietly as I hear the sounds of footsteps coming closer to me, her feet crushing the bricks and timber chunks. Quickly moving and jerking my right hand, keeping my grip on the piece of rebar as the steps get closer and closer and as I feel it slowly give way I stopped trying to remove it as I spot her outlines, quickly dropping my hand to my side as I wait for her to get closer.

"You know...if you had stayed with Cerberus you too would be given the same reward as I would receiving the same reward as I, but sadly you chose wrong. I was told by my master Sombra to take you in alive but knowing our past together, we know that you will fight me and try to escape to go back to your precious ponies, but what he doesn't know, won't hurt him." the girl mockingly says as I hear her footsteps get closer and closer until I can see that she was very close and if she got any closer she would be pressing her body against mine.

"And if I had stayed with Cerberus than I would have been indoctrinated by the Illusive Man and have become a mindless drone like the rest of his people and yours. If I had stayed than I would have been a target by pretty much every single Citadel race, I like to be alive to enjoy my shot of ryncol and occasional line of red sand. But now that I am here in this earthly plane I must now rely on whatever these ponies have for entertainment, sometimes enjoying the sheer amount of stupidity that they produce." I said waiting for her to speak up as I slightly move my right hand.

She laughs under her helmet and as she slowly begins to get closer I made my move by grabbing the rebar pipe, yanking it through my shoulder and hitting her upside the head and with a pained smile as she goes down from the hit.

"One thing you forgotten about me bitch...I can actually say no to a nice piece of ass..." huffing a bit from exhaustion but mostly from the blood loss and pain. Dropping the pipe and dropping to my knees as I grabbed the bitch by the neck as I started to drag her heavy body back to the palace, staggering back to safety as I made my way through the three houses that I went through.

'Kat...do your ghost thing on her...I don't have time for this shit....'

'Do what with her?'

'Just take over her body and make sure that whore doesn't surface back to take control...think of her body as your present from me to you...gods I need a drink...'

Getting to the palace was hard enough when I had to drag an unconscious body that weighed pretty close to how much I weighed on a good day, but dragging a body while weak from the ass-beating I went through and the blood loss...yea it was horrible as fuck.

Upon knocking on the palace doors a few times, and as the doors were slowly swinging open I push my way through to be greeted by the sight of countless crystal ponies who made their way into he palace when I was not paying attention and as the guards came I told them to take the body I was lugging around to my room and for one of them to grab my footlocker and brought it to the throne room.

What was waiting for me in the throne room was something I was not expecting to see.

From where I was standing at the throne room main doors, I saw Rarity holding a floating Hilo'Jaa in a magic bubble, Rainbow Dash and Applejack in a fighting stance while Pinkie Pie was behind a cannon of sorts, Fluttershy was somewhat trying to stand her ground, Shining Armor was still trying to keep Cadence up and powering the bubble barrier spell for the city. Hilo'Jaa was just floating there very pissed off and cursing out in her peoples language which I had no clue to what she was saying except for one word.

"Bosh'tet, girls put down my quarian, step back at least ten hoof paces and also, what the fuck was going on here?" I said weakly before everyone started to yell at me and at each other.

"Your quarian? When did I become your property?"

"Well when you joined my squad babe, that and when we did the Randy McNasty in the elevator to the top of the Citadel Tower." I said with a weak smirk, Dashie was busy snickering loudly, Shining was also snickering along with Cadence whose was even weaker than mine, Rarity was busy trying not to look like she was blushing, the others were just confused.

After a few moments of trying to explain things to her, I managed to calm things down but at the cost of getting slapped across the cheek which left a nasty welt and a nasty stinging pain.

Throne Room, 15 Minutes Later

"As I told you Fluttershy...I'm fine....just blood loss, fatigue and a dead arm....not the worst things I went through in my cycle but it still hurts...now just hand me my footlocker so I can tend to my wounds."

"Man, how did you even manage to walk back like that! I mean come on I get hurt on occasion when I practice my stunts but that,-" Dash says while pointing at the small hole in my left shoulder as I reach out to grab my footlocker from Fluttershy's grasp, "-that is just to painful to even look at!"

Snorting at her I just reach out to try and grab out the locker but just as Shy tries to take it back I growl weakly at her enough for her to give up in her attempts to stop me from reaching something potentially dangerous but as I crack it open I reach for the first vial of medi-gel and injected it straight into the wound, sealing it off from any further infection and bleed out.

"There we go...and now...to put on my armor and to get back out there." I said reaching back inside to get my armor sections, the rebuke I got from the mares and one stallion was all I heard for the greater part of my donning of my armor.

Taking my rifle out of the locker along with my helmet I placed both items on top of the locker before closing it but what I smelled next, alongside a loud scream was what set me off.

The smell of burning flesh and death slowly began to fill the room.

The sounds of screaming and raging fires fill the afternoon skies with the smell of burning wood and fur, ponies running left and right trying to get away from the coming doom as they run into their old homes and hiding under anything that they think that will protect them from evil. Black crystals rising from the ground as it saps the life from anything nearby corrupting the very soil till it withers and dies from the taint.

Tall thin figures shuffling down the streets of the city, their corroded, bullet-ridden armor partially reflecting in the dull light of smoke covered skies, the faces of the figures are just like the armor they are wearing, corroded and destroyed, their pitch black eyes blankly staring forward as they fire at whatever moves or makes a sound, their shots going wide as ponies run and cower in terror and fear.

As I watched the city burn and crumble as the darkness began it's cursed siege I only watch it unfold until the tiny voice in my head along with single pleading look from an exhausted princess was all it took for me to put on my helmet and grab my rifle before walking to the large doors leading out of the throne room to stop the siege.

Turning my head to the ponies in the room and the princess I can only nod at them before turning on the visor and obscuring my face to their views as I speak one last time to them.

"Last one out, get the lights." looking back at the ponies and quarian before slowly closing the door behind me.

"Don't worry about the lights, just worry about coming back to me in one piece, and just maybe we can talk about us."

I gave a weak smile as I shoved an adrenaline shot into an injection port and rode out the wooziness until it kicked in and my body kicks into overdrive.

Crystal City, Afternoon, Operation Fire Cobra Claw

'This has got to be the stupidest idea I must have ever created for the greater good...' I grumbled to myself as I went back outside after pushing my way through the ponies that were waiting in the halls of the palace, I had to pick up and throw Pinkie at least five times just to get to the front door. That insufferable mare kept clinging to me each time I managed to dislodge her from my body, first throw I did was met with her somehow clinging to my head, second was her clinging to my right arm, third was my side, fourth was my back and fifth was hanging to my chest until I finally froze her to the floor and as I got outside I sighed in relief to find her not attached to me for the sixth time.

Taking a few steps away from the palace I found the spiral staircase and with a bit of mathematics and some biotics, I launched myself at the tower hoping to reach the staircase in time to warn Twilight of my plan but when I open my eyes I only had a split second to close my eyes again.

'I am definitely going to be paying for this...'

Upon impact with the spire I felt something shift and open my eyes to see that I left a human shaped indent on the wall and knew that if anyone came out to see if anything needs fixing, and they find this, I know for a fact that they will mail me the bill of repairs for it.

Peeling myself off the wall and shaking away the stupid of my decision I started to run up the stairs, the adrenaline shot doing its job just as it was designed for, even though it was meant for medical use of a patient's heart stopping but I ignored that little fact in the heat of the moment.

After a few minutes of sprinting up the nearly endless flight of stairs I managed to reach Twilight and Spike at the top of the spire, and all three of us were looking at the real crystal heart, I was in awe by it, mostly because that thing could be worth a fortune.

"Well...now I see why Sombra hid this thing away from everyone, the damn thing must be worth a fortune in gold and credits alike!" I said while eyeing the crystal, my eyes widening under the helmet as I tapped my omni-tool and took a picture of it and sent it to the extranet to see what the price of it would be, when it came back I nearly fell over from a heart attack.

The feeling of vertigo passes as I get back on my feet and focus back on the heart just as Twilight gets to the alter and Spike looks over the edge to see what is going on I hear the sounds of ponies panicking and following in Spike's footsteps, I looked over the side and saw the black crystals forming up all over the city, slowly making their way to the palace.

"Twilight, while you and Spike deliver that heart to the Cadence while I deal with King Sombra and end him." I said while looking around for the little bastard through the scope of my Javelin and hoping to the gods that I see him in time to bullet in him.

"Roran you can't do that! All we have to do is just place the crystal heart back where it belong and Princess Cadence can simply banish Sombra back where he belongs! No pony else needs to be harmed by him and we all get to go home! Please don't go through with your plan!" she said while looking utterly disgusted by my words, Spike seemingly doesn't know what is going on but he partially agreed with the both of us.

Turning around to face her I take off my helmet and let her see all the pain and regret that my eyes could muster before speaking up, "Girl your plan is simple and naive, that's like trying to tame a shark Twilight, somebody is going to end up dead. In this case it will be rather me or Sombra, and I know for a fact that if either of us die that there will be collateral damage. No one will be escaping from this place in one piece, that much I can promise you."

Walking over to her I got down on my knee and looked into her eyes before saying, "I will kill King Sombra, that is an order given to me."

"By who?" Spike and Twilight said at the same time, wondering who would be so cruel and evil to give such an order.

Taking a deep breath before placing my helmet back on my head and sealing it tight I speak up over my deep breathing, "By someone I care for." walking back to the edge of the spire and resumed by search for the black red-horned unicorn.

Just as Twilight was about to ask specifically who, she grabs the crystal heart and in that instant black crystals forming an effective cage that trapped the lavender mare within.

"You know I saw this in a movie once...never thought this shit actually happens in real life...I guess that old Earth saying of movie magic is real." I mused while looking smug at the trapped mare.

Taking a look back I spot Sombra slowly forcing his way into the barrier until finally it gives and the black fog starts to move into toward the city, blanketing everything in darkness and corruption.

"Okay Twilight, stop goofing around and get out here, Sombra is making his move and we sorta need to get moving, unless you want to be under the rule of an corrupt dictator that needs to get a boot shoved up his ass. Hurry up and teleport out of the cage and take Spike down to the alter to shove the heart on it to get it working."

Waiting for the tall-tell sound of popping and failing to hear any of it I turn to see that Twilight is still in the cage but her magic is having no effect on the cage itself or allowing her to leave. Looking at the cage, I see that it was exactly like the black crystals that are signature to Sombra's power and the same that is still currently wrapped around Shining Armor's horn. Tapping it with my knuckles a few times I felt a tiny jolt of energy zap at me every time my knuckles connect with the black crystal and that each repeated tap causes an increase in the jolt till it gets to point where it discharges a volt of energy, which sadly feels like someone dropping something heavy on your foot.

"Spike, looks like you and I have to save the day...Twilight pass the crystal heart to Spike so we can go down the palace and place this damn thing home, well Spike will place it while I stall and hopefully kill Sombra but most likely piss him off before he gets banished back into that canyon from whence he came from.

Putting my sniper rifle away and going back to where the stairs begin, looking past the edge I can plainly Sombra getting closer to the city as the black crystals get bigger, larger and closer to the buildings and homes. Hearing Spike and Twilight talk for what was mere moments about how to get her out and the loud roaring yell from Sombra, Twilight passes the heart to Spike, which as soon as it enters his hands I rush over to him and grabbed him by the waist before throwing him onto my shoulders and started to back down the spiral staircase. Turning on my omni-tool and tapping out a single command phase before disengaging it and began to run full tilt down stairs.

"You know Spike, for a baby dragon I had somewhat expected you to have like tiny wings or even the ability to sense gems and gold, but I guess my people's version of dragons were more mismatched what actual dragons are like...but please tell me that it is true that dragons have colossal hoards of gold and gems, cause assuming that I survive this place, I might go searching for dragons, maybe even write a book on them...or two if I am really lucky." I said while sprinting down the stairs, trying to keep a firm hold on his tiny legs which were wrapped around my neck along with his tail since my armor is not the most grip-able of suits.

"Well...now that you mentioned it, I have no idea what type of dragon I am...and yes us dragons have hoards but only if we have gone out in the world to collect it...me, not really." he says rather sadly, almost making me trip from a bit of shock but mostly shame for lack of knowledge.

"So you have no clue to what type you are...well since your flame has been modified or just how it is, whatever the hell it really is, I am just going to classify you as a magic dragon...and from what Twilight told me your tail can also act like a shovel so that is convenient in the event you ever need to hide something below ground and since I know that dragon scales are nearly impenetrable to almost everything, except for my blades, you can handle impacts, and from what I hear about your job at the library, getting covered in a mountain of books counts when you fall down and knock over a bookshelf...and for fuck sake how long is this goddamn stairs!" I yelled the last part after meeting the same bullet hole for the fifth time in a row.

Off in the distance I hear the sounds of Sombra roaring again but this time I am looking right at him and if he is not looking at the two of us, he is now, and he looks pissed.

"OH hayseed..." "Oh shit..." taping my omni-tool I pressed a button and than pressed another so everyone can hear what exactly I know will be worthy to be remembered.

"Crystal...mine"

Looking at the rising black crystals around the palace and looking at the one that Sombra is riding in on I looked back at Spike who is shaking out in pure fear, but what I did not know was that my legs were shaking a bit as well from the closing consuming darkness.

"Spike, do you trust me?" I said as I moved back to the wall and braced myself for the coming plunge.

"I sort of do, but you still haven't-"

"Good enough for me, hold on!" I said as I took three steps before jumping off over the side and landed on a chunk of black crystal as I started to maneuver around the parts that are growing to try to hinder my speed and movements.

As I ran around and over the rising and shifting black crystals to get to the bottom of the palace I know that Sombra will beat us to the punch and get there before us or more likely intercept us and fighting him in my current condition of holding a baby dragon who is holding the salvation for an entire race, the weight of so many lives bearing down on not just just tiny shoulders but on mine as well.

"Spike, this is gonna be threading the needle, hold on as tight as you can to that crystal heart and if you let go of it you will be condemning hundreds of innocent lives to a tyrant, do you hear me?" I said while sliding over a smooth patch of crystal before jumping onto another black spire and sliding down its length and jumping over to another diagonal black plank towards Sombra.

'Surrender the hatchling...I shall overlook your transgression against me...refuse and all shall suffer.'

'Stay the fuck out of my head!'

Running out of crystals to run on and seeing a grinning Sombra I looked for anything to save everyone, but found nothing.

Gambling with every single life in this city, I took the plunge into the heart of darkness, throwing Spike into the air before slamming down onto Sombra's head.

"This is for Hilo'Jaa you son-of-a-bitch!" I roared as I knee'd him in the stomach before rearing back and slamming my fist into his jaw to see a molar fly out of his mouth in a spray of blood. My voice carrying over farther than normal and the feeling of air being rushed by me was my sign that Dash came and picked up Spike from his plunge to his death by my eyes catch the sight of pink feathers and fur, Cadence, and she does not look like she went a week without sleep.

'You chose poorly...your life is for nothing...prepare yourself for the end.'

'Than if I am going down I am taking you with me!'

Turning my head back I catch a hoof to the head but my helmet protected me from the damage but what I felt next was something I would never expect to happen. As I started to rear back from the impact, an orange glow started to form from his hoof and in that second I quickly fall onto my back in time to avoid an orange blade from slicing my face open.

An orange blade...an omni-blade...a pony using human technology against its creators.

"Goddamn it! How the fuck did you acquire our omni-tools! I thought only I knew how to use those as a pony!" I said as he started on his offensive as I was immediately was forced into the defensive as each of his slashes were powerful enough for me to stumble and buckle under each blow.

'Your own weapons turned against you...soon others shall feel this sword's blade.'

"Not unless I kill you first!" I yelled as I forced him back with a Shockwave, long enough for me to return the favor, slashing and kicking at him as both began to fight to the death, knowing that neither of us will be leaving this battlefield unscathed.

Knocking Sombra away from me, giving me space and time to raise my left palm and fired in short bursts of biotic energy to keep him off-balanced as I raised my fist and extended out my omni-blade in time for him to raise his own as we clashed into a sword fight of the ages.

Swinging my right arm at him while keeping my left arm close to my body, still not completely in control of it from the destroyed output generator that I had to haphazardly fix at a moments notice but keeping it in a 'complete focus' mode, only to be used when standing absolutely still.

'This kingdom is mine...and soon that princess and student will be mine as well...an heir will be made.'

"Yea, well over, you have to get past me first, and my two friends as well and we both know that if I go down they will ensure that your body will redecorate the throne room! I will use your skull as my new drinking cup and your cape will be my new knighthood cloak!"

Blow for blow we both started to collect fresh wounds from one another, each cut, slash, scrape and bruise we matched as the fight turned into a brawl until I was facing the palace and Sombra me and the wastelands beyond the city limits. My eyes were watching the King for any moves he might have pulled but what my eyes were mainly trying to focus on was the sight of Cadence and Spike, knowing full well that they hold the key to saving countless lives.

'Your lack of faith within these ponies fills me with joy...you think they can not do what is necessary for when the time comes to do the deed that will cover their hooves in the blood of another, you do not trust them with your life...you fear that you will be just another tool to be cast aside when you are to worn down and damaged to be of any use...you are nothing more than a tool to everyone, your own mother used you like a tool.'

"S-Shut up! Shut the fuck up! I am no tool! I am the tool wielder and I will never be too worn and damaged! I am man! The pointy fucking tip on the motherfucking food chain! And your grass-eating ass is about to turn into a tasty fucking meal!" yelling loudly as I stab into his left hoof with my right blade and bringing up my right foot as I kicked him in the chest, sending him back near the edge of the black shard he raised to meet the palace.

'Your time has come, bare witness to my arrival as the king of Equestria, you shall be the first to have their blood spilled in the name of harmony.' his voice cutting into my mind as I reel back from the increasingly overwhelming power of his will until I feel something cut through my armor and a weight is lifted off before falling onto my back in shock.

'You are no longer human...you are only a machine to be repaired and replaced, your own humanity sacraficed long before your time.' he says before levitating my severed left arm and throwing it over the ledge as it tumbles end over end into the black fog below.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh.......mother....you mother...motherfucker!" I yelled while panting rapidly, my breaths now ragged and irregular, shock starting to set in, "That was my favorite fucking arm! That was my master debating arm you pompous fuck!" still yelling as I roll forward and slam back into his chest but this time my helmet being released from its locks as it rolls off the other side of the crystal ledge as I bite down onto his neck as I stab into his gut in his shattered defense, my teeth biting down harder on his neck as blood starts seeping out from the wound.

"I am going to fucking murder you!" still yelling from both the pain riding up and down my body as well as from the adrenaline coursing through my veins as I take another bite into his neck, sinking my teeth deeper into his flesh as I yank my head back, bringing up pieces of his fur, meat and blood with it as I stab back into his chest, severing, burning and melting organs as I lift him up with my one arm and threw him to the very edge of the crystal.

Watching him gurgle and cough up blood, I stumble my way over to him, my blade still out as I climbed over him, the sounds of the crystal cracking behind us as it slowly begins to deteriorate from the extra weight placed on its lightest point.

"Any last words before I send you to hell?" I said as I brought up my blade, aiming for his heart.

'Yes...you will be joining there before me.' his voice rings out as I feel something pierce my armor for the fifth time in its use.

Looking down I see his omni-blade stabbed into my left lung, blood pooling into it as my breathing becomes near non-existent. The pain finally overpowering my will to survive and my body finally saying it has had enough of this crap as I fall over next to him, both of us in a pool of mixed blood, our eyes locked onto the others.

"Fuck you....you fucking...fuck....fucker....McFucklips...." my words coming our jagged, sharp and weak as I give him the finger with my good arm.

Before he has a chance to say anything I feel the air getting colder yet soothing, the light itself starts to get brighter as I see the tunnel of light approaching but what I did not know was that just beneath us, Spike and Cadence did what I needed them to do.

"The one thing...you underestimated Sombra....is that us...and the ponies of both...Equestria and the Crystal...Kingdom...is that when...we are at our weakest....we are also at our strongest....you have failed....in your conquest....you have a first class ticket to hell...wait a bit longer...and I will be taking a seat next to you....punk bitch." I said as I feel something shatter the black crystal beneath us, the force of the winds sending me away from the city as my eyes catch a glimpse of Sombra, the bastard had it coming.

His body exploded from the power of the winds, his entire form just shattering like fragile glass getting smacked by a baseball bat as his disintegrates away, his crown and cape oddly clinging to my body as I go sailing off into the tundra.

My body landing deep into the snow as my blood slowly freezes from within, my body shutting down as my armor tries to do its best to preserve what little of vital blood and energy I have left, trying to hold out till rescue arrives but me and the suit knows it won't be coming.

"So cold....so very cold...." my thoughts slowly clouding and the power even to think soon becomes to heavy, if only--

Purgatory

"Gosh son, thank you so much for slaying the cursed demon pony, I am sure my soul will rest easy now."

"Shut the fuck up dad..."

3 Months Later

Katherine's Point of View

Every pony is in attendance for the funeral, all dressed in black, no face is free of tears. My own face is drenched in the tears for the man that has always stood by my side, even at times when I was yelling at him, verbally chewing his head off when he did not deserve it. My eyes looking at the empty coffin, its contents are his helmet, a large gash in the visor from where Sombra, and his left arm, the only part of his body we managed to find during the clean up of the Crystal Capital.

Sighing heavily I closed the casket as the last of the ponies sat down in the pews, Hilo'Jaa standing beside me, wearing my spare black dress uniform, no longer does the quarian have to fear about open-air exposures or sickness, the one gift from Sombra she will ever keep from the unicorn that held her hostage.

Slowly facing those in attendance I made my way towards the center isle, my face filled with nothing but pure sorrow and pain, having to lose my close friend for a second time now was just unbearable but I know that he would have wanted me to continue to live on, just as much as I wanted him to as well. Looking at the four unicorns and two gryphons standing by Roran's casket, each one holding a salvaged Mattock by their side as I prepared myself.

"Present Arms!" I yelled, the unicorns and gryphons standing at attention stand in a uniform line, their rifles pointing over the edge of Canterlot, pointing towards the Everfree Forest.

"Standby!" their rifles clicking off the safety.

"Fire!" all six fired off a single round, the sounds of ponies weeping, each one for different reasons.

"Fire!" the eight ponies and baby dragon sitting at the front are crying the most, they were the ones who have lost someone very close to them, behind them sat twelve diamond dogs, a few were wearing armor stamped with both Princess Celestia and Luna's symbol as the one sitting at the edge of the isle was wearing a black blouse, and tied to the end of her tail was a red bandanna, Roran's blood rag.

"Fire!" I shouted for the last time, the six fired their last rounds before standing back at attention.

Walking towards the podium, I stand at attention before everyone present, my eyes still wet from fresh tears but I have to be strong for those that are too weak to hold themselves up.

"Roran....was a good man, several times he has gone above and beyond the call of duty, a duty that he could have refused to serve several times, but instead he has taken up the sword and shield and defended those that couldn't protect themselves. Roran was always a hard-headed bastard, but...he was my bastard....he will always be my hard-headed bastard. He will be missed dearly by those lives he has touched, by those he has met...and by those he cared for. I...I....I will miss you..."

Stepping down from the podium I let the next person to say a few words about Roran, than another, another, and another before finally the sun was slowly setting off in the distance.

Taking one last look at the casket I lowered it into the ground next to the other stone coffins within the tomb built by Discord, the wild chimera seemingly sane at this moment when he has taken it to the tombs for me and even waited patiently for me to arrive to escort me to his final resting place.

"Farewell friend, see your ghost soon..."

End of Story Arc 1

Written by: Roran Dreamon

Idea's from: Mass Effect 3 and all of it's DLC, My Little Pony, and a bottle of Kiwi Strawberry juice

Editing by: One-Eyed Willy

Thank you fans for reading this section of the story, I will be writing the next story arc soon enough.

Arid Wastelands, Badlands

Unknown

"God...where am I....and why does my mouth taste like honey?"

Arc 2: Chapter 20: The Beyond

Purgatory, 3 Months before the funeral

Standing at the edge of the clouds, looking down at my slowly freezing corpse being consumed by the winter gales as I watch the snow slowly pile over my body, just watching it slowly vanish beneath the ice.

"Gosh son, thank you so much for slaying the cursed demon pony, I am sure my soul will rest easy now." my father says, his tone a mocking one, the same tone he ever uses when I am in his company.

"Shut the fuck up dad..." I reply, my tone disheartened, having to watch my own body get an unmarked grave in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.

"You seem upset for some unknown reason. Come now, what's eating you, son? Oh! That's right! Vultures!" he says, still mocking my situation as he laughs at me, still laughing as he follows me towards more clouds that lead to a subway station.

"I'm serious dad! I don't want to hear it." I growled at him, trying to ignore him as I walk towards the subway train station that leads to hell, knowing that my bet with Satan is now in his favor.

"What don't you want to hear, oh firstborn child of mine?" his words sounding wise for a moment before the clear warning sign of his rant is about to begin.

"That your cunning plan to rush in headlong and grapple with a demon pony that was laying waste to a city filled with hopelessly defenseless ponies and stabbing him with a holographic solid piece of energy was going to slay him? Or how about the part of you falling approximately 1,000 feet to your demise?" I turned around to glare holes through him, his words striking home.

"Or the more general view of how you managed through your ineffective planning led to the destruction of a pretty sparkly castle and half the city." now his words are just biting the wrong buttons.

"HEY! That palace is still intact, only mildly bullet ridden, and more than half of the city is still intact...asshole." I yelled at him, my anger getting the best of me again.

"Well I hate to break it to you old man but this is far from the end of the line, it's more like halftime." I said as I walked to the Hell ticket booth, an incubus is waiting behind the booth this time, reading a magazine about Hitler's strategy plans and how flawed they were. He gave me a nod before pushing a button as two tickets popped up from a small slit in the booth, first class tickets to hell.

"What? How can you halve time?" my father asked, actually thinking that I could cut time in half, facepalming to myself as the incubus behind the counter just looks up from his book again to just roll his purple-slit eyes before resuming his reading.

"*sigh* I should have known that sports metaphor would have been wasted on you. What I mean is, my duty to Equestria is not over yet even though I bit the bullet for the ninth time now. As soon as Celestia or Luna find my beaten-to-fuck corpse and after Death gives me the green light to come back to the land of the living I will resume my job as if nothing has ever happened." which he should be giving me a thumbs up right about now.

'Even though my mangled-to-hell corpse is going to require more than duck-tape and ryncol to make it all better.'

"Ooooo, yes! And while your friends collect the seven magic spheres to wish you back to life, you can train with a secret martial artist master who lives here in the afterlife." he said while giving the most convincing of tones while acting like nothing was happening.

"..... Really?" I said while pulling out a stick to chew on while waiting for the train to arrive.

"No, not really, you moron! Does this look like that stupid old Earth show to you!" he yelled, his face red from how hard his voice raised, obviously not liking my answer.

"Could have fooled me, that last fight took to damn long to end." I said while looking at my left arm, seeing that it is back where it belongs but sadly I couldn't move it much since it is still reforming to my body.

"You know, this place does look a LOT different than I expected..." I said while looking around, still thinking about where we both should have ended up instead of this massive expanse of fluffy white clouds.

"What are you talking about?" my father says while wiping his brow with his right hand, clearly not getting to what I was saying.

"Well, I died, and I'm standing here listening to you berate me. So wheres the fire and brimstone? Where are all the little red devils with the pitchforks?" I said while still waiting, the demon on the other side points upwards above the booth, the time for the train to arrive is five weeks.

"Cute Roran, very cute." my father says, clearly not amused by what I said, his arms crossing before me while I laugh a bit.

"I repent oh Lords of the Underworld! Whatever I did to deserve this eternal punishment, I repent! I'll take all the hot pokers, just don't make me talk to my asshole of a father a second longer than necessary!" I shouted while falling to my knees, my arms wide open waiting for the fiery pain.

As I kneel'd their waiting for the little bastard imps, an angel flies over to the both of us, in her hands is a clipboard and a quill, her hair tied up in the usual no-nonsense bun, her uniform is that of what most accountants would wear, even her halo has a little name tag, but sadly I couldn't read it since the damn thing was so bright it hurt to even stare at it.

"Excuse me Mr. Zidane?" the angel said while looking at her clipboard, her eyes not even looking at us.

My father and I look at each other for a moment before speaking at the same time, "Yes?".

"The Jr. Mr. Zidane?" she said while looking up from her clipboard, her eyes scanning both of us.

"That's me." I said while stepping forward, my father trailing behind us, my guess he has been stuck in this shit hole longer than I have.

"Nice to meet you, sir. I am from the Burocratico Angelo that has been assigned to your case." she says while extending her hand to me which I accepted and gingerly squeezed it, shaking it and the feeling she gives off is that of pure and utter relaxation and peace of mind.

"My case?" I said, I was utterly confused because the other times I died and ended up here not once did an angel show up for anything besides that I am getting the boot back down to the mortal realm.

'Even in the afterlife the Italians are the lawyers.'

"Yes, we need to find out your post-mortal residential status in order to find out whether you are going to the Underworld or to Heaven. Why don't you have a seat at my office while we review your past life to to figure out where you will be spending the rest of your existence when we find Celestial Realm perfect for you." her office appears out of bumfuck no where, looking like the typical office cubical found in most economical area's of most cities and metropolitan areas.

As I look around and I found a revolving door with a spirit walking through it and receiving a greeting from an angel, "Huh...I always thought the 'revolving door afterlife' was just a metaphor..." I mused quietly to myself as I sat down at the desk.

"Now, you are a soldier, so that means you are eligible to earn Frequent Dying Miles every time you stay with us...and you can earn double points when you use your Archon Express card. Would you like to fill out an application?" she says while typing something up on her terminal, obviously getting something ready for me. This feels more like an interview than processing.

"Eh sure." I said while shrugging, not really caring for either at the moment but knowing how often my body gets abused and ruined I might as well get them while I can.

"Let's take a look at your Permanent Record, shall we?" she asks while typing in my name on her screen which to my surprise has red tape on it before it disappears to a single word.

"Permanent Record? I thought that was just fucking hoax to straighten my ass in line during the academy training!" I said defensively, my time at the academy was hell but the shit I got into was something I did not entirely cause to myself.

"Wow, your commanding officer had quite a few choice things to say about you-" she started before I quickly blurted something out.

"How the hell should I have known that Mr. Lenohan was allergic to peanut butter!" in truth it was funny as hell

"-but we generally ignore things that revolved around your early adulthood and your childhood."

"Oh thank god."

"Let's see what do we have in the adult file...Resisting Arrest?" she said as my father starts to chuckle behind me, clearly familiar with that one.

"It was Cerberus Assassins wearing C-Sec gear and they were a illegitimate authority anyway."

"Stealing presents from an ambassador?" her eyes just staring through me as my father keeps laughing, slowly falling backwards from the growing intensity of his laughter.

"There was a bomb in those boxes and I ended up saving his ass and about forty others from the blast. I ended up losing an arm for saving him, and he still owes me a new arm."

"Dangling a prisoner out a window?" at this point my father is just laughing his ass off, the angel on the other hand is just shaking her head in disappointment.

"That man betrayed everyone by working with the Reapers and also I fucking hated that man."

"Starting a- oh my..."

"I don't like the sound of this..." her tone utterly crippling any

"Starting a full out brawl in Chora's Den, getting hammered in said place, shooting four people, killing two of them, running from the law, stealing a vehicle and escaping from the law, and finally getting caught by the law, leaving jail on only drunk charges than getting...fornicating in an elevator in a public place and lastly almost killing Commander Shepard."

"Okay...all of that crap was not entirely my fault, the brawl was in self-defense, getting drunk off my ass was because of a drinking contest, those four bastards shot at me so I returned fire and wasn't my fault that those two have such crappy constitutions, C-Sec was being an ass that day so I decided to have some fun, and the elevator was because we were both drunk and it was more like a one-hour stand. Almost killing Shepard because he was working with Cerberus, those bastards are the reason why I am here in the first place." I said, defending myself for what I was worth, knowing full well that being stuck in Hell was not going to be fun as it usually is, the few trips I have been there was horrible. Hell is exactly as I thought it would be, nothing but office cubical's, demons walking around with coffee mugs with the words 'Number 1 Son or Daughter' or in the very few cases 'Number 1 Yes Man', all of them walking in suits with ties, small square lens glasses and constantly asking the workers for paperwork and other horrible work that the office people usually do.

In all Hell is exactly as I saw it, the universe's biggest office complex, and Satan was the head cheese.

"..."

"Than there was you leaving your four-eyed friend, a batarian, left behind and allowed him to be captured by Reaper forces to be processed and turned into a Cannibal."

"Well...I...I always hated that bastard, I hated him with a passion, but I grew close to the little bugger...I knew what I did was wrong as hell...leaving a man to a fate like that is....damning to pretty much any religion. It took me a few minutes to realize that I know his harsh ass wouldn't survive in the processing facility so I went back in alone, I could have asked the rest of my squad to help but I told them to continue on with their objective. I had to go back for a team mate let alone one of the few men that can see through my bullshit and call on it easily, I knew that it was wrong to leave him behind but I made up for it by going back and saved him and a few other prisoners that have yet to be turned into black goop to be piped out somewhere."

Her facial expression still hasn't changed but it has softened a bit but she is still wearing the same solid mask.

"I don't suppose we can just weigh my heart against a feather or some shit like that?" I said as her stare get growing in intensity, sweat starting to form on my brow as the interview kept going on and on.

"Oh, no, we haven't done that for years. The scales are a bitch to calibrate." she said while gathering up her clipboard and lone file report from the table before standing up and straightening out her skirt.

'Where the fuck is Garrus when you need that cobalt painted bastard...' my thoughts giving voice as I know that he can easily fix that scale, if he can calibrate a giant fucking cannon on a warship than he can just breeze through a scale.

"You...well your records are full of black and grey spots but your actions that you have taken against an evil that would have constantly wiped out all known life and all other past actions to ensure that peace and harmony overtake evil and destruction but you never stop working to improve the lives of those around you by making sure they are safe at night when you protect them. That's what's important. To us, anyway." the angel said as she walked around the table and stands directly in front of me, and assuming this is where the office disappears and not wanting to land flat on my ass and make myself look like a fool I stood up and waited for my judgement.

"Welcome to Heaven, Roran." she said while sticking her hand out, her heart warming smile spread across her face as I somewhat awkwardly shook her hand, still not fully comprehending what just happened, and still thinking if Satan is just waiting in the background waiting for me to lower my guard and say I just got punk'd.

"Wait what? What about my deal with Death? Usually my ass would be back on Earth in some frozen chasm trying to find a way to crawl out and get back to civilization or worse, trying to claw my way out of a wooden box." my mouth opening and closing like a air-drowning fish, my mind flip-flopping on itself.

"It's not a problem with us, your not the first to make the same deal. Go on up." she said as her office space slowly faded away, she turned around just before her wings unfurl to take off, someone gives out a very disgruntled yell.

"WHAT!" of course, it had to come from my father.

"In lew of paradise, can I get a picture of that exact look on his face?" I said as I tried to tap my omni-tool to take a picture but it wasn't working.

"Now, see, that's exactly the sort of comment we are trying to get you to cut back on." she sighs, shaking her head in slight disappointment.

"Maybe a fifty-foot marble statue..." I grumbled to myself, my father's face still red as a tomato and pissed off as hell.

"Now wait a cotton-picking minute! When I died I was not allowed even remotely close to that gate to heaven and as soon as my son died he is allowed entry when he did even worse things than I! How the fucking hell is he even allowed into Heaven when he is the reason why that cargo freighter crashed into frigate!" he yelled while pointing an accusing finger right at me.

"I'm guessing it's due to their very low Jackass Quota, Dad. They're just full at the moment." I replied to him, smirking in victory.

"Your son is getting in because he upheld his oath as an Earth Systems Alliance soldier and an as N7 Operative. Sure he could have gone about it in a more effective and efficient manner-"

"Like to see you do my damn job better than me..." I mumbled under my breath, not liking how people are telling me on how to do my job.

"-but we don't penalize people for trying. He was doing what he thought was best for everyone he worked with, for and met, to the limits of his abilities-including his judgement on his actions."

"You on the other hand abandoned your oath, broke it when you joined Cerberus than the Reapers. You stopped being a decent human being when the Reapers invaded Earth and turned your back against your own people just for the sake of saving your own skin from being turned into a Husk." she said as her tone started to turn to that of anger and annoyance, one thing I learned in my time in the academy is to never piss off the ladies, a woman's scorn is something to man should ever take lightly.

"You broke your oath while your son fulfilled it with everything he could have done to ensure that everyone was protected from evil and harm from the oath you dumped on his feet. Therefore, he earned his spot in Heaven while you earned a front row ticket to Hell." the angel's tone kept growing in intensity, my father shrinking down as she slowly floated above him, her eyes piercing right through him.

"But...but that's not fair!"

"Yes, it is fair. And that's why you are upset."

"Ooooo, holy burn!"

"Well Dad, it's been a blast, but some of us has an appointment with the revolving door. Adios, old man."

"Oh, no, Roran, that's for returning patrons. First-timers take the entrance behind you."

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" a group mini angels making the typical holy sounds as the giant golden gates slowly creak open, revealing Heaven, in all of it's fluffy cloudy glory. Both my father and my own jaw's drop simultaneously, my eyes slightly watering at the sight as my father just stood their and looked.

The angel slowly slides next to me and whispers to my ear, placing a small bag into my left hand as I feel her breath on my ear. "It's customary to tip the cherubim."

Walking towards the gate was something that was both a mixture of feeling empowered and feeling feeble, but I pushed aside those feelings as I took my first step into Heaven, the soft cloud sinks slightly beneath my feet as I took the first step. After getting adjusted to the slight sinking feeling and the partial weightlessness, I started my trek to find out what exactly I could do here but was shortly stopped by a little ball of light.

"Welcome to Heaven, Roran Zidane Jr. I'll be your guide in Heaven until you get settled in, or until you are raised from the dead by your friends and loved ones." it said, the tone of its voice was something that you had to wonder what gender it was, it sounded both like a male and female, confusing as hell since its a little ball of prismatic light.

"Thanks uhh....ball of light?" I said, confused by both the fact it is a ball of light and that it speaks, let alone if it even has a name.

"Actually my name is 'Roran's Archon' or just 'Archon'." it said as it floated over to my head before sticking close to my left ear for some reason.

"Huh...seems awfully...convenient." I said, skeptical about its name but brushed it off as I made for the colossal mountain in front of me.

"Exactly."

"So what is there to do here? I mean sure it is Heaven and all, but from what I know it is just a paradise for those that did good for their entire lives...seems kinda...plain."

"Well this is the lobby of Heaven, the actual area itself is above your head, in the golden clouds circling the mountain top."

"And how do you suppose I get up there? Climbing that mountain could take days, and I am not spending my first day in Heaven climbing a giant friggen mountain. Friggen? Friggen...frack...oh you got to be friggen kidding me..."

"Yes, I am not assuming you have found out that you can not swear in Heaven?"

"Ya, you little fuzzy bulb-head, I just realized that, now how am I supposed to enjoy my reunions without the ability to swear like a drunken navy pilot!"

"You can always be nice and have a gentle, calm conversation instead of acting like an uneducated brute."

I just stare at the ball of light, contemplating if it is possible to kill one of those things, but sadly realized that you can't entirely kill light, just snuff it out by covering it in shadows.

"So just normal idle chatter....I guess I can get used to it....but you still haven't told me how I am getting out of this lobby." crossing my arms as I looked around, not finding anything useful or means to get up there.

It floats away from my head before getting a good distance away from me before disappearing, the prismatic colors fading away before returning as a giant golden glass elevator.

"Okay...that was....strangely convenient." I said, looking at the elevator before walking up to it and with a gentle push on the doors, stepped in and closed it behind me. Looking around the interior of the elevator I saw only two buttons, the first said 'Lobby' as the second said 'Plaza', and knowing that the lobby is boring as hell I pressed 'Plaza' and hoped that it looks better than it says.

What I did not know was that this elevator moved faster than any other I have ridden on, this ride was that of a really fast roller-coaster that had plenty of twists, spins and corkscrews, it forced so many G's on me that I fell flat on my ass and was pressed into the glass floor for a few seconds before abruptly stopping, throwing me to the ceiling before slamming back down onto the floor.

"Okay...next time warn me about the insane speeds that this thing can exert...I think I broke a butt cheek..."

"Your body is completely intact, no internal damage, and if I had warn you about the speeds you would still be hitting the floor and ceiling regardless."

I just looked at the floaty light for a few seconds before exiting the elevator that is my helper before he faded from that form and returned to that of a prismatic orb of lights.

"Welcome to the Plaza."

As I got off the floor and looked around I saw that this is what Heaven must really be. All around everything was made of the purest of white marble, the light from the sun is flawlessly reflecting off of the smooth, polished surfaces of the stone, giving it the air of superior authority and collective calm. Everywhere I looked I saw things that looked familiar until it came to me that it was the ancient greek version of the Presidium on the Citadel, and truth be told it was the exact mirror version of it.

"Wow...seems like whoever made the Presidium on the Citadel must have died at least a few times to make it look exactly like this...I can see why it was always so calm and peaceful...even when it was on fire and covered in Geth and Husks...hmm...I hope this place has a noodle bar...and my home..." I said aloud, not knowing that all around me was tens of thousands of both angels and normal people, going about their daily lives, a few giving me warming smiles and glances.

"This place has over 100 noodle bars, all of them lining the Plaza level and floors, your home is this way, if you would follow me." the ball floating over to a planned route, emitting a blue and green light mixture, grabbing my attention as I followed it past several buildings, all of them looking exactly like the Presidium stores.

A few minutes into the walk we stopped at a large building, at least two stories tall and all marble but instead of the pure white of the others, this was a sky blue color and that it was lined with window gardens on nearly every window.

"This is your home, if you need further instructions to get to varies locations, just call for me." the sphere said before shooting straight up into the air and in a spiraling fashion, vanished into the air.

Taking a moment to prepare myself for whatever will be on the other side of the door and also for whoever might be there waiting. Waiting a few seconds I grabbed the handle on the door and pushed it open, my head poking through the crack to see who is near the doorway but no one was present at the moment.

Stepping quietly into my new home, I took mental notes of everything that I saw. In the middle of what I think is the living room was a semi-large water fountain roughly the same height as me give or take a couple inches, around said fountain are what I can clearly tell are roses of all kinds and varying colors and scents, behind me was the dinning hall, a large oak table able to hold eight people, the chairs also seem to be made of oak. Connecting the two rooms is the hall way, which is adorned in pictures of my mother, myself, my friends and I, and also a picture of me giving the middle finger with my left hand, a Talon pistol in the right, sitting on top of a crashed Cerberus Kodiak while Katherine and Hilo'Jaa are doing the same pose as I am. What was next to that picture was something that I thought I told Katherine to delete, it was a picture of me, when I was seven, sucking on my thumb in bed while hugging a very large varren plush doll, asleep.

"Oh come on! I thought I told her to delete that! That is so embarrassing and....where did it all go wrong..." I sighed sadly as I turned away from the picture, walking towards the stairs in front of the foyer, grabbing the hand rails and steadily walking up, expecting to find someone.

As I got up to the second floor, I found out how quickly the scenery has changed for me as I quickly found myself in a more homely environment as everything feels more...friendly. Taking a few cautious steps into the new scenery of my own home, I look around taking in the sights as I come into a room that looked like it was freshly cleaned, the carpet looked like it was vacuumed, the wooden cabinets and dressers dusted and polished, the bed made and even the windows cleaned.

Walking over to a dresser, a picture frame is free standing as the screen is coated in a heavy layer of dust, completely obscuring the picture within, and with a bush of my thumb I wipe away a thin layer of dust away, revealing a picture of my face when I was eighteen and freshly graduated from the Alliance Academy of London, I was dressed in my uniform blues, pressed and ironed, my dress shoes were at a high mirror shine and my cap was compact and never budged an inch when the Kodiak's came to pick us up for the ceremony. Brushing more of the dust off the picture, I noticed that this picture was modified with a different background form where it was original was taken, instead of the usual tile walls behind me, it was replaced by wooden boards, and standing beside me was someone but was partially concealed in dust.

"Well...it seems my son has finally come home to visit his mother, well don't just stand there with your thumb up your butt and give me a hug." my mother said, no longer was her usual authoritative tone but instead of one I have only heard only once, when she first saw me on the hospital bed with my limbs being removed after the battle of the Citadel, after Saren has been killed by Shepard and his crew, while he was being tasked with wiping out the remaining pockets of geth resistance, I was tasked with new limbs and the training to use them.

"Mom..." was all I said before running up to her and pulling her into the tightest of hugs I can give her without causing any damage, even with us being in the afterlife I rather not do something that could potentially harm her.

"It has been so long since I last hugged you...in my real arms, not some ectoplasmic illusion." she says as she holds me in her arms, stroking my hair for a while before breaking the hug off, looking me in the eyes as mine stare at hers, the sounds of something falling down the hall attracts my attention before I hear the sounds of childish giggles.

"Is...is she..." I said, stuttering my words as I hear more sounds of childish giggles coming from the corridor behind me.

"Yes, she is, go on now, I know you two have a lot of catching up to do." my mother says, a tear coming down her face as she smiles faintly at me, letting me go down the hall towards the room at the end, a pinkish light seeping out from the cracks of the door.

Slowly pushing open the door to the room, I let it the light bathe me in its warm glow as I walked into the large room. The sight of my little sister playing with some dolls fills me with at first a small smile, and as she keeps playing in ignorance of my presence, small tears rapidly turning into small rivers. When she finally looks up from her dolls and see's me for the first time after so long, she too started crying and got off the floor before jumping at me, forcing me onto the floor and into a tight embrace, her frilly pink dress fluttering as we hit the floor.

"Brother! Your finally home!" she yells, her joy obvious to anyone that heard her.

"Yes...yes I am....I am home..." I said quietly, giving her the best bear hug I can give her in my current position on the floor, her head burying into my chest, rubbing her cheek against my chestplate as I pat her on the back, enjoying the moment we are having until she finally pulls away from me and goes to her small bed, patting the spot next to her, indicating for me to sit there.

Rolling off my back and climbing to my feet I made my way to my little sister's bed and barely sat on the edge of it, fearing that the combined weight of my armor and my own weight would snap the support struts in half but when she tugged on my arm a few times to get me to sit more on it, the bed took and held my weight with little to no stress sounds coming from the metal support pieces.

"Big brother...are all the bad men finally gone?" she said a little worried, her voice quivering a bit as she looked at the door, afraid that a monster would pop out and try to eat her. I gave her a warm smile and pulled her in to a side hug as I ruffled her hair teasingly as she punched me in the leg, pouting cutely.

"Yes Emily...they're all gone, the bad men would never scare you ever again." I said, a lone tear sliding down my face as I lean in to nuzzle her head, letting the tear fall down onto her hair as she hugs my waist, smiling widely as she sighs happily, knowing the creeps in the dark are gone.

"So can we finally play together now, you know...if you want to that is...but can we please play?" she said innocently as she looked up at me with the saddest of eyes I had seen from her.

Ruffling her hair again before picking her up and than placing her back down on the floor before sitting next to her, crossing my legs so we can be at a somewhat equal height as she passes a stuffed animal to me, a little puppy with a platinum blonde coat and oceanic blue eyes.

For the greater part of what I think was five hours, we played, we laughed, we chased each other around the house and played games with each other until it was finally time to have dinner, which to my surprise a few more people came over while we were playing.

Sitting at the far end of the table and talking to my mother, humanities greatest legend, Commander John Shepard, and he is sitting in my chair, sipping out of my wine glass. Sitting by him was Admiral Steven Hackett and Admiral David Anderson, also sipping from wine glasses.

As my sister and I walked into the kitchen we stopped as all four stopped talking and stared at us for a while, their eyes looking over us as I slowly moved my sister behind me and even slower, reached for anything that is on the rear belt-loop.

"Calm down Lt. Commander, this is not a trial or anything of the matter, this is just a friendly gathering, nothing more, and I see that even after so many years that your instincts drive you to protect others, even in your current condition." Anderson said while slightly leaning back to catch a glimpse of my little sister before I slightly lowered myself into a much more defensible stance to shield Emily from any oncoming fire.

"Well, tell me first as to why you three are here, and I will stand down. It is not that I don't trust you sir, it is just that I don't trust any of you." I said, waving my hand at the three sitting.

At that they looked at each other briefly before giving silent nods and at that I dropped my stance and slowly sat at the opposite sit of the table, letting Emily hop up onto my lap as I moved her plate over to her and waited for her to begin eating.

"Well?" I said while raising an eyebrow at them, waiting to see who would be the first to talk.

Hackett coughs briefly before standing at attention, looking me dead in the eye, "Roran, we are here because you were the last human alive on Earth-" I cut him off as a little memory pops up, a few minutes of a segment of what I told Katherine back at the Crystal Palace.

"Actually Katherine is now holding up that mantle for me...until I go back that is."

"...Well than, another reason we have came over was that, how is it that when those around you have died or are in stone, you were the only one to be the first free?" Hackett says, trying to figure out how exactly us two escaped our earthly prisons.

"Well Hackett, when you make a deal with someone, make sure you read the bloody fine print, otherwise you are SOL. And as to being the first free from stone...well I guess I got lucky and was near a civilized area and was found, as for the revival...ask Princess Celestia, cause I sure as Hell don't know."

"Princess Celestia?" both Hackett and Shepard say in union as Anderson just says 'Princess' by itself, even my mother was a bit confused at that.

Looking at the four before looking down at my sister, who was finished eating and was now messing with my armor, happily messing with my armor's lights by changing their colors at random. Collecting myself a bit before speaking again, this time giving a few details about who she is, her species, and also the year.

"My gods...are you sure your armor is functioning correctly son? This timeline...it seems....impossible."

"Sir, nothing is impossible, only highly improbable, it is correct, when I first got my hands on any spare parts I fixed my armor to the best of my abilities, and it is exactly 15.7 Million years after Earth's downfall along with the rest of the Council Species. But I want to know if the Crucible even fired." I said, looking at Shepard, who with a heavy sigh stood up and collected himself.

"Roran...the Crucible fired...but...it completely wiped out Earth, most of the Reapers, and both Sword and Shield Fleets, after it went off we just held onto whatever we can until everything eventually died off...the few humans that survived are doing what Javik did, they entered stasis pods but we do not know if they survived or not."

As he says that, I promptly lifted Emily off my lap and placed her on a nearby chair, stood up and walked out the front door, smashing my fist through the door knob and walked off.

Hall's of Infamy, Hell

"Welcome to Hell Mr. Zidane, my lord has been expecting-"

"Yea yea Ziggy, I know Satan is expecting me, I just need to make a quick stop real fast...now where the hell is that little shit head..."

Looking around and after asking a little imp who was stabbing the poking the shit out of Stalin, he directed me to a small booth before I found my route and walked for what felt like months until I came upon the 'Hall's of Infamy'.

"Napoleon...Jack the Ripper...Herbert Hoover...Hitler...Stalin....George W. Bush Jr....Bin Laden...Kim...fuck I forgot your name....ah...here we go." I said after walking past countless cells until finally finding the one I was looking for. "You were hard to find, you little illusive bastard."

Without even turning around from his small metal rotating chair, the Illusive Man takes a small inhale from his cigar before turning to get a sideways glance of me.

"Illusive Man...or should I call you Jack Harper? Either name shall do but for now, Jack, you have a lot to pay for you son-of-a-bitch. Because of you humanity is dead, along with pretty much everything else in the galaxy. Because of you, humanity bit the bloody bullet way to damn early, and left whatever survivors with not only the bill, but also the tab and several handicaps. Because of you, humanity is dead."

"Everything I have done, it was in humanity's best interest. Do you think power like I had comes easy? There are sacrifices."

"Well guess what Jack, you sacrifices to damn much, and look where your power hungry goal led you? Straight to Satan's number one criminal of all time cell. Enjoy your time here, cause this is all you got left, that and your tuxedo." I said before walking out of the Halls and went back onto the subway train and took a ride back to Purgatory than to Heaven.

New Presidium Lake, Heaven, 5 Months Later

Looking out onto the vast openness of the lake, I picked up a target bottle and grabbed a rifle from the crate before loading in a practice round, pulled back the safety lever and threw the bottle before watching it explode in a shower of sparkles and dust, the recoil being barely felt.

"Another."

"Sir, if I may ask, why do you spend so much time here at the lake and at your house when there is still so much to do. You have quite literally all the time in the world to do whatever you desire to do within the Light's reason."

"Another..."

Firing again, the bottle breaking in half as the round tears into the top half, leaving the bottom intact before it too disappears into a shower of glass bits.

"Another..."

The little ball finally sighing in defeat before levitating another target before leaving.

Taking that as my que, I dropped my rifle and target in the crate before rushing back home, feeling myself slightly out of place and seeing things that weren't quite real.

As I got home I can already feel myself shifting back and forth.

"Emily, it looks like I have to get back to work keeping the bad men away." I said with a small tear sliding down my face, not wanting to leave her behind so soon.

"Will you be back to play with me soon?" she said with a smile on her face, her looks slightly crest fallen from the sudden news.

Looking at her before looking out the window, I try come up with a positive answer but can only come up with this.

"I will try to get back to you soon, and Emily, remember what I taught you, if you see a bad man?" I said, looking at her before giving her a thumbs up.

"Go for mommy and let her save the day!" she said with in a very chipper tone.

"Good, now, I must be going, see you soon." speaking out before finally fading away, seems like Death had his plate full.

Arid Wastelands, Badlands

Opening my eyes for the first time in months, my vision comes up golden as I slightly turn my head to find it hard to even lift a finger. Slowly getting the feeling in my legs again, and eventually my right arm as I feel the phantom pains from my left until finally getting all the feelings in my chest and torso.

Slowly moving up from the viscus liquid, I can feel it slowly drip off my body and eventually watching it drip onto the floor. The smell of it oddly familiar and yet strangely alien to me.

Bringing a hand to my face and licking it, rolling the strange gel on my tongue before rubbing it on my lips, the taste suddenly clicking.

"God...where am I....and why does my mouth taste like honey?" I shouted as I looked around, my vision kicking in completely as I see that I am in a cave of sorts, the sound of loud buzzing fills the air before a pair of emerald eyes fill my vision, the only thing that I can see.

"Welcome...to the Hive." the insect said before I hear the sounds of more buzzing and chitterlings from others.

'I'm not in the tundra anymore...'

Chapter 21: The Depths...

Staring right at the eyes in front of me I simply looked at the pair until finally they break off and flies off, the changeling in question zipping past several others who have gathered around the chamber I am in, and to my surprise that when I sat up I was expecting to be in a metal or wooden coffin filled with honey but instead I was in a cocoon of sorts, filled with honey, which sadly tasted a bit bland and needed more sugar...and maybe some toasted bread.

Bringing my right hand to my face and watching a glob of honey slowly drip down from my hand, watching it form sticky strings attaching my fingers to the cocoon, forming a sticky strand before finally drooping my hand back into it and taking another mouthful of the stuff, filling my mouth to end the slowly rising pings of sharp hunger pains, hoping that honey alone can fend off the growing intensity of starvation.

The scuttling sound of carapace covered hooves on cut stone echo across the walls of the chamber, my eyes darting to its point of origin only to see what looks like a much smaller changeling, a youngling or a peon, whatever they are called one came up to me, its emerald eyes looking up at me, seemingly a bit to large for its head but it did make it look adorable...oddly adorable.

"*cough cough* Hey little one...you mind if you can help me out of this cocoon?"

The little changeling shook its head 'no' a few times before I saw its oddly pointed ears twitch a bit before it ran off back into the darkness of the cave, my chamber only illuminated by glow-in-the-dark fungi and moss scattered around the room, and only when I switched from normal vision to night-vision do I realize that all the buzzing and chittering was from the dozens of changelings moving all over the place.

Just looking above my head I can see them flying over head, going in and out of the chamber, a few landing on the floor talking to another before flying off in random directions. As my eyes finally cleared itself of the visual blurs everything came into clarity and was picture perfect lime-green but even with everything being a brighter and darker shade of green I can still pick things out of the different hues, mainly moving changelings and some other subtle shapes that I couldn't entirely pick out.

'Well...I can now claim that changelings are extremely busy.....I wonder if I can even lift myself out...'

Slowly lifting my right arm over the side of the cocoon, trying to get a hold of something to hoist myself up and out but sadly all that I can feel is the stickiness of the honey and the smoothness of the shell holding me in place. Fumbling around for something to get a grip on I claw my way into an upright position, trying to get my legs to bend a bit so I can stand on my own power but my legs are that of the honey, jellified and unresponsive.

"Perfect...looks like Death failed to mention that my body would say 'Fuck you' to me when I come back....looks like I have to crawl everywhere till I get complete motor control again....fuck..." muttering quietly as I slowly began to claw my way to the front of the cocoon and began to with my one arm, grabbing the very edge and clamping down as hard as I can and ever so slowly tried to climb out but in my weakened condition, the only thing I did was exert to much on my body as it forced itself to shut down to prevent myself from further attempts at self inflicting pain.

Days came and went as I sat there in my pod of honey, my body slowly but surely healing over those days but I was slowly growing tired of my confinement. Looking around my room that I am in and also at the coffin that my body is currently resting in I took notice that not once in all the days I have been here that I had not even had the chance or need to go to the porcelain throne, my mind trying to figure out if it is just my body still trying to put itself back into working fighting order, or just a spell that has been placed on me so I don't have to use the bathroom. If it was the latter choice than I want to know that spell so the next unicorn I meet can cast on me, it would really save me on toilet paper.

Glancing around the chamber to see if anything has changed and in short order I saw some things that made me question my heavy sleeping practices. My eyes hardly needed to scan the room to see the changes, the walls around my cocoon were actually given coverings of sorts, there was actually a carpet on the floor but it was only near the small sofa and three cushions. My room slightly modified to accommodate ponies or in this case, bug ponies. Taking one last look around I scooped another handful of honey, now tasting less stale and more sweet than the previous time I had a mouth full and with a shallow swallow and a loud thunk of my head hitting the top of the coffin I drifted back to the land of dreams, sweet dreams of me beating the shit out of the Illusive Man for being a complete jackass.

It has been three weeks since I woke up from my death sleep and in that span of three weeks I have been getting my body moving again, my arm now fully responds to my command my legs are less jelly and more stiff and orderly but walking is still a bit of a bitch but getting over that is something I consider a challenge worthy of my time. For the first few hours of my waking days I tried to stand up, using the coffin as a crutch of sorts, keeping a firm clamp on the rim of it to steady myself as I ever so slowly regained my ability to walk on two legs. It took me five days to walk again under my own power but the last two days I spent them exploring my room and the hallway outside of it but the changeling guards posted at me door told me to wait inside until the queen says I am allowed to leave on my own.

Not knowing what would happen if I refuse to comply and if I refuse and be hostile I might be thrown in a dungeon cell or worse, a Varren Pit so I turned back to my room, closed the door, went back to the sofa and laid down on it before snoozing. what I was not expecting to wake me up so early in the night was a pony that I knew for a few days during my time in training a platoon of ponies.

"Mirias...I see that you are doing better now...so can you please tell me why you are disturbing my sleep at this hour." I opened one eye looking at hers before swinging my legs off the arm rest of the sofa since it was way too small to serve as a temporary bed for me, my feet touching the ground gingerly before sliding to the side to allow Mirias a spot on the sofa which she jumped on the spot where my head was before sitting down.

"Well, I should say the same about you to, you looked far worse than I have ever seen, we knew that you were dead but the wounds you have received. I was not among our mages when they started the healing process but I saw your body before hoof, it makes me wonder what exactly are you fighting for to take such injuries and keep fighting?"

"I fight for a few things, one thing is mainly money cause of old habits I have, another is that because of my job that it is a requirement, another is simply that I can fight and those that I fight are quick to scurry away and flee before they lose their heads and have their friends watch it get mounted on pikes.But I fight because I can." I said while looking over myself, my clothes feeling more formfitting than normal, the fabric slightly tight around my right shoulder, midriff and chest and along my thighs but it was not enough to be entirely uncomfortable to be a problem.

After our banter against one another, telling stories what we have been up to lately and lastly the story of how I ended up on Death's doorstep for what I can guess is the ninth time, which oddly enough earned a confused look from Mirias who thought I was just joking but when I told her the other times I died she went from confused to wondering how the hell am I still breathing. When it was over she left me alone and before closing the door she winked at me and gave me a coy looking grin before shutting the door and only after did she leave did I notice how light headed I was, unknowingly being fed off of the entire time as I laid my head back onto the sofa and went back to sleep.

Changeling Hive, 1 Month after Revival

In the darkness that is the chamber I feel something prodding my side a few times, my body ringing in pain as I let out a weak groan, and very weakly waving them away from me but sadly the prodding doesn't end until finally it gets to the point where I had to whip my right arm at the changeling poking me but when I sent my arm to swing at the offending hoof I feel it get constricted in a magical grip before having it gently released my arm down onto my chest, my head turning to see who was so bold to stop me from hitting the annoyance, but to see who it was, was a bit of an understatement.

Standing almost directly above me was the two changelings that I easily remember as my acquaintances and friends, Ditto and Mirias, the two just staring at me until finally my eyes came across the large changeling behind them. Tilting my head up from ground to get a better look at who it could be, I saw that this changeling was obviously much larger than the typical breed of them, and from the angle I am also looking at I can tell that this is a female from the most noticeable features I can presently see at this moment, but the way her voice is...its something that would make even the most expensive of awesome voice covers go green with envy.

"You have not completely recovered from your ordeal human, it is most wise to just stay still within your healing cocoon and wait till your wounds have stitched themselves together, but sadly your left arm could not have been found in the winter tundra that is northern Equestria." the large changeling said while looking down at me as her eyes looked me over and from my position I saw a crown resting on her head and the thing doesn't look like it is made of any metal that I know of so it was rather made of something organic or magically treated wood, something that I know that I can never remake on my own.

Looking at my left arm I can clearly see that is it indeed gone, but already knowing that since I cant feel it at all and that it would be poking my chest about now feeling for the stab wound and other scars that I have somewhat started to accumulate. What I did not know was that covering the stump of my left arm, directly on the shoulder-blade is what I think is a dome of sorts, texture and temperature alone is enough to tell me that it is not cloth or a semi-permeable material, but instead it is something like stone or metal, either being better than a piece of fabric covering a wound like that.

"Yea, that much I noticed, if it wasn't for the throbbing pain, the dulled nerves and fatigue, I would have guess that I was being treated...but still though...why am I here and not in Equestria?" I asked while still checking myself for any signs of modification or change and with a tiny smile I found nothing different about me besides the stump cover.

"Well, to answer your question it would lead to us asking you why you are assisting those ponies when those that need your help more is closer than you think...but to answer your question, they just couldn't find your body when it was expelled from Cadence's kingdom, the few drones I had placed amongst her people had told me that you were removed from that wretched city was the only way of acquiring you...so when the ponies tried to find you, we got to you first and took you away from pony held lands all the way here to changeling territory, the past few months has taken us with prominent abilities in healing magic to ensure that you recovered from your near-death experience." she said while moving over to sit down on the largest of the floor cushions in the room, the other two sitting on the other ones, the large changeling simply watching me with those emerald cat eyes of hers and the more I look into them...the more I feel like my thoughts are slipping from my grasp.

"Just to clarify, I have been dead for five months...Death was just on break from his job to send me back." I said trying to cross my arms but only making it look like I was holding my side in pain, which they take as that I have injured myself yet again, intentionally or otherwise. Looking down at myself and sighed a bit, most of my clothing I was wearing as padding for my armor is gone, leaving me with nothing but honey besides my underwear and Alliance off-duty shirt.

Going back to looking at myself I found that the pants I was wearing under my armor was gone and that it was a bit drafty in here, "I am also assuming that you had to remove my pants to tend to my wounds hmm? Was it necessary to take that off when the injury I have sustained was above the waist?" I asked while looking at all three before they all looked away in different directions before finally Mirias had the decency to answer my question.

"Well...Roran, the reason why we took everything off was that...even our healing magic was having trouble tend to your wounds when it was being actively blocked, your armor must have some sort of enchantment making it unable to receive any kind of magic from anypony, even us so we got a little...desperate in removing it, and since your wounds were covered by your daily attire we had to remove that as well...and...well...my queen wanted to know more about your physiology." she said as I tried standing up to stretch my legs, trying to get them a bit limbered up so I can resume my walking practices in hoping that I would no longer have to worry about falling over, even with cybernetics in my legs being inactive for 5 months left them inoperable and non-responsive.

Rolling my eyes I bring up my barriers but as I try to even attempt it, they immediately shatter and my mind takes the whiplash even more so than usual, the large changeling in question laughs quietly as I stumble back onto the floor and waving away the two's assistance, clearly trying to get up and stay up on my own power.

"So....you were interested by my people's body...let me guess, you want to try and turn into one of us so you can proclaim yourself as a lone survivor like me, Katherine and Hilo'Jaa...well good luck with that...you will need it...but it still doesn't answer my questions on how you managed to unstrap me of my armor and how you managed to get me all the way here when I knew that my body died way before anyone found me in that frozen wasteland Celestia and Cadence called the north." I said crossing my one arm again, my eyes scanning the three for a while before turning my attention on the constantly buzzing changelings overhead, around the chamber and also far away from it, my eyes catching small glimpses of shapes that I thought were extinct like me, or just illusions.

Getting back onto my feet I moved slightly near the edge of the chamber, my eyes fixing themselves and adjusting to the growing darkness that is the healing cell I am in but upon getting to the edge I had to grip onto the wall to steady myself.

"Holy Hell this place is fucking huge!" I shouted which, not to my surprise that it bounced off the walls and echoed along the caverns, dens, and chambers that is which the 'Hive', and upon shouting that every single changeling present stopped what they were doing, looked directly at me and from where I was standing, saw nothing but vast oceans of emerald green, violet, orange and sapphire blue eyes, even small traces of silver eyes scattered in the vast array of eyes, all of them looking at me before continuing on their daily lives.

From where I was standing, near the ledge of what I thought was just a chamber by itself near a cliffside wall but it was actually a bulbous room by itself hanging over what I now see is a castle of sorts, underground, which now clearly makes no sense whatsoever unless that the castle itself was a bunker of sorts. I will never know.

"And I do believe that we have also come to an agreement that you will not be able to leave this Hive without my permission until you are better, and also a few other things that we will discuss in time but I can clearly tell from the look on your eyes that you want to know more about your saviors, that will come in time as well, but for now, sleep." the tall one said before her horn glowed a ghastly green aura, and as she shot me with the beam I went from 'weak and tired' to 'sleep time' and before I even hit the ground I was catching on some Zzz's and was snoring like a beast.

The Hive, Healing Chamber/ My Room, Omni-tool Time Log: Morning-Early Afternoon

Slowly waking up from my spell induced sleep, I yawn quietly and stretch with my one good arm while keeping my eyes closed for the greater part of five minutes, but the odd feeling of something poking my head was starting to gnaw at my senses and when I swatted at it, my hand connected with a small object and barely heard it hit the ground before feeling slightly lightheaded and immediately after knocking said object away I hear the sounds of partially hidden laughter and upon opening my eyes I can see that Ditto and Mirias were standing over me, both of them trying not to break into laughter but failing so when I just slowly glare at them.

"What were you two doing...next to my head?...Wait...I don't want to know....just leave me be....sleep time is calling for me..." I mumbled out a few intelligible words before slowly shutting my eyes and rolled on the couch so I don't have to see the two.

Hearing nothing for a while and the occasional scrambling of holed hooves on stone rang out in the partial hollow chamber but upon looking at the two I used the shiny honey that hardened on my right hand to see if they did anything to my face.

I was amazed that nothing changed, except for a tiny little indent in my head.

"Okay...what did you two do to me this time?"

They both looked at each other for a while before rubbing the back of their heads with their hooves, none of them making eye contact with me, both are to busy looking at random places of the room. Ditto was trying look back at me but when we made the barest of eye contact he quickly turned the other way and when I made eye contact with Mirias she just giggled before patting me on the head and flew off along with Ditto.

Looking around while staying on the floor I found what I smacked with my hand, a bendy straw.

'The fuck? Like seriously...the fuck?'

Before long I felt something else poke my head but this time it was directly at the top of my skull, than a few moments later I heard the sounds of something sucking strongly, and in that moment I felt lightheaded again but with a bit more of a fuzzy warmth feeling than lightheaded.

Looking up to see what it was this time, I saw something that could only happen in very old Earth cartoons, I saw the large changeling again, but this time she was sucking on a different bendy straw and every few seconds I saw tiny pink hearts just appear around the straw before fading away and when she let go of the straw I saw a small cloud of pink with tiny hearts appear at the end of the straw.

If I could look at my own face at that exact moment it would be of pure bewilderment and 100% confusion.

"Roran, what you are seeing is me harvesting your positive emotions from you directly, as you know or should know, us changelings can live off normal food like the normal ponies themselves but it must be in greater quantities than them, and since such amounts do not currently exist within this realm of Equestrian territory we had evolved and adapted to be able to feed on emotions. In general we most feed on positive emotions but few of us can feed on the negative ones, but those that do tend to change into abominations...it is not a pretty sight." said the large changeling, her voice sounding odd yet regal at the same time, a trait I find strangely enjoyable to listen to.

"So...sucking on my head was you feeding off my good emotions...and did I give you permission to do such a thing?" I said sarcastically, staring right at her while getting to my feet, this time much more easily than the last time and with a lot less exhaustion and motion weakness.

Looking around again I find that the changelings are once again buzzing around and doing their jobs or whatever they do for a living but what I did not know was that they were intently listening to our conversation as a few were flying closer than usual and even a few had landed outside my window and tried to act like they were resting.

"You would have given it to me regardless, if it was not for Ditto watching you in the Crystal Kingdom you would have been been left under more than enough frozen snow and ice to never be found by any pony and be left in that ice prison of yours. You should be happy that I am feeding off of you instead of being mad at me for doing so, you are lucky my mother has said to limit how many times we can feed off of you per day otherwise you would be in the cocoons with the other livestock." she declared, flaring her dragonfly-like wings and from that notion several changeling guards appeared in front of her, forming a phalanx of sorts but it only serves to make me less easy on trust her.

Looking at her I simply just let my eyes go on automatic and move on their own but since this changeling in question was a leader of sorts I let them slightly move around, making it look like she had my attention while at the same time the watching the guards as well .We stared at each other for a good few minutes, seeing who would make the first move or even make a move, but from all that waiting I finally exhaled and gave some slack in my stance, still tired from being a limp fish for five months.

"You know I can just, oh I don't know, turn on my omni-tool and set it to overload so I can deny you your meal and leave this very chamber into a furnace." I said while flipping my omni-tool around, the central matrix core instantly forming into a sphere of orange fire as five smaller spheres appear around it forcing the guards to move closer to me in a loose formation which would do absolutely nothing.

"Yes I do know that, but would you?" she said, batting her eyelashes at me, trying to get me to stop with cuteness, but sadly that award went to Applebloom when she did that quivering lip and big sad eyes, the stare that can pierce the soul...and get you to stay over for lunch when its about to be served, and there was no way of me telling her no and survive the tongue lashing that both Applejack and Big Mac would have given me along with Granny Smith if she even managed to get outside at the time I said no.

"No, but it is nice to always have it as an option." I said while giving her a toothy grin before turning off the kill-switch.

During the silence that came after me turning off the potential suicide bomb attached to my right and only arm, a changeling came flying over to us and whispers something to the large changeling before flying back into the darkness.

Coughing slightly louder than normal I asked the large one what the normal sized one wanted, and on that note her horn began to glow a sickly green again but knowing that I was boned no matter what I did, I took like a man and fell into the darkness that is dreamland.

What I did not know was that I was woken up a few moments later, but on the ground floor, surrounded by changeling guards and was somehow standing up next to the large changeling in question.

Upon seeing me standing up on my own she signaled the guards to start walking and at the sudden prodding at my knee I started walking as well.

"I know that this may seem like I am holding you against your will, but I am just following my mother's orders, to keep you here until you are better and able to move on your own power and without dying from your wounds. As you can tell, my mother gets what she wants..." the large changeling said, apparently named Queen Chrysalis by her guards and by Ditto and Mirias, but for me I would just call her by name since the only royalty I had ever given respect to was Queen Elizabeth the II, that old fart can rule in style.

Looking her over I can see that she is visibly ashamed about keeping me hostage but seems to be enjoying it for some reason. Shrugging away that thought I kept up the pace with the group, and as we walked out and down the side of the castle foyer I received more and more stares until finally I heard and felt something crack and looking down was my obvious reaction. As I looked down I saw that the honey was cracking and breaking after near-instantly hardening than slowly disintegrating away into small pebbles of hard honey but what surprised the shit out of me was that my clothes was already on my body but was completely see-through and I was unable to feel it.

"I see that the royal honey has finally been expunged of its usefulness. Now you are presentable to my mother, just try not to embarrass yourself in front of my mother...just let me do all the talking...better yet it would be for the best of both of us if you just did not speak at all."

"Well if your mother asks me something you do know that I will respond to it, if you try to cut me off from speaking I will just ignore your advice and speak my mind." I said, looking around the main road we were taking and noticing that there was small ash piles all over the place, surrounding most of the dark green and black buildings that was the changeling structures, another thing I noticed was that when we all got to ground level of the hive I saw more and more insect-like beings scurrying about and I saw a few things that looked like over-sized ants.

'Where have I seen that thing before.....giant fucking ass ant....I gotta stop watching Old Earth movies...'

Walking down the main road soon lead us ten to a path that was of gravel and rocks before eventually becoming the rapidly haunting sound of gravel over metal. Looking down at my feet I felt a very gentle rumble of energy moving through coils and conduits, the rumbles of power moving back and forth between energy pylons and collectors, the scuttle sounds of chitinous feet on metal echoes around the twenty meter diameter corridor and the many changeling eyes that once occupied these halls are now replaced by ones that looked more and more familiar until finally we came to the end of the passage, blocked by a colossal metallic door protected by two massive specimens of insecticidal beasts.

"Oh...no...fucking....way...." I slowly shouted, the two beasts instantly recognizing what I am but it took me nearly forever to remember what I was staring at.

Chrysalis turned to look at me with a large grin on her face, clearly amused by the look on my face, that of pure anger against the Rachni.

"So you have met my mother's children before, well than this is going to be a reunion of a magnitude that you have never been a part of hmm?" she said while wearing her small grin proudly on her muzzle, my fist clenching tightly enough to make the synthetic skin get pulled tight enough to turn whiter than normal at the knuckles.

"Yea...we met, just not on the best of circumstances....I sure as hell hope that she is keeping her word with Shepard...." I said, not looking away from the two massive Rachni warriors, their armored plates and two tentacles were quivering as I said out loud Shepard's name and that we have met before, as I did not know how long these things can live let alone that the Rachni Queen was still alive after all this time.

Still looking at the Rachni I realized that I was being watched by more of them and the sounds of their feet on the metal grooves of the floor alerted me to their presence and turning around quickly was probably not the best choice that I have made so far. As I turned to see them, I saw over a dozen of the bastards, I saw small drones skittering about around us, workers and small soldiers watching our--I mean my very moves, just waiting for me to make a hostile motion to put me down.

"I swear whenever I get the chance to talk to Shepard again I gotta ask him why he saved the Rachni Queen twice...I swear if he says the same thing that Mordin said than I am going to be on a losing betting streak...I fucking hate losing." I mumbled most of it, looking at the slowly gathering crowd of Rachni, my body slightly shaking from the growing crowd, knowing full well that I am screwed in the event that I snap and go berserk.

The sounds of metal groaning under intense amounts of pressure and crumbling of soft rocks alerts me to the twin metal doors slowly began to conceal themselves into the bulkhead that was the surrounding stone walls and in that span of time I counted how many Rachni has gathered around us and I started to lose count at 54. At the mere mention of 'Shepard' the large changeling and all of the Rachni they stared at me for the longest time until both doors came to a complete halt and the sounds of locks connecting to magnets fills the hall besides the sounds of breathing and skittering.

"So...I take it that this is our cue to go in and talk to your mother or is this just your cue to walk in and talk to her first than I go in to talk to her...or what? Cause with the amount of Rachni here around me I got a sinking feeling...and a corrosive feeling..." I said knowing full well that if I even managed to kill any of the Rachni their blood would start to melt right through my clothes and body as if it was wet tissue paper...and I rather not be running around naked, melted, and most likely a fucking ugly mess.

The colossal chamber in front of me is lit by torches and cracks in the ceiling and walls, the lights bouncing off the polished metal floor and as we stepped into the chamber the doors slowly closed behind us and clicked into place.

Walking into the chamber I noticed that it was lined with webbing that I have only seen in the after-action reports from Commander Shepard's expedition to a Rachni planet that has been infested with Reaper tech...but this webbing looks more organic than mechanical in nature. The webbing before us parts and collapses to the ground into a silken heap of lime green strands, and standing before us, in all of its strangely majestic beauty, the Rachni Queen.

'Shepard...if you are seeing this...I fucking hate you with a passion...no way in hell will any amount of thermal clips and hand grenades I have will ever manage to put this bug down...not even a cave-in will do. Nuking her might just piss her off beyond reason.' my thoughts came to a screeching halt when I saw the Queen of the Rachni, just sitting on the floor looking at me or looking at everything but me.

"So I see that the last human has returned to his home-world...the sour notes are gone from here and at its weakest everywhere but we are stranded here....and now he who has been blessed by the void is among my presence." her voice said from the corpses of dead diamond dogs that are hanging in webbing on the walls and lying on the floor, their mouths moving in union, in all honesty I almost pissed myself when I saw that.

"Not really the last human but than again I am not entirely human, a decked out cybernetic implanted human is more like it but since the synthetic-weave skin looks human enough...yea...the Reapers are gone...wait, did you just say weakest? Are you saying a few Reapers survived? Oh man we are fucked so bad....well I'm fucked since I live on the surface." I said giving another half arm crossing before moving my hand through what little of my hair there is, my real skin still ashen from being dead for so long and is still crawling with goosebumps from the cold.

"You are not the only one that is doomed if the sour notes return with how expansive these extra races are....they might try to make short-cuts to make another than all will be purely lost if it already hasn't been destroyed in the blast from the Crucible. You human, are one of the few that can still defend others even when everything has been taken away from you."

"And what makes you think I am even capable of stopping the Reapers if they return? We don't even know how many are left let alone what variants they are. I am just one human being with PTSD, severe issues with pretty much everything that breaths, issues with my past, and let alone getting fucked over by anything that is holding power over me. Even if I could handle the Reapers, the ponies, gryphons, dragons, dogs, changelings and whatever the fuck is out there, what would make you think they might fear me more than them, me, a human being that is only six feet tall that took down a giant fucking robot the size of goddamn skyscrapers and getting them to not fear me is even then a long shot."

"My appearance alone put off almost every single pony, I am bipedal, my teeth are fucking sharp enough to eat and consume meat like it was nothing, I am generally violent and hazardous, my respect for authority is non-existent, and the fact that I am most likely sure that I am the last human that is alive only confirms that dying alone is gonna be a bitch. Just cause I have earned that title and achievement of 'Last Human Alive' doesn't mean I like it. Hell, humanity is already extinct, I know that for a fact that there is no way to revive it, even with magic and technology working together, it just won't bring my people back."

"You value yourself so low and useless knowing that you are not and yet you degrade yourself, just tearing yourself apart. You may have lost everything you hold dear but there are those that you have met, those that you care for, that you love...are you so willing to let them fall to the notes in the darkness of the sky? Are you so willing to let everything around you burn again into ashes and cinders, when you know you can stop it from happening again? Are you so willing, to let the sun you cradle fall?" the corpses say as the colossal queen continues to look at me, its head moving like that of a bird.

Her words were striking home and a lot harder than they should be coming from the bug that could have helped save our asses on the ground instead of just working on the machine.

"Human, never think for a second that you are not important to many ponies. Despite what you think about many of your friends, We know they like you and would mourn your passing. Celestia would lose her only real friend along with Luna, and maybe the God of Chaos. Your close friends would be distraught.”

Looking at the ground, looking for anything to take my mind off of the Queen's words but I know that nothing would, the lose of pretty much everything has kicked the fight out of me pretty much to pieces.

"So what would you have me do than? Go out there, find the weapons and means to destroy whatever Reaper is left, and bring peace? Well that plan would work for mainly you because you are the only species that can attain spaceflight capabilities and you know that would lead to your kind spreading throughout the galaxy and most likely kill anything that gets in your way. The Krogan had to be uplifted to stop you the first time, the Reapers nearly had you under their control, what is left to stop you in case you go against your promise? Nothing, is left to stop you."

Before the queen could speak up, she lets out a loud screech that caused my ears to start bleeding and to even see the air vibrate.

"I will fight against the Reapers, but I am not doing it for you, for the ponies or for anyone else. I am fighting them because I have to, my entire life that was what I have been trained to do, fight, nothing more and nothing less. When what little of the Reapers return, if at all are any left, just stay out of my way and stay hidden, until you can get the hell off my planet back to your own." I said with little to no emotion in my voice as I stepped closer to the the Rachni, ignoring the guards that approached me until I was standing directly underneath her head.

Just looking at her and sitting down beneath her head I wait for her to speak but instead only to receive silence, eerie complete silence. But as I moved slight one of her tendrils on her back darts from behind and stops right as it barely touches my forehead.

"You have so much hatred in your heart...so much anger and hatred for everything that used to exist, that does exist and that ever will exist. It was because of that anger that you have died and are now look where you are." her tone slowly dripping with sadness, her eyes looking directly into my own.

Staring right at her I lay down against the steel floor and rested my head on my only hand that I have, smirking a bit before looking around at the corpses in the webbing.

"I may have hatred in my heart but it was because of that hatred that I managed to get the job done when I know that it would have been completed at the cost of lives and time, time that we did not have at the moment of time that we needed to be used wisely elsewhere. If you are so concrete on trying to get me to return to normality than you can try, but this is the route I took when I began my career as a soldier, we gave up being normal when we signed up. You can try to change me but just know this, it will fail." I said still smirking until I felt the tendril that was on my forehead open up a bit, revealing a strange array of sharp needles before I felt it latch onto my head and than darkness returned to me.

"Face your fears and failures...and you will be free from the torments that reside in your mind."

Memory View Corrupted

Arcturus System, Benning, 2183

"Lt. Delta, we are over the target site. We are ready to deploy at your command sir." a robotic voice said behind me as our shuttle slowed down as we came to the target location, the soldiers around me getting their propulsion boots ready.

"Than proceed with Operation Concrete Jigsaw as planned, all forces under my command, deploy now." I said as the shuttle door opened up as the raging storm around us begins to pick up in pace as the thunder and rain started to come down harder.

"Yes sir." my men replied as they hooked up to the Kodiak's hook system before jumping out of the open doors and out onto the ground and started to spread out.

As the squad started to spread out and began to search for targets marked by our spotters we heard the sounds of sirens heading our way before the Colonial Militia arrived from their police shuttles and landed in scattered positions before jumping out and taking up defensive posts. Yelling at my men to get to cover behind anything they can find to use as solid cover for the time being I jumped behind a crate before feeling something prod my head gently until the prodding feeling rapidly turned into a sharp piercing pain.

"Your failure to save those you promised to protect, you know you could have saved these civilians but instead you cared for yourself. Do what you were meant to do, and uphold your promises." a strange voice said in my head as the pain slowly increased before it died just as quickly as it came and looking down at myself I saw that my armor went from porcelain white to midnight black.

Looking back at the Colonial Militia and my men I saw that they were instead of shooting at the Militia, they were shooting at civilians, innocent non-hostile civilians.

"What the hell are you doing! Your orders are not to kill unarmed civilians let alone even open firing on them!" I roared over my headset before realizing that my voice was no longer modified by the com unit installed inside my helmet, my voice now sounding older, more mature and even more ragged.

One of the Cerberus soldiers turned around to face me but as soon as he did his helmet crumpled in on itself before his body even hit the floor and the soldier next to him exploded violently from a biotic flare blast from within his body. The rest of my ex-squad turned to face me and as soon as they opened fire upon me I gripped the corpse of the first dead soldier with a Pull Field and as it came close to me I took a firm grip on his back and let it take all the bullets fired at me, and just as the firing slowed down in time I used Throw on the corpse to distract them long enough for me to get to cover and throw a grenade at the enemy soldiers to hear them yell out a warning before getting cut off from the blast.

The few remaining soldiers from my squad begin to open fire on my position behind a cabbage crate as one or two return fire at the local Militia to try and stall them as long as possible to hopefully get me killed. Looking over the crate's edge I spot only five left still alive and they are making a desperate last stand while looking past them I could only make out two or four of the Militia standing up behind a concrete barrier.

Clenching my left hand into a fist and focusing my biotic energy into it, forming into a chaotically glowing purple sphere before lobbing it over my cover and watched it as it arced towards the middle of the Cerberus defensive line, the soldiers within only watch and move as far away from the middle as they could but the oncoming fire from both the Militia and my blind firing with my Mattock made it nearly impossible to get out of this situation in one piece.

As the sphere detonates within their lines all five are lifted off the ground and are helplessly floating in the air, getting shot from both myself and the locals and as I see a few drop the weapons from their lifeless owners I take my time and shoot each one of them in the head to ensure they are dead.

"Stay where you are! Drop your weapon and get on the ground!" one of the Militia said before prematurely firing at me, hitting me in the left hand.

Yanking my left hand to my chest and shaking it repeatedly to dislodge the bullet from my hand, my left hand now has a dent in it and that it was now a bit stiff from the slightly damaged circuits. "Oww you fucking jackass! That was my favorite hand you just shot!"

The civilian soldiers walking up to my cabbage crate cover any route of escape that I could of had by shooting near me before the one that shot me spoke up, "Oh yea? Well why is it your favorite hand than?" his tone was in a mocking manner, doing no justice for my rising temper.

"What do you think dumbass." I shouted back before giving him the finger with my good hand. Taking a peek around the corner again I can clearly see that all five of them were in a loose crescent pattern and as I stood up they saluted to me immediately which I thought was odd until I looked down to see that my Centurion armor has been replaced with a set of N7 armor. I was wondering why my own team turned on me when I told them to cease fire on the civilians.

As the salutes ended, the man that shot my hand started to stutter out an apology for the accidental friendly-fire and also for damaging my hand but I brushed it off as a lucky shot cause if he hadn't had hit my hand, he would have more than likely to have shot my head and I would not have been having this conversation with him.

"Men, we have a strong Cerberus presence on this planet, we need to uproot them before they kill or capture and civilians here, am I understood?"

"Sir yes sir!"

"Good now make like a baker and get your buns moving, we got plastic soldiers to kill." I shouted and the response from the men and women now working under my command roar in approval as they pick up any spare thermal clips and grenades from the dead Cerberus soldiers before going back into Benning to remove the other hostile squads and to free any captured civilians that they might have acquired.

The sounds of rising gun fire, screams of pain from both sides of the field and the cries of the innocent soon filled the afternoon skies as both Cerberus and E.S.A Militia fight it out to see who would claim Benning by the end of the day. Neither side is willing to let it go with what is currently at stake and from the sounds of radio chatter from a com bayou something big is on its way.

Running with along side civilians providing covering fire and support as they make their way towards a safe zone within the city to against the fighting until Alliance reinforcements arrive to aid us in the Cerberus assault, but what we hear flying in the skies was something that I had clearly forgotten about.

"Cerberus Frigate inbound! Any Militia member that has long range communications, tell the defense cannon crews to get their cannons fully powered up and to bring down that frigate before it starts to offload any spare hostile reinforcements it might have or before it turns its own cannons against us and wipe us out!" I heard a female voice shout out over the friendly channel as I tilted my head to the sky to see a heavily armed Cerberus Frigate slowly making its way toward the city and tiny specks departing from its underbelly heading in different directions.

"Okay ladies and gentlemen, we got inbound enemy air support along with a MK III class Frigate heading our way, get missile launchers on the roof tops to take out the air support and if we don't have any than aim at the engines on their tails and on the wings, take out one side and it will go down in a death spiral. Good luck and keep these civilians safe." I said over all com channel before turning it off as soon as we turned a corner to watch a Mantis Gunship offload a group of Rampart Mech's and a lone Phantom before taking off once again into the sky and as the sound of its engines slowly fades away me and the rest of the group hide behind whatever we could before the death machines turn to our position and open fire prematurely.

My vision started to blur as I turned to see if there was any of the militia around me but my eyes met flames of burning buildings and charred corpses, all around me everything was burning even the very air I was breathing in was burning my throat and lungs has nausea was starting to have a firm grip on me, my ears begin assaulted by the screams of the innocent being cut short by metal claws and unholy energy by the beasts that has been sent to consume us all. And as quickly as the hellish vision came it went as my body unconsciously moved with my vision.

Shaking It off I continue on with my mission to save the people that need it, to be saved by the people that say that are fighting for them and betraying them in front of their faces.

As I ducked behind a parked skycar and the five others hid behind two other parked cars behind me we waited for the enemy squad to start moving our way so we can force them into an ambush and just as we had hoped for the machines did not notice we were there until it was too late to stop us but the Phantom was lucky enough to turn on her active camouflage and disappeared from sight as we opened fire on her escorts, reducing them into semi-perfect piles of scrap metal.

"We got a ninja in the area, keep your eyes peeled for anything that looks like an area of displaced air, you see it, shout the direction of it and keep your shots minimal, it takes just one bullet to blow its cover."

"Bob look out!" one of the girls in the squad said before the man named 'Bob' takes a serrated sword through the spine and is promptly lifted off the floor before dropped down in a pile of blood and flesh, his eyes glazed over before he even hit the ground dead. The firing squad that became us remaining five was enough to put down the assassin and to avenge his death, the girl that tried to warn him rushed over to him, hoping he is still alive but from all of my experiences with watching and seeing in action a Phantom assassination maneuver, their victims are rarely alive afterwards.

Going over to her and gently pulling on her left shoulder I spoke in a hushed tone beside her, hoping that she won't do anything rash or foolish because of his death, "Sorry lass but he is gone, their is nothing we can do for him. Once a mono-molecular blade has been thrust into someone's flesh it starts to tear the cells apart rapidly leaving the wound untreatable without immediate aid...he was the lucky one to not feel the pain of it happen."

The instant my left hand touches her shoulder she smacks it away and turns her head to glare at me, her eyes filled with killer intent and wishing death upon the one person that could have saved her friend but in he end she just goes back to holding his dead body in her hands as the rest of us steel ourselves for what is to come as we leave her behind with the fallen comrade.

"Should we have really left her behind?"

"If we had stayed than another group of those bastards would have snuck up on us and gunned us down without a fight. It is probably for the best."

"Can the chatter, we got a pair of Nemesis's on the roof tops at 2'o Clock. Everyone get on the rooftops, I'll be the bait and when you take the pair out, take their weapons and pick off any plastic soldier you see than regroup." I pointed to the two snipers currently standing on some person's roof, idly standing by for some action as we watched them sway a bit.

Leave them behind, they will only slow you down...you don't need them...sacrifice them for the sake of the mission...they are useless...

I crouched down and slowly made my way down the street until I was at the staging point to act as the bait as I caught a few glimpses of the team scurry on the roofs until they too got into position. As I gave the order to engage them the sound of a blade being carefully pulled out of its sheath very quietly rings out from behind me and turning to see who it was I found out real fast that being alone in a city under siege sucks.

"Oh Holy Shit!" I shout just as the blade comes down in an arc, the strike aimed for my head but I raised my rifle in time to take the force from the blow but it neatly bisected the rifle in half.

The people in my squad, taking that as their cue to engage the two snipers waiting across from them and just as I had told them they started popping off shots at them but since they lacked real medium range aiming their shots went wide and gave the two enough time to get to cover and stay safe, while me on the other hand ducked again in time to avoid getting my head removed from the shoulders it so proudly sits upon.

As I bobbed and weaved my way around her blade's deadly arcs to ensure that I live to fight another day in mid-dodge of another swing the Phantom turns on her cloaking field again and the sounds of her feet moving away from me doesn't bode very well for me as I start to contemplate that she went off to kill the rest of my team but as I start to move to the latter across the street a red dot appears on my forehead and just as I closed my eyes to meet the end the shot rings out but I don't feel pain...but I did feel liquid splash all over my helmet.

Right as I open my eyes a corpse appears out from thin air and drops right on top of me, tripping me in my rapid movements as the corpse and I hit the floor, her body right on top of me as I quickly roll the corpse away from me, the sword still being held in her death grip.

"Hey! Way to go killing your friend! You team killing fucktard!" I yelled while partially lifting the dead Phantom over the skycar, a clear hole dead center of her helmet as another bullet whizzed by forcing me to get to cover and drop the corpse as it makes a wet squelching sound as it hit the floor, blood once again pooling whatever is left onto the floor.

Poking my head over the cover I see the same Nemesis that fired at me aim again but gets brought down by now focused fire as the other falls down as well, their bodies giving one last twitch before ceasing any further movements.

When we regrouped back together we did a body check to see who was injured and passed around small amounts of medi-gel to preserve what little we have left, moving into a windowless building for rest and cover we wait a while to come up with a plan of action, but as we talk over where to go next the outside of the building suddenly becomes dark as the biggest threat to Benning's safety is overhead, slowly plowing through the skies to reach its next staging point of attack.

Tapping my helmet I started looking on the channels to see if any of the city's defensive cannons are online and to my luck they are but they needed targeting coordinates to begin firing, their short and long range targeting sensors are offline and disabled. Grabbing a chocolate bar from the rack near the door and tearing it open with one hand while at the same time pointing my palm up at the frigate's undercarriage and as soon as the coordinates flashed on my helmet I rapidly sent it to every single militia manning one of the cannons and in a single moment I only heard the sweet sounds of thunder rolling throughout the city followed by repeating sounds of explosions overhead, shortly tailed by the death roar of the starship's engines before it started to slowly veer off-course and crashed away from the city before exploding in a fiery wreckage of warped and melting metal.

"That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you take down a Cerberus Frigate from below." I said while climbing onto the latter and sat at the edge of the roof, watching the frigate burn in the distance, a smile growing on my face as I see smaller explosions rock the ship from bow to stern.

As I watched the ship burn I felt a spike of pain lance up my skull forcing me to grunt out in pain as both my hands hold my head trying to keep it one piece as the pain grows in intensity until it finally dies down.

"You have carried your oath when you were confused as to who you were...even when you thought you were still with Cerberus you wanted none of the civilians harmed, but it does not end here..." the strange voice in my head echoes out as a shadow slowly begins to form around me, growing rapidly until I heard the sound that destroys the hope of an entire colony, a Reaper but not just any Reaper, Harbinger.

For a few moments as I looked back down at the city everything was fine, and my vision suddenly wavered until it turned into something that I feared that was going to happen. The city was on fire, buildings were crumbling all around me as the sky filled with smoke, embers and burning flesh and screams of pain, the sight of Reaper forces running through the streets killing anything that moves or breaths air. Off in the distance I saw a Cerberus vessel with smaller craft hurriedly go back to its docking cradle before leaving those left behind to a fate far worse than death. And just as quickly as this nightmare began it ended with Harbinger landing directly in front of me.

Looking up at it as the city's defense cannons begin to open fire only for it to have little to no effect on it until it charged up its main weapon and brought its wrath down towards me as I threw my arms at it, one trying to cover myself while my other gave it the middle finger in defiance.

End of Corrupted Memory

My eyes open weakly as I gasp for air, my arm and legs feeling heavier than I have ever felt them before, my entire body weak and exhausted for unknown reasons, my body feeling like pure and utter shit, every muscle and nerve burning with overuse as I tried to move a single finger.

"Pain has and will always accompany you...no matter where you will go or hide...it will follow you. Now, face it again." the Rachni Queen said before the same tendril latches back onto my head as my vision goes back to darkness.

Memory View Corrupted

Aboard the Starship MSV Mauler, 2185

"Hey boss! What we gonna do with this one, he don't look much credits worth to any buyer...can we just off him?"

"No you blasted fool! I got us a contract, and this little shit here has gotten himself a mighty bounty with Cerberus, and with this haul we got with us, we can all live sipping on booze by the beaches with bitches for the rest of our lives! Now shut up and keep that runt chained to the wall and if he tries to escape put a bullet in a leg, don't really care which one and how high or low it is."

"Aye aye boss, will keep this cargo nice and safe till payday arrives."

My eyes looking at the floor of my prison cell as I feel one of the slavers hands grasp my hair and yank it up to look at my face before releasing it and kicking me in the chest, doing little to me since my combat training over the years and actual combat experience has hardened me to the pains of hand-to-hand combat, the pain itself only heightened my awareness of those watching me for the moment.

"Now be a good little boy and stay here, I rather not put a round in you and ruin my prize." the slaver said while dragging a rusty serrated knife across my cheek, leaving a thin red trail behind the tip of the blade as she strolled away down the hall as the two others watch her leave, the one sitting on a food barrel gave a low whistle as the doors closed.

Hearing the sound of pressurized gas hiss as the metal plates grind against each other signaling everyone around the door that it was closing and just as I see the last glimmer of escape leave my stomach made a gurgling sound than a weight hit my gut again for the umpteenth time forcing me to say something I rarely say outside of my friend circle.

"I gotta take a shit..." I said as soon as the door closed, my words were low enough for the slaver on the barrel to lean a bit forward to try to hear what I just said, a finger going to his ear to clean it out.

"Didn't hear that, what you say boy?" the slaver said with a hint of annoyance in his tone, clearly he was in a crappy mood. Pun probably not intended.

"I said I gotta take a shit, and last time I checked Cerberus likes their traded prisoners clean and in good condition." I said while still staring at the floor, waiting for him to take the bait.

"What makes you think they care on how you are when we give ya over to em." the other slaver said as he walked over to my cell and stuck his pistol between the bars as he lined up a shot with one of my legs.

"Cause I used to work for them fuckstick, my serial number was C.C.Lt. 102191-587D. My code still works on abandoned Cerberus Outposts since they have to be updated manually." I said while slowly lifting my head to face my would-be shooter but when they realize that I wasn't joking about the serial number when the one sitting on the barrel had his omni-tool open and had actively searched for that specific number, coming up with my profile and when it popped up, he nearly fell off his seat.

Smirking to myself the two start to look at my profile, reading aloud everything I have done and also the things that I was awarded and promoted for, even saying the time that I bested a similar ranking agent in a VIP target hunt at his own game before leaving him with finding an alternate ride out of the firezone.

"Well looks like the Ex-Cerb bastard wasn't lying...Flint, take him to the shitter and keep an eye on him." The one with the gun said before grabbing the keyring from the wall and unlocked my cell before walking over to me and undid my cuffs that held me to the floor as I walked over to the door and waited for it to open to get to the restroom before I exploded.

As the slaver named 'Flint' got off the barrel and basically prodded me all the way to the bathroom and followed me in as I went to a stall and attempted to close the door but his boot caught the door as I sat down with my pants almost around my knees.

"I'm a grown man, I don't need anyone to hold my hand while I do my business and especially if that man that is trying to hold my hand is wielding a gun." the slaver looked at me as if I was stupid for a minute before shrugging and slamming the door shut and with my moment of privacy I started to do my business but was quickly interrupted by the sounds of yelling from outside along with one within my head.

When I started hearing something in my head, a voice that stung with icy sharpness along with reverberation of echoes, "You have let these poor slaves die to save your own life, full knowing that you could have saved them all. Now is your chance to redeem yourself and save them...do not disappoint me." the voice in my head slowly dying down along with the pain as my thoughts slowly clear up before the sounds of someones hand bangs on the stall door in front of me.

"Hurry the fuck up package, just drop it and go we got a schedule to keep up with." Flint growled outside my stall as I heard his boots thud on the smeared metal floor plating.

"Hey, I like to see you take a dump after holding it in for six days straight while wearing the same suit of combat armor on a god forsaken rock." I shouted as I grunted a bit, making fake sounds as I attempted to turn on my omni-tool's tracking signal and as Flint kicked the door open it turned on and there was a splash below me as I had forced myself to shit on command to get him off my trail.

"Finally, now clean yourself up and pull your pants up, we got our paycheck coming in a few minutes." Flint said as he turned away for a moment as I quickly did a once over and pulled myself together before following the same route back to my cell, my eyes darting around taking in as much information as I could before the door to my area opened up and I was yanked in before being tossed into my cell as it locked behind me.

Sitting alone in my cell for the greater part of two hours as the sound of boots outside my cell come and go and the supposed '15 Minutes' till Cerberus gets here to pick me up came and gone in an instant but what is making me wonder what is taking the Alliance so long to properly respond to the basic S.O.S. signal made me generally confused but when the other guy in the room went out the door to check on something after the ship lurched back and forth suddenly I took that as my moment to strike.

Just as the door closed to my room and the ship lurched a second time I quickly lunge forward toward the bars as Flint gets tossed toward the bars, his head banged off a metal bar just as my hands wrap around his throat and started to repeatedly bang his head against the bars as his own hands tried to claw mine off his throat but after a few seconds of the throat crushing pressure I tightened my grip again and to my satisfaction heard the sounds of his neck snapping as his eyes start to glaze over dead as his last breath escapes his lips.

My hands quickly coming away from his throat as I moved over to where he kept the key-ring on his belt as I felt around for them and came up with the keys along with his sidearm and a single thermal clip along with a serrated hunting knife marked with the words 'Varren Hunter' etched right on the blade. Taking everything and putting the blade in my boot as I undid the cuffs on my wrists before opening my cell door and taking a few steps out I looked around for any kind of surveillance camera and smiled when I found none around.

Bringing up the Predator pistol to the door I tapped it a few times to see if any slaver would be foolish or stupid enough to go to the door and open it from the other side but nothing came after a minute so I took the risk and opened up the door to the sounds of echoing gunfire and explosions, and with each explosion the ship lurched side to side and before long the emergency strobe lights went off and a VI spoke over the intercom.

"Alert, All Slaves are in riot, all personnel report to your stations. Alert, All Slaves are in riot, all personnel report to your stations."

On that note I took off down the hall that led to the restroom and followed it till I came to a four-way intersection and as I took one step into the middle of it another alert went out.

"Alert, Slaves are in full riot and have access to arms, all personnel have permission to put down the riot with lethal means. Alert, Slaves are in full riot and have access to arms, all personnel have permission to put down the riot with lethal means." and when it said lethal means I heard even more gunfire go off followed by screams of terror and pain as I rushed down the corridor it came from, my heavy body thudding loudly as I came to where the firefight began and the sight was something of cargo port mishap.

All over the floor was cargo containers strewn all over the place, many are overlapping and covering others with open doors and missing sections as escaped slaves fought over freedom against the slavers who had the high ground and actual combat experience as they started to repel them back into submission. Fire was clearly evident in this place as a few incendiary grenades were used to try an deter the slaves but it had little effect when they are choosing freedom or death as their only option.

"Bring it on you stupid slaves! We got all the ammo and guns and you got jack shit! Go back to your cells and we just might not beat the living hell out of you and starve ya till we get to the buyers!" one of the more crazed looking slavers said as he pulled out a Crusader shotgun and before he squeezed off a round I rammed my right arm through his chest and lifted him off the ground before whirling to the side to shoot the nearest slaver three times aiming my pistol higher as each round is squeezed off, hitting his right hand, his rib cage than finally his lower jaw as he slowly dropped down dead as the others beside him turned to face their assailant to see me holding up a dying slaver with my right arm while shooting at them with my left.

As soon as the slavers saw me with a now dead corpse as a meat shield shooting their comrades they started to shoot at me while retreating back into the bowels of the ship to better protect themselves from what they saw as truly barbaric act on my behalf.

Walking over to the edge of the rails above the slave pins as I looked over the so called 'catch' but what I saw was something more of a 'haul'. In the slave pins I saw something that was more of a small colony than an unlucky ship to be caught in these pirates cross-hairs.

"Holy hell...where the fuck was the Alliance when this happened...they should have prevented this..." I mumbled as I hopped over the guard rails and landed near a pile of shivering slaves, they huddle against each other as they scoot away from me, fearing that I am some psycho murderer that has escaped from a high security cell. Walking towards the group of slaves that were armed during the fight look at me and slowly shift themselves into a readily available position to collapse on themselves to open fire when they roll to the side, their leader on the other hand looked like more of a hardass with the eye-patch covering his left eye, his clothes look slightly clean compared to everyone else's, even his face looks more clean shaven than the others, but upon closer inspection I found out why he looked way better than the others.

"Lt. Mendez, you crazy bastard what the hell are you doing all the bumfuck way out here?" I said aloud while shifting my weight to my left leg, putting most of my weight on it and angled myself away from the group encase everything goes south.

The old man looked at me a while before his eye widened in shock before his mouth quickly formed into a grin before he came up and wrapped me in a hug while shaking my hand, the other armed slaves give him a quizzical look while I give a laugh and returned the hand shake.

"Well ain't it the little 'Bastard' from my beloved Core, seems like you have gone up in the world, or was in down? Our com channel said that you were discharged from the Alliance than joined Cerberus than left them, what are you playing at by being here? Trying to get payback on your old employees? Or maybe something else?" Mendez said as his tone was slowly rising, trying to push my buttons to get the reaction he wants out of me.

Before he can question me about by presence here I raised my hand to stop him before grabbing his right hand and placing a small device in it before letting him go and as I turned around and walked over to an upturned cargo container I turned on my biotics and started my breathing practices for what I am planning on doing.

'Breath In. Breath Out. Breath In. Breath Out. Breath Deep. Exhale. Focus. Now Execute.'

My eyes flare open as they focused on the target in front of me, both my arms angled forward as my hands slowly flexed open as two spheres of purple energy formed up before I threw both at the container, both spheres hitting it at the same time and was within my grasp as I slowly turned it on its side as I kept my eyes on the target and in a matter of seconds the container formed a perfect ramp over the rails.

"There, now we all have a way up instead of creating a human pyramid, now those that know how to use a gun, grab one from the dead slavers I capped, arm up and scavenge what you can and hold this area, anyone that wants to come with me you can but you move at one speed only, mine. If you can't keep up don't step up cause I will leave your dying ass behind. Don't like those odds than stay here and watch the civies." I slide over the guard rails and grabbed the Crusader and tossed it over to Mendez who popped out the thermal clip before smiling in satisfaction that it wasn't depleted yet as he shoved it back in as I grabbed a mining tool that was still held tightly in a dead slavers hands, my own hands roaming the dented, scratched metal, my left hand gripping the handle on the tool and my right arm fits into the bracer that fits around it to form a metallic glove of sorts, the blade looked more fitting on a logging mech than a mining tool.

The few civilians that came up to the rails and grabbed whatever they could looked at me uneasy as I fiddled a bit with my weapon of choice, my right hand squeezing the trigger a few times, powering up the blade a few times to get it spinning in regular intervals to keep it at readily available in the event it needs to be sheathed into someone slavers body.

Briskly walking past them and to the nearest door that I saw the slaves run through before getting out of the death zone that I was just about to create, pushing the button for the door to cycle open and as the rest of the group formed up behind me I revved up the saw the door opened up to reveal a slaver with a shotgun pointing right at me and before anyone could shoot off a round I lunged forward, the saw biting into the gun, destroying the barrel in the process before I lanced it upwards as it sank its teeth into his chest and forced the blades to move in deep before I yanked it out spraying blood everywhere. The other slavers that were his backup saw that and turned tail down the narrow corridor only to end up getting shot by my old instructor, dropping them like stones in a lake.

"We got to make sure this boat can still move before evac arrives cause if it doesn't than I don't want to be dead in the water till someone or something finds us. You take your people to the engine room and make sure it works just fine, I'll check life support, meet me back at the pen when your done so we can storm the bridge together." storming past them before opening up an ventilation shaft and crawled in it before sealing it shut behind myself as the others headed towards the engine room.

Crawling through the bowels of the ship I turned on the basic layouts for ships and tried to figure out what it was but as it came up as a large cargo transport vessel I soon found myself heading in the right direction about two stories higher off target. On my hands and knees shuffling in the darkness while my right arm clangs loudly against the sheet metal walls, grumbling to myself that this was a stupid idea to start with but considering the part of running into more slavers and running them through with their own torture tool brought a twisted smile to my face but the slowly rising voices alerted me to a group of slavers that was coming below me.

"We has us a slave hunt, if ya see one that is not in its cozy home than gut em, ain't no skin off our bones." one said while laughing raggedly before coughing up a storm, my guess was that he just took a large dose of red sand and didn't bother to wait and let it settle.

"Yea, but leave them ladies fine and send em up to the support room, us can later take a little rest with the fine ladies before we sell em to the four-eyes." another said as they kept walking, not noticing the small spherical object falling right behind them and as it got within three inches of the floor, the grenade detonated sending all three flying down the hall on fire and filled with metal fragments as I kept crawling down the duct before reaching a vertical shaft and slid down it until I slammed into a metal wall head first and temporarily blacking out.

I awoke to the sounds of crying and whimpering as my eyes flickered open to see nothing but darkness around me, my surroundings still the same grey metal of the air duct but was now accompanied by the sounds of sorrow and sadness. On command I shuffled my way towards the noise, keeping my hand on the trigger of the saw as I shuffled closer and closer to origin of the sound, the sounds only growing louder and more intense until I finally reached the end of the line, I was in Life Support, but what was there was something that made my blood boil.

Getting on my knees I pressed myself against the top of the shaft and with pressure on the grating I popped the lid and fell down to the ground, my saw spinning rapidly as I fell on top of a slaver, my saw digging deeply into his spine as I yanked it upwards sending pieces of his spinal column and his skull towards another slaver who was busy trying to comprehend what just happened before taking the saw blade through his chest and out the back, my left hand was busy with holding up Omni-shield from a potentially fatal shotgun blast at pointblank range but the pellets bounced off the hardened surface to go back to its owner, perforating his body as it hit the wall behind him with a light thud.

Yanking my saw out from the nameless slavers body and turned to look around to find another slaver hiding in a corner of the room, trying to get away from me by forcing his body against the corner, futile attempt to leave. I barely had to walk towards him for him to cower in fear behind his arms, the very sight earning a low chuckle from me before I turned my back on him, giving him a chance to flee or try to take a stab at me to avenge his friends but in that moment of hoping he would fall for the bait, he didn't. I heard his scared ass get off the floor and made way for the door but was immediately shot in the back by the girl they were trying to rape, her face still covered in tears as her clothes were torn up, the pistol in her hand was shaking as the barrel was smoking from the recent round.

Slowly walking towards the girl I gently placed my hand on the barrel of her gun and lowered it down so I wouldn't get pegged by a round in the event she squeezed the trigger again on accident or on purpose, her eyes were still fully dilated and were shaking like marbles in someones unsteady hands. After a few moments of silence she finally started to come back down from what just happened but as soon as she did she broke down in a heap and started to cry again, her crying shaking her to the core as I took off the only piece of clothes that slavers let me keep that was not part of my drifters uniform, my trench coat and draped it over her as I sifted through the room to find any other slavers that are hiding from the enraged Paladin that is I or any other slaves that are hiding from the homicidal maniac that just brutally killed three people right before their eyes. Satisfied with finding nothing out of the ordinary in the room I went to check on the ship's life support systems and found it was turned off for the rest of the ship and after a few seconds I turned it back on and went to the lass.

I slowly extended my hand to the poor girl, my left hand open for her as I stood in a position to cover her in the event of someone finding us and opened fire. The girl slowly took my hand and I gently lifted her up off the floor and held her in a weak embrace with my left arm, turning on my Omni-shield to protect her while I kept my chainsaw arm at the ready in the event they try to bum rush us from the rear.

"Keep calm little lady...everything is going to be okay...these little shits are going to burn for what they have done to all of you."

As we walked back to our staging point I found that my old instructor made it back with a few less people than he started with and that the smell of burning flesh and wails of pain have only increased in the time we have left to carry out our missions.

"Mendez, looks like this place took another beating, seriously no wonder why these raiders and slavers prowl on the weak, they can't even defend themselves properly...doesn't matter, we got life support, please tell me we got engines." I said while gently placing the lass down on a makeshift bed made of covers and package gels.

The look on his face told me otherwise.

"Fuck...well as long as we got air, food and water we can just wait it out, in the meantime I am going to find my armor, being without it doesn't feel right. I just hope they didn't tag it up or try to take things out of it yet...cause if they did than they will be all choking on their own blood."

Going down the halls towards the ship's armory, which oddly is located near the bay doors but knowing slavers they probably want to shoot anyone that tries to land in their ship without permission than enslave those that survive the first couple hails of bullets and explosives. Grabbing a dropped Tempest SMG and moving at a brisk pace towards the armory with the need to find my armor and pray that nothing has been done to it, a paint job would be nice but if they made it fuck ugly than heads will roll. Turning the corner down the hall I was abruptly stopped by something in my way and it was soft...and blue.

"Hey watch it asshole!" an asari said while backing up, rubbing her head with an empty hand as she holds onto a Scorpion in her other hand, her clothes was something that just screamed 'CRAZY BITCH' but what caught my eyes was something that turned into me having to do something less than subtle to escape a painful end.

I reared my head back, than went face first into blue cleavage, and at her moment of shock and confusion I did what any sensible would do to a pair of tits, motorboat. When she came back to her senses I pulled back long enough to use Pull on a loose overhead light and forced it out of its socket to let it drop onto her head, rendering her unconscious.

'Heh, Aria T'Loak got nothing on this girl, to bad this bitch is crazy...eh call it as I see it.'

Running back down the halls of the ship and cutting through another group of slavers that was in my way and tapping a door a few times for it to be opened by a large turian, who looked alot like Garrus except that instead of cobalt face paint it was red, well red and blue now as I forced my chainsaw into that armored face of us, really turning him into the split chins of an old Earth game that was really popular for some reason, but I can now see the similarities by the four mouth pieces, and the bluish blood now covering the floor, the walls and ceiling, and also my face, chest and right arm.

Looking around the room I saw all sorts of weapons, tools, and even in the corner of the room, a stack of Fornax and resting right next to it, my armor but it has been given a new paint job of camouflage but it was red and resting right on the codpiece was a middle finger and in small words written above it said 'Respect this'. I was semi amused.

'At least it wasn't painted pink...'

As I started putting my armor on, doing it in a hurry was my main objective cause if I took my sweet time and was caught with my pants down, literally, than I would be fucked nine ways to hell and I was not dying from lack of protection or from getting dressed. As I finished donning my armor I looked around for my helmet and found that it was given a paint job also, but the visor has been changed to look like it was cracked and at any moment shatter.

Just as I was about to put on my helmet the door to the armory slams closed and the window to zero atmosphere opens up to reveal that it was cracked and damaged, and was most likely being held in place by the shutters and since those were gone, they collapsed under its own weight and started to suck everything out into space. As I held onto the table I saw my helmet get sucked out of the room and I vaulted toward my helmet as it leaves the safety of the armory and out into the darkness of space.

'I am so fucking stupid...'

The creeping cold of space started to affect me as I felt my face instantly freeze my face, the numbness already starting to spread as my eyes started to glaze over as frost started to cover the lens, my lungs starting to ache as I crept close in zero-gravity to my helmet and when I felt my head about to explode from the exertions that I was placing upon it, I gripped my helmet and forced it into its housing and felt the coldness die off and stale air from the ship seep into the helmet and recycled what I was holding in.

'Never again...that was cutting it way to damn close...'

As I drifted off in space I saw that the ship was sort of drifting off, its engines were offline and looked like they were destroyed or sabotaged or something cause they looked busted as fuck and unusable. Slowly drifting away from the ship I twisted around until I faced away the ship, my suit shooting out tiny pockets of CO2 to keep me balanced as I started to work a way back to the ship, lifting my left palm I charged a biotic blast and minimized it so I can preserve as much power as I can as I slowly sailed back to the ship and as I got within a few meters my magnetic boots kicked in as I hit the side with a silent thump on my side a possibly a loud ass thud on the other side.

Looking around the darkness of space and the exterior of the ship for a way back in I feel my Omni-tool vibrate and a message is pinged to my visor, a message straight from Mendez:

Get your ass back here on the double, we got slavers coming out of the woodwork and are trying to pacify us with flamethrowers and explosives. Get back now.

Tapping my Omni-tool and moving as fast as I could in zero gravity to find any kind of airlock or window, any means of getting back inside but finding none, but upon the sight of a bulbous object ahead was something that I was partially not looking for unless I was inside the ship.

The ship's cockpit.

Slowly thumping my way across the outer hull of the ship, each step taking a while as my magnetic boots try to quietly stick to the metal hull as best it could without alerting those underneath me and hopefully those not stupid enough to fire straight up at the hull with armor penetrating rounds. Walking towards the cockpit the ship lurches forward, a weak shockwave rolls over the hull as it connects with my feet, making me stumble a bit as the engines give a weak burst forward to increase drifting speed, trying to limp its way to a refueling station for repairs and resupply, the cockpit now closer than what I would have guessed as I revved up my chainsaw and started to move at a much faster pace to the cockpit, my plan with cleaning it out now fully formed.

Getting close to the glass bubble that is the cockpit I slammed my chainsaw as deep as I could into the hull, cutting into it to form a perfect handhold as I turned off my magnetic boots to let me drift over the chainsaw, my right hand keeping a tight grip on it as I vaulted over it just in time for my body to slam into the glass bubble, my left hand punching through the glass and forming a perfect seal to prevent the ship from starting a lockdown procedure. The slavers in the cockpit are scared shitless as they see me outside of their window, my left arm from the elbow down inside of their room, and it gave off an ominous orange glow.

"Burn in hell assholes!" shouting at them as my left hand opened up to reveal the flamer modification as reddish-blue plasma fire belched out from my palm splashing and licking at anything organic within the sealed room as emergency fire alarms keep it sealed tight to prevent the flames from spreading. The occupants inside scream as their flesh bubbles and boils from the intense heat bathing them as I spread it around the room so none of them would be spared for the lives they have ruined.

After a few moments and letting the flames inside die out before yanking my arm out from the window and letting the cockpit go through an explosive decompression, the glass blowing out along with the burnt corpses and shortly after a few seconds of all the air being sucked out I climbed through the ruined frame and sat down in the captains chair before tapping into the loudspeakers through out the ship while tapping into the ships schematics and tagging areas of interest and hollowing out most places of the ship.

Kill them all...they have no use in the end...you are the only one meant to survive the coming destruction...for only the strongest will survive.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen of this finely crafted shit vessel, this is your new captain speaking. As of now all slaves are hereby free from the slavers and those slavers that are still alive, you are not going to be placed under arrest. No instead you are going to be out of oxygen in less than ten seconds as I open all the airlocks except for a few areas. Have a nice day." I said as I typed in a command list and at the press of the glowing skull button with a dark grim smile as I heard the banging on the door followed by the constant sounds of blast-doors being forced open and the rumbling of air being vented out into space along with the unlucky ones that couldn't strap themselves down.

Looking outside the window I can see bodies floating in the inky blackness that is the darkness of space, waving slowly at them while waiting a few moments before tapping in another command code to close and seal all windows and blast-doors before reinserting oxygen into the areas that has lost pressure and air before finally unlocking the cockpit to find a chained up asari holding a scorpion in her right hand...and looked exactly like the one I just knocked out.

"Well ladies and gentlemen that was the colony of wherever the hell you were from, the ship is now yours, be cautious when walking the halls cause they might be some slavers skulking about so keep a gun on you at all times and stick to groups. Have a nice day." saying one last time before picking up the barely conscious asari, placing her over my shoulders and walked her back to the cargo hold where the civilians were being kept before dropping her off by the rails before leaving her a note on her Omni-tool and walked off looking for Mendez amongst the crowd of mumbling people.

As I walked through the crowd I heard the mumbles of the people around me, a few saying that I was a hero, a monster that should be looked away, a man that should be looked up to, and in the very few cases, a man that needs to be held on a leash.

"Mendez! Mendez! Mendez where the flying fuck are you! Come on Mendez don't be an asshole and have me hunt for you! Oh than go fuck yourself than I don't have time for your shit!"

"These lives you have saved, you had to be cold to the enemy and yet kind to those that deserved it. You know that when the airlocks were opened the few slavers that were old slaves were smart enough to hide in the engine and life support rooms. Now you must face your worst nightmare."

My eyes darting around for where they voice came from, seeing nothing but semi-happy humans, turians, asari and salarians, very slowly I scanned around me until my eyes came across a cloaked figured, standing almost as tall as anyone else in the room but the eyes on it...those black eyes....like a dolls eye. The figure stepping back into the crowd before the people it walked by moved out of the way to reveal nothing but air, the stranger leaving nothing behind but a cold stare.

"Alert, Raider forces inbound. Alert, Raider forces inbound." was all that I heard before the ship shuddered under intense fire and pressure as the hull buckled and bent under the intensity of the raw amount of heavy metal being thrown at us. The civilians are immediately trying to get to the ships lifeboats, hoping that they can take refuge that will be this ship's scrap field floating in the abyss.

The ship started to deteriorate rapidly as I felt my ears pop at the change in cabin pressure and soon enough I heard the ripping of metal and in an instant an explosion pierced the hull directly over the cargo area and in that moment everything slowed down for me, civilians running towards the doors, mothers holding their young as they cried in their arms, the few with gods chanting to them to spare their lives, the asari I saved looking at me before shutting her eyes and just like that everything resumed their normal speed as everything was uprooted and ended.

"Collision Imminent, Repeat. Collision Imminent, Repeat. Collision Imminent." feeling the ship shudder one last time before everything was thrown around and dismantled. My eyes only seeing the end of the road for a few moments before getting clocked upside the head. Darkness consumed everything...everything.

End of Corrupted Memory

"Please...." I slowly choked out, tears starting to form in my eyes as I tried to raise my right arm toward the tendril, an Omni-blade forming at the end as I tried to cut away at the beast causing my worst failures to come to my head, the very thing I sealed away in the deepest parts of my mind to never be seen again. "Please stop....this madness....the depths of this madness.....please....just stop...." I cried out in anguish, the few things I feared was happening to me, to repeat my failure, to succeed when I got it wrong only to have it thrust back in my face as it originally was, a failure, it was like having an old wound opened up, to have salt placed upon it and to let it fester and ooze and only when the pain starts to fade does it get only worse when it gets pressed by the cause.

"Purge yourself of your failure....and it will end...."

Memory View Corrupted

Colony: Unknown, Morning, 2185

The steady humming of the Kodiak's engines lulled me to sleep after a few hours of flight away from the Alliance Frigate Two for Flinching, the pilot knew well enough to let me sleep on this leg of the journey, almost every pilot that I ever went with on any vessel knew that if I was ever woken up in the middle of a transport flight would have his ass chewed out and than promptly the shit kicked out of so I was thankfully left alone. The ride away from the frigate was short as we were quickly given the green light, the ride was smooth and easy as we breached the planet's atmosphere and the internal oxygen supply was turned off as minty fresh pine air filled the cabin bringing a smile on my face as I wobbled on the seat as the Kodiak pulled into a turn towards a small settlement near the woods.

"This is Echo-Four to Alliance Traverse HQ, the package has arrived, I repeat the package as arrived. Do we have clearance to land at Landing Pad Zulu?" the pilot said as his head turned to look at me as the Kodiak slowed down and slowly hovered near the Alliance outpost as we waited for confirmation.

"Affirmative Echo-Four, Landing Pad Zulu is cleared for landing, proceed as planned." the female voice said at the other end of the line with a cheerful tone as I felt the Kodiak pull a quick burst of speed before slowly hovering directly over the pad before landing with a soft thud.

"Hey, Roran....Lt. Roran Zidane, we have arrived at your destination, get your footlocker and report to your station, you are here for the next three months. And remember to stay away from the local bar if you could, ryncol is a heavy ass drink." the man said as he poked me a few times before I drowsily mumbled unintelligibly before swatting at his hand before I grumbled again and got up from the comfy leather chair and grabbed my footlocker along with my dark green duffel bag and walked out of the temporary parked Kodiak before gently rising off the ground and took back off back towards its cradle and a safe journey home.

Looking around I saw that the settlement has grown the last time I have seen it, more buildings have been erected and even a small protective wall has been placed around the settlement to prevent the creatures of the forest from waltzing in. Walking towards the building that I was assigned to by my superior officer weeks ago in advanced.

Smiling to myself under my on-duty cap as I walked through the streets of the early dawn, barely anyone was up and about as the few people that are were busy trying to collect themselves for the coming day, the select few people coming and going are actual Alliance officers and workers, getting on or off their shift while the rest was the settlements civilian population.

Keeping the brisk pace I set myself to I continued my walk towards the objective at the end of the grass and dirt road, the building at the very end of the road was the basic muted brown color with the occasional white vertical line, near the windowsills are flowers of varying colors and shapes ranging from roses, tulips and even a few dandelions. As I walked up to the house I saw a faint shadow by the front window of the living room and as I stepped onto the doorway I saw the shadow leave the window quickly and before long as I opened the front door I heard the pitter-patter of feet on the hardwood floor, and before long a figure ran down the hall and leapt into the air forcing me to brace myself as I opened my arms wide enough to drop my footlocker down. The little figure had enough momentum and build up enough speed to collide into me causing the both of us to fall over as she started to giggle happily as I let out a small chuckle as I started to pat her back.

"Why hello their Emily, so good to see you again after all these months." I said with a growing smile on my face as I leaned forward to be partially sitting upright as I held onto Emily with my left arm while I used my right to help prop myself up, my little sister was busy giggling and laughing as she pinched my cheeks before wiggling free from my grasp and grabbed my left hand and pulled on it and until I got off the floor and followed her up to her room along with my footlocker, as she pushed her door open I saw that it was still the same light pink wallpaper and frilly appearance but it now held a small stand with an Alliance medal case resting on it, and placed inside the case was an Alliance Purple Heart medal. MY Purple Heart medal.

"Rory! It been to long since you last came to visit me! Why do you never send me a message when I send one to you!" Emily said while she pulled out a few dolls and toys from a small toy chest near her bed as she passed me the small knight doll that I usually play with when I am over on these types of job shifts.

"Well sis, I have been very busy...my job doesn't give me much off time and well...I have to keep the galaxy safe from the baddies hiding in the shadows of space. I am doing this job cause when I do get the chance I take it to visit you, and besides I brought you a present from the Citadel." I said while still wearing my smile, I pulled my bag open and pulled out a small glass box with a tiny creature sleeping inside of it. A space hamster.

Upon seeing the small brown and white spotted rodent she sqee'd in joy and took it out of my hand and started to pet it and snuggle with it, the sight was enough for me to just smile and given me enough time to take a picture of her face of sheer happiness and saved it on my Omni-tool.

"Thank you! Thank you so much! Imma name him Fluffy!" I continued to watch her pet and mess with her hamster and as the day continued on we spent playing together, talking and having a good time while I kept up the appearance of being a bodyguard while our mother was busy off world on Earth. The day came and went as she quickly grew tired and as I carried her back home, propped her on my back as I walked through the dark streets as the sun goes down the horizon leaving us in the twin moons embrace.

Walking back into the house I locked the door behind us as Emily's caretaker left us a note saying she is now my responsibility and to make sure she doesn't get into trouble. Easy enough when she is still easily amused and can be distracted long enough to stay out of trouble or anyone's private business. Going down to her room I placed her in her bed and covered her up in her blanket and turned off the lights, looking back at her I saw that she had a thin smile on her lips as I shut the door behind myself and stood in the hall as I turned on the home's security grid and added myself to the list of people to protect as I stood outside her doorway and stayed like that the entire night, keeping myself semi-awake to stand guard.

I would not let anything happen to my only family that I care deeply for.

1 Month Later

"And this Emily, is how you properly Lift. You have to have focus and endurance to make an object heavier than what you can normally take off the ground and keep in the air for prolonged periods of time. If you can not focus on the target and maintain the connection than it will break and the target will be free. That is all for today, run along back home, I have to deal with something real quick." I said with a slight frown as she had an even larger one plastered on her face but she sighed softly before giving me a hug and ran back to her home, I tapped out a message and pulled some strings to get two marines to watch after her as I go follow a message sent by HQ about a drug den far from the settlement.

Stepping past a few people and off to the landing pad I found that there was a few Kodiaks waiting for me as I saw more than forty marines waiting for me, and as I stepped onto the pad they gave me a salute as I gave a half salute and waited a while for someone to say something until finally I was given a datapad with what I was looking for. We had a group of raiding ships inbound to a few settlements including this one and they needed us to go bolster the defenses of the others while a platoon would stay behind and protect this one. I was about to give protest that I was needed here along with half the ones being sent away as our commanding officer that heard of the attack gave us a stern glare and told us to get on the Kodiaks and to shut up and strap in.

If only he wasn't so very wrong about how large of the raiding party was.

4 Hours Later

"Heckel I swear I am going to kill you if we don't die from this crash!"

"This is Charlie-Two we are going down I repeat we are going down! We have been struck by an enemy RPG, we have lost both engines and our stabilizers are disengaged. Everyone prepare for an emergency landing!" our pilot, Heckel did his best as we spun out of control, our left side door flew off from the momentum, I grabbed the nearest metal pole and put it on a death grip as we spun to the point of one of the private's threw up until finally we all saw the tops of buildings, fire and smoke and finally in a bone-jarring halt, the ground.

Getting up off the Kodiak's floor along with the privates and the pilot we stumbled out to enemy fire that was unorganized as we got pelted by weak shots but that did not last long as they noticed that we did not go down like the civilians they were aiming for as they opened fire again as one of the newest soldiers went down in a twitching mess before the rest of us dove for any cover that was available as I slammed my Omni-shield down and waited for the shooting to stop long enough for both of my shields to regenerate as I slowly inched my way forward as I took out my Talon pistol and took pot shots but was working as a distraction.

"Lieutenant what are you doing!" Heckel said before ducking behind the burning Kodiak's forward engine flap as the other four hid behind the rear flaps and one hid inside the slowly burning husk of the Kodiak.

"I am doing what I was born to do Flight Lieutenant Heckel!" I shouted as I lifted my Omni-shield off the ground and sprinted towards the nearest raider, my shield still raised as I brought my Talon on the second nearest raider and squeezed the trigger to see him go flying back from the flechette impacting his body and shredding his clothes and ragged body armor. The soldiers behind me started to take their pot shots against the raiders, my men had better aim and managed to ding and snag them but not immediately kill them, but it was fair enough for me.

Cause for me, when you attack a planet I am on, you anger me, when you shoot at me and kill people under my command, you bring my anger to pissed off. But when you attack my planet, piss me off so badly, and you cause death and destruction close to my little sister, you just brought out the Grim Reaper within me.

And no one, gets away alive or in one piece.

I raised my right hand at the closest thing to a group of raiders my eyes going from the normal hellish red that marks my normal self, and as my eyes close and re-open as the sclera turns pitch black as the iris and pupil turn purple with black veins creeping toward the middle. My right hand opens up as my biotic energy builds up for only a second before stopping as the pressure and energy around the three raiders rise than immediately erupts into a hellstorm of purple flames. My gaze turned to another group of raiders that just barely turned the corner as I used a Pull Field on them, their bodies drifting toward me as I rushed toward the lone raider standing in front of me as I smacked him with my shield, forcing him onto his back as I slammed the bottom of my shield on his throat, slicing right through meat and bone as his blood fountains out and in sequence turned to shoot each one in the throat with my heavy pistol as my grin turned manic and twisted.

Walking over to a raider that was still trying to cling to life, putting pressure on his throat trying to slow the bleeding long enough to put some medi-gel on it I strutted over to him, my grin only growing more twisted and evil as I got closer until I was standing right above him as one of the soldiers that crashed with my shouted out trying to get my attention, "Sir!" I ignored his voice as I brought my fist down upon his chest, my hand opening up inside his chest as I grabbed his heart and ripped it out and showed it to him before throwing it to the side as I started to run toward the house of greatest priority.

"Sir!!!" another soldier said as they tried to keep up as I rushed toward another group of raiders my shields flaring as bullets ping off it as my biotic energy flared up for all to see as both my hands were open filled with the twisting energy of my biotics as my blood fueled my strength of my wrath as wheeled back my right arm and threw a condensed ball of black energy as it detonated upon impacting the ground creating a swirling vortex that proceeded to uplift the raiders, the few mailboxes around and even shatter the windows of two homes and even a nearby skycar as the glass swirled inside the vortex, shredding and slicing through their bodies as blood started to seep from their wounds, tinting the black with speckles of red.

Breezing past the floating dying bodies as I slammed my shield into a resting raider who was leaning against a window, the impact enough to send him flying through the window and into a vending machine inside, the sounds of his groaning was music to my ears as I saw Alliance soldiers having a shoot out with raiders, my eyes gleaming with renewed resolve as I heard the screams of the people having their homes broken into and the looting from within reach my ears as I watch a raider run out with a large safe held in his arms, a batarian...who only took a few steps before bursting into flames by an Incineration and dropping the safe down on his own feet as he tries to get it off of him while flailing his arms

The next six raiders to walk out of the house were holding various items of interest but none knew what was going to happen to them as they too burst into flames from a trio of Incineration tech spheres and two froze solid from a face full of Flash Freeze tech spray, the pair was holding up a television set but the sight of me giving off an unholy aura sets the pair off as I line up my revolver with their heads as I squeezed the trigger once, the heavy flechette tearing right through them as the three burned alive. The civilians that was inside the house watched as their looters died in front of them as the smell of burning metal and vegetation reaches them as they realize what is happening as they retreat back inside as they collect their family members and retreated to their basement to wait it out, something I understand but fail to go through, to run away from a fight when I have the power to end it.

Yes....fight....kill...destroy....your enemies will suffer a thousand deaths for their error in crossing your path....make them feel your anger....and unleash with pride.

"Corruption! Begone from this mind! You are not wanted here!"

Queen of the Desert Hive....it is you who is no longer wanted here....his worst fears are over...it haunts him because they push him to be stronger and better....it is his fears that makes him strong, unlike the rest of Equis who wallows in their own failure and never see the truth....only those with power can shape the world to their liking....and you are no different leech queen.

"SHUT!" Grabbing the nearest burnt corpse I yank it upwards as I smacked a raider firing on an Alliance soldier sending the bastard sailing through the air before getting pelted by bullets and friendly Incineration tech spheres.

"THE!" Disengaging my Omni-shield and reducing its octagonal shape into its bladed brother as it crashes down onto another slavers shoulder blade, digging deep into his chest cavity as another bursts into azure flames by an Unstable Warp Field, his wails of pain filling the air as his flesh melts off in chunks as his body rapidly disintegrates into nothing.

"FUCK!" Turning around to punch one of the recruits in the face for getting in my way as a raider unloads a full thermal clip on me as my shields shatter from the barrage of 75 rounds before he even had a chance to reload his I brought up my left arm to smack his rifle away and knee'd him in the gut and brought my right arm onto the back of his neck, shattering the vertebrae and dropping him like a stone before storming through the wreckage of another Kodiak toward the house at the end of the street before coming face to face with a modified Cerberus Atlas mech that had its claw arm removed for another cannon arm.

"UP!" I sprinted at the raider driven mech and put all of my biotic energy into my left fist as my right hand stripped the Atlas of its shielding with an Overload, the mech slumping downward from the sudden power loss before I leapt straight at it and brought my fist right into its cage and released the energy within before jumping back and watching it implode inside a micro-blackhole before it collapsed on itself into a three meter wide crater.

The sounds of the wind breezing through the holes in homes and metal whisper by me as the sounds of over-burdened metal groaned all around me as the sound of a damaged structure filled the air before the building near the crater slowly began to collapse on itself and before long the groaning ended into a heap of twisted brick and metal.

Stepping towards the crater I peeked over the edge before hopping over it and continued my run towards my home, praying to the lords above and below that Emily was safe and sound. The sight before me made my heart drop in my chest as the front door was busted open and their was blood on the floor from a dead body of one of the soldiers I pulled to the side to protect my little sister for the time being.

You must be strong....even your family must not be allowed to live if you want to shape the world to the way you desire it. Everything will be yours if you give up your humanity and embraced the darkness.

"No...." my fists clench tight under the armored gauntlets as I held my pistol tighter in my right hand as my left hand was open wide with a inky black sphere dancing around the palm as I slowly stepped into hallway fearing the worst and hoping for the best.

My vision under my helmet blurs for a moment and my vision clears instantaneously as the sight of a destroyed home fills my eyes with rage, anger and fear as my eyes scanned the hall and living room of the once great home of my mother and sister. The paintings that hung on the wall were damaged or destroyed from vandalism, furniture was flipped over and wrecked from abuse, the fridge has been raided of what food was in there from the previous night and the past week, the blood of dead raiders and now the other marine splatter the walls and floor of this once peaceful abode.

Climbing up the second stairs slowly I listen out for any noise present in the household, my ears keeping open as I hear a scuffle down the hall, leading to the left, to my sister's room. Gripping my pistol and aiming down the hall as I switched from something overly lethal to overly painful to the point of lethal as five raider step out of the room, talking and smiling as I see all of them with smiles on their faces, their bodies smelling like sex. Upon seeing me they froze as I turned off my visor for them to see my face, my face contorted into pure rage as I threw my sphere at them while yelling out in silence, the only one with his shotgun out fired off one round before getting his head blown off by the flechettes spewed out from my revolver as the rest are lifted off the ground and tossed around from the concussive force of the blast before being slammed straight down onto the ground with bone shattering speeds, one of them snaps their neck on impact.

Going slowly past them I personally kicked each one down for the count to ensure that if what I think is around the corner what I hope it isn't, than they would be meeting their maker a lot shorter than expected. Just as I reach the threshold of the doorway my eyes blur up again and disappear just as quickly, my left hand holding the doorframe for support and taking only one step into the room my eyes looked around to find the room trashed but my eagle eyes never looked at the décor for longer than two seconds as my sights came down on one lone crumpled figure.

Emily...my little sister, was lying on the floor, her body slightly mangled and bruised as I quickly rushed to her side, my hands picking up her body as I took off my right gauntlet to check for a pulse at her neck...there wasn't any. I looked at her body for a split second, her clothes were torn up all over the place but I knew what they had done to her in her last moments...

Gently placing her body down on the ground and crossing her arms over her chest I picked up my gauntlet and slid it back on before locking it in place and walked out the doorway and grabbed every single living raider by the scruff of their neck and dragged them into my room which looked just like the rest of the house, I threw each raider into each corner of the room except for the leader, I threw her to the center of the room as I placed her in a Stasis while the other three were barely getting to their feet as I calmly shot each one in the leg, forcing them back down onto ground.

Each pair of eyes were now on me as the Stasis died off and as it did I brought my boot down onto the leader's midsection as I brought out my omni-blade and looked at her eyes with killer intent before speaking up, "You have left this world barren of life, you ended the lives of the innocent throughout the settlements, for you have left us barren I shall return the favor, the pain from this, will be beyond what you have ever felt.", bending down over her as I quickly sunk my blade into her belly, cutting her shallowly and made a large gash into her belly as I stretched the wound open to reveal her organs within, the leader was screaming in pain as the raiders tried to assist her but I took out my revolver again and shot each one in the head to ensure that no one else will get in my way of my vengeance.

My vision blurs once again, my cybernetic eyes starting to become faulty but what I saw was what made me wonder what I was seeing was real or an illusion. My room went from being a complete mess with three corpses in three different corners with a bleeding female human on the floor, and it went to just a broken room with destroyed furniture and only the female human on the floor. As quickly as the optical failure came it went as I returned to my task at hand, my hand digging into her belly, reaching for the prize at hand and gripped her womb and slowly tugged on it and slashed the securing pieces of flesh and brought it out to show her.

"P-p-please...."

"Please what?"

"S-s-spare...m-m-mee...."

"Oh I am sorry, I am all out of mercy, all I can offer you is a quick end or a continued existence never being able to have a family. My choice."

Pulling out my revolver one last time and slowly it aimed it at her head, my hand slightly shaking as my vision tunneled down to just her face, the tears streaming down her eyes, her sobs slowly fading from the hearing as my finger slowly slid to the trigger and before I had a chance to pull the trigger...

"Brother! Stop!"

TARTARUS TAKE HER!

"Your hold is broken over him, begone parasite and stay away from this being or be erased from existence!"

The sudden shout from both the real world and inside my mind I spin around on my heel to point my pistol at the ghost but what I saw as my vision finally shattered as everything around me became clear, the feeling of a soothing scrap on my mind made everything true. The light shone through the darkness that was my mind as I saw my little sister, unharmed, scared, and afraid of me.

"Emily...what....what happened....I...what....." I stumbled over my words as I looked down around me, the three corpses around the room were now gone, all three piled up in the hallway alongside the others that died as well.

"Brother...please....stop this....this is not you! Please stop this! I don't like this at all!" Emily shouted at me as I saw tears falling from her face, her dress was speckled in small droplets of blood as I realize that she was hit by a thin mist of blood when I killed the raiders that came out of our room moments earlier.

YOU WILL DO AS I TELL YOU!

'No...your nothing spirit....I will not go back down that road...never again....'

THAN ALL OF EQUESTRIA WILL SUFFER FOR THIS!

'Get the fuck out of my head.'

The clouding power over my mind slowly fades away as I looked back down to the dying raider, her breathing was starting to become ragged and as I watch her fire slowly fade I placed the organ as best as I can back inside of her and applied three layers of medi-gel to her, two for her organs and one to seal the wound to keep her alive.

"I am only granting you mercy....because I will not become the beast that Cerberus wanted me to become. I will not be their successive pet project." I said before placing a small medi-gel canister next to the raider as I tried to clean the blood off of my arms by ripping a piece of the thin blanket off my bed and wiped myself clean.

Walking over to my little sister I can see that she was still crying so I kneel'ed down to her level and pulled her into a hug, trying my best to calm her down as she looked at me as the calming voice from before echoes out in my head.

"You fought your fears and pushed out the spirit of darkness from within. You have been purged. You are free now."

The last few words the voice said as Emily's kind smile slowly faded away to a frown as the world around me began to fade away, the walls turning to ashes along with the floor and ceiling, the world around me decaying as I felt my body turn to ashes along with my sister, both of us being separated again for hopefully not the last time.

Freedom...from the depths of my own madness....but for how long?

End of Corrupted Memory

As my eyes slowly opened up I was resting in a bed of sorts, the ceiling was dark green as my eyes adjusted to the low light being filtered into the room, the walls had tapestries of the past for the Changelings and Rachni, the floor had a lush carpet of the shades and hues of grass, the bed itself was made of black velvet. The quiet voice of Chrysalis draws my attention toward her as she is holding onto a small locket in her magical grip, the small metal case glittering in her aura.

"So....what Celestia said was true than...you really are alone...for all of your life you have been alone."

Before I had a chance to even speak or raise a finger she levitated the locket back to me as I quickly snatched it out of the air and put it back into my pocket of my pants. My eyes resting on hers for a while longer before I slowly pushed myself into an upright sitting position as I saw my armor was resting quietly by the door, my armor fully restored except for the left arm and helmet, the metal plates shining dully in the low lightly like a silent sentinel in the dead of night.

"You don't need to say anything, but all I can ask is that you give us one last feeding before you go back, the journey ahead of you is not going to be easy. All that what my mother and I know is that feeding from a human...is something that can truly keep us fed for months, long enough to find a stable food source if possible. That is all I can ask from you Roran." her words were tinged with sadness as I felt my face for any signs of damage from where the tendril latched onto my head but found only small grooves that was already healing and were by now mostly gone, the appearance of the grooves made it look like my skin has been pressed down by a heavy weight.

Looking back at Chrysalis I shrugged a bit and flinched at the sharp pain that went up my spine as it began to rapidly fade away, the pain was odd but as it died I rolled my shoulders to find that it was from the stiffness of laying down for prolonged periods of time and not from an injury of some sort. As I shrugged out the yes she let out a happy squeal of sorts before quickly recovering from the very un-queen like behavior and resumed her oddly creepy seductive look before buzzing her way over to me as she got up close to my head and bit down on my skull, there was no pain as it was more like when a puppy was playing with you by gently gnawing on your hand, her fangs didn't even penetrate the skin as I felt slightly lightheaded from the sucking on my noggin and before long I felt happy for a few seconds until I realized that it was the queen changeling was starting to lick my skull, and I thought I felt tongues on my body before. I saw ponies speaking before and their tongues looked normal, I saw a couple changelings speak and it looked a bit thin but having it lapping at my flesh? It was more on the border of a sticky reptile tongue or like a long, thin cat tongue. Either way it was strange as hell.

"Okay that is enough...feels like your trying to lick the flesh off my head to get to the gooey center of my head. My head is not a jelly bean god damn it..." I proclaimed as she released her hold on my head and went towards the window before her horn started to glow with the sickly green aura as wave after wave of it radiated from her horn as I watched the two guards by the door look much better than the last time I saw them, they now look more full of life than the usual doom-and-gloom facial look.

Looking over the window near my new bed I saw that there was a large gathering of changelings and rachni all around this section of the royal changeling castle, the vast numbers made me take note that while they may be small and can shape shift into pretty much anything, I quickly learned that there was no way in hell that I was going to manage to feed all of them without any kind of assistance but strangely enough that odd green aura that Chrysalis was giving off was acting like an old fashion crop duster and dispersing the strange food to everyone present. Oddly enough I wasn't hungry anymore for some reason or another that I failed to notice.

"Chrysi...erm...I guess thanks for bringing my dead ass back from the grave...and if your people need to be fed just go looking for me back in Equestria or where ever the hell the Gryphon Kingdom is, just get one of your people to find me, hopefully they can carry whatever the hell it is your changelings feed on back cause there is no way in hell I can manage the constant travelling back and forth without the tools of my trade...that or a teleportation spell...either one works." I said before walking to the window with my right hand holding onto the side as I gazed at the dispersing crowd, everything going back to its working order as the buzzing sound of insect wings consume the colossal Hive colony again.

Hive of the Great Desert, Midnight

"Now Roran of Zidane-" Queen Chrysalis was cut off by me as I coughed abruptly to get her attention.

"Its not Roran of Zidane, just Roran or if you want to be formal Roran Zidane, first name than last name." I said with a smug grin before realizing that I just busted an Urta.

".....grammar gryphon...." she mumbled as she straightened her mane, the two royal guards flanking her are keeping their eyes peeled for any signs of danger, which would mainly be me since I am a walking time bomb.

"Sorry please continue." 'Well fuck you to...grammar Nazi...'

"As I was saying, follow the river north till you reach the large city of sheep that rest in the middle of the delta, the river will provide you with water and most likely traders will offer you food if you have the salt for it...or bits but that carries much more risk. Just follow the water back to Equestria, and tell your princess...that I would like to talk to her about the past."

"Sure, and don't worry much about me, I may be crippled but it doesn't mean shit to me, I only need one arm to get the job done, maybe both...depends on the task." I said while giving my best 'I will seduce you' look but sadly with one arm it wouldn't have much affect, but the two guards caught onto it quickly and snickered before stopping by the glares they were receiving.

Walking towards the Hive entrance, the sounds of winds howling down the cave followed by speckles of dirt, sand and pebbles flowing around and into the cavern as the full moon is raised to the middle of the sky, the small pack I am carrying made of manticore leather, which to me is the best kind of leather there is, all the durability of thick leather with the smoothness of snake skin. Now if only I can make a tanning hut....

Getting back on track I started my march back home, back to England where I belong, where I am needed, but alone in this desert.

Flipping my Omni-tool open I pushed a button with my nose to a song that I have been waiting to listen to for a while, thinking the moment fit the bill as it started to tune out the howling winds and cascading sands.

As the tune ended I heard a soft giggle before long I was not alone on this journey.

"Brother...can you tell me a story about the Shepard?" a sweet tiny voice said as I felt the faintest of pressure on my shoulders as I walked over the first sand dune in the great desert of the southern lands.

Smirking to myself I sped up my steps as I slid down the dune and came across the river, the water was sapphire blue, cat tails were lined up along the river next to tall grass and weeds.

"Okay, just this one story...not sure how mother allowed you away from bed but...just one story."

Equestria, Canterlot Palace, Princess Celestia's Room, Midnight

Celestia's POV

It as been almost a year now....a year since my friend died...to save the Crystal Empire against Sombra....my friend...oh how I hated him for those pranks, gags and terrible jokes...but that was what made him special. The first pony no person...to ever treat me as if I was not royalty but instead like a common pony...I will miss him so much...so very much.

A lone tear drops onto the last diary page as I closed it shut and levitated it under my pillow as tears started to form up on my muzzle and before long I started crying myself to sleep after remembering what Roran once said to me as we walked down the halls one time to speak to the Gryphon Emissary about the lost technology of Humanity.

"Roran, why are you so set on putting yourself away from everypony that is trying to be your friend? Are you afraid of something that would happen to us if you did? You can always tell me what is wrong."

"Celly...sometimes we put up walls. Not to keep people out...but to see who cares enough to knock them down and help us see ourselves for the better..."

"I see....well...I care enough to help you through your pain...like...when...you were..."

"Shush cutie, I remember, don't need to think to that time of my near-death experience. You just got to be strong for your ponies, for when the time comes of a great tragedy or sadness, they will need their leader strong enough to guide them through it. Just relax, I can handle this one."

That one memory was one of the happiest of my life, I felt happy to be able to speak without having somepony groveling at my hooves or thinking carefully about what they are about to say as to not offend me...

Beep

The sudden sound roused me from my wallowing to see the orange gauntlet that was fading in the snow that we managed to recover in the blizzard, was now glowing brightly as it started to activate, a small screen appeared as I trotted slowly to it, hoping it was a sign that he was out there...somewhere...somehow still alive and looking for us or hoping that we can find him...and bring him home.

Taping the tiny screen with my hoof small notes started to play through the room as a song began to play in my room.

Just as the song came to an end, a small message appeared on the screen.

Someday you may forget about me,

my name, my voice,

who I am and who I was to you.

But

even if you still totally forget about me,

I just want you to know that

I will never forget a single thing about and

everything we went through...

Love in your heart...I will return for you...

and everyone else that I left behind.

A single tear rolled down my muzzle as a small smile began to tug on my lips as I uttered out only three words.

"My Roran lives..."

Author's Note

Finally got this done, on the spot Nine A.M. Take that writers block and college work!

Chapter 22: Journey

The Great Desert, Nile River, Early Morning

Marching in the darkness of the night I kept talking to the ghost of my little sister, her keeping me company made the lonely march feel less lonely but during our talk I realized that Shepard was a bit pissed that I let the Rachni Queen get the upper hand with my mind but he was pleased to see that she was staying out of trouble...but when I heard him speak up behind me I just gave him the finger before shooting an Incineration Sphere at him, full knowing it will miss him but it did help me blow off some steam...and speaking of steam, I forgot how cold the desert can be at night and since my armor was incomplete I felt the chills of the cold creeping up on me but the small speck of orange over the horizon told me that warmth was coming soon.

The desert sun slowly rose over the horizon as the sand dunes became numerous and varied in size, the temperature rapidly increasing as the sun began its climb toward the heavens just as the humid air left the surrounding area. The river water ripples and wavers as dragonflies and insects skitter across the surface as the fish swim through the current, my eyes scanning the surrounding area as I cupped my hand into the water and drank a mouthful of crystal clear water before dipping my hand back in again and again until my thirst has been quenched.

Walking along the river's edge I spotted a small plume of dust rise off in the distance, betraying whatever's position moving amongst the sandy dunes. The sand plume slowly rising as whatever it is was coming in my general direction as it slowly began to reveal the bulky distorted shapes of something bipedal lurking off in the dust cloud. As the sandy cloud resolves itself into fourteen bodies of varying shapes, as the figures got closer I leaned against the nearest sand dune and kept my right hand on my Talon pistol holster, expecting the worst.

The figure leading the group phased out of the sand cloud to be revealed as a Diamond Dog wrapped up in desert camouflaged wrappings as seven more dogs walked out of the cloud followed by five ponies and a single sheep. As the nomadic group got to the river the dogs unhitched the two earth ponies from the carts and let them get to the river first as the two pegasi with their own carts struggle not to stumble in the sandy soil. The sheep itself was having problems with standing up and as soon as it got to the edge of the river just plopped down and started to guzzle the water as if it was its last day alive, which by the way it was breathing and how fast it was drinking, it probably was.

Thinking it was a trading caravan by the way the carts looked with tarps covering the top along with the sounds of boxes jingling around from the cargo within. Looking one last time at the group as they set up camp by the river I made a quick analyst and thinking it over and leaving my spot on the dune and walked over to them.

The first one to spot me was the first dog to have walked out of the sand cloud for he has finished setting up his tent as he walked over with a paw on the pummel of his sword as he spoke up first, "Ho, traveler! What brings you out here by yourself?" his question making sense to the common person traveling alone but for me it was more along the lines of 'Walking back home'.

The group nears the end of setting up their own camp related tents as they begin to come over to the two of us to see what the commotion was about as the dog introduces himself as he keeps a firm grip on the pommel. "I am Cooper Emberbreak, former traveler of extraordinary places and seeker of rare treasures! Though all of that was a long time ago as I retired due to an encounter with a sand dragon...now I just seek out traders to safeguard against the threats of the desert." the dog said as the other dogs took up defensive postures as I kept my hand on the pistol grip, popping the button off the holster.

"My name is Roran Zidane, N7 Paladin and agent of Princess Celestia. I died recently and came back from the grave to carry out my oath, now I am just passing through this area until I can get back home or find something better." I said walking toward them until the silent monotone of my walking was abruptly broken with a loud thunk. I looked down and realized my left foot was standing over on a lid of an old chest still somehow intact and buried in the sand. I was overcome with curiosity, so I dug it out quickly with my one hand only to discover that empty but I smiled as I lifted out of the sand to take notice that this could be worth some price in bits at the first market I get to.

The dogs that was around when I found the chest scrambled over to me to see what was in it but when I popped it open and they saw that it was as dry as a sun bleached bone they backed up and turned away, making small whimpering noises as they retreated back to their camp as I looked around the chest to make sure it was not an illusion placed inside of it or a false floor board hidden at the midsection but feeling around for any segmented wood panels but there was sadly none.

"An agent of the pony rulers?" I nodded yes while carrying the chest back to their camp as I was motioned to the lead dog by another one that stayed behind to keep an eye on me. "So what brought you all the way out here in the Great Southern Desert?" I said that I was brought here to be revived by somepony that used dark methods to do it, but since I didn't know how Chrysalis managed to bring me back or if it was Death finally coming to keep with his promise. "Interesting...well, I was hoping that you were for hire since trekking this desert is dangerous business, but since you work for the pony crown all I can ask is that you assist us, for pay of course." he said with a hint of hope, and most likely that this desert was dangerous since he said that a sand dragon managed to beat his ass up and down the dunes since he probably found its home and scared his ass away.

"Sure, just put the pay inside that chest I found, I'll manage it from there, so just tell me what threats roam this desert and just worry about what might be coming from here." and I was later told that there was few threats to worry about but from what Cooper told me, the desert ants, sand traps, and even a group of bandits going by the Sand Fangs. The Sand Fangs are groups of renegade Diamond Dog that left the Dog Country and formed their own group. Now they terrorize the enter region, how they manage it is currently beyond me.

Taking a look at their camp I saw that it was fairly simple and easy for the common group of caravanning lifestyle, the fire pit in the middle of the camp is surrounded by varying sized rocks and the tens and bedrolls are scattered in a circle around it to make it appear they are a pack to any wild beasts roaming the desert for a quick meal. The dogs, ponies and sheep within the freshly erected camp rove around the interior as they begin to set up other little additions to the camp, manly small traps that could been easily set up and taken down when needed and even an awning to provide shade from the blazing sun that was now making its way to the middle of the sky.

Looking one last time at the camp I placed the chest just outside the group circle and laid down under the awning while staring at the others occupants with semi-interest, the few dogs that are not doing anything are playing cards over a blanket, the two unicorns are practicing their magic as those that are working are now retiring for the time being to get some rest. During the time in the shade a group of dogs and the lone sheep came over to me, seeing who exactly was allowed to be with them during the day as I tilted my head at them to see who exactly was coming and placed my head back on the sand as they came to a stop within a few feet.

"If you six got something to say than say it now cause your interrupting my train of thought at the moment. Not trying to be rude but if you are trying to talk to me you could have came here yourself." I said while grabbing a passing feather that came off one of the Pegasus lounging on a carpet resting their head on a small rolled up bedroll.

The sheep stepped out of the group of dogs and gingerly walks over to me, the sheep looked at me for a while before clearing its throat and spoke, which to my surprise was actually a dude since I couldn't tell what the fuck it was cause of all the fluffy wool on it. "Roran, it comes to my attention that when you spoke to the leader of the dogs here that you worked for the pony princess correct?" I simply nodded as I rolled the feather between my fingers watching it spin as he continued, "Well I have been wondering for a while now, how come that one of her agents is all the way out here? The Great Desert is not know for being the most hospitable for pony kind let alone anyone in particular besides the dragons and lizardfolk that live amongst the sands and rocks." I shrugged with my one arm before I let the feather fly from my fingers as I pulled my arm back to help myself off the ground as I sat up so I can be eye-level with the sheep.

"Well I am all the way out here because like I said, I died all the fuck way up north by Sombra, that fucking deceptive piece of shit unicorn ran me through and than I was fucking ejected out of the Crystal Kingdom in a large ass energy wave and left to die in the winter tundra outside of its borders. I wake up to find myself alive and all the way out here, if I knew where the fuck is here I could probably find myself back no problem." I said as one of the dogs pulls out a map and hands it to me and as I unfolded it my eyes popped open as I saw what I was looking at.

"Oh you got to be fucking kidding me...I thought I was in god damn Morocco not in the middle of fucking Nile River! God damn it this is gonna suck major ass to get all the fuck way up there." I shouted as I tossed the map back at the dog who gave it to me who flinched back along with the sheep as they watched me go on my tirade.

After a while I simmered back down and stroked my head trying to calm myself down as my mind started to rattle about how the distance needed to travel on my body along with how long it will take to get from the middle of the African Desert to England. My estimations says about three months of constant travel and use of various methods of getting back up.

'I swear...if my friends knew that I was alive and they found a way to send me a map there would have been two dots, one for where I am and where they are and they would have written this is you and this is us, get the fuck up here. And hurry up motherfucker you got a lot of explaining to do.'

As I was stroking my hair I dragged it forward to see if I had to get it trimmed and I saw something that made me realize that being dead for prolonged periods of time sucked. My hair went from its natural black color to snow white. Before I even open my mouth to start a second tirade I bit my tongue to prevent myself from shouting again as let out an explosive sigh before plopping back down onto the sand as the sun hits the center of the sky.

Before long I was nudged in the side by one of the dogs and climbing back to my feet I saw that they have begun to take down their camp and I assisted with what I could since I was only equipped with one arm and since we now had a spare chest I was required to pull my weight with this group by carrying some of their junk in the chest which oddly enough was able to hold the awning and the carpets before becoming hard to close and lock. The sun itself began its slow trek down the sky as we kept close to the river so we know we are heading north and know that are going off course or the wrong direction, the sheep has only told me about who they are and what they are carrying cause for some reason they are loaded up with spices, fabrics and even a crate full of gems, the crate has me confused since those are only worth so much since they are common back up north.

By the time it was about 5pm we ran into a problem...

"If you had told me that the sand traps of this time are as large as me and were smart enough to be mildly organized than I would have laughed in your face and called you out on it...but now...fuck I hate being wrong."

The sand trap that was in front of us was a large hole going down to reveal a pair of pincers but what we did not know was that it was all an ambush as eight ant lions came out from cleverly concealed holes in the dunes and near the river and before long we were cut off on all sides.

The ant lions was something that pretty much stuck to its same appearance from my time except for the major size difference and that instead of small insects being its next meal, it was us.

As the dogs fanned out and started to go after their assailants I was busy with the ant lion that was in front of me that just looked down at me for a second before charging forward and snapping its jaws shut as it angled its head low to go for my legs but I moved back fast into and quickly brought my fist down onto one of its mandibles as it snapped through it with slight ease and watched as green blood started oozing out like a corny old movie. The fight with the dogs against the other insects was not fairing so well as the one unicorn we had levitated one of the ant lions and threw it as far up as I can throw a heavy ass object into the air, which I would say five stories high, of course the bug survived the landing but could move for shit as four of its six legs were mangled or shattered all to hell. The two pegasus were trying to distract the bugs while the normal ponies did hit-and-run tactics which was working for the most part, the dogs were holding their own for now.

"Does anyone else think that this feels like deja vu right now?" I shouted as the same ant lion that just attacked me made another lunge and the same result happened, I brought my fist down on the other mandible and gripped the base of it and drove the pointed end down on its skull and watched it wither in the sand as it tried to remove the spike but only served to drive it in deeper into the ground as it gave one last spasm before dying.

'This does feel like deja vu....I know I did this before...but when oh....right...the rachni on some unclaimed planet before Shepard made the deal...eh it was a glorious battle...too bad that a few of them died in an explosion.'

Blood was spilt and bodily fluids dripped onto the sands and was consumed by the heat and sands as another ant lion fell to its wounds by having three spears driven through it as another burst into flames by the unicorn as he smirked in victory as the flames licked at its carapace before slithering under its armored plating and cooked it from the inside out. I saw one of the dogs get chomped in half as the mandibles tore through his shoddy armor like it was wet tissue paper as another was crushed into the sands before having his head torn off.

The battle ensued for longer than I had originally had hoped for as we had lost three dogs and one of the earth ponies to the ant lions. We spent a few minutes trying to gather ourselves back up and find the missing body parts of those dead or injured, the four corpses we lined up far from the river and was promptly burned in a shallow grave. These dogs were a superstitious bunch, they said that if they did not burn the bodies of their slain comrades or buried them in a proper grave that they would rise from the void and hunt for the flesh of the living, not really how zombies work but whatever floats their paddle boat.

Looking skyward I saw that we had wasted the entire day resting, traveling, fighting, digging and burning and resting again in that order, the entire day wasted but we had crossed decent enough ground and when the sun began its last decent over the horizon we set up our campsite again, the sheep now visibly scared and worried that this caravan was not worth the money he placed into, I simply didn't care about the others, they were expendable for all I care and they are serving their use for the time being.

Later that night under the stars I saw the few constellations I can recognize as the Little and Big Dipper and even Mars off in the distance, still baring the dark pock marked scars of the great war 16 million years ago, I could still see the twinkling of stars long ago that are now entering their last phases of existence, dying out and eventually fading away from the history of the galaxy. As I stared up at the stars I saw a figure glide over the desert clouds, the appearance was of a duck flying in reverse, I thought it was simply just a duck.

I was wrong.

2 Weeks Later

Two weeks of traveling has started to take its tool on me, the food I have been given for working along with the caravan has been paying off for the most part but the labor I had to exert to earn the meager amounts of food from them was demeaning to an officer of the Alliance Navy but it was a necessary evil for me to figure these people out, each of them had their own business in the coming town that was resting directly on the river and from what the map told me that the old location of Aswan was coming up but from the current map it says the Town of Shifting Sands, the actual name is something that made me wonder in amusement of the Lizardfolk's intelligence.

At the crack of dawn we dissembled camp and hooked ourselves up for the coming miles of sand ahead of us till we reach the wood and stone walls of Ssvlataeir and hope to god they have some sort of plumbing cause taking a shit in the dunes with no toilet paper is grinding on my nerves as well as my decency meter.

"So Roran when is it time for you to feed me? The last meal has left me wanting more of this so called 'Chora's Den', the atmosphere of such a place fills me." said Mirias, who has perched herself in my scraggly greasy two toned hair as a very small version of herself being able to hide in my hair with very little suspicion from the others.

I found out she has been following me for the past week when she was sitting on top of me as a scorpion and when I was about to freak out it made a hushing noise and when I saw the emerald colored eyes and that it even made a hushing sound in the first place tipped me off that this was not an ordinary scorpion but a changeling instead. The ensuing argument was settled that she would feed on me once every two days so we can keep up the appearance that sun is sometimes getting to me making me dizzy and disorientated and not being drained by a changeling. So far they were none the wiser and that I finally had someone to talk to even though she served a queen that fucking abused my head and made me relive the worst of my nightmares.

Lifting my hand and scratching my head for a while before finding the tiny changeling and scratching between her shoulder blades before removing my hand to cover my eyes as that was my signal that was for her to start feeding and I felt microscopic fangs prick my skull and began the feeding process, my mind going back to one of the times I went to Chora's Den and the few times I was there it always ended in a bar fight or me passed out drunk outside with a still full beer bottle in my hand.

"There it is! Ssvlataeir! Finally we can have a real rest and be able to take a load off, you human, just stay out of trouble will you?"

"As long as trouble doesn't find me, its all good. But the first sign these pendejos get on my case and start to annoy the shit out of me que por María Madre de Dios I am going to kick their fucking ass." I said before swaying a bit from the feeding than shook off the disorientation from it as we crossed the last dune and started down the gentle slope to the walled town for the day.

Upon approaching the town we were stopped by its occupants, and let me tell you people...these folk were for the most part as tall as I am, a few inches shorter but still as tall as me. I was roughly 6 feet tall with my armor but naturally 5 feet 9 inches, they would be roughly give or take 6 inches shorter than me without my armor. By far these people were as tall as I am but for the ponies and the lone sheep me, the lizardfolk and the dogs tower over them which amuses me to no end to always be the giant in the group cause I get to mess with the midgets.

The bipedal lizards gave us each an appraising look with their thin slitted eyes, they are wearing chainmail while wielding a wooden shield and spear, one had blue scales while the other had brown scales. Upon seeing our group they halted us and started to search us for anything so called 'illegal' but when they came to me, asked me to remove my armor so they can search me, I nearly unsheathed my Omni-blade into the closest ones throat but the sound of a deep throaty growl from behind them revealed to us a much larger lizard, this one clearly a foot taller than all three of us but upon seeing my missing left arm and that my helmet is gone, seemingly realizing that I was a great warrior that has suffered grievous wounds that has left me crippled but still capable of taking down threats with half the combat prowess that I had. This captain of the guard has seen his fair share of battles from the scars lining his face and on what little parts of his exposed chest I could see, the breakage in his scales and the pink fleshy scars was enough proof to me that he went through possibly hell and back. That and he is wearing a small dragon's skull on his head.

"Let this male through...his missing arm and eyes are enough to let him through, do not get in the way of a veteran warrior for he has seen the depths of the void. You traders are welcome to stay at the tavern but you, you can stay in the barracks of the town guard, we will have much to talk about." the captain said as he turned his back to us and returned to his post as we all entered after him, the two guards keeping their eyes on me and before the gates closed I turned around a bit while still walking, my eyes locking with their as I raised my right hand and gave them the finger while extending my Omni-blade before turning back and sheathing it back. Their faces was priceless.

This town...is something out of an story about the middle east, all the houses were boxy in appearance and appeared to have been made of lime stone of sorts or maybe even sand stone, either or these structures looked sturdy enough to withstand me if I got hammered and started a drunken brawl of sorts with the residents, that or I would go right through it like wet tissue paper.

Looking around the main road there was stalls set up along the houses, the stalls were roughly carts with one side open to the public while the other side was closed to act as the counter for the bartering and haggling of bits...or whatever these lizards use for cash. The plants were 100% cactus of the old days except instead of being green, they were brown, palm trees were ever present but they were low instead of being high up so shade was always present.

"Okay...first things first....I need a fucking bath, being dead for five months than resting up for roughly two months...god I swear I must smell like death or worse." I said as I tried to smell myself but my company that I came with were long gone as I saw them heading towards the tavern, which was oddly called the 'Laughing Coconut' and the sign out front was indeed, a coconut with eyes and a mouth laughing.

'I sure hope that is not a laugh bar cause if it is I am going straight to the barracks.' I mused as I began walking towards the tavern, little lizard children running around, their prismatic array of scales shines out their colors against the dull colored walls as the sun's rays catch their scales before being reflected off as a different color. The looks I started getting from the lizards was a constant mixture of confusion, wonder, awe, fear, and in one very odd case lust, and for that one case I quickly turned my eyes toward what I think is the female lizard and shifted my eye color from the blood red to pitch black with pin prick red in the center, all that served to do was grabbing more attention since I rarely ever shift eye color in public let alone use it for the intimidation factor that I was hoping for.

About half way to the tavern a lizard bumps into me and I instantly knew where this was heading, I barely felt through my armor his scaly hand grab my holster as he removed it from my belt and quickly began to run off, as I saw him begin to run I instantly yelled out "Run Forest Run! Cause when I catch your retarded ass I am going to fucking tear you a new asshole!" and as I said that he turned his eyes to look at mine as I extended my Omni-blade and gave chase, his eyes widening out in fear as he turned tail and sprinted away from the group as they opened up to reveal the path to the both of us.

As the thief started to run down the main road he took a left through the crowd and went straight into the alleyways as I jumped onto the first stall I saw that was closest to the building and than leapt at the building before grabbing the edge of it and yanked myself up as I ran on the rooftop, my glaring eyes keeping track of his movements as he rushes past children and adults alike to escape the coming punishment and pain that I will bring down upon him.

Chasing down the thief through the alleys was easy enough as he kept getting bumping and falling over people trying to escape me but as he got back onto the main road and started heading toward the main gate, the two guards there heard what happened are waiting to capture him but as he saw the two wielding their spears and was pointing at him with the sharpened point he skidded to a halt and turned around only to catch my fist with his face.

When my fist collided with his face I heard the sound of his dagger-like teeth crack and shatter from the impact, his mouth ejecting bits and pieces of his teeth along with his blood as he fell in a crumpled heap on the dirt road and as he weakly tries to bring himself to his knees I brought my foot down onto his back forcing him back down, the sounds of bones creaking and cracking filled the air as the two guards begin to approach the two of us along with the crowd that saw the whole thing unfold. As the thief fell back to the ground I forced my right foot under his belly and with my unnatural strength I lifted him off the ground before kicking him into the air a few feet before raising my fist at the right moment for him to fall directly on it where his gut is located, his body's reaction is to discharge everything that was in his stomach in the past few hours onto the ground.

Sneering at the thief with great disdain I reach down and yank out of his already weakened grasp my holster, and still inside it was my revolver, untouched and still smelling like old blood, grease, and metal.

"Disgusting filth...you should have been eaten at birth, no one in their right mind would rob someone in broad daylight, in public, and especially if the one you are robbing has the power to bend and snap metal easily, let alone your spine. Now let me clean you off, the hard way." I said before grabbing him by his tail and slowly dragged him near the wall closest to the lake and started to twirl him around, gaining momentum and before long threw his thieving ass over the wall and into the lake, a distinct splash sound was later heard as I went back to my business, the lizards that saw the beat down unfold quickly went along their daily lives as my eyes locked with theirs.

Walking back to the inn I found out real fast that as I walked through the open door that it was not exactly what I was expecting. The interior looks like a normal tavern, complete with a large central hearth, numerous tables and chairs, even a polished red wood bar. The patrons all seemed to be happy and pleased with the environment they are in dressed and interacting like normal people, if normal people were diamond dogs and lizards. The atmosphere inside the building is warm and friendly and the few that give glances in my direction immediately divert it away, probably heard what I did to the thief that tried to rob me.

The patrons that were gazing at me quickly returned to their prior business as I walked through the tavern, looking for the group that I had traveled with and a loud whistle and a wave of a paw I strode over to the group who has taken residence of a corner booth, all of them drinking out of a coconut with a tiny umbrella on it through a straw. If I was told back than that 16 million years from now the people of the future would still be drinking the typical islander drink than I would have called him out as a liar, but seeing it now, it makes me feel like a jackass. Upon finding my gaze on their drinks one slid down my way, the leader of the dogs giving me a curt nod as he resumes his drinking, my hand lifts the coconut drink to my face, my eyes scrutinizing the beverage and hoping that this was safe for me to drink but realizing that all the shit I went through recently and all the food I ate as well, this one drink wasn't going to kill me.

I hope.

49 Laughing Shell Drinks Later

"Hey man...you thinksh I gots a chancesh with her?" I said as I slurred my words, my body wobbling like a pinball as the other slightly and full on drunk patrons nod and than pushed me toward the female lizard on the other side of the bar, her friends busy chatting to her and the few times I looked at her she was casting glances at me and when I caught those glances she quickly looked away.

As I stumbled my way across the bar my eyes kept bouncing around in my skull, clearly unfocused from all the apparent super booze that was in that coconut drink of theirs, my feet was just barely preventing themselves from stumbling over on each other, my vision was full on Drunk Mode and my speech was as slurred as the next drunk man.

Upon reaching the female I realized that I was fucked from the beginning but I kept on going knowing that I was either going to have a great time or get into a massive bar brawl. As I got up to her I saw that as soon as she got a glimpse of me she turned away quickly and her friends that are with her started giggling and giving me 'come hither' stares as their tongues dashed out of their lips trying to entice me but in my drunken state I had no idea what was going on.

But knowing me when I am drunk I know exactly how this is going to turn out.

What I did not know was that her mate was watching this unfold and when I finally said something that crossed the line he came over and told me to back off, and in my drunken state I told him to go fuck himself, which is sadly not the smartest thing I said but being drunk, I was allowed some reprieve but when he took a swing at me, I dropped the ball and returned the punch, of course this turned into an all out brawl between me and five other lizards, I won but because I was an outsider I was given the boot.

"Come on man I can't believe your doing this shit to me man...just because I had way too many coconuts doesn't mean I am *belch* drunk..." I stammered as four buff lizardmen carried my ass out of the tavern and in one motion threw me out like a spear at prey.

Picking myself up off the dirt road and dusted myself off and staggering around I realized that it was now night time about 6pm and that the sun was well gone past the sand dunes and the skies were now star-filled darkness.

"I guessh I can shleep it off now...." I mumbled to myself before going to a one way alley and sat in the corner balled up to keep warm.

ROAR

'Fucking hell....'

As I opened my eyes I saw flames, burning cacti and tress and buildings bursting from the fire heating the rock buildings till they exploded from the heat and pressure. Jumping and climbing onto a building a I saw that the figure I saw in the sky a week ago was now actually a dragon, a dragon who was now burning the town down while picking up anyone it could get its talons on.

As I got to the main road I saw the leader of our caravan, the sheep, get picked up by the dragon than promptly eaten as I saw bits of burning wool float down to the ground. I nearly shat myself as it circled back and came towards me, flames burning down in a straight line as I quickly raised my shield and crouched down, my Omni-shield protecting me from the heat of the flames and as the dragon flew by me I collapsed my shield in time to fire off two psi-blasts that nicked its left hind leg and it let loose another roar but this one I am not sure of annoyance or pain but either way I pissed it off.

Scanning the area I saw that a few parts of the wall has collapsed and are blocking the way out of town, the dragon lazily turning around now taking its time to finish this town for good. Jumping roof top to roof top I got to the closest gate and started helping the guards moving the rubble out of the way and as soon as the large chunk of the wall broke down the lizards started pouring out of the town like rats from a sinking ship, all of them carrying what they could and in a hurry to escape the fiery inferno behind them.

"Everyone get the hell out of here! Town Guards make sure the women and children get out safely, do not let the dragon get close to them! You One-Arm! Help us!" the grizzled captain said as he fired a bolt from his crossbow at the dragon, the measly metal tipped bolt bouncing off its scales but it only served to annoy the dragon even more so as it swooped back for another pass but this time directly towards the main gate where both the captain and I are standing, him being on the road while I was standing on top of the gate getting ready to pounce on him the first chance I get.

Taking this chance to survey the area I only see the smoke of the raging fires of the town, the smell of burning flesh of unfortunate victims and the wails of the young crying out for their mothers, the same scene on Earth...but this time I can actually do something about it.

My eyes keep scanning the area, looking for anything or anyone that can assist me with taking this dragon down now and ending the assault before any more lives are lost but as my eyes searched around I saw it again, the cloaked figure standing idly on a rooftop staring at me, those eyes...the empty black eyes staring back at me....but this time this was real, the being was here...on the rooftop....looking at me. The roar of the dragon took me out of my stupor to only see that it was right behind me and on instinct I jumped at it with my Omni-blade out and praying to whoever has the time to listen, I stabbed my blade right above its tail and that only pissed it off even more but from the sudden searing hot pain into its very lower spine the tail's nerve endings got fried and it goes limp as the dragon, now unable to steer without its tail, goes crashing into the center of town with me still on its ass as the impact dislodges me from its rump and hurls me over its head, and from the momentum, my foot hitting its snout, and my body hitting a cactus.

"Thank you god that I am wearing my armor....otherwise this would have been comedy gold right here...and very painful." I groaned out as the cactus fell over with a prickly crunch sound as it started to leak the juicy water it stores within its core but is now being sucked up by the hungry sands of the desert. Pulling myself up in time to narrowly dodge a limp tail swipe as the dragon reasserts itself and roars right in my face, its breath was terrible enough to make the most fragrant of flowers to wilt on contact and those with thin airs to burst into flames from how fowl it is, spittle and saliva fly from its maw as it covers me from head to toe, my eyes closed as it just splatters all over me.

As I opened my eyes I saw the dragon was looking right at me, its eyes glaring a hole through my head as I ever so slowly wiped my face of his spittle, flinging it on the ground and repeated the process until my face was moderately clean and as I opened my eyes again I saw that the dragon was grinning at me while I was giving it a scowl.

"That was....the second most...nastiest....fucking disgusting.....thing....to have ever happened to me....in the history of sixteen million years of my life....and dear god I had my mouth all open and shit! God...oh god I think I am going to...to...." I was cut off as I turned around and gripped the cactus and threw up, just unloading 50 coconut shots, two plates of fried lizard tail, and one bowl of haybacon. The dragon chuckled to itself as it watched me lose my lunch and gag from how atrocious that was, but having to scrap that stuff off with one hand, and to still smell like bad dragon breath, I had put a hand to my stomach as the smell started to make me feel woozy again. The dragon saw that as my weakness and as it tried to bite me in half I barely managed to duck before giving that fucker an upper cut in the jaw.

Everyone that was watching when the dragon ate dirt from the dive bomb were cheering as they saw the upper cut but when the dragon came too he actually manage to sink its teeth into my lower half, my armor prevent it from ripping right through me but it started to shake me like a ragdoll, trying to rip me in half as I flailed about but I managed to grab its nostril and put a crushing pressure grip on it, forcing a small yelp on it as it let go for a second to send me flying into a brick wall as I bounced roughly off of it and brought my shield up as it let loose a torrent of flames upon me, the intensity of the heat was turning the dirt to glass and the vegetation into piles of ashes but the flame breath was cut short as it roared out again but from the sudden pricks it has been receiving from the spears of the town guard and in that moment of distraction I turned off my shield and turned it back to its blade form and created a weak Throw and turned it on myself as I landed on top its back before bringing it between its ribs but was thrown off when it beat its wings and took to the skies as I gripped to the end of its tail, now back to partial life as it took flight.

The dragon knew I was holding onto its tail but since I had only one arm and that it was being used to hang on for dear life it rose high in the sky, trying to get me to let go and plummet to my death but I was not taking any chances so I held onto that fucker as if it owed me money, and owed me money it did as it did a complete 180 degree turn and came back down like an arrow, the air screaming by the both of us as it hurled itself to the sands and before it could crash into the ground it snapped open its wings and created enough g's to drag me to near-unconsciousness as I let go in time for my body to be flung by its tail as my legs quickly become embedded into the sands up to my waist.

"And this is how the great savior of the Crystal Empire ends, slain by the mighty dragon of the desert, such a shame to put you down but you have interfered with my hunting."

"No, this is how it ends for the arrogant dragon that overstepped its reach." I said as my eyes turned to its deathly visage, my right palm glowing an unstable violet and black as I launched all of my biotic energy at it, its mouth opened up to consume it, thinking that it was magic and that it would do nothing to it, but instead when I turned my hand into a fist, violet light shone through its scales and moments later the beast bloated like a overfilled water balloon before exploding into meaty chunks and bits of bone, its head landing directly in front of me as its mouth gapes open in surprise and shock, its tongue hanging out of its head as blood started pooling at both ends.

After what felt like an hour I heard the sounds of feet and what I think is hooves and paws walking on the moist blood soaked sand as I waited for help and the first thing I see was the captain of the lizard guard, missing a bit of its tail but with a large ass smile on his face. His spear was prodding the dragon's head as I just stared at him for a while until he got the invisible message and helped me out of the and but as I began to fall over from the great amount of exhaustion and fatigue I had placed upon myself to perform that blast to ensure my own life was spared from yet again another early grave.

The destruction to the town was great but it will survive but for the coming weeks or months it would required to be rebuilt but it will endure.

The party they threw for me was just like the one the krogans threw for me when I helped a group kill a thresher maw for its meat.

It was going to be epic.

The following day

As the sun began to rise I put on my armor, my clothes were finally cleaned after 7 months of being dirty and smelling like rotting meat now smelling like fresh rain, and my hair, still two toned but no longer felt greasy or smelled like old person. I grabbed my supplies that the lizards have gave me for the trip and told me the safest route back north was to follow the river and stay hidden when resting, they placed over my normal armor scales from the dragon, or what was left of it after I forced it into a violent explosion that left it pretty much nothing to see. The secondary set of armor that is now draped over my own is roughly like the guards chainmail but instead of interlocking metal loops, dragon scales, and from what I know of dragons from the books I read, their scales are highly resistant to heat so in essence fireproof to a certain degree, and that they can easily bounce off magic so also magic resistant, not that it would do much since my biotics always interfered with it but it helps to have a little extra. Its skull, waiting outside the main gate for me, resting on a sand skiff so I can easily haul it across the sandy wastes.

"Be safe pony agent, just know that you won't be forgotten, unless of course we forget to remember such a feat. A dragon exploding from magic, something that will make even the most ancient of dragons wonder who is capable of such a feat. You best watch yourself for news spreads faster than the plague in these sands."

I only nodded as I walked past the caravan group and to the main gate, my skull waiting for me as I plucked the rope from the sands and started walking north along the eastern side of the river, the skull still blood red and hanging to small bit of muscle.

'Dragon Slayer...Thresher Maw Slayer....Reaper Slayer....Bandit Slayer....man I really need to get a fucking medal for all the shit I do...maybe open up a museum for all of my awesomeness...this skull would be perfect for the center piece of my home...hell would make an excellent addition to my bedroom, place it nicely over my bed...hehe sweet.'

2 Months Later

"Wow....looks like the German landscape hasn't change over the millennia....*sniff sniff* and damn does it still have that sweet pine scent....this is way better than the fucking deserts....Just North-East and I am finally home....now where did that lass said her city was again.....was it, that way?" I said as I kept dragging my dragon skull, now sun bleached and bone white from its time spent in the sun and that my dragon scale armor was gone, traded it to the lass that is now following me, and her constant pestering of who I am and where did I get my armor from, still thinking I am some sort of hairless diamond dog but no matter how many times I told her I am not she just giggled at my frustrated face and bops me on the nose with her paw before skipping ahead and telling me to follow her.

It has been a week since I paid for her service as a guide back to Equestria but god damn can she cook a mean squirrel stew. Hell when I tried to cook it once she yelled at me to stop, pushed me out of the way and took off where I stopped and made it better, I had no idea what I was doing at the time.

This girl that is currently my guide, she has yet to tell me her name, but what she calls herself is something that I could never say because even I can't say it without fucking it up badly, but from her appearance alone, she looks sorta like the gremlins in the very old Earth movies, but way taller, exactly my height but smarter and not as devious as those little shits. These gremlins though, I can tell are hell a lot smarter than the movie gremlins. As I said, she looks exactly like them, she is completely covered by beige fur, her eyes from when she was wearing her cloak was pure black but now they are pink as cotton candy, strange color but still not the strangest to be seen. If you compared Gremlins to the Diamond Dogs you would see striking similarities but that is where it ends, they look a bit more well...like gremlins than dogs, they are smarter than dogs, and they can actually speak like a normal person, except she has a german accent and from what she told me, her city is in Germany, right where Berlin used to be.

"So...are you going to clue me in on where we are going, or do I have to guess?"

"Ja, you have to guess pretty human, you may have paid me to be your guide but you didn't ask about what the guide's services entails to. You paid in gems but you have yet to pay the other part of our bargain, information on where you got your armor from, that is nothing this place has ever seen before." she said, her voice was like the typical german girl except it sounded more Swedish than German but it is still pretty damn awesome to hear.

Taking a chance to look her over as I kept marching behind her, the skull behind me creaking a bit on top of the sled I had to improvise since the sand skiff only worked on sand and once we had hit rough dirt than grass and snow I knew I had to change tactics. As I looked her over I saw that her crossbow that she carries outside of her cloak, looked more like mechanized than wooden contraption, underneath the bow itself was a cylinder and from the thin openings all around it, it stored approximately 20 bolts, readily to be fired in rapid succession, it also had a scope of some sort on it so I can tell that her people must have at least made telescopes or binoculars of sorts. Instead of a typical normal sword like what most people would use, she carries instead a machete and it has a serrated edge to the front side and an angled edge on the back side, a dual purpose weapon. For a fact I know she is wearing armor, I saw her wearing my dragon scales and leather armor of sorts, and I could tell it was leather because that nice rich brown color is always leather. I even felt it on accident when she accidentally tackled me when she was running from a manticore.

We ate good for a week.

During the marching we came upon a wonderfully strange sight, more strange to me than to her, the city she said she was leading us to? It looked England during the industrial revolution, I saw a few factories within the city, large stone walls encircled the city in a protective shield from the outside world, all the houses were Victorian styled and were all next to each other preserving space, in the center of the city was a large building, my guess the mayors house or whatever kind of government they had at the time.

"A beauty isn't she? The city of Nouakchott is a jewel of the Solusian Republic, and you may be wondering how we got this far, to answer that you would have to uphold a vow of silence to never repeat this to anyone ever besides my people. We must speak with the Lord for you to understand....erm....this is going to be complicated." she said as we got to the gates and without warning they were raised by two giant gears as the iron gate was raised to let us in but as soon as we reached its threshold it stopped and went in reverse as it closed itself.

To describe the actual city itself? Steampunk. That is all I need to say, everything here is steam-powered, the homes were being heated by steam as the snow around their homes were melted and only collected on the streets, the streetlamps were also steam powered, the blue flames flickering as we traveled down the road until we reached a small station as she used it I was busy trying to figure out how they managed to do all this but I just saw small pieces of technology that is eerily similar to human tech, but that was until it slapped me in the face that this was all human tech in its own way. On the streets were gremlin-like mech's, a single large steam pipe on its back as smoke billowed out as it swiveled side to side looking for the scourge of society. There was small trollies moving about, there was no cars but everything moved with extreme precession...something that oddly reminds me of the Citadel.

"Girl are you sure that....wow...are those mechs? How the hell did you even manage..." I said as I waved at pretty much everything in sight, "all of this! Hell even the ponies who were probably alive a lot longer don't have shit like this!" I said in complete shock that they are beyond pretty much everything by most likely a couple hundred years.

My guide simply smirks at me before getting approached by a contingent of guards, all of them wearing what I think is bulletproof vests of sorts but is covering their body from neck to knee, their helmets also has their ears built into it, providing flexible protection for them, and in their paws, the same kind of crossbow my guide has but with an attached blade to its underside, a bayonet of sorts. As they talk to each other in their own language, almost as much as the diamond dogs I take a look around the area we are in and found it to be nothing more than the common streets of any other city except, its all steam powered.

The sudden feeling of something sharp prodding my side was enough to pull me away from my observations to return my gaze to my guide who is looking giddy for some reason but when I tried to ask as to why she is like this she just goes off about something called the 'Pylon' and that I was somewhat a part of it, and on that end the guard contingent formed around us in a box formation and got onto the nearest empty steam barge and as she pulled back a lever it roughly coughed to life and before long it started to ratchet down the road toward the large building in the center of the steam city, my eyes constantly casting looks at the occupants of the barge, seeing their eyes locking on mine before looking away when I teasingly shifted them to my death stare, seemingly making a few unnerved from the stare alone but before I can scare another couple guards the barge comes to a complete stop, knocking me off balance as I go through the open window and fall out to go head first into a bush as half my body is out of the window, my arm flailing about trying to find a grip of some sort to pull myself out.

The large building in the center of town, from afar looked like a mansion, but up-close it was more of a fortress than a mansion, it has large metal walls, ballista's line the wall along with smaller versions between them, effectively forming a harpoon barrage if the worst came to greet them.

"Wow....locked up tighter than Fort Knox....he...hehe...old world reference." snickering to myself as I felt another prod from one of the guards and before long I felt six paws grab my legs and yanked me out of the bush in time for me to swat away the leaves and twigs that tagged along, the mess was easily removed but the front door to the fort? It was inlaid with gold and had a large sigil of the crossbow but with two wings coming from the sides of it, not sure what it means but I shrugged and followed the guide through it, hoping for answers as to why they wanted me for their device or whatever the flying fuck it is.

The lass pushes open the door as more guards started to follow us in, just abandoning their posts to see what the fuss is about, obviously they had failed Protection 101. The hall to the main part of the fort was lined with old ass pictures, some of them so faded from the years that you would have to be the person to have painted it or saw it before it succumbed to its age to know what the hell it was, and there was the paintings that looked recent, and the overly recent of a few days ago.

As we reached the main room of the fort I had a stupid moment as my foot snags onto the carpet as I swear out loud as I go face first into the floor, my armor clanking a bit as I hear my nose crack from the impact, everyone that was present started to snicker and laugh but upon getting to my knees I brought my fist down while sending out a biotic pulse into the ground, throwing those that were not paying attention or had sure footing as those that were not paying attention were knocked off their paws and onto their asses, the ruler of this city, not sure what to even call the bastard, started to laugh and as I got up the guards had their crossbows pointed at my head but when I started to glow with biotic energy the lord made a deep throaty noise and they all lowered their weapons and backed off while I kept my Nova at the ready.

"So...Yvonne, you brought an outsider into our lands when I had instructed all of our kind to never leave the safety of the walls for out of fear that the outside world would corrupt and taint us to self destruction...your reasoning for bring this being here better be a good one...or it will be both your heads." the way this dude speaks, reminded me of Councilor Udina...that fucker really had to go.

The ensuing yipping and growling begins as the two bark it out (Pun intended) and as I stood there wondering what the hell is going on I spot what they called the 'Pylon', it was a basically a powered generator attached to a satellite control relay, in essence a spy sat station.

I don't need it...

But I want it.

Walking over to the machine I tapped its the keypad that was glowing weakly for gods know how long it was going with how little power it has left in its batteries so I did what comes naturally to save technology that I want to use for as long as I possibly could.

I raised my palm at it and used Overload on it, the screen turns off for a split second before turning back on as it went from .0124% power left to roughly 39.54% power left in its triple celled power core.

"And that was your problem...damn thing needed some juice...now lets see if I can spy on Equestria from here...." I said aloud as the two stopped their verbal debate as their heads turned to see me typing as good as I possibly can with just one arm, my fingers flying around the pad with reckless abandon until the screen pops up with a picture of deep space and with a few more taps on the pad, it rotated around to face Earth, in all of its glory.

Tapping more command lines the lens zoomed in a bit, breaching past the Earth's atmosphere as it came upon England and the fringes of Europe and another several taps revealed a large section of Equestria's borders, two more taps turned into Ponyville, the apple farm, and parts of the Everfree Forest, one tap than turned straight to my home and it was still standing except I saw my sweet YMIR-Cuddles going on a short patrol out front before being lifted back to the third floor storage and before it could close I saw Rainbow Dash zip out of the gates, heading straight for her cloud home with what I think was my book on 'Aerodynamically designed ships' and upon further zooming in it was. I facepalmed as I realized how much of a nerd she is for when it comes to being the fastest flier ever. Going back to my home I saw that there was no lights on, not even a sign of life besides the fleeing mare and as I dragged my finger around Ponyville I saw that Kira was sitting at a café with Fluttershy and Rarity, having a chat but since this satellite is probably running on fumes I couldn't listen in on their conversation but knowing those three...it was probably something boring as hell so in a hurry I dragged my finger across the screen to some random spot in the forest to see a river serpent with a mismatched moustache talking to Discord, and in a moment that scared the shit out of me, Discord looked towards the sky, gave a toothy grin, than waved his lion paw at the sky before resuming his chat.

"How the hell did that motherfucker know I was spying on him! I was watching him from fucking orbit!

Discord's POV

During my chat with Steven Magnet I felt a chill go down my spine as I felt something watching my every move, and usually that was only Celestia to make sure I was not causing too much chaos or disturbing the peace, but this watchful gaze was more cold than motherly warmth. I tilted my head toward the watching gaze to see a faint twinkle in the sunny sky, and I knew that was no star, stars only appear at night and since this is not my rule, it had to be something not of this world....and there is only one man that would spy on me with something that is alien.

So I promptly raised my lion paw and waved at Roran, knowing full well this will cheese him off to no end as to wonder how I know it is him, probably at this very moment he is yelling at the nearest pony as to how I caught him. Chuckling to myself I bid Steven a farewell and snapped my talons to return to Roran's home, wondering where he left the remote control to my television...

Roran's POV

"Fuck you Discord! Fuck you!" I shouted before shooting a psi-bolt at a potted plant watching it explode into dirt and dust.

"Well that was completely unnecessary...but what was it that you were doing to the Pylon? How did you activate it and how come we could not?" their lord said as the guards stood their jaws agape and probably with their thumb up their ass surprised, Yvonne was too busy staring at me the same way as the others.

"Well...you aren't human that's why. This machine is a MK IV Black Cat Stealth Satellite Terminal, its not a power generator of some sort but an espionage station to spy on others, or in my case, spying on my friends...and now that I got this to work for another 15 years..." I said as I typed in it a few more times and my Omni-tool lit up as I closed the new window with an agreed folder to its name. "And now I finally have claimed another piece of my people's past...and I know figured out how your kind as evolved to the point of having steam technology...you found plenty of my species tech and reversed it for yourselves....pretty damn smart..."

The unanswered question remained hanging in the air and everyone knew what it was.

Can you help us create more of it?

"No" was all I said before the guards snapped to attention and brought their crossbows back at me.

"Can we make an agreement of some sort? With this we can finally re-unite our race under a single banner and end the countless years of bloodshed." the lord said in an almost pleading manner, his voice restrained from bursting into a tyrannical yelling contest but knowing that I can further advance his people to unite all of them...I knew he has to play diplomat with someone that was far superior to him.

I looked back at him than to my missing arm than toward the guards and then finally to Yvonne who was by now waiting for me to say something but I simply turned my back to them as I typed back into the terminal as it gave a happy chirp and then turned itself off for the moment.

Turning my gaze back at the lord I gave my own toothy grin, the same that Discord gave me as I gave him my response.

"Fine, but I want somethings in return." I said and in that moment I became more than just a cybernetic human.

I became...awesome.

1 week Later

'Okay time to go over the checklist...'

'One repeating crossbow with spare bolts and bayonet...' I turned to the table as I spotted my forest camo weapon. 'Check.'

'One comb and toothbrush' I spotted the classic Elvis Presley comb sitting next to the basic toothbrush, the bristles were all lined up and the little tooth cleaner at the bottom of it was nice and pointy...perfect for a prison shank. 'Check.'

'One set of Gremlin Scout Armor with modified Left Arm attachment...gun metal grey coloring....' I looked it over on the table, the helmet seemed to fit them more than me but since I didn't get much of a choice on major modifications...it would have to do, its left arm has been temporarily filled with a skeletal metal limb to give it weight and that if I used momentum for it, it would be like I swung a left hook...a left hook with a large blade attached to it. 'Check.'

'One backpack filled with beef jerky, apples, peaches of some sort...and five water skins...check.'

'Two pick-axes for mountain climbing...' I looked on the table and saw the pair, wrapped together by leather straps, 'Check.'

'And lastly...one bottle of Barkandi 151 vintage....' I grabbed the bottle and looked it over before placing it back down, 'Check.'

"Okay that is everything I wanted...now Lord Osiruas, as we had agreed upon, to turn the terminal on you must first tap the power button, and to spy on the area you are looking for just drag your paw onto the screen to anywhere on the planet...just try not to destroy that satellite by crashing it...there is only one of its kind left. And those schematics on blimps should prove useful for you." I said as I strapped on my Gremlin Scout armor, it completely covered my Paladin gear and it actually made me look whole and complete, something that I have been lacking for the greater part of half a year.

Front Gate of Nouakchott

"Well Yvonne, this is where we split...try not to do anything stupid with my spy satellite...I really don't want to know that someone is spying on me while I take a shower...that shit was creepy enough when those assassins did that." I said recalling that exact moment, it was back on Omega when I started working for Aria, and those poor bastards never stood a chance with that grenade already thrown at them.

"Oh quit worrying boy, just take your reward and get out of here, but remember this, if you have any other bit of information or technology you don't need just send it to us, you will be compensated for it." she said as she threw me my crossbow that she snuck out of my pack with a smirk on her face.

"Ya ya ya I get it...damn you girls are so...so...fuck it." I shouted as I walked off, the Equestrian borders a months march from here but the delay was worth it...in a way.

Near the Rhine River, Old Site of Cologne

The sounds of clashing metal and deep howls filled the night as it roused me from my slumber, not even in the middle of the sweet Germany forest could I get a moment of fucking rest.

Slowly stretching and pulling out my crossbow and pulling back the bolt into firing mode, my left hand being nothing more a clamp to hold it still when firing as it acts as a bipod of sorts. The smell of meat from my campfire was quickly extinguished as it started to rain and very quickly a torrential downpour as two armies started to fight it out right in front of me below in the low valley. My dragon skull resting quietly as my sleeping bag within its maw stays dry as the teeth prevents water from seeping into its jaws, cleaning those serrated chompers is worth having it.

The two sides were intent on wiping the other out completely as bolts and arrows from both sides go flying, howls of pain and death filled the air as both sides pull out all stops to win the battle. Spheres from one side are tossed over the enemy as they explode in a conical direction sending shrapnel toward their foes as the other side launched spheres of their own but upon impacted they exploded into liquid flames. Humanity's weapons still being used even when they have been downgraded to the old ages.

This is humanity's legacy.

A legacy of death.

One that I will leave a mark to be told for centuries.

Smiling under my helmet, knowing that the enemy of either side will think of me as a stray soldier of either side will engage me in open combat, combat that gave me a superior advantage for I was a master of dealing death.

"Death...prepare your scythe...I might fill your monthly dead quota."

Extending out my Omni-blade I yelled out in sadistic glee and charged down the hill.

The Grim Reaper is going to war.

Author's Note

Enjoy.

Chapter 23: Thunder on the Plains

Site of Old Cologne, Rhine River, Dawn

The two factions fighting east of the Rhine River are duking it out, my eyes could see thousands of the furry bastards swinging and shooting at each other while lobbing their explosive and incendiary weapons, their screams filling the dawn air as I watched the Western Side, the gremlins wearing gold and green colorized gear while the Eastern Side wore red and silver colorized gear, the two sides from my vantage point fighting over control of the six large stone bridges connecting the two sides together. Even in the future land disputes are still common.

As I advanced to the battlefield I saw that both sides were now mixing into one another as arrows stopped raining down to prevent friendly fire but the explosively are now being randomly aimed and fired in high hopes of nailing the enemy and not their own forces. Both sides clashing against one another and from how experienced these beastmen are than this battle must have been one of many previously fought as neither side budged or gave ground to the other as the men fought to the bitter end for god and country...but this is ridiculous.

On my side I have to run past probably over fifty-thousand bodies to get to the French border than to cross the river to England, but getting past that many bodies, when the river was at its highest since this area just love its rainy weather and that from the spy satellite scanning the entire river and sadly those six bridges are the only ones to go across the river without having to swim or fly across.

And having to fight past fifty-thousand is something I don't want to do, sure it would be fun to get back into my blood frenzy and wipe out everything at Cologne but than the guilt would set it...something that has started to gnaw at my conscious after that damn Rachni Queen fiddled with my head...the damn bitch fixed the one thing inside my head that I liked broken...I now had that inner voice telling me the rights and wrongs and this one was a real motherfucker. That dickhead gave me a migraine when I wanted to short sell those gremlins for more than what I was going to give them.

I swear I had my conscious locked away when I had my L5X implants installed...now that he is back I have to deal with the scales of justice again....

Now just take things nice and easy, we don't have to fight them, maybe we can sort things out for them and end this little conflict of theirs with little bloodshed?

'Oh fuck off already, I liked it better when I had myself in my head not you and myself...I liked the hollowness that was my skull but now it has a walnut rattling in it cause of you. You better be worth these damn headaches...'

It is worth it, but you must be on your best behavior with these kind beings and sort this out through kindness.

'They are killing each other for a reason...they wouldn't be doing this cause its fun or that they are just trying to lower their population count to prevent their farming facilities from overgrowing their crops to the point of starving the land of nutrients. There is always a reason for everything...even a reason behind Pinkie Pie's ability to distort the very laws of nature to bend to her will...how she managed to go into the supply closet in her bakery and to appear behind me will forever elude me without concrete facts.'

So is there a reason as to why you are always acting like a Grade-A asshole?

'You were there when it happened...'

Armstrong City, Luna, 04/01/2074

Walking down the lunar streets at night is something to behold on the streets of the moon, the darkness of space beyond the dome as street lights and the stars only light illuminates everything in silver and yellow glows as people of all kinds walk up and down the sidewalk, idly chatting to one another as if this was a daily event that is part of their lives. My eyes wander from person to person, seeing who I could pickpocket and who I can pin the blame on in the event they figure out they got felt up and robbed. My friend Darius was walking next to me, his hands in his pockets as I put mine in my grey hoodie, the hood was down at the moment as we walked together down the streets, our eyes constantly gazing for an easy mark and when we found one he nudged me and gave me the details of our target and when I went for it I got results, a credit chit with 396 credits in it, a weeks worth of food and/or cheap medical supplies.

The next street we walked over to was near our home, the orphanage that has been my home for thirteen years now, and a place of rest when I get tired of stealing, fencing or spying for the day. When we knocked on the front door to see if Sister Tabi would open it up for us or Mother Isabella but we got no answer and that usually meant that they were with some adult or two looking to adopt one of the other younger kids, the both of us are considered 'too old' to be properly raised by a loving family, which we think is a load of crap but seeing how it is somewhat true we just grit our teeth, sigh and wave goodbye to those that are taken in to a loving family.

That is all that most of us want here in the orphanage, to be put into a loving family and cared for, not living off the streets and be forced to commit crimes of any kind just for crumbs of bread or mouthfuls of water. What I want is something else entirely from the rest of the kids and teens here, what I want is to know why my parents left me here on the orphanage steps and why they felt like they couldn't take care of me?

As we walked into the front room we knew something was off, first there was no talking of any kind, it was deathly silent and that never happened here, not once in all thirteen years I have been here that it was so quiet you can hear someone drop a pen on the floor, second the children we saw were cowering and hiding under anything they could squeeze under, and lastly not a single whiff of lavender perfume could be smelt in this hallway and everyone here knows that Sister Tabi was gonna get ready for a date with some upper echelon of society so they could pour money into this home of ours.

"Darius...get L-Sec over here as soon as I yell out for it, something isn't right...we both know Tabi would have that choking perfume on at this time and that smell is hard to get rid of in this house." I said as I pulled my hoodie up and pulled out my butterfly knives and slowly crept along the shadows of my now invaded home, the children all tried to say something but stop themselves when I give them the silent *shoosh* as they nodded and resumed their cowering, Darius stayed by the door and waited for the soon to be overtly loud scream for help in the event of thugs have broken into our peaceful home and raided it for what little credits there is here.

Creeping along the walls I did my best to not make any noise or sound as to not alert any thug and clearing out the first floor I gave Darius the thumbs up that I was about to check the second floor but he looked around and started to get the lunar security forces here, knowing Darius that glasses wearing dork had them on speed-dial.

My feet creaked slightly on the old wooden floorboards as I scaled up the stairs keeping a grip on my knives knowing that something is going to hit the fan, stuff like this always hits the fan as it is proven in every single movie that I have seen that stared the hero walking down the eerily creepy as fuck dark hallway and get ambushed by the villain and is held hostage only to be saved by his quick thinking and cunning wits.

I was not as lucky as those movie heroes.

Taking a brick to the back of one's head is something that no one ever wants to experience let alone ask upon anyone else but sadly it happened to me. Feeling the impact of that brick brought stars to my vision as I stumbled before falling face first onto the middle of the second floor's hallway and the feeling of something grabbing my left foot and whistling a merry tune as my face grind against the roughness that is the thick carpet of the orphanage.

As I came too I realized that I was not tied up or restrained like what most captives would be in but my butterfly knives were gone or lost but what I do know is that Mother Isabella is sitting next to me but with a gag in her mouth and her hair was a complete and scattered mess. The feeling of something tapping my right shoulder redirects my attention to the source and upon looking at the source I got sucker punched in the jaw as I felt something rattle inside my mouth and before long I spat out a fragment of one of my teeth.

"Now that you are awake, would you kindly tell me why you are here interrupting my little chat with the nun." the interloper said in a hush-hush tone before backhanding me on the other cheek from where I got punched. I let out a small yelp of pain but I said nothing as I held my tongue, giving the ski-masked thug the stink-eye.

My stare earns me another fist across the face and the chipped tooth finally shatters inside my mouth as I spit out multiple chips and pieces of at least two molars came shooting out of my blood seeping mouth.

"Not the answer I was looking for so let us try this again." I felt a rough calloused hand grab me by the hair and yanked my head away from the tile floor as I was once again face to face with the thug. My response was to spit blood at him and just give him a solid glare before receiving another bone cracking punch to the jaw, completely cracking another couple of teeth which was promptly spat out onto the floor.

"I am here because this is my home, asshole....I think that was my other top right molars this time....man the dentist is gonna love meeting me...."

It wasn't before long that the sounds of police sirens filled the night air as the lunar security teams formed up around the area, forming a tight-knit perimeter. The sound of a gun being loaded and cocked back was the only warning both me and Mother Isabella had before we were lifted off the tile floor and dragged toward the nearest window to see what was going on and low and behold, the fuzz was waiting outside with riot shields at the ready and of course their guns pointing at the windows and most likely at the fucker holding me by the hair head.

"This is Lunar Security, we know you are in there, drop your weapons, release your hostages and come out with your hands on your head." one of the officers said through his megaphone, being a bit old school but since this place is relatively old and that most of the security forces around here use cattle prods on most criminals instead of the Omni-tool Taser that C-Sec had.

As we stepped slowly away from the windows and the thugs gave them their demands and that they were actually met, we went down the stairs slowly but as soon as one of them opened the front door that was when I told my conscious to fuck off after it happened. As that door slowly opened up to the outside world, the thug took a round to the chest as I quickly went to the floor to avoid eating a machine gun sandwich, but Mother Isabella wasn't as fast as I was, a round tore through her lower spine as she screamed out in pain, my biotics at the time was still underdeveloped but in the high stress situation that I am in, it picks up the lack of focus with natural raw power.

When using Flare for the first time for even the most experienced and seasoned Biotic users, they would experience headaches of varying degree's, slightly burnt hands and maybe even smelling like sulfur. For me it was more like my entire body going up in flames, I unknowningly used Flare on myself, all of my clothes being burnt off or melted to my body, the two thugs that were closest to me ran out of the orphanage on fire and the one that was now holding up my injured adoptive mother by her neck was now looking at me as if I was the devil.

He didn't have a chance in hell, I Lifted him up as fast as I could which forced half of his body through the ceiling of the first floor and forced his head to pop out the floorboards of the second floor, his head caved in from slamming into a metal pipe.

After waking up in the hospital I felt alone, not from being just alone in the room but alone in my head, my thoughts were constantly being questioned if they were the right ones or if they should have been made, just me, myself and my own empty head.

Site of Cologne, Dawn

Oh....uhhh....yea you were the reason why I was gone for so long...your biotics burnt me away till now.

'I still wish you were gone...' I sighed explosively as I watched the two sides continue to battle on, it eventually turned to something that I recalled in the academy...trench warfare. 'But now I have to deal with this....tactic...something I would never do unless its being drawn into a stalemate.'

It took little than an hour for the fighting to come to a crawling end but as both sides started to pull back they attempted to collect their dead or dying forces before they get picked off by the opposing side, not one for leaving a man behind unless there really is no hope of getting them out alive.

'Okay...one side has the bridge and the other doesn't...I could help the side with the bridge or the side that doesn't have it at the moment to claim the bridge...hmmm....well a coin toss always helped for these kinds of decisions.' I mused as I checked my pockets for any kind of coin on my suits and pulled out a bit and looked it over for a second before flipping it.

'Heads for Bridge, Tails for Without.' as it lands in my right hand I saw that it was the sun facing up and flipping it over was the moon. 'Okay...fuck it I am just going out onto the field and talk to them to see what the hell is going on.'

'Kindess is its own reward you know.' his cheery tone was starting to grind on my nerves, relighting my anger against him.

'First chance I get in Equestria I am drinking you away at the first sign of major annoyance. Shut up and stay quiet and let this man do his job. And if you have something to say, than it better be when something important is going to happen and you are trying to save our asses from getting spit-roasted.'

Keeping my crossbow at the ready and my eye peeled for anything that would spell me a quick and terrible end, my helmet may be made of metal, leather and fur but it sadly isn't made of the same composite materials that made up my last helmet...but at least they have the eye holes covered up in a mesh to give moderate protection.

Upon reaching the base of the hill I came upon a low built house that is partially made into the ground to give it the appearance of a bunker or a tornado house, the residents of the building are just now coming out of their shelter as the battle seems to have entered a hiatus period...something that my wars wish we had. Walking over to them with my crossbow in hand startles the three children standing by their parents side who stood in front of them to protect them from what they think is a soldier out hunting for readily available supplies or workforce, and with the armor I am wearing, makes me look like a scavenger.

As I get within a few meters I stopped to look at them than at the battle field, than back at them before signaling them about the warzone by jerking my thumb at it and before long the father gets the message and wearily looks at me, his brown eyes trying to stare at my own.

"Where have you been all this time boy? Over by the bridges to Prance is the battle of Old Cologne...not sure who made the name up for that crumbling ruins of a city but the fighting is over those bridges, and neither the Pony Princesses or the Gryphon Lords have stepped in to deescalate the bloodshed here. By the time this battle is over the fertile fields here will wither and die by the coming summer from the pollutants..." he said as he kept his arms protectively around his family and I realized that I still had my crossbow somewhat angled toward them and as I pointed it at the ground and removed my hand from the trigger grip they gave a sigh of relief as I walked toward them slowly.

"So you are telling me this fighting is over six bridges?" I said as one of the little gremlins nodded quickly, "and not one of the leaders of the world is intervening correct?" again the same child nodded, "And exactly how long have these two sides been fighting?"

"For at least a hundred years...give or take the small skirmishes." The mother said as I feel something tap my helmet a couple of times before my right hand instantly grabs the disturbance to find Mirias staring at me from within my hand to wave a hoof at me before I slightly propped my helmet open to allow her to fly in and use my hair as a nest till we get to Equestria.

I simply stare back at the battlefield for a while before counting with my head how many battles must've happened here in the past hundred years but the only thing that came to mind was 'this land would most likely never recover', but looking back at the gremlin family before I concluded that this land could recover but it would take a long time of uprooting the corrupted dirt and gravel and replacing it with dirt and sod from somewhere cleaner, but it could be done...just slightly hard to do it at this rate or at this current time.

The family stared at me for a while as they watched me grab the 'supposed' insect that was on top of my helmet and put it inside but said nothing on the matter but when I started contemplating about the constant fighting here they started to go back inside their home but the father stayed outside to watch me and to make sure I don't follow them into their home.

"I need to get across that river..." I mumbled as I searched my pockets for one of the dried mushrooms that the changelings gave me for the journey home, it may taste extremely bitter and dry but it sure as hell makes your hunger go away real fast, and upon finding one I cracked open my helmet and popped two of them in my mouth and chewed them a bit before swallowing them.

"Can you get across?" the father simply said as I looked at him and the look on his face was that of someone telling an idiot an obvious answer.

"I can, but I know that if I try to swim across my armor would slow me down and I would sink to the bottom before getting across...I think I am just gonna take the bridge...but how..." I said as I started walking toward the now emptying battlefield, the wails of the dying and calls of crows overhead acting as my beacon to my next destination, moving my right hand back to the trigger and aimed at the feet of my enemy if they ever came within at least 30 feet of me.

As I started to walk off the father yelled out as I started to get out of shouting distance, "Try not to get killed out there stranger!", my response was to just wave him off.

Back in my day when we were wearing our full armor we never had to worry about rotting flesh, the smell of death and burning bodies, or just the smell of something foul, the helmet I have on me has nothing to cancel out the smell that is straight up assault my nostrils with the foulest of odors I have ever smelled in my life, it was the stench of the ages. I can even bet that the smell will sink into the furs of the scouting uniform and everywhere I go the public will look at me as if I haven't bathed in weeks.

These poor souls...

'Well that's a war for you, you live, you die, or you live but are maimed or scarred in some way that will haunt and affect you for the rest of your life...you'll get used to it eventually. If you don't than I hope you can get a physiatrist cause I sure as hell ain't going to another one of those meetings.'

The scene that lies before me is something that would be from the dark ages of the ancient days, crows littered the field and filled the skies as the dead bodies were being feasted on by the black birds of death, the wailings of those dying range from whimpers, crying, screams of pain or just the dying calling out for their parents. What I did not expect to see was my boss, standing in the middle of the fields, his scythe crooked in his right arm while his left was busy writing something down on a dirty ass old as shit scroll with a raven feather, the tip coated in black blood.

"Well...I'll be damned, looks like Death is finally coming out of his alcove in the void to gather his souls instead of using his agents for it." I said as I somewhat gave a curt bow to the black robed skeleton.

Death doesn't even grace me by even tilting his head in acknowledgement of my existence or my words, instead he simply waves his scythe around a few times and a small ripple in the air forms above the blade as the souls of those dead get torn from their corpses as they get sent to their proper afterlife and in a flash the ripple disappears as the Grim Reaper himself makes a wooden chair appear in the field as he sits down and pulls a little black book and slides the scroll down where it meets the seems and it melds into it like any other page in the book. It doesn't take much time before he finally looks up at me and motions me to sit down but from the looks of the field of rotting bodies I just stood their looking at him before sighing and sat down in a puddle of bloody mud.

"Yes yes, I am doing my job for a change but after your war, you have left me backed up for thousands of years but since that war ended rather quickly than I had expected and left many worlds barren and dead I had to wait even longer for my job to kick start itself...not that I was complaining about the couple thousand years of relaxation that you have given me but now it seems that humanity's legacy of war has been forever imprinted onto this world...something that I can appreciate on my own time but since most to all of my agents are long gone I have to this myself."

"Well you can just do what you did to me for these people, get one that wants to cling to life for eternal servitude or until they royally fuck up. I can bet you at least two or three of them are lying in this wasteland right now, just begging for a second chance at life and hell, you might even get a break or two while they go out reaping souls but they better not be like me cause I am not having to go hunt down a fellow soul reaper cause they bastard went bat shit crazy and has to be put down like a rabid dog...that and from what I can tell not many populations have even hit the 10 million marker so life is a precious thing....and just saying that makes me sound like a hypocrite since I kill people for a living..."

"Oh you don't say? And for once I actually agree with you, even though you are still so far my best and currently alive agent even I was about to go collect your soul, well I was until you collected recently two very large souls...King Sombra the Unicorn of the Crystal Empire, and Sanders the Desert Dragon, both of those souls are currently keeping you going and if you die now, that's it game over. So do try not to bite the bullet again cause if you do than that soul of yours is mine and I can finally finish my collection." Death said rather giddy as he pulled out from his robe a small brown paper bag and dipped his hand inside of it to grab a few pinches of bread crumbs and flung it around him and on cue the crows swoop down and started to peck and eat the dead bodies.

I just look in disgust for a few seconds before realizing this is the equivalent of an old person sitting on a park bench tossing bread crumbs and pigeons. My blatant reaction causes Death to chuckle rather deeply but as he gets off his black oak stool chair he floats ever so slowly towards me and raises his hand to try and grab my head by I just redirect his hand away from me with my bayonet, the touch of death is something I am trying to avoid at this point.

"You know you have a little bug on your-"

"Yes I know but this is my bug, and it keeps my head warm thank you very much, now get going you have souls to file and categorize or some shit like that." I said as I felt the changeling on my head grip down with four tiny hooves and even smaller fangs as I ever so slightly cringed from the little pricks.

Death merely shrugs at my cringe and walks off before bursting into a cloud of crows and scatters into the sky before disappearing from my sight.

"That dude seriously scares the crap out of me...and there is no way in hell that I am going to bite the bullet earlier than expected." I muttered to myself so only Mirias can hear it from me but it only serves to keep her latched to my dome and it took me a shake of the head to get her attention to stop the biting.

Looking around the battlefield and listening for the sounds of life or fainting life I came up with nothing, just the sounds of crows cawing, the slight howling of the wind, and the sounds of my boots crunching on gravel and cracked armor on bodies as I strode toward the side of the bridge, hoping that they would identify me as an outsider and let me pass instead of throwing me to the front lines to fight for me.

For the right price I just might help them...that is, for the right price.

And what exactly is this right price hmm?

'None of your damn business that's what the price is.'

"Halt! Identifizieren Sie sich!" a shrill voice shouted to my left as I had unknowingly wandered to close to the western trenches. It took a while for my chest armor's language suite to filter out what was said and into something I could understand. 'Halt! Identify yourself!'

Looking at the gremlin that spoke it was the one wearing the gold/ green leather armor, the crossbow in his hands clearly cocked back and pointed more than likely at my head from where I am standing. Clearing my throat and speaking in a low quiet voice so my suit can translate what I am saying and repeat it in a much louder tone, at first it was garbled until it came out pitch perfect. "Ich bin nur ein Reisender versucht, auf die andere Seite der Brücke zu erhalten.", 'I am just a traveler trying to get to the other side of that bridge.' as my response somewhat surprises the soldier pointing his crossbow at me as his ears twitched a bit before slightly lowering his guard as he spoke again.

"Sie versuchen, die Brücke zu überqueren, gut für wen haltet ihr eure Treue geloben, Außenseiter?" the soilder said again as my armor took a while to translate the now obvious german language, 'You are trying to cross the bridge, well who do you pledge your loyalty to outsider?'. His guard was still somewhat lowered but by now he can tell that I am clearly not much of a threat to him but for now he still kept his eyes on my hands while keeping his posture in a low crouch to quickly roll to either side in the event of an attack.

At first I wondered where my loyalties truly lied with, at first it was with myself and those are my friends, than I added the two ponies at Canterlot...than of course Discord even though I have yet to get revenge on him for dying my hair pink when I was asleep. Than of course it changed to Equestria and the Alliance since whatever is left of the Alliance is roughly myself, Hilo'Jaa and Katherine and as for Equestria...living there does have its perks.

"Meine Loyalität Soldat gehört zur Krone der Pony Prinzessinnen...und der letzte meiner Leute." I said as I knew what the translated words would say back inside my helmet, 'My loyalty soldier belongs to the crown of the pony princesses...and to the last of my people.' thinking to Mirias who is still sort of clinging to my head since I have no idea of the Changeling/Gremlin relationship is, but from what I know is that most species despise them for kidnapping their friends and family for food...hopefully it stops cause if they keep going eventually it will come back to bite them in the flank.

Apparently talking about the Equestrian Princesses grabs his attention more than the latter half of my response, he quickly lowers his crossbow and motions me to follow him, the other soldiers that are sitting in the trenches stare at me funny for a while before shrugging it off and returned to the wasteland before them, the trench floor is made of wood and the walls are lined with wooden struts to keep it from caving in, and knowing the area from the past, rain weather is a common thing so flooding is just as equally common but seeing how the floor is raised getting trench foot has been lowered, a good thing since losing a foot means your out for the count unless you get a peg-leg.

The soldier leading me hurries himself past a group of gremlins carrying boxes filled with bolts to the front line and in a matter of minutes we are in the rear of the trenches and I spot what I think is a bunch of carts and wagons being moved across the bridge and on the other side, ponies being hitched to them and bags of what I think is money being put inside of it. Well it looks like these guys are pony friendly since they are making deals with them.

'Yea for now, but if they are allies with the ponies and Celestia doesn't even know, I just might get that bone crushing cuddly hug I want out of her...that can wait until after I tell everyone that I am still alive, not before.'

Walking into a large tent at the very back of the friendly trench lines, the watch soldier and I walked in when the leaders of the army were discussing battle strategies and all five lifted and turned their heads to look at us before the head honcho of the group spoke up, his voice sounding eerily like Hackett's.

"Privat, warum bringen Sie ein Außenseiter in den Krieg Zimmer ... und wie kommt er riecht nach Tod und Verwesung?" his voice sounded rather hoarse and rugged than most people, my guess it was from rather countless sleepless nights and not eating and drinking enough, or that his voice was naturally this beat up, my translator finally spitting out what he said as I slightly leaned my head toward the tiny speaker system, 'Private, why did you bring an outsider into the war room...and how come he smells like death and decay?'.

"Nun ... I. .. äh ..." the private stuttered before I raised my hand to him so I can speak for myself. "Ich bin hier, weil ich über diese Brücke zu bekommen, nach Hause zu müssen, und ich wusste nicht, dass es war ein Kampf hier los ist.", 'I am here because I need to get across that bridge to get home, and I did not realize that there was a battle going on here.'.

He looked at me for a while, his left eye was white and a clean line ran down from him left eyebrow to the right nostril and his left ear was partially missing the end bit, his fur was a mixture of black and white, his hands, throat, lower jaw were white while everything else that I could see was a slightly light tone of black. His uniform was in a semi-perfect condition except for a barely noticeable rips and tears and the smudges of mud and dirt lightly coating the cuffs, his army cap has an arrow hole in the center from a more than lucky would-be assassin.

His heavy eyes stare at me for a while longer before signaling his guards waiting by the flaps of the tent and both of them clamp down on my shoulders as the one that brought my in smacked me in the back of the knees as I fell over before feeling the metal brace where the bolt head is placed at the back of my neck. He cleared his throat before walking over in front of me, his gravel voice growling out "Wie sind Sie sicher, dass diese Reisenden ist nicht nur einige Attentäter Verkleidung, ein Wolf im Schafspelz ist etwas, was ich lieber nicht wieder zu beschäftigen...so sagen Sie mir, wer Sie, bevor wir Sie werfen vor einem Erschießungskommando sind." each of his words brings his face closer to my helmet and as soon as the translation came in he backed up as the words came out, 'How are you sure this traveler is not just some assassin disguise, a wolf in sheeps clothing is something I rather not deal with again...so tell me who you are before we throw you in front of a firing squad.', and it was at that moment when he grabbed my helmet and yanked it off, the helmet dulled out the lights that came in so I could see clearly but as it came off I was temporarily blinded and the now angered words of the officers and guards filled the tent until I coughed loud enough for them to see that it came from me.

"If you gremlins are done talking as if someone cheated on a test, we have pressing matters at hand. Yes I was wearing your kind's armor but it came as a gift for services rendered, and yes my alliagence belongs to Princess Celestia and Luna, and god damn it yes I stole the last cookie from the cookie jar." I shouted as I realized that the last part was meant to be said to Pinkie Pie since I took the last triple chocolate fudge chip cookie from the jar and pinned the blame on Spike. The look of anger on her face was priceless, but the look of confusion and anger on the surrounding gremlins was a bit off putting.

It was only after they realized that I spoke English or in this case 'Equestrian' they had started to settle down, the three guards at my back lifted me up and apologized for the roughing up but I shrugged it off and told them it was necessary, the gremlin in charge on the other hand was now looking at me with a toothy grin that I knew all too well when dealing with the military, and since this is a warzone and they need every single available body they can get their paws on, and since I am technically a 'representative' for the Equestrian Crown he said that this would help build a bridge in terms of relationship for the two groups. For me it was more like a free soldier that comes with no strings attached and has a hankering for meat, cheese, wine and violence...sweet tasty cheese...

"So...Mr....Agent for the Pony Crown, as you have clearly seen outside past the trenches, these past few months has been in constant skirmishes and hit-and-run attacks but from yesterdays battle we can sense that this theater of war is coming to a close but we know another will open up somewhere else here in Germany...these Dominion rebels are trying to stall the unification of the city-states for whatever dying cause they believe in, but for each skirmish or raid the other states will see their system is more durable than ours and everything we have been working for the past 107 years will be for nothing." the General's short speech ends for a bit, his eyes going back to the map of the area and is looking for any kind of weakness he can exploit, "We need your help to quell this uprising, and in return for your assistance, we will..." he visibly shutters from what he is about to say next, "we will form up a treaty with Equestria forming an alliance, as soon as all of the other city-states form a new government system and elect a leader that can see past the different species not as potential threats but as allies." finally ending his speech, the army officers giving a short applause along with the private who brought me in, I simply stood there and smiled, remembering the last time I heard a speech was when Hackett sent my ass into the fire to come back with a trophy of a free pet varren.

"So where am I in all this grand plan of yours?" I said grinning widely as I took my crossbow and pulled the string back into its firing position, the general looked at me before going over the plan.

Old Cologne, Afternoon

"-And as soon as the enemy reaches the middle of the field, we will launch our canisters of explosive spheres at them, slowing them down long enough to set up into one of the launchers before shooting you in the midst of enemy lines. From what you have told us about this 'napalm' the enemy has been using it is best if we do not stay packed together but instead be evenly spread out to limit the casualties...if we can just get a small group of men into the trenches we can wreck havoc amongst their ranks to distract them long enough for the rest of our forces to breach their outer shell and to finally crack the nut and break their morale, forcing them to surrender."

"And what if they don't surrender?" I asked as I took a wedge of cheese from the food cart and nibbled down on it, savoring the rich flavor of dairy on my tongue before the battle commenced.

"If they don't...than we keep crushing their forces until they do surrender, sometimes not all rebellions are about fighting to the last man...cause if things don't bend with the flow they will break against it and be useless." an officer said as I finished my cheese wedge before grabbing a cinnamon roll and quickly devoured it as well, licking my fingers of the sticky goodness as I looked out the tent to see the artillery pieces being moved to the middle of the trenches for maximum firing range.

Looking back at the officers and at the food cart I know that this battle is going to be a while so I open up my satchel and stuffed it with a few non-sticky sugary snacks and one jelly filled donut, knowing that if this battle goes on longer than ten hours than that donut will be my life saver. The light pitter patter against the canvas tent signaled that the weather has turned from sunny to now rainy with a chance of bullshit, even in the future the weather can never stay consistent.

"Lets just hope that whoever is manning those launchers has good aim, cause I do not want to be thrown into the air to notice that I am being tossed in the wrong direction, or worse get thrown into the river...I refuse to be the first person in history to be tossed into a river at the beginning of a battle to end a rebellion..." I grumbled a bit, remembering something on the Citadel News, a video of Commander Shepard being shot at, in a sushi bar and the people shooting at him shot out the floor beneath him which was a fish tank and he fell through it.

To most people they were shocked to see such a thing happen, to me it was the funniest thing I have ever seen or ever appear on galactic news.

Before anyone could say anything else, the sound of horn blaring out through the trench lines warns us of an attack and in response, a black ball with a small fuse is launched toward the front trench, but instead of exploding upon impact it bounced over the front row, bounced a few more times in the dirt before exploding near the middle trenches, the blast sent shrapnel all around wounding the few gremlins that were exposed and were immediately sent to the medic tents. The rain already creating mud as it started to run down the trenches creating a rough gravel soup below the planks and above ground.

"Okay, get my launcher ready." I said as I grabbed what little gear that was in the tent that I had taken off before sliding my helmet back onto my head, Mirias stayed hidden in my hair and I felt the fluttering of her wings, obviously trying to keep them from going too stiff.

Briskly jogging to the armory and picking up the mace from the master-of-arms, adjusted the false fingers to the grip and tightened it so it doesn't let go in mid-flight or from any impact that my left skeletal arm might take during the battle. As soon as I go a grip on my tool of a new art style the horn goes off again but this time I saw the beginnings of a dust cloud beginning to form over the horizon and knew that the rebels were making their first charge toward the first trench line.

Clearing my throat I started to shout while running to the nearest launcher, "Any of you gremlins with a crossbow, open fire with everything you got!", the ones that heard that looked at me confusedly for a few seconds before I grabbed one of the officers megaphones before shouting at the top of my lungs, "FIRE EVERYTHING!".

On that cue, the sounds of rolling thunder followed by the chorus music of hundreds of bow strings being released followed by the groaning of metal as bombs get launched behind the hail of arrows, each one flying towards the mass of bodies as they hit their targets. The bombs blowing up within their ranks as body parts and corpse flew in the air along with the critically wounded being flung around like rag dolls before being pelted by another wave of arrows. I climbed into the catapult and looked at the crew, giving them a thumbs up before curling up into a ball and felt something drop in my stomach before I felt vertigo pull at me as I start sailing into the open air over the front trench toward the killzone.

"HEY YOU GUYS!" I shouted as I flew through the rain, the head of the mace sticking above my body as I slammed into a enemy soldier, my body bowling through him as my mace slammed down onto the helmet of the dude behind him and quickly rolling back I stood up and turned on my shield to block the blow of an axe, the blade shattering from the energy pulsing through the shield as I brought my mace down onto another, the thundering of paws on the now soggy dirt filled the air as both sides collided once again with each other, I was a bit farther past the stalemate center line fighting unrestrained while being surrounded on all sides by the enemy.

Using my body's rotation as a means to swing my mace I begin to turn left and right to swing in wide arcs, the blunt end smacking heads or hitting armor and shields as the enemy gave me a wide berth and with each returning swing the blade on my arm bites into anything that is exposed while the mace clips or just pushes back those trying to get in a quick jab. My eyes constantly looking around keeping track of who-was-who and also to avoid crippling strikes from the enemy but my eyes caught onto something flying in the sky in the air, I couldn't tell the colors of it but I knew it was a dragon by the body configuration of it.

The battle ensued for hours on end, my body count was starting to rise as I turned off my shield and replaced it with my blade, turning myself into a whirlwind of metal and energized death, the crows have returned as I felt Death's unholy and cold gaze beam down upon me, the soldiers that were behind me are now lying dead as my comrades took up the rear as we started to push inward, and it wasn't before long until we were stopped as they had formed an effective barrier of shields stopping our advance but it didn't stop me.

Turning my Omni-blade off I turned to the army and smiled at them before pointing at the enemy, "Men! These poor bastards think that a wall of metal will stop us from achieving victory, are they right!" their response was a resounding and reverberating "NO!", I only grinned as an incendiary bomb flew toward me, seemingly well aimed as it came closer and closer as those closest to me back away but it didn't stop me from chuckling before using my biotics to slow it down with a well timed Throw and as it stopped moving I used Throw one last time but I aimed it directly at the enemy line. The soldiers behind me were in awe that I stopped the bomb mere inches from my face, the enemy wasn't as lucky.

"Rückzug!", "Retreat!" I heard one of them shout before I threw back their bomb, the thing bursting on their shields as the napalm ate away at the flammable armor they are wearing as the ranks slowly broke apart, the enemy in the middle tried to hold on while the sides began to cave in, the army at my back began to move around them into a pincer maneuver as I saw friendly forces jump into the enemy trench lines, and it wasn't before long that the battle was soon going to be ours. My eyes returned to the skies, seeing where the dragon I spotted went but I searched for a while to find it circling overhead, its colors were obscured from the clouds it was flying through but from what I could tell it was more than likely blue with green...or purple and red...I couldn't tell as it kept flying in the storm clouds.

"FOR THE REPUBLIC!" I shouted for the last time before charging head long into the now crumbling shield wall as I used a Shockwave blowing them aside as I kept running, wanting to be the first to capture at least an enemy officer before they retreated into the woods, thunder started to rain down from the sky, the bolts of pure energy slamming into the ground, on both groups of soldiers and a few times almost close to me.

Running on rain drenched mud is hard as my footing kept sinking a good inch or two down into the earth but the rapidly crumbling rebels retreating into the forest was a victory as I spotted the back row, forming one last line of defense before they could retreat back into the woods. Halting my allies I watched as we once again formed a solid mass of hyped-up soldiers, their crossbows now pointing in an arch over their shields but the sight of something large moving behind them tipped me off that this was gonna be a gladiator style fight to the death.

This fucker was something of what my kind would call 'giant' cause this dude was at least seven feet tall and compared to the rest of his peers he was two feet taller, three feet if their is a midget in their army. His armor was a patchwork of leather and metal plates as I saw stiches keeping everything together and welding marks to keep the bent metal from falling apart when the moment of truth happens, his weapon of choice was something I did not expect to see on the battlefield. From all the axes I have seen from he humble hand axe to the grisly executioners axe, but this thing was taller and wider than this man, this thing was a monster cause the blade was at least a foot and a half wide and two feet long. This thing can easily cleave through a tree in one swing if the person holding it was tall enough let alone strong enough, the blade was a large crescent moon as the bottom tip could be used to hook limbs to yank it out from beneath them...a lethal weapon...

I stepped forward to be the one to fight this monster, he may be tall, hell might even be stronger than me but one thing I do know is that he doesn't have biotics or a hidden blaster in his right palm.

He made the first move by moving forward and bringing down his axe in a wide arc, that blade gleaming in the air as it came down in time for me to get out of its flight path, the blade sending mud everywhere as it impacts the ground with a heavy thud as I ran to him to try to end the fight early by giving him an uppercut, but my fist only serves to dislodge a canine and in retaliation he grabbed my right arm and head-butted me three times before tossing me next to his axe, grabbing it and lifting it above his head he brought it down near my head, not understanding how I dodged the blow I simply moved my glowing right hand a bit before shooting a psi-blast at right arm, melting an armor plating to his leather, the intensity of the heat only serving to gnaw at his arm.

Quickly scrabbling to get back onto my feet I had a split second to look up to get the spike behind the blade of the axe into my chestplate, digging into it a bit before yanking me toward him and placing both of his hands on my arms and crushing my body with his immense strength, the sounds of metal groaning and the creaking of my ribs. I started to squirm and wiggle in his bone crushing grip, my legs flailing beneath him as my right hand tried to angle itself to shoot him again but the pressure he was putting on my arms was enough to snap the left skeletal arm frame to render it useless and I felt the metal in my right arm starting to slowly buckle and bend.

Thinking irrationally I did what came naturally to any given situation when a heavy object is crushing something smaller and fragile, lift it up. Putting all of my barrier energy into my right hand I used Lift on the both of us, sending us slowly into the air and before long using Throw from below I launched the both of us into the sky easily thirteen stories off the ground, the look on his face was fear, fear that this was how he was going to die by becoming one with the landscape, but that was not how he was going to die. No for what I had planned for him was different, for as soon as he let go of me to try and grip anything to keep himself from falling to his death I grabbed his arm and pulled him closer to me as I sunk my Omni-blade into his chest, collapsing a lung before turning him over and forced him to be facing the ground as we started our free fall back to the muddy earth below us.

"Welcome to Ouch Town population you bro!" I said through the roaring air and in a few seconds we went splat all over the ground, his body making a large indent in the muddy ground beneath him while I on the other hand went slack onto his back, the impact knocking the wind out of me as I slowly rolled off of him and onto the mud, my eyes looking up at the sky in time to get a few raindrops to fall into the tiny holes to let the water get into my eyes and as soon as I felt the smallest hint of strength in my body I hauled myself up to see that the arena of bodies that was around us started to shrink I moved over to the hopefully dead rebel leader and yanked his head up to see that it has been caved in by a shaped rock, I grimaced a bit before letting it go and stepped on top of it and let out a weak victory yell and the rebels knew that they had lost the war.

Staggering back to our lines I received pats on the back and cheers before eventually getting lifted up by four gremlins and carried all the way back to the medic tents to get looked at, and about half way to our lines a shadow zoomed past us overhead, I only had to tilt my head to see something flying right at me using the sun as a shield of sorts to block anyone's vision to see what it is. The object in question let out an ear-splitting roar before spreading open its wings in time to slow itself down before landing on top of all four soldiers holding me up and myself.

I only had a few seconds to see that it was the dragon that was flying overhead earlier, but something about the dragon's body structure threw me off. First off that it was twice my size, twelve feet tall and was covered head to toe in glistening beige and red scales and upon seeing its body structure it was female...a pissed off female dragon. This dragoness has supple, long limbs and a build that is toned and athletic, with powerful underlying muscles. She looks strong and imposing, but feminine which is something that very few ladies can ever acquire. This dragoness was staring at me with her prideful, fierce, slit pupils burning yellow irises. In my current condition I couldn't even keep fighting, my ribcage hurts like hell from the rough squeezing and my right arm is nearly on its way to being useless while the skeletal frame in my left arm is sheered in half.

She only looked at me for a few seconds before giving out a low rumbling growl, her eyes never leaving mine as I staggered back to my feet, getting knocked down to many times and the exhaustion of five hours of constant fighting puts a toll on ones energy reserves, the others that got knocked down got up as well before we heard the dragoness roar again before yelling at me.

"You killed my father!" was all I heard before getting bowled over and yanked off the ground before being launched into the air, being held by her talons and I was staring at her chest before looking up to see her eyes looking at me before facing forward and continued to fly into the storm clouds, the electrical energy in the air made all of my hair, the fur on my armor and even the hair on my inner voice's head to stand up.

That flight took us over the sea separating Germany from the northern countries, and I knew from this height that the fall would be fatal, no matter what I do to slow myself down, and now that the moon was up the tide would have swept my body out to the ocean and I would never be seen again. I was in all terms of the words 'royally screwed'.

I didn't even need to guess that my trip back home was postponed...

Author's Note

Next Chapter Spoiler, Gonna be a long chapter...long long long chapter.

Chapter 24: A Past That Never Sleeps

In the history of humanity, we have always wondered that out there in the universe if there was other intelligent life out there, we had wondered if we are alone out here but we weren't. Humanity always wondered about so many things, mostly about things about life, the future, and ourselves. Me? I always wondered how the hell do I let myself get into situations where I screw myself over on purpose, or how I always lash out at everything but I know the answer to both.

I just never cared about anything or anyone after what happened on Luna Colony.

My eyes were casted downward toward the sea beneath the three of us, Mirias simply clinging to my head since she could do absolutely nothing in this situation but watch, the dragoness on the other hand kept a tight and firm grip on my arms and the occasional yank to cause pain and discomfort while finding it amusing to give off a low chuckle. Looking up I see my eye candy for the flight, nice tits, but my arms were incapacitated at the moment, my goal so close and yet so far away as a man can take only so much teasing before they snap but me, I just want to know why a reptile would even need such a thing. Yet another mystery I would have to write in my journal about the different species of New Earth.

The flight towards wherever we are going has been dragging on throughout the day and has now entered the beginning of the night as I looked to the west as I saw the moon began its ascension towards the middle of the sky, the moonlight gleaming off her now dull scales but still brought out an outline of her figure for me to see even in my tired and crippled condition.

Few times I caught her eyes looking down at me and each time our eyes connected she would squeeze my arms tighter or a few times, let me go only to catch me and laugh at it off before resuming her flight back up to cloud level and toward what I can only guess is her lair. I can tell that she is pissed off at me, and like most women that I have met, they never tell me why or even give me a clue as to what I did was wrong, but this time I knew for sure why she was angry with me.

'It's not like that bastard had it coming...he did try to eat me, burn a town down to the ground and kill everyone in it...sure I may have gone a bit overboard and made him explode from the inside out and dragged his skull roughly half way across the world and put it on display at a few towns, but come on there is no way in hell that I was gonna let myself get eaten!'

You know it could be worse...she could have dropped us in the middle of the ocean and left us to drown to never be found again.

'That is true...I just hope I can get us out of this in one piece...I very much like to keep my limbs attached to me as much as possible and in the best condition I can get them to be in.'

I just want to try one of those apple pies you have been thinking about the past few days now.

'If we can get out of this in one piece, and you don't annoy me to much...I'll get you a slice.'

My little chat with myself came to an end when I felt myself free falling for the fifth time this day and my eyes finally caught onto something that signified my salvation from being dragon food, the largest fucking mountain to ever be randomly placed in England, rivaling Mount Kilimanjaro except that it isn't a volcano and that a large cave was carved out facing the east, and the fact that it rises slightly above the clouds so that's a plus in awesome hideouts.

It took only a few minutes for us to reach the dragon's den and before long she flew in with her wings at full length before tilting back to allow the wind to rapidly slow her down with the momentum swinging us below her as I felt her crushing grip let go to fling us across the den and into a pile of gold coins and gems.

As my body collided with the now obvious hoard I turned to face my captor to see that at first she was still angry at me before it broke down to a frown than before long into a glare, her tail was thrashing behind her, flicking side to side the same way a cat does when it has its prey trapped in a corner and is about to play with it. I didn't have the strength to stand up so instead I opted to get to one knee and with my semi-good arm I brought it to rest on my thigh, trying to give myself the impression that I still had some fight left in me but we both know that I wasn't going anywhere.

The dragoness simply stared at me before leaving me alone, my body way to weak to fight her let alone try to make an escape attempt from her lair and down from what a I saw, a steep ass mountain. I stayed in that kneeling position for the greater part of five minutes before shutting my body off and fell over in a heap and shut my eyes just to see what would happen next, my body was too tired to keep working on fumes and damages and my mind was starting to fray and act up again so catching a short and quick nap was in order.

My nap only lasted a few minutes until I felt something sharp jabbing my gut, awakening me from my slumber to see a fish skewered on a stick suddenly thrust into my face and I only had to look up at her to see that this was for me and that the tuna fish that she easily held with both hands since the damn fish was easily as big as she was, the fish on a stick however was roughly six inches long and two inches wide...a small fry compared to the jumbo sized beast of a fish she caught.

I looked at the fish on a stick than to her before reaching out slowly to grab it and when my fingers wrapped around the stick her tail gave it some slack before uncurling around it and in that moment I felt her scales and like any other scales I had felt which was only from the time I pat Spike on the head for taking the blame of taking the last cookie from the cookie jar...which I had to bribe him with a sapphire to take the blame, were ungodly smooth as eggs but this chick's scales...really are fucking smooth as eggs and when she knew that I felt her scales that tail of hers slashed at my hand and grazed the true metal gauntlet beneath the leather and fur covered one above it but only glanced at it before going back to her part of the lair to enjoy her probable four course meal.

I unlike most people who would try to gut it if they were on a deserted island instead of chowing down on it immediately which would send her a tip that I am hiding something but in my moment of hunger since living off dried mushrooms and bread and other snacks I was able to get my hands on sorta addled my mind but damn it I was hungry for any kind of meat so with as much grace as a drunken sailor I removed my right glove with my teeth, spat it out then proceeded to cook the fish till it was a nice crispy fish stick.

And it was delicious.

Next Day

My sleep was moderately good considering that I am still weak as a kitten and that my ribs are still hurting me but all things aside I am just happy to be alive and in one piece, except that my scout armor is no longer on me and that my left arm has been crudely fixed by the dragoness by fusing the snapped metal struts together, and also that my fish on a stick is laying on the ground next to a raggedy bucket and an equally raggedy wash cloth.

'I guess she wants me to start cleaning her shit...at least she had the decency to give me something to clean it with and a breakfast as well.'

Quickly devouring my meager fish meal I placed the bucket in the crook of my left hand and the rag in my right, my footsteps slightly heavy from my metallic boots which thankfully were still on along with my N7 armor, glad to know that she didn't try to forcefully remove it from me in the middle of the night to add to her hoard. Starting my cleaning by going to the entrance of the cave and working my way inward, the very first thing I came upon was the most practical of dragon lairs from what I can guess was skeletons of varying creatures she caught, and all of them seem to be I guess poses of sorts to scare of trespassers or interlopers, and from how dirty and sun bleached they are it more than likely means that these have been in place for a long time.

Giving them a light dusting to give the appearance that these are somewhat recent look to it, and once that was done I made my way inside humming a light tune to help pass the time as I saw random bits of treasure she has acquired over the years, strange looking pony armor, pony-related statues, gryphon-related things, different kind of gems that have fused together to form strange and sparkly combinations, even something that I thought that would never fit in the front entrance of the cave.

"How the fuck did she manage to get the statue of liberty's head in here!" I shouted as I just stood there jaw open, thumb up the ass look on my face, sitting right there, with torches surrounding the crown, in all of its green rusted glory, Lady Liberty's head. How it managed to get back to Earth I don't know, how she even managed to carry or drag that heavy fucking thing all the way up here also don't know, how she even managed to squeeze that large ass head inside is a mystery that I will never try to solve.

Looking at the giant green head filled me with joy to see something of humanity that survived the ages to still be in mostly one piece and to see it right in front of me, so I gave the head a salute, let only one manly tear loose, and returned to my cleaning, not even going to bother disturbing the maiden of freedom's head peaceful slumber.

Resuming my cleaning once I left the head alone I came to the rest of her grand hoard, statues of various types, random piles of gold coins scattered about that I only dusted the exterior, even more piles of gems and gold, and something that I had truly expected to see but in a much larger and much more rounder shape, a throne, a dusty...dirty...throne.

"If my drill instructor can see the state of this place, his head would explode I shit you not." I said while dragging my finger across the surface of the plus-human sized throne and yanked off half an inch of solid dust still clinging to my finger. I only had to shudder once to realize that this was going to take more time than anything else I had ever cleaned, even my bathroom took up less time than this thing.

3 Hours Later

Sitting down on the now spotlessly cleaned throne, I let out a sigh of relief as I just cut loose on the throne and relaxed till I felt like jelly, not even caring for the fact that a shadow has started to form above me and before long a heavy sack falls in my lap and as my eyes open to see what the hell just hit me I fall over as the chair goes backwards making me roll off with the sack, the opening of it spilling out gems and coins onto the floor.

I only had to take a look at her than the loot to know that she took it from someone, somepony or whoever the hell she got it from, and that she wants me to take it back to the rest of her swag pile for me to sort and count. I was wondering for a while as to why she needed so much gold and gems that I asked a question that everyone should have known since dragons existed.

"Why do you collect all of these blasted gems and gold? What the hell are going to do with all of them? Buy something? Trade it in for something better? Just collect it to stare at it all day in amazement of your wealth?"

She only smirked as she grabbed what I presumed to be a normal sized diamond, showed it to me for a few seconds as my eyes glazed over at its beautiful sparkly surface only to have it turn to shock as she eats the whole thing in a matter of seconds.

'Well there goes about six thousand credits down the toilet.'

After she ate it she gave me a glance with a deep smirk written on her face as she saw my expression of shock that she just ate a gemstone that has the highest hardness on the gem scale, and that she just ate it as if it was rock candy. The gem itself could have been crafted into four power pylon couplings for my N7 armor, and she just eats it.

'I guess that old Earth saying is true...I do need to construct more pylons....my current ones are gonna bite the bullet at this rate.'

Returning to my cleaning of her vast treasure reserves she showed me my next cleaning project, and in all accounts I wish she hadn't. She showed me the room where she keeps all of her gold in its many forms, and it was a site that would make the richest people in the galaxy green with envy, there was hills, valleys, platues of gold everywhere, the room itself was massive enough to fit four Kodiaks side-by-side and on top of one another...and if I was a thief this would have been my biggest score ever.

"Start sorting." she said before walking off, her tail smacking me in the back making me stumble into the room. I only had to turn around to see her shutting the door in time for what she had to say to sink in.

"Wait what?"

Following Week

Thump! The sound of something dropping onto my chest as I was once again rudely awakened by the dragoness holding me captive, and this week of being held on this mountain has done me little good, being fed was one of the good things, having my ribcage actually fixed by strange dragon magic is another. The bad things though...being forced into an indentured services, cleaning each and every piece of swag she has, and of course, counting all of her bits and gems and sort the two apart and categorize her gems...oh god that was hellish, but what she is asking me now, the questioning.

"Why?" the dragoness said, the first question she has ever asked me as I sighed a bit before getting up and walked over to the cleaning closet to grab my supplies to start on my forced cleaning of the treasure piles.

Sighing a bit and not even looking at her I said "Because it was him...or the town with everyone in it..." as I grabbed the wash cloth from the bucket and started to dust her swag, the most expensive thing that I think that is in her hoard is the solid gold statue of a mini dragon with its wings fully splayed out, something that I totally want on my coffee table in the living room.

Her eyes looked at me for a while before looking at the wall to my left, my eyes followed hers to see a portrait hanging there by a single thick heavy-duty nail, my eyes looked at it a while before looking back at her, connecting the dots rather quickly it was her family portrait and in it was seven dragons, her parents, and herself with four other siblings. I did not know if her other family members were alive but from how hard she was staring at me I can safely guess not that many are still roaming this earthly plain of existence. Each of the dragons in the portrait appear to be young, my guess was that this is an old piece cause the little dragons look just about Spike's size and age...hatchlings or just really small dragons, either way I can hazard a guess that the dragon holding me here is roughly over 100 years old...or less I didn't really see any pictures on dragon heights as they age in a book while in Canterlot.

While still looking at the portrait studying the different dragons in the framework before my weight catches up with me and pulls me down to the granite floor in a heap, the dragoness snickers at my predicament but still carrying the same scowl look on her face, and it wasn't before long she started playing the game of twenty questions with me.

"Did you at least give him a proper burial rite before you took his skull as a trophy?"

"Ma'am...I buried what I could beneath the sands before glassing the surface of it...the breeze covered the mock tomb with fresh sand after I left it alone." technically not a lie but with how badly I made his body explode and how far it scattered, I managed to bring at least more than 75% of his body back to be buried...for a fact I do know that his tail is placed in the Laughing Coconut bar as a trophy for all to see since I got my last alcoholic drink from that place...besides my whisky bottle that is thankfully still inside of my satchel.

She looked at the ground for a minute or two before asking me again, her scowl still present but it has lessened...only a little. I looked at my armor resting in a pile near her hoard, she took my scouting gear as 'her' treasure while she left me in my N7 armor, saying that she rather have me wear some sort of protection when she wanted to beat my ass for killing her father, I know that if I recovered enough I could kill her, but something was telling me not to, that she is not really my enemy, more like someone that has a common goal to something that we both will need...that or my conscious is putting me in the passenger seat every now and than without me knowing.

"Did he tell you why he attacked that little village at all during the fighting?" she said as I heard a slight ting of hope her voice but it quickly died down when she finished, probably knowing the answer already.

"No, I was busy sleeping outside when I heard a roar followed by flames, and when I brought him to the ground he didn't say anything but roar in my face." all true, that dragon could have said something as to why he was doing this...that and take a bloody breath mint since his breath was strong enough to gag a maggot.

'Now that I think about it...I probably smell like feet wrapped in leathery burnt bacon...'

She looked back at the ground before moving to a large nest made of leaves, grass, bought or stolen blankets and quilts and laid down on top of it while still keeping a watchful eye on me.

"Do you know why I brought you here?"

I only had to look at her before recalling the height of the mountain and how high we are away from the ground, thinking on the odds of me actually leaping off the mountain, using biotics to slow my fall and landing on my legs to lessen the impact it would do to my body and escaping the pissed off dragon was astronomically slim to none.

"I can think of a few reasons...but if this is about me killing your father...than that is one...another would be adding a one-of-a-kind species to your to growing hoard...you needed someone to talk to since you look lonely...your hungry...or you are just doing this for sick kicks to see how long it would take me to get off this mountain in one piece...that or any combination of what I just said." I coughed out the last part, my ribcage was now starting to get on my nerves and staring up at the ceiling wasn't helping it either, nor was the dragoness simply watching my every move as we both sat in silence.

It was only after a few minutes that the silence ended when she muttered something before speaking up, a slight sniffle in her words but a sniffle nonetheless that I heard.

She only had to look me in the eyes, which is quite hard in my current position, but she managed it anyways and I saw a stray tear running down her face, the tear drop sizzling away from the heat her body is giving off. The look of pain held for so long and for no one to tell...I know feeling, but the feeling of somebody's hands wrapped around their throat...not so much. I didn't know what was going on until I felt my feet point downwards and that my breathing was abruptly halted along with a feeling of a pair of scaly hands clenched tightly around my neck, the usual thing that happens when I anger someone that is smart enough to know it was me.

"When I first heard that my father has been killed...I was so angry...I just wanted to find his murderer and bring the same pain they brought to him.", very much like every other person that tried to come after me but each one failed and ended up six feet under with a bullet to the head, "..but thinking back to when my father left us...leaving mother and my siblings to fend for ourselves...I was sort of happy.", sort of like how I felt after I joined Alaria's gang and found a family with them, "..but the pain of never telling him that I was sorry for not telling him sooner that I forgave him...for knowing that he was doing it to make sure that we had enough to eat...and to grow....but he left us alone without even saying goodbye or stopping by to check up on us...", the one thing my father never told me before I put a bullet in his head, not once has he told me why he betrayed everyone to keep his own skin for how much blood must be spilt just to keep yourself alive for your own sake. It was only after she stopped talking that she finally broke down and started to cry in earnest on my shoulder as she set me down from her neck crushing grasp.

As soon as she released her death grip on my neck I feel back onto the stone floor and started coughing up a storm from almost having my throat crushed by an emotional wreck of a dragon. My first plan of action was to wait for her to fall asleep or pass out, second was to get the fuck off this mountain with all of my gear, some of her gold, and also that small dragon statue cause that shit is coming with me regardless of the consequences and lastly, get home and just finish of Kara's bottle of booze and go to sleep, than go to visit my grave and leave an ominous sign.

I was hoping that she would pull herself together and stop the waterworks but sadly she didn't, instead she took to using me as a security blanket and wrapped herself around me like a cobra would do to its meal, and by wrapped I mean she completely covered me with her tail, arms, legs, wings and all, and I now know what it is like to be a burrito. Meaty on the inside and a leathery exterior that can be easily removed if you have the time to pick it apart.

At the six hour mark into the late afternoon/ early night I finally heard the sound of her snoring directly on top of me, snoring that is followed by small traces of smoke and embers flying out of her nostrils, the smoke I can deal with since I have grown used to choking smell of fire but the embers nearly set my already growing beard on fire.

During the untangling process on accident my head bumped into her bust and I swear they felt smooth as eggs and was worth the cheek grazing but I had important matters at hand, I had to get out of here and off this mountain and return home. Moving quietly through the cave I found the small golden statue and took it off its post before moving back to my furred armor and donned it for the second time, still getting used to the useless fixed metal arm and that this armor doesn't exactly breath well so sweating like a marathon runner during the hottest day in summer was a huge problem. Smelling like a pig I can handle, I did it several times before, but smelling like feet wrapped in leathery burnt bacon is something else entirely.

Taking everything that I would need for the journey north and up another mountain I grabbed a piece of tuna that the lass left behind, oddly enough the damn thing hadn't start to rot or get the attraction of flies. Taking a bite out of the fish and with a small grin I started to creep out of the cave and over to the edge of the mountain. Looking over I saw a few clouds drifting below and beneath them was the Everfree Forest, laughing at my current predicament, but not for much longer.

Tapping my Omni-tool I searched for something to fit the bill for the action I am about to partake in and as I found it I gave it a five second delay before sliding over the edge, feet first and sitting on my ass to prevent myself going end over end.

That first ten seconds going down the mountainside was amazing for me, the wind going into my helmet and slightly pulling it upward, the feel of freedom to be finally free from that dragon, and also the feeling that I got away with a pretty sweet gold statue. But after those ten seconds were up I finally realized that I had nothing to slow myself down with, even with an Omni-blade it would barely slow me down to not eat shit upon impact with the ground.

What I didn't know was that at five minutes sliding down the mountain I finally gave up with holding my arms up and just let it scrap along the rocks and pebbles as the sliding kept going on and on until I finally felt like I got past the halfway point on the mountain. Looking back I see exactly how fucking big this thing was, it was huge, and by the time I looked back down I realized that I was wrong about being half way down, I was actually reaching the tree line by the time my head turned to look down.

And also in time for me to slam feet first into a large pile of mud that has gathered at the base during the week I spent in that bloody cave. Upon impact with the mud it exploded everywhere and nothing was spared from the fallout from it, mud covered bushes, trees, a squirrel that was not so lucky at the time, and even a passing bird was not spared from the wet dirt barrage, myself on the other hand look like I just crawled out of a mud bath and not once bothered to clean myself off.

What I didn't know was that among the mud splattered zone that I created, amongst the dripping mud and scurrying of fleeing animals, a single pony was standing there, wondering what exactly created that mudsplosion as the pony in question slowly crept closer until finally I popped out of it waving my arms about flinging mud everywhere again as the mud finally shot out of the exposed parts of my helmet as bubbles formed up before popping alongside a guttural roar. The pony, sadly faint of heart and incredibly timid let out a small 'meep' before turning tail and galloping off into the forest while I stumbled about trying to get my bearings and also to stop the dizziness that made my eyes bounce around in my skull.

Stumbling forward and creating an even larger mess I finally came upon a tree, circling around to the other side I started to clean myself off my wiping my arms and legs on the bark before scrapping off whatever was left on me, along with taking off my helmet, banging it against the tree to dislodge any mud or twigs or whatever the hell might have gotten stuck to it during the residual fallout but once I was 'moderately' cleaned up I checked to see if anything was damaged, bent, or mud covered and gave an affirmative nod as nothing was too messed up or dirty, only a small speck of goop landed on my new table trophy.

You know she is going to find you for stealing that statue of hers, and more than likely beat your head in for doing it.

'Let her try, she knows that I have earned this statue for putting up with her bullshit and her forced hugging. Their are only a few people who can successfully force me into a cuddle, and those people are....ehh forget it.'

Oh come now, you can tell me who it is...its that Rarity isn't it?

'No...definitely not her, Spike would be pissed and I am not having an angry young dragon on my case, I was thinking somewhat of Kara, that girl is like a thick blanket whenever she latches onto me when I go to bed first...something about her peoples culture I guess.'

Oh yeah....now I remember....something about the females acting like the thick heavy blanket when their mate or Alpha is asleep...yeah...but she should know that your not hers or her Alpha right?

'Well I did give her an option of going back to her clan of dogs or come with me for a better life a year and a half ago, I can safely guess though that being the runt of the pack must have given her not much of a choice to decide on what to do. But than again she has been fairly happy since she moved in with me, sure she can cook meat pretty damn well, makes excellent bacon and jerky...and alright I admit it, she gives some damn good cuddles.'

Knew it.

'What? It's not my fault that I am always the first one to go to sleep! I get tired working my ass off doing paperwork and whatever the hell that needs to be done, being in an office is boring as fuck and not once is it ever fun, and the only time it was fun was when I was training those guards up at Canterlot and going down that mountain in a wheelchair and getting a lift back up...and the fact that she is so damn soft, warm and fluffy. Seriously is everything in this future of Earth a walking teddy bear? Like seriously, everything is softer here besides the usual hard ass objects...like hooves.'

As I walked through the somewhat haunted woods I came onto what I think was a cottage of sorts, way the fuck away from the tops of roofs of a nearby town which I had to safely guess was Ponyville, but taking a look at the cottage and the scampering of wild critters into and out of, I can assume that this was Fluttershy's abode...if I can call it that, the damn thing was for some reason floating in the air and rotating.

"Nope. Not even going to question this world anymore." I turned around from the rotating cabin and went straight to the town, and after a short discussion with myself I changed the coloring of my eyes to an oaky brown color as to not alert anypony that it was me, I only had to really hope that I don't run into Pinkie...that girl will kill my cover faster than saying something ungodly stupid at a rich person's party.

Before I had a chance to even lay a foot on the bridge to town, Pinkie somehow with whatever cosmic-bending powers she has at her disposal, appeared in front of me and started to speak at a rate that would make even the most fastest of rappers on Earth, and by god does this girl talk. And just as quickly as she came she jumped into the air and like a fart in the wind disappeared from view leaving a temporary afterimage, how that mare is able to leave one the world will never know...unless I can capture her and use whatever scientific tools I can get my hands on.

As I walked toward the town square I started to take notice that every single pony that I walked by was looking right at me before turning their heads to whisper to the pony next to them, more than likely whispering about me but I ignore them and walked to the stands to see if anything has changed while I was gone or to see if anything new has been added. Sad to say that nothing has changed besides the clock tower being refitted with a better looking clock, all the carts and stands are fully stocked and the ponies seemed to be more lively and happy...I guess they didn't like my presence after all.

Walking over to the apple stand I saw that their was Applebloom tending to the merchandise along with a filly that I have never seen before, and my stay here was always included to be followed by the little ponies as they asked me questions, but this filly looked rather bored or just unamused at the prospect of tending a fruit stand. This filly looked almost like Scootaloo except for the different mane and eye color and also she is missing wings, and is also acting as chipper as her. As the filly looked up to see who was approaching I tilted my head down to look at her and when our eyes met, we just stared at each other for a good five minutes until finally we both coughed and looked away from each other and before long Applebloom came over and started to ask me what I wanted.

"10 apples, any color." I said with a curt tone that would hopefully kill any chances of her finding out who I am. It only made her more inquisitive by her standing on the stand and nearly falling over the front before remembering my order and bringing up 10 assorted apples, a mixture of red, green and yellow. Before Applebloom can even ask me about the price of the apples I dropped off twenty bits, placed the apples into my satchel and walked off without giving her a chance to give back any change.

Once I had left the market I went to check on a few of my friends, to see if they have moved on or at least attempted to, and the first I went to was close enough to see was Rarity's boutique, and I thought that I would never enter that place again after being told to hold still for two hours for measurements. When I opened the front door the little bell on top let off a near quiet jingle which was odd since it is usually loud enough to wake up the cat she has and make it run out the door whenever I enter, but this time there was nothing. Looking around the interior of the shop I was met with silence but as I moved deeper into the store I heard the sounds of soft chatter and giggles and against my own better judgment I kept going until I was at the door, pressing up close to it as I could to hear what was on the other side but still not being able to pick out the voices besides Rarity's.

What I did not know was that the door I was leaning against was not locked and that it was left slightly open, and once I placed some pressure on it with my body leaning against it I slowly pushed it open, leaving me standing there to see Rarity in a very expensive dress that she made or bought somewhere, and sitting across from her tea table, was Applejack in similarly expensive dress but instead of wearing her cowpony hat that she is known for, she is instead wearing a bonnet, and in her hooves, a tea cup.

We just simply stared at each other for what felt like hours and when I think I finally had enough of the creepiness I slowly backed away while pulling on the doorknob and pulled it with me till the door was closed, and I promptly turned around slowly and walked out wondering what I just saw.

Taking a stroll back through the market and over to my home I found that the mailbox was loaded with fresh mail and upon opening it I found that it had only three letters in it, one from the town mail mare Ditzy, an unmarked letter and lastly one from Canterlot Royal Guards, probably for the funeral that will take place in a few days. Leaving the last two letters in the mailbox I place the one from Ditzy in my satchel and scampered off to the edge of town, giving it a quick inspection and finding it still mostly the same I pry open the letter and started to read the contents.

"Hello Sir or Madam...blah blah blah ...you are invited to the wedding between Ditzy Doo and Time Turner....event will take place in Ponyville City Hall...blah blah blah...one month from April 1st.....hope to see you there." I quickly skimmed through the letter while heading to the Everfree forest and once I had finished reading it I looked up and looked back at the letter before blinking in surprise.

'Ditzy is single?'

Apparently so.

'Huh...well when this is over I guess we can go and give her our blessings...'

Is this another reminder that you can't have a normal life anymore because having only two humans alive means that we are hereby extinct?

'No, humanity was already extinct when the first caveman figured out that the pointy end of the stick can be used to kill animals and people. I am actually happy that she finally found someone to be happy with, that's all.'

Are you sure that is just it? I know that whenever you looked at a family playing with their children or that you see a child with their family in general makes you regret being alive sometimes. You know you can talk to me or someone to try and get rid of these feelings.

'Your not my therapist, get off my ass.'

You just gotta learn to let things go man, that's all you gotta do sometimes, just let things go.

'I will let it go when I need to let it go. Now drop it.'

During my talk with my other half I somehow bumbled my way back to the canyon that had that rickety old as fuck wooden bridge, and time has not been too kind to it, the rope looked like it has been frayed but it is still barely held together, the wooden planks are broken in several places and there are some gaps and also that there is at least two skeletons of what I believe to be diamond dogs and one small manticore skeleton all the way on the other side.

How the manticore made it over without collapsing the bridge is beyond me, how it managed to even get passed the two dogs makes me worry that that species is just one stones throw away from being full on feral minded retards with nothing but meat and gems on the mind.

Minding the first corpse on the bridge I slowly and gingerly made my way across, keeping my footing even as I stepped on the brittle planks and praying to god that I don't step through one. About half way across I stepped on a plank that had the audacity to split in half on me, sending my left foot right through it as I went face first into two crumpled chipped boards before the bridge finally snaps and careens itself to the other side followed by the sound of ropes groaning and snapping from the weight overload.

Snapping my head up I began to hobble climb my way up with just one arm, using my other has an anchor to securely hold a plank in place and just before I got to the top, the bridge finally gives and I had to leap and stab the anchor into the cliff side to keep myself alive and not from falling to my death, or be barely alive and get eaten by something large or starve...or any of those three options sounded terrible in my head.

Huffing and puffing and also swearing at every single thing that I can set my eyes on, I swore at the sky, the tree, the random acorn on the floor, and lastly at the bridge that just now exploded into wooden shrapnel and rope pieces as it hit the very bottom of the chasm. Looking back at the chasm below I realized that falling to that wouldn't have killed me, just leave my legs a bit banged up but still manageable, but my destination was the old castle and see if I could pass off as a lone dog to be taken in by the ones there, and hopefully, none of them still know my smell or the way I sound.

During my lonesome walk toward the castle I started to smell the stale stank of decay and rot, the scent was thick in the air and the closer I got to the castle the stronger the smell became, and as I got to the front gate I saw what it was. Bodies.

Bodies as far as my enhanced eyes can see. The bodies of the dead dogs were all over the place, they were hanging on the castle gates, on and over tables, mounted on their own pikes, half buried in the mud and covered in ivy, their skeletons exposed along with internal organs and whatever the hell is inside our meaty bodies. Just taking a look at them strewn about has already ruined my lunch of two stale mushrooms and tuna fish chunk, but what really caught my eye was the lack of bodies of the attacking force...or as I can tell if they were even the same species cause I just spotted two manticore bodies dead next to each other, their fur burnt off from what I can guess was oil dropped on from above before getting torched.

Walking into the courtyard I can clearly see that this was of a one-sided battle that the dogs clearly lost, and since Fluttershy told me that when manticores get hungry, they get real mean and they don't stop chasing their prey till its rather in their jaws dead, or in their jaws dying. Looks like these puppies pissed off the beasts of the forest big time to have all of them completely wiped out and in such a gory fashion. I know that my hands are not completely clean of matters such as this but I only wipe out bands of thugs, bandits, pirates and raiders but to go after mothers, sons and daughters, even the elderly is just something that I just don't condone.

As I stepped over the threshold of the front double doors leading into the lobby of the palace I felt an eerie presence and it sent the same spine tingling sensation as the first time I went through those doors but this time it was a lot more cold and a lot more painful...probably had something to do with the smell of death that is now in both inside and outside of the castle.

Stepping gingerly over the rotting bodies of both diamond dogs and what little of the manticores that got slain, my boots squelching in the river of blood that seems to be flowing freely through the corridors, the walls are covered in blood splatters and claw marks, whatever decorative bits and bobs that were on display are no long recognizable and were completely destroyed. Looking at all of the bodies of the dog I can still see the looks of horror and pain written on their faces or whats left of them along with the pure terror in their eyes, their faces mauled and mutilated as I looked at face after face until finally I couldn't stomach it anymore and went to a corner and puked out whatever I had in my stomach contents all over the floor before a second round came along and followed after the first, spitting whatever was left in my mouth I wiped the stuff on my left shoulder before moving on to the basement to see if anything has survived, and hoping if something survived this hellish feral assault was a long shot.

Turning on my blade and keeping it ready I found the same stairs that I once took down to the basement, and followed the growing river of blood down and down until I hit the end of the line and found that even death doesn't spare the young and helpless. I saw, fighting in the middle of the slave pens, four manticores, fighting over a small body, each one latched onto the chest and pelvis, the head bobbing back and forth before the beasts finally ripped the corpse apart and swiped at each other and retreated to their own corners of the chamber, eating their slain morsel with delight.

A single tear slid down my face as I saw the one manticore that held the head and right arm, its segment being gnawed on and as it turned its meal about I saw the poor face of the victim, a young face, fresh of any aging...barely over three years old by the looks, and still being held in its tiny paw, was a poorly stitched blanket with the words 'papa' stitched into it.

I left that chamber with a new coat of red on the walls and ceiling and what remains I could carry back to the courtyard and laid it down in a small clearing before going back down to remove whatever bodies were left of the dogs and carried them back up as well.

By the time the moon was already cresting over the center spire of the dead castle I had all the bodies that I could bury under the dirt and with crude wooden tombstones signaling where I had given their final rest and hoped it would be enough to give them their last amount of peace.

"When does this end...."

You killed before Roran, but that was just business....but not this or the time here...this is different...and it ends when all of our enemies are dead...

Walking back down the halls, my blade now put away to be simply replaced by my Talon as I moved through the halls and left behind the soft squelching noises of my boots on blood stained carpets and the echoes of the my revolver going off followed by a thud of a dead manticore. It was only after the sixth kill that I realized that I was not even making a sound and came to the fact that I was changing to something that I never wanted to become, a pacifist and from the sights of blood and death that I was creating left and right I almost dropped my gun in disgust but I forced my grip on it to keep it in place before using the barrel to lift up my helmet and placed the still burning hot barrel on my neck to force myself to grit my teeth in pain and to force back the inklings of change away to the dark corners of my mind.

"This land is getting to me...trying to make me weak to the truth of the world....I...I won't let that happen...I just won't let that happen." I said through grinding teeth as I placed my gun back in its holster and walked back to the place where my fate as a pony was decided by my captors, the throne room....the blood crusted...drenched....throne room.

My slow shuffling walk back to that room was met with the smallest amount of resistance by the heavy doors but with enough strength the twins finally give and I stumbled back into the room, the room that has only two corpses resting within its thick walls.

The corpse of the alpha male manticore, and the corpse of the alpha male diamond dog. The dead manticore's body is covered in deep gashes, lacerations, severed claws and a wing, and lastly an eye barely hanging on by a tendon. The dead dog's body on the other hand has claw marks raking up and down his body, his stomach eaten out by a lucky bite as his armor was cleaved apart by the claws of the beast before him, his throat slashed as a drip dried blooded dagger lie by his paws, his body resting on the throne, his last act alive before death claimed him.

Stepping over to the dead alpha dog I gave him a quick scan to see if he set himself up as his last trap against either the manticores or a rival clan or just the treasure hunter that was able to stomach the decay of everything in this fucked up place, and with a grunt of appreciation he wasn't rigged to his chair, only held their by the crust of his dried up blood. Glancing around one last time I gingerly picked up his body, in my head I still hated the bastard for passing me off as a gem slave when we first met but I know it was not personal, just a means to an end that didn't end well for him or the other 274 other dogs that he led to complete annihilation. On my way back to the rest of the graves I dug I felt a shiver race up and down my spine yet again, turning around to see what exactly is causing it but to see nothing but wisps of shadows clinging to the corners of the vast throne room, the wisps themselves are staying to the darkest parts to the corners, afraid to leave its safety. I thought it was just my imagination and that my head was starting to lose the shell off the nut again and I knew I had to see Discord soon to help me organize my mind...something I never liked doing ever since I first met him.

Digging another trench into the ground I took a small break by looking up at the moon in the sky, it was full and it was oddly blue and that old phrase came to mind 'Once in a blue moon', but it was nice to look at even though I am standing in a graveyard of the recently deceased, devoured and killed.

Taking a moment I breathed deeply before exhaling out the smell of stank breath, coughing a bit from my own smell as I turned back to the castle and walked back to the throne room, the black smoke wisps were not normal that was for sure but I also had to see if they weren't just ghosts that have left something behind, something that they regretted in their life before it was abruptly ended by the beasts of the forest.

Watching the shadowy wisps writhe and twist around each other as I stepped closer to them and as I was about roughly three meters from either corner they started to slither up the walls toward the center of the ceiling, trying to get away from me perhaps or just that the spirit doesn't want to be touched. Walking to the throne I saw that their was a large hole in the wall behind it that reached the ceiling, allowing a large chunk of the moon to be seen along with its glow to sink into the room to bathe it in a silvery blue light, taking a step to the throne I tried to turn it around but the base wouldn't budge so I put a little more force into it but the damn thing still didn't move so I went a little extreme trying to rearrange the bloody chair. Taking off my left glove to reveal the four hooked claws attached to the metal skeletal frame of my left arm, and unknowingly showing the wisps above me that my left hand was prosthetic, but taking a deep breath I moved the hooks into position on the left side of the chair and with my right hand it gripped the lower right side and with the first tug I heard the bottom crack and the second tug resulted in the throne finally being uprooted from its cemented spot and finally shifted around to face the moonlight and once it was firmly in its new position I just plopped my fat ass on it and just stared off into the distance while I fumbled for a cigarette and once I had it I placed it loosely between my lips and lit it with my thumb and didn't even bother to exhale the smoke until it was enough to create a short billowing fog.

Turning my head to get a look at the wisps of black smoke I saw that they moved down to my left side to get a better look at my left hand, and smirking a bit as I rolled up the sleeve to reveal the entire left arm up to my shoulder blade, showing the wisps that my entire left arm was nothing more than a husk of its former self until I can get back to Canterlot to get it back...and finally be able take a real shower and not smell like shit.

It was at that moment that the wisps crept over to me that something was amiss but by the time I realized it I was already to late to stop it. The shadowy wisps slowly and gently wrapped itself around my metallic arm, almost seemingly getting a feel for it before slithering up the framework toward my chest and one particular tendril moved up to my face to gently rub a cheek and it was right there that I saw an eye open up at the center of the stalk, a single turquoise eye looking up at me, the eyes were just like Spike's except for them being completely different colors, but the sight of a disembodied eye was enough for me to stare at it for a while before shifting my gaze to the lone tendril caressing my face.

When the shadowy tendril was rubbing my face I felt the gaze of the eye intensify before slowly receding away, and before long I felt something stab at my skull, at first I just thought it was Mirias just taking her meal right now but when I felt it starting to dig into my memories was when I realized that it was the thing slowly attaching itself to my arm, but before I could even react I heard a voice that was not my own echo within my mind.

You are not like the rest.....

I looked at the eye before looking over at the manticore corpse before removing my helmet with my right hand and placed the removed helmet on the floor near my boots. I gave the eye a smug grin before resuming my stare at the moon as I muttered something but the voice caught it.

"I am different from them entirely by being a different species...sadly when their is only two of my kind left and that we are doomed to be extinct...eh I regret nothing."

You are strange...and yet you are not afraid of me? Why is that? from what I am hearing, the voice is obviously female, something that I should have known since the male/female ratio is redonkulous here in ponyland.

"Because, even I have been pretty much exiled for my crimes and sent away to rot alone, but I escaped from that lonesome road of a prison cell...sadly it wasn't enough to escape this mess...sixteen million years of a prison sentence...fucking Harbinger..."

So you have heard of Us...and yet you are not afraid...everypony has and always will be afraid of us...

"Just because practically everyone is afraid of you doesn't mean there is someone out there that isn't. Take a look at me for instance, everypony is afraid of me, mostly the ponies up in Canterlot, but I am still here because I have my uses...and working for Celestia has its perks." I said as I started to fiddle with my helmet, picking off flakes of mud that was clinging to the fur scruff that was on the rear neck section, trying to clean it up.

You work for her...and what do you see in my oh so loving sister hmm?

"Well, first off I see someone who works their ass off on a regular basis just to keep the system working, someone that hardly takes any time off from work, a caring leader that thinks of her citizens as her children, a scolding mother when we 'I' screw up or do something really stupid, a pony with enough problems and stress that could sink a dreadnaught...and also some pony that I hope I can get to know better....maybe take out on a dinner...erm...forget the last two." I said to cover up what was spilling out of my mouth, my feelings for that mare starting to resurface, first time was when I was in Discord's so called 'lair', that dude really has a good way to spin words around when he wants to mess with you.

So you met my sister than....that tyrant still ruling Equestria with her iron hoof and what perks could their be for working for her.

"Well, there is sometimes living at the palace, that place makes some pretty damn good food, I get to mess with the guards since I trained a few of them with what I know, than there is Discord, my favorite pass time partner in crime and also table hockey opponent...also being in her presence is a good one...along with walking behind her and watching that flank jiggle like jelly..."

I could have sworn that the lone eye turned sly as the feminine wisp spoke again, You have become infatuated with my sister haven't you? And because of her flanks no less? Is she still eating cake all the time and not working out to remove that extra weight she has gained?

I came to Celestia's defense at that rude comment, "Hey! She is not a tyrant, and...maybe I am...and besides I was stuck as a statue for so long that I practically didn't care as to what species I get attracted to...and besides...I like ladies with a little jiggle in their step..." and as soon as I said that I knew that I had made a mistake cause that eye was closed and I could have sworn that I heard her chuckling. "Please don't tell anyone that I said that...especially to Celly...I would never hear the end of it if she finds out...in fact I wont hear the end of it if anyone finds out."

The eye just stares at me before I saw what I thought was its wisps changing shape, slowly forming into what I think was a pony's body but vastly incomplete, more along the lines of rough shape and outlines as it sat next to me, now staring at me with both eyes and that I saw the rough shapes of her wings and horns starting to form but her body was still just that of smoke wisps.

"So...Moony-" at that she looked at me with hints of anger but I ignored it and continued where I left off, "-did you have something to do with the manticores completely overrunning this place and killing every single man, woman and child?" I said as I stared at her for moment before looking away and sighed as I pulled out my cigarette and puffed another smoke cloud out before putting it back in.

No, I have been skulking around my own home ever since those dogs came in and took over, and since I am still too weak to do anything about them I was forced to let them to stay...and even if I had enough power to reconstruct my body I would be in no condition to face them, so I was forced to give in and let them to stay. I could tell from her tone that she loathes this dogs, that she hates them so much that the tension in her tone could be easily sliced in half with a butter knife.

You may not be like those...vermin that took residence in my home, but you are still like them, I can feel your anger and hatred for them. You hate them because they remind you of something from your past...of something similar to them. she said without me even having to say a word, she knew exactly what my thoughts were on roughly all of them.

Taking the cigarette out of my mouth to exhale another cloud I burn out the small stub and flicked out the gaping hole in the wall before speaking up, "I hate those mutts because when I first met their kind, they had me as a captured slave, so I broke out of my cell with the others and killed pretty much every single one that was in my path, second encounter I allowed myself to be taken hostage to break more ponies out, but their is always a price to be paid for each escape...death has always followed me, and it doesn't make a difference to me on whose life must be taken to escape...but now that I saw what happened here..." I take a look back to see the corpse, just the sight of it sort of made me angry that all of this was done by just a few wild beasts, and the sight of the dead beast made me a bit hungry for meat.

These dogs have always been a pest to Equestria ever since we moved here...I am surprised that they haven't killed themselves off yet...and good riddance once they do die off.

"Last time I heard that your plan to take over Equestria was bound to destroy all life on the planet." I said with a smirk as Nightmare Moon backed off a bit from her starting tirade, "An Eternal Night? What a joke, that would have killed everything on the planet, one side would have froze to death while the other would have been burned alive. Did you not take into account of what would happen if one side of the world had to much of the other? Too much of the sun would make the plants wither and die, the water to boil and evaporate and also for whatever is alive on the surface to die from heat exhaustion, heat stroke and hyperthermia and be practically burnt to a crisp. And way too much of the moon would have froze all the water over, the plants to freeze and snap, death by hypothermia, frostbite and being turned into a corpsicle. Your rule would have resulted in the end of all life on the planet if you hadn't been stopped."

I...I would have known...I...I wouldn't have known....I just wanted everypony to love my night...was that to much to ask my sister? Just to let the night last a bit longer so my ponies could appreciate the night I worked so hard to create for them...was it really that hard for my sister to just do for me? she started to cry but it was more on the lines of soft sobbing but for some reason that I can't explain or that I don't want to, I had to put people at ease, I never knew why I was so good at it, even back when I had to tell parents that their son or daughter was killed in the line of duty.

Moving over a bit I started to gently pat her back before slowly pulling the shadow mare over to me as I used my hollow arm to give her a hug and strangely enough it was able to touch her body.

She starts rambling and venting, and I let her go off, realizing how long she has been keeping these feelings in. If my stupid, senile, old fool of a sister had listened to me about letting the ponies to enjoy my night I wouldn't have become so jealous and became what I am! If she had listened to me than I would have still been with her instead on the bucking moon banished away from my subjects and then the gryphons, maybe we would have stood a ghost of a bucking CHANCE!......If I had the time to only think things through, things would have been different.

Nightmare Moon kept this up for at least a couple hours eventually even though she knows I was listening attentively, she trails off, fixing me with one of the sweetest looks probably any pony have ever seen grace her ebony-looking features which to me would have been even better if Celestia ever gave me one of those looks. You really care about all this... she said softly, startling me a bit. Of course I care because after all I sort of went through the same she as well, and I sort of agreed to stick around with her since she still held my left arm in her shadow's grip, and I don't consider something as easy as listening to her talk her problems out any trouble at all, even though she did pretty much nearly killed an entire planet with a moon...something that I thought was overkill if I ever wanted to wipe an enemy off the map.

"Yeah...I do...you went through hell because of what you believed in...I went through hell because I had to...now both of us are just seeking out some sort of redemption...even to redeem ourselves in the eyes of those that despise us."

It was only after the moon cresting near the horizon on the other side of the castle did Nightmare Moon realize that the sun was approaching that she let go of my arm and moved towards the dark corner of the throne room before fading back into the background to resume her hiding from the rest of the world, but before she completely faded away she spoke one last time to me.

If you harm my sister in any way or make her cry or break her heart, I will shatter your dreams and haunt your nightmares and you will never have a peaceful sleep ever again. Take care of her...and please try to get the ponies to love my night....

And with that last message she simply faded from view before the sun even had a chance to let a single ray of light breach into the throne room, and moments later the sun slowly rose over the hole, filling the chamber with warmth and light and before long the view of the sun. As soon as the sun filled the chamber I pulled myself away from the chair and walked toward the hole in the wall to see the mountain that is holding Canterlot off in the distance, and knew that I had roughly two weeks before the day of my funeral to prepare myself and hopefully, that everyone that is in attendance don't try to kill my right away or get in my face trying to figure out how I am still alive for I will not explain something that would take a few days to go through with a certain purple unicorn and white alicorn...and maybe a certain miss matched friend and furry sleeping partner.

Taking one last look back at where Nightmare Moon was and waved good bye to see her eye form up and than close before I walked over to the gap, climbed over it and started to work my way around the castle and towards Canterlot.

The walk alone will be long and tedious but the bushes filled with strange fruit, nuts, berries and the meat from a dead deer that I found killed by a strange purple plant, half of it seemed to have been eaten by the deer and any life around it which was strange as hell since the only plants that I knew that killed other living creatures was the Venus Flytrap...but this was just absurd.

Taking a tentative step towards the blooming death plant I kept a fair distance from it, wondering what was the major cause of death to the deer and a few ideas of how came to mind, first idea was that the plant was giving off an aroma of sorts that anything alive within a certain distance that took a whiff of it would die, second idea was that it was constantly releasing spores into the air and that when inhaled it would cause the breather's lungs to just die or something, or maybe that when it smelled the plant it just had a heart problem and keeled over. Who knows.

Looking at the plant once more I took in its features and took a snapshot of it for future reference and to see if Twilight knows whatever the hell this thing is cause for all I know it could be the world's deadliest plant and that every botanist would want a piece of it or maybe the whole thing, but what I do know of this damn lavender colored plant is that it kills without discretion. Taking off my glove again from my left hand I gingerly made my way over to the corpse, holding my breath in case it was any of the proximity airborne theories I had at the moment, and with fast reflexes I sunk three metal claws into the deer carcass and pulled back to get it away from the death flower and with one last yank I tore off a chunk of rib meat and an unlucky rib.

Taking the hopefully not poisoned meat from my bloodied hooks and looking it over to see if there are any signs of discoloration from what the lethal flower may have done to it but smiling a bit happily I found nothing wrong with it, except that it wasn't cooked and turned into beef jerky or a rib sandwich, but the sandwich will be for another time...if I had it. Walking over to my hastily constructed camp consisting of my satchel and myself I put the shredded meat back on my hook fingers and found decent amount of twigs, branches and dead leaves to make a small fire, an as soon as the fire started to grow in size I moved my left arm to be directly over the flames and every minute or two I turned the and around to cook the other side, and only when I thought that the meat was thoroughly cooked did I munch down on it. And it was amazing.

"Eh, and Kara said I never knew how to cook." I chuckled to myself as I smelled the delicious meat a few times before I noticed that the smell was gone and along with it the meat. Looking back at the body I shrugged to myself as I used the rib I got and took the liberty of turning it into a toothpick and once I was satisfied that my teeth were picked clean, I moved over to the fire and put it out with a quick Snap Freeze, admiring the frozen fire before it melted from the sun as I strolled past the death flower and continued my walk toward Canterlot.

That changeling friend of yours left you...I think it was when you were going down that mountain that she took flight and left. Not sure where she went but she better not get us into trouble by getting caught.

'What is the worse that can happen? What can she possibly do to get us in an even bigger hole that we are in?'

She can get caught by rather our friends and interrogated, caught by the royal guards and interrogated, get killed and we would have to explain that to Chrysalis, or she takes the form of some random pony, get caught in the act of any kind, and than say that she was with you and well...bad things in general to be precise.

'I know she won't spill the beans on us...after all we are her only reliable food source that won't panic as she feeds...even though she needs to stop using her fucking fangs on me, I am tired of picking scabs off my head...and getting a proper haircut is gonna be bitch with those things.'

Do ponies even get haircuts?

'Fuck should I know...probably since their manes and tails have to be kept in order...they would look pretty damn funny if they just went around like moving blobs of fur and hair.'

Our mental rant was cut short as my footing was immediately interrupted by my foot not stepping on anything but air and falling forward face first into a pile of blue flowers, but luckily my armor kept me safe from whatever those little bastards were going to my already fucked and fragile body, picking myself up and taking a sample of the plant seeing how it wasn't giving off any radiance of death or any other sign of impending doom nearby. Dusting myself off I resumed my walk to Canterlot unimpeded but only to stop for the night to set up a simple camp consisting of only a fire pit, a bedroll, and of course my crossbow rigged to point directly over my body with a row of tripwires crossing over me. For safety reasons of course.

My sleep was uneventful besides the nightmares that came to haunt my dreams, and like every other night when I go to bed it's always the same damn nightmare of my colossal failures of me not being able to save the ones I love...but what was really different about this dream was that the person in this one was...blurred from view and it was more of a peaceful dream than the hellish nightmares I am used to.

I wake up to a wonderful sight. A dead cockatrice impaled to the tree by all twenty bolts from my crossbow, and it is still trying to look at me with its eyes to turn me back to stone, good luck with that you feathery beast. Moving out from underneath the dead fowl I pull the bolts out from the feathered meat sack and once each and every single bolt was removed I promptly threw the dead bird away from my makeshift camp before breaking it down and scattering the fire pit around before leaving again for Canterlot.

So how about that apple pie?

'Later when we get to Canterlot, I highly doubt there is a pie store out here in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.'

Hey you might never know.

Sighing quietly I trudge on through bushes, shrubs and tall grass, my mood staying the same sour level until I hit something familiar.

"Memorial Hill...you haven't aged a bit...except that the tree looks a bit....wilted."

Well the summer season is approaching, so it could be the steadily rising heat?

'That just sounds stupid, its spring, spring weather is warm and cool, its probably just that the rain hasn't been entirely faithful for this area, that or the dead is causing it to die because of the ghostly influence being placed upon it.'

Okay now that is a stupid idea.

'Shut up, ghosts are real, I spoke to a few already, and if they weren't real than I was just speaking to myself, which is what I am doing right now.'

Haha very funny.

'Yea I know, I should be a comedian in my off time.'

Looking at Canterlot I can see that there was a strange purple bubble surrounding it and every five minutes it would ripple from the top of it as it makes its way downward like water wobbling on a still moving lake. At first I was just watching it shine and ripple for a few minutes but when I saw a bird smack into it I realized that it was a force field...a magical force field that nothing can go in or out.

'I am just glad that it isn't a plasma fence, I saw that shit in action on Omega and I am not getting burnt to nothing for touching it.'

Starting the trek up the mountain I came across a group of ponies pulling merchandise and other goodies to the pony capital by cart, and when they see me they wave me over and we all walked together slowly up the mountain, the path is clear enough and the only thing that kept me occupied was talking to the traveling merchants about what the local happenings and to hear any news that came and went from Equestria.

"I heard that Princess Celestia is greatly depressed over the death of a recent friend....heard that they are holding some sort of gathering to commemorate his actions or something. I also heard that this thing is gonna be big cause he apparently is a hero also for savin some far off kingdom, also heard that this stallion saved two groups of ponies. He sounds like a real hero." The old stallion to my right said as we crested over a ledge near the middle of the mountain, the city was another hour of walking, this oldie was starting to ramble as I tuned it out and started to hum a little tune and as I saw the bottom of the magic field get close to my head I tapped it with my hand and felt it get lightly zapped and thrown back.

Looking at my hand I found that it was tinted slightly purple from the field and that it had a tingly feeling to it, at first I thought it was just me but as we kept walking I realized that it had a prolonged effect as my hand kept tingling from the weak nerves in my hand reacting to the electrical shock they have received.

It was only after we got to the entrance of Canterlot that I realized why I still felt that tingly feeling. There was Shining Armor standing near the entrance to the capital talking to the main gate guards and also to a group of ponies who just now trotted past the front gates, and as we get close to the barrier we were stopped and told to state our business.

The four ponies I was traveling with said "Business purposes." and when it came to me, I had to think for a few seconds before saying "To pay respects to a friend of mine whose memorial is taking place in a few days.", the guards looked me over before they told me to go stand by the wall for a pat down. I found the thought of a pony patting me down for illegal substances to be funny as hell since they didn't have any hands to do a proper pat down and that their hooves would just press things over while they search.

I agreed to the search and when I placed the palm of my claw hand on the wall than moved to place my other hand on the wall I felt something patting me down until I turned my head to see that it was a pair of ghostly hands and I muttered under my helmet a string of curse words against them but kept up my illusion that I was just a diamond dog paying respects to the dead. It was only after the pat down came to my thighs that I tensed up as I felt a few pounds get lifted off me, my satchel removed as it was levitated away from me and placed on the ground and before long my crossbow was also removed from my possessions and was passed to a guard to inspect.

"Huh...a crossbow, I heard of gryphons with these but I never saw one like this...metal stock and bow...is that string made of wrapped metal? I wonder how this dog got his dirty paws on this kind of military grade gear...and take a look at his armor, looks like some sort of organized dog military uniform...maybe he is from Barkelona? Hey dog where you from?" one of the stallion guards said as they kept patting me down, the one that was searching my satchel gagged back before pulling out some pieces of meaty jerky that I saved and placed it back in to keep searching.

I kept my mouth shut for a while, waiting for them to do something, that was until one of them tried to take my helmet off as I quickly smacked it back down and growled at them, they backed away from the growl and one brought a spear to my face and ordered me to take off my helmet, Shining Armor was watching it all unfold.

"I prefer if you don't touch my helmet pony. And no I am not from Barkelona, never been there before. Now I would like if you stop messing with my stuff and give it back to me." I said and I articulated each word to them, clearly surprising the guards that a 'diamond dog' has the capacity to speak with normal intelligence in his voice besides the 'dumb-as-a-sack-of-hammers' usual dogs.

When I spoke up the same guard with the spear tried to lift my helmet up with his spear but as it barely moved an inch I moved faster than any of them could react by snatching the spear from his hooves and breaking it on his helmet before jumping and rolling to my satchel and placed it back on the belt but was promptly raised in a smaller shield sphere.

"Private Smiles and Private Velvet, return to your posts, I will deal with our guest." Shining said as the two gave a salute while the one I smacked upside the head with his own spear glares at me while I give a smug grin under the safety helmet.

As they returned to their respective posts I was lowered to the ground and was given back my effects and oddly enough Shining Armor apologized to me for the way his guards acted towards me, now if only he can apologize to me for all the times I kicked his ass at poker and called me out as a cheater or when my trained guards beat his in the training grounds.

"No damage done besides being manhandled...now I must find a place to stay for the next five days, any good hotels or inns here in the pony capital?" I said with my altered tone, keeping myself on my toes to ensure everything is working fine, not wanting to alert anyone that the person they thought dead was actually alive and walking among them until the day of reckoning.

I was directed to stay at the Diamond Deluxe Hotel, apparently the best place to stay in all of Equestria, from what Shining told me was the service, the five star food they served and also the magically treated hot tubs and ever soft beds and pillows, and a place that fine is expensive but the gems and bits I still have should be enough to cover for four days.

When I entered Canterlot for the first time I realized that I was here not as an instructor for the royal guards or as a person of importance, but instead as a civilian, and for me it was both amazing and annoying. The uptight nobles had their noses up as soon as they saw me and those that are a step or few below them were avoiding or walking around me, but the common ponies actually came close to me or accidentally bumped into me and apologizing. I only give them a quick apology for bumping into them before carrying on my way or when their is an uptight noble giving me lip or talking down on me as if I was inferior I just take off my left glove and show the still blood crusted claw beneath it, they shut up right quickly with that little display along with those that saw it happen.

As I get to the hotel a young colt wearing a bellhop uniform opens the door and I promptly give him a ten bit tip for no real reason but the colt just stares at me a while before looking in his hoof to see the money than back at me before I kept walking to the front desk, and at that front desk was a mare wearing what I can think up as a secretarial dress with the little glasses and when I get to the desk her eyes barely move an inch as I see her lips move a bit before speaking up.

"Welcome to the Diamond Deluxe Hotel how may I help you sir?"

"I am looking for a room to spend the next four days in, are any rooms available?" I said while keeping my right hand on my crossbow, not letting it leave my grasp after what those pony guards did to me.

It only took a few moments for her to look at the ledger placed before her and she leans back off her padded cushion and grabs a key with her teeth from a slot in the wall behind her and places the key down in front of her, the number on the key read '404'.

"Four Day's and Nights would be two hundred bits, upfront or over the time you are spending here." my response was to unstrap the small money satchel that was tied to my left side and dropped it on the counter, and the sound of a heavy bag filled with coins and gems and the top of it open to let a few bits drop out and roll around before falling over from the lack of momentum and speed.

"Take the correct amount than have it sent to my room." I said before grabbing the key and walked toward the stairs and made my way up to what I can guess was my room.

The few times I stayed in a hotel was in a disguise for either the Alliance or for Cerberus, and each time I spent in one it always ended before I could fully enjoy the services, but this time I was going to enjoy it even if it kills me...metaphorically speaking.

'Nice room, I hope the showers in this place has enough water and soap for this raggedy man...huh mini fridge sweet.'

Taking a quick look around the room I dropped all three of my satchels down on the floor by the bed and tossed my helmet between the two large pillows on the bed before darting to the bathroom to give it my approval, and approval it gets. The porcelain floors and walls matches the typical hotel layout, but the large bathtub in the center is something that would be more placed outdoors as a hot tub, but than again ponies are smaller than me and more than likely think this is pretty much suitable for them.

Going back to the front door I put up the 'Do Not Disturb' sign and quickly wrote under it with my claw 'For the love of god, do not open this door under any circumstances unless you are dropping off my money or if you have a death wish, if you are here to drop off the money just open the door by 25 degree's and drop it inside on the floor.' and with that I closed the door before putting the proverbial tool of death aimed and primed by tripwire.

Thinking that everything is safe for now I promptly stripped myself of both sets of armor and my under clothes and went straight to the bathroom and turned the water on maximum hotness to kill the dirt and grime from my body and also to make sure I don't smell like feet wrapped in leathery burnt bacon. Closing the bathroom door behind me I crawled into the tub and wincing as the boiling hot water comes into contact with my cuts and scrapes that I have accumulated over the few months I was reanimated back to life. Taking a look at my left arm I grabbed at the shoulder pieces holding the partial clockwork socket and pulling on three hardpoint pins the skeletal limb disconnects and clatters to the porcelain floor.

Grabbing the shampoo bottle that they have left out for me to use, the sweet scent of strawberries slightly linger from the now open bottle as I squeezed the contents out on top of my head and let it settle for a few scant seconds before rubbing it into my scalp and started to dig it in deep enough for it to come into contact with my skin and than finally rubbing it in and taking a deep breath before dunking my head in the water and scrubbing the shampoo out and came back up for air before grabbing a stick with soap placed at the end of it, my guess it was for ponies that weren't a unicorn, but for me it serves it an easier purpose.

With the soap in hand I started to scrub the filth off my skin and with a zealous fervor to kill off what I can only guess was a thick layer of dirt, mud, blood, sweat and stank on my body and with the way my scrubbing was going it was as if I gave the soap an extermination order on uncleanliness.

After a few minutes of hard scrubbing and swearing from the pain it brought but I pushed on through until finally I no longer smelled like someone just keeled over and was already starting to rot from the summer heat, and prompting one more dunk in the heated water before pulling myself out and drying off with the pony sized towel they have available for me to use. It was when I was drying myself off that I heard a heavy thunk followed by an even louder shriek and I knew that I had to hurry before hotel security would arrive and see my naked ass getting dressed.

As I hurriedly donned my N7 armor and left my skeletal arm back in the bathroom and as I heard the door getting knocked on by what I can only think as armored hooves I jumped into my scout armor and just as the door was opened by owner of the hotel and flanked by two royal guards and the maid that apparently almost got shot by the bolt.

"Excuse me sir, but did you just try to kill one of my staff members?" the stallion said with a slightly French accent and in a fluid fashion that sounds like it was well rehearsed.

"No, because if I wanted to kill somepony than they would have already been dead, I left a sign out on my door that clearly said 'Do Not Disturb', what part of it did that maid not understand?" I barked out as the owner looks at the maid who gave a sheepish smile before giving a sad downcasted frown.

The stallion looks at me again before looking at the maid let out an explosive sigh and motioned for the two security guards to take the maid away and as he turned and left I walked over to the door and pulled out the bolt and looked it over to make sure it was still fire able and indeed it was, going back to the ammo clip that rested underneath partially in the center and re-inserted the bolt back into its home.

Poking his head back inside one last time he spoke before closing the door, "Sorry for the inconvenience sir.", leaving me alone to my own devices as I looked at the grandfather clock in the room to see that it was 4:06pm and that the sun was still high enough in the sky to not warrant an early sleep. Taking the time I still have left I grabbed my money satchel and gave it a few experimental jingles to see if the ponies at the front desk took more than what was said and I thought it over and shrugged as I looped it back into place along with my spare bolts and crossbow. Locking the door behind me and placing the key inside my bolt satchel to drive away any suspicions that it was located there in the event I get robbed.

Getting robbed in Canterlot was non-existent apparently as I realized from the fact that the presence of the royal guards was pretty much everywhere and that this was the capital of ponyland and not once have I ever heard of a crime going on that a pony has ever committed, so my guess that ponies are unable to commit crimes or are just so happy to never really need to do one in the first place.

But it was from the lack of crime or just my own paranoid self that I thought that all of the guards were watching and following me everywhere I went, I went to five separate bars, two clubs and even fancy clothes store, and every time I left the building I would always see a pair of guards waiting out front and the funny part was when I left the clothing store I had only two items with me, and it was a fancy suit that I had to get specially tailored and sized, and the other was a top hat, one that I had always wanted since I came here.

Walking back to my room I placed my two lone bags on the floor and went to the window to see the moon rise off in the distance and when it was clearly dark outside did I decide to see if this place had a real night life.

Going back downstairs I left the hotel to see what I can find that is normally closed or not even mentioned during the day and sooner or later I found what I was looking for, a real nightclub, neon lights and everything, even an authentic bouncer was there at the front door. This bouncer was a diamond dog and when 'he' saw me, I am assuming that it is a he at the front door, he gave me a strange look before unhooking the rope inside and seemingly odd enough I just shrugged it off and walked inside, the ponies that were waiting in line all groaned and called out what that was all about but the bouncer only laughed it off and resumed his duty.

The outside of the nightclub made it look like it has some semblance of order but as soon as I passed the threshold of the doorway it turned into a chaotic, unorganized party house that I quickly grew fond of. Inside, every single pony was dancing, drinking, laughing and chasing tail as if there was no tomorrow and I was soon in the middle of it as I drank ponies, gryphons and dogs alike under the table, placing bets on ponies wrestling in the corner and throwing my money at a gryphon for winning, I even ended up slapping a mare on the flank when I had too much to drink but that slap to the flank was met with a slap to the face by her tail and that was when the cat calls started, and drunk me being drunk me I joined in before I realized that I was too drunk to even do anything so I called it a night and returned to my room.

Next Morning

The morning after my night of wild partying I woke up to the third world's worst hangover in my history, and not once was there a chaser to be ingested or a spell to be casted to alleviate the horrid throbbing headaches and I had only one thing to say on this matter.

"I think I am going to throw up."

I stayed in my room the entire day, I rather tear my room apart than tear apart any pony that got in my way of my horrible migraine.

2 Days till Funeral

Today, when I woke up I found out that my room was raided by the maids, the smell of sweat and body odor was gone and was replaced by the smell of roses and sweet mint, and I know what that it was mint because I was able to taste it in the air, and that mint was good enough for me to lick my lips in hunger. The rumbling in my gut told me that my body requires food and I was not going to be doing much today except explore the city and keep my fuel gauge topped off by sampling what this city has to offer.

First stop was the local donut joint for coffee and a muffin, the owner whose name was simple enough to remember, Donut Joe, and by god the coffee they served was just like the same brand served to the officers on the Presidium, spot on match and brewed to perfection. The same can be said about the muffin, damn good shit.

Lunch was served at the Gourmand and it was top notch for being able to provide meat on its menu, even though the pony who brought it over was green on the cheeks and was trying hard not to throw up so I saved the waiter the trouble by not eating till he left my sight, which did me little good when I saw him nearly lose it. Was totally worth it.

Dinner on the other hand...how a gryphon fucks up bacon I will never know and will never ever find out because I was thrown out of his diner when I said that the food looked like shit, tasted like shit, and above all else, that I could probably cook better than the ones working there. When I was thrown out I was not told politely to get the hell out, no four gryphons picked me up and hurled me out of there like a Frisbee and not once did I apologize for saying the truth. I thought my stomach was gonna tear itself inside out for how bad the food tasted.

Once I got back to my room just went straight to bed after four bottles of wine in my system and with half a wheel of cheese laying on my nightstand.

Dreamland

A strange green tank was in the middle of a dark, dank room, I was standing in front of it and floating inside was a brain and at first I just thought that this was some person's creepy ass experiment but when the damn thing started to glow and said a word I nearly shit myself.

"Well, well, look who finally dragged themselves in out from the artic storm. And where have we been, hmm? Crawling through glaciers and corpses again?"

"Are you my brain?" I just had to ask that because I was at the moment, trying to figure out if I was stoned out of my mind or just shitting bricks out of sheer stupidity.

"Ah, lovely, figured that one out have we? Would you like a cookie?"

"No need to be sarcastic...smartass, meeting your own brain is odd as hell." I grumbled out the 'smartass' part since I rather not piss myself off.

"Yes, well believe me the same can be said for you. Good lord did you at least take a shower before you even came back home?", I just gave him a deadpanned stare as the words sank in to me.

"Yes, because getting shot at, almost eaten and almost killed many times throughout the world, yes taking a shower was my top priority."

"Well, I see sarcasm hasn't eluded you just yet. Fine, perhaps at this very moment isn't the best time, but it is the principle of the thing that matters."

"Oh fuck you, why are you being such a dick?"

"Oh, as if I am this so called, quote, dick, unquote. You are the one responsible for all the mishaps and near-death experiences we have to go through on a regular basis."

"But what about us? Don't you want to be reunited again, what about all the fun times we had together?"

"I think of so many different reasons to not want to return to that empty head of yours."

"Fine, than what I can do to make it fair for the both of us?"

"Well if you want me back that badly, let me lay down some ground rules. First, showers! Actual showers with strong soap and thick loofas. Second, regular check-ups. Regular, mind you, and from a licensed and reputable doctor."

"Okay, I can do those two easily, since that last job we did together went south...literally. Anything else?"

"Thirdly, you need to listen to me more. That means stop listening to your dick and your heart for once, and listen to the thing that is working overtime to keep the two of us alive. Promise me that, and I will return back into your head."

I only mumbled obscene thoughts and words for a good solid minute before finally letting out an explosive sigh.

"Fine....I promise. Now get back in here...I can already feel myself wanting to shove something soft and squishy inside my head to make up for the lack of a brain."

1 Day till Funeral

"The fuck did I eat for that crazy fucking dream..." I grumbled out as I slowly opened my eyes to see the sun slipping through the blinds of the window behind me and the sounds of birds chirping told me that it was somewhat around the morning, and as for the morning I simply rolled out of my bed and ignored my N7 armor as I shoved it under the bed and only put on my scouting gear, looking at my crossbow I disarmed it and also hit it under the bed along with the bolts. Grabbing what I need for the day I took off the sign on the doorknob and went down to the lobby and out the front door to the streets.

It was when I noticed that the streets were empty that I thought today was a lazy day or something for all the ponies but when I started to walk down the streets did I realize it was the exact opposite of a lazy day.

Today is the duelist tournament that is taking place at the palace, and seeing how almost all of Canterlot was empty and that today was mildly cool I decided to see what the fuss was about along with seeing who was the best with their long thin sword.

At that comment I snickered to myself at the dirty pun that I just made and was now planning on using it to a few stallions that will be participating at the event.

It was only when I arrived at the arena did I realize that this was the type of dueling where the two ponies would be wearing the full fancy getup of the white uniforms and wire made helmets. I hated those things in basic training but by god did those helmets suck ass, they offered absolutely no protection from the blunt ends of the shaft, and not once did I not feel the impact of the blows, I felt everything and that shit hurts. But looking at the ponies wearing it now, it looks just plain ridiculous and seeing the two pick up what I thought were large thin metal toothpicks, they might as well be seeing that they don't look like they can even punch through wet tissue paper.

One thing I hate about the rich ponies is that they think that they are above everyone that is not as rich as they are and live in Canterlot but the one thing I love about them is that they all have a thing for gambling, and I put that part of them to the test as I started a gambling ring at the beginning of the round.

It was by the final round that I lost my ass in the betting pool. I placed half of my earned bits on the Blueblood's opponent, Fancy Pants, and the match was a close tie but somehow that bastard prince got the upper hand and won. I had to leave half of my earnings behind and took what was left from my pot before I left the lower part of the stands to return to the hotel for the night, but this time I had something else planned.

Upon returning to my hotel room I locked my door and placed the bed in front of it before moving towards the window for the next step of my night exploring.

Opening the window to the outside world I looked out to see if there was any patrolling guards roving about or any ponies in general and was happy to find none lumbering about and giving a short prayer I climbed out the window with my room key and money satchel before finally jumping off the side and landed with a thud on the cobblestone road, taking a look around to see if any pony came to look for the source of the noise I moved through the streets and came upon something that never wanted to see unless I was with a date or was ungodly smashed on booze.

An Opera House.

I walked up to the building and looked to see what was playing, and I shit you not they were playing Pagliacci and I may not be the fan favorite of the musical arts but what not many people know is that I am a fan of a very select few operas, Don Giovanni was one of them alongside Hamlet and Pagliacci, oddly enough whenever they were present on Earth or on the Citadel I had to come up with an excuse to ditch my teammates to see it.

Going up to the ticket booth I found out that they had only one ticket left and it was well worth the 50 bit price tag it came with it but as I said was well worth it. Grabbing the ticket I entered the building and went straight to my seat which was all the way in the back, at the very edge so practically everyone had to move by me if they had to go in or out of their seats for something. A minor annoyance but if they were anything like me than I would have shot them for ruining my view. Moving up the isle I glanced around to see who was here that I could possibly recognize and I saw that Fancy Pants and his wife Fleur de Lis, I saw a few of the Wonderbolts sitting in a balcony row, Photo Finish was sitting in the very front row with her camera crew, and I even saw that one minotaur that tried to teach Fluttershy to be assertive in the back middle. Looking up in the balconies to see who else was sitting in the VIP seatings I saw Princess Luna and sitting next to her was Celestia, but her face was clearly bored, and if not just down right depressed, my guess that she is going to be reminded that my death has happened and that we never said good bye on the day I left on that train to head up north. What I did not like that was sitting in that balcony was Blueblood sitting in front of the two alicorns but at a lower elevation and sitting next to him was a pony that I had never seen before or have even heard of, he was wearing what I can guess was the most expensive tailor-made suit on the planet, being covered in gems of all kinds, even his larger-than-normal top hat is gem studded, he looked fatter than any other pony I have ever seen, I could clearly see that he just let himself go after so many years of probably no exercise or better yet, sitting on his fat ass all day.

And I wanted to kill this pony with extreme prejudice for no real reason.

I felt a pang of anguish and agony at the sight of my princess that visibly hurt by my death but if I revealed myself now, in front of all these ponies and just say 'Oh hey, I am alive and the first thing I did is go see an Opera with you unknowingly here as well.' and I know that shit won't fly straight with her so for now I just have to be sneaky and not let her notice me. Quickly taking my seat at the edge seat I quickly slumped down to make myself look shorter from a distance and also because I can tell that some one was watching me.

During the play, about roughly half way through it I stood up out of my seat and hurriedly went to the concourse and looked around in a panicked fashion to see the stairs that lead upwards to the balcony booths and very quietly snuck to each booth and cracked the door open to see who was in them, finding one empty I took a mental note that I will return to it later hopefully to watch the rest of the play but for now I returned to booth spying.

Silently moving to the next booth I found out that the Wonderbolts that was staying for the show was Fleetfoot, Soarin, Surprise and Spitfire, and all four was not wearing their spandex uniforms and goggles but instead was wearing their set of fancy attire that they probably wear when going out. Next booth was the most uptight of uptight assholes I had ever seen along with the most fruity of fruits, Hoity Toity and by god the flamboyancy was strong with this one, sadly sitting next to him was the self proclaimed 'Pony of Pop' Sapphire Shores and both were sitting awfully close to one another but I ignored the two and closed the door quietly before getting to the one that I had wanted to get to.

Standing by the royal doors was two guards and both of them I recognized as the ones I had trained, and both of them were standing absolutely still and neither of them even blinked as I walked up to them, and just as they moved their eyes to look at me I grabbed my crossbow and threw it at the nearest one who caught it with his magic before he took the metal stock to the face, breaking his nose and knocking him out in the progress when I punched the crossbow to put a lot more force and pressure on the tossed weapon to his muzzle. The other guard never had a chance to defend herself as I whipped the crossbow around and practiced my golf swing on her by cracking the stock against her jaw and without a doubt cracked it and also knocked her out cold.

Leaving the two unconscious guards behind I cracked the door open just a bit to see who else was along with the princesses but my limited view only showed me the two alicorns and thinking the coast was clear I squeezed on through and slowly closed the door behind me, and just as I did that it was at my favorite part of the opera where Canio does his short aria and I was intently listening in at this point and while the pony actor said his lines in whatever was the pony equivalent of Italian while I silently mouthed the words in English.

"Di agire mentre io sono in una frenesia non sapendo che cosa sto dicendo o facendo."

'To act while I'm in a frenzy not knowing what I'm saying or doing.'

"Ma devo farlo. Sforzatevi ... non sei un uomo?"

'Yet I have to. Force yourself...aren't you a man?'

"Tu sei il clown ... Vesti la giubba e sbiancare il viso, la gente paga i loro soldi e vogliono ridere e se Arlecchino ruba Columbine lontano da te ... ridi, pagliaccio ... e tutti potranno applaudire voi."

'You're the clown...put on your costume and whiten your face, the people pay their money and want to laugh and if Harlequin steals Columbine away from you...laugh, clown...and everyone will applaud you.'

"Fai uno scherzo della vostra angoscia e lacrime. Fai una smorfia di dolore e le vostre singhiozzi."

'Make a joke of your anguish and tears. Make a wry face from grief and your sobs.'

"Ridi, pagliaccio ... sul tuo amore infranto. Ridi la tristezza che sta avvelenando il tuo cuore."

'Laugh, clown...at your shattered love. Laugh at the sadness that's poisoning your heart.'

And it was during this one part that I felt a lone tear slide down my unshaven face, down the beard that I have been growing and splatter on the metallic mesh of my helmet and I also heard the sobs coming from both princesses but what almost caused my cover to be blown was that I almost gave off a feral growl of anger as the unknown stallion moved to Celestia's side and tried to comfort her, and I just wanted to rip his head off for even getting close to her but I had to restrain myself for if I kill him now, and pretty much everypony finds out that I am alive and that I just killed a pony for real reason than I can expect my ass to me launched to the sun, and being burnt to a crisp is something I only wanted to experience twice.

Backing away slowly I gave off a faint growl and crawled back out through the door and went back to my seat down below, gingerly stepping over the two knocked out guards in the process before finding my seat and taking it back just in time for the opera to end and as everypony started to clap their hooves I got back up and started to leave with the crowd, trying to keep myself slightly above them to blend in. It worked for the most part until I got outside to see that there was the paparazzi and by the gods they were just like the ones back in my time except smaller and had the old fashioned light-bulb camera's.

Pushing my way through the crowd of ponies I met some stiff resistance but they reluctantly moved aside for me and as I got to the other side I heard someone call out for me, not using my name but instead calling me a diamond dog. Now I would be happy that my disguise was working flawlessly but I was now scared shitless as the one calling for me was not a regular pony, no the one who called for me was actually the princess of the night, Luna, and the paparazzi ponies all turned to look at me now, and I was like a deer caught in a pair of headlights.

And a disaster was imminent.

"We have heard that a diamond dog was in our fair city but nopony has told us that the same would be so interested in the artistic arts of drama. So tell us all what has brought you to Canterlot?" said the night princess as Celestia lifts her head to look at me along with the rest of the camera wielding poines.

Thinking a bit on what to say I shuffle a bit on my feet and tilt my head to the left before speaking up. "Well princess of the night, I came here to the pony capital to pay my respects to the human that gave me a second chance at life that was almost taken away from me." I said in my disguised voice, trying my best to bullshit my way out of this situation that I somehow got caught in.

The silence that followed was quickly cut short when Celestia finally said something, her voice partially saddened from being torn up about my 'death', "You knew Roran? How did you two meet? What is your name?", the way she said that was as if me and him are recent friends or something but the truth was I am him, so I had to keep up with the lying express.

"Knew him? Not really, and we met back in Castle Dead...not sure what its real name was but it was in the middle of that manticore infested forest below next to this mountain, we met when he was placed in the cell with me and many other ponies and a changeling. It was because of him that we all managed to escape by leaving through the red room and over a cliff into the lake. And just between the few of us here, my name is Sloan." I said which was clearly a lie but also the truth of the matter at hand.

It was their turn to ask me something but one of the paparazzi ponies beat them to the punch.

"What are you wearing and what is it made out of?" the one that said that was wearing a cheesy looking fedora hat and had a notepad and pencil in his hooves and mouth.

"I am wearing old clan's hunting armor...and it is made of manticore leather and metal plates we traded for from other clans." I lied through my teeth, just rolling with it since I partially know their culture from what Kara has told me the few times I talked about that topic and the few times she even wanted to talk on such topic.

At that moment a breeze rolled by and made my empty left arm sway in the wind and the way it moved visually told everyone that it was empty, boneless and that it has clearly gone missing in some fashion, and it was Luna who was the first to ask what happened and also why I am still wearing my helmet when I am clearly talking to royalty.

"Well...princesses, reason for my arm is that a bloody manticore ate it...damn shame to but I got its head, and as for the helmet...well the manticore wasn't very picky about its meal so it tried to rip my head off, instead tore my face up to the point of it being nothing more than poorly melded meat and fur. It will heal eventually...but eating like I am hurts like hell." I said and the gasps and murmurs of the crowd was what caused a few of the paparazzi to bumrush me and started to pester me about the things I have seen, what I have done and anything they never knew about Roran, e.g. me.

I answered only a few questions before I told them I had to get going, and when they started to follow me was when I was starting to grow annoyed by the fact they are just following me around but even more annoyed that they are taking pictures and are still trying to get me to answer their questions. It was at that point that I grabbed my crossbow and pointed it at the first camera I saw and let loose one bolt, the shot going clean through the device and bouncing off the cobblestone walls of some building before it skidded down a dark alley, the action alone was enough to make them to stop following me.

When I got to my room at the hotel I found that it has been cleaned up and a small apology letter was by my bed and I gave it a quick look over and placed it back before I stripped myself of my armor again before placing the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the door again along with placing the table in front of the door to give me some breathing room in the event I get raided. Slipping under the covers of the bed I sighed quietly before turning off the lamp and shut my eyes to enter the land of dreams.

Dreamland

The beats was jamming and the people were having fun, the Purgatory was still in business even though everyone was rather dead, or in my case, dreamscaping it. Moving to the front I found an old friend waiting for me with two shots in his hands and a grin on his face.

"So good of you to join us once again Lt. Roran, how goes your time in the land of the living?" Shepard said as he handed me a shot glass filled with what I can hope was ryncol because I could use a strong drink.

"Well Shepard, this sometimes happen when I sleep so eh...and so far it is going great, I helped end a rebellion with a new species so far not recorded by the ponies, I killed a dragon, and I got myself a new suit of armor and a technologically advanced crossbow from said species. In all a good time for being back for a few months." I said back as I downed the shot and raised a hand at the bar for another.

It was in that short silence that brought up a question I always wanted answered by him.

"You know...whatever did happen to the Citadel once the Crucible fired? You never really told me what happened to it." I asked as I downed the next two shots that went my way.

"It blew up." he simply said as he stared down at the still full shot glass in his left hand.

"Whoa whoa whoa huh?" I said while almost choking on the fifth ryncol shot.

"I can already tell this is going to end badly for me." he said as he slowly tried to scoot away from me as I stared at the counter both confused and trying to figure out what exactly he said.

"What do you mean the Citadel blew up?" I said slightly drunk but mostly pissed off. Shepard just says it blew up again and that was when I blew up.

"Fuck. Aw fuck, fuck, fuuuuuuuuuuuuck!" I shouted as I slammed my fists on the counter for each word I forced out of my lips. I slumped down in my stool as it started to sink in.

I let out an overly explosive sigh as I asked Shepard again, "Okay...so who was left?" what he said clearly wasn't the right answer.

"Are you shitting me? Than where was the Normandy?" his reply was a short shrug and a sigh.

"Wait, they crashed on a crappy planet with no way off till the Alliance remnants found them? God they must have smelled like hot sick and a dead body."

"Oh I am sorry, I thought humanity's best and brightest alongside the rest of the galaxy could have stopped the Reapers from completely fucking over everything in existence. Do you, do you have any idea what that alone has already done to my psyche..." when I felt the tap on my should was when I looked over at Urta than back to Shepard.

"Hold on someone wants to talk to me." I said before turning to my old squadmate, "What I am very busy right now chewing Shepard's ass off." as I said that I felt a sharp sting across my face as Urta's hand goes across my face and she just looked at me as if I did something wrong.

"Sorry." I hastily said as I turned back to Shepard, "Sorry 'bout that....what? Just rebuild humanity's legacy? Real fucking original asshole, got any leads on in that cybernetic head of yours?" I brought one hand to his neck as I partially strangled him while taking his drink and downing it in seconds.

"Just get your ass out of here...I am gonna go out now and...fuck it just see the sights...enjoy the night while it lasts cause the dawn is fastly approaching." I said before closing my eyes and slumped onto the counter before snoring, signaling everyone that I am now officially passed out drunk. A sign that it was time for me to wake up.

Day of the Funeral, April 1st

As the dawn early lights gleamed through the partially closed curtains I grumbled loudly to myself, my body refusing to get up as I forced my eyes to open up just a crack and in that moment I let out a yawn, my arm stretching out till its mechanical joint made a simulated pop sound before I sagged back into my sleeping position but the sun's rays was pestering my eyes and it was only when I checked my internal clock that it was only 34 minutes till the funeral began that I got out of bed, didn't even bother to make myself look presentable but I did use a bit of the air fresheners to make myself not smell like a rotting corpse in the desert sun.

After putting on both sets of armor and pretty much everything else that I brought with me, I grabbed my skeletal left arm and reinsert it back into its socket, and with a bit of an experimental shake it holds firm to its place, and after that I went down to the front desk of the hotel and turn in my room key before heading out toward the palace, and to the rest of my friends.

My walk to the Canterlot Palace was something short of uneventful but upon arriving at the front gate did I realize that the whole event was a big deal, even larger than I had previously thought. All of the people that was probably at my funeral was there, all the girls were at the front door was now just let it, the dogs that I saved and recruited was also there, seemingly waiting on someone of their group to show up, even Discord was there, he was just floating on by the diamond dogs before just pushing the doors in and floated off down the colossal halls.

I stood by the gate for a few seconds before making my way up to the front door and was stopped by the two guards, one was holding a clipboard with what I can clearly see is a list of names, and right at the bottom of that list, right below Rainbow Dash's name, was my false name, and right as I said that was my name they lifted their spears and separated to grant me access.

When the two raised their spears to let me in, I gave the pair a curt nod before walking in and upon entering the palace I realized that I have no idea where to go and the last group to enter has already been out of sight long enough for me not to see them so I am officially lost without even moving an inch.

Lucky for me a servant was walking by and managed to direct me to the field where the funeral was taking place and as I exited the palace to the rear of it and stepped to where everyone has gathered that was when they started to find their seating and directed their attention to the front, and when the last pony sat down I scuttled my way to an empty seat, somewhat near the front with the other diamond dogs and I was praying to whoever was listening in, praying that my cover doesn't get blown this easily.

As I sat down on the small cushions provided to us I watched Katherine walk up to the podium and started the little speech thing for these types of memorials, since she was sometimes the one to kick start it, and is also the one to end them with an ending speech, and just like before she thanked us for coming and for remembering a fallen hero, who is very much still alive and is amongst them but is refusing to speak up out of respect for the one talking and also is waiting for the right moment to reveal the truth.

As the ponies, dogs and gryphon went up and said a few words about me before coming back to take their seat, I was paying close attention to when it was my friends turn to speak up about me, and the things they said about me...was what I somewhat didn't even know how they felt about me.

The first of my friends to go up was Discord, and this was what he had to say about me, "Equins, gryphons, canines...before lies a fallen hero, a dear friend, a one-night-stand, our dear Roran, a man I knew far longer than anyone in this garden, for more than 4,000 years we kept each other company in the solitude of statues, and in those years we got to know one another, pick at each others brains, laugh and joke with each other, but what he has taught me...was that no matter what people say about you, you can always change who you are even when the change might be painful to go through with." and when he floated over to his throne of candy did Twilight Sparkle make her way to the podium, or that I think it was her...hard to tell since the last time I saw her she didn't have a weird crown thingy on her head, hoof-shoes or was larger than her friends and had wings...in fact I think that this is an imposter failing badly...or just Mirias trying to bring laughs to everyone's faces.

"When I first met Roran I was excited that there was life beyond our own in the universe and even more so that they were friendly, and the more we learned from one another is that he learned throughout his life as a trial-and-error, and not once did he ever give up when he was determined to go after his goals, even when one such goal was grisly and I was a witness to it...and-" her speech kept going until it finally ended, I slowly started to move my hand to my helmet, covering half of the front somewhat in shame that I am forced to hear my friends speak about me and I can't do a thing to let them know that I am still alive yet.

And as the day went on did I feel more and more like shit, everyone saying something good about me, the things they said only made me feel worse.

"Roran saved us from being slaves, Roran turned my life around along with my brothers and sisters as we are no longer like the lesser minded of our old selves, he helped improve the readiness of the guards and taught us how to protect ourselves from any possible threats, he saved our little filly, rescued me from getting eaten, taught me how to live again." and just when I thought it was over, I saw Celestia, wearing a pony version of the funeral dress and face mask, she spoke quietly at first before speaking up for all of us to hear.

"Roran...he taught all of us many things...but he also gave us a chance...a chance to learn things that we once never knew of....a chance to live again when we were at our lowest point in our lives....and above all else...he gave us a chance at a family...a few are trying to start one, and it was because of him that you made that last push....we...I just wish he was here...to be with us again...if even for a moment." and it was at that point that her sister had to gently pull her away, Celestia started to weep as she was helped back to her seat and before anyone else made a move toward the podium, I finally stood up and swiftly moved forward.

Once I was up at the podium did I start, and once I got started I was determined not to stop for anyone.

"For those that knew Roran, they only saw him for who he was, a hero, someone to look up to for guidance, a friend, and above all else, a man with a checkered past that not many knew of besides Discord and his old teammates. When I first met Roran, him and I were at each others throats until we made an agreement of sorts to hold each others secrets till the end of our days, and it is about time I say his since I know mine are soon to follow." I cleared my throat for what I am about to do, fully knowing that this was now or never.

"Roran was an asshole to many people, he had anger, drinking and drug issues let alone social problems and was a threat to society for his actions, the crimes he had committed in his time were terrible at best but for all of his atrocious acts he tried his best to redeem himself even when the odds were always being stacked against him. Even before when he was told who his real parents were, he wanted nothing more than to kill them for abandoning him to his fate as an orphan at Armstrong City, but when he met his mother for the first time he changed that action from wanting to murder his family, to wanting to protect it with an over zealous pride that not once faltered. And with the death of his family happening one at a time it broke my--his mind till it was at the breaking point, but he moved on. He told me that when he was turned to stone from partial disintegration, he said that it was a chance for him to begin again when the world has changed...and to let go of his past when the time is right."

"Roran was a man turned into a monster, he killed for people that abused him, that broke his mind and molded it into whatever they saw fit, his masters abused him till they saw nothing more than a broken machine that had seen far to many repairs and was nothing like its former self. But like we said, the past, the hard part of it is letting go of it, let alone letting it sleep, because the past never sleeps, it is just lying in the darkness for the right moment."

It was that that point when Katherine got out of her seat and for a reason that I did not know, she pulled out her pistol, a Predator and when I saw the barrel pointing at my right kneecap I moved my right hand on instinct and pulled out my Talon revolver and placed it into my left hand and had my back facing the crowd as my right hand was by my side. My skeletal left hand weakly holding the heavy pistol in its place by the glove's rough material kept it in place as the trigger finger held firmly in its place as we both stood in a standoff.

Katherine and I stared at each other, waiting for one of us to make the first move but it was her that spoke first when I had expected her to kneecap me or worse aim for my heart.

"You...who are you to say such things, who are you to say that my friend is a monster and how did you get a hold of his gun!" Katherine yelled out as I saw the target laser on her pistol activate and was now pointing firmly at my heart, right where my armor plating will protect me hopefully enough to make it look like a weak shot if it connects properly.

"Really Katherine, I thought that you would have figured it out first...or Discord but both of you have always been slow to figure it out. And everyone else here in attendance, his friends should be piecing it together unless their minds have turned to cheese." and when I said that I clearly saw Rainbow Dash being held back by Applejack and the purple alicorn, a few of the royal guards were also holding each other back along with the diamond dogs doing the same for their own.

"What are you than, some sort of Cerberus agent that was in a stasis pod like the old races that tried to outlast the Reapers...or are you simply a machine disguised as one of us that has been re-wired by the Reapers....tell us!"

I just stare at Katherine for a while before slowly tilting my head to the rest of the ponies, dogs, and everyone else, before unlatching the helmet straps that kept it secure to the armor's neck coverings before slightly lifting it up but I stopped myself.

"All of you should really respect the dead, especially a dead hero." my voice changing half way through as I came back to my real tone, and with that I gripped the bottom of the helmet before slowly pulling it upwards till my head was exposed to the outside world, and everyone gasped in shock, even Katherine who dropped her pistol from the surprising revelation and Hilo'Jaa who was at the moment was about to throw a stun grenade and the thing was still being loosely held.

I grabbed the revolver in my left hand before dropping it, the gun clattering onto the ground as I stepped off the podium and made my way to the crowd, all of them staring at me until I stopped in front of Celestia, letting it take in what I am and I kneeled before her, waiting for her judgement for what I have done.

Celestia's eyes wavered a bit as she stares at me and before I can react, she bolted up to her hooves, taking a short running step and dived towards me. Her wings wrapped around my neck as she tackles me to the ground, and I happily reached around her to wrap her in a big hug. I laid there for a couple minutes as she softly sobs the remnants of her sorrows into my shoulder, but she herself eventually breaks the hug. Sitting on top of me, she let me free from the hug, but the both of us just stayed there until finally we spent enough time on the ground and got up but still staying close to one another. "Thanks, Roran," she sighs, still sobbing a bit, wiping her eyes of any moisture onto my shoulder. "I needed that... for months."

It was only after that we got up off the ground that we both noticed that pretty much every single being in the garden area was looking at us with an extremely large array of expressions, each face different from the one next to them as the both of our faces started to blossom red, mainly Celestia as I was turning red because I completely forgot about everyone around me.

"Erm...uhh...uhh...." I was stuttering for an answer but failing at that I knew that none will come, and Celestia was acting the same way until finally Pinkie Pie, the little law-defying devil herself popped up behind us and pulled us together into a hug and confetti shot out of bum fuck nowhere and that was the last straw for me on trying to understand the pink mare of how she manages to do well...everything.

"This is amazing! My bestest buddy is back from the great party in the sky and now we can all have a 'Glady ou are not dead' party! And there will be cake and balloons and all sorts of party favors! Oh can there be punch and soda! Please oh please let there be punch and soda, I have been a good filly all year! Oh can we also have ermph-" she muffled out as I gently closed her mouth with my good hand, weakly looking at her before quietly saying to her that she was killing the moment that we were sharing.

That was when everyone started to come up to me and we three were pulled into a large group hug, every single pony besides the guards came up to me and hugged what they could get their hooves on followed by the diamond dogs and the two gryphons, and even Luna and Discord was hugging us. The only one that was left out was Twilight and her friends except for Pinkie Pie who was wedged within the group hug, and Twilight was just staring at me confusedly at first before turning into inquisitive stare, her horn starting to glow its lavender hue as she prepared herself for something.

It was during that hug that I was pulled out of by a powerful telekinetic grip and was pulled into a knelling stance in front of Twilight who was glaring at me, her eyes were smoldering with a stare that I had never seen before, a stare of hatred born of something most foul. She took a step forward as her mane started to smoke a bit, small embers rising from it as her stare intensified.

It was at that moment when I thought that she was just checking to see that if I was a changeling was when she shot out a purple beam from her horn right at me, and in my knelling position I created an angled biotic shield to deflect it away from everyone, and it was the color of my biotics that stopped her from doing it a second time.

"If you really are the real Roran, than you would know what the password is in the emergency that the changelings attack us and are starting to take the forms of everypony present." Twilight said with an evil grin, expecting me to not know the correct answer but I replied back with an even larger grin.

"The password is Double Hay Bacon Western Cheeseburger with a side order of large hay fries and a chocolate shake." I said with a shit-eating grin as Twilight's jaw drops open in surprise but the thing that cuts off my victorious grinning was my stomach growled loudly and it reminded me that I didn't eat shit this morning, "Now that I am think about it......I really want one of those right now..." I said again as my stomach growled a second time but louder and everyone stopped what they were doing to look at me while I sheepishly looked away.

Twilight continued to look at me for a while, her jaw still hanging open but she quickly recovered and regained her posture before she mumbled something to herself until she said what she had on her mind, "Okay, that is correct but what is the safe wo-"

"The safe word is 'Banana'."

At that moment I honestly thought she was going to blast me without warning but she lowered her stance and ever so slowly moved closer to me before pulling me into a hug followed by the rest of her friends, Discord, Luna and Celestia, Hilo'Jaa and Katherine and Kara, and I was stuck in the middle of it but I could care less about my privacy being invaded on by my closest friends and my mare. During that hug I let out a soft sigh and just let myself fall into their warm embrace, my head falling onto Kara's shoulder, my cheek feeling the silky smooth fur and I just sigh again before moving my right hand trying to hug someone but being in the middle of a hug pile I didn't have much of a chance to get anyone in particular besides Twilight since everyone else was hugging around the two of us.

It was after a while that we all broke apart from the hug and moved on into the dining hall which was promptly fixed because of my 'arrival' but everybody was abuzz with questions for me, all of them saying what someone else said or asked, everyone was simply ecstatic about my journey back home. As we entered the dining hall I found out rather quickly that this was going to be a feast of the ages, on the table was plates upon plates upon bowls of food, a variety of the stuff was lined up and scattered about the long table and to my surprise there was actually enough seats for everyone, the aroma coming off the food was enough to make my mouth water and quiver with hunger.

When we started to take our places I waited for Celestia to take her spot and I sat between her and Luna, Discord was being himself so he decided to be upside with his own plate and glass being the same as him, Twilight and her friends were to my left, sticking close to Celestia while my friends and accomplices were on Discord's side. As we started to eat I was having some trouble getting a grip on my fork, my hand was shaking something fierce and I had no clear idea as to why it was doing that but as I finally managed to get my fork to the plate did the questions begin and it came from Celestia first.

"Roran...we all thought you had died back at the Crystal Empire when the crystal heart was placed back on the pedestal? We searched every pile of snow for you and we couldn't even find a trace of your body...what happened and how are you back?"

I let out a shallow sigh, not entirely sure on how to come up with a proper response for it but I just let the first thing come to mind out, "Celly...I have no clear idea on how I got out of there, when I died I was in the waiting room for the afterlife and I met my father there, we talked and I was let in to Heaven and Hell, it was...an odd experience to say the least." letting that hang in the air a bit I gingerly lifted up the fork up to my mouth, the lettuce leafs getting close to my lips but my shaking grip finally gave way and my fork clattered to the plate before I brought my arm to my chest in an attempt to stop the shakes.

Fluttershy was the first to pick up on the shaking and actually raised her voice a bit to be heard over the sounds of everyone else chatting about me. "Um...Mr. Roran...your right arm...its shaking...are you okay?"

Looking down at my right arm to still see that it was shaking still than back at the buttercup colored mare, my eyes gazing back to my two friends who were busy talking to themselves but when they heard about the shaking from Fluttershy they stopped their little chat to turn their heads and gazes to my right arm to see the shakes.

"Not really Flutters...not really. I was this close to getting killed by my friends on a suspicion that I was Cerberus...I know I sometimes said that I am not afraid of anything, but dying still scares the shit out of me, and getting killed by my two best friends because of a miscommunication issue is causing me to be a bit unstable at the moment." I said while the shakes continue to course through my right arm, the staggering limb being unresponsive to anything and it takes a few minutes and a healing spell from Celestia that it stops for the moment.

Hearing my two friends apologize to about the 'almost murdered you in front of everyone' was a bit of a shocker, I expected Katherine to just say sorry and move on and Hilo'Jaa to say sorry in a much more exaggerated but instead they did a quiet apology and moved on.

"So buddy of mine, where were you all this time than? I know that a few weeks ago that I felt something watching me, and I just thought it was ol' sunbutt keeping an eye on me but it was you, wasn't it?"

"Ya, that was me watching you Discord...and I was pretty much going up from Africa, the Middle East and Europe...through deserts, forests and hills I marched through it all alone most of the way, sometimes with the company of other travelers, but through my travels I came across other races that have came to occupy the countries of the past...new races that are different from what we know of...and one of them is beyond Equestria in the terms of technology and architecture." and when I said the key words 'New races' and 'Beyond Equestria', Twilight's ears perked up and I knew that I had her undivided attention as I instantly felt her eyes burning a hole in my forehead.

Before she could even have a chance to say anything I pulled out a small folder out from my armor and tossed it across the table as she catches it in her magic, levitating it over her plate and when she opened it she found what she was more than likely hoping for, a full report on my findings.

"Don't say anything Twilight, just say nothing, ask me questions later...much later."

"Roran, you still haven't told us how you are back from the dead." Celestia said with a flat tone, her gaze now on me and the room was dead quiet, no one was breathing too loudly to be heard, and I felt all eyes on me.

Staring at my wine glass, my hand moving over to it, picked it up and swirled the red contents within the crystal glass chalice before drinking it down in one go, my eyes still remained fixated on the glass.

"Two people brought me back from the dead, Death, and your old rival whom Shining and Cadence removed from Canterlot. Chrysalis tried everything in her magical arsenal to raise me from the dead and Death took his sweet time to bring me out from the grave to continue working for him."

"Chrysalis! Why would she-"

"Celestia...please just listen. She brought me back not to be used as a meal for her people, but to speak to her mother...the creator of her entire species was from my era. At first I thought that the changelings were nothing but insect ponies but when I met her mother...I found out the true origins of their kind, the rachni evolved and stayed as themselves to survive. Half of the rachni became the first changelings but were not perfect and only when they caught a few ponies did the next generation of changelings become what they are, instead of feeding on well, the flesh of anything alive they instead feed on emotions, and oddly enough human emotions proved to be like a long lasting meal to them. Chrysalis also said that she is sending or has already sent a representative to discuss a truce between the two of you. I openly suggest you take it.", all hell broke loose at that.

"Why the buck would you agree with that Roran!" "She tried to take over Equestria!" "She is evil and would enslave everypony to feed her changelings!" "She is a big ol' meanie mean pants!" "Eh, I just hate her cause she is green." "Wow, racist much Kat?" "What? I just hate the color green, and by god she is a walking testament to everything I hate, bugs, green and crazy." "So like you?" "Oh kiss my ass."

I raised my good hand, somehow silencing them as I spoke over them "The reason as to why I am supporting the truce is that it will be a win-win solution to the constant disappearances and the fighting between the two races. Chrysalis will receive any prisoners that Equestria has to be a stable food source and the monthly food leeching from me, and she will remove all of her disguised changelings from Equestria and any that enter must not be hidden from sight. They get their food and we don't have to worry about getting taken at night to be their food source, that and we have an ally that can shape shift into anything to be spies. So see, a win-win."

"So how did you manage to get Chrysalis to even agree to such a thing? Because I know that she would never agree unless there was something of equal value that she would gain from the treaty."

"The reason why she agreed to this was that I threated to set my armor's power core to critical levels that would kill me, her and/or her mother." I calmly stated as I looked around the table till my eyes caught onto a very tasty look platter of cheese wedges.

"Your kidding right?" Luna said quizzically as I took a nibble on a cheese wedge that was calling my name.

"Yes. I am not a diplomat, if she wanted to have made a change to it than she would have said so but since she was toying with me and was getting free meals out of my unconscious state I decided that the penalty of death to her and her mother along with the probability of her hive would set her straight. I don't make deals unless it is for my benefit or if it is to complete the objective for the mission. We can breathe easy for now until she finds a loophole, which would be hard at the moment." as everyone started to simmer down I grabbed a second and third cheese wedge along with a bottle of wine as I refilled my glass and that was when I felt a chill creep up my spine as I slowly brought the glass to my lips.

I stared at my wine glass for a few moments, my eyes watching the red liquid ripple with each motion, my eyes not even moving away from the simple wave ripples until I felt a wing slowly wrap itself around my left shoulder, my head turned to see Celestia pulling me into a partial hug, her head resting on my shoulder and it wasn't before long that the sounds of giggling and barely suppressed laughs start to rise in the dining hall.

"So..." Luna said as she looked at the two of us while Pinkie and Dash were trying hard not to rip on me, or to start doing the whole 'Me and Celestia sitting in a tree' crap cause I had to listen to that shit way to often on my ride to the Citadel, "Roran, how long have you and Celestia been seeing each other?" at the mere mention of me going out with Celestia I nearly gagged on my drink and coughed some of it back into my glass as Celestia quickly withdrew her wing back and her face was blushing brightly.

'Bloody déjà vu moment...'

Looking at Celestia to see her face still red and Luna was in a giggling fit, and seeing how I was partially tipsy from the wine I gently grabbed Celestia's left wing and placed it back around my shoulder with a smile before speaking up, "Well...I think it was two Hearts and Hooves days ago...before I left for the Crystal Empire. And we are not officially together, more like just two friends being really close....erm...I forgot what that term was..."

"You mean colt and marefriends Roran?" Twilight said as I placed my glass down on top of a cheese wheel.

"Uh...I guess..." I turned to Celestia who was looking at me before giving a small nod, blushing even more before placing a light kiss on my cheek, in turn making me blush, and it received a bit of help from the wine I was drinking.

"Roran and Celestia sitting in a tree, k.i.s.s.i.n.g., first came love, second came-" Pinkie and Dash said together and before they could finish I placed both in a Stasis bubble, the look on my face was clearly written with not amused.

"They will never find your bodies if you finish that song." flatly saying as I grabbed a thin knife and cut my cheese wedge into small chunks before placing them on a few assorted cracks, my mind musing on the fact that it now looks like something that would be served at a fancy dinner party, but seeing how I am quite literally at one I laughed it off mentally.

After a few minutes of playful banter, ludicrous questions and a few pranks on one another did the day start to draw to a close but one question that was brought up made everyone listen in to what I had to say.

"Well...being dead sorta sucks, and is sorta awesome. Sure you can't speak to your living friends ever again unless your a ghost, which they would think they are being haunted and mind you that I did do that a while I was dead recently...sorry about the bubble bath incident Twilight." as I said the bubble bath incident part Twilight started to chuckle nervously while blushing slightly. What I did was basically fill her tub with the entire bottle of bubble soap, and right when she got in I made it look like a Brute and quite literally and possibly scared the living shit out of her cause she fell out of the tub face first before running out of the bathroom with a towel around her flank. I was laughing for days in Hell.

"Anyways as I was saying, when you are dead you are basically just waiting in the sky looking down at everyone, and trust me the main past time in the waiting room is sitting on a cloud watching everyone live their lives. Oh, and while you are there sitting and watching an angel, or in a few cases for me a devil, would come up to you and basically study your case file and see whether or not you make it into Heaven, cause if you don't make it you get an express ticket to Hell, and let me tell you about Hell...its horrible."

"Whats it like? For Hell I mean, I heard that its nothing more than a giant underground cave filled with boiling hot lava, little demons and monsters torturing the souls of the damned...right?"

"Actually Rainbow Dash, Hell is more like a giant office building, every single demon, imp, monster etc. are sitting in a cubical, working away on useless paperwork that never gets approved of and the souls of the damned are basically the ones that have to read through each and every single piece of paper and send it to the proper demon it needs to go to. In all it is a very, very, very boring ass place to be. Its not the lava that scares me about that place, its the piles of paperwork that I have backed up waiting for me back there." I visibly shuttered at the thought of returning back to hell again cause I know for a fact that if I do go back there for any reason that stack of paperwork would just fall on top of me like an avalanche.

Picking through my plate of crumbs, cheese bits and small flakes of what I can guess was meaty bits of some creature that was served the lunch or dinner or whatever the hell it is starts to die down, everyone started to come to me to give me a hug, saying that they are happy to know that I am alive and well, a few of them punched me for dying in the first place and those same also hugged me tighter than the rest before punching me again, Discord on the other hand had a pie waiting for me and I saw it coming but knew that he at least deserved this one.

Whipping the pie bits off my face I turned to see who else was left and noting that pretty much everyone but the staff, a few guards, a giggling dark alicorn and a blushing white alicorn, and myself. As to why Luna was giggling like a little schoolgirl confused me for a while until I felt the wing that was on my left arm let go and drop back to its owner's side as I watched Celestia take off her crown and placed it on top of the table and when I looked back at Luna to see what she was giggling at I was only directed by her hoof towards me, and when I looked at myself I turned my head to Celestia which was by than right in my face, her lips puckered up and I pretty much moved into the kiss. Sadly the kiss was more like one-sided as Celestia did all the work and when she figured out that I was a bit surprised by the semi-bold act and she pulled back to try it a second time which received much better results as I kissed her in return for the botched first but this time it was perfect as lips connected and the giggling from Luna kept on going as we ignored her childish antics.

I knew about when a pegasus gets aroused their wings slowly and/or quickly unfurl to their full lengths and throb slightly from the blood flow like any other male genitalia, but what I forgot was that Celestia had wings also. And when we started to get into our kissing, her wings slowly began to unfurl and when they reached their full lengths I was pretty damn surprised by it because I heard the softest of pomf noises and when I opened my eyes to see what it was, low and behold was her wings, fully extended in all of its glory, and as we got into our kiss the sounds of someone gasping followed by a dozen more draws us out from each others embrace as we turn to see what was the commotion.

Turning to see who made the gasp we both saw Twilight standing there agasp and as the door was pushed open by the others more gasps could be heard, and like a domino effect everyone that was in attendance besides the dogs were just flabbergasted by the sight of me kissing the solar princess, and in the heat of the moment and in my somewhat addled mind I gently moved my right hand under Celestia's chin, turned it to face me again, than placed a wet kiss right on her lips. The results was something that I did not expect to happen, her wings closed when she saw everyone looking at her but the sudden kiss made them shoot back out and that her front hooves moved to my shoulders and pretty much held my ground as her weight almost threw me off balance but I held myself as her weight barely moved me, but the prying eyes of over twenty people was making me a bit uncomfortable but I could care less about what they think. But one person amongst the crowd, Discord, started making cat calls and Celestia and I just mentally rolled our eyes before we broke it off and odd as it is, left abruptly by teleportation, and by abruptly I mean I gave Discord the middle finger while Celestia charged up her horn and made us both vanish as Discord stuck his tongue out at me.

When we re-appeared we were in Celestia's chambers, her room was just the way it was when I was last in here, except it was a bit darker...and had a hell of a lot more dust on the mirror. It was during that moment of silence that I lowered my guard, both physically and mentally that Celestia asks me the armor-piercing question that I have avoided so long by everyone I met.

"Roran, you surprise me at every turn...you have lost everything in a war that destroyed everything in existence, your friends are gone and scattered, everything has turned against you and yet you keep moving on through the worst the world has to offer....how do live with yourself as everything falls apart around you?"

"Celly...sometimes the person who tries to keep everyone happy is always the most lonely person, so never leave them alone because they will never say that they need you...and for all these years I tried to my best for every single person back than and every pony in Equestria safe and happy, and yet you were the only one that was able to bring a real smile to my face." I said as her wings started to once again wrap itself around me, pulling me in to her body as I eventually felt her fur on my face and before long I felt the softness envelope my back until I saw past her head to see a pure white ceiling and only a slight tilt of my head to see that we are both in her room, the same room where I almost confessed...before I was shipped off to the Crystal Kingdom.

We stayed like that the entire night, wrapped around the other in a hug until we slowly started to fall asleep, Celestia on top of me with my face buried in soft velvety fur. A fine way to die a few would say but because of the way my face was facing, I only was slightly smothered.

Next Morning

When the sun shone through the windows, I awoke to the coldness of the room, no soft pony to hold onto as the night before but the sounds of a faucet running told me that Celestia was in the bathroom, tending to herself as I laid on the bed motionless, staring at the ceiling, my mind contemplating the last part of the question over and over again.

'How do you live with yourself?'

And the answer is simple.

"I never truly did live with myself..."

And no one was around to hear the truth.

End of Arc 2

Outpost B-11

*Objective Updated*

Bonus Chapter 2: Ignis Prime Recon Protocole

Outpost B-11

The sounds of hissing machinery and humming lines power through the ancient facility, darkness that once ruled the deserted halls fill once again with the light, a terminal screen turns on and brightens as a ragged, old voice sputters before auto-correcting itself and speaks again. Several pod shaped vessels line the ribs of the building, each one cracked, damage and decrepit as the occupants inside are long gone or are forever shut down from the power loss ages ago.

*Initializing Start-Up Routines, Powering Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Quaternary Systems, All Systems Fully Functioning, Power Levels At Maximum, Facility Systems Online, Status: Intact and Whole*

The light filters through several of the pods, revealing within its single occupant, their body hunched over to either side of the pod, laying back against the gel bed or slumped against the class, their skeleton or still rotting carcass waiting within to be released from their prison and to be laid to rest alongside their families. The pods slowly turn active as electrical energy is pumped through the wiring, the lights outside of each pod beam outward as they bounce slightly along the tarnished reflective to reveal the rest of the storage area of the facility.

*Objective Updated*

As the pods get powered on, they slowly start to crack open, releasing a few occupants from their eternal restraint onto the ground, and as more began to open up the bodies started to drop onto the ground, many of them are unresponsive or moving in general, many more down the line is the same thing as the first few with the exception of a few twitching sporadically before freezing up and going limp, the last few in the line tumble out and groan and gasp for air, the few remaining living people wheezing for air or warmth of another upon their frigid bodies.

*Retrieval*

The few people that survived within the confines of their pods slowly got to their feet, many of them are different in the terms of race, body structure, gender and age, and each one as they got up looked at one another, trying to remember who they are and who the person they are looking at is, to remember if they are friend or foe, mate or friend, or just what they are doing there. It was only moments later when the soft murmuring of weak, cracked voices come from those that are able to speak, trying to become coherent enough to communicate once again with those around them, and seconds later the muffled sounds of soft soles on the cushioned rubber tiles come closer until the living spot the appearances of tall, slender beings, their heads oval in shape, their bodies making soft noises until they come within close proximity until they saw what it was.

Security Mech's, each of them bearing the symbol of a red cross, and each one gently lifting up a single survivor before gently leading them off down the corridors to some unknown location.

POV: #27

I felt myself get pulled off the comfort of the soft floor, someone helped me off the ground and led me down a hall of smeared red and grey squares, the person that was holding me up was cold, very thin and its head was oval and had a glass face, only two red rectangular eyes were present as it helped me down the long hall till we got to a room with a strange chair surrounded by metal hooks and claws. I couldn't even see straight, my eyes were hurting and they wouldn't focus on anything whenever I tried to set my sights on something. I could only guess that before I was in that strange pod was that my vision was damaged and was not completely fixed, but from what I can see through the haze of my eyes I can tell that this strange device will leave me different from when I came into the room.

The person or machine that helped me into the room told me in a very calm voice to lay down onto the auto-doc and wait for the medical systems to activate and repair the damages that my body has sustained before and after I was in the pod for the ghosts above knows how long. A face appeared on the monitor in front of the supposed 'auto-doc', it looked like some sort of elderly man with a beard that hasn't been shaved in years and the sagging in his skin only proved that he indeed was an elderly person.

*Mr. Folson, your records shows that your vision in both eyes are partially destroyed from exposure to a dangerous chemical, nearly rendering you blind. Our records also shows that your musculature system has signs of damage from the same chemical exposure, your muscles are weaker than that of a normal fully grown human being which must be rectified. Your voice box is from what my scans show, is destroyed from being slashed open by a serrated acid coated blade back on Mindoir, we can have that easily repaired.*

I looked at the screen, my eyes barely able to focus on the screen but than again his voice was the only thing I needed to hear as it allowed me to paint a picture of the old man's face.

*If you accept what I would need you to do, I will repair your eyes and restore your muscles to its original strength and enhance your entire body to that of what we could have been before the extinction happened.*

Looking at the screen than at myself, my eyes may be screwed up but I can still see that my muscles have simple got up and left me, my body already looks frail enough to break on a weak impact, my body sucks already and the offer was just too much to be true but at this very moment I didn't have much of a choice.

*Excellent, now lay down on the lounge chair and relax, the procedure will take some time but you would never notice the time lapse.*

I did as I was instructed, laying down on top of the lounge chair and closed my eyes, hoping that the machine above did as it was told to do.

4 Hours Later

The wave of drowsiness passes over me as my eyes open up, my vision blurry at first until they fix themselves until I can finally see perfectly, my eyes now picking up tiny details in everything that I see, everything was picture perfect to me. Next I tried to move my body to get a look at it to see if it has changed like my eyes, but to my dismay I saw crisscross of stitches all over my body along with strange metal prongs sticking out of my elbows, shoulder blades, hands, knees, ankles, thighs and along my back. I have no idea what the prongs are for or what their purposes are but for all I know it was meant as a defense mechanism like an electrical discharge or something, but even the slightest movements causes pain to lance all over my body, the pain would have been terrible but for some reason I could no longer feel myself, not even the cold air on my skin.

*I see you have noticed the new you, I would say that I am impressed with the changes I have made to your entire body but sadly there was one part of you that I could not fix, your voice box has been completely destroyed from both the blade cutting it in half and the acid eating the rest of it in the process. But you must have noticed the prongs all over your body, those will be explained in the armory but for now the LOKI will escort you to your next destination. And since you can no longer speak you would not have to worry about back talking to anyone that you come across on your mission or be able to tell any interrogators about your presence for being there.*

As the terminal screen in front of me winks off, two LOKI mech's enter the room, bearing the symbol of an two guns crossing over a shield and the two of them helped me to my feet before guiding me toward what the machine said was the 'armory', and I could only guess what I was supposed to be getting let alone retrieve from such a building.

The section of the facility they led me to was a room that acted as both weapon depository and also a vault, the door was give or take two feet thick of pure metal, secured by heavy-duty hinges and bolts and the inside was heavily built to be impenetrable from the outside. The interior from where I was standing was a short room but from behind the counter was a massive storage area, weapons, armor and ammunition lined the walls, rifles, pistols, grenades, rockets and explosives were each in their own categories, clearly separated from one another along with the armor being divided by type and weight.

Waiting on the counter was what I think are weapons and my armor, the weapons are rectangular in shape but when I lightly brushed one of them, it unfolded into a much larger shape, truly making itself out as a rifle of sorts. The rifle in question was somewhat streamline, a scope was installed on the top rail and the barrel was short, the stock was otherwise compensating for the shortness of the barrel by having itself as large as the barrel half as it probably is meant for the reduction of the recoil when fired. Written on the side of it was in white a bold 'N7', the small piece of plastic that was hanging off the barrel had its name on it, the 'N7 Valiant' it was called.

The next weapon an ivory white rectangle, about roughly half the size of the rifle, and when touched it began to unfold into an unusual shape, it was compact and was easy to wield in one hand but the grip under the tiny barrel meant that it could have another hand on the grip to provide much better control when fired. A small plastic tag hanging on the barrel called it a 'M-25 Hornet', and attached to the hornet was a high-velocity barrel and on the back of it above the grip was a recoil-dampening system.

Last weapon was painted red with a large white skull imprinted on the side, when I picked it up it unfolded itself into a large hand-cannon, the thing itself was heavy as hell as it gave me pause as to why such a heavy weapon would be given to me. It was like the rest of the weapons I had except for the trigger guard was much farther away from the trigger and the hammer was exposed so an object if I am unlucky could get caught in between the parts preventing the action from going through, but the shear weight of the heavy pistol told me that this was a one-shot-one-kill weapon, a weapon that could be used against a target that can resist the other two I have at my disposal.

*I see you are getting familiar with your weapons of your new trade, that is good because those three will be your only means of defending yourself alongside with carrying out your mission, do not under any circumstances lose them let alone get them damaged. There is only so much spare parts and scrap metal we have within the facility to fix and repair everything we have at our disposal. Now move onto your new armor, just step into it and the rest should take care of itself.*

On the counter was my armor and upon picking it up it unfolded before me, it was matte black, it looked not very bulky so protection must not be its number one priority, a probability is that it is meant for reconnaissance and stealth. All over the black synthetic material was hexagon shapes, each one touching the other in an endless sea of reflective shapes, the light itself bouncing off the material and it began to partially blend in to the surrounding area, almost turning it invisible to the naked eye. The helmet of the suit of armor was strange, it had a hood covering the top part and instead of the traditional glass covering of the face it was only two glass lenses that also had the same hexagon pattern and each one was giving a ghastly light green aura.

*That to which you are holding Mr. Folson is the Mk VI stealth suit, created by the Earth Systems Alliance for their deep infiltration teams to sneak into heavily fortified positions and to take it apart from within. This specific suit has been modified with a much larger energy cell and micro-solar panels to provide limitless power to the suit, so worrying about turning visible at the worst possible moment won't matter, but because of the panels you would only have to worry about the suit being damaged enough for them to break for if those panels break you would be revealed and power would have to be diverted to conceal yourself yet again but with a far weaker stealth field surrounding you. So don't do anything reckless while wearing it or otherwise you will be stuck between a rock and a hard place.*

Nodding at the seemingly godly voice I looked back at the armor in my hands before I stepped into the opening of it and felt it attach to the prongs, latching onto them before stiffening up like taut muscles than as quickly as they became stiff they go slack as I felt the suit adjust to my body structure, and when I moved to the helmet part of the suit I felt it slither across my face and attach itself once on the other side and the hood rolled over the top of my head before stopping slightly above my eyes.

*Your mission, Mr. Folson, is relatively simple. Bring back any and all Pre-War tech back to this facility, it does not matter what its purpose was or if it is even functional, if it is broken we can scrap it for parts and if it does work we can figure out its purpose at a later given date. And if you come across other survivors, tag them for pick up and I will send in a Mantis to take them home here. You have permission to use lethal force on anything that will get in your way but otherwise be diplomatic to build bridges with any new indigenous species that has taken over our home. And for the duration of your leave, your new name for when addressed by any locals shall be, Benoit Hakon, your codename for this mission will be Phantom.*

*For now just avoid any locals you may encounter. You are dismissed.*

Prolouge: Last of my Line

The Beginning of the End

Memory Sequence 1

Omega, 2184 CE, Two years before Reaper Invasion

Omega, is described as 'the Terminus Systems' dark, twisted counterpart to the Citadel.' It is a huge mining station built from the remains of a massive, irregularly shaped asteroid with twisting streets populated with homes, shops and warehouses. Omega's inhabitants are usually lawless. Territory is controlled by the strongest faction in that area and frequently changes hands, often after brutal violence. The station's current "de facto" ruler is Aria T'Loak. As of 2185, Omega has a population of 7.8 million people, composed of various different species some of them I liked more than others. The station's major exports are element zero, illegal arms, drugs, and slaves if available, mostly illegal arms and drugs by all the hacked communication hubs I 'acquired' during my stay..

To me it was one large ass shit-hole that needed to have a grenade shoved inside of it and to have someone on the other end to watch it all explode, that and it was also my home away from home. Omega had everything for me to be offered, legal and illegal drugs whether it strikes my fancy, illegal arms that were better than standard-issue arms, weapon mods which always came handy when I wanted to get rid of some merc that gives me the occasional problem, and of course the random task that helps pay the rent since the Alliance doesn't bother to send me the credits to my temporary home, lazy bastards if you asked me.

Upon walking back to my home I noticed a great deal of things that was wrong about it and by wrong I mean there are no dead bodies by it, it looks like it was cleaned up while I was out sharing a beer with my employer, one Aria T'Loak, and also that my doorway to my home was guarded by two humans clad in heavy armor, both carrying M-8 Avenger Assault Rifles, on their armor was the symbol for Earth Systems Alliance, that gave me one thought.

'Oh shit they found me here...okay ummm....erm... okay Plan B!'.

But unfortunately Plan B was none other than just see what they want from me and hope for the best, and in my case being told to go into my house and sit down on the broken sofa, which I did before flipping both soldiers off with my signature one-finger salute to them. Never liked Alliance soldiers never will, unless they are just like me and just want the next paycheck to blow it all on booze, dancers and better weapon mods.

"Lt. Commander Roran 'Telendis' Zidane, we have been expecting you." came the familiar voice from within the room, a voice that I only knew as my old link to the past, Admiral Steven Hacket.

"Oh for fucks sakes..."

End Sequence 1

Celestia’s sun was shining brightly on Ponyville that beautiful summer morning. There was naught a cloud in the sky for as far as the eye could see leaving a veritable sea of blue over everypony’s head. A large column of smoke rose up from the Everfree forest, probably as a result of a fire; although it had been an uncharacteristically wet summer so there was no worry that it might spread towards the village. In truth, the light scent of sulfur it left was actually quite pleasant. It smelled like a fireplace during autumn or that of smoked mahogany and best of all, it did nothing to taint the freshness of the air. Off towards the rolling hills that lay east of the town there rose a stunning rainbow fresh out of the weather factories at Cloudsdale.

It was a perfect summer’s day, a day for one thing. Reading.

Just as the sun started to rise over the horizon everypony was moving about their regular business, ponies strolling around town talking to each other, many fillies and colts running around the village park as they enjoyed the cool air and the warmth of the sun as they played games with one another. As the ponies in Ponyville began their day and moved about to tend to their business and other daily habits, one such pony was Applejack as she happily went to her food stand in the marketplace. As she was going to her stand behind her was her older brother Big Macintosh, carting behind him a wagon filled with baskets filled to the prim of apples, both ponies on their way towards the marketplace to sell the apple produce along with other apple related products such as apple tarts, tatters, caramel apples and lastly, apple pie.

As the two went off towards the market, a lavender mare was in the library that was carved out of a tree and served as the only library in the village, the mare known as Twilight Sparkle was busy going face first into a new book that has arrived recently to her humble abode earlier that week all the way from Canterlot on her request. As the lavender mare was enjoying her new book, one titled "Ghosts of the Past" which she grew a deep interest in, the book held within its leather bound pages the ghosts of previous empires and kingdoms before the two royal sisters took over the continent of Equestria. During her time of reading the nearly ancient old tome, her number one assistant Spike was busy cleaning up after the bookworm's early minute rise to start reading the tome and other books relative to it, which in turn left a fairly large pile of books in the middle of the library's main hall.

Over the houses of Ponyville a rainbow blur was zipping around the skies colliding into soft puffy white clouds dispersing them into smaller puffs before fading away into the atmosphere, the rainbow blur itself was moving in an erratic fashion that eventually stopped on the last white cloud in the sky before doing a somersault and landing gently onto said cloud with a barely audio-able poof. Flying from cloud to cloud can be exhausting work but for one athletic mare it was no problem, the cyan pegasus with the prismatic mane was known as Rainbow Dash, always calling herself a 'future wonderbolt', a dream that she has been trying to achieve for many years even when she was a little filly, and at each chance she got to woo and impress them, they weren't paying attention when the tricks happened. Not knowing that one of her fans was watching her she decided to take a nap on the cloud she was laying face first on and was no doubt off in dreamland, dreaming about flying with the wonderbolts while wearing her own uniform.

As Rainbow Dash was sleeping on her cloud, Twilight Sparkle reading an ancient tome, and Applejack selling apples and apple products at the market, a gingerbread house shaped building was in full swing of its business as ponies left and right entered and left satisfied with their order of sweets of all shapes and sizes. Behind the counter of the sweet store was two earth ponies Mr. and Mrs. Cake, while behind them was the kitchen were a single pink party mare with an ungodly sign of bedhead was busy baking, frosting and moving the sweets from the counter, the oven and the trays about in a chaotic fashion that it was a wonder that nothing was burnt, over-frosted, or even squished with all the movement taken place.

On the other side of Ponyville was a large building that looked different from the rest, a sign outside of the building read "Carousel Boutique" and inside was a store filled with ponykins covered in unique and awe-inspiring dresses and clothes that were gem-studded and made of exquisite materials. In the backroom of the boutique was a ivory white mare known as Rarity, was busy at a sewing machine creating yet another work of art made of fabrics and gems in which will make the pony who made the order be in awe and come back soon for another order of yet another exotic dress. Laying down near the ivory seamstress was a white Persian cat known only as Opalesence who was busy sleeping on a roll of spider silk and was happily dreaming of herself chasing after a mouse who has wandered to close to the kitty while eating her daily breakfast. Behind the two in the 'idea room' was a smaller white unicorn with a lilac mane who was in the kitchen having her hoof at cooking in which she somehow magically burned pudding. No questions asked.

And Lastly over at the edge of the Everfree Forest lies a little cottage surrounded by small hoof-crafted homes for the woodland critters that occasionally visit the yellow pegasus with the pink mane, as shy as she is she always manages to tend to the critters that visit the cottage varying from the small birds and ducks to the otters, bears and occasional wolf that comes by to visit. As shy as she may be Fluttershy when it comes to other ponies the one thing she was never nervous about was tending to the animals that was under her care, except for the manticore that tried to eat her and her friends in the Everfree Forest two and a half years ago. As she glided about her home a small white bunny was sleeping inside a dog house...bunny house with half-eaten carrot next to pillow it was laying on.

As the sun hits mid-day all the way in Canterlot in the palace, Princess Celestia was busy talking to a group of excavators who found an underground ruins which once belonged to a long gone race in which of the likes that have never seen before, and amongst the ruins are nothing but powdered bones, shreds of fabric that disintegrated upon contact, and crumbled buildings. The group came to ask for a way and a means to get assistant in the excavation project to unearth the species that had previously lived there before their untimely demise, and with her blessing they left back to the dig-site in the deepest parts of the Everfree Forest, near the lair of the Diamond Dogs, but ever since the digging crew came by in force with royal guards the dogs left the site alone for them, but to their dismay taking almost everything of value such as gems or shiny objects.

Everfree Forest, Underground Cave, Lair of the Diamond Dogs, Mid-Day

"So...Daring Doo...where did you say these ancient ruins are again? Cause by the details you gave us and the princess you said it was at least two days walk to the new dig-site and that it was still filled with relics of a past civilization. I can only hope that you are not lying and have taken the relics for yourself because if these relics are indeed of a past civilization than that means whoever was before us must have met a fate that they did not want. And if we can find out how to avoid this fate then we can spare Equestria from whatever cataclysmic event that took them." said the head excavator Dusty Spades, an old colt with a mute brown coat, grey/blue mane with a magnifying glass crossing a dusting brush.

"Yea Dusty, these ancient ruins I found are here, only problem was getting past those dogs and getting back out without getting caught was a challenge, but getting out with some proof that these relics existed was even more of a challenge." she said while pulling out an odd looking device, at first it looked like a metallic rectangle with glowing blue lights with faded red paint on it, but as soon as she clicked a small button on the side with her tongue, it started to expand outward until it became a strange device that resembled the gryphons talon-held crossbows but without the bow.

"See? This always happens when I click the tiny button on the side, and I don't know what it is supposed to do but I think it is some sort of weapon or something, but whatever it is I think it is important." Daring Doo clicks the small button again as it folds upon itself back into its original rectangular shape as she puts it back into her saddle bags and continues to walk down the path that is now being illuminated by solar crystals implanted into the cavern walls, and at each interval of 20 crystals was a posting of two royal guards.

"Alright...but whatever it is that you are holding in those saddle-bags of yours is important to that species and if that was some sort of sacred relic and if that thing releases some curse of sorts than we better put it back where it was. And for Celestia's sakes I just hope that those dogs didn't take any relics or else I am going to be a very...very angry old stallion...please let those relics be safe." said the old stallion before going into a coughing fit and regaining his senses, until both him and Daring Doo step onto an already crumbling rocky floor, their combined weight causing it to collapse beneath them, sending both down into the depths of the caverns until both land in a heap of limbs, rocks and dust.

As soon as both wake up from their little concussion induced sleep, they both looked around the chamber they have fallen into, and both of their jaws have dropped immediately upon what they have found, an entire street filled with buildings that have barely seen the signs of the time and aging, still in the same condition that have left them in when it fell into the earth when the ground beneath them caved in under the combined weight of the above. What they saw was enough to thank Celestia for everything she has ever done for them and everyone else.

"Wow...this...this is...amazing...I never knew such a place can exist underground and not show any sign of aging! These buildings must have been enchanted with a preservation spell to keep it in from falling apart, I wonder how tall these beings were and how they communicated, I bet they were majestic and even have had the power to move the sun and moon themselves!" Dusty said while slowly moving about the ruined streets, looking at with awe and almost envy since it was orderly but at the same time a mess since it was cracked and damaged beyond repair.

"Dusty Spades, do you know where we are cause I have no clue on where this place is and by the look in the ceiling where we fell in...it looks like a good drop and my wings are kinda injured so yea....we are stuck down here until help arrives and we have no idea on how to get back up besides flying...so any ideas besides exploring this area?" said Daring while checking her wings for damage, which their was small signs of damage and a most of her feathers were ruffled up and bent meaning flying was going to be a challenge.

Ignoring her little talk while marveling the buildings that have evaded time and managed to remain solid until now was an understatement on how he actually felt, in reality this was his dream come true and that he was living it to the fullest.

As he looked around he noticed that their was eight buildings around him, four on his left and four on his right, and each building was different and had each a different model and layout, but within each building was the same thing. Each and every single building had piles of powdered bones, shredded clothing, piles of ashes, different rectangular shapes of metal with glowing lines, and whatever the building was offering at the time of its annihilation.

"Relics of the past...if only they were still alive...what could they have accomplished...what would they do if they have met us....would we have been friends or would we have been foes....we would never kn-" Dusty's monologue was interrupted by the sounds of somepony gasping loud enough for him to snap out of his daydream.

Turning around and trotting slowly to where Daring was, he too gasped in shock, for what was before the two was none other than a statue of a large bipedal creature that was appeared to have been covered head-to-toe in armor, in its right arm was a very large device that appeared to have been some sort of miniature Scorpio ballista while in its left arm was a strange octagon rounded shaped object, the statue itself was wearing a cloak covering its head along with most of its body. The statue appeared to have been doing some sort of rallying cry and by the looks of its body it must have been leading the charge against an enemy that have invaded their home .This tall statue was easily towering both ponies by an easy four feet as the ponies themselves were only three feet tall except for Dusty who was only half foot tall because of his horn.

"Dusty....is this one of the beings that owns this cavern?" she said while looking at the large statue in awe, never before seeing a creature as this before even though she has traveled all over Equestria and beyond its borders to neighboring nations in search of relics and treasure, but this colossal creature was something she has never before seen, right next to the Titan Spider that nearly ate her when she traveled to the Marshes of the Damned in the Southern Rainforests.

"No Daring...by how large it is and what it is wearing and holding...this must have rather been a soldier of some kind or maybe an invader of another country coming to take over....we will never know unless we can find clues of these beings past...we will have to piece it together bit by bit...if we can find out about them." said Dusty as he slowly approached the statue he scanned it over with his magic, trying to sense anything about its age, condition, and most importantly if it is damaged and in hopes of repairing it so that it can be later placed in a museum or in the Canterlot Royal Gardens.

While the two were admiring the statue, neither of them were away that the statue itself was aware of their presence and was waiting for the perfect time to make its move.

Old London Streets, Petrified Body, My Mind

"I swear to the gods above and below Discord that if you keep fucking me with like that I am going to rip that snaggletooth out of your head, shape it into a guitar pick and play you the song of my people. And also why the hell are you making it rain chocolate milk inside my head! I hate chocolate milk almost as much as I hate you so get the fuck out of here before I decide to shove this large chunk of coal so far up your ass you will be coughing up diamonds." I said in pure anger and rage at the spirit of chaos and disharmony.

"But my dear friend Roran, what will you do without me? Go insane and be all alone for the next, what was it now nearly a billion years as a statue? You sir impress me to no end for I would have gone sane if I was trapped for that long all by myself."

"How fucking long were you stuck as a bloody statue Discord, four thousand years? Two thousand? For I have already broke your record of being a statue and will forever be the bearer of 'Worlds Longest Stoned Being' in which I will gladly wear that title like it was a badge of honor, hell if you knew what else being stoned means than you too would wear it like a badge." I said while creating a fake badge that reads out 'Stoner Champion of All Time' with a big pot plant in the background, and just for added laughs I stitch the pin into my left lapel of my armor for which I know if I ever get out will never appear in that place.

"Well anyways Roran as long as we are statue-buddies I do have a few things to say, such as that being a statue isn't so bad, I mean come now we are now immortal, never need to eat or breath, everypony visits us on a regular basis and we are always taken care of, I mean look at the old gryphon king that got turned to stone by his own pet basilisk." Discord said while pointing at a fairly large burly gryphon that was wearing an eye-patch over his left eye and was wearing tattered royal robes, feathers were rich-brown color with red edges. For me I just thought I was going insane after dealing with Discord for to long but I later realized that my sanity went out the fucking window when I started talking to him.

"Aye Roran lad, it is not so bad bein' a statue and all that, sure I can never get a harem or somethin' similar but who needs aging right? I'm mean sure we can outlive everything as long as we are stone but what is the fun in being alive, sure no more good strong ale to get us shitfaced or food so rich in flavor that we would want more but who would want that?"

"I swear when this is over...I am tossing both of your statues into a swamp..." I growled at them since their voices are starting to sound like nails on a blackboard or even metal forks on a plate, my pet peeves right next to someone leaving the milk open and letting it turn to pudding, someone forgetting to close the fridge door, or my favorite, someone eating the last of the meatloaf and leaving the container inside the fridge for me to find the next day.

"Oh Roran you should know by now that you can't throw us into a lake, first off is that you are a statue, second off is by that you look, you couldn't even handle a shot of raspberry schnapps let alone a statue of our size, and lastly, because if you did than you would be destroying Royal Canterlot property, and you would not last in the dungeons."

"Bite my shiny metallic ass Discord I can easily throw both your statues into a swamp and still have energy to pull both of you back out, just to throw you back in and laugh in the process." I said while laughing my ass off due to the fact that I was talking to a spirit while I am a statue and that he was my only company besides the random statues and spirits that float by in this purgatory of sorts.

"Ya know lad you should calm down and take a deep breath, relax and enjoy the endless halls and blankness. Also lad you should enjoy this while it lasts cause sooner or later that statue of yours will eventually crack up and fall apart, and ya will finally be free of this Celestia forsaken place." said the old Gryphon while stroking his beard fluff, seemingly acting like a pirate king of old...I swear if he was a pirate than if we ever meet when we are alive than imma just straight up plaster him all over the walls.

"I have a quick question Discord...if we are statues can we still feel something moving us like a lifter or some other form of transportation?" I said while feeling a bit wobbly.

"Yea we can why? You feel like something is moving your metallic body?" Discord said while drinking a glass of chocolate milk, and by drinking I mean leaving the milk behind and drinking down the glass itself...not sure how he defied the laws of the universe but that was awesome.

"Oh well than it seems I am being moved, I just hope it is next to you two and not some museum of sorts, cause if I am placed into one than I am going to scream so loud for days on end that if someone outside hears me and trails it back to me than I will clearly go insane and blow myself the fuck up."

Everfree Forest, Underground Cavern, Unknown Area

"Oh my Celestia...Daring...you..will never believe this...." said Dusty, his voice shaking from shock of what he has discovered while slowly trying to levitate the statue from the cold concrete floor to the waiting cargo lift that was hastily erected while they were scanning the statue for information. Only to find out that their was a faint trace of unknown energy in it and that it has a faint trace of life in it.

"What you find Dusty, is it alive or something cause if it is than we just found possibly the biggest find in Equestrian history!" she said while flapping her weak wings in the air, still not fully recovered from the fall earlier that day. Still looking at the statue as it was slowly lifted into the air only for it to fall back down after a strange burst of energy was emitted by the statue forcing it back down.

"Daring...this statue is still alive I think...I sensed a very faint trace of life essence in it...and some sort of other energy as well...maybe its own magical aura or something...but whatever it is we must get it back to Canterlot...maybe it will even be placed in the Royal Gardens...or even be released back into the world...we will never know." he said while trying to gently levitate it to the lift, and with each attempt he keeps failing to keep it steady as it hits the hard stone floor, causing a loud thud to echo throughout the caverns, and in the deepest part an ear piercing shriek that causes him and Daring to stop whatever they were doing and look in the general direction of the noise.

Slowly walking towards them from the shadows of the cavern was a tall pale white abomination of nature, its limbs are long and pale, twisted and gnarled, small holes cover parts of its body, blue glowing lights twinkle in the darkness, its head had tentacles coming out the back and pointing upwards as three of them were darker and looked more like bone than flesh. To the ponies it was nothing more than an abomination but to the statue it was something to fear on the battlefield of its past. Its left arm was missing at the elbow and it was slowly shuffling towards them as one of its legs was damaged beyond repair and was being dragged behind, its own head was partially melted off.

"Daring quickly go get the guards and bring them here now! I will try to fend this beast off until you get back here, and don't even worry about me I can still handle myself in a fight. So go! Now!"

As Daring Doo went onto the lift and was slowly being lifted back up she saw Dusty launch a small bolt of lightning at the beast only for it to create a barrier of sorts to nullify it and prevent any damage from being done to itself. Dusty was shocked to find its attack to be reflected as he started flinging rocks of any size at the beast to have it only to be disintegrated by its barrier, the face on the beast twisted into a demented smile as it slowly shuffled closer to Dusty, hoping to claim its prize and than kill it with its own claws.

In my eyes as the statue I could only think of one thing.

'Oh my gods these ponies are doomed...well at least I had a good life....a very long extended life...'

In a fit of fear for his own life, Dusty quickly turned around and galloped as fast as his old legs could take him to the nearest building and trying to hide within its walls for safety, barricading the doors with many shelves filled with old cobwebs and dust. And for thirty minutes Dusty sat their hiding in a box quietly whimpering for his life as the beast started clawing its way into the store, scraping away at the reinforced glass with dull claws in attempts to claim its meal.

"Get away from my friend you monster!" screamed Daring as herself and a small garrison of twenty guards coming down the lift as it turned its head to face the new force as I was busy laughing at their futile attempt to kill the one of the scariest things to face on the battlefields of old.

As the new force came down to the floor the Banshee was already halfway near them and as it was surrounded it let out another ear-piercing shriek forcing everyone around it to fall down and cover their ears, half the guards already dropped their weapons as their ears started bleeding from the shriek, the other half are in a daze, the Banshee on the other hand was grinning evilly as it slowly advanced towards the one that spoke against it. Daring Doo.

Within a matter of seconds Daring was lifted off the ground by the Banshee's only hand and out of instinct it tries to shove its other arm into her only for Daring to be poked in the gut by the stump of its left arm, not even a bone was at the stump only a blob of flesh and wires. In disappointment it decided to toss Daring into the wall as it started to slash and kick the guards around in a savage fashion only to have its weak leg to be cut off from its body, the Banshee emitting a strange aura as it tries to deflect the other attacks from the sword and spear wielding ponies, only to have its barrier slowly broken down as it fails it collapses upon itself to have it stabbed to death by blade and spearhead. As it died in lets out another shriek but slightly weaker and its body disintegrated into ashes in front of the eyes of the guards and Daring.

'Hmm...these ponies might survive after all...against husks maybe...eh hope is still lost...'

"Quickly get that statue onto that lift and get Mr. Spades out of that shop so we can get the buck out of this place alive." she said while staring at the statue and the pile of ashes, trying to figure out what exactly the two are and if they are related in some way or fashion.

"Yes ma'am." replied the guards, trying to look like the fight didn't phase them but most of them are still shaking from the battle, even more shaking from the harsh shrieks it was letting out when it was fighting.

As they were digging the pony out from the shop, the statue was lifted onto the platform along with every guard and pony present, only to be lifted out of the cavern to the safety of the stone halls above, and as quickly as they got up they all immediately vacated the caves and got into the many carriages that was left outside, the pegasi hitched themselves and quickly went airborne with my statue in tow. From my point of view it was nothing but starry night skies, midnight blue clouds, even a shooting star here and there, but from within my statue it was more like this.

'I believe I can fly! I believe I can touch the sky! I believe I can....the fuck am I even singing in the first place?'

During my time on top of the lead carriage I realized that not once have I heard the sounds of a Kodiak shuttle flying around or the sounds of a Harvester flapping its wings to chase after said shuttle, only the quiet noise of the night sky and the slight flapping noise of the pegasi pulling my heavy stone ass. Needless to say my senselessly eternal life might be drawing to an end in which I get accidentally dropped or some idiot of these ponies accidentally kicks be hard enough that I explode into a shower of well..me everywhere. To my luck it did not happen...yet.

Canterlot, Royal Palace, Midnight

"So...you found a new part of the caverns...discovered the remains of an ancient civilization, recovered an ancient statue of their culture, found out it has...life and magic in it, and killed a monster that was still alive that was part of its time. I do say that this might be the greatest discovery in Equestria's history, and tomorrow during the Gala you two will be announced as the founders of this new race and culture, and if we are lucky...we can discover any memories that might linger inside this...statue." Princess Luna said while inspecting the statue of me while talking to Daring Doo and Dusty Spades, me on the other hand was busy staring at the fireplace as the flames flickered and cracked, the sounds of the flame was enough to bring back memories I rather keep repressed and locked away.

While Luna was inspecting me she found a small ammo box that was strapped to my side that was easily removed from its hooked position. Upon removing it she found that written on the sides was something she did not understand, but to me it clearly reads out 'Box o' Fucks' and of course inside said box was empty to those that only saw the black mesh, but under that mesh was something that I am keeping secret and to my luck neither the princess or the other two found out it was all an illusion.

"Please take the statue to the gardens and place it upon the new pedestal facing the ballroom, hopefully this new statue will cause everypony to wonder what it is and also help fund the excavation team to continue digging out the caverns in hopes of finding more of these...creatures."

'Oh gods just fucking kill me already...I swear if I have to deal with such primitives than I am jumping off the nearest cliff to...oh wait...I forgot...armor lock...crap...'

With that the two left while Luna was looking at me the statue with an inquisitive stare that was equal to the same stare I give to someone that was about to give me a new rifle or my favorite, a Kitkat bar still not melted or crushed. During our little stare off if you can call it that I simply looked around the room while somewhat keeping a few glances at her to ensure that she doesn't try anything funny...who am I kidding I can't stop shit while I am like this.

Canterlot, Royal Gardens, Midnight

After being placed in the gardens by a pair of unicorns I started to think about my future as a garden statue and my options of escaping are still non-existent and my company now changed from living meat bags to four statues who all seem to have shared the same fate as me, being turned to stone.

"Well Roran welcome to the club of the living statues, you are now clearly member number five which means you win this hat!" Discord says while snapping his fingers as a pimp hat appears on top my head in which I take it off and throw it back at him like a disc.

"Shut it Discord not in the mood...I just saw something from my past get taken out by a bunch of ponies with swords and spears...how do you think that makes me feel?" I growled at him again, already hating the fact that I am literally placed near him and if I turn my eyes a bit I can easily see him, so saying that I can ignore him is in understatement.

"Tsk tsk tsk Roran what I told you about your attitude and manners. Just because you are older than me and everything else in Equestria doesn't mean you can just act like me, we both know their is only room for one chaotic being.

"Oh gods please get me the fuck out of here before I go insane..." I said while grabbing my metaphorical real head while screaming out loud hoping to whatever heavens exist to get me out of this hell hole before I decide to turn my armor's reactor core into a small bomb to blow my self up and everything close by into a smoking crater of glass.

As Discord and I were having a mental verbal debate about what we should do and some other crap, Princess Luna was busy watching the two statues slightly turn to look at each other, which amazed her since she rarely goes outside to the gardens let alone see the statues themselves twist on their pedestals long enough for them to move on their own free will. Which was odd since statues weren't alive let alone have free will.

'Oh gods old and new, above and below, just let me get the hell out of here...I will do anything to get my freedom...'

'ANYTHING!'

Chapter 6: Royal Care and Questioning Life

Memory Sequence 7

"Give me some god damn painkillers already!" I shouted as I grabbed onto the nurse's shoulder, slightly squeezing it to the point where she yelled out in pain and finally injected into my chest a large syringe of numbing agent. My arm feel to the side as I couldn't feel half the nerves in my chest and that I just felt my heart stop beating for a second before restarting. It freaken hurts like hell.

"Take it easy Mr. Zidane, the medical staff will take care of you in a moment, just hang on a bit longer." said one of the nurses, who was currently holding the large syringe that was shoved into my chest.

"A bit longer, it has been 9 hours since I got here, and all you fuckers do is run around me and tend to the other people with the saddest excuses of injuries. I took a fucking monomolecular blade to the fucking chest, and nearly bled out, so fuck them, and get my ass back into shape so I can shove Kei Leng's little toy sword right up his ass!" as I shouted that the few patients that were awake got up a bit to look at me, my armor was already stripped off revealing my upper body along with the locations of where my cybernetic augmented arms connect to the rest of my body, and when they saw the medi-gel cast, a few layed back down while the rest just stared at it.

"Fine than, Nurse Miri, take Mr. Zidane to his area, the usual spot near the elevator so when he has recovered he can go back to getting his ass shot off to come back here." said the doctor, not paying anymore attention to me.

After a while I began to regain the feeling in my chest until I saw that blood began to seep out of any cracks or openings in the cast, until I saw it drip onto the floor by my feet, slowly pooling. "Erm...Nurse Miri...I need a change of casts and maybe oh I don't know...get this bloody hole filled up before I bleed out all over the place...that will be much deeply appreciated." I said while cupping my hand over the wound, collecting my blood until it started to pool over onto the floor.

The nurse later came back, took off the old medi-gel and as soon as it came off, whatever old blood was being held back just gushed out like a waterfall, making half of the patients puke or just start dry-gagging, even Katherine and Liselle were busy fighting back the urge to puke on the floor. Hilo'Jaa was just standing there staring blankly at the monitor while Krusk was laughing at me, like the asshole he is.

"That doesn't look so good....oh nurse...check please." as I said I fell onto a nearby table and turned pale. My eyes rolled to the back of my head as most of my blood was already out of my body and by the time the blood-packs came by I was already borderline blacked out and was waiting for sweat death to take me, but in the looming darkness I saw Death standing over me, and when I saw him raise his right hand, I saw that it was pointing at my chest and when I looked at his hand I noticed that I stopped bleeding out and that he was laughing at me the entire time.

"Just because I spared your life does not mean I will claim your life later on in the future. Just know this Roran...when you die, your ass is mine." oh that just sounds perfect...the Grim Reaper's assistant....wait...that means I don't get to kill people anymore....aw boo. "Take care of your body next time...and next time, try not to drink so much, you were this close to dying from alcohol poisoning...and almost died from that bet with that female krogan, why did you even do that?"

"First off, I drink because I can and helps with the people I killed, and the second because of how awesome it was and the risk of having my pelvis bone crushed or turned to dust...totally worth it." Death by Snu Snu...totally worth it.

As everything slowly came back to me I saw that my squad was waiting near me, Hilo'Jaa was holding my hand while Katherine was holding my pistol, Liselle was wearing my helmet and messing with the visor, Brahat was busy laughing that I nearly died for a second time that week.

Slowly pulling my hand away from Hilo'Jaa, I found out quickly that she was holding it with a death grip and when I finally yanked it away the others snapped out of what they were doing, sighed in relief, and left me alone.

"Well at least one of my friends decided to stay with me. So Hilo'Jaa...how long was I out?"

"At least 2 days and 19 hours, you were in a comatose state from the blood lose and from being hit by a polonium round. Doctor Blood said for you to take it easy for a while until you have fully recovered...."

"Damn...feel like shit knowing a lethal round nearly got me...well...at least that bullet failed its job than..." I sigh in relief knowing that Death was looking over me, but also knew that when I finally kick the bucket my soul will belong to him.

This is gonna be a fun year for me indeed.

End of Memory Sequence

"Why the fucking hell am I naked? And why are you two in here? And where the hell is my gear? And....what the hell is that thing doing in here?" I shouted while holding my gut with my left arm while pointing at the inactive Geth unit with my right, clearly pissed off and annoyed that not only was I naked for gods know how long, but also because if that Geth went rogue I will be defenseless against it, that and I fucking hate them with an unchecked passion.

Staring at the two ponies in the room before returning my gaze at the machine, just leaning against the wall turned off before I turned to my left, looking at a small bed table, and on top of it was a small glass cup, filled with water, and floating in it is my cybernetic eyeball, staring right at me. Just staring at it I can slowly feel like I am barely connected to it, than turning my gaze back to the doctor it felt like the eye slowly swirled itself to face him as well, and than looks back at myself.

"Okay...this might disgust you two...so just close your eyes or turn your head...either way just ignore what I am about to do." and with that I took the glass cup, pulled out my eye, and with that I first put the wiring back into place, and then shoved it back it, slightly grunting out in pain. Smacking my head a bit to get my eye straightened out, and with a rough rubbing of it I can finally see straight until it activates, smirking a bit as Celestia turned slightly green and the doctor was gagging a bit.

"Hehe...you two are such babies...it was just a dis-located eyeball...you should have seen my medical records and all the times I was injured on all of my missions and jobs. I swear if either of you saw me in those conditions you two would stay in your rooms for the rest of your life." I said while swinging my legs over the side of the bed, and slowly stood up and looked around for my clothes. Shivering a bit I looked down and saw that the hospital gown they gave me only reached my waist and that my manhood was out for all to see, and on a sick twisted que, they both turned around and saw me as I was, except that both of their gaze was looking straight at my royal jewels and not even blinking. Time to have a little bit of evil fun.

"So...you two are just going to keep looking at me or are you gonna do something about this mess you made." I said that while stretching a bit, making the already small gown raise even higher, revealing a tattoo of a red dragon coiled around a sword having the pointy end impaled upon it. Smirking at them I take the gown off before I turn it into a half-assed pair of shorts, covering myself up and also realizing that the skin on my mechanical arms and legs are missing to the point of where they connect to the rest of my body.

"Okay...where the hell did my synthetic skin go? I knew that the last time I saw these arms that they were still attached to the magnetic locks. Celly...Doc, where the hell did you take that skin...how the hell did you take off my armor, and why the fucking hell did you take off my clothes? And how god damn long was I out cold for?" I shouted, slowly advancing upon them both, even though my arms are made of metal and would hurt like they, I still had my biotic and tech powers hidden away in the ports of my arms.

"Well...Mr. Zidane...my name is Doctor Stayne...the few that are my regulars call me Bloodstayne...and to where your...erm..'synthetic skin', it is currently being looked at my our top scientists and medical experts. Your armor...its with the royal blacksmith here in the castle, we had to carefully inspect your armor while it was still on you, and it took us a while to take it off of you. And as for your clothes....well...we handed them over to the royal designer to try and recreate them as per Princess Celestia's wishes..." I waved my hand at him as I flexed my left hand a bit, watching the servo's and locking mechanisms retract and expand. Looking over at a nearby mirror I saw that I looked even more fucked up to begin with, a new collection of scars on my head streaming from my left eye socket, my hair on the other hand is completely messed up, its all black and burnt, most of it have been burned down to my head, all of my skin have peeled off at some point revealing a much paler than normal white skin, and any facial hair I had build up over the years I was alive was also gone, so no more mustache or beard.

"Celestia...get my armor...get my skin...and my clothes...I want them back now. I do not care if I have to go get it myself naked or covered in blood of anyone that gets in my way. You have taken my possessions without asking...and I am not happy about this one bit...so what is it going to be?"

Me and my big mouth...

So there I was, walking down the halls in search of my armor, clothes and skin...odd that I am worried about skin right? Well when I had that skin everyone thought I was normal, without it they will know that I can easily snap them in half like a twig. After the third turn to my left and than my right I was standing where the royal designer was supposed to be, and even though I could have been collected and calm but I currently did not give a fuck at the moment since my 'Box o Fucks' were taken away from me a second time, so pulling my right arm back, I thrusted it than forward and the door exploded inward like it was cheap wood. On the other side I saw my uniform on display, on what looked like a half-assed mannequin and that their was an exact copy of my uniform currently being made.

"Cam we help you...sir?" one of the designers said after shaking the debris out of her mane, to me she looked like one of those designs you usually see on those designing shows where they try to make the most exotic and exquisite dresses ever to be made, and by all rights should be punched in the face, but at that point I was in my 'somber' mood and only wanted my clothes. Instead I took the ones that were currently finished, getting the one who was making it to yell at me but when he saw that what he was making was meant for me, he immediately shut is mouth and watched as I got dressed right there, leaving on the hospital briefs , and looked myself over in my new/ old uniform. The colors were not what I have been expecting, instead of all black with the blue stripes and trim it was white with golden yellow trim and stripes, and instead of the Earth Systems Alliance symbol on my shoulders, it was Celestia's cutie mark...which at that point I wanted to rip off, set it on fire, than stitch my symbol over hers.

I looked over at the pony that made this and looked him over, and at that moment I just wanted to punt the little bastard out the window, he looked almost like that one singer from an old Earth music band...first name was Freddy... whatever it was he looked just like him and I had the urge to punt him right out the window. "You...whats your name."

He was starting to sweat when I called him out be he managed to slip out "Cashmere", and at the point I wanted to start laughing at how afraid he was of me, he had freaken magic at the time and was to afraid to use it and if I wanted to really push him I could have just scared the living crap out of him.

"Good job on the uniform...colors scheme is off but it will do for now." and with that I stormed out of the room and deked the nearest guard that got in my way, barely letting out that his name was Estoc and he was to escort me back to my room. Like hell that is gonna happen.

Storming down another set of halls until I came upon a private room that was marked 'Roran Zidane, Human Emissary'...okay....my own room...forgot what emissary means...but lets see what I got to play with before I resume my hunt for my missing gear and skin.

Opening the door to my room I was automatically amused by the fact that it was darker than the blackest void. I mean I can't even tell if this was just very dark wallpaper and carpet or that they somehow managed to put the very darkness that is space into my room and kept it only in my room, either way they get an A+ for awesomeness. Taking one step into my room I realized that there was indeed a floor and that I had oxygen to breath, than turning my palm upwards and turned on the flashlight node and the room dully lit up, and to my guess my new room is three times bigger than my old one back on Arcturus Station.

"Eh...fuck it...I give up for now...what can I do anyways...I mean...come on...last human alive...the hell am I going to do about finding that special person....if only talking ponies exist I am just gonna off myself..." I said while the sound of hooves were outside of my room, probably to take me back to my hospital room.

"So many things I will never be able to do again...no more drinking contests....no more cruel pranks....no more setting my commanding officers hair on fire....no more sex....and never again see a pair of tits....fuck my life..." falling onto my bed I practically shouted the last part, hating the fact that I will never be able to enjoy myself ever again.

After a while the sound of hooves entered my room, a few were tentative since they feared that they might just fall to their doom or float away to some random place, a certain pair of hooves eventually got to my bed and with little effort, kicked my shins, that would have hurt me if my legs were real but all it did was tell me that some pony just tried to hurt me and looking over I saw that it was Short Pinky and Shining Armor, who at the time was looking at me with a stern glare as if I stole the last cookie from the cookie jar.

"Erm...Roran...what do you mean by some of those things that you said?" oh god damn it they heard everything.

"Well...Princess, since I am the last of my kind, I am now officially and literally alone so all the fine things in life that I usually do can never happen again."

"Such as pulling pranks, drinking contests or setting someponies mane on fire?"

"Yes, from what I saw so far, I have not seen any sign of good drinks, if I pull pranks only I will get it, and if I did that last part I would most likely get arrested...again."

"And what was the last two things you said?" not even gonna go there.

"Well, if you can figure out the first part yourself I will tell you about the second part." that shut her up for a while.

After a while it was silence until Celestia and Luna walked in and behind them were a few ponies wearing scientific lab coats, which to me was pretty hilarious since they all looked silly, one of them was even wearing a hard hat. After the science ponies walked in a group of them came in with my armor and skin, and upon seeing my synthetic skin I grabbed it than knowing to what piece goes where, reattached it to my arms, hands and legs. Smiling to myself as it slowly attached itself to their metallic limbs and even grinning when the tattoo's that were their are now reconnected to their original positions.

"Finally good to have them back....and my armor...still chipped, burned and damaged...but it will do for now." I said as I strapped the pieces back onto myself, my helmet still has the hole in it but I ignored it for now as I latch it onto my waist to keep it from being lost.

Than after a while they brought the Geth unit into my room, and if I hadn't been wearing my armor I would have jumped over the ponies and ran away in case it turned itself on and started to kill everything in sight like a rogue robot.

"Roran...we are wondering if you know how to activate this....machine of yours since our scientists and researchers are having problems with it..." my lord...you did not ask me to turn this piece of crap on...

I looked it over, seeing if it is still workable and only finding out that it did not have any weapons I decided to take the biggest gamble of my life for the week by agreeing to it.

Sometimes I shouldn't do things that are risky and stupid at the same time.

"Alright...I'll do it...but after this you owe me something to drink...something good and hard..." hoping that they have booze of some kind or at least alcoholic. Taking my gamble and putting everything on it, I move over to the Geth Hunter, looking it over, turning on my omni-tool and scanned it, until I found out that it was out of juice and needed a recharge...where the hell am I going to get some e-zero at this hour....or place for that matter...

"Yea...this thing is gonna not working for a while till we get some e-zero in it." I said while hitting its head with my fist, loud thunk sounds coming off it while while it slightly bobbed in place.

The science ponies looked at each for a while until hey dragged into my room a box filled with shiny objects until I found out that those were power cores from old Husks and even a Marauder core was in the bundle.

"Not gonna ask where you got those...but they will do..." I said while picking a few of them up and shifting them around in my hands.

"Get back ponies...Science is about to happen...and other awesome shit as well." I popped the power core from the Geth, and like changing the batteries of an old device I shifted the new core in reverse, getting a small spark before it died, than putting it in normally, no response. Than I linked the cores together, all of them directing whatever energy they have left, and it is all being directed to the Geth core, and an hour later it slowly came to life and at that moment in time, I thought I heard the 'Flight of the Valkyries' in my head and I knew that was never a good sign.

As soon as the pony that held the Geth core put it back in its cradle housing, it turned itself on, closed the hatch, and turned around to face me, and its it robotic voice it spoke up.

"Zidane Lt.C, reporting for duty." It was standing at attention and even gave me a salute in which if I was only person in the room when it happened I would have shit my pants.

"Geth, what is your operating identity and place of production." I said, slightly in fear because that thing is a fucking death machine that can turn invisible and kill practically everything with ease.

"O.I. is S1L3NT and was produced on Rannoch. Infiltration model and Deep Strike Insertion against Reaper Forces." Oh thank god it was one of our Geth that joined us after Shepard won Rannoch from the Reaper...but can this hunk of metal and wires be trusted?

"Would you be interested in a game of poker with me an the guards?" Please say yes.

"Affirmative." Oh fuck yes!

Canterlot Palace, Barracks, 2 Hours Later

"You know Shining...for a pony with no means of able to hold cards at all and only with magic...holding it with your hooves is pretty damn impressive....and also...the girls on these cards and the way they are in these poses...and...attire. How did you even manage to get a hold of these types of cards in the first place? I mean if I had my deck I would be the one enjoying it instead of musing over what I lost." I grumbled as I lost my ass on another round of poker, having to give up my 'Box o Fucks', my M-9 Avenger rifle, and also my hidden copy of Fornax Illustrated that was hidden in the back of my armor plating...Estoc was still looking at it with a pensive stare.

"Zidane Lt.C, these sentient ponies are capable of holding the cards for in Our theory that they are held by a small magnetic like area on the hoof itself allowing grip onto everyday objects." S1L3NT said, his pile of loot slowly growing with each hand.

Looking over at him I saw that he has not moved an inch and was basically scanning everything in front of him, and I can tell that he was enjoying this as much as I would be except that I just lost my only piece of porn I had on me besides the E-Net.

My day was not going good at all...

After a while one of the pony guards wheeled in a keg of sorts, to me at the time thought it was something lame like water or well...whatever these ponies drink, but when I saw what was in that keg, I went all out when they started to pass out the tankards. Lets just say that even cider was enough to get me tipsy as hell.

"Ya see Shining...the reason why am I lonely...is cause you ponies are to damn small for me....I mean come on...even by human standards I am a giant...a head taller than everyone...my eyes are not real...hell...I'm just...what was that word you said...not normal....whatever...." when I get drunk, I forget everything that I do that day.

"Well Roran...maybe we can ask my sister Twilight to find a spell to shrink you down to the normal size...hehe...I bet you will be smaller than us if she shrunk you down!" yea...forgetful.

After that I ended up drinking the whole keg and eventually doing a few rounds of arm/ hoof wrestling and winning a few times before I was nearly full on blackout drunk, so in my drunken state I started to give the ponies little hits of my Hallex...A human on Hallex is amusing as hell...a pony on Hallex is fucking hilarious.

Canterlot Palace, My Room, Next Day Morning

I awoke to the worlds worst hangover ever...I mean my head was pounding like hell, every sound was amplified to the point where it felt like a hammer was beating me upside the head, and that I just wanted to puke my guts out in the bathroom. Opening my eyes I saw that I was not alone, S1L3NT was standing in the corner in what I think was his 'Stand By' phase, looking down I saw a guard sleeping on my chest, and than looking to my left I saw another guard, but the strange part was that none of them were wearing there armor, and both were mares....and I didn't have my shirt on at the time...

"What....the fuck...." I said abruptly and a bit to loud, by how loud it was it woke the pair up, both yawning in a slightly adorable manner, but in a kind of twisted way they both nuzzled into my chest, which at the time I was busy trying not to freak out and start screaming out madness and other profound things at the top of my lungs.

As soon as my eyes settled on the two I heard a loud sound of someone clearing their throat, and looking over I saw Shining Armor and his wife, which I just found out that her name was Cadence, were standing at the doorway, looking right at me with glares and a confused stare.

"Oh shit..."

Oh shit indeed.

Both of them are still staring at me while I was busy trying to figure out how I got into this situation or how I even managed to get to my own room with two mares sleeping with me...or how I even managed to open my own door in my drunken state of awareness.

"Roran...what is going on here? Why are two of my guards doing on your bed...and why do you smell of sweat and salt?" Okay...not the question I was hoping to hear but that is somewhat of a start.

"In all honesty Shining...I have no bloody idea....I mean I was so smashed that I couldn't even figure out how to open the door to my room last night...the hell did I do?" I asked with actual wonder this time cause I usually remember all the crazy shit I do when I get drunk.

"You honestly don't remember anything you did last night? Half the castle was kept up all night with your antics and pranks." I raised my eyebrow at 'antics' and 'pranks', surely he was just saying that and the two by my side would laugh at me for falling for it. So far the two are just sleeping quietly on me.

"Here let me explain it to you than..."

Drunken Memory Sequence One

After the first five tankards of hard apple cider I was considered 'Tipsy' but I kept asking for more and eventually decided to take the only keg and started to chug that fucken thing as if it was a large bowl. Every pony that was in the barracks started to chant the 'chug' and five minutes of me holding that bitch in place I emptied it and I belched so loud that I thought I was gonna puke up my tasty golden surprise all over some pony that got to close to me.

"Sheee.....Ish told you thats I can drinks it all...*hic*...hehehe....wheres my bits Estoc!"

"Oh buck..." the sounds of five gold coins hitting the table was like someone playing an elegant song...sweet victory to my ears.

As the night went on I decided that the second keg should have a bit of a zing to it, and I had just the perfect zing on me. Taking out my Hallex tube, I only put in 5 drops of the stuff in it just to get the ponies a bit blasted and trip only a little bit but enough to enjoy themselves.

Ten minutes into the drinking I realized that they are about to start a drinking contest but it was more of a twist to it, first was to drink a shot, than suck the lemon, than lick the salt, than another shot, rinse and repeat. I was all in with this one. After 8 rounds of drinking I realized that the Hallex was slowly kicking in and that I saw that everything looked like it was in slow motion, even the the sounds were affected by it and I had the worlds biggest shit eating grin ever plastered right on my face.

It was around 11pm and by than alot of the guards were flat out drunk, passed out on the floor, dancing to some non-existent tune, or just making out with one another, but for me, it was more like drunk talking to a group of ponies that were able to even speak.

"You see...back in my era...I was a total badass! I mean I once took on a bloody Harvester by myself! I just had to get the stupid thing close enough and I pressed the button on my gauntlet and BOOM! Brought a building down ontop of it!"

"Wow Zidane...you are *hic*...a badflank!" "Yea! All right in my books!" "I bet he didn't break a sweat when he did it!"

"Yea yea, keep praising me, I can never get used to the praises *hic* but there are a few things I will miss more than praises...*hic*"

"What would that be?"

"The ladies Shining...the ladies...and also never being able to find the special one....and tits...can never forget about those either...marshmallow heaven it was...now...ehh...ponies...back in my era...you are a bunch of non-sentient animals...hell...you were larger than me!" my drunken status was enough to make a few of the male guards laugh at my doomed self while the two mares that were sleeping with me were saddened and got closer to me in the process.

"Well...I think I shall call it a night...I think I am so drunk...that I am drunk...so...I am off to my room..." as I got up two of the mares followed me to my room, using me sort of for balance as I did the same to them.

As we got to my room I tried to open it but found out it was locked so I used the key to open it but instead I fumbled and couldn't get it in so I did the next best thing. I kicked the door open and walked in with the mares, slightly laughing as I pushed the door back to its closed position and jumped onto my bed while enjoying the sensation of the softness of the bed on my body.

Looking down at my feet I saw that the two ponies climbed or jumped onto my bed and as soon they got close to my chest I felt the booze and Hallex mixing and know what drugs and booze can do to a human body, I knew exactly what was bound to happen.

I passed the hell out and began to snore like a bear in hibernation.

End Drunk Sequence

"I did all that?"

"Yes, you even rutted with those two on your bed...how can you even do such a thing?" Stupid question gets silly answer.

"Well, first I take off my pants and throw it somewhere in this room, than I take off my briefs, than I get my willing partner and give her a fucking of her life." as I said that the two woke up and than looked at me, than themselves, than back to me and screamed like a banshee.

"Us with you, you with us!" my god...what did do to them last night?

Looking down at myself I saw that I was still wearing my pants, thank god, but was only missing my shirt.

"I don't think so...I think all we did was just cuddle and sleep...and maybe snored." I said while getting up, cracking my back, than I noticed that S1L3NT was gone.

"Shit...he's gone..." never good for me since I can't trust Geth as far I can shoot them.

"Yea...were fucked...that bastard is a stealth model so he could be anywhere..." sighing that I knew what was going to happen next.

My morning just went from bad to total shitstorm...

Meanwhile elsewhere

"So...what do you know of Mr. Zidane?"

Chapter 11: Interviewing the last Human

Library

Looking at the mares in question as each one stares at me with inquisitive, wonder, and even smirking eyes as I sat down in my oddly comfy puffy chair, the thing at best I can tell was made of the softest fluff money can buy here, knowing that it was all payed by royalty and that having a princess in your pocket can be a good thing. Cracking open a cold bottle of soda, taking a small sip as I realized it was orange flavor and downed it in 10 seconds flat, looked at the cyan mare and smirked as I put the bottle down on the floor next to my foot.

"So ladies...ask me any question that comes to mind, just remember that they better be good questions, nothing silly or just plain stupid." I said while looking at them, Kara was still glaring daggers at Rarity for putting the dress on her and the make-up while Rainbow Dash and Pinkie were trying hard not to explode with laughter, Fluttershy was staring at me like a prey would when a predator is looking at its next meal while Twilight was waiting with uneasy tension to ask a question that she has been waiting to ask.

"Roran, how old are you?" which was met with my eyes trying to shoot a lazer out and melt a hole in her head.

"Well Twilight...the age I am while being stoned would be I can guess ten million years old...but my current and actual age is 28." she looks at me a bit confused but shrugs it off as Spike writes it down, wearing a pink frilly apron and to my surprise it has small hearts stiched into it.

"So big guy what was the biggest explosion you have ever made?" that brough a twinkle to my eye as the old memories of my past started to sift through my head at that moment.

"The biggest explosion...well that would have to be when me and my squad led a Reaper Destroyer to a small opening that was once a harvesting facility, and when it was at the center I used the only Cain I had left on it right when its eye was charging up to glass us. That thing lit up like a fucking christmas tree and when it went off we were a few blocks away it exploded and took a whole city block with it." that seemed to make the rainbow one smile with glee at my accomplishment.

"Erm...Mr. Zidane...if if you don't mind me ask but...are the Reapers...still out there?" a question with no answer to.

"Well Miss Fluttershy, I truly do not know...in the millions of years I was in stone they could have been wiped out by the species after me or that they still live, stronger than before." that got her to start shaking in fear. "But don't worry Fluttershy, they only target those that are strong enough to make an actual resistance against them and have a massive population count and Equestria has neither so you are safe." which was true, I highly doubt they will ever be attacked by them.

"Ah got a question Mr. Zidane that ah have been meanin to ask ya. How did ya'll lose with all that fancy gear you all got?" .............how the hell did we lose? I sighed deeply as my hands caught my head from touching my knees, old terrible memories rearing its ugly mug to light as I mentally fought against seeing them again after being free from their nightmareish grasp.

"Well Applejack I can clearly say....we lost because not every species was entirely united at the time of the attacks...we were all seperated and fueded over stupid things...when the attacks came it was to late, we were already shoring up our own defenses against the Reaper forces...it took us to many worlds and too many damn civilian casualties to make us band together at our darkest hours of our lives...but in the end it wasn't enough...as you can so plainly see by looking at me." I said while pulling out one of the last cigerates I had in my breast pocket and lighting it with my thumb as I breath in toxic death and exhale smokey doom.

After a few moments for the cigerate to calm my increasingly unsteadying nerves the pink one raised a hoof.

"So what was the greatest party you have ever been to?" greatest party....oh dear lord.

"Well my pink friend...I would have to say was the New Year's Eve party on the Citadel Presidium, I forgot what year it was but on that particular day I was away from duty and had the whole day to myself, so I did what any regular human being would do with his off day from the military..." the girls leaned in a bit, Spike was handing out cookies and drinks while still wearing the silly apron, which I had to say took guts for a man to be wearing that much pink and not be called fruity.

"We would have the time of our lives and go wild, I was drinking hard rum and booze by 8am and was downing krogan liquor by 1pm, I was going strip clubs and bars all over the Citadel and I punched an embassy worker in the face for pissing me off, I kicked three C-Sec guards in the nuts for trying to ruin my bar-hopping and I stabbed my hand at a game of Five-Finger-Fillet." the looks on all seven of their faces was magical.

"When it was 10pm I sorta relaxed a bit until I saw the crystal sphere high in the Presidium be raised to full height and the timer for having it lower began to count down so I went to the nearest club and danced my ass off. As it got close to midnight I challenged an entire band of krogan merc's to a game of strip poker and many of the people in the crowd that saw the game began to cheer all 10 of us on and as the game went on and we all started to strip pieces of our attire as we kept losing and of course kept drinknig harder and harder booze...eventually I was wearing nothing but my briefs and the krogans...well I was not entirely sure but I knew a few of the female ones were glaring at me with the intent to kill me." the girls were now giving a few questioning stares but when I explained to them that all of our goods, no matter what species except a few that I can't clearly remember that our goods were external and always on display unless protected by our daily attire.

"Anyways it was only ten minutes to midnight and I knew that I had to speed things up so I did what any decent man would do at a time like that." Rainbow Dash and Twilight slightly leaned forward, Fluttershy was somewhat cowering behind her hair while Spike was somewhat listening and zoning out at the same time. "I quickly dealed the next set of cards and got the royal cards and won, as they stripped the last I took a bottle to the back of the head and was half-way out cold. While slowly losing the will to keep my eyes open I took off with my hard earned credits and clothes, quickly got dressed in an alley way and deposited my earnings and about half way to my room I keeled over." their faces was so magical that even I couldn't hold myself properly as Rainbow Dash and Pinkie were laughing their asses off, Spike was snickering as he went back to the kitchen while Rarity was facepalming...facehoofing, Twilight was just shaking her head in shame.

"Next morning I woke up on top of the Citadel Tower, outside, with no way idea on how I got there in the first place. Took me three hours to find a hatch that was unlocked and was even more pissed off when I saw the krogans from last night laughing at me on the otherside, I got payback by using Lift and Throw on them, tossing each one into the Presidium Lake." smirking in triumph over my greatest party night I ever had, Pinkie was somehow bouncing in place while sitting down so I can clearly guess that she is happy with her answer.

As we all settled back down Dash raised a hoof at the same time as Rarity so I just shrugged and pointed at them both waiting to hear what they both had to ask.

"I have always been wondering what were the clothes of your time made of what kind of fabrics?" eh...no idea.

"How long was this war of yours?" hmm....good question.

"Well Rarity...all of our clothing is made of synthetic fibers and silk....synthetic is basically fake fabric that acts and feels like the real thing, easy to produce and cheaper to buy. Silk is more fancy and was often used for the more formal attire for most species of the Council." she gave me a small smile and a nod as she finally got her question answered.

"Well...I am not entirelly sure how long it was...maybe many years or a few months...I didn't really count the days that passed during it." she snorted and crossed her forelegs and turned her head, I just shrugged it off at her.

"Roran...I have been meaning to ask you this but how does your magic work?" her eyes gleaming like the puppies would do when they want something really bad, the whole teary eye and quivering lip thing. She was doing this with the skill of a child that has been doing it their entire life.

"Well Twilight....I am not entire sure how it works..." she frowned and her ears fell to the side of her head in disappointment, "But I can tell you as much I know of it." she immediately perked up and was sitting at my feet with a scroll and quill floating in front of her face. The shit I do to keep my ass safe.

"Well...for starters we humans were never born with magic, never had and we had only recently acquired the ability to use it. Not sure when or how we managed it but when we first started to acquire the ability to use Biotics we had to go to other species to help teach us the ways on how to properly attune to it and had to be given implants to help with the focus and flow of it. These implants were new to us and we were not entirely ready for them and for that reason many of us were in pain or killed by it, and as time went on our implants improved and got better and so did we, the most recent of implants was the L5x and the best of biotics were the best to have on the battlefields as allies and the worst to have as enemies." she was litterally writing everything I was saying down with a smile that screamed crazy.

"Biotics is all mental, you must have a clear mind and stead-fast focus or otherwise it will backlash and screw you over, and one must first create a mass-effect field to begin to use the most basic of Biotics is Lift which is as its name suggest, it lifts objects of any shape or size as long as it is not bolted to the ground or to heavy. Throw and Pull are the same except that for Throw, you are shooting a sphere of pressurized gravity at someone, litterally breaking bones and tossing them several feet from where they were, as for Pull, same thing except you are bringing them closer to you. Another thing Biotics must know is that unless you are trying to only injure your target you are to never combine biotics." Rarity was the first to raise a hoof out of the group.

"Why not? It seems more efficient to use it like that to save on energy right?" Nope.

"No actually, when you combine Biotics of any two types the results will be an explosion as the two forces tear each other apart." she gasps at what would happen, I only smirked cause I made a Batarian pirate explode like that once.

"As the Biotic user becomes more attuned to it they are taught much better abilites such as Singularity, Barrier and Warp. Singularity is basically a sphere that disrupts local gravity where it is planted and anything that not tied down to the ground will be free-floating around it, it is actually very fun to use when you are bored and with your friends...assuming you don't land on the ground head first. Barrier is a defensive Biotic ability, producing a thin shield around the body acting like a second skin and protects against any attacks against the user, Barrier's created by some people can actually create a large sphere that can instead of protecting just the caster but also those within the sphere itself. Warp...is a bit more nasty and lethal...it doesn't directly damage someone but instead attacks them at the molecular level, destroying their body slowly and very painfully." most of the ponies and even Spike was shocked to hear what Warp does while Twilight was somewhat green to hear it, I casually shrug as I kept speaking.

"Next we got Shockwave, Stasis, Lash and Reave." I was getting bored with this topic as I began to play a game of charades with Pinkie. "Shockwave is basically a distraction of sorts, it creates a rippling effect as it goes in a straight line, in any directiong that you use it at, and its pretty much a way to force enemies out of cover. Stasis is pretty much freezing some poor sucker in place. Lash is well like Pull except its like using a whip on someone and than throwing their sorry ass away. Reave...not entirely sure what it did but it was meant for fleshy people." I shrugged as Pinkie guessed right that I was acting like zombie, not sure how she knows what that is.

Pinkie this time raised two hooves so I can guess she wanted to say two things, hopefully something good.

"What is a mass-effect field thingie that you said and also how come those things you had folded up into perfect boxes?" ...did she just say a smart question?

Coughing a bit from the sudden brain burst coming from the overly hyper-active pony, not even knowing how she could manage to keep focus since she is bouncing in place.

"Well Pinkie, a mass-effect field is what Biotics and our transportations use to get around, the field itself is created with an electrical current alongside Element-Zero, with a positive current mass is increased while a negative current mass is decreased, for low mass it allows our ships to easily leave orbit and move around because of the lessened gravity that is being pushed onto it, while higher mass creates a small gravitational push that moves debris or anything unwanted away from the ships. And as for my tools, they fold into themselves to form the rectangles and boxes to preserve space." Pinkie wasn't even paying attention but Twilight was now onto her fourth scroll and just swapped it out for a fifth one.

I saw Pinkie and Dash whispering to each other and snickering as Spike came over to me, was holding out a cup of still hot tea on a mini plate, and being the classy gentlemen that I am I take it with a silent thanks to him and took an ever so gentle sip...until Dash asked me something I wish she would never ask me.

"How many mares have you slept with in your entire life?" in one motion I spat out my tea, threw myself backwards into my chair, fell out of the chair, rolled backwards and hit the bookcase forcing every single book to fall off and land on top of me.

Rarity was somewhat screaming how gross that was, Dash was laughing her ass off, Pinkie was giggling like the Joker from the old Batman movies, Fluttershy I think is passed out from such a question, Spike has no idea what it meant, Applejack was also laughing her ass off and Twilight was blushing a bit while looking away. I was under the books with my left arm out of the pile giving a middle finger to the general direction of Rainbow Dash.

As Twilight and Spike started to unbury me from the book pile with haste, I was busy trying to figure out a way to answer that question, but when the answer popped up I gave a very twisted grin as I slowly crawled out from under the books, Spike coming to my rescue by pulling on my left arm and for a baby dragon he actually managed to slightly pull my fat ass from out under.

Dusting myself off and helping with the reshelving of books back into there proper place, which was a task that reminded me of sorting ammunition types at the ammo dump...which was hard as hell except instead of sorting the different types of thermal clips and grenades I was sorting books, books that had very familiar names from old Earth.

Going back to my seat and looking at Dash with a pissed off glare I resume my sipping of the tea which was refilled and was slightly cleaned off with a rag, courteousy of Spike but sadly he was still wearing that pink apron.

Sighing a bit while pinching the bridge of my nose I braced myself to give the answer that the now obvious preverted pegasus was waiting for. "Well Dash, you wanted to know how many ladies I bedded....well lets see...." as I started to remember and count all the ones I actually fucked in my time alive in the past, and as I started to remember my face took on the whole preverted look while slightly drooling at the best of fucks I ever gave.

"Well...give or take ten to twelve...eh around those two numbers." I said while pulling out another bottle of orange soda, popping the top off with my pinkie finger since I turned that into the universal bottle openner, my thumb the lighter.

Before anyone else can say anything else Dash asks another question in which I almost cough half the soda back into the bottle and the floor. "What was the longest you ever lasted while rutting?" I nearly choked while going into a coughing fit.

"Longest was three days...and I almost had to go to the hospital because of it..." I said while looking away, that night was not only amazing but it was also one of the scariest fucking nights I ever had to endure with another woman, I mean that krogan was good but damn my pelvis and leg bones were practically shattered when it was over, I had to crawl out of the room with just my underwear on and call for an ambulance to pick me up.

As soon as Rainbow Dash was about to ask another seemingly embaressing question a hard knock was heard by the front door and a armored grey unicorn walked in wearing the Royal Guard's armor but the field medic's version it seems by the red cross on it and what I hope are medkits on his sides.

"Mr. Zidane, Princess Celestia requests your presence at Canterlot immediately." saved by the random call.

"Okay, so when can we go?" I said while getting up and threw the chair pillow at Dash and since she was still in a state of shock of how long I can do the horizontal tango and how I almost broke my pelvis while doing it.

"We are going right now." and before I knew what he meant by that I felt all the air get sucked out of my lungs, put into a bottle than shoved back into my lungs as we both reappeared in the waiting room. I have never been teleported before in my life, phase-shifting doesn't even count since I am still partially visible while doing it.

Canterlot Palace, Early Afternoon

"Remind me again why we teleported when we could have just flew or...hell just walked here..." I said while coughing up a storm, I put my lungs through many things, a high powered Geth rifle, a shotgun, a grenade, three knives, a fist and poison gas but this took second place on the painful lungs award.

"Sorry sir, but I have orders to bring you to Princess Celestia immediately." well at least this soldier cares about his career than, unlike me I can give two shits about orders unless they have the power to back those words.

"Tis alright...what is your name anyway?"

"Private Oakleaf sir." and right on his ass is a picture of an oak leaf ontop of a bronze round shield.

"Well lead the way than Private, I want to get this over with, was gonna go to sleep and relax and plan my life but I guess it can way for now." it really can't wait since I got no idea on what to do for a job or pretty much anything.

About ten minutes of walking down long halls filled with fancy ass paintings and most likely priceless urns and other fancy shit you would normally find in a palace or otherwise known as a rich persons home. During that walk I overheard a few of the ponies whispering about me, saying how I saved Celestia from an assassination attempt and how we are having an affair of sorts, the shit I used to hear in the army was way better than this but eh, it was juicy gossip.

The silence as we walked down the halls was all consuming until we got to the throne room and inside was a pissed off Luna, an angry Celestia and a smirking Discord.

"Okay...what the fuck did you do this time dude."