The Fate Of Equestria Book 1: Sombra's Reign

As Jet proceeded down the hallway, he passed through the cafeteria. Where there was once more seats than bodies to occupy them, there was now more bodies than seats, forcing some of the residents to have to stand whilst they ate their breakfast. The whole of the cafeteria was loud and bustling with the sounds of many conversations going on all at once. He passed through, grabbing an apple from the service counter on his way. With a smile and nod to AJ, he made his way down the hall towards the labs. When he entered, he noticed that there were also more scientists now as well. They milled about the lab and conversed about things that Jet couldn’t understand, his knowledge of scientific stuff was very slim, so it all just sounded like a completely different language to him. He moved around the lab himself in search of Sunblast, who he managed to find in one of the rooms further back in the labs. He approached slowly so he wouldn’t startle him, as it seemed like he was working on something important. He was bent over a desk and scribbling down on a sheet of paper. With a soft clearing of his throat, Jet got his attention. Sunblast stood upright and turned to his friend.

“Hey, good morning Jet. Get enough rest?” He asked with a smile.

“Yeah, I suppose so. How about you?” Jet asked in return.

“For once, yes. With all the new ponies that were rescued, I have more help than I ever thought possible. On top of that, several families have been reunited, and it’s all thanks to you taking out that mind control beacon.” Sunblast replied, he did indeed look as if he finally had gotten some sleep.

“It’s no biggie. Just doing my duty to the nation as a royal guard.” Jet said, rubbing the back of his neck lightly.

“It really is though, you have almost single handedly doubled our forces because of that one mission. Stop being so modest.” Sunblast replied, elbowing Jet in the side.

“It’s really not a big deal, but speaking of missions, we should discuss our next move.” Jet said, brushing off the intended compliments.

“Right, give me just a minute to finish this up here.” Sunblast replied, bending back down to continue scribbling on the paper.

After a couple of minutes, he finished up, setting his pen down and stuffing the paper into a file folder and slipping it into a desk drawer. Once the file was stored away, he motioned for Jet to follow him and walked back into the main lab area. With the other scientists busy, the pair were able to easily slip into Sunblasts’s hidden lab. They descended the stairs and onto the main floor of the room. Once inside and the secret door shut behind them, Sunblast took up his seat at his desk and pulled out the intel files that still needed to be dealt with.

“Oh, by the way, did Discord come talk to you last night?” Jet asked while Sunblast got the files in order.

“Yeah, he did, and also said you decked him in the jaw.” Sunblast said with a light chuckle.

“Hey, I’ve warned him about randomly popping up in front of me like that.” Jet replied with a shrug.

“He is pretty bad about that…” Sunblast said, still laughing at the thought of Discord getting socked in the jaw.

“Anyway, with that bit of info from him, what does that leave to be dealt with?” Jet asked, changing the subject back to the matter at hand.

“Well, aside from that, there’s only the power supply for the barrier surrounding Canterlot Castle ruins. It’s actually one of the old guard barracks on the outer rim of the castle itself, but it’s been near impossible for anybody to navigate those labyrinth-like tunnels. Whoever or whatever is protecting it has kept up with anybody that’s been sent to investigate.” Sunblast explained slowly.

“Well, they were designed like that on purpose to confuse and deter invaders and spies. Luckily, I know those barracks like the back of my hand, so that shouldn’t be a problem.” Jet replied, scratching his chin in thought.

“I figured as much. Oh, by the way, I had the scouts give the bodies of our former friends proper burials out in the old Ponyville graveyard.” Sunblast said with a small smile.

“That’s good to hear. I couldn’t bring myself to do it, so thank you…” Jet replied, returning the smile.

“I also had them grab me a blood sample so I could analyze the poison that Sombra has been using to deal with them after you defeat them.” Sunblast said casually.

“Oh? What did you find out?” Jet asked curiously.

“Well, the poison appears to be derived from Atropa Belladona, which when administered in high enough doses can be instantly fatal as you have seen. Fortunately though, I have been able to devise an antidote using a mixture of Carbo Vegetabilis and Pilocarpine.” Sunblast explained, tapping his fingers against the desk in anxiousness.

“Uh… English please?” Jet replied, scratching his head.

“The poison is deadly nightshade, the antidote is a combination of activated charcoal and Salagen.” Sunblast explained with a sigh.

“Oh, gotcha. You know I’m not all scientific like you.” Jet replied with a chuckle.

“Right… Anyway, I have good news and bad news regarding the aforementioned antidote.” Sunblast continued.

“When isn’t there bad news anymore… Lay the news on me.” Jet replied with a light groan.

“The good news is that I have the antidote ready to go whenever you head out again. The bad news is that due to the rare nature of charcoal since the border to the Dragonlands was closed, I only had enough to make three doses of it.” Sunblast said, pulling three syringes of a blackish liquid from one of his desk drawers.

“Only three? Damn, that is bad news…” Jet replied with a slight groan.

“It’s the best I could do with the materials we had. You’ll unfortunately have to choose who we save…” Sunblast said solemnly.

“Better than nothing, I suppose.” Jet replied.

“Yeah. Anyway, to use them is as simple as you would think. Just inject it like any other syringe, it’ll work best closest to an artery though.” Sunblast said, placing the syringes into a metal case of some kind before handing it to Jet.

“Right, got it.” Jet replied with a nod, taking the case and slipping it into his cargo pants pocket.

“Oh, don’t worry about damaging the syringes. That case is made from the same material as your arm, it’s impact resistant and nearly indestructible. Which reminds me, I can reapply the false skin to that arm if you like.” Sunblast said, pointing to Jet’s exposed metal arm.

“Thanks, but no. It serves as a reminder of what that bastard took from me.” Jet replied, rubbing his metal wrist and looking the arm over.

“Well, if you’re sure, I won’t argue. I will warn you though, with the way it’s connected to your nerve endings, if you lose it, it’s going to feel like losing a real one.” Sunblast said with a shrug.

“Understood. While I’m thinking about it, there was something else we needed to talk about…” Jet said calmly, scratching his chin.

“What is it?” Sunblast asked casually.

“When I encountered Heat Stroke… He knew about my coma…” Jet replied, a look of unease in his eyes.

“What? That can’t be right… Nobody outside the bunker knew you were still alive, let alone in a coma.” Sunblast said with a tone of shock to his voice.

“My thoughts exactly, which means that somebody in the bunker is working as a double agent.” Jet replied, lowering his voice and narrowing his eyes.

“But, that begs the question of who would do that.” Sunblast said, looking down at the file cabinet that held the dossiers of everyone staying within the bunker.

“I’m leaving it up to you and Rainbow to figure out while I’m out in the field this time. We have to weed out that double agent or any effort we make to stop him will be in vain.” Jet replied, his tone dead serious.

“Right, you can count on us. We’ll get to the bottom of this asap.” Sunblast said matter of factly.

“Good, the sooner the better. I should probably get going, we’re burning daylight. If there even is any anymore.” Jet said jokingly.

“Oh! Before you go, I’ve updated your HUD. The scouting party brought me a piece of the crystal that was powering Earth Shaker’s mech suit. It’s the perfect power source for Project Hades, so that just leaves a single missing piece now, which like before your HUD will highlight it should you come across it out in the field.” Sunblast said with an excited tone.

“Nice. Sorry I didn’t bring it with me, I didn't have my HUD at the time.” Jet replied with a sheepish smile.

“That’s alright, it was collected, that's all that matters now.” Sunblast said, giving Jet a small thumbs up.

“You know, something has just occurred to me. You keep talking about this scouting party, but I’ve yet to see anybody else out in the field during my trips.” Jet replied with a suspicious look.

“Oh, uh… That’s because of this…” Sunblast said, pointing to a seemingly empty corner of the lab.

“What am I supposed to be seeing?” Jet asked, raising an eyebrow as he stared at the empty corner.

“Huh? Oh, right!” Sunblast replied as he pulled a small remote from his lab coat pocket and hitting a button on it, as Jet continued to stare at the corner, a shiny silver suit of armor materialized.

“What the hell?!” Jet exclaimed in surprise.

“It’s a prototype stealth suit. It lets me venture outside the bunker without anybody knowing…” Sunblast said slowly.

“So, this scouting party…” Jet started to say.

“It’s me, yes…” Sunblast admitted, finishing Jet’s thought.

“Why keep this a secret?” Jet asked, shocked.

“Everybody expects me to do nothing but sit here on my ass doing paperwork and inventing shit, I refuse to sit idly by while everybody else risks their asses. That piece of shit took my life away, I’m going to do whatever I can to ensure he’s brought down for it. Even if it kills me in the pro…” Sunblast said, his tone turning all too serious before being cut off by a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s ok, I understand. I won’t say anything if you don’t want me to, just promise me you’ll be careful out there. I can’t lose any more friends to this war that was forced upon us.” Jet replied with a wavering smile.

“Don’t worry, they’ll never know I was even gone. Now, go on, get. Don’t you have another installation of Sombra’s to dismantle?” Sunblast said, giving Jet a reassuring smile.

Jet nodded and gave Sunblast another smile before heading back up the stairs and onto the main lab floor, luckily nobody had seen him exit as they were all still busy chatting and running experiments. He was able to easily make his way back out of the science wing and back out into the cafeteria, which was still bustling with the various inhabitants as they talked and ate. As he made his way through, he noticed Rainbow up on one of the balconies overlooking the cafeteria, she was looking down at the others as they ate. She looked up in time to see Jet trodding through the room. Jet’s earpiece had a brief moment of static before a voice came through it, it was Rainbow. He stopped and leaned against a wall as he looked up at her on the balcony.

“And just who gave you permission to look so fine this morning?” She said in his ear with a light giggle.

“Shouldn’t you be training these rookies instead of flirting?” He asked with a playful tone.

“And shouldn’t you be out in the field right now?” She asked back, giving him a barely serious look.

“Touche.” Jet replied with a smile.

“These fatigues leave way too much to the imagination, y’know?” She said with a slight purr in her voice.

“Oh yeah? What would you prefer? Those tight as hell Wonderbolts uniforms you used to have to wear?” He retorted with a chuckle.

“I wouldn’t complain if you walked around in one of those.” She said with a visible smirk.

“Of course you wouldn’t, but I’m pretty sure you’d get jealous if I was walking around showing off what I’m packing.” He replied with another chuckle.

“Hey, they can look all they want, but if they touch, then they gotta deal with me.” She said, giving him a wink from the balcony.

“Anyway, I should get going. I’ll see you later tonight.” He replied, blowing her a kiss.

“You better come back in one piece, we’re only like a quarter way through the Pony Sutra.” She said, sticking her tongue out at him.

“Yeah, yeah. I can tell you’re wearing a bra by the way.” He replied again, pinching the front of his shirt near his chest to look like points before walking off towards the exit ladder of the bunker.

Rainbow looked down to see that much like his little mime move, it was obvious that she had shirked the bra this morning. Her face lit up bright red as she covered her chest with her arms and made her way back to their room ro fix the situation. Meanwhile, Jet had reached the ladder and was just about to climb up it when he heard footsteps approaching from the hallway behind him. He turned to see both Luna and Cadence making their way towards where he stood at the foot of the ladder. Once they reached him, he looked them over with a smile. Luna wasn’t kidding about her artificial horn being better quality than Cadence’s. Cadence’s looked as if it had been crafted from the leftover scraps from when Luna’s was made, but she didn’t seem to be bothered by it as she smiled lightly as she approached.

“Jet, I’m glad we caught you before you left.” Cadence said as she came to a stop in front of him.

“Hey, Cadence. Something wrong?” Jet asked, looking between the two.

“No, no. I just wanted to give you something as thanks for rescuing me.” She said with a smile.

“That’s not necessary, I was just doing what any former royal guard would do.” He replied.

“Trust me, you’re going to want this gift. Now, hold out your hands for me, palms up please.” She said.

Jet reluctantly held his hands out, his palms pointed towards the ceiling. He stood there and watched as Cadence’s artificial horn lit up and began glowing a faint pink. As it continued to glow, a series of glowing rings materialized and wrapped around Jet’s wrists. The rings began to pulsate and grow in size until they had enveloped the entirety of his hands. The rings stayed in place for several minutes, his hands felt hot and heavy from the magic being produced by them. With a sudden burst of white light, the rings dissipated. Jet looked down to see that his hands were now covered by a set of dark pink gauntlets. The finger portions of them were flattened off and had golden studs where the knuckles formed. Around the wrist and finger joint segments was a thin golden trim. From the way they were textured, they seemed to be made of some kind of stone. He recognized them as Cadence’s royal armament.

“L-Love Spell? Cadence, I can’t accept these. They’re your personal royal weapon.” Jet said, looking them over in shock.

“Nonsense, it’s the least I can do for all you’ve done. Besides, they’re only as strong as the love within the wielder’s heart, I don’t really have much of that to spare ever since…” Cadence cut herself off mid sentence, not wanting to think about what had become of Shining Armor since Sombra took the throne.

“Right… Well, thank you then.” Jet replied with a soft smile.

“You’re welcome. There is one thing though, these are mainly a defensive weapon. So, if you can avoid it, try not to have to use them offensively. Oh, and they can be summoned or banished at will to a storage place in a pocket dimension of my own making. Just slam your fists together like so.” Cadence explained, lightly bashing her fists together in front of herself.

Jet followed her action and the gauntlets disappeared with a small flash of pink light.

“Got it. I’m sure these will come in handy.” Jet said with a nod.

“I assume you know what they’re capable of? Luna said you were big on studying relics and such.” Cadence asked.

“They can produce nearly indestructible magic barriers and can shatter nearly any barrier, as well as becoming stronger based on the love in the heart of the user.” Jet recited, remembering what his artifact guide had said about them.

“You were right, Luna. He sure knows his stuff.” Cadence said with a smile to Luna.

“I told you so. He is as smart as he is deadly.” Luna replied with a nod to Jet.

“That means a lot coming from you, Luna.” Jet said, his face a little red from being complemented by the princesses.

“It is merely the truth, Jet Stream. Now then, what is our target location this time?” Luna replied.

“Our?” Jet asked, looking at Luna suspiciously.

“Yes, our. I am accompanying you on this mission.” Luna stated.

“Uh, sorry but no. You’re safer here in the bunker with the others, Luna.” Jet replied with a shake of his head.

“I do not wish to stand on the sidelines while the land I called home is being ravaged by this monster.” Luna said, stepping towards the ladder.

“I’m sorry, Luna. But, we can’t risk you getting captured, or worse. Once this is all over with, we’ll need the both of you to take up your respective thrones and lead us back into the harmony we once lived in. You’re the last royalty we have.” Jet replied, moving to block the ladder.

“I will not sit idly by whilst you continue to risk your life for our benefit.” Luna said, taking another step forward.

“Luna, risking my life for your benefit has been my entire job description for years. If you take another step towards this ladder, I won’t hesitate to use force to keep you safe here.” Jet replied, standing his ground at the foot of the ladder.

“You dare to threaten me, Jet Stream?” Luna asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

“It’s not a threat. It’s a promise. Regardless of the state of the country, my oath to keep the royalty of this land safe still stands.” Jet replied again.

“And you would cause harm to those you are under oath to protect?” Luna asked, taking another step towards the ladder.

Before her foot could even make contact with the ground again, Jet summoned Love Spell and brought down a thick barrier between the two of them. Luna balled her fist and pounded on the barrier to no avail.

“I’m sorry, Luna. I truly am, but I refuse to let you follow me out into that wasteland. As far as we know, Sombra has written you off as dead just like he did me. We may need that element of surprise during the final fight against him.” Jet said as he ascended the ladder, the barrier holding firm in place.

Behind him, he could hear Luna beating against the barrier and screaming at him in some language that he didn’t recognize. The noise was cut off as he shut the hatch behind him and headed off into the wasteland towards what used to be Canterlot. He stayed on the ground to avoid being spotted as he approached the ruins. It was a long walk, but he stayed focused on the task at hand and that kept him going. He made his way through what remained of Ponyville, passed the remnants of Earth Shaker’s mech suit, and towards the cliffside that held up the ruins of Canterlot. He looked up at the sheer mountainside and heaved a sigh, his HUD indicated that he was low on fuel, which meant he would have to take the hard way of climbing the cliff by hand. Without any further delay, he began to climb. The jagged rocky cliff allowed for some handholds which thankfully made the whole process a bit easier. After what seemed like hours, he made it to the top. He pulled himself up onto the flat dusty plateau and took a moment to rest his limbs from the climb as he panted lightly. After his brief rest, he steeled himself and headed into Canterlot. The streets were strewn with dust and debris, as well as several piles of half decayed bones. The once vibrant city now had an unsettling aura surrounding it, a feeling of dread and loss was thick in the air. Walking slowly and quietly, he made his way through the ruined city.

Eventually he made it to the collapsed remains of the town square, passing through the shopping district as he went. He stopped when he came across an all too familiar coffee shop, the once bright and colorful awning was now torn and faded to a dull gray. He ran his hand across the table that had once been the seating for him and Rainbow, a small smile crossing his face as he once again remembered the old days of leisure and fun. After wiping the dust from his hand, he continued on down the road. The collapsed chunk of castle that had nearly been the end of Scootaloo was still laying across the road, serving as a pseudo blockade. With a quick climb, he was over the blockade and on his way towards the castle. As he approached it, he could see the very faint glow of the magical barrier that was shielding the castle ruins from any unwanted guests. It had an ominous presence about it and seemed to spark with small arcs of electricity like the one protecting the warehouse from before. He still remembered the horrors he had seen inside the castle that day, the bloodied cobblestones, the charred gardens, the bodies strewn everywhere. It was all fresh in his mind as if it had just happened yesterday. He shook himself from his thoughts and headed off towards the guard barracks in search of the power source for this barrier.

The barracks, which had once proudly displayed the banners of the two princesses and had been a pristine brick building, was now chipped and crumbling in on itself. The banners were soiled and torn, barely recognizable as anything but dusty strips of cloth. Somehow, the entrance had remained intact, likely to give Sombra’s troops an easy way in. Without another moment of hesitation, he headed inside. The interior walls were dark and seemingly barely holding onto itself to keep from collapsing. Bringing up the night vision on his visor made the dark halls easy to navigate. As he passed through the hallways, he looked into the various rooms. More memories of past times were triggered in his mind. The days of his training with Shining Armor doing his best drill sergeant voice to push him to do better came flooding back, looking back on it now, it seemed crazy to think that he had once thought of himself as nothing, if only his past self could see him now. He passed by the old mess hall, the lunch tables were overturned and broken, stray trays lay strewn everywhere. This reminded him of the time he had started a food fight just to have some fun with his fellow guards, he’d gotten latrine duty for almost a month because of that. After squeezing through a gap in some of the collapsed rubble, he was brought to the sparring pit, a very large circular room with a high ceiling. It had a dirt floor and had a series of wooden rafters that were cloaked in utter darkness. Running along the outside area of the room was a long ring of seats that were only two rows high and carved from some sort of stone, the front row had a raised barrier of sorts that would serve to protect any watchers from the matches that would be held on the floor below. Just in front of the barrier there were several weapon racks, a couple tarnished bronze braziers, and a few small banners that displayed the various insignias of the guard rankings. The racks were empty and the banners torn and tattered from the years of lacking upkeep. He was immediately reminded of Emerald, this was where they had spent much of their time. They had once been constantly trying to one up each other with their weapon skills. He used to think that Emerald had let him win when they sparred, but after their recent encounter, he wasn’t so sure now.

Snapping out of his revelry, he took notice of an odd space in the center of the pit, the dirt of the arena was much thinner here and had a circular pattern to it. He looked around the large empty room cautiously, not being able to shake the sudden feeling that he was being watched. Drawing his sword, he approached the suspicious space on the floor and examined it closely. It looked as if something had been sitting there, but there was nothing in sight. With slow cautious steps, he approached the space. The air in the room seemed to stand still, as if awaiting something to happen. Kneeling down towards the suspicious spot on the floor, he placed his hand in the center and to his surprise the spot felt cold. He furrowed his brow and rubbed his hand across the area, it was cold and hard as steel. He stood back up and kicked the spot on the floor, his boot collided with the bare spot and reverberated the sound of metal being hit. Using the tip of his boot, he pushed some of the dirt to the side, which revealed a shiny surface underneath. With a smirk to himself, he readied a strike with his fake arm, poised to tear open the newfound secret hatch. Before he could make the strike however, something swooped down from the darkness of the rafters and knocked him to the floor. He fell forward onto his face with an echoing thud and a verbal oof. Getting to his feet quickly, he readied his sword into a defensive position and looked around above him. His eyes strained against the darkness of the rafters, even with the use of his mask’s night vision it was hard to make out anything that far up in the dark.

The room was deathly quiet in the room as Jet scanned the blackness above him. As he looked between the rafters, a dark shape suddenly jumped out towards him. It moved incredibly fast, giving Jet but a second to roll to the side and avoid being run down. He turned quickly in an attempt to at least see what he was dealing with, but all he managed to see was the tips of a set of wings and a frazzled tail before the figure disappeared back into the blackness above him. Those small details didn’t tell him much, but it told him that whatever this was at least seemed to be a pony. He focused his attention on the spot he had seen it flee to, ready for its next strike. From the darkness above him, he heard a loud hiss that echoed off the barren walls and sent a shiver down his spine. His heart began to pound in his ears, drowning out the deafening silence of the room. With how fast this thing moved, he knew he’d never be able to get the upper hand here and he couldn’t dodge forever. Thinking quickly, he turned around and moved to the braziers to see if they were usable. They were in a state of disrepair, the shiny bronze was now a dull and lifeless rust brown. As luck would have it, the burners themselves were still in near perfect condition. He quickly gathered up some smaller pieces of wood, dodging the creature once more, and packed them on top of the burnt coals in the burner. Hoping his luck would continue, he exposed his metal arm and faced the palm of it upward, running the blade of his sword across it quickly.

To Jet’s delight, the blade sent a small series of sparks towards the burner. With a couple more tries, the burner started to glow dimly. He took down his mask and blew on it gently to aid the tiny flame, after a few moments the remaining coals in the burner lit up and caught the bits of wood up with it. The brazier glowed brightly in the dark room, giving quite a bit of light and illuminating nearly half the room by itself. Just as the room lit up, the creature attacked again. This time, Jet got a good view of it and was completely shocked by what he saw. He hoped it was just the dustiness and remaining darkness of the room playing tricks on his eyes. While he had the moment, he decided it best to repeat the previous process on the remaining brazier. With the room lit, he could faintly see into the rafters. The light of the braziers flickered, but he could just make out the shape of the creature moving silently above him in an attempt to find more darkness to hide in. With no darkness left, the creature decided to attack again, but this time didn’t flee back into the rafters afterwards. Instead, it stood before Jet.

He turned to face it, choking back a gasp. Before him stood a pony that was all too familiar to him, though her complexion was that of a wild animal, he recognized her. Even through her rough appearance and the tattered rags that barely covered her unmentionables, there was no doubt that it was Fluttershy. Something appeared to have happened to her during the past few years. Her mane and tail were a very dark pink, her yellow coat was more akin to a sandy color now. Along with her rough appearance, her nails had grown to small fine pointed claws and her teeth had changed into that of fangs. The most shocking thing of all was her wings, they were no longer feathery like that of a normal pegasus, they were leathery and boney like a bat's wings. Jet sheathed his sword and locked eyes with her heavily dilated blood red irises. Taking a nervous breath, he put a hand up and put down his mask.

“Fluttershy… I don’t want to fight you…” Jet said, keeping his voice steady and calm so as to not alert her into attacking again.

She said nothing, just stood there with her eyes locked onto his for several moments, before she finally broke the stare down with a loud hiss. Her mouth was wide as she bared her fangs with the hiss, bits of her saliva flew out and spattered the ground at her feet. She sprang forward with her claws swiping at Jet’s chest. Her claws bounced off his armor harmlessly, but that didn’t stop her from continuing to strike in a flurry of claw swipes. Not wanting to have her hurt herself by letting her keep on, Jet gave her a swift kick to the chest. The kick sent her reeling backwards far enough to give him some space to summon Love Spell with a bright flash of light.

“Last warning, Fluttershy. I don’t want to fight you, but I will.” Jet said again, trying to get through to her.

She hissed again in response, flaring her bat-like wings in an attempt at intimidation. Jet stood his ground, clenching the gauntlets into tight fists, waiting for her to strike again. He didn’t have to wait long as she was quick to strike again in another flurry of swipes, which were met with a glowing forcefield from Love Spell. Her claws banged against the shield rapidly, causing a series of echoing thuds to bounce around the room. After a couple minutes and a few more hisses, Jet had enough and pushed the forcefield outward, knocking Fluttershy back again.

“Ok, enough of this. If you’re not coherent enough to listen to words, I’ll just have to use force.” Jet said with a huff as he dropped the forcefield.

She hissed once more, this time loud enough to echo in the vast room. With another lunge, she was hurtling toward Jet again. Gritting his teeth and steeling his nerves, he swung at her with the back of his hand. The backhanded slap hit her right in the face, sending her flying across the arena and into one of the barriers at the foot of the seats. The impact broke the barrier into chunks and sent up a cloud of dust from the floor. Jet flinched at the force of the impact, feeling a little bad about it. He ran over to where she had landed and cleared the rubble that had fallen on her. She wasn’t moving and didn’t appear to be breathing. Picking her up and setting her flat on one of the seats and putting his ear to her chest, he was relieved to hear her heart beating slowly. He sat back against the seat, taking a small break from the stressful situation.

“Wow, you hit her pretty hard, huh?” A voice asked from behind Jet.

He jumped slightly from the sudden surprise, turning to see what appeared to be a small white filly with curly blue hair standing there with a wide smile on her face. She wore what looked to be denim capris and a pink t-shirt with a crystal heart emblazoned on it. As strange as that was in itself, the strangest part of her was the fact that she seemed to be see-through and ghostly in appearance. Jet blinked a few times and looked around for any sign of where this filly could’ve come from, but saw nothing.

“Uh…” Jet muttered out, confused by this newcomer.

“What’s the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” The filly said, dropping her smile for a moment to look around in confusion as well.

“Where did you come from?” Jet asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Me? I came from there, duh.” She replied with a giggle, pointing at Love Spell.

“What are you talking about?” Jet asked, looking down at his hands.

“Uh, I’m the royal spirit of Love Spell?” She said in a tone that came off as if Jet were dumb for not knowing this.

“Royal spirit? You better start making sense, I’m not in the mood for riddles.” Jet replied with a sneer.

“Let me get this straight, you’re wielding one of the royal arms and don’t know about royal spirits?” She asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

“I guess so. None of the princesses ever mentioned any royal spirit before. Just get to explaining, I got shit to do.” Jet replied with an eye roll.

“Rude, but fine. When a royal arm is created, it is imbued with a spirit that gives the weapon its magical properties. The spirit that is created is a reflection of the innermost traits of the one who created it. I’m Cadence’s royal spirit, a reflection of her child at heart nature.” She said, her smile returning as she explained.

“Huh, that should be added to the known lore of the royal arms. So, uh, do you have a name or do you just go by Love Spell?” Jet asked, stroking his chin lightly.

“Of course I have a name, it’s Bright Heart.” She replied cheerfully, hopping down from behind Jet to sit beside him.

“Nice to meet you, I think. I’m…” Jet started to say, but was cut off by Bright.

“I know who you are, Jet Stream. Cadence used to talk about you alot.” She said, waving a hand at him playfully.

“Wait, really?” Jet asked in surprise.

“She would mostly tease and joke about how you and Shining were both huge nerds. Always getting together on your days off to go play your little Castles and Cauldrons game.” She replied with another giggle.

“Of course she did…” Jet said with a small chuckle.

“Where is Cadence anyway? I lost connection with her forever ago.” She said, looking up at Jet with an expression of concern.

With a heavy sigh, Jet began to explain the situation to her. As she listened to Jet’s recounting of events, her smile wavered and slowly faded. Her expression dimmed and she took to looking down at her feet as the realization of the world she came back to began to set in. Once he was finished with his retelling, the two of them sat quietly, the only sound being that of the fire crackling in the braziers in front of them. The silence was broken when Fluttershy suddenly sat up with a loud gasp. Jet jumped up and put up the forcefield again. She rubbed her head and looked around slowly, blinking rapidly. Her eyes, now with normally sized pupils, shifted up to Jet with a look of shock.

“J-Jet? You’re ok?” She said in her usual quiet tone.

“Fluttershy? Uh… Yeah, I’m fine. How’re you feeling?” He asked, dropping the forcefield and sitting back down.

“I feel… Really weird…” She replied, still rubbing her head.

“Yeah, I bet…” Jet said, pulling his sword out and holding the flat of the blade up to her to give her a look at her reflection.

She locked eyes with her reflection and she let out a loud gasp. Extending one of her clawed fingers, she gently scraped across the blade. Another gasp escaped her lips as she looked down at her dirty clawed hands, which began to shake with anxiousness. Her breathing began to become rapid and shallow, she was on the cusp of a panic attack. Jet put his hand on her back, rubbing up and down gently.

“Easy now. Deep breaths.” Jet said calmly, trying to comfort her.

“I… I… I’m a monster…” She whimpered out between breaths.

“You’re not a monster, Fluttershy. You’ve just gone through some changes.” Jet replied, still rubbing her back.

“N-No… I’m a freak…” She said, tears welling in her eyes.

“If you’re a freak, then so am I. Dash too.” Jet said, exposing his metal arm to her.

She gave a light gasp as she saw the matte steel appendage.

“W-Wha…” Fluttershy began.

“It’s a replacement for the real things that were damaged after Sombra’s reversal of Twilight’s spell. Got my leg, wings, and some organs too. Dash got off lucky, all she needed was a replacement wing and arm.” Jet explained in a lifeless tone.

“O-Oh my, I’m sorry…” Fluttershy said quietly.

“It’s alright, I’m more worried about you to be honest. Everyone thought you were dead… Or worse. What happened?” Jet asked with a serious expression.

“I.. I’m not sure. I don’t really remember much.” She replied.

“What do you remember?” He asked.

She thought for a long moment, tapping her chin and straining her memory.