The Fate Of Equestria Book 1: Sombra's Reign

by R-Dashiefan20

Rating: mature
Tags: Violence, Dark, Death, Alternate Universe, Anthro, Thriller, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Tragedy, Profanity
Length: 96689

The detailing of an alternate universe in which Sombra returned unopposed

An AU where Sombra returned from his self inflicted banishment with the Crystal Empire with nobody to oppose him

Published 2021-10-17 02:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2022-11-01 19:26:36 UTC

Chapter 1: Eight Years Later

Rainbow Dash woke with a jump, sitting up in bed, her breathing ragged and her white t-shirt plastered to her chest as it had gotten soaked in a cold sweat from her nightmare. Even sleeping in only her t-shirt and underwear, though it helped, she still managed to sweat like an elephant in the desert while she slept. She was lucky enough to be one of the few to get their own sleeping quarters, meanwhile the majority of everybody else had to share one of several rooms filled with typical military style bunk beds.

Eight years and she was still having nightmares about that day, the day that Equestria fell and The Sombra Empire was born. With Celestia dead and the other three princesses missing in action, there was nobody who was able to stop the tyrant from taking the throne and making his own twisted version of the land she had grown to love. To make matters worse for her, the pegasus she loved had been trapped in a coma for these eight long years. After everything that happened that day, Rainbow had awoken several days later in the med ward, her wing missing and her arm nearly unusable.

She had to be told what had happened after she had blacked out from the sheer shock and pain of being hit by that blast of magical energy. After the blast, the castle had started to crumble and both her and Jet had to be carried to safety by Applejack and Fluttershy, but Twilight had stayed behind to give them time to escape. From what they had told her, by the time they made it out, it was too late to go back for Twilight and she hadn’t been seen or heard from since then. Rainbow gave a hard shudder and a long sigh at the memories before throwing the fuzzy green thermal blanket off of herself, exposing her bare legs to the admittedly cold air of the room. She scooted over the side of the bed and dangled her legs off the side as she stretched, her metallic replacement wing and arm glinting slightly in the dim light, and ran her fingers through her messier than typical bed head hair. After a few minutes of just sitting there letting the air dry some of the cold sweat on her body. She slowly got up and moved across the dimly lit off white room to her locker on the far side, grabbing a change of clothes and heading out into the hallway. She made her way down the hall to the communal showers they had to use.

Just as she was about to enter the door, a puff of very bright pink smoke emitted from within and a humming draconequus walked out. He stopped to give Rainbow a smile, his uneven pointed teeth gleamed in the fluorescent light of the hallway, those teeth always made her uncomfortable as it reminded her of Sombra’s wicked grin on the day she lost nearly everything that she cared about.

She had never really liked the guy with his mismatched body parts. His cloven hoof and dragon clawed feet tapped lightly on the tiles of the floor. In his one lion pawed hand, he held a towel, in the other gryphon taloned hand was a bottle of some sort of body wash. He gave a small flap of his wings, one bat wing and one pegasus wing stuck to his back, and stretched his long snake like body as he gave a shake like a dog. This sent droplets of water flying every which way off of his pony like head and snake like tail. Rainbow covered her face and gave him a glare, this guy really was just a walking pile of spare parts.

“Well, good morning Rainbow Dash. Sleep well?” He asked while he literally flossed his ears through his head with a towel.

“Good morning, Discord, now get out of my way. I’m sweaty and need a shower.” She said with a scowl, trying to push past him, but he just moved to continue standing in her way.

“Oh, come now, is that any way to treat the guy that saved your skins by magicing this bunker into existence?” Discord said, still smiling down at her. She glared at him.

“Sure, thanks for using your reality breaking powers to make this bunker instead of helping us stop Sombra in the first place or maybe even stopping him from dropping that mega-spell bomb that decimated the country.” She replied sarcastically, giving him a look that would’ve made him drop dead on the spot if such a thing were possible.

“Oh, like I was supposed to kn…” He started to spout off a defense for himself, but Rainbow wasn’t in the mood to hear it and she quickly cut him off.

“Listen here, you mismatched assembly of spare parts, the only thing keeping me from beating you to within an inch of your sorry life is the fact that I promised Shy I wouldn’t hurt you. Keep that in mind next time you think you have anything to say to me. Now, get the hell out of my face and let me go shower in peace.” She said, managing to keep her voice steady despite wanting to scream at the draconequus. His smile finally faded and he stepped aside, allowing Rainbow to finally step into the shower room. Once inside, she peeled off her soaked t-shirt and underwear, tossing them into a bin that held the dirty clothes of the others who had taken up residence in the bunker since that initial attack. With another sigh, she set her change of clothes on one of the nearby benches and stepped under the shower head. As she kicked on the water, she stared down at the ugly green and white floor tiles. Over the years, she had grown to hate everything about this place, from the aforementioned floor tiles and wall-less shower stalls, to the eye straining off-white paint that adorned every wall, even the softly buzzing fluorescent lights had grown to be a source of hatred for her.

The slowly warming water cascaded down over her body, washing away the dirt and sweat as it swirled down the drain in a small whirlpool. She stood there, simply enjoying the feeling of the water for a few minutes before grabbing one of the clean wash rags from the stack, which were on a small wooden shelf next to the showers. She held the rag under the water for a moment to get it wet before wrapping a bar of soap around it and scrubbing lightly to get the rag good and soapy. After putting the bar back on its little soap dish, she began to slowly wash herself off. The whirlpool at her feet quickly becoming bubbly with soap suds. Once she finished washing off her body, she grabbed the shampoo, which she hated the smell of due to the fact that it smelled like a hospital room, and began to soap up her messy hair. She washed said soap out her hair and shut off the water, holding her head down to let her hair drip dry for a moment. After she was satisfied with the drip drying, she whipped her hair back and stood upright, moving to grab a towel from the same shelving space that held the rags. She started to towel off, wrapping her hair in the towel once she was done drying her body.

She grabbed her clothes off the bench and frowned, Yet another aspect of this new life that she hated. With very little material to work with, everybody’s wardrobe had been limited to just plain white bras and underwear, drab army green cargo pants, plain white tank tops and t-shirts, and combat boots. Rarity had once told her that they may not be the most fashionable, which she absolutely hated, but they were the easiest to make and the most efficient for their situation. She regrettably slipped on the clothes and rubbed the towel against her head to finish getting the rest of the water off it. She looked at her unused hairbrush and shrugged, opting to comb her hair down with her fingers as she always did.

With her shower finished, she went on with her usual daily routine, heading down the buzzing and occasionally flickering hallway towards the science wing of the bunker. Luckily, they had been able to save some of the smarter science ponies during the initial attack, and with the supplies they had raided from Sombra’s camps and shipments, they were able to keep the place up and running as well as replace the damaged limbs of those who were injured. Nobody was really sure where or how Sombra was able to get his hands on such advanced technology, but they were happy to be benefiting from it. She made her way down the hall, boots thudding softly against the tiled floor as she passed a variety of ponies going about their new lives, each one having specialty duties based on their varying skill sets. She walked into the science wing and looked around. The main room wasn’t very big, but it was big enough to hold a variety of equipment needed to keep up with the research and experiments they had going on. The room itself was slightly different from the rest of the bunker. The tiling here was a deep blue color, which made her think of Jet’s deep blue eyes and further made her hate this place, and the walls and ceiling were the same off-white but had a pair of vertical parallel lines going across it in the same shade of blue as the tiles. Against the various walls were machines that flashed and beeped, displaying various indicators that Rainbow had zero idea what their purpose was for. In one corner sat a small four drawer filing cabinet that they used to file away intel and the blueprints for their various inventions that made this new post apocalyptic life easier. At the other end of the room was a door with a large red ‘Authorized Personnel Only’ tag painted across it.

As she stood there lost in thought, a unicorn stallion with a green coat of thin fur, hair similar to Jet’s but with a pink stripe instead of red, and wearing a lab coat over his army fatigues and white shirt came up to her. He carried a clipboard and had a pen sticking out from behind one ear. She recognized him as Jet’s best, and really only, friend Sunblast. He had once been a pretty good musician, but had been made lead scientist thanks to his background in physics and quantum theory. He’d never admit it, but he only went into the music field to spite his parents, who had attempted to push him into the field of science, as they were once Celestia’s top researchers and inventors back before the megaspell bomb happened. Rainbow noticed that he was looking at her, his mouth moving, she shook herself from her thoughts and tuned back in just in time to catch the end of what he was saying.

“... Lieutenant Dash. I have some stuff you should look over.” He was saying, she rolled her eyes at him.

Ever since that incident eight years ago and only a handful of the Wonderbolts making it to safety, she had been given the title of lieutenant, and she hated it almost as much as the rest of the place.

“Sunblast… I’ve told you how many times now, you can just call me Rainbow. I’m not a fan of being in charge of things and calling me lieutenant just reminds me of that…” She said with a sigh, not wanting to get upset at him because he didn’t really do anything wrong.

“Right, sorry lieut… Uh, Rainbow. I just needed you to go over some new intel before you get busy with the trainees.” He said with a smile, pushing the clipboard towards her. She pushed it back and shook her head.

“Not right now. You know why I’m here, so let’s get on with it.” She replied without trying to sound irritated.

“Right, I’m sure he’d appreciate you coming by everyday, but I don’t really think it’s the best for your mental health. Not to mention that it’s not doing much good, honestly.” Sunblast said slowly, leading her through the ‘Authorized Personnel Only’ door and down another poorly lit hallway.

This hallway was different in the fact that along the walls was a series of viewing windows that allowed the lead scientists to check the progress on their various experiments and inventions without having to go from room to room. Rainbow never really paid much attention to what they were working on through the windows, and she frankly didn’t really care. The only thing she cared about in this section of the bunker was at the end of this hallway, through another door. Sunblast led her through that door and out into a room that looked like a cross between the science wing and the medical ward. The floors were still tiled with that bright blue but the walls were so bright white that they kinda hurt the eyes to look at for long periods.

There wasn’t much in terms of equipment in this small circular room, just a large cylindrical stasis chamber hooked up to a few smaller machines to keep it running. Among these machines was a respirator, a heart monitor, and an injection station that allowed the scientist or medics to inject various medicinal serums and such into whoever was inside the chamber. The one currently inside the chamber was what she had come to see, just as she had everyday since finding out his fate. She walked up to the chamber and looked through the semi-foggy glass, staring into the tightly shut eyes of her beloved stallion Jet. She raised her hand and gently placed it on the chamber, the metal apparatus that made up her arm clinked softly against the glass. Inside the chamber, Jet floated in some form of viscous liquid that the scientists told her was supposed to help his body heal in addition to making his replacement limbs adhere better to his comatose body.

She was lucky enough to not have witnessed the full aftermath of the blast, but Sunblast had filled her in on the details about it. According to him, the blast was so powerful that it had taken out nearly Jet’s entire left side, along with frying the feathers from both his wings. The shock to his system of such an immense injury had taken a toll on his mind as well as his body, which was why he had been sent into a coma. Sunblast had also told her that even if Jet did eventually come to, he’d be flightless due to the amount of metal implants and replacements they had to use to make him whole again.

“Any news on his status? Anything at all?” She asked, a hopeful tone coming through in her voice.

“Well, the replacement parts are successfully adhered to his body, so that issue righted itself.” Sunblast replied, checking the vitals on the heart monitor and recording them on a separate clipboard that hung on the side of said machine.

“So, that’s good, right? He’ll come around soon, right?” She asked, more hope flowing into her voice.

“Sadly, no. Though his body is repaired, his mind is still very much broken and in a perpetual state of shock. We’ve done all we can, the rest is up to him, the only thing we can do now is wait and see if he can fight through it.” He said in a steady tone to avoid upsetting Rainbow anymore than she already was.

“But he’s making progress, right?” She continued, her hopeful tone wavering now. Sunblast sighed and handed her two sheets of paper from beside one of the machines. She took them and looked them over, raising an eyebrow as she didn’t know what she was looking at. Both showed some kind of graph that looked like a lie detector readout, one looked like a normal ‘truther’ and the other was far more aggressive and at times went outside of the little scale lines as if taken from a compulsive liar.

“These are brain activity readouts that we’ve pulled from CAT scans. The one in your left hand is a normal brain scan from your average pony, the one in your right was taken from Jet just a few days ago.” He replied, pointing to each as he gave her the rundown of them. The one she held in her left hand was the ‘truther’ readout and the one in her right hand was the crazy one that went outside the lines occasionally. She handed them back and nodded slowly to show she understood.

“Whatever’s going on inside that head of his, it has to be an awful experience for him. But don’t worry, he’s a strong willed stallion, I’m sure he’ll beat whatever it is and come back to you in no time.” Sunblast said reassuringly, putting a hand gently on her shoulder.

“Yeah…” Rainbow said quietly, moving back to the chamber and placing her hand on the glass again. On the outside, she put on a strong face to keep some hope for those living in the bunker, but internally she was completely crumbling under the weight of depression and heartache.

“So, about the intel I was telling you about?” Sunblast asked, once again snapping her out of her thoughts.

“Sure, let’s see it.” She replied with a frown now adorning her face. She took the clipboard from him and looked it over, it was a short file detailing the little info they had about Sombra’s operations.

“As you can see, our scouting parties have identified three main compounds that would be beneficial to take out if we’re ever going to win against that crystal obsessed tyrant. But…” He stated as they walked back down the hallway towards the main room of the science wing.

“There’s always a but…” Rainbow said with a roll of her eyes.

“Unfortunate, but true. These facilities are heavily guarded and have unknown assailants running them. One we’ve identified as the source of the frequency that Sombra uses to keep his soldiers under his mind control. We’ve also been able to identify the main source of his supply shipments, a large warehouse set up in the middle of what used to be Ponyville, but it seems to have some sort of cloaking technology keeping it hidden and electrified force field up until a truck arrives to pick up its next shipment of supplies. The last one has been identified as the power source of an energy field protecting what’s left of Canterlot Castle.” Sunblast explained while fiddling with one of the machines, checking dials and readouts to make sure everything was where it needed to be.

“Wait, why protect the ruins of the castle? Doesn’t he have his entire kingdom in what used to be the Crystal Empire?” Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, that’s the thing, we don’t know. Of the three scouts we sent to investigate, none have come back. The only reason we were even able to get this intel was thanks to my invention of a camera with a sniper scope for a lense. But, if he’s putting that much effort into protecting it, he must have something worthwhile hidden there, and we know for a fact that he makes routine visits to the castle as he’s been spotted both coming and going from there.” Sunblast replied, standing upright from checking another of the machines.

“Hmm… Whatever it is, if it’s leaving the safety and comfort of his throne in the Crystal Empire, then I’m certain it’s worth looking into. But we really can’t afford to lose any more scouts for it. I’ll go myself when I get the time.” Rainbow said, still looking over the file, which included photos of Sombra entering and exiting the ruined castle.

“No! I mean, no, We can’t afford to lose you too. Not to mention how pissed off Jet would be if I let anything happen to you while he’s out of commission. Besides, we need you here to keep the trainees in line. They don’t exactly listen to anybody else.” Sunblast said quickly, knowing that his friend would indeed be furious with him if he woke up only to find that Rainbow had gone MIA while he was out,

“You have a point, but somebody has to get this intel. There could be something important in there, What if it’s Twilight? He could be using the ruins as a hideout to torture her or worse…” She said with a hard shudder at the thought of what became of her friend.

“Rainbow, it’s been eight years. We’ve seen from the ones we’ve managed to rescue from his internment camps that he doesn’t feed his prisoners. So, even if he was keeping her prisoner, she’d have likely starved to death by now.” He said in a slow steady tone as to keep her calm. Rainbow didn’t want to accept that, but she knew he had a point.

“I guess you’re right, but it doesn’t hurt to hold onto the hope that she’s still out there somewhere in this hell hole.” She said with an attempt at a smile, but Sunblast knew it wasn’t a genuine one. Nobody had seen her legitimately smile since Jet went into a coma.

“Well, yeah, hope is kinda all we have at this point. Maybe I’m wrong and we’ll find her one day, but until then, we’ll just have to assume the worst. In the meantime, I’ll file this with the rest of our intel.” He said as she handed the clipboard back and he moved over to the small file cabinet in the corner.

Each of the four drawers had different labels, corresponding to what was held within. The topmost drawer was labeled ‘intel’, the one below it was labeled ‘schematics and ideas’, the third read ‘future projects’, and the bottommost one which was also the newest looking label read ‘top secret projects’. Rainbow took notice of the newest looking label and pointed at it.

“Hey, I don’t remember that being there. What sorta top secret projects you got going on?” She asked, trying to move over to open it. Sunblast stepped in the way with a nervous smile.

“N-Nothing you need to worry yourself with right now. Shouldn’t you go try and get some breakfast before you have to train those newbies?” He said casually, as if he didn’t just prevent his superior from viewing his secret files.

“Fine, but this isn’t over. We’re going to talk about what you’re hiding in the cabinet.” She said matter of factly before walking off, making her way out of the science wing and back down the hall to the cafeteria area.

She walked slowly down the dingey hallway, not really in a hurry to start the training with those rookies. They weren’t bad or anything, she had just fallen into a rut of the same daily routine for nearly three-thousand consecutive days with nobody for her to vent to or hold her and tell her everything would be ok, like things used to be. She stepped out into the cafeteria, which was painted the same off-white as the rest of the hallways and rooms as well as the same gross green floor tiles. It was a very large square room that consisted of two floors, the second floor had handrails painted the same depressing green as the floor tiles, a handful of tables with attached benches that were the only thing not painted green but instead a bright shade of yellow, and of course the service counter where you got your food from. Around the cafeteria were five hallways branching off further into the bunker, each one leading to a different wing and a set of stairs as well. There was the science wing, the med ward, the greenhouse, the gymnasium, and the hallway that led to the ladder outside. The hallway for the ladder outside was the least used, mostly only used by the scouting parties and the few technicians who occasionally went out to check on the hidden generators that kept the place powered.

Rainbow got in the line that was formed at the service area of the cafeteria and grabbed a tray from the stack at the end of the line. It wasn’t much of a line as most had already gotten their breakfast and went to find seating at the various tables and she was the last one in line. After a short while she made it to the front of the line and was greeted by a familiar face, Applejack. She wore the same army fatigues and white t-shirt as the rest of the inhabitants in the bunker, the only thing different was the hairnet she had over her blonde hair, her usual red scrunchie still holding it up in a ponytail beneath the hairnet. Applejack had been put in charge of the greenhouse and cafeteria, along with her little sister Applebloom, given their prior experience running a farm.

“Well, howdy there Rainbow. Yer lookin’ a lot worse fer wear today. Ya ain’t sick, are ya?” Applejack asked, concerned by the look of her friend.

“Pfft, I wish I was sick. At least then I’d have an excuse for looking this bad and I’d be able to stay in bed.” Rainbow replied with a shrug.

“Maybe ya just need somethin’ to eat? Here, try this, we been tinkerin’ with some new recipes to change things up a bit.” Applejack said as she plopped some kind of vegetable dish onto the tray, along with a carton of milk and a granola bar.

“New? Looks like the same old veggies and granola to me.” Rainbow said with a grimace at the food, sure it was good for keeping in shape but just once she’d like to have a nice greasy slice of pizza or even maybe even one of Pinkie’s cupcakes that she always used to smother in extra icing.

“Oh, hush up and give it a try before ya judge it.” Applejack replied with a small punch to her friend's shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll give it a try, geez.” Rainbow said with a slight smirk before picking up the tray to go find a place to sit down and eat.

As soon as she turned around, she already spotted a bright pink pony waving at her excitedly through the crowd. Pinkie had a seat saved right beside her, as per the usual. Rainbow loved Pinkie like a sister, but her constant upbeatness sometimes got on her nerves. She just couldn’t see how Pinkie managed to stay so upbeat under their dire circumstances. Rainbow walked over and plopped down in the saved seat, as soon as she did, Pinkie leaned over and gave Rainbow one of her signature bear hugs. Rainbow ler out a small groan as the force of the hug made her back pop like a Rice Krispie.

“Rainbow! I was starting to think that you weren’t coming to breakfast and that I saved this seat for nothing! How are you feeling?! You look kinda bad! Is there anything I can do to help?! Maybe one of my famous Pinkie Pie songs will bring up your mood! You should smile more, your smile is pr…” Pinkie was talking very excitedly and nonstop, which Rainbow expected nothing less from the overly hyper pink pony, but regardless Rainbow put a hand over Pinkie’s mouth to put a stop to the overflow of words.

“Pinkie… I feel fine, I know I look like shit, Applejack already told me as much just nicer about it. You can’t help what’s bothering me, and for the love of the Gods, please don’t start singing. Now, I’m going to remove my hand, but I need you to chill, ok?” Rainbow replied, answering all of Pinkie’s questions all at once in the hopes that it would satisfy the literal word fountain that she called friend. Rainbow slowly removed her hand from Pinkie’s mouth.

“Sorry, Rainbow Dash, I just get so excited when I see you. All I have left is you, AJ, and Rarity now…” Pinkie said calmly, her ears folding back against her head and her eyes darting towards the floor. Rainbow just sighed and put her hand on Pinkie’s back gently.

“It’s ok, Pinkie. I’m sorry and I know, that’s just too much to take in this early. If I’m honest, I wouldn’t have you any other way. Somehow you’ve managed to stay happy and upbeat through everything, and that’s kept morale high. You’re the backbone of our whole resistance operation.” Rainbow said, rubbing Pinkie’s back slowly to help reassure her friend.

“You mean it?” Pinkie asked, her smile coming back and her ears perking up again.

“I truly do, Pinkie. Without morale, there’s no way we would’ve made it this long.” Rainbow replied with a small smile at the corner of her lips.

Pinkie squealed happily and bear hugged Rainbow again, this time making her shoulders pop. Rainbow groaned again and gasped slightly, tapping Pinkie on the shoulder to her attention.

“Pinkie… Need… Oxygen... “ Rainbow gasped out through the sheer force of the bear hug. Pinkie let go and giggled lightly.

“Oops, sorry Dashie! I forget my own strength from time to time!” Pinkie said with another giggle.

“Y-Yeah, I noticed… And I’ve asked you not to call me that. I’ve only ever let one pony call me that, and he’s currently in a coma.” Rainbow said, shaking her head lightly and trying not to sound so depressing.

“Oh, right, oopsie daisy!” Pinkie replied with a giggle snort.

Rainbow rolled her eyes jokingly at the silly pink mare, grabbing her fork and digging into the veggie dish. They both munched away in silence for a while, Rainbow had to admit that whatever Applejack had done to these veggies was incredibly good and definitely different from the usual bland steamed variety. She finished them quickly, she was clearly hungrier than she initially thought. After finishing the veggies, she moved on to open her carton of milk, still a bit confused how they managed to put it in the little cartons, given their current circumstances. She sipped from it as she picked up her granola bar. She sarcastically thought to herself, ‘gee, wonder what flavor it is.’ She took a bite, and surprise surprise, it was apple flavored. As she scarfed down her millionth apple flavored granola bar since being basically trapped here, she noticed Pinkie was staring at her with a huge grin plastered across her face. Rainbow swallowed her last bit of granola bar followed by her last drink of milk.

“Uh… What is it, Pinkie? You’re weirding me out here…” Rainbow said, raising an eyebrow and leaning away slightly.

“Oh… Noooothing. Just this!” Pinkie replied, pulling a small paper bag from under her seat and setting it in front of Rainbow.

“Uh, thanks? What is it?” Rainbow asked quizzically as she eyed the paper bag suspiciously.

“Open it, silly!” Pinkie replied, nudging the bag closer to her.

“Fine, but if this is another prank I’m going to slap the curls out of your hair.” Rainbow said, only half joking.

Despite a shortage of supplies, Pinkie still managed to keep up with her pranking. Against her better judgement, Rainbow slowly unrolled the top of the paper bag and looked inside. What she saw made her gasp loudly. At the bottom of the bag, inside a plastic container, was a small brightly colored cupcake decorated with rainbow striped frosting. She pulled the container out of the bag and set it on the table in front of them. With some hesitation, she popped open the top and brought it to her nose and took a sniff from it, the delicious sugary smell almost bringing a tear to her eye. She sat it back down on the table and prodded it with her fork, making sure it was real and not some kind of day dream brought on by missing this sort of thing.

“Happy birthday, Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie screamed and delicately plunged a small misshapen blue candle into the cupcake.

“Pinkie… How did you…” Rainbow started to ask, still mesmerized by the fact that she was looking at probably the first cupcake to exist in eight long years.

“Weeeeeell, I had to bribe a couple ponies to get all ingredients, and pull some favors for Applejack to get access to the ovens in the back and then I had to do some things for Discord to get the matches, the candle I made myself though! But, that’s not important! It’s your birthday and you should be able to have some cake for once! Now, make a wish, silly!” Pinkie replied before she could finish, as if reading Rainbow’s mind to know what she was going to ask.

Rainbow didn’t know what to say as Pinkie reached over and flicked a match, lighting the candle and almost vibrating in her seat as she waited for Rainbow to blow it out. With only a moment of thought, she blew it out, making her wish. She knew it wasn’t going to happen, but the only wish she had was to be reunited with Jet.

“So, what did you wish for?! Huh?! Huh?!” Pinkie asked excitedly, fully bouncing in her seat now and shaking the whole table.

“You know if I tell you, it’s a guarantee that it won’t come true.” Rainbow replied, a genuine smile slowly crossing her lips as she couldn’t believe what Pinkie had done for her.

“Oh, yeah! Oopsie poopsie!” Pinkie said as she giggle snorted yet again.

“Did you want some? I know how much you must miss cake yourself.” Rainbow asked, removing the candle and licking the frosting off before using her fork to split the cupcake down the middle and sliding half over to her.

“Are you sure, Rainbow? I made it for you, after all.” Pinkie said, unsure about accepting the offer, she really did miss all the sweets she used to get at Sugarcube Corner.

“Of course. Like you usually say, sharing is caring.” Rainbow replied with a small smile now on her face.

Pinkie’s smile widened as she took half of the cupcake. They two sat in silence as they ate the cake. Rainbow’s taste buds went alight with the sort of pleasure one can only get from eating something that was so desperately missed. Pinkie scarfed hers down like it was going out of style, which technically it was. Meanwhile Rainbow ate hers slowly, savoring every bite of the moist delicious cake and the creamy sugary frosting. It might give her body an overload of sweets followed by a sugar crash from hell after so long without the stuff, but she didn’t care right now, it was more than worth it. Once she finally finished, she sat back on her seat and let out a quiet belch of satisfaction.

“Wow, that tasted incredible Pinkie, thank you so much.” Rainbow said, giving her hype friend a big hug.

“You’re welcome, Rainbow Dash! I’m glad you liked it, and even more glad to finally see you smile again!” Pinkie said happily, returning the hug and lightly patting her friend’s back.

“Well, Pinkie, I hate to eat and run but somebody has to go keep those trainees in line.” Rainbow said as she got up, picking up her tray and heading to the tray return beside the serving counter.

“Oh, it’s ok. I know you have important things to do as a lieutenant. Just don’t push them too hard, they gotta be able to laugh at my jokes later tonight!” Pinkie replied with another giggle.

Rainbow set her tray on the return conveyor belt and waved bye to Pinkie, heading for the gymnasium where the trainees were likely already waiting, if they kept to her set schedule anyway. Pinkie was right though, she shouldn’t be too hard on them today, they needed to be able to attend Pinkie’s stand-up act later on. She did it every week to give the ponies living this dull life a good time and lots of laughs. Rainbow didn’t mind letting her keep up with it, it helped morale immensely and made everyone forget about their problems for one night, plus it helped that her bad jokes were legitimately kinda funny most of the time. But, she didn't have the time to think about that just yet, she had newbies to train.

Chapter 2: Face Of Hope

Author's Note

Hi there and thanks for reading, just here to let you know that everything coming between the lines made up of these symbols here: ~

These segments are flashbacks sequences. That's all. Again, thank you for reading. I'll let you get back to it now

Chapter 2: Face Of Hope

The hallway leading to the gymnasium was definitely the most well used and most traveled of the rest. The floor was slightly worn down and had a variety of black scuff marks running along the sickly green tiles, which was admittedly a nice color contrast to the rest of it. As she trodded down the hall, her boots thudding against the tiles, Rainbow’s stomach growled a bit loudly. She figured it was from the sugary treat she had just fed it. She walked into the gymnasium slowly, looking around and taking in the sight of their make-shift training area. The gymnasium was your typical variety, around one hundred or so feet in length and about sixty across with well worn waxed floors and painted white lines going around its exterior. It even included two basketball hoops, though they seemed pretty useless considering they didn’t have a ball to play a game with. At the far end of the gymnasium stood a few training dummies with a small rack of wooden sparring swords, in the very center sat a couple foam wrestling mats wrapped in some form of dark blue faux leather, and along each wall of the gymnasium sat two triple decker rows of bleachers.

Rainbow looked up to see that her handful of trainees were seated on the bleachers to her left, chatting and mostly not paying attention to the fact she had entered the gymnasium, they were likely waiting on her to start their training regime for the day. They hadn’t really been able to find many suitable combatants to fill out their ranks, and the ones they had weren’t ready to go out into the field by any means. Even those with any sort of prior combat experience were hesitant to go out into the field anymore, too many had gone missing during recon missions. They had lost some well versed ponies in terms of combat experience. Among those were Spitfire and Shining Armor, though Shining had left with the intention of finding Cadence and said he wasn’t coming back until he did.

Rainbow approached the trainees, putting on her best drill sergeant persona as she always did. She stood at the foot of the bleachers and did an intentional stomp with her boot to get their attention. The trainees hopped up from the bleachers and filed down onto the main floor into a neat and orderly line, standing at attention and saluting with their gazes straight ahead.

“Good morning, Lieutenant Dash!” They all said in nearly perfect harmony, awaiting instruction for their regime today.

“At ease, recruits.“ Rainbow shouted in her stern voice as she walked down the line of trainees, checking their attire to ensure it was clean and their shirts were tucked, aside from the same green fatigues and tank tops that everybody else in the bunker wore, they were given berets of the same color as the fatigues like proper military aspiring ponies.

“Yes ma’am!” They replied all together, putting their hands back down at their sides.

“Now then, I hope you enjoyed your little bit of down time this morning because your training for the day starts now. We’ll be doing some basic endurance and stamina training. Which means... Wait a minute, where the hell is Sea Foam?” Rainbow asked, referring to the slacker of the trainees she had to deal with this year.

“Uh… I think she’s still in bed, ma’am.” One of the trainees stepped forward and spoke up. Rainbow sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose lightly in irritation.

“Of course… Alright, you guys run some laps while I go and get our resident slacker out of bed.” Rainbow replied as she started back towards the hallway.

“Yes, ma’am!” They called out behind her and started to run down the side of the court.

Rainbow grumbled to herself as she made her way down the hall and up the staircase to the second floor. The second floor was mostly used for the shared sleeping quarters of the rest of the bunker, as well as a couple recreation rooms which just contained mostly books they were able to salvage from the destruction of the world above.

She proceeded down the walkway of the second floor balcony, and towards the sleeping quarters of the prospective militant recruits. Without a word, she stormed into the bunk room, it wasn’t hard for her to tell which bed was still occupied as there was only one that wasn’t made properly. Rainbow walked over to the bunk with a lump under the covers, quickly tossing back the cover and immediately covered her eyes. The blue haired, white coated unicorn mare lay completely nude under the covers in her bunk and unfortunately Rainbow had seen it all. Without having to look down again, Rainbow gave the mattress a hard kick, which startled the mare awake. She sat up groggily and looked around, blinking a few times before making eye contact with Rainbow.

“Dude… I was having the best dream and you just totally ruined it…” She said through her still half asleep state, not even bothering to cover her shame.

“Oh, my apologies, Sea Foam. Let me just go ask Sombra if he’ll wait a little longer to be dethroned while we let you keep sleeping.” Rainbow retorted in a very sarcastic tone.

“Word? That would hella awesome.” Sea said drearily, laying back down on her pillow and rolling over to face away from Rainbow.

“Oh you’ve gotta be… Get your ass out of this bed right now!” Rainbow yelled, giving the mare a hard kick in the bare ass, which threw her off the bed entirely. She flopped onto the floor with a loud groan and sat up again.

“Dude, what the hell? You just said…” Sea started to protest, but was immediately cut off by Rainbow hitting her in the face with the clothes she should be wearing right now.

“One more word out of you and you’re pulling a double training shift tonight! And put your damn clothes on, I’m already sick of looking at that tangled mess of blue hair that you call pubes.” Rainbow said, avoiding looking down any more than she had to.

“Don’t act like you don’t like what you see, dude.” Sea said, giving Rainbow a small grin as she cupped her breasts and gave them a little jiggle. Rainbow glared down into the mare’s eyes and gritted her teeth.

“No, I can assure you that I don’t. If you don’t get dressed and move your ass down to the gymnasium with the rest of your squad, I will personally see to it that you are sent out with the next scouting party. Do I make myself clear, Sea Foam?!” Rainbow replied coldly and flatly, not amused by her antics.

“Dude, take a chill pill. So I slept in, it’s not that big of a deal, yo.” Sea said casually, slipping on the clothes with no sense of urgency about herself. Rainbow balled up her fists and growled loud enough for Sea to hear.

“Not a big deal? NOT A BIG DEAL?! Our whole goal is to take down Sombra! Y’know, the piece of shit that is the whole reason we have to live in a fucking bunker! The same piece of shit that decimated the entirety of Equestria with a god damn nuke! The bastard that murdered or enslaved all of our friends and family! The mother fucker that literally stole my life with Jet from me! Now either get your worthless ass in gear and get down to training or get the fuck out of this bunker! We have no room for lazy pieces of shit like you in our resistance ranks!” Rainbow screamed at the top of her lungs, tears welling in her eyes and fists clenched so hard that she could feel her nails digging painfully into her palms.

Sea Foam just sat there in shock, eyes wide and full of legitimate fear. Rainbow had been holding all of her anger inside for so long, but this one lazy mare had managed to uncork that bottle of rage in just a matter of minutes. Somewhere deep down, she felt bad for screaming at Sea like that, but at the same time it felt really good to finally get some of it off her chest. Rainbow was breathing hard, the tears starting to stream down her face, leaving thin darker blue streaks against her cheeks as it soaked the cyan coat of her face. Sea Foam started to say something, but Rainbow held up her hand to stop it. After a deep breath, Rainbow turned away from the mare and started towards the door.

“Whatever you were about to say, save it, I don’t want to hear it. Just get down to the gymnasium. Run some laps to match whatever your squad has done, then the entire lot of you are to work on sparring with one another.” Rainbow said as she walked out, back down the walkway and descended the stairs.

She gave a look down the hallway to see that the other trainees were still running circles around the gym, keeping in line with the painted lines on the floor. With another sigh, she turned and headed back down the hallway, away from the gymnasium, passing through the cafeteria again, which was now empty and Applejack was busy at work wiping the tables down from breakfast. Rainbow passed by without a word, heading into the hallway that led to the med wing. Around halfway down the hall, she stopped at a door that definitely stood out from the others. It was ornately decorated with tiny shards of varying gemstones, arranged into a sort of flower pattern with a sign in the middle that simply read ‘studio’. Rainbow took another deep breath and had a mental debate with herself over whether or not she was ready for this. Before she could talk herself out of it, she knocked on the door and waited. At first, it was silent on the other end of the door, but before too much longer there was the sound of clattering as if whoever was inside had tripped or knocked something over. The door opened slowly and only a crack, from inside came a white unicorn mare with a curled, albeit slightly frazzled, mane with a measuring tape strung around her neck and a pencil behind her ear. She was looking back into the room and not paying attention to her visitor.

“Applejack, if that’s you again, I already told you that I’m too busy for round two. Come back la… Oh, Rainbow Dash, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” Rarity said, finally taking a moment to look up at her with a friendly smile.

“Uh… So, you and Applejack?” Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow and small smirk.

“O-Oh, well yes, she and I are… Fraternizing with one another.” Rarity responded, her white cheeks slowly turning crimson in embarrassment.

“I knew you two would end up together.” Rainbow said with a small laugh.

“Well… Be that as it may, I assume you didn’t come here just to poke fun at me for my relationship choice.” Rarity replied, motioning to Rainbow’s tear stained cheeks.

“I wasn’t poking fun this time, just surprised it took as long as it did for it to happen. But, yes, I did come for another reason. Can I come in?” Rainbow asked, trying to wipe her face a little with her hand.

“Oh, of course darling. You’ll have to excuse the mess, of course. It’s not easy keeping up with the repairs to more than a hundred outfits for our residents, but, somebody had to do it and I am the most qualified after all.” Rarity replied with a small giggle and pulled the door fully open for Rainbow to come inside.

She stepped inside, having to step over a decently sized pile of ripped and torn clothing items. Contrary to other rooms in the bunker, Rarity had somehow managed to paint her studio a brilliant purple that almost matched her hair to a tee as well as get her hands on some brightly colored pink carpet to cover up the drab green tiles. The interior of the room looked like a hurricane had come through it, various strips of fabric lay strewn about everywhere, a good number of mannequins lined one wall, a desk was pushed against the wall opposite the mannequins with a small trash can beside it, a set of floor to ceiling mirrors adorned the wall just inside the door, and a variety of seamstress’s tools lay here and there on both the floor and desk. Seated in the floor in one of the corners was a unicorn filly in her teens with a white coat with a swirled purple and pink hairdo, she was reading some cheesy romance novel with a small blush across her face. One hand held the book up to her face while the other was nowhere in sight, which made Rainbow cringe to herself. If Rainbow had to guess, that novel was one of Rarity’s that she used to read back when things were still normal. She was so engrossed in the book that she didn’t even notice that Rainbow had entered the room.

“So, what’s the problem darling?” Rarity said, pushing some fabric off of a couple chairs and into the floor. She took a seat in one of the chairs, motioning to the other one across from her for Rainbow to sit in. Rainbow came over and sat in the chair.

“Uh... You sure she should be reading that smut?” Rainbow asked, referring to Sweetie Belle in the corner, still seemingly oblivious to their presence.

“Oh, pish posh, darling. She’s old enough that reading such a great novel won’t hurt her. Besides, it’s not smut. It’s a love story between an outcast girl and a vampire that she meets after moving to a new town. Though, yes, there are some… Mature scenes described in it. Anyway, I highly doubt that’s what you wanted to talk about, so stop trying to change the subject.” Rarity replied with a smile, not seeming to be bothered by what it appeared that Sweetie was doing over in the corner.

“Right… I just… Need someone to talk to really, and out of my three remaining friends, you’re the most likely to understand and I know I can trust you to keep this between us.” Rainbow said steadily, not really one to express her feelings openly like this.

“But of course, darling. I won’t peep a word of it to a single other pony. Except maybe Applejack, I can’t really hide anything from her. Especially when she does this one thing with her…” Rarity began to go into detail about something, but Rainbow quickly held up her hand in protest.

“Ah! I don’t need or want to hear whatever you’re about to say. And I’m serious, Rarity. Not. A. Soul. It’s hard enough for me to keep up my appearance around the trainees with everything going on.” Rainbow said sternly, giving her friend the most serious expression she could muster.

“Oh, fine. I was only joking anyway darling. Now, what seems to be troubling you?” Rarity asked, waving a hand at Rainbow daintily. Rainbow took a deep breath before speaking.

“Ok, here goes… I just… That is to say… Um…” Rainbow stuttered out, wanting to confess how this whole situation was making her feel but at the same time wanting to just bottle it all up like she always did.

“Yes? Come on, out with it, dear.” Rarity said reassuringly, she’d never seen Rainbow this flustered about something before, at least not something as trivial as talking anyway. Rainbow took an uneasy breath.

“I... I… I just can’t do it anymore! I hate every part of my life and I dread waking up everyday! I hate this place! Day in and day out, it’s always the same bullshit! Wake up, shower, eat breakfast, try to train a group of untalented recruits that will probably just go MIA as soon as they leave my care, eat dinner, and finally go to bed! Just to wake up and do it all again the next day! And at the end of the day, I don’t have anybody to hold me and tell me it’s ok like I used to! I just can’t do it anymore! I’m so close to just sending myself out on a recon mission, just to put an end to all this monotony!” Rainbow cried out as tears streamed down her face, she tried to stop the words from coming out, but once it started she couldn’t stop. It all just came spilling out, everything she had been bottling up for the past few years.

“Oh… Darling, I’m so sorry… I had no idea you were keeping all of this in…” Rarity replied quietly, pulling her friend into a hug and gently rubbing her back as Rainbow sobbed into her shoulder.

“It’s just been so hard without him… He was my rock, the only stable and guaranteed thing in my life… But he’s gone and there’s no telling when or even if he’ll come back… I just miss him so much… His touch… His lame jokes… His stupid handsome face…” Rainbow continued on, soaking Rarity’s shoulder with her tears. From behind them, they heard a quiet sniffle. They both looked up to see Sweetie Belle standing there, tears welled in her eyes and her book clutched to her chest.

“That’s so… So sweet! It reminds me of book three of this series. The main character, Della, is separated from her vampire boyfriend, Edgward, when he gets kidnapped and put into a nearly eternal sleep by a group of rogue vampires. Then she goes through a very similar thing after he’s gone from her life.” Sweetie said quickly, reminding Rainbow of Twilight when she would go into a rant of some book she was reading at the time.

“Sweetie Belle, dear, this is no time to talk about those silly novels. Let the adults talk in peace, please.” Rarity retorted, offering Rainbow a box of tissues.

“N-No, it’s ok Rarity. Did… Did they get back together?” Rainbow asked, genuinely kinda curious as she took the box.

“Of course they did!” Sweetie replied with a wide smile. Rainbow sniffled, pulling out a tissue and blowing her nose into it.

“So, how did they manage that?” Rainbow asked, tossing the tissue into a nearby trash can.

“Oh, well Della has to journey out into the unfamiliar land that the vampires originated from, then she has to fight a really strong vampire leader, and only then is she able to see him again. But he’s still stuck in his eternal slumber and the only way she was able to wake him up was to finally confess that she loved him, followed by a tender kiss to his lips. Kind of a reverse sleeping beauty situation.” Sweetie went on, nerding out completely and reminding Rainbow even more of Twilight now.

“Oh, well, I wish it was that easy to fix this problem. I’d gladly take some undead vampires over the brain dead soldiers we have to deal with now.” Rainbow replied, smiling a little at the thought of shredding through hordes of the undead like some kind of vampire hunting superhero.

“See, Sweetie. Those silly novels are of no help here.” Rarity said, giving Sweetie a stern face.

“Relax, Rarity. It’s sweet that she wants to help and I’m kind of jealous that she can get lost in a different world like that. Thank you, Sweetie. That oddly made me feel a little better.” Rainbow retorted with a small friendly shove at Rarity.

“I’m glad I could help, even a little. It’s like the good days when Scootaloo, Applebloom, and I would do whatever we could to help everybody.” Sweetie said, sticking her tongue out at Rarity.

“Scootaloo…” Rainbow said solemnly as she remembered her non-related little sister. It pained her to admit it, but she hadn’t thought of the little squirt in quite some time, having pushed her to the back of her mind to avoid thinking about what could’ve happened to her.

“Oh, I’m so sorry Rainbow Dash! I didn’t mean to bring up Scootaloo…” Sweetie said quickly, throwing her hands up in an apologetic manner.

“No, it’s ok Sweetie. Somebody needed to remind me of her, I’ve been so focused on Jet that I had all but forgotten poor Scoots... “ Rainbow said, wiping her face with one of the tissues before standing up from the chair.

“See what you did, Sweetie? This is why I tell you to sit in the corner and read quietly.” Rarity said, giving Sweetie a slight glare.

“Oh, go get pegged by your girlfriend again, you stuck up bitch.” Sweetie replied with a glare to match Rarity’s. Rarity gasped loudly, a hand covering her mouth in a gesture of shock.

“What did you just say to me, Sweetie Belle?!” Rarity said, her voice raising to emphasize her shock and anger.

“You heard me, Rarity! I’m so sick of you treating me like some useless kid! I’m almost eighteen for fucks sake!” Sweetie yelled back. Rainbow decided it would be best if she just left at this point.

“Uh.. Thanks guys, but I should get going. Got recruits to train and stuff.” Rainbow said as he headed for the door.

“Oh, you are going to get it for that, you little brat!” Rarity screamed, getting up from her seat and grabbing a yard stick from somewhere within one of the piles of fabric as she approached Sweetie.

“Go ahead and do it, you pussy! You’ve been busting my ass with that stupid thing for so long that now it doesn’t even bother me! In fact, I’m into…” Sweetie screamed back as Rainbow shut the door behind her, thanking the gods that these rooms were sound proof.

With a shuddering sigh, Rainbow headed back down the hall through the cafeteria again and towards the gymnasium again. She was both surprised and delighted to see that Sea Foam had indeed listened to her and was sparring with one of the other recruits, she wasn’t doing well by any means, but it was the effort that Rainbow appreciated. Rainbow walked into the gymnasium fully and took a seat on the bleachers, resting her arms on her knees and putting her face in her hands as she tried to calm herself down from having just spilled the entirety of her guts to one of closest friends. She took deep steady breaths as she just sat there in thought, listening to the soft clacking of the wooden training swords colliding from the sparring matches happening a few feet in front of her. Her mind wandered and drifted off to a memory from long ago.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a day not much different from the day things went to shit, except this day held nothing but happiness and good times for her. She was walking down the streets of Canterlot with Twilight, they had met up and camped out to be the first ones to get their hands on the latest Daring Do book. Unfortunately though, they didn’t have the time to start reading it just yet, as Celesita had asked Twilight to come to the castle for some important princess meeting. Oddly enough it was the first one she’d been asked to attend since becoming a princess, Rainbow was just tagging along to have something to do in all honesty. WIth it being winter, the Wonderbolts were on a seasonal break, so she didn’t have anything on her agenda.

She had on her Wonderbolts hoodie and a pair of black leggings with under armour underneath and a pair of basic running shoes to brace herself against the cold air. Twilight was bundled up in a puffy purple winter jacket and jeans with fuzzy topped boots. The both of them had gray book store bags hanging from their arms. They were walking and talking, speculating about what this latest entry of Daring Do might contain. The semi frozen cobblestone made soft crackling noises under their feet as they walked. Two unicorn guards, dressed in the typical golden armor of the royal guard and armed with spears, were standing on either side of the closed gate. The bars of the gate gleamed slightly in the dim winter sunlight. As they approached, the guards took notice of Twilight, greeting her and opening the gate with a soft glow from both of their horns. The gate groaned on its frosty hinges as it slowly opened. The pair walked inside, the gate creaking closed behind them. They walked through the courtyard and towards the door of the castle. A huge set of steel doors that had been painted to look like wood, likely to fool invaders and trespassers into thinking it was easy to move them.

Rainbow took a moment to admire the courtyard, she wasn’t much for the girly flowery stuff, but she had to admit that the scenery of the courtyard was beautiful. The bright green neatly squared off hedges that seemed to endure even through winter, the lush and fluffy looking clementine trees specifically planted here due to its weather enduring nature, and even the gilded gem encrusted fountain which even froze over was a sight to behold. Before she could get lost in the majestic scenery, she continued on with Twilight into the castle interior itself. If the outside was considered a seemingly unreal wonder, the inside was a fever dream of beauty. Even though she’d been here a few times beforehand, Rainbow was still in awe of just how awesome the decorations were. Along the walls of every hallway they walked through was adorned with an assortment of tapestries, armors, statues, ferns, paintings, and busts. It was like walking through the world’s slimmest and longest museum.

After a few minutes, they arrived at the massive gold and silver trimmed doors that led to the throne room. There were two pegasus unicorn guards posted on either side of this door as well, though these ones were dressed in the silver armor of the elite class royal guards and armed with thin katanas which hung from their hips. Twilight took a moment to greet them and inform them that Celestia was expecting her. They gave a nod and opened the doors for them to enter, as they headed inside one of the guards stopped Rainbow putting an arm in front of her to block her way.

“Sorry, miss. Princess Celestia only requested the presence of Princess Twilight, she said it was important and classified business.” He said, his voice having almost a robotic tone due to echoing slightly inside his helmet as he spoke.

“What? Hello? Fellow multi-time savior of Equestria here. I think I deserve to be in on whatever she has to say.” Rainbow protested and tried to push past him, but to no avail.

“Rainbow Dash, I am sorry and I do truly appreciate your efforts in keeping things relatively civil in Equestria, but this is strictly royal business. I mean no offense, but you unfortunately don’t have the clearance for the information I have to share with Twilight.” Celestia’s voice came from behind Rainbow, which made her jump a little.

She turned to see Celestia standing behind her with a soft smile on her face, her light purple eyes peering through her, not in a menacing way but it still sent a shiver down Rainbow’s spine as it felt like Celestia was looking into her very soul. The princess was dressed in an elegant flowing white dress that somehow managed to accentuate her also white coat, her hair was down as usual, her immaculately trimmed multi-colored locks flowing like the waves of the ocean.

“Fine, but what am I supposed to do until you get done with her? We’ve got… Book Club after this…” Rainbow said, she still couldn’t believe that she had agreed to join Twilight’s egghead club, but she would be lying if she said she didn’t have fun. Celestia tapped her chin for a moment.

“Hmm, well, everytime you’ve been here in the past there’s been some kind of life or death emergency. How about a tour of the castle grounds while you wait?” Celestia suggested, still bearing her signature comforting smile.

“Uh, sure, but who’s gonna give me said tour if you’re busy with your royal business?” Rainbow asked, readjusting the bag on her arm.

“Well, I can assign you one of my personal guards if you’d like?” Celestia said, her eyes lighting up as if she had some kind of underlying plan here.

“You mean one of these stiffs? Sure, whatever I guess.” Rainbow replied with a shrug.

“Great! Give me just one moment, dear.” Celestia said before disappearing into the throne room.

It wasn’t long before she returned with a guard trailing behind her adorned in the same silver elite armor as the ones standing guard by the throne room door. Something about this guard seemed different to her though, that’s when she noticed that this one had dark brown wings protruding from his back. There weren’t many pegasi among the ranks of the royal guards, especially the elite class guards. The pegasi were usually assigned to patrols and things of that nature.

“Rainbow Dash, I’d like you to meet one of my personal guards, Jet Stream.” Celestia said, looking down at the guard, who proceeded to remove his helmet.

Once his helmet was off, he gave a shake of his head to help get rid of the helmet hair he had. His black and red striped hair bounced against his head slightly, and flowed up away from his face. The well defined features of his face made her wonder why he was a guard in the castle here and not some kind of model somewhere in Manehattan or Fillydelphia. Rainbow looked on in a combination of shock and horror as she stared up into his bright blue eyes. Her palms suddenly got clammy, her knees started to feel like cooked spaghetti, her heart was pounding, and her thoughts became an unintelligible blur. In her head, she was questioning what was happening, had she gotten sick while camping out in the cold all night for a stupid book? Was she having a heart attack? She hadn’t the slightest idea, but she was slightly worried for her health now.

“Hi, nice to meet you, Rainbow Dash. I’ve heard a lot about you. All good things, I promise.” Jet said with a chuckle, extending a hand in the gesture of a hand shake.

“Buh… H-Hot... I mean… H-Hi…” Rainbow managed to mumble, despite her clouded and short circuited brain.

“Alright, have fun you two.” Celestia said with a light hearted giggle as she disappeared back into the throne room, shutting the door behind her with a bright yellow glow from her horn, leaving the two alone in the silent hallway.

“So… Should we start in the garden, I guess?” Jet asked casually, ignoring her earlier muddled mess of a greeting.

She stood there in silence, afraid of what would come out if she dared speak right now. He waved a hand in front of her face in an attempt to snap her back to reality. One of the guards by the door stifled a laugh.

“See, Jet? I keep on trying to tell you that that face of yours was a mare killer.” He said with a laugh, the other guard joining in shortly after.

“Oh, shut it, you two or I’ll have Shining Armor put you both on latrine duty for the next week.” Jet said, rolling his eyes and continuing to wave his hand in front of her face.

She still said nothing, staring into his eyes and literally lost in the depths of those bright pools of blue.

“Hello? Rainbow Dash? Raaainbow?” He kept on saying her name, his voice sounding further away with each utterance of it and for some reason it seemed to be changing pitch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rainbow was startled awake by a hand on her shoulder, she sat up straight and looked around in a daze, she had apparently fallen asleep on the bleachers with her face in her hands. She rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times. Standing in front of her was Sunblast, a worried expression on his face. She could see his mouth moving, but she was still dazed from having fallen asleep without realizing it. She rubbed her eyes a few more times and groaned.

“This better be important, Sunblast, I was actually having a good dream for once.” Rainbow said groggily, letting out a long yawn.

“I’d say it’s not just important, it’s a fucking emergency!” Sunblast replied in a slight panic.

“Emergency? What’s wrong? Did you guys blow something up in the lab again?” Rainbow asked, quickly coming out of her groggy state at the mention of an emergency.

“No… Well, yes. But, that isn’t related this time. No, this emergency is far worse than a failed experiment. Something’s going on with the generators outside, we’re getting power fluctuations in the stasis room, and that’s obviously very bad for our mutual friend floating around the place.” Sunblast explained in a hushed voice as to not let anybody else hear him, something like this would almost definitely cause a mass panic within the bunker.

“Ok, why are you coming to me with this? Isn’t that why we have an engineer?” Rainbow said with a bit of a confused look.

“That’s the thing, Heavy Gear never checked in from her maintenance check today, and she’s been gone for five or six hours.” Sunblast replied, the panic not leaving his voice in the slightest.

“Six hours? That’s definitely suspicious. But still, why come to me?” Rainbow asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Because you’re the only one I trust to not turn this into a mass panic situation. That’s the last thing we need around here right now.” He said, trying to calm down a bit.

“Alright, alright. I’ll go out and check the situation. But, I’m hundred percent not going out there unarmed.” She said, running her fingers through her hair to finger comb it again.

“Well, of course. I wouldn’t expect you to. That’s why I brought this to take out with you,” He replied as he pulled a long metal cylinder from behind his back, it was fluted at one end with some sort of wooden rubber wrapped handle. On the opposite end from the fluted side was a small glass chamber that looked like one of those plasma ball collectibles you could find at souvenir shops.

“Ok, cool. But what is it?” She asked, eyeing it over, skeptical of the fact it looked like a cobbled together foal’s toy.

“It’s still just in the prototype phase, but I can assure you it works. I call it the Tesla Cannon. Take aim, pull the trigger, and…” Sunblast explained, pointing the weapon at one of the training dummies and firing. A bolt of bright white electrical energy shot from the fluted barrel, hitting the dummy head-on and instantly vaporizing it. Rainbow gasped in amazement as he handed it to her.

“Woah, that was incredible, Sunblast!” She said as she took the weapon and looked it over more carefully, the plasma ball looking part seemed to have dimmed after being fired.

“Thank you. The only downsides that I’m working on fixing is that it has a five minute cooldown and the potential of a recoil shock to the user, so use it sparingly and make sure you’re holding the rubber wrapped part of the handle. Oh, and take this too. It’ll let us keep in touch for as long as you're within range of the bunker.” He replied with a satisfied smile at her compliment, handing her a small earbud looking device, almost forgetting the whole purpose of him coming here.

“Alright, let me go grab some gear and I’ll head out to investigate.” Rainbow said, putting the earbud into her ear, standing up and sprinting back to her room.

She made it to her room relatively quickly, kneeling down in front of the foot locker she had that was positioned at the foot of her bed. She popped the latches on it with a soft clunk, pushing up the lid with a groan from the underused hinges. There wasn’t much inside, just things that she wanted to keep, but didn’t want to look at every day. She had kept her Wonderbolts hoodie and letterman jacket, Jet’s katana, a respirator that the boys in the lab had made and given out to everybody, a flashlight with a belt clip, and a pair of her old running shoes. Laying against one side was a framed picture of her and Jet from a vacation date they had taken to Manehatten beach, she was wearing a rainbow colored bikini and he was wearing a pair of red swim trunks. She picked up the photo and ran her fingers across the glass, Jet’s smile warming her heart a bit as she stared down at his goofy face. Her eyes traced over the three scars across his chest, one running down across one of his pecs and an x-shaped scar just above his navel. She still wasn’t sure how he’d convinced her to put on a two piece for that day, but she was kinda glad he did as that night was the first that they spent with each other and it was magical for her.

She gently set the photo back against the side of the foot locker, grabbing out the respirator, flashlight, and the katana. She’d be needing the respirator as the outside air was more than fairly toxic after the mega spell bomb had decimated everything. With a nearly silent hiss, she stuck the respirator onto her face. It was just big enough to cover her mouth and nose, the moderately sized reuleaux triangle shaped silver device adhering to her face through a powerful yet somehow not uncomfortable suction. Two thin cylinders stuck out from the front of it, which were self refilling compact oxygen tanks. She hooked the katana onto the side of her belt, the flashlight onto the front right side, and gave one last look at the photo before shutting the lid and relatching it, the hinges groaning in protest, as if wanting her to keep reminiscing about the day from the photo.

Once she was geared up, she headed back out into the cafeteria and down the hall leading to the exit of the bunker. She looked up at the ladder leading up to the small round hatch that held back the outside. She took a deep breath and began to climb up the ladder, she hadn’t left the bunker since getting here eight long years ago as she had been assigned to the trainees the entire time, being deemed too valuable of an asset to risk sending out into the field. When she reached the top of the ladder, she grabbed the wheel that acted as the door handle for the hatch, and twisted it. The wheel screeched loudly as it turned, unlocking the hatch. She pushed out on the hatch and it flew open with a forceful wind from outside. With another deep breath she climbed up and out into the wasteland that they had once called Equestria.

She looked around and gasped loudly at the very depressing sight before her. The once vast green rolling hills of Equestria now looked like a desert, nothing but dusty plains and charred barren trees as far as the eye could see. Off in the distance, she could just barely make out the silhouette of the ruined castle along with some other various building shapes and the massive stretch of ruins that once made up Ponyville. The air was thick with an acrid and musty stench that she could smell even through the respirator, there wasn’t really any way to know what time of day it was due to the fact that the sky was covered in thick black clouds that blotted out the sun itself, which didn’t help the temperature. It was supposed to be spring time right about now, but it felt like winter with how chilly it was.

“Rainbow Dash, do you read me?” Sunblast’s voice said in her ear as she looked around at what had become of her home land.

“Yeah, I hear you loud and clear, Sunblast. Why didn’t anybody tell me how bad it was out here?” Rainbow asked, still shocked by the view she was seeing.

“It didn’t seem that important, honestly. But, we can talk more about it later. Right now, you need to head South to a hidden cave to check those generators.” Sunblast replied.

“Got it.” Rainbow said, looking around to see a large rock formation not too far to the South. She began moving in the direction of it.

“Remember Rainbow, if we lose even one of those generators, we won’t be able to keep power on in the stasis room for very long. The backup power will only give us a few minutes of power to work with.” Sunblast said, worry in his voice again.

“Yeah, don’t remind me.” Rainbow replied, making it to the rock formation, there was a large collection of dead brush on one side of it.

Upon closer inspection, she noticed that the brush wasn’t connected to the ground like something that had grown there would be. She pushed the brush aside to reveal a dark cave. With a soft click, she turned on the flashlight, illuminating the cave only slightly. She proceeded inside cautiously, keeping one hand on the katana as she went in. The interior of the cave was surprisingly large, big enough that she would’ve been able to take to the air and have a full room size space between her and the ground. It was also very damp and cold, eliciting a shiver from her. After a short while, she saw a dim flashing light up ahead from around a corner in the cave. She slowed her walking speed a bit and shut off her flashlight, sticking close to the cave wall. She made it to the corner, she peered around it to see a set of four medium sized generators that only rose about halfway to the ceiling of the cave, each one having various dials and knobs on the side facing her as well as three pylons on top. The pylons sparked lightly with tiny visible bolts of electricity. She didn’t see anybody around, satisfied with the coast seeming to be clear, she fully rounded the corner and approached the generators. The cave continued on into darkness behind the generators. As she got closer, she nearly tripped over something that made a metallic thud against her boot. She flicked her light back on to see a red toolbox laying open on the ground at her feet.

She kneeled down to check it, and to her surprise there on the side of the toolbox was an engraved name, Heavy Gear. She looked around for any sign of the earth pony but didn’t see anything. A loud spark from behind the generator closest to her made her almost jump out her skin. She drew the katana from its sheath and approached the backside of the generators slowly, what she saw almost made her puke into her respirator. The back panel of the generator was laying to one side and a charred body stood there with its head crammed into between the exposed internals. Its clothes were burnt and still smoking. She pulled out the tesla cannon, gripping the rubber lined handle tightly, and used it to push the body free. It fell to the ground with a loud thud against the metal grating lining the floor under the generators.

“Hey, Sunblast you there?” Rainbow asked quietly against the silence of the cave.

“Yeah, what’s up? Did you find the generators?” He asked through her earpiece.

“I did, and I think I found Heavy Gear too.” She replied, looking the charred body over with a sick feeling in her stomach.

“Really? That’s great! Why didn’t she check in?” He asked, some hope seeping into his voice.

“Well, it looks like somebody shoved her head into it while she was doing her maintenance routine.” She replied with a shudder, thinking about how much that had to hurt.

“Oh… But who would’ve known where to even find our power supply, let alone murder one of our engineers?” Sunblast asked rhetorically as Rainbow suddenly heard a noise from somewhere behind her further into the cave, as if something had kicked over a rock.

“I’m not sure, but I think they might still be here. I’ll keep you posted.” She said, stepping to the side and looking off down the cave to locate the source of the noise, but saw nothing.

She suddenly saw something glint in the light of her flashlight off in the distance, she squinted her eyes to try and make out what it was. At almost the very last second, she realized what it was and dodged to the ground doing the splits just as a large triple bladed weapon embedded itself in the cave wall behind her. Attached to the weapon was a spiked chain that extended off into the darkness. As the weapon retracted from the wall, Rainbow quickly fired the tesla cannon in the direction of where the weapon had come from. The blast of electrical energy surged down the cave, illuminating the cave as it went and revealing a black armored figure with wings and a horn, also covered in armor. Rainbow’s heart started pounding as she recognized this figure as one of Sombra’s assassins, this one being called Crystal Shredder. The light from the tesla cannon blast faded, cloaking the assassin back in darkness and hiding them from view. Her eyes darted around trying to get a bead on the hidden assassin.

“Show yourself, coward. Stop hiding in the shadows.” Rainbow called out into the darkness of the cave.

She was answered with only silence and the soft sparking of the generators. She gripped the katana firmly with both hands, awaiting the next attack to come. As she stared off into the black void of the cave, she made out the glint of the weapon again, this time she was ready though. As soon as she saw the blade coming, she dodged to the left, bringing her back to behind the generators just as the weapon embedded itself into the wall again, sending small streams of dust and rock to the ground under it. As before, the weapon was retracted back just as fast as it had come. Her heart was pounding out her chest, much like the other assassins in Sombra’s employ, she didn’t know what this monster was capable of, but she definitely didn’t want to find out for herself.

While she was caught up in this thought, she almost didn’t notice that the assassin had managed to fly up towards above the generators, gearing up for another attack. Rainbow cursed to herself as she dove out of the way just in time to avoid another attack, instantly regretting it as the weapon impaled the generator. It sent a massive bolt of electricity up along the chain of the weapon and directly into the assassin, the generator buzzed and surged loudly, starting to smoke as the assassin somehow managed to tank the wattage from it. To Rainbow’s horror, the generator caught fire and shortly after exploded, sending debris every which way and blasting the assassin both her and the assassin to the ground with an ear ringing boom, momentarily dazing Rainbow and giving the injured assassin the opportunity to escape.

“Rainbow Dash, what the hell is happening up there?! We just lost power to the stasis room! Get back here as fast as you can!” Sunblast yelled in her ear, very much panicked.

Without a word, she got up and sprinted out of the cave, hauling ass back to the bunker. She quickly slipped in through the hatch and shutting it tightly behind her. She ran through the halls of the bunker, through the cafeteria, and down towards the science wing. The entire time, an alert was ringing through the bunker.

“Warning! Failure detected in generator number two! Please reconnect the power supply immediately or it will result in power failure to the stasis wing! Time remaining to reconnect is ten seconds!” A computerized voice rang out, making everybody aware that they had just lost a whole generator due to Rainbow’s small mistake.

Rainbow made it into the stasis wing, pushing past a group of lab coated ponies and into the main room. She arrived just in time to see it powering down and sliding open. The viscous stasis liquid spilled out onto the floor in front of it, followed by Jet’s unconscious body. Rainbow darted over just before he hit the floor and caught him in her arms, holding his head up and looking down into his comatose face. Over the sound of the computerized voice, she could hear the heart monitor hooked up to Jet fading from a soft steady beeping down to a solid flat tone. She rocked on her knees as she held him close, her eyes quickly overflowing with tears at the realization of what was happening.

“Nononononono, please no! Jet, don’t do this to me! Please!” She cried out in desperation as he started to go limp in her arms.

“Rainbow… I’m sorry…” Sunblast said from somewhere behind her, but she ignored him, her full attention on her dying boyfriend clutched in her arms.

“Please, Jet… Don’t die on me… I need you… I… I love you…” Rainbow continued desperately, sniffling and slowly leaning down to place her lips against his.

She stayed like this for several seconds, eyes shut tight. She was so lost in the sadness of the moment that she didn’t hear the heart monitor pick back up in pace. As she sat there, lips locked with his, she suddenly felt him stir in her arms and slowly begin to return the kiss. She opened her eyes to see his slowly starting to flutter open. She pulled away in shock and just stared.

“D-Dashie? What’s going on…? Where am I?” He asked, very groggily and slowly looking around the room. She continued to cry, but not from sadness anymore, these were tears of happiness. She pulled him into a tight hug and sobbed gently into his shoulder.

“Oh, Jet! I’m so happy you’re back! I never thought I’d get to hold you again!” She cried out in excitement.

“Back? Did I go somewhere?” He asked with a confused look at his surroundings as his vision cleared and adjusted to the dim light of the lab. She just gave a small laugh and pulled away from the hug, looking into the beautiful pools of blue that were his eyes.

“You have a lot to catch up on, mister. But don’t worry, Sunblast has kept files of everything.” Rainbow replied with a wide smile, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

Chapter 3: Awakened

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 4: First Of Many

Jet stood at the foot of the ladder, looking up at the slightly rusted wheel of the hatch that led into the wasteland. Even through the sealed hatch, he could hear the wind whistling violently outside. The silence in the hallway was almost deafening as Jet stood there waiting to head out and get on with his self assigned mission. He turned to Sunblast waiting for him to say something, who was looking at him with concern written across his face.

“You sure you’re up to this? We can always postpone it for a couple days or so to give you time to get readjusted to everything.” Sunlast said, feigning a smile.

“No, the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get a little bit of control over the situation.” Jet replied, steeling himself as he willed his faceplate up.

“Well, alright then. Just be careful out there. Oh, and don’t venture above the cloudline. We don’t know what’s up there, but every time somebody goes to try and get us some recon of it, they disappear entirely.” Sunblast said, giving a warning about one of their most frequent areas of troop loss.

“Right, got it. Don’t venture above the clouds.” Jet repeated to assure his friend that he had heard.

“Good, now, there’s just a couple things to go over before you head out.” Sunblast replied, his gaze shifting back down to his clipboard.

“Alright, what do we need to go over first?” Jet asked, giving his knuckles and neck a fairly loud crack.

“First, let’s run a quick diagnostic of your onboard AI. Just tell it to power on. It’s voice activated, and remember, her name is Friday.” Sunblast said as he waited.

“Alright then, uh… Friday, power on?” Jet said, his visor had a brief moment of static.

“AI system four point two zero powering on. Greetings sir, how may I be of assistance today?” A female computerized voice spoke inside his earpiece. As he stood there staring at the ladder, his visor suddenly started to display a variety of readouts in thin white letters and numbers.

“Ok, it’s powered on. Now what?” Jet asked, staring at the various readings that were tied to the suit.

“On your heads up display, you should be seeing a power indicator. What’s the readout on that?” Sunblast replied, checking something off on his notes.

“Uh… Oh, there it is. Looks like we’ve got full one hundred percent power.” Jet said, his eyes darting around the various readings he was seeing.

“Great. Now, you should also be seeing a vital readout.” Sunblast continued, marking off something else on his clipboard. Jet looked around on the screen he was seeing, spotting what Sunblast was talking about.

“Got it. There’s a heart monitor and a blood toxicity level display.” Jet replied, staring at the small readout in the lower corner of his visor.

“Good, good. One last thing, you should have a fuel gauge for the thruster system and a compass somewhere on screen.” Sunblast said, continuing to check off something on his notes.

“Yep, got it here. Fuel gauge is in the lower corner opposite my vitals. We got one hundred percent on that as well and the compass is at the very top here.” Jet replied again, noting the little fuel gauge readout and stretched out compass.

“Perfect. One final thing, I took the liberty of uploading the list of parts and components I need for Project Hades into your onboard AI. Should you stumble across any of them, your AI will highlight it in your heads up display to show you what I need.” Sunblast went on, checking off another spot on his notes and looking up at Jet.

“Seems pretty straight forward. Anything else I should know?” Jet asked, the various displays fading from his HUD to become opaque.

“No, I think that’s all for now. Just keep in touch while you’re out there, and remember, avoid the cloud line. Whenever you’re ready, you can head out.” Sunblast said with a small smile.

“Alright, guess it’s show time then.” Jet said, taking a shaky breath before mounting the ladder.

As he climbed up, his boots clinked lightly against the rungs of the ladder. He reached the top and easily turned the wheel, which squealed loudly in protest as it unlocked the hatch. With a forceful push outward, the hatch squeaked open. Jet climbed out into the dark void that made up the current land of Equestria. Once outside, he shoved the hatch closed and looked around, taking in his surroundings. He couldn’t believe his eyes, his home was rendered into essentially just a massive desert with scattered ruined buildings and barren trees. If not for the large silhouettes of the facilities in the distance, you could easily mistake this place for a lifeless wasteland. Despite the barren wasteland, he could still make out the outline of the Everfree Forest on the horizon far to the left of where he stood, giving him a sense of his current position. Based on that still standing singular landmark, he could deduce that their bunker was somewhere on the outskirts of what used to be Ponyville.

He spread his wings and took the air, the thrusters that ran along the length of his armored wings whirred quietly as they fired up. With a readjustment of his midair stance, he flew off towards the ruins of Canterlot. He looked up at the thick layer of black clouds, wondering what could be up above them that was so dangerous, but he heeded Sunblast’s warning and stayed clear of them for now. As he flew overhead, he looked down at the ground below where he could make out the outlines of a couple other intact buildings and several dozen patrolling groups of armored soldiers. He hoped that none of them were able to spot his own black armor against the equally dark skyline.

It didn’t take long for him to reach his destination as he landed on a fairly tall building across the road from the rundown club, looking down at it through his visor to get a feel for the situation. The building itself was in a state of immense disrepair, but still managed to stay mostly intact. Positioned on top of the building was a very large satellite dish that was emitting a visible dark red signal. As he looked on, his HUD suddenly started displaying reading about the guards and their placements. According to the readouts, there were around six grunts and two brutes guarding this place along with three unidentified figures within the building itself. There was a single brute stationed at both entrances along with three grunts a piece posted as well.

“Friday?” Jet asked into his faceplate quietly.

“Yes sir?” She replied, her voice seemed to have some kind of accent in addition to the computerized tone.

“Any way you could find me a sneaky way inside here?” Jet asked, watching the guards patrol around the building.

“There doesn’t seem to be any entrances aside from the front and back doors, sir.” She replied, the HUD of his visor zooming in to show the front entrance.

“I see… And how about a stealthy way to take these pricks out?” Jet continued, starting to get a feel for their varying patrol routes.

“Unfortunately, no matter the order you attack them, I am calculating a ninety-eight percent chance that the entire patrol will be alerted.” She stated, a reading showing her calculations on Jet’s HUD.

“So, you’re saying that my only option is a full frontal assault then?” Jet asked, noticing one of the brutes was right next to a heavily shadowed section of an adjacent building.

“Unfortunately, yes. Though I’m only calculating a forty-seven percent chance of success in that regard.” She replied again, another set of calculations appearing on screen.

“Wow, forty-seven? That’s higher than Twilight used to give me for missions.” Jet responded, watching as the aforementioned brute seemed to be taking a break of some kind, he was leaned against the wall with his weapon laying on the ground in front of him.

“Keep in mind that that percentage could possibly increase, I have no data available on your fighting techniques and style.” She replied, an error message popping up as she tried to access info about Jet’s prior combat experience.

“Noted. Friday, tell me the known info on these brute soldiers.” Jet replied, keeping the soldier in his sights with a plan coming to mind.

“The only known info about these tank-like soldiers are that they have very dense armor plating, very damaging sledge hammers that have a form of rocket thruster on one end, and a portable power supply attached to their backs. The power supply is needed as the armor they wear takes a great deal of energy due to the fact that they appear to exert quite a lot of energy when attacking.” She responded, giving Jet exactly the info he was wanting.

“That gives me an idea. Friday, I hope you’re recording all this for your file on my fighting abilities.” Jet said, leaping into the air and silently landing just down the block from the ruined club.

He snuck his way down the street, sticking to the shadows created by the various overhanging awnings and chunks of rubble. As he neared the slacking off brute, he silently drew his sword from his sheath, moving to a position that gave him a clear view of the portable power supply on his back. Before the brute could become aware of his presence, he quickly drove his blade into that power supply and sending a massive volt of electricity coursing through him, causing the brute to cry out in pain from within his armor and fall to the ground with a loud thud, which alerted the guards standing by the front entrance just a few yards away.

The three grunts almost immediately started to swarm Jet. With a soft grunt, Jet pulled his blade free from the brute’s back and flung it in the direction of the encroaching grunts, catching one in the chest and sending him flying backwards as he was stuck to a wall like a dart sticking into a dartboard. With the other two nearly upon him, Jet acted quickly and grabbed the discarded sledgehammer from the ground near his feet and swung at one of the grunts. It impacted against the side of one with an ear ringing slam that knocked it to the ground. Before it could recover and get to its feet, Jet let out a loud grunt as he swung the hammer again, this time bringing it straight down onto the grunts head with a sickening squish. The grunt’s helmet easily crushed under the attack like a soda can, the internals of the soldier’s head squishing out like a watermelon, sending chunks of skull and brain matter flying across the pavement in a paint streak of red and white. This scene did nothing to stop the other grunt from running up and slicing at Jet with his spear. One of the swipes caught Jet’s shoulder, slicing through his flesh and causing a small trickle of blood to seep out and stain his own armor. With gritted teeth Jet leapt up into the air, sledgehammer still in his grasp, and swatted the soldier to the ground like a fly. The impact left a small indention in the pavement around the soldier, but it was clear that the soldier wasn’t staying down long as it was already moving to get back up to its feet. Without a second thought, Jet brought the sledgehammer down directly onto its chest, caving the armor in as easily as tearing paper. The grunt desperately twitched for a moment before going still under the weight of the hammer.

Jet panted lightly from the exertion of the short fight as he suddenly heard the loud thudding footsteps of the other four guards quickly approaching, no doubt having heard the sounds of the fight happening out front. He tried to stand, but his legs felt like jelly and his body just wasn’t cooperating, the vital reading popped up on his HUD, showing that the fight had taken a bigger toll than her though. His heart rate was very quickly approaching the point of cardiac arrest, but he pushed that aside and forced himself to stand.

His legs were shaky and his heart thumped loudly in his ears as he picked up the hammer once again and took up a defensive stance just as the other guards made it out front and quickly surrounded him. He gritted his teeth against the pain in his chest and looked around at each of them. Without any more warning, the group descended upon him, he raised the hammer to block their attacks to no avail. The spears and hammer of the attacking guards were quickly shredding his own armor to pieces and sending him to his knees, the nanobots unable to react fast enough to the oncoming assault. He knelt in the small crater, accepting that this is where he would die. As the guards continued to assault him, he could only think of one thing, Rainbow Dash’s smiling face. The thought of never seeing her again enraged him to no end. Without warning, an alert notification suddenly blared in his ears and across his HUD. The nanobot armor suddenly fully retracted back into its housing unit as Jet’s body began to feel hot, incredibly hot, as if he were on fire. He pushed back against the attacking guard as hard as he could manage, letting out a very loud guttural scream of anger. As he did this, his body burned even hotter, a sudden white hot blast emanating from the very core of his body. The blast not only knocked the guards away but also completely incinerated them, burning them to dust that immediately got blown away by the harsh wind that blew across the landscape.

Breathing incredibly hard, Jet stood, his lungs somehow immune to the harsh acrid air that permeated the land. He slowly made his way over where his sword was still stuck in the wall, yanking it free and causing the impaled guard to flop to the ground in a heap. He noticed that there was a streak of not red, but green blood running along its length. With a deep groan of pain, he willed his armor to return to his body. His HUD showed that his vitals had returned to normal, but also showed indicators of the various cuts and injuries he had endured just now.

“F-Friday, you still there?” Jet asked breathlessly, taking in deep breaths of the clean oxygen that his faceplate provided.

“Of course, sir. I was able to capture the entirety of the battle for use in further calculations as well.” She replied, her voice glitching ever so slightly.

“Good. Can you please explain to me what the hell that was?” Jet asked, making his way towards the front door of the broken down club.

“Hm, as best as I can tell, you emitted a psionic blast of superheated magical energy. Though I do not know how you, a pegasus, were able to pull off such a thing. Magical capabilities such as that can only be performed by unicorns according to all the information I have on the subject. I will mark it for further study in Sunblast’s electronic notes. Also, I am detecting one of the parts that he requested we search for.” She explained, a piece of the brutes armor lighting up a bright orange against Jet’s HUD. He walked over and picked up the highlighted piece and slipped it into his pocket as his armor pulled back to give him access to his pants.

“Maybe he can shed some light on that, because I definitely couldn’t do that before.” Jet said as he headed inside the door.

Inside, the club was somehow nearly pristine, with only a few spots of broken glass behind the bar and a few overturned tables. The purple curtains of the stage had some small burn holes in it, giving only fleeting glimpses of the area behind it. Jet proceeded through the main area cautiously, sword at the ready as walked. His boots lightly crunched against some shard of glass that had managed to make their way to the main floor. Before Jet could get even halfway across the room to the stage, the speakers lining the ceiling suddenly gave off a loud screech followed by a soft but not at all friendly female voice.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here? A rogue agent of Sombra? No, even they’re not smart enough to make it this far on their own. Who are you little one? And why are you intruding one our turf?” The voice asked in a sultry tone.

“I’m here to put a stop to your mind controlling frequency. You’re forcing good ponies to do sick things against their will. And that stops today.” Jet retorted, not even slightly amused by this act.

“Oh, is that so? You are welcome to try. You are the first to make it this far after all.” The voice continued on as the curtains were pulled back, revealing a trio of armored figures standing in front of the broken and splintered backdrop that was once meant to be used for the shows held here.

Each one wore basically the same style of sleek and body hugging armor, the only variations between them being their colors. There was one adorned in a golden yellow, one that was a metallic purple, and the other was a flat sky blue color. At the center of each ones chest was a glowing red gemstone that seemed to throb like a heartbeat and each of the mouthplates of their helmets had what appeared to be a speaker embedded into it. Jet approached with increased caution, watching the figures closely as nothing came up on his HUD about these mystery figures. He lowered his faceplate as it seemed useless at this point, his body clearly somehow immune to the toxicity that permeated the air. This elicited a loud gasp from the blue one.

“Adagio, isn’t that the one Sombra told us to look out for? Y’know, Celestia’s s…” She began, getting a hard elbow from the purple one.

“Sonata, shut up. He’s not supposed to know that, you idiot.” Purple said coldly.

“Both of you shut the hell up. But yes, Sonata. This is the one we were told about. The alleged great and powerful Jet. Pfft, don’t know why Lord Sombra is afraid of such an insignificant little pegasus.” The one called Adagio said with a villainous laugh.

“Sombra’s afraid of me? Good, because I’m coming for him soon. He’ll pray for death with what I have in store for his cowardly ass.” Jet spoke steadily, keeping his rage in check this time.

“You? Defeat Lord Sombra? You’d best keep on dreaming boy.” Adagio said, earning a laugh from all three of them.

“Do you really think you stand a chance against him? You didn’t exactly fare too well the first time you two met, what makes you think this time will be any different?” Purple said, leaning forward with her hands on her hips to emphasize her point.

“I… I don’t know, Aria. If Lord Sombra is afraid of him, maybe we should be careful?” The one identified as Sonata said slowly, a bit of fear creeping into her voice.

“Oh, you’re such a pussy, Sonata. Stop acting like a coward and just imagine how much praise we’ll get from Lord Sombra when we squash this bug and turn his corpse over to him.” The newly identified Aria said casually, even through her helmet Jet could feel the glare she was giving her cohort.

“Enough, you two! Now, let’s show this little rebel what we can really do with our power.” Adagio said, the other two complying and joining her at the front of the stage.

Jet braced for whatever attack they were about to launch, but nothing could prepare him for what followed. As he watched, the trio all took deep breaths before starting to sing, a massive and intense wave of pure sound energy launched directly at him. The soundwave was powerful enough to not only briefly deafen but also launch Jet into the wall beside the door he had come through. He groaned loudly as he pulled himself free from the wall, the plaster chipped away and fell down around him in a dusty mist. His ears were ringing painfully, but he shook it off and glared up at the trio on the stage. With his sword gripped tightly in his hands, he ran full speed at the stage. The trio launched another auditory attack, this time Jet dug his heels into the carpet and tanked the hit as he powered through the waves of blaring noise. This seemed to only anger the trio as they put more force into their singing, making him skid a bit on his feet, but he still managed to stand his ground against the force. As he continued to tank the blast, one of the trio broke free from the attack and moved to the back behind the stage. She shortly returned carrying a box that held a variety of miscellaneous props and instruments, tossing them into the blast force that was made of her cohort's voices. The various projectiles flew all around missing Jet, eventually though, a large set of spare curtains hit him dead on and threw him off balance. The force of the soundwaves knocked him back into the same wall as before, this time sending him blasting through the wall entirely and back out into the street onto his back. He got up, tossing the curtain to the side and shaking some plaster from his hair. That’s when he saw a well kept guitar still with a cord attached to it flying towards him from within the newly made hole in the wall, without even a second of hesitation, he grabbed it from the air and looked it over. He was surprised to see that it was nearly brand new, everything intact and still usable. He smiled to himself as he hatched an idea.

“Hey, Friday. Can you augment the thrusters in my wings to act as sound amplifiers?” He asked, putting his faceplate back up.

“I can, sir. Though, I have some reservations about doing this as it will likely result in a high consumption of fuel. Also, I do not think that a guitar is the best solution to this problem.” She said in his ear, but doing what he asked anyway.

“Don’t worry, Friday. I used to play one of these back in high school, even won a couple talent shows with it. Like riding a bike, it’s not something you easily forget.” Jet reassured her, wrapping the strap of the guitar around his back.

The nanobots that made up the thrusters on his wings shifted with the soft sound of metallic clinking. The nanobots shifted and clinked, changing from thrusters to that of a series of speakers that ran the length of his wings. Jet willed a plug to form at the base of his wings, which he quickly plugged the end of the cord attached to the guitar into. With a couple strums on the instrument, he quickly managed to tune it. Back inside the club, the trio was gloating amongst themselves and didn’t see Jet step back through the hole in the wall as he gave the guitar a hard strum. The ensuing blast of sound that came from his newly formed speaker laden wings sent the trio skidding backwards on their feet, nearly impaling them on the splintered slivers of wood from the backdrop they stood in front of. They quickly regained their balance and looked up at Jet as he made his way towards the stage again.

“So, you ladies want a music showdown huh? Alright then, let’s rock.” Jet said, giving another hard strum, but this time they were ready.

They were able to quickly counter the soundwave with one of their own, the force of the sound colliding shattering the remaining glass bottle behind the bar and sending shards of glass flying across the room.

“This isn’t some game, boy. We’re playing for all the chips here.” Adagio said just before they launched another attack.

Jet reacted by strumming again, but at a higher frequency than their voices, this launched their attack back at them with doubled force as it combined with Jet’s. The sudden and unforeseen force of the blast knocked Aria off her feet and sent her reeling backwards. There was a soft splat followed by a loud gasp as she hit the backdrop, a large splintered chunk of wood protruded from her midsection as it dripped crimson liquid onto the stage in front of her.

“You… You fucking suck… Adagio…” She choked out before going limp sharp against the wooden two by four she was impaled on, the red gemstone on her chest shattering into pieces and falling to the stage floor. This caused an outburst of anger from the yellow armored mare.

She didn’t say a word, but simply screamed at Jet with Sonata following suit, the force had increased, but Jet was still able to stand his ground. Strumming yet again against the assault of noise ringing against his ears. His own blast of sound was easily pushed away by the force of theirs, sending him skidding back away from the stage, but he managed to keep his footing. He shook his head to stop the ringing in his ears before cranking the little knob on his guitar and strumming several times, sending multiple waves of sound at the pair. They crossed their arms in an ‘x’ shape in front of them to help dissipate the blows a little. What they failed to notice while they defended against his attack, was the big heavy sandbag being held up by just a string. The sandbag was swaying loosely above Sonata’s head, Jet took notice of this as he picked up a rusted piece of cutlery from the floor. Before they could take notice, he shot the cutlery like a bullet directly at the thin string holding up the sandbag. The cutlery sliced right through it, sending the sandbag rapidly crashing down and hitting Sonata in the head with a loud thud. She fell back, also getting impaled on a splintered chunk of the backdrop. Her gemstone cracked and shattered into pieces as well.

Adagio screamed in rage even louder, the ensuing soundwave sent Jet reeling backwards, ripping the guitar strap from his shoulder and smashing against the wall behind him. Without a word, she hopped off of the stage and made her way towards Jet. Releasing large waves of sound as she cried out in pure anger. The blasts of noise hit Jet directly each time, as he was assaulted with the shockwaves, he could feel a small trickle of blood trailing down his ear. Adagio was now right on top of Jet, screaming directly into his face in a nonstop wave of hate filled sound. He unsheathed his sword and pushed back against the forceful blasts, making it to his feet once again and pushing through the torrent of noise. Seeing him get up made Adagio back up towards the stage again. Slowly but steadily he made his way forward while she kept backing up. She jolted a little as her back hit the edge of the stage, upon realizing she had nowhere left to go without turning away, she screeched even louder at Jet, but to her shock he kept pushing forward. After what felt like an eternity to Jet, he finally managed to push all the way to her, he drew back and in one fell swoop, he drove his sword right through the gemstone on her chest. The onslaught of noise immediately stopped as her chest was pierced by the silver blade. She sputtered a bit as she fell back against the stage, sliding down it and leaving a trail of crimson in her wake. She gave one final scream as her gemstone cracked and exploded in a flurry of red shards that somehow managed to miss Jet entirely. He pulled his sword free, wiping the blade clean on a nearby tablecloth and sheathing it before climbing up onto the stage and heading into the back to look for any kind of device he could use to reverse the hypnosis broadcast. He saw none.

“Friday, connect me to Sunblast please.” Jet said with a frown.

“Right away, sir.” She replied, a moment of static coming across the earpiece before a video display of Sunblast appeared in his HUD.

“Jet? What’s the sitch?” Sunblast asked with a hopeful tone.

“Well, good news and bad news.” Jet replied with sigh as he looked around the barren backstage area.

“Oh great… Bad news first, I guess.” Sunblast said, a groan escaping his mouth..

“Suit yourself. Bad news is that we’re not gonna be able to reverse the hypnosis broadcast.” Jet said with a light grunt as he decided to take a seat on the edge of the stage.

“What? Why the hell not? Don’t tell me you broke it.” Sunblast said, raising an eyebrow.

“No, I didn’t break anything, smartass.” Jet replied with a glare.

“Just tell me the good news…” Sunblast said while rubbing his temples.

“The good news is that I stopped the broadcast and dealt with the ones who were causing it.” Jet responded.

“That is good news. Who was causing it?” Sunblast asked curiously, taking a sip from a cup of water.

“I’m not sure to be honest, didn’t recognize them. They used their voices to attack me and had these weird red gemstones on their chests.” Jet replied with a shrug, causing Sunblast to spit his sip of water all over the screen.

“What?! Jet, those were the fabled sirens that Starswirl himself banished from Equestria millennium ago! Do you realize what this means?!” Sunblast asked in a frenzy.

“Uh… It means that they’re not a concern anymore?” Jet asked in a joking tone with another shrug.

“No! It means that Sombra has some kind of interdimensional technology at his disposal!” Sunblast replied, still in a frenzy.

“Oh, well we’ll worry about that later on. For now though, I think we’ve made gre…” Jet started to say as the speaker on Adagio’s helmet suddenly gave off some static before a voice came through.

“Ah, the little guard who thinks he’s more than that. I had hoped you were dead, but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised honestly. A pest like you is not easily disposed of.” Sombra’s voice came through the speaker, addressing Jet.

“Sunblast, I’ll have to call you back. Something’s going on.” Jet said as he hung up the video call and slipped off the stage.

“Ah yes, Sunblast, the little worm who is stealing my tech to boost your pathetic ranks, not an issue though, it’s amusing that you fools think you have a chance against me and my forces. Though, I must say, congratulations on defeating my sirens. As fruitless of an effort as it was considering that this wasn’t even the main source of my hypnosis frequency. Do you really think that this little victory of yours has hurt me in the slightest? I still have thousands of mind controlled troops at my disposal.” Sombra’s voice continued to mock Jet.

“Stop hiding behind that corpse and show yourself, you coward!” Jet yelled into the empty club.

“All in due time, pest. For now though, you’ll have to settle for the company of one of my many assassins. Hope you’re up to the task, I’d hate for you to die before I get the chance to crush you myself.” Sombra replied with a long villainous laugh before static sounded through the speaker again and his voice disappeared, leaving Jet in the eerie silence of the club.

Jet quickly left the club and leapt back up onto the building across the street from the club. He didn’t know which assassin Sombra was sending, but he wasn’t about to stick around to find out. He willed the nanobots to reform the thrusters so he could get out of there while he still had the opportunity. After the short period of the nanobots shifting back into their original state, he took to the sky and headed back towards the bunker. As he flew, he was so caught up in his thoughts as he tried to process everything that happened back at the club, that he almost didn’t see the series of small bombs coming towards him above. He barrel rolled out of the way just as the bombs whizzed past him. Flipping upside down allowed him to keep moving, but also gave him a clear view of the armored assailant flying directly above him.

The figure was dressed in a clearly modified version of the armor used by Sombra’s basic grunts. It was black in color with red panel lining at each joint and blood red visor that was staring directly at him, mounted on its wings was a series of devices that Jet didn’t recognize. As he watched, another set of bombs materialized along the wings and dropped down onto Jet. He barrel rolled again, but one of the bombs clipped his wing and exploded in a hail fire of shrapnel. The force of the blast forced him out of the air, hitting the ground with a very loud thud that created a decently sized crater around him and sending up a large dust cloud. Jet slowly got to his feet with a loud groan of pain. He unsheathed his sword and looked around for the assassin as the dust cloud slowly dissipated. A soft impact from behind him alerted him to the fact that the assassin had just landed and was also trying to locate Jet through the thick cloud of dust.

“Y-You’re Death Storm, right? Gotta admit, kind of a badass name.” Jet called through the dust.

“Correct, I am Death Storm. It does not matter what you think of my name since I will be bringing you back to Lord Sombra in a bag of bloody bits very shortly.” A heavily modified female voice spoke back through the cloud.

“A bag of bloody bits? Sorry, not my style. I prefer being in one piece, thanks.” Jet retorted, quietly moving towards the voice.

“Being in one piece is not an option. I do not take prisoners and I do not accept surrender.” She continued talking as Jet closed in.

“Who said anything about surrendering? Also not my style.” Jet replied as the assassin tried to locate him through the dust cloud.

“Surrender or not, it does not matter. You are not walking away from this fight, rebel.” She spoke coldly, her own HUD being useless through the cloud.

“Oh, I think I will though.” Jet said, coming from the cloud behind her and slashing at one of the devices on her wing. This caused a bomb to materialize from the device and instead of launching outward like normal, it stayed where it was and exploded, blowing off her wing and clearing the dust away from the explosive force. The assassin cried out in pain as her wing stub spurted out small squirts of blood onto the dusty covered landscape behind her.

“You sonofabitch, you will pay for that!” She yelled out as she charged at Jet, a set of bombs forming at her still intact wing.

“Hey, don’t throw factual statements at me as if they’re insults.” Jet said in reference to his mother who had abused him.

Side stepping her charge attack, a bomb lightly thumping at his feet. He dodge rolled to safety just as the bomb went off, sending up another cloud of dust. The assassin growled in anger and flung more bombs every which way, only serving to add to the immense cloud of dust that was obscuring her vision. Without any warning, Jet dashed through the cloud of dust again, slashing at her other wing’s devices. This caused yet another malfunction in the device and blew off her other wing, as well as damaging the back of her helmet. Through her damaged helmet, a streak of flame colored hair could be seen blowing in the wind.

“There, now that we’re on equal terms, let’s settle this like…” Jet started to say as he appeared out of the dust, stopping when he noticed the flamey hair sticking out. Only knowing of one pony who had that kind of hair style.

“Yes, let us settle this here and now.” She said, narrowing her eyes at Jet through her visor.

She charged him again, this time able to hook her arms around his waist while he was shocked by the realization of who this assassin truly was. She took him to the ground, squatting over top of him and repeatedly punching him. Jet held up his arms in defense, blocking the onslaught of blows that this mare was dishing out. Having realized who she was, he was reluctant to fight back now. She continued her relentless assault on him, determined to win and make her king happy with her work.

“S-Spitfire, snap out of it! I don’t want to hurt you!” Jet yelled out, pushing her off of him and getting to his feet.

“Spitfire? Whoever you think I am, you are mistaken! I am Death Storm, servant to Lord Sombra and member of his elite assassin troupe!” She screamed, clearly having no control of herself whatsoever.

“You’re not an assassin! You’re the leader of the Wonderbolts and my fiance’s idol!” Jet yelled back, trying in vain to get through to her.

She simply growled again and charged him a third time. This time he was ready though, side stepping her and bringing the hilt of his sword down onto the broken back of her helmet, slamming her to the ground and shattering her helmet entirely. Jet knelt down and flipped her over onto her back, her flamey hair now fully exposed along with her yellow coated face. Her golden orange eyes blinked a few times as the hypnosis spell faded and she came to. She looked up at Jet with an expression of confusion.

“W-What happened…? Hey, you’re that royal guard dating my rookie, aren’t you?” She asked slowly, her mind still foggy from the hypnosis.

“You’ve been under Sombra’s mind control for quite some time, and yes, that would be me.” Jet replied, happy that he hadn’t had to kill her.

“I was? Last thing I remember, I was on a scouting mission with Soarin and Fleetfoot… We must’ve been captured…” She said, rubbing her head as she struggled to remember.

“Well, don’t worry. You’re safe now and we’re getting you back to base to get fixed up.” Jet said with a small smile of relief.

“Good… I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. How’s the rookie doing anyw…” She started to say, being cut off as her body suddenly gave a violent jolt and fell limp in Jet’s arms.

“Friday, what the hell just happened?!” Jet screamed into the void of the wasteland.

“I am not entirely sure, sir. Though my analysis shows it to be some kind of protocol within her suit set in place by Sombra to eliminate the possibility of anything about his operations getting out.” Friday said cooly in her automated voice.

“So, do you mean she’s…” Jet asked, already knowing the answer but not really wanting to hear it.

“Unfortunately, she is, sir.” Friday said, giving Jet the exact answer he had hoped not to hear.

“Fuuuuuuuuck! Sombra… I swear… You’re going to pay for this. I will make you beg me for death once I get through with you…” Jet vowed to himself as he stood slowly, gently laying Spitfire’s body onto the hard ground in front of him.

With a heavy heart, Jet made his way back to the bunker. Kicking open the hatch and mounting the ladder to see both Sunblast and Rainbow waiting for him at the bottom. Shutting the hatch behind him as he descended. He hopped down off the ladder and onto the floor below, his armor receding back into its housing unit. Rainbow gave a gasp as she saw his rough state. Cuts and bruises littered his body and he was slightly limping from where he had been clipped by the brutes hammer earlier on.

“Jet, what happened to you?! Are you ok?!” She cried out, a bit of panic entering her voice as she spoke.

“Yeah… I’m fine, physically at least.” Jet replied with a light smile.

“I tried to tell you that you weren’t ready for action, but you never want to listen to me.” Rainbow chastised him as she looped his arm around her shoulders to help with his limp.

“I will be needing a full mission report before we debrief you though, Jet. And cut him some slack Rainbow, you know he’s stubborn as a mule.” Sunblast said with a chuckle.

“Yeah, yeah. Just get me down to the med ward for some stitches and I’ll be fine. I’ll fill you guys in on what happened when we get there.” Jet replied, rolling his eyes at Rainbow’s chastisement.

She gave him a nod and held onto his side as they walked, Sunblast trailing behind them as they headed for the medical ward. She was looking over Jet’s new wounds with worry as they walked. Nobody said a word as they entered the cafeteria and walked down the dark blue tiled med ward hallway to get Jet patched up before the next step in trying to cripple Sombra’s war efforts.

Chapter 5: Royal Engagement

Inside the med ward sat a handful of cots, most occupied by ponies with various injuries, the walls painted a pleasing baby blue with matching tiles coating the floor. The variety of medical equipment in the med ward beeped and booped softly, mixing with the quiet buzz of the fluorescent lights to create an orchestra of background as Jet sat and gave the two the rundown of what had happened during his first outing in the field. As he spoke, a nurse in a white lab coat and small white cap adorned with a little red plus was stitching up his cuts from the fight he had endured during his outing. Both Rainbow and Sunblast sat in silence as he continued to recap the events preceding this moment. Every once in a while, he would stop to hold back a cringe of pain from the stitching needle entering and exiting his flesh, pulling it together as he was sewn up like a torn pair of jeans.

“Hold up, lemme get this straight. You performed a psionic blast spell? That’s a level three spell that I still struggle with to this day!” Sunblast said in utter disbelief as Jet wrapped up his tale.

“According to Friday, yeah. I don’t understand it, and I’m the one who did it.” Jet replied with a shrug, getting a light slap from the nurse as he moved around under her needle.

“We’re definitely running some tests on you when you’re done here.” Sunblast said, making a mental note as to which tests to run.

“So… You killed Spitfire…?” Rainbow asked, her tone flat.

“It’s not like I wanted to, Dashie. Whatever armor they’re being made to wear seems to kill them if they’re defeated.” Jet replied with a sad look in his eyes.

“You should’ve done something to stop it…” Rainbow retorted coldy.

“How was I supposed to know about it? I don’t exactly have a list of things Sombra has implemented into his army.” Jet said, surprised by her cold tone towards him.

“You know what that monster is capable of! You should’ve guessed he’d do something like that!” Rainbow said, her voice raising in tone.

“I’m not fucking psychic! Did you forget that I’ve been in a gods damned coma for nearly a decade?! I don’t exactly have a grasp on what he’s capable of! Last time I was conscious, this kinda shit didn’t exist! A lot of things have changed while I was out of commission!” Jet yelled back, pressing a finger against the nanobot housing unit attached to his chest. Rainbow didn’t say another word, she simply got up and walked out of the room, Jet tried to get up and go after her but the nurse pushed him back down onto the cot.

“Mister Stream, please sit still so I can finish these stitches. You’ve already made me have to restart three times now and I don’t have all day to keep at this.” The nurse said, getting slightly irritated with him.

“Don’t worry, Jet. She’ll be fine, she just needs some time to process this. Besides, where is she gonna go? We’re forty feet underground with only one exit.” Sunblast said, putting a hand on Jet’s uninjured shoulder reassuringly.

“Yeah… I guess you’re right…” He replied with a sigh.

The pair sat in silence as the nurse finished stitching Jet up, giving him a fresh shirt to wear. He slipped on the shirt and got up, Sunblast leading the way to the lab to begin the aforementioned tests. The bunker seemed to have an ere of eerie dead silence running throughout its entirety. Not a single pony was out in the rec rooms or the cafeteria, even though it was closing in on dinner time. The only sound Jet could hear were some distant grunts and groans as somebody trained in the gymnasium down the hallway behind them. There wasn’t even a single other pony inside the lab, which was extremely weird as Sunblast pointed out while they walked in. It was as if Jet’s actions had had an unforeseen consequence within the community of the bunker. Sunblast grabbed a few pieces of equipment from the main lab before leading Jet back down the stairs to his secret lab. Once inside, Sunblast set the various pieces of equipment on the desk across the room.

“Ok, Jet, I’ll need you to strip down. And for the love of Celestia, don’t make it weird…” Sunblast said, fiddling with the equipment as he turned it on and got it set up.

“Oh, sure, nothing weird about stripping in front of my best friend…” Jet replied, reluctantly stripping down to his boxers.

“Just think of it like a standard medical checkup. That’s how I’m viewing it.” Sunblast said, turning towards Jet with a small set of suction cup looking things in his hand that had wires running into one of the pieces of equipment.

“Fine, but if you ask me to turn my head and cough, I’m out.” Jet said through a light laugh.

“Not that kind of checkup, smartass. Now hold still, these are gonna be cold.” Sunblast replied, laughing as well. He stuck the suction cups to Jet’s arms, legs, and head. This got a hard shiver from Jet.

“So, what are these things for exactly?” Jet asked, looking at the suction cups with curiosity as Sunblast turned and flicked a switch on the device he was now hooked to. A screen popped up on top of the chalkboard, showing a display of Jet’s internals.

“This is going to check your innate magical potential levels. Everyone has innate magic inside them, unicorns and alicorns obviously being the highest in that category, but both earth ponies and pegasi have it as well. Now hush for a moment, it takes a minute to get a proper reading.” Sunblast said slowly as he stared at the screen intently. After a few moments, it showed a brightly glowing readout, eliciting a loud gasp from Sunblast.

“Uh… Everything ok over there?” Jet asked with concern over the gasp.

“I… I don’t believe what I’m seeing… How is this even possible…” Sunblast said, clearly not hearing Jet.

“Hello? Concerned pegasus over here.” Jet replied, a bit louder to get Sunblast’s attention.

“It’s… Well, take a look for yourself.” Sunblast said as he wheeled the screen over to where Jet could see it. The screen showed a strange sort of x-ray of Jet’s body, but instead of showing his bones or muscles, it seemed to show his nerves themselves. His nerves were slight with bright red ‘electricity’ ebbed and flowed very rapidly from one nerve ending to the other, beside the x-ray was a large flashing number.

“I don’t know what I’m looking at here, Sun. Wanna fill me in? In words I can understand, please.” Jet said as he stared at the foreign looking display before him.

“As I said, this machine scans and measures your innate magical potential, and this is showing that you have extremely high levels of magical energy flowing through your central nervous system. According to this readout, you have a magical potential of almost seventy-three percent and growing.” Sunblast explained, befuddled by the reading he had gotten from this test.

“Meaning…?” Jet asked, still confused.

“It means that you’re almost as powerful as Celestia herself. The standard potential levels are fifty to sixty percent in unicorns, around thirty percent in pegasi, ten to fifteen percent in earth ponies, and seventy to one hundred percent in alicorns. I just don’t understand how this is possible. By all rights, your body should burn up from the inside out with this much raw magical energy flowing through you.” Sunblast explained, recording the readings into a small pink notebook he had pulled from the desk drawer.

“So… How is that not happening then?” Jet asked, a little freaked out by his explanation.

“That’s what I’m still trying to understand here. I do have an idea, solely based on the coloring of the magic shown here. But, we’ll need to run a couple more tests before I can be sure.” Sunblast replied as he unhooked the tiny suction cups from Jet’s body.

“Alright then, not like I have anything else to do right now.” Jet replied, watching as Sunblast as he flipped on another machine and pulled out a small syringe.

“Just need a blood sample to start with, hold still.” Sunblast said, gently grabbing Jet’s arm and sticking the syringe into the vein in the crook of his elbow.

“Ow, easy. That’s my real arm.” Jet replied with a little jump as he felt the pinch of the needle penetrating his flesh.

“Oh, shut up you big baby. It’s just a tiny needle.” Sunblast retorted as he pulled the plunger of the syringe back, filling it with Jet’s blood.

Jet watched as Sunblast gave the syringe of crimson a once over before moving back to his desk and pulling out a moderately sized phial. He stuck the needle into it and emptied its contents into the phial. He placed the phial into the machine he had previously turned on. It was a small square silver device that had a carousel looking piece on top and a digital display just under it, as well as a printer of sorts on one side. Sunblast locked the phial into place and pressed a button on the front, beside the digital display. The carousel looking part started to spin and whirr quietly as Sunblast waited for it to finish up its routine test, he leaned against the desk and picked up his notebook again, pencil in hand to record whatever readings he was about to get from the machine.

After a few minutes, the machine stopped and beeped loudly. The little printer on the side made a few loud screeches as it pumped out a long sheet of paper. Sunblast tore the sheet free and looked it over, a look of shock crossing his face as he scribbled something in his notebook. Jet waited patiently for him to say something, only being met with silence again as Sunblast went on with his scribbling.

“So…?” Jet asked, snapping Sunblast out of his research thoughts.

“Just as I feared... I don’t know how to say this, but according to your blood test… You have very high amounts of dark magic flowing through your veins…” Sunblast replied, giving Jet a look of deep concern.

“How? I don’t understand…” Jet said confusedly.

“I have a theory about that, but I’m not sure if it’s even a viable one.” Sunblast said calmly.

“Let’s hear it. Can’t make any less sense than anything else going on these days.” Jet replied with a sigh and a roll of his eyes.

“Well… That blast of magical energy that you were hit with… It’s almost as if your body somehow absorbed the brunt of the impact.” Sunblast said, scratching his chin.

“But that blast came from Twilight and the elements of harmony. How would that be dark magic?” Jet asked, raising an eyebrow.

“It did, yes. But, as you may recall, Sombra deflected it with a magical barrier of his own making. Something you should understand about magic spells that powerful, when they collide with another’s magic energy, the spell will become infused with the magical energy of whoever’s magic it comes into contact with. So, when Sombra deflected that blast from the elements, it became infused with his own dark magic. Which in turn was absorbed into your body. I don’t know how, but these readings haven't been wrong before.” Sunblast explained, coming over to examine the scars from the blast on Jet’s chest.

“So, what? I’m some kind of magic sponge then?” Jet asked, not really understanding how any of this was possible.

“That’s my theory, yes. There’s only one way to be sure. But, it’s a dangerous experiment to follow through with.” Sunblast continued on, giving one of the scar’s a prod with the eraser on his pencil.

“I’m almost afraid to ask, but what’s the experiment?” Jet asked with an inflection of suspicion in voice.

“We would have to hit you with a spell and see what happens. But it’s incredibly risky, even the most basic combat spell is designed to inflict large amounts of damage to whoever its aimed at.” Sunblast said uneasily.

“I think I can handle that. But uh, can I at least get dressed first? It’s pretty cold down here.” Jet said with a light laugh.

“Oh, sure. We won’t be doing it here anyway. Too much sensitive equipment down here, we’ll head over to the gym for that.” Sunblast said, stuffing his notebook into his pocket and his pencil back behind his ear. Jet nodded and slipped back into his clothes, noting a sort of heavy object in one of the pockets. He pulled it out and remembered it was one of the parts Sunblast had requested.

“I almost forgot, but I found this while I was out. It was marked in my HUD as something you needed.” Jet said, handing the part to Sunblast, who grabbed it quickly and looked it over.

“No way! An intact control board from a brute’s power armor! I’ll install it into Project Hades later on.” Sunblast said excitedly, a wide grin running across his face as he set the part on his desk.

“How many parts did you need exactly?” Jet asked curiously as kneeled down, tying his boots back on.

“Counting this control board, six. But this was by far the hardest one to acquire. Those things are never left intact after a brute is downed. They take far too much damage before they're killed. How did you even manage to get this one?” Sunblast asked, a little surprised.

“It was surprisingly easy, actually. I just took out the portable power supply on its back and that killed it instantly. It seems like the amount of electricity those power supplies hold is enough to electrocute them to death if they’re destroyed.” Jet said, standing up and stretching a bit.

“Huh… Never even considered that as a factor. I’ll have to add that to our file on them. If you learn anything else about Sombra’s forces, do let me know. Every little bit of info gives us that much more of an edge against him.” Sunblast said with a thoughtful look in his eyes.

“Of course, I want him dead as much as anybody else. Now, I believe we have an experiment to perform?” Jet said, moving to the stairway as a signal to Sunblast to stop getting stuck in his sciency thoughts.

Sunblast took the hint and followed him, sealing the door to his lab back behind him. They made their way back down the hallway as they were greeted by a cacophony of noise emanating from the cafeteria. They entered the cafeteria to find that it was packed with all of the residents of the bunker as they ate and talked in a rather loud fashion. Through the crowd Jet didn’t see Rainbow anywhere, which gave him cause for concern. Applejack gave them a wave from behind the serving station as they passed by, the pair waved back with smiles. Jet noticed a small stage was set up at one end of the cafeteria, it had a red felt backdrop and a microphone set up at its front side. They proceeded through the cafeteria and down the hall towards the gym, passing a few trainees that looked beaten down and tired as they headed into the cafeteria for dinner. As they passed by a white haired mare with a light blue coat, Jet could swear he felt a hand graze his ass. He turned to look, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

They entered the gymnasium where Rainbow was giving one of the training dummies a thorough beating with a training sword. Her blow landed against the dummy with loud smacks and whacks, sounding as though she was about to break the bamboo blade against the dummy’s thick wooden torso. Her rainbow hair was plastered to her forehead and her white shirt was soaked in sweat, a clear indicator that she had been at this for some time now. She didn’t even seem to notice the two walking in behind her as they made their way out onto the floor. Sunblast’s horn glowed as the blue wrestling mats were moved across the floor and out of the way, the shuffling sound they gave off finally catching Rainbow’s attention as she stopped abusing the training dummy and turned to face the two stallions.

“What the hell do you two want?” She asked with a clenched jaw, clearly still fuming.

“I’m sorry to disturb your training, Rainbow, but we need to borrow the gym for a little bit. Important science things are about to happen here.” Sunblast said with a calm smile.

“Fine, whatever. I could use another shower anyway.” Rainbow replied, tossing her bamboo blade onto the rack behind her and leaving without another word.

Jet started to head after her, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Sunblast lightly shaking his head at him. Jet just sighed and made his way to the middle of the gym floor.

“Let’s get on with this, I need to go kill something to let off some steam.” Jet said with a frown,

“Right… Just, uh, don’t move. This will need to be a direct hit to get accurate results. Now, I’m going to hit you with a mild paralysis spell. Let me know if anything goes numb.” Sunblast said, his horn glowing lightly as it charged up for the spell.

“Yeah, will do. Fire when ready.” Jet said, giving Sunblast a nod of approval.

The air in the gym seemed to grow colder as Sunblast’s horn glowed brighter and hummed lightly against the slightly echoey noise coming from the cafeteria. After only a few short moments, his horn glowed bright enough to light up the floor around him in a deep green color. He took aim and fired, a large blast of dark green energy shot forth from his horn. The blast hit Jet dead center in the chest, staying in place as a ball of swirling green and white light as it collided with the pegasus. Jet groaned loudly as the swirling ball slowly dissipated and formed into strings of white as it was quite literally inhaled into his body through every pore available to it. Falling to one knee, Jet panted lightly, his body feeling as if it were on fire as the energy surged within him. Sunblast ran over and tried to help his friend to his feet by grabbing his arm, but just as quickly pulled away as his hands were slightly scorched from the immense heat radiating from Jet’s body.

“H-Holy shit… It worked…” Jet said lightly, looking up at Sunblast, who stood over him with a look of utter shock plastered across his face.

“Jet… You’re hot…” Sunblast said, waving his still lightly burning hands in the air to get some relief.

“Uh… Thanks, but you know I’m spoken for.” Jet replied with a confused look at his friend.

“No, you idiot. You’re literally burning up. Look.” Sunblast said, pointing down to Jet’s hands and arms.

“W-What…” Jet said slowly as he looked down to see that his arms had streams of smoke coming off of them.

“We… We need to study this some more.” Sunblast said steadily as he backed up to where he was before.

“Sure… Why not. Anything to understand this better.” Jet said, getting to his feet once again.

“Excellent. But we’ll need a bigger spell with more power. Luckily, I know just the guy. Oh, Discord!” Sunblast called out, his voice echoing off the walls of the gym. At first nothing happened, but then a poof of pink smoke popped up beside Sunblast. The draconequus having teleported into the gym right beside Sunblast.

“You rang, Sunny Bun?” Discord asked with a toothy grin. Sunblast grabbed him by the goatee, bringing him eye to eye with Discord and cutting his grin off.

“Don’t ever call me that or I’ll rearrange your atoms so badly that not even your chaos magic will be able to put you back together. Got it?” Sunblast said, his repressed anger showing through his otherwise calm demeanor. Discord gulped and nodded as best as he could while being restrained by his facial hair.

“G-Got it… Won’t happen again…” Discord replied nervously.

“Good. Now, I need a favor. A big one.” Sunblast said, letting go of Discord and seamlessly returning back to his normal demeanor.

“What is it? And what’s with smokey over here?” Discord asked, pointing a taloned thumb at Jet.

“That’s what I need your help with. I need you to hit him with the most powerful spell you have in your arsenal. Don’t hold back.” Sunblast said with an inflection of seriousness that put Discord on edge.

“Uh… I don’t think that’s a good idea. My most powerful spell is one that turns ponies into literal piles of sentient goo.” Discord said, eyeing Jet and Sunbast suspiciously.

“Just shut up and do it, Discord.” Jet piped up, smoke still streaming from his body.

“Well, ok. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Discord replied with a shrug, snapping his fingers.

Without any sort of buildup, a massive ball of swirling multi-colored light appeared above Jet and began rapidly descending upon him. It hit him with an impact that shook the entire gymnasium, the light engulfing Jet entirely. As before, the torrent of magical energy was slowly absorbed into his body. Once the light had faded and the ball of energy was gone, Jet stood in the center of the impact zone, smoke poured from his body in huge streams. He seemed to be almost vibrating with the amount of magical energy coursing through his system. Jet slowly looked up at Discord and Sunblast, a look of horror in his eyes.

“G-Get… To… Cover…” Jet mustered out as he tried to hold back a surge of energy from within.

Discord couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed, nothing had ever been able to survive that spell, it was even his most used one before he had been reformed. Sunblast formed a protective magical barrier around the both of them just as Jet let go. A massive blast of energy exploded from within him, melting the bleachers and setting the wooden training dummies ablaze as it swept across the entirety of the gymnasium. Sunblast let the barrier down once he assumed it was safe to do so. Both he and Discord stood there in silent shock as they stared at the newly damaged gym. The bleachers were melted down onto the floor in piles of smoking molten plastic, the training dummies rendered into flaming stacks of heavily charred firewood, the gym floor itself was charred outward from where Jet stood. Even the lights hanging several feet above him hadn’t been spared as they too were heavily charred and dangled loosely from their fixtures, several of their bulbs blown.

“Ok, what in the name of Equestria just happened?” Discord asked through his shocked state.

“Well, after a few tests and experiments, it appears as though Jet is somehow able to absorb and redirect magical energy by. Something about what happened to him eight years ago seems to have unlocked some kind of previously inactive magic sponge ability within him.” Sunblast explained, scribbling in his notebook.

“Magic sponge ability, you say? Hm… I need to go check on something. Please don’t destroy my bunker any more while I’m away.” Discord said, snapping his fingers and returning the gym to its previous unmelted state before suddenly disappearing with another puff of pink smoke.

“Why do I feel like he knows something that I don’t? Anyway, how do you feel, Jet?” Sunblast asked, moving to stand beside his friend.

“Feels like I just got sunburned from the inside out… Other than that, I’m fine I guess.” Jet said shakily, stumbling a bit on his feet as he rubbed his head.

“That’s good to hear. This is incredible, Jet. If you can learn to control this new ability, you’ll have no trouble with Sombra in the slightest!” Sunblast exclaimed, helping to steady Jet on his feet.

“Let me guess, I’ll need to keep taking hits of energy to practice at it?” Jet asked rhetorically.

“Unfortunately, yes. Though I doubt the spells I can cast will be enough to help with that.” Sunblast replied with a nod.

“Well, there just happens to be an electrified barrier surrounding one of Sombra’s compounds.” Jet said with a grin.

“Hm, while that is true, we don't know the extent of your ability. It could just be limited to magical energy.” Sunblast replied, stroking his chin.

“We won’t know unless we try. Besides, either way, we need these places dealt with.” Jet said with a shrug.

“Valid point. Guess you’re off to Sombra’s supply depot then.” Sunblast replied, leading the way out of the gym and down the hall.

The cafeteria was still full, the smell of dinner already fading from the air as they walked through. The stage was now occupied by Pinkie Pie, who was doing some kind of comedy routine involving a rubber chicken. The various ponies that occupied the tables were laughing and having a great time as they watched the show. Jet gave Pinkie a small smile and a wave as he and Sunblast walked by the stage and headed towards the exit hatch. The pair stopped at the foot of the ladder, Sunblast turning to Jet with a nervous smile.

“Remember Jet, your compass and HUD will point the way if you get lost out there.” Sunblast reminded Jet as he mounted the ladder.

Jet gave him a nod as he ascended the ladder and pushed open the hatch, bringing his armor up, he stepped out into the wasteland once again. As he shoved the hatch closed behind him, the ground under his feet rumbled intensely, throwing Jet off balance and knocking him to a knee briefly. As he looked out onto the wasteland, the earth around it started to split open in large jagged cracks, throwing clouds of dust into the air as massive pillars of black crystal jutted up from the cracks and reached up towards the sky. He got back up and shook some dust from his hair.

“Jet? Everything ok up there? I just got a richter scale alert from one of the scientists down here.” Sunblast asked in Jet’s earpiece.

“Yeah, I think so. But it looks like Sombra is trying to expand his crystal garden to us.” Jet replied, flying up to on top of one of the pillars.

“That’s not good. From what I’ve been able to gather, he uses those pillars of crystal to act as some kind of seismic sensors.” Sunblast replied, an ere of warning in his voice.

“Noted. I’ll contact you when I get to the supply depot.” Jet said as he ended the call, looking around from his perch.

From his new vantage point, he had a really good view of the wasteland below. He could see all the way to the ruins of Canterlot from here. Scanning the horizon, he saw the supply depot not far in the distance. As he was about to head off for it, something caught his eye. Off in the distance in the still somehow growing Everfree Forest, he saw a cloaked figure carrying a torch and heading into the ruins of the old castle. Jet thought for a moment before deciding to head off after the figure, curiosity getting the better of him. He quickly made it to the castle he had seen the figure go into, it wasn’t much to look at, but it was a good spot to be if someone needed to stay hidden from Sombra’s forces. Inside the castle ruins was a dark blue sheet covering the entry way that had once been the throne room door. Beyond the sheet was a dimly burning fire, a beaten up stump turned on its end, and a bed made from torn up pieces of fabric stuffed inside a large pillowcase. Jet wondered where the figure had disappeared to as there seemed to be just this one entrance to the room. Just as he had this thought, he looked up at the relatively high ceiling to see the cloaked figure nestled in one of the shadowed corners like a spider. Before he could react, the figure let go of the ceiling and fell on top of him, knocking him to the ground with the figure on top of him. The figure held a worn old kitchen knife to his throat.

“I knew one of Sombra’s assassins would come for me. I’m ready this time, you bastard. Any final words?” The figure spoke in a very familiar female voice, she wore the very tattered remains of a sparkly star studded dress with a small crude looking sheath on her hip.

“Wait! P-Princess Luna?” Jet said, quickly lowering his faceplate, hoping this wasn’t one of Sombra’s tricks.

“Jet Stream? But… How?” The figure spoke slowly, pulling her hood back to reveal the princess of the night. She looked very much worse for wear as she got up and helped Jet to his feet, slipping the knife into the sheath on her hip.

“I should be asking you the same question, princess.” Jet said as he brushed himself off. Luna took a seat on the stump and heaved a deep sigh. Jet knelt on the ground across from her, the fire crackled softly against the silence of the Everfree.

“I have been hiding out here, waiting for the day that it comes time to pay for my cowardice.” Luna said quietly, seeming to struggle to get the words out.

“Cowardice? What are you talking about?” Jet asked, looking up at Luna with confusion written across his face.

“I suppose you should know the truth, Jet Stream…” Luna spoke softly, her voice wavering slightly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The castle halls were quiet and barren, save for the few guards left on duty. Luna still didn’t understand why her sister had given the majority of the guards the week off, but she had come to learn that it was best not to question her sister’s choices. The banners that bore their insignias waved lazily in the air of the throne room as the cold winter sunlight poured in from outside through the stained glass windows, casting a variety of colored shapes onto the white tiled floor. The length of red carpet that led from the doors up to the thrones themselves was bright and freshly cleaned.

Luna sat in her throne with her elbow resting one the armrest of her throne and her chin in her hand. She watched as Celestia paced back and forth at the foot of the steps that led up to thrones, she wore her golden plate armor and her blade Solaris was strapped to her back. She had seemed to be on edge all day, to Luna’s annoyance. Maybe if Celestia would just share what was bothering her, Luna could help alleviate some of her sister’s worry. Luan wondered what exactly had set her on edge this badly, but everytime she had asked, Celestia had given her the same dismissive answer.

“Sister, please… You’re wearing down the tiles with all your pacing.” Luna said, sitting up and leaning back into her dark blue upholstered throne.

Celestia said nothing as she kept pacing back and forth. Her metal boots clinking against the tiles and echoing in the vast empty room. Luna got up from her throne and walked over to her sister, her elegant star strewn dress dragging along the fuzzy red carpet as she walked. She stood in her sister’s path and put her hand on Celestia’s armored shoulders, the metal cold under her palms.

“Sister, you are worrying me. Please, talk to me.” Luna pleaded as she held her sister in place, effectively stopping her pacing. Celestia gave a soft, yet forced, smile down at her sister.

“Luna… If I could tell you, I would. But you know as well as I do that if I tell what my vision foretold, it will change the outcome of it. This is one vision that I wish not to change, even though it means dark things to come.” Celestia spoke with certainty in her voice.

“I am aware of how your visions work, sister. I just wish you would tell me what it is you saw. Perhaps we can find a better outcome together.” Luna replied, returning her sister's smile.

“I am sorry, dear sister, I truly am. But, this time there is no outcome I wish to change. Just know that things will be ok, you have my word.” Celestia said softly, trying to ease her younger sister’s worry.

It did little to ease her, but Luna smiled regardless, not wanting to add to her sister’s already existing burden. Luna embraced her sister in a hug, which Celestia returned with another forced smile. As the two sisters embraced one another, the air suddenly seemed to grow far colder. The two sisters' breaths now hung in the air in wisps of visible white steam. Celestia pulled away from the hug and drew Solaris from its sheath, turning to face the doors of the throne room with narrowed eyes just as an explosion rang out through the castle, shaking the floor under their feet.

“He’s here. Luna, you need to get out of here. Now.” Celestia said as she lowered her sword to point it at the throne room doors.

“Who’s here? SIster, what is going on?” Luna asked in a panic.

“There is no time to argue. Go, now!” Celestia replied, giving her sister a very intensely serious look.

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on, sister!” Luna exclaimed, pulling Moonshadow from it’s magical pocket realm that was used to house it when not in use.

Before Celestia could say another word, a second explosion rocked the entire room, blowing the throne room doors off their hinges and covering the room in a sheet of dust and smoke. The force of the blast shattered the stained glass windows, sending shards of glass flying through the air and shredding the insignia bearing banners. The two sisters covered their faces as the shard flew every which way. As the smoke cleared, they saw a black armor clad figure walking into the room. Luna gasped at what, or rather who, she saw. Meanwhile Celestia didn’t seem at all surprised by this.

“S-Sister… Is that…” Luna stammered out, getting into a fighting position beside her sister, her scythe poised and ready.

“Sombra…” Celestia said coldly. He laughed loudly at the two as he approached.

“Ah, so you do remember me, princess. And here I was worried that you’d forgotten me over the past millennium. I should have known you could never forget the one pony you couldn’t defeat.” He said in a cocky tone as he stopped, mere feet from the two battle ready princesses.

“You are not welcome here, monster. Leave.” Celestia said, her tone as cold as the ice that Moonshadow controlled.

“No, I don’t think I will.” Sombra retorted just as coldly, drawing his own blade from its sheath. His sword was almost the polar opposite of Solaris.

It was a broadsword made from black steel with barbed edges, created as if to be a spit in the face to Celestia’s almost holy blade. Celestia looked on at the black blade with horror as it steamed with smoke like shadows. He grinned wickedly from under his helmet and gave another bone chilling laugh.

“Ah, admiring my handiwork? You should feel honored, I created this blade especially for you, princess. I call it The Solar Destroyer. A bit on the nose, I know, but it’s entirely fitting.” Sombra said, giving Celestia a hard chill that ran down the length of her spine.

“It does not matter what you call your twisted blade, Sombra. We have had one thousand years to prepare for you and we will be victorious this time.” Luna said, trying to sound resolute in her words.

“Luna, you need to run.” Celestia said, lowering her blade to point right at Sombra’s chest.

“No, I won’t leave you alone with this monster.” Luna replied with a determined expression. Sombra stepped forward, letting the tip of Solaris press right against where his heart would be under his armor.

“Go ahead, princess. I’ll give you a free shot to end this right here and now.” Sombra said, pressing against the blade and forming a small dent in his armor.

“I… I cannot… No matter how evil, I cannot bring myself to kill…” Celestia said, lowering Solaris to her side.

“S-Sister, pick up your blade! Now is no time to hesitate!” Luna exclaimed as she swung at Sombra with Moonshadow. The tyrant easily blocked her sloopy swing with his own blade, deflecting it from her hands and sending it flying across the room. It came to rest at the base of one of the shattered windows with a loud echoing clatter.

“Hm, I knew you wouldn’t have the heart for it. Which makes this almost sad, but I will still thoroughly enjoy it.” Sombra said with another evil laugh, giving a hard swing at the two princesses.

With a scream of pain from the two, their horns were severed and sent up into the air. The severed appendages flew upwards and landed on the steps of the thrones, rolling down and coming to rest at the base of the small staircase. Thin streams of blood seeped from their horns and down their heads, staining their foreheads and cheeks as it ran down their faces. Celestia gave a hard groan and planted Solaris into the ground in front of her with a soft thunk. She bit back the pain in her head and looked over at her sister with a grim expression.

“Luna, please… Run… For once in our lives, please listen to me and run…” Celestia said, her expression now pleading with her sister to listen.

“B-But…” Luna stammered out, the adrenaline pumping through her veins keeping her from falling to the floor in pain.

“Please…” Celestia pleaded with her sister again.

With a look from her to Sombra, she gave her sister a sad look and made for one of the now open shattered windows. She gave a look back to see Sombra making his way towards her, Celestia gave her a solemn nod. Without another word, Luna leapt through the window and took to the air, seeing Sombra standing at the window, his horn glowing a deep violent red and aimed right at her.

“Sombra! It is me, you want. Let my sister go in peace!” Celestia called from inside, causing the tyrant to turn and face her.

“Very well, I will spare her on one condition.” Sombra said slowly, his back now to Luna, which allowed her to look in through the window.

“Name it…” Celestia replied, voice wavering as she feared the tyrant's request.

“Kneel to your new ruler.” Sombra said coldly with an evil cackle.

As Luna watched in horror, Celestia knelt to him at the foot of the thrones they had once shared. Not able to bear watching her sister demean herself in front of this monster, she flew off into the sky. Not knowing where else to go, she headed for their old castle in the Everfree Forest. With no knowledge of events to come and no sister to spend her days with, she curled up on the dust riddled floor of their former throne room and wept softly into the silence of the Everfree. She wanted to fly back to help, but her sister’s words rang out in her head. ‘Run… For once in our lives, listen to me and run…’ Even though it had been her sister’s wishes, her heart felt heavy and very cold, she felt like a coward for not staying to help her fight. Maybe if she had, things would’ve turned out differently. Maybe had she not had such sloppy form when attacking, she could’ve actually hit that monster. Maybe… Luna’s thoughts of ‘maybes’ faded into silence as she cried herself to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Do you see now why I have been awaiting justice for my actions?” Luna asked softly against the quiet of the room.

“Princess Luna… You’re not a coward for listening to your sister when she told you to run.” Jet said with a soft smile, getting up to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“Jet Stream, your words are kind, but I have come to terms with my role in the downfall of our world.” Luna replied as she looked down into the crackling fire with a distant look in her eyes.

“Princess, do you really think your sister gave her life for yours just so you could mope around in this dusty old castle? Just think what she would say if she saw this. Luna, is this any way to act? You’re royalty for pete’s sake.” Jet said, putting on his best impersonation of Celestia like he used to do to break her from her grouchy state after being woken up early for royal meetings and such. This got a small giggle from Luna.

“Your impression of Celestia is still terrible, you know that, right? Regardless, you make a good point.” Luna said as she stood.

“Yeah, I know it is, but it still got a laugh out of you. Now, come on. I know a bunker full of ponies that would be overjoyed to see you.” Jet said with a smile.

As the two headed for the exit, a loud crash could be heard as something landed on the ground outside. Jet drew his blade and put up his faceplate as Luna drew her knife. The two each stood on one side of the door with their backs to the wall. They gave each other a look that was asking if the other was ready, with a mutual nod they headed outside to confront the source of the crash. Ready for whatever awaited them.

Chapter 7: Breaking New Ground

The pair slowly approached the huge rusty door, the lock swayed gently against the door in the strong wind sweeping through the area. The soft thunk of the lock against the door was the only sound that could be heard aside from the thumping of Jet’s heart in his ears, his body was still on fire from the electricity coursing through him from the pylon before. He stepped forward and examined the lock on the door closely, stroking his chin in thought. After grabbing the lock and giving it a jiggle, he stepped back and stared at it suspiciously.

“This seems too easy…” Jet said, still staring at the lock.

“What do you mean?” Luna asked curiously.

“He went to the trouble of cloaking and electrifying this place to defend it. So, why only use a standard padlock on the doors? Something isn’t right about this.” Jet replied with a look around the area.

“Hm, that does make sense. There doesn’t seem to be any other way in though. What do you suggest?” Luna asked again, trying to use her mask to locate any magic barriers or spells placed on the door.

“I feel like this door is a trap, an obvious one. We’ll need to find the real entrance if we’re going to succeed here.” Jet replied, making his way around the warehouse and examining every inch closely.

“The mask isn’t revealing any hidden spells or anything. Maybe he’s just not as smart as we thought?” Luna suggested, following him as he made a lap around the warehouse.

“Royal Knight’s code number one, never underestimate your enemy. There’s some kind of trick here.” Jet said, still walking around the warehouse in an attempt to spot anything out of the ordinary.

“Perhaps we should try the door just to be sure?” Luna asked, giving it another look as they passed by it.

“I very much advise against it, Royal Knight’s code number 2, never fall for an obvious trap. Another thing that makes that door an obvious trap, the supply trucks that he uses come and go in an instant.” Jet responded, his gaze shifting up to look at the roof.

“Ok… That means what?” Luna asked, scratching her head slightly.

“It means that with as quick as those trucks come and go, they don’t have the time to get out and unlock a padlock to get in. So, there’s definitely a way in that we just don’t know the location of.” Jet replied, still looking the building up and down.

“Oh, right… I guess that does make sense.” Luna said, a bit embarrassed that she hadn’t come to that conclusion herself.

“Hm, strange…” Jet said quietly as he stopped in front of one of the walls.

“What is it?” Luna asked, looking around curiously.

“This wall… There’s something not right about it…” Jet replied, looking closer at it.

“Looks like the other three to me.” Luna said, trying to figure out what he was talking about.

“No, look closer. There’s not a spot of rust on this wall. And directly across from this specific wall is a road.” Jet replied, turning to point at the open road that was situated between a couple of crumbling buildings.

“Oh… You really do have a keen eye, Jet. That explains how you were able to find my hideaway so easily before…” Luna responded, noticing the rust free wall and the road he had pointed out.

“We found our door. Now, that just leaves the question of how we get it open.” Jet said, stepping back to get a wider view of the suspicious wall.

As he stepped back, his foot weirdly pressed into the ground a bit. He lifted his foot up and looked down, seeing nothing but plain dirt. Kneeling down, he took a closer look at the ground under his feet. He ran his hand over the ground and found one spot to be cold as ice. He put some pressure on the cold spot and it shifted downward, just as it had when he accidentally stepped on it. With a smirk to himself, he stood and turned towards the road, examining the ground further down from where he was. Sure enough, he found another pressure plate a few feet from the other one. He made his way back to the first plate he found and walked a few feet across the road and found yet another pressure plate there.

“I think I found our way in, Luna. Stand here and give me a minute.” Jet said, pointing to the pressure plate he had just been standing on.

Jet then walked off back to the grocery store, picking up two bodies and slinging them over his shoulders. He then headed back outside to rejoin Luna. She had a bit of a shocked expression upon seeing him carrying the corpses. While she watched in shock, Jet used his boots to decipher where the pressure plates were, depositing the bodies onto the two plates that were furthest from the warehouse. He then stepped forward and stood on the plate across from Luna. For a moment, nothing happened, but then the ground shook lightly as the false wall began to rise up like a garage door. It creaked and groaned on its worn hinges, slowly opening up to reveal the interior of the warehouse to them.

“Wha… But how?” Luna asked incredulously as she stared at the newly opened door.

“Hidden pressure plates that he assumed would only be activatable by his supply trucks pulling in. But, as you can see, I found a way around that with the help of his flunkies.” Jet said with a smirk.

“Incredible… I’m beginning to think that perhaps you should have gone into detective work instead of guard duty.” Luna replied with a smile.

“Sometimes the two fields cross into one another, so it helps to be avid in both mental and physical prowess. Let’s head inside, I don’t know how long this door is going to stay open.” Jet said, moving to step forward and into the warehouse.

Luna nodded and followed him inside. As soon as they were in, the door closed down behind them, leaving in nearly complete darkness again. Once the door was completely shut, a series of flood lights flickered on around them. The sudden light blinded them briefly, but their eyes quickly adjusted to the change in lighting. They both looked around the warehouse curiously. The interior was surprisingly empty, with only a few pieces of old rusted machinery scattered around the dirty floor. Running along the center of the warehouse floor was a nonfunctioning conveyer belt that had a few pieces of dust covered equipment. Above them, on either side of the warehouse’s second floor, was a decrepit steel walkway that was barely holding onto its foundations. On one end of one of the walkways was a control booth of some kind. It was a small square room with a broken pane of glass that looked down onto the warehouse floor. This was clearly a repurposed factory rather than a warehouse, but there didn’t seem to be any sort of workers or even a source for the supplies that Sombra had been accumulating for use in building up his empire. Jet drew his sword and made his way across the factory floor and towards the control booth.

“I do not understand, should there not be some enslaved workers or some kind of working machines at the very least?” Luna asked, thinking aloud.

“Just be on guard, Luna. This might be another distraction or trap.” Jet said as he found a decently sturdy ladder that led up onto the walkway.

Luna stayed on the ground floor as a lookout as he climbed the ladder, taking care not to make any sudden movements that might make the ladder give out under him. After a few grueling moments of steady climbing, he reached the top and stepped out onto the walkway. It swayed uneasily under his feet and he stumbled a little from the feeling. His mouth went dry and he gulped roughly, steeling himself as he slowly made his way towards the control booth. It felt like it took ages to reach the booth, but Jet persevered and got through the unsteady walk. Once inside the control booth, he looked over the various controls. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, just a few standard levers and buttons, but one caught his eye. It was a large red button that was barely distinguishable from the others, save for the fact that unlike the rest, it wasn’t layered in dust. This meant that this particular button had seen recent use. Jet moved his hand forward and pressed the button down. As soon as he did, the factory began to rumble and shake under their feet. The conveyor belt shook violently and began to sink into the floor, leaving a long opening in the floor that spanned the length of the factory. Jet hopped down back to ground level and walked over to the opening. The conveyor belt had slid down into the floor at an angle, creating a pseudo staircase that led into the ground itself.

“Another hidden entrance, hm? He’s consistent, I’ll give him that. Welp, wanna see where this leads, Luna?” Jet asked rhetorically as he stared down into the opening.

“Do we really have a choice?” Luna replied with a shrug.

“No, not really.” Jet said as he made his way down onto the conveyor with Luna following behind him.

The pair descended down into the Earth itself, the conveyor shortly giving way to a set of stairs that were crudely carved out into the rock of the Earth. The tunnel seemed to go on forever, nothing but dirt and patches of stone to either side of them with small torches embedded into the walls to light the way for Sombra’s lackeys. Eventually, the thin tunnel opened up into a cavernous area. A quick look around revealed that this area was some kind of mine, the walls were dug out in vast patches around the cavern. Scattered around the area seemingly randomly were several steel staircases and walkways that led up and around the area. There was a variety of workers around the floor and walkways. Some had pickaxes and were chipping away at the dirt while others pushed and pulled mine carts full of gems and metals around the area, they were clearly under some kind of mind control spell as they seemed to move like zombies. All of them had on the same brainwashing helmets as Sombra’s soldiers and were dressed in tattered rags that barely covered their unmentionables, let alone provide any kind of protection against the elements down here.

“Jet, down there! Is that…” Luna yelled out as she pointed towards the ground level of the mine.

Jet looked to where she was pointing and let out a small gasp. Luna was pointing directly at an emaciated bright pink pony that was slowly chipping away at the dirt like the others. Jet couldn’t believe his eyes. It was covered by a thick layer of dirt, but there was no mistaking that bright blue crystalline heart on her exposed thigh. It was Princess Cadence, somehow still alive and brainwashed into being one of Sombra’s worker slaves. Jet was sort of grateful for this, as it meant she wasn’t being forced to fight Sombra’s army like the others he had encountered so far. That’s when Jet noticed something strange, there were no guards down here, though perhaps it made sense. After all, these workers were enslaved and brain washed, they didn’t really have any hope of rebelling against their captors. Jet and Luna made their way down a nearby set of stairs and onto the ground floor, quickly making their way over to Cadence. Jet pushed the cart she had away and delicately removed her brainwashing helmet. She simply stood there for a moment, her eyes hazy and nearly colorless. Just as the Jet was about to start worrying, the color slowly came back into her eyes and she blinked several times, putting a hand to her head as she lightly stumbled on her feet. She shook her head a couple times and looked around briefly, before her eyes fell on Jet and Luna.

“Luna, you free the others. I’ll handle this…” Jet said softly, eliciting a nod from Luna as she set off to do just that.

“Jet Stream? W-What’s g… Shining! Where is he?! Oh Gods, please tell me he’s ok!” Cadence yelled out in a panicked manner as her memory slowly began to come back.

“Cadence, please try to stay calm. You’re not going to like what I’m about to tell you, but you need to stay calm. In your condition, you can't handle a panic attack.” Jet said, keeping his voice calm.

“W-What is it?! Just tell me, I can handle it!” She screamed, her breathing growing shallow and tears forming in her eyes.

“Cadence, you and Shining both have been presumed dead… For nearly a decade…” Jet replied slowly, trying to keep her calm.

“A d-decade… N-No… That can’t be… We were just… And then Sombra… No, no, no, no, no…” Cadence started to hyperventilate, reeling backwards on her feet as she started to have a full on mental breakdown.

“Cadence, just breath. You have to calm down. In your current condition, your body can’t handle this much stress.” Jet said, still keeping his tone calm.

“No… I c-can’t do this… P-Put me back under… Please… I beg you…” Cadence pleaded as she grabbed Jet by the shoulders and shook him lightly.

“I hope you can forgive me for this…” Jet replied with a heavy sigh.

“W-What are you t…” Cadence began to ask, but was cut off when Jet slapped her hard across the face.

“Get a hold of yourself! This is no time to panic!” Jet yelled out at her, hoping he hadn’t made things worse.

She stood there in silence, her head still turned from the slap and her hand holding her cheek. Her eyes were wide with shock, but the tears still streamed from her eyes. As Jet watched, her breathing slowed back to normal and turned back to face him. She wiped her tears from her eyes and cheeks. After a final deep breath, she looked up into Jet’s eyes, he could see the pain deep seated within her light purple irises.

“Thank you, Jet… I needed that…” Cadence said softly as Luna walked back over to join them.

“You’re welcome, Cadence.” Jet replied before turning towards Luna.

“I have freed the others, Jet. Is… Is Cadence alright?” She asked, looking over to Cadence.

“After some rest and something to eat, I should be fine… Relatively speaking at least…” Cadence replied with an obviously forced smile to try and reassure Luna.

“Well, we can get you those things at the bunker. We gotta get out of here first though.” Jet interrupted, looking up at the stairwell.

“Wait, there’s something else. Sombra… He found the artefact that was hidden inside the castle…” Cadence said, looking over at Luna.

“H-He found the mirror…?” Luna asked, leaving Jet confused on this one.

“Yes… And there’s no telling what he has planned for it…” Cadence replied, a tone of worry heavy in her voice.

“Uh… What mirror? I don’t remember any mirror from my mythos studies.” Jet interrupted again.

“No, you wouldn’t. It wasn’t recorded in books due to its dangerous nature.” Cadence said softly.

“How dangerous are we talking here?” Jet asked, his curiosity peaked.

“It is the artefact that Starswirl the Bearded used to banish the sirens ages ago. It acts as a bridge between normally separated worlds. With the correct spells… It could be used to access any world separate from ours…” Luna explained with her arms crossed over her chest, hinting at her increasing worry.

“So that means that could potentially…” Jet started to say, his mind reeling from this new information.

“Gain access to powers unheard of in our world…” Cadence finished Jet’s sentence for him, knowing where he was headed with it.

“Do you know where the mirror is?” Jet asked, looking between Cadence and Luna.

“Hm… Well, I doubt he would keep it in his own castle in the Crystal Empire. That would be too easy.” Luna said, scratching her chin in thought.

“Yes. He’d keep it somewhere solitary away from the heat of any possible battle, but also somewhere nobody would think to look.” Cadence continued as she chewed her lip anxiously.

“Hold on… I think I know where he’s keeping it!” Jet exclaimed, remembering some of the intel reports he had read.

“What? Where?” Cadence and Luna asked in unison.

“One of the intel reports I read said that Sombra had some kind of energy field surrounding Canterlot Castle ruins.” Jet replied.

“But why would he keep it where it already was? That doesn’t make much sense…” Cadence stated, raising an eyebrow.

“No, no. It makes perfect sense. It is the last place anybody would think to look, he has it under heavy protection, and he would not have to risk it being broken in transit as it is just a mirror after all’s said and done.” Luna replied, her arms relaxing back to her sides.

“I guess that does make sense, but still, how would we even get in?” Cadence asked again.

“We’ll figure that out later. For now, let’s get all of you back to the bunker.” Jet said, looking over at the workers.

“They will need masks to last at least long enough to get us there.” Luna pointed out.

“Hm, we might be able to fashion makeshift one’s from their shirts?” Cadence suggested with a light shrug.

“Not a bad idea. Let’s get to it then.” Jet said, moving towards the workers.

It didn’t take long to make some pseudo face masks out of the shirts of the workers. They may not have been pretty, but they would suffice long enough to make it to the bunker safely.

“Alright, everybody got a mask now?” Luna asked, looking around and getting nods and muffled responses from the workers.

“Good. Let’s get going before any reinforcements show up.” Jet said, making for the stairs as the workers made their way as well.

“Right. Let me help you Cadence.” Luna said, wrapping one of Cadence’s arms over her shoulder and followed behind Jet.

As they headed up the stairs, the other freed workers from the mine formed a line and followed them up the stairs. They made it across the walkway, back up through the tunnel, and into the rundown factory. Jet looked around for a way to open the door and spotted a switch beside it. He made his way over and tugged the switch downward. There was a soft mechanical whirr as the door slowly slid upwards, opening up to the wasteland outside. Several of the freed workers let out loud gasps as they laid eyes upon what had once been their home. Jet ushered them out, Luna and Cadence heading out first with the rest in tow. Once they were all out, Jet headed out behind them. With a nod to Luna, he headed off in the direction of the bunker. They made it to just outside the town limit when Jet stopped in his tracks and looked back behind them.

“What is it, Jet?” Luna turned to ask, realizing he had stopped.

“Take the others and get out of here. This will guide you to the bunker.” Jet said quickly, taking off his mask and handing it to Luna.

“Is something wro…” Luna began, but was very quickly cut off by Jet.

“No time to argue. Just get them all to safety.” Jet replied in a hurry, taking off back towards the town.

“But you need this!” Luna shouted, but he was already out of earshot.

Jet wasn’t sure what his HUD had picked up, but it was something huge making its way towards them. As he got back closer to the town, he felt a series of rumbles shaking the ground under his feet. Once he was back near the factory mine, he stopped and awaited whatever was coming. The rumbling slowly grew more and more intense, to the point that you could visibly see the small rock scattered around dance and vibrate along the ground. Then suddenly, it stopped altogether. Jet drew his sword and looked around cautiously, feeling that something was off about this. It grew eerily quiet, even the wind itself stopped blowing. Jet’s heart raced, thumping loudly in his ears as his body surged with both adrenaline and the electricity still contained within himself. Just as suddenly as the silence had begun, it was broken by what sounded like an explosion somewhere in the distance. Before Jet could react, a large mass crashed down right on top of the factory, collapsing it in on itself and kicking up a huge cloud of dust. The force of the impact shook the ground hard enough to make Jet stumble on his feet and fall to one knee. Through the dust cloud, Jet could only see a silhouette of something that stood as tall as the old factory itself. He quickly got back to his feet and leapt onto a nearby roof, deciding it best to get off the ground for now. As he watched, the silhouette began to shift, standing upright to itself full height. Once it was fully upright, it stood another story taller than the factory. It turned and faced Jet, evident by the large glowing green lights now fixed on his position.

The massive silhouette came into view as the dust slowly settled, revealing a hulking mass of armor plating that was black in color like the other assassin's armors, but this one had green trimming and panel lining that matched the glow of its eyes. It was sort of egg shaped, not having shoulders or a head really, meaning this was likely just some kind of machine or power armor. Each of its limbs were around the size of an oak tree. Mounted around each wrist was a series of large jackhammer devices and along each leg were a large set of springs, presumably shock absorbers. As Jet stood on the roof, staring at this massive chunk of metal, he shook with a combination of fear and adrenaline. He recognized this one from the intel reports before, it was the largest and most destructive of Sombra’s assassins, Earth Shaker. Without warning, the assassin drove its massive fist into the ground, the jackhammers rearing back to ready a strike. The tools all slammed down into the ground in unison, immediately opening a massive fissure in the ground. The fissure made its way forward and towards the house Jet was perched on, only growing in size as it went along. He barely had time to react before it was upon him. Thinking fast, he leapt into the air again and landed on a roof down the street from the previous one. The fissure ran along the ground and under the house he was just on, almost immediately swallowing the house into the Earth.

“H-Holy shit… I have to finish this fast. Or I’m going to run out of ground to stand on…” Jet said to himself in disbelief, thinking out loud.

He tried to get a good view of the monster he was fighting, looking for any kind of weakness. Before he could even catch his breath, it slammed its other fist into the ground and opened another fissure that once again snaked its way towards him. He managed to get off the roof and into the air just that house too was swallowed up by the Earth. He decided to try and land on the armored beast itself, kicking off some rumble in the air and launching himself towards the metal monstrosity. As he glided through the air towards the ‘head’ of the beast, he hoped there wasn’t any kind of defensive shield or anything on its body. To his luck, he landed cleanly on the rounded spot above its eyes. He was quick to get a bearing on his immediate surroundings, it was mostly just a rounded plain of welded together sheets of metal. There was something glowing a faint green on the opposite side of where Jet was standing. With slow steady steps, he made his way towards it to take a look. As he did, the monster under him groaned loudly and began to shake violently. Jet was knocked to his ass and began to slip down the back of the slick metal surface, he moved quickly and rammed his sword into the metal wherever he could hit, giving himself something to hold onto against the otherwise flat surface.

The monster thrashed about back and forth for several moments, before finally stopping with another loud metallic groan. From his spot hanging off the back of the monster, he could see the source of the glow a few feet in front of him. It seemed to be the power supply for this thing, it was some sort of roughly hewn gemstone structure that jutted out in small spires and was humming quietly against the still night air. Whatever it was, it seemed to be as safe to touch as the rest of this thing. Before the monster could recover from whatever had made it stop thrashing, he used his sword as a bar and started to swing back and forth on its handle. After building enough momentum, he let go and was propelled towards the power supply. He grabbed onto it and found that it gave off a slight static-like charge. Luckily, it was rough enough to give him footing to hold onto. Using the rough edges of the gem, he started to climb up to the top of it. As he climbed, Sombra’s words echoed in his mind, ‘that much electricity should have stopped your heart’. This gave Jet an idea, a risky one, but an idea nonetheless. Once at the top, he placed his hands on the spire he stood on and took a deep breath. Just as he had felt when Discord hit him with the blast before, he concentrated and focused his mind. A moment later, he felt his hands start to tingle violently as sparks began to slowly form at his fingertips. Focusing harder, he forced the built up electricity in his body to be discharged through his hands and straight into the weird staticy gem. Eventually, he had managed to fully discharge it through his palms.

He panted slightly from the exertion it took, his arms trembling a bit. At first nothing happened, but then, the lumbering behemoth of steel slumped forward. The gem began to glow brighter and ebbed far more intensely. Jet took this as his sign to get the hell out of there, he took a chance and leapt from the behemoth. He did his best to get at least a couple of his wing thrusters to reform in order to break his fall. Despite the thrusters, he still landed hard enough on one of the roofs to crack the shingles around him. He looked up to see the enormous gem glow bright enough to briefly blind him, just before a deafening boom rang out and echoed in the valley. The blast force of the explosion knocked Jet backwards and off the rooftop. He landed hard on his back on the ground behind the house he was standing on, knocking the wind out of him for the moment. There was a sudden loud crash as the enormous metal monster fell forward and crashed into the ground, taking out most of the remaining buildings and houses with it. Jet staggered to his feet while he tried to catch his breath, making his way back in front of the building and towards the fallen behemoth. By the time he made it back over to the decommissioned machine, his breathing was back to normal. He clambered up onto the back of it thanks to some crumbled remains of crushed buildings. Once up top, he found his way over to his sword, which was still wedged deep within the metal of the machine. He grabbed the hilt of the blade and yanked it free of its metallic prison.

As soon as he had freed his sword, a hiss of air caught his attention. He looked to see that there was smoke emanating from around the ‘head’ of the monstrosity. As he watched, the entire rounded head piece of the behemoth began to shift upwards, opening like a beast opening its maw to catch its prey. Jet readied his sword in preparation of whatever this was. Soon, the hatch was fully open and the smoke started to subside. Everything was quiet for a moment before a smaller, but still fairly large figure emerged from within the machine. They wore armor that matched that of the behemoth machine he had just taken down. Without any warning, the figure turned towards Jet and began to approach him. It charged at him with an intent to kill, leaving Jet just barely enough time to dodge out of the way. Before moving any closer, the assassin ran his fingers along his gauntlets, which proceeded to momentarily glow a bright white. With a quick and smooth motion, the assassin's fist collided with a chunk of debris behind Jet, creating a massive crater in it. Before he could react, the assassin used their free hand to backhand Jet. The hit sent him flying sideways and tumbling off of the metal surface and back onto the ground below. Jet’s head ears were ringing from the impact of the hit. He tried to shake off the stunned feeling as he slowly got back to his feet, just in time to roll out of the way of the assassin who was coming down at him like a comet. Upon colliding with the ground, another massive crater was left in the assassin’s wake. Jet backed up, trying to put some distance between himself and this assassin, but he quickly hit a literal wall behind him. That was when he noticed that he was boxed in, broken chunks of wall surrounding the small area he was in and creating a makeshift arena. There was no running from this guy, meaning Jet would have to come up with a plan, and fast. While Jet was trying to think of a way to beat this guy, he almost didn’t see the fist coming right at him. It caught him in the chest, pushing back into the wall roughly and caused him to drop his sword. The impact made Jet exhale and cough harshly, a small spray of blood shooting out of his mouth and causing his vision to blur momentarily from the pain. He managed to look up just in time to see another strike coming at his face. Moving fast, he shifted to the side along the wall, causing the assassin’s fist to embed itself into the wall where his head had just been. Yet another crater was formed from the impact. Jet turned his head to look at the near death situation he had barely avoided. His eyes were drawn to the forearm of the assassin, his arm buried into the wall up to the wrist. With a small gasp to himself, he noticed the silver vambrace with intricately etched runes that was covering the arm from wrist to elbow. He recognized these as one of the many relics of Equestria that he had dreamt about throughout his schooling. Noticing that the assassin seemed to be stuck in the wall, Jet fought through the pain in his chest and moved fast, bringing his own fist back and plunging it into the gut of the assassin. The impact knocked him free of the wall and sent him skidding backwards along the ground. The assassin briefly doubled over and let out a few harsh coughs into his helmet. Before he could recover, Jet slipped behind him and grabbed his arms by the wrist, pulling them backwards.

“You know, you seem pretty fond of these arms of yours. One could say that you’re pretty… Attached to them. Allow me to remedy this!” Jet yelled out as he started to tug hard on the assassin’s arms.

The resistance was heavy, but with an increase in his pulling force, the assassin’s arms suddenly let out a pair of loud snapping sounds as they were pulled free of their sockets at the shoulder. The assassin let out a guttural cry of pain from within his helmet. Jet let go of his arms and hopped backwards, the assassin’s arms going limp at his sides. The assassin turned towards him. Jet could feel a sense of bloodlust emanating from him, which sent a chill up Jet’s spine. Without warning, the assassin charged him again, swinging his arms like wet noodles at Jet. In an attempt to block the strikes, Jet crossed his arms in an X shape in front of him. The limp fists of the assassin collided with his crossed arms, the attacks weaker but still enough to send Jet skidding back on his feet and giving some more distance between the two. Jet was breathing hard, one arm wrapped around his chest to help lessen the pain. That hit had definitely broken a rib or two judging from the way he couldn’t get a full breath in. The two stared each other down for a few moments, a dead silence hung in the air.

“If you give up now, I will spare your life.” Jet said, breaking the silence.

The assassin said nothing in response, he simply exhaled deeply, twin mists of smoke releasing from the nostrils of his helmet. Jet took this as a negative reply and gave a shrug, figuring it was worth a try at least. He took as deep a breath as his broken ribs would allow and suddenly sprang forward, with the assassin following suit. They both ran at one another with the intent to kill, but just as they were about to collide, Jet dropped to the ground and slid under the assassin. He easily slid between the assassin’s legs and over towards the wall that he had previously been up against. Picking up his sword, he got back to his feet in one swift move and turned to once again face the assassin, just in time to see him spin on his heels and charge back towards Jet again. Jet knelt and readied his sword and waited for his moment. The assassin showed no sign of stopping, coming at Jet at full speed with more smoke streaming from his nostrils, the scene reminded Jet of a locomotive barreling down the tracks it was on. When the assassin was mere feet away, Jet sprang up, propelling himself towards the assassin with a speed that countered his. The speed at which the two collided sent a huge wave of compressed air around the area, kicking up dust and small bits of debris in the process. The two now stood opposite of where they started, each waiting for the other to drop. Jet coughed and sprayed yet more blood onto his lips and chin, while Earth Shaker staggered on his feet for a moment before falling to his knees and then face first onto the ground. His helmet struck a nearby rock and cracked open, revealing half of the face within. As much as Jet dreaded it, he had to know who he had just been forced to kill, so he made his way slowly over to the dying assassin. He knelt down and with a good deal of struggle, he rolled the assassin onto his back. Upon seeing the exposed face beneath, Jet immediately turned his head away in heartache. Beneath the ebony armor and green eyes, a coat of thin red fur and swathe of orange-ish blonde hair stuck out. Jet forced himself to turn back, looking down into the green irises of a pony he had once called friend.

“Big Mac… I…” Jet started to say, but Big Mac simply shook his head in reply.

“N-No worries… I-It was either you… Or m-me…” He said slowly, his breathing already quite a bit.

“I swear, I will make that monster pay for all of this…” Jet promised his dying friend, holding back the tears in his eyes.

“I-I know ya will… Take m-mah gauntlets, y-you’ll need ‘em… And… T-Tell Applejack… Ah’m s-sorry… A-And Applebloom… Tell h-her… Ah’m proud of her…” Big Mac said softly as his body went limp, his eyes grew dim and colorless.

“I’m so sorry, Mac… None of this ever should have happened… That piece of shit has so much to answer for when I get my hands on him…” Jet stated softly, gently removing the vambraces from Mac’s arms.

Jet bit back an enraged scream, moving to gently close the eyes of his dead friend. With a shaky and painful deep breath, Jet stood and slipped on the vambraces. He ran his fingers across the runes that were etched along the tops of them and immediately felt a surge of strength course through his body. He wondered just how much strength these relics actually provided. Moving over to one of the walls of the area, he reared back with his fist and drove it into the wall with all of his might. The wall quickly gave way under his strike, cracking and crumbling to give way to an opening that led back to the road he had sent the others away on. He cringed at the pain in his chest, wrapping one of his arms around himself and started heading off in the direction of the safety of the bunker. The walk back was cold and lonesome, the wind having picked up again on his journey. It seemed to take ages to reach the entrance of the bunker again, but he did eventually make it. He went to open the hatch, nearly ripping it entirely off its hinges by accident. With a groan of pain, he descended the ladder to find Rainbow and Luna both standing at the bottom. Before he could say anything, Rainbow embraced him in a tight hug, eliciting a loud groan from him. She pulled away and looked him over, he looked so much worse for wear than when she saw him just a few hours ago.

“Jet, what’s wrong? Are you ok?” Rainbow asked quickly, possibly giving Pinkie a run for her money in the speed talking department.

“I’m fine, just a couple broken ribs from the feel of it.” Jet replied with a weak smile, Luna stared at his forearms.

“Are those…” Luna began to ask.

“The Earth Pony Bracers, yes. I got them from… An old friend…” Jet said, trying to keep his tone flat but wasn’t hiding his hurt very well.

“I see… I hope it was not too much to bear for you, Jet…” Luna replied, not wanting to push for any more information than that.

“What are you two going on about?” Rainbow asked, looking between them.

“I’ll explain later, for now… Somebody please get me a doctor. I can barely breathe…” Jet said with a small chuckle.

The two mares helped Jet to the infirmary, where Nurse Redheart was finally just getting to sit down and take a break. As soon as her rump hit the chair, the trio walked in. She looked up and let out a loud groan of annoyance.

“You again? Weren’t you just in here a few hours ago?” She asked, impatience seeping into her voice.

“Yeah, I was. You did such a good job, I thought I’d come back to see you.” Jet replied with a smile, trying to make light of the situation.

“Ugh… Go find a cot, I’ll be with you in a moment…” She said, wanting to be made at him for interrupting her break, but it was hard to stay mad at this charismatic asshole.

“Alright. I think I can take it from here, ladies. Thank you.” Jet said softly, pulling away from the pair and making his way further into the infirmary towards an open cot.

He flopped down on it and disengaged his armor, letting out a deep sigh, his thoughts ran wild with everything he had dealt with over the course of the past twelve hours. He rubbed his eyes with his hands, the images of those he had once called friend flashed in his mind. Tears started to well in his eyes once again. He bit back his sorrow, focusing on the hatred and contemptment he felt for the one responsible. Even if it killed him, he vowed to make it his goal to avenge those he had been forced to kill. He was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t heard Redheart push open the curtain covering the cot he was.

“So, what’s the problem?” Her voice rang out, causing Jet to jump up from his lying position.

“Oh, uh, it feels like some broken ribs. Other than that, just some cuts and scrapes…” Jet replied, rubbing the tears from his eyes.

“Hm, with an injury like that, you’ll be out of the game for a few days at least. But with some rest, you should heal up nicely. You always seem to heal fairly quickly.” Redheart said, referencing the past times he had been in the hospital as a hard headed teenager.

“A few days? But there’s still work to be done. Every moment we waste is more time for Sombra to prepare and come back stronger.” Jet argued, rubbing his temples lightly.

“I’m sorry, but with broken ribs you won’t be much use against even the lowest of Sombra’s ranks. Besides, I think it’ll be good for you to get some rest. You’ve been going non-stop since you came out of that coma.” Redheart replied, giving him a slight glare as she dug in a medicine cabinet, producing a couple of small pill bottles and some gauze.

“Ugh, fine...” Jet said, giving up on arguing with the nurse.

“Good, now, hold your arms up so I can get those ribs of yours set properly.” She replied.

Jet obliged and lifted his arms up as far as they would go. She unrolled the gauze and began to wrap it around his chest, pulling tightly to ensure it was wrapped up nicely. Once his chest looked like that of a mummy, she fixed it onto itself so it would hold in place and popped the tops off the pill bottles and took out one of each. She handed the pills to Jet.

“Here, take these. They’ll help with the pain.” Redheart said as she turned towards a small sink and filled a tiny paper cup up with water.

“What are they?” Jet asked, rolling the pills in his hand and eyeing them over.

“One is a pain suppressant and the other is a muscle relaxer. Now shut up and take them.” She replied, handing him the tiny paper cup.

“Gods, I hate taking pills…” Jet said as he reluctantly popped the pills in his mouth and swallowed them with the cup of water.

“Good boy. Keep on being good and I might consider giving you a lolly.” Redheart said with a small smile.

“Oh? You do have a sense of humor buried under all that stress after all, huh?” Jet replied teasingly.

“Of course I do. I’m just not in a field where humor is appreciated that often.” She said with a sigh.

“Yeah, I guess that’s fair. Hey, uh… Can I ask a favor?” Jet asked, rubbing his ribs lightly.

“What is it?” She asked suspiciously.

“Don’t look at me like that, it’s not what you’re thinking. I just need you to bring Sunblast here, and tell him to bring the files one the assassin’s with him.” Jet replied with a roll of his eyes, imagining what she could possibly have been thinking.

“Very well then. Anything else?” She asked again, a look of almost disappointment on her face.

“Something to eat would be nice, I guess.” Jet said with a chuckle, remembering that he hadn’t eaten in a long while.

“Alright. I’ll be back in a bit. Don’t go anywhere.” She replied playfully with a giggle, to which Jet just rolled his eyes again.

“Another joke? You’re on a roll, Redheart. Careful or Pinkie might start to get jealous.” Jet said with a chuckle as she headed out of the infirmary to fetch what and who he had requested.

Chapter 8: Horrors Of War

Jet sat quietly on the edge of his cot, alone with his thoughts again. The pills Redheart had given him were finally starting to take effect as he did feel a bit better, physically at least. Mentally, he was far from alright. His hands and mind were stained with the blood of ponies he had once cared for, and all the while he could still hear Sombra’s laughter mocking him in his own head. He was brought back to reality by the sound of metal crunching. To his shock, he had accidentally crushed the framing under the cot under his grasp. He had apparently been clenching his fists in anger while he was thinking of the tyrant who had brought all of this about. He took a shaky breath and loosened his grip on the frame, leaving two hand shaped crush marks on it. Before he could get lost in his thoughts again, he looked up to see Sunblast walking into the room with the files under his arm. He quickly spotted Jet and made his way over, taking a seat on the edge of the cot beside Jet.

“Glad to see you made it back alright. When Luna said you ran off on your own again… I feared the worst…” Sunblast said, breaking the silence of the room.

“Hey, you know me. I’d rather put my own life on the line when others are in danger…” Jet said with a forced smile.

“Yeah… I know…” Sunblast replied with a frown.

“So, uh, the files?” Jet asked, looking at the folders still tucked under Sunblast’s arm.

“Oh, right. Here you go.” Sunblast said, handing them over to Jet.

Jet took them and rifled through them until he found the ones for Death Storm, Heat Stroke, and Earth Shaker. He opened each one and laid them out on the bed behind him. He got up and went over to Redheart’s desk, pulling a pen from one of the jars she had there before making his way back over to the cot. He removed the cap of the pen with his teeth and proceeded to jot down some things in the files.

“Uh… What are you doing?” Sunblast asked curiously.

“Just updating the intel on these three…” Jet replied, finishing up quickly and handing two of them back to Sunblast.

He looked them over to see what changes Jet had made. He had filled in the missing info of their names as well as changed their statuses to ‘deceased’. Sunblast looked over at the third file, which Jet had closed up and set on the little table beside the cot before looking through the others.

“What about that one?” Sunblast asked, pointing to the folder he had set on the table.

“I… Have need of that one…” Jet replied vaguely as he studied the intel on the remaining assassins.

“Fair enough… Um, listen, Jet… I know it can’t be easy… All of this… But, I just want you to know that no matter what happens, we all see you as a hero right now. Myself included…” Sunblast said slowly, hoping to ease the mental burden that was evident on Jet’s face.

“Thanks, Sunblast… It does help a little… I just don’t understand why that bastard had to turn my friends against me like this…” Jet replied with a heavy sigh, fighting back his sorrow once again.

“You know why. To make you suffer. He thrives on that kind of thing. If you let it get to you, he already wins before the fight even begins. Just remember, it’s always going to come down to you or them. And we both know that if any of them were in control of themselves, they’d want you to come out on top for the simple fact that for some reason, Sombra fears you. I don’t understand why, but he does. Why else would he keep sending these assassins instead of just confronting you himself?” Sunblast continued, placing a reassuring hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“Yeah… I guess you’re right… But it doesn’t lessen the pain of seeing these ponies that I have such fond memories of, die by my own hand…” Jet replied softly, setting the other files down on Sunblast’s lap.

“I can’t possibly imagine that feeling, but I can offer this piece of advice, just remember what and, more importantly, who you’re fighting for. When all is said and done, you have an entire nation of ponies depending on you here in the bunker.” Sunblast said with a soft smile.

“You’re right. Thank you, Sunblast. You always seem to know what to say.” Jet said with a smile back.

“Did you need anything else? If not, I have some things I need to work on in the lab.” Sunblast replied, starting to get to his feet and tucking the folders back under his arm.

“No, that was it. Just wanted to update those files for you.” Jet said, giving his arms a long stretch.

“Alright then. Try to get some sleep. No offense, but you look like total shit.” Sunblast said with a light laugh as he headed for the door.

Jet waved bye to Sunblast with a playful eye roll as he left. He sat back against the cot and picked up the folder from the table, opening it once again and looking it over. Just like with the other two, he had filled in the missing info. He had the slightest idea how he was going to break the news to AJ and Bloom, but they deserved to know. He heaved another sigh and closed the folder back up, his mind wandering to the remaining assassins. There were five more according to the intel they had. Burst Fire, Speed Freak, Soundwave, and Crystal Shredder. Soundwave making up two of the five as it was a pair of assassins that shared the title. He wondered how many more of them were going to be ponies he knew. The thought made his heart ache, not at all ready to take the lives of more of his friends. He sat up, closing his eyes and rubbing his head, trying to clear his mind before he delved too far into his own thoughts again. He heard a knock on the wall beside his cot and opened his eyes to see that Luna had wandered in, quiet as ever. She had changed out of her tattered dress and into a set of the green fatigues, her hair was slightly damp, indicating she had washed off from her time spent out in the wasteland.

“Jet, may we speak?” She asked softly.

“Of course. Here, have a seat.” Jet replied, pulling his legs under him to sit cross legged and give her room to sit down.

“Thank you, Jet. Oh, and here.” Luna said as she sat down near the foot of the bed, handing him his mask back.

“What did you want to talk about?” Jet asked, noticing the look of worry on her face as he took the mask and it was absorbed back into the nanobot housing unit on his chest.

“It is about your actions earlier tonight…” Luna said softly, looking up to meet his eyes.

“Luna, look… I already know what you’re going to say, and with all due respect, you can save it. I took an oath to protect this land and the thrones with my life. I have already failed once by letting Celestia fall to the hand of that tyrant. I won’t let you die too.” Jet said, his tone deathly serious.

“I am aware of your oath, Jet Stream, but that is no reason to go rushing off into battle like a fool. You could have been killed tonight. You simply do not understand how big of a role you have to play in all of this, how much your own destiny affects the outcome of this war we find ourselves in.” Luna replied, just as serious.

“You know, you’re the third one to tell me about this so-called ‘destiny’ of mine. But I still have yet to hear any sort of explanation about it. Please, fill me in.” Jet said, his tone becoming slightly irritated.

“Even if it was within my power to do so, I could not reveal the future to you. It would only alter the way events play out and ultimately lead to a different outcome from the one that Tia told me of ages ago.” Luna responded, her voice becoming louder with her own irritation.

“I don’t care! I’m so sick of hearing how I’m destined to be some kind of key player in all this shit! How and why am I so fucking important?! I’m nothing more than a royal guard! Literally anybody else with my skill set could take my place and it wouldn’t be any different!” Jet began to yell and tears started to streak his face as his anger and sorrow finally boiled over.

“You do not know just how wrong and flat out stupid that statement is, Jet Stream! You are far more than just some lowly guard! There is a reason that Sombra fears you as he does! You are the only living trace of…” Luna yelled, stopping herself mid sentence, her eyes darting to the floor quickly.

“Only living trace of what?! I want answers and I want them now!” Jet screamed, his heart racing from the adrenaline of the situation.

“I cannot… I have already said too much…” Luna replied quietly, lowering her head.

“If you’re not going to say anything useful, then you can just leave…” Jet said, crossing his arms in a huff.

“Jet Stream… You are far too much like her sometimes…” Luna said quietly as she left, just out of earshot of Jet.

He sat in his cot fuming for several moments, his gaze falling onto the folder on the table beside again. With a sharp exhale, he grabbed the folder and got up. The bunker was quiet this time of night, most of the inhabitants having already turned in for the night. He made his way out of the med ward hallway and into the cafeteria, where he saw AJ behind the counter. She was hard at work heating up some of the leftovers from dinner. Redheart stood in front of the counter with a tray in her hand. The two were talking and laughing lightly as she waited for the food Jet had asked for. With a deep breath, he made his way over and took up the spot next to Redheart. She stopped and turned to him.

“And just what do you think you’re doing? I thought I told you to get some rest.” She said, a glare forming on her face.

“Yeah, yeah. I know. But I can’t just lay on the cot all night, I have some things to take care of.” He replied, waving her away with his hand.

“Alright then, mister stubborn ass. You can stand here and wait for your food. But, don’t come crying to me if you hurt yourself worse than you already are.” Redheart said, handing him the tray she was holding.

“Fine, and don’t worry, I’ll be ok.” Jet replied, taking the tray.

“Well, good. Now, if anybody needs me, I’ll be taking a nap at my desk. It was nice talking to you, Applejack.” Redheart said, giving AJ a wave as she turned to leave.

“You too, Redheart.” AJ replied, returning the wave and looking up at Jet.

“Before you say it, I already know how bad I look.” Jet said, reading AJ’s expression.

“Well, ya do. Ya need a shower and some sleep.” AJ replied with a slightly concerned look.

“I’ve been asleep for eight years, that’s the last thing I need right now.” Jet said, rolling his eyes.

“Ah’d hardly consider a coma as sleeping. Ya need sleep if you’re gonna function properly.” AJ replied, hoisting a pot off the stove and onto the counter.

“Geez, you sound like my mom.” Jet retorted with a laugh as he set the try on the counter.

“Somebody’s gotta tell ya these things.” AJ said in a serious tone, tossing a bowl and spoon onto the tray before ladling some kind of soup into it.

“If it’ll get you off my back, I’ll try to sleep a little later. For now though… We need to talk…” Jet replied, the folder tucked under his arm weighing heavy with the new burden it carried.

“About what?” AJ asked as she moved around the kitchen, putting the remaining soup away.

“It might be best if you join me for a seat before we get into it.” Jet replied, taking the tray.

AJ nodded in response as Jet left the counter and took a seat at one of the many tables around the cafeteria and tossed the folder onto the table beside his tray. After plopping down on the small round chair, he picked up the spoon from the tray. He dragged it across the surface of the soup, idly creating tiny ripples through it. His mind was miles away as he tried to think of just how he was going to break this news to AJ. With another heavy sigh, he plunged the spoon down into the soup and brought it to his mouth. While he was busy chewing the various veggies, he didn’t even notice that AJ had already finished in the kitchen and had taken the seat across from him. She sat there in silence for a few minutes as he slowly ate away at the soup, before he realized she had joined him. He finally looked up and quickly swallowed his mouthful of soup.

“Oh, AJ. Sorry, didn’t realize you’d gotten out here already.” Jet apologized, wiping his mouth on his shirt sleeve.

“It’s alright, ya looked like ya had somethin’ runnin’ through your head. Figured ya needed a few.” AJ replied in a soft tone.

“Yeah, you could say that… Thanks…” Jet said, staring down at the folder on the table.

“No problem. So, what did ya need to talk to me about?” She asked, following his gaze to the folder.

“Well… It’s um… It’s about this…” Jet said quietly, opening the folder and sliding it across the table to her,

“Uh… Ya do know ah’m not the one in charge of intel, right?” She said, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Just… Just read it, please…” Jet replied, looking down at his soup to avoid her gaze.

“Fine. But, ah don’t see what’s so important about this fi…” AJ started to say, but stopped once she saw the newly scribbled info.

Jet sat there quietly, his attention focused on the half empty bowl of soup sitting on his tray. The air in the room seemed to grow heavy as he waited for her reaction. The room was far too quiet for far too long, only adding to Jet’s growing anxiety over the situation.

“Is… Is this info accurate…?” AJ asked, finally breaking the silence that had permeated the room.

“Y-Yeah…” Jet replied, still not looking up.

“Does that mean that ya…” AJ started, unable to finish the sentence as she dreaded the answer.

“I’m sorry, AJ…” Jet replied, already knowing how she wanted to finish that question.

She closed the folder and pushed it back across the table to Jet before folding her hands together, propping her elbows up on the table and resting her head on her hands. The nerve racking silence returned as she said nothing. The two of them sat in the silence, Jet staring down into the murky brown soup and AJ sitting with her chin propped on her folded hands. Jet’s anxiety was as on edge as physically possible, his hand shaking as he continued to drag the spoon through the soup, clinking lightly against the bottom of the bowl as he did so. After what felt like an eternity of awkward silence, AJ finally lowered her hands and wiped her eyes with them. She sniffled lightly and took a shaky breath before speaking again.

“Jet… Ah don’t blame you for this. To be perfectly honest… Ah’m a little relieved that he’s at peace now…” AJ said slowly, her voice faltering ever so slightly.

“R-Really…?” Jet asked, finally looking up from the soup to see that AJ had been silently crying the whole time.

“Yeah… And ah know you’ll be makin’ that piece of bull dung pay for this…” She said with a soft smile to reassure him.

“I… Thank you, AJ. I was worried you’d hate me for this…” He replied with a light shudder going up his spine.

“Oh, come on. Ah could never hate ya, especially with the way that Bloom and Sweetie look up to ya.” AJ said with a light laugh.

“What? They do?” Jet asked curiously.

“Course they do. You’re like a superhero to those little fillies.” AJ replied with another smile.

“I had no idea…” Jet said, his face a bit red in embarrassment from having fans.

“Well, now ya do. And ah know you’ll do ‘em proud.” She said, reaching over to give him a light punch in the arm.

“Thanks, AJ. I actually kinda needed to hear that right now…” He said, his anxiousness fading a bit.

“Hey, don’t sweat it. We all need a pick me up from time to time. Now, go on and get cleaned up. Ah don’t think Rainbow is gonna let ya in the bed looking like that.” She said with a small chuckle, motioning to all the dirt and dried blood on his clothes and face.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Thanks again, AJ.” Jet replied, getting up and looking himself over.

“Oh, uh… It might be best to not mention this to Bloom… She’s a bit more sensitive to this kinda thing, y’know?” AJ said as she grabbed the tray to empty it’s remainder.

“You sure it’s a good idea to keep something like this from her?” Jet asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, ah am. It’ll just kill her little spirit.” AJ replied, rubbing her neck lightly.

“Alright, I won’t say a word about it then. Uh, you care to drop that folder off to Sunblast for me please?” Jet asked as he turned towards the hall leading to the showers.

“Sure thing.” AJ replied, grabbing the folder and heading back towards the kitchen to clean up the little bit of mess that was made.

Jet made his way out of the cafeteria and down the hallway. Once inside the shower room, he quickly removed the nanobot housing unit and vambraces before stripping off the torn and dirty clothes. He tossed them in the trash, deciding it better to just count them as a loss instead of trying to have Rarity repair them. Stepping under the shower head, he turned the handle to start the water. It was freezing cold at first, which chilled Jet to his core, but the feeling was welcome as it kept his mind focused on reality as opposed to lingering on the past few hours. The water didn’t take long to heat up though. Grabbing a clean rag, he lathered it up with soap and slowly started to wash himself off. The dried blood and caked on dirt slowly but surely began to fall away, trailing down off his body with the water and swirling down the drain at his feet. Once he had washed off completely, he turned towards the shower head and let the water cascade over his head and down his mane. He let the water fall over him as he shut his eyes, trying to come to terms with everything that had happened recently. The warmth of the water felt nice against his aching muscles and recent injuries.

“Well, hey there hot stuff” Rainbow’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

He turned to see her standing at the door, leaning against the doorway casually as she eyed him up and down. She was dressed in just the white sports bra and underwear that everybody else wore under their fatigues.

“Hello there. See something you like, perv?” He said teasingly with a chuckle.

“Matter of fact, I do.” She replied, coming over and running a hand down his chest, not caring if she got wet from the shower head.

“Hey now, I’m spoken for, y’know.” He continued with his teasing tone.

“Oh yeah? Must be a pretty lucky mare then.” She replied, keeping up the cute roleplay she had inadvertently started.

“You could say that, yeah. I guarantee she’s about twenty percent cooler than you are.” He said with a laugh, getting one from her as well.

“You’re such a dork, you know that?” She said with a playful push against his chest.

“Yeah, I know.” He replied, sticking his tongue out at her.

“Gods… You look like you’ve been through Hell itself…” She commented as she traced his various scars with her fingers.

“I mean, we’re really not far off at this point…” He said, gently grabbing her hand and holding it in his own.

“That’s the sad truth of our situation…” She replied with a soft sigh.

“Hopefully it’ll be over soon, though.” He said, trying to keep her spirits up.

“Yeah, hopefully… Now, get dried off. You got something important to take care of before you get some sleep.” She said, stepping away and grabbing him a towel.

“Oh yeah? What would that be?” He asked, shutting off the water and taking the towel.

“This right here, of course.” She replied, turning around and giving her own ass a hard slap.

“R-Right…” He said, his face glowing bright red as he stared.

She gave a light laugh at his embarrassment, feeling a sense of honor that after all their time together, he still managed to get so flustered by her. He tore his eyes away from the sight before him and quickly dried off, wrapping the towel around his waist and grabbing both the nanobot unit and vambraces before the pair headed out into the hallway. As the pair headed down the hall towards their room, they were suddenly surprised by a large puff of pink smoke. With his nerves already on edge, Jet didn’t give any thought to it as he swung into the smoke. His fist collided hard with Discord’s jaw, sending him to the ground as Jet’s towel slipped off his waist and fell to the floor.

“Ow! Son of a b…” Discord began, cutting himself off as he looked up at the now nude Jet above him.

“Discord?! What the fuck are you thinking?! You know you can’t sneak up on me like that!” Jet yelled in frustration.

“Good Gods… How are you still alive after taking that thing?” Discord asked, looking between Jet’s exposed bits and Rainbow’s reddening face.

“I like a challenge, ok?” Rainbow said, turning her head away to avoid his piercing eyes.

“What the hell do you want, Discord?” Jet asked, picking his towel back up, his face just as red as Rainbow’s.

Discord cleared his throat as he got up off the floor, rubbing his jaw. He cracked his neck and shook off the pain before speaking.

“Well, I had some info to give you, but if you’d rather wait…” He said, noting Rainbow’s attire, or rather lack thereof.

“Just spill it, before I hit you again for seeing my mare in her panties.” Jet replied, shaking his fist at the draconequus.

“Right, right. I did a little reconnaissance of my own. I know what’s causing the constant layer of black clouds that’s covering the land.” Discord said, focusing his gaze on Jet to avoid being hit again.

“What is it?” Jet asked, lowering his clenched fist.

“There’s a pair of airships hovering high up in the sky. They’re somehow producing the black clouds and toxin into the air. I don’t know how, but they are.” He replied, using his magic to form a small diorama of an airship pumping out black mist.

“Airships? Who in the hell could give Sombra access to an airship?” Jet asked, racking his brain for answers.

“I don’t know, but if we’re going to return this land to its former glory, those ships will need to be dealt with at some point.” Discord replied, stroking his goatee.

“Right. Go share this intel with Sunblast. He and I will discuss it further in the morning.” Jet said, scratching his head.

“Got it, and do try not to kill her with that thing there. I rather like having her around.” Discord said with a laugh, pointing at Jet’s crotch.

“Just get out of here already!” Jet yelled, clearly not amused with Discord’s teasing.

Discord shrugged and snapped his finger, disappearing in another puff of pink smoke. Jet groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation. Rainbow softly put a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him back down, he turned and gave her a smile.

“Sorry, dealing with that asshole always stresses me out.” Jet said with a deep breath.

“I know, if he wasn’t Fluttershy’s friend, I’d kick his teeth in.” Rainbow replied with a laugh.

“Gods, I love that snarky attitude of yours.” He said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

She blushed again briefly as they headed to their room. After discarding his armor bits onto the footlocker and then a very intimate session, panting and sweaty and the sheets having seen better days, the pair laid together simply enjoying each other’s presence. The session of making the beast two backs had successfully taken Jet’s mind off of things. For the first time in hours, his thoughts were silent and his body relaxed. As he lay in bed, one arm around Rainbow, he slowly began to drift off to sleep.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jet sat at the table at the cafe with Rainbow across from him, they were talking and laughing as they sipped from steaming cups of cappuccino. The snow fell around them in a small flurry, and weighed down the umbrella that covered their table, the street beside them coated in a layer of the white powder. Various footprints leading every which way, even though the streets were eerily empty. The shops spread out around the plaza displayed a variety of Hearth’s Warming decorations, the colorful lights blinked to the muffled sound of holiday music that played from within the shops. A dull light shone from the winter sun high in the sky, only visible every so often when the snow lined clouds parted. Despite the calm and cheery setting, Jet felt an underlying sense of dread for some reason. As he sat there with her, he just couldn’t shake the feeling. He kept looking around and over his shoulder to spot anything that could be causing him to feel like this, but nothing was amiss. Turning back to Rainbow, he listened as she went on about how Spitfire had told Rainbow what her nickname was when she was a rookie. As he smiled and laughed, Rainbow’s voice seemed to fade away slightly, sounding as if it was coming from inside one of the shops. Suddenly, the dull light of the winter sun faded away, leaving the area in a veil of darkness. He looked around frantically to see what could cause this to happen. As he watched, the shops around them were slowly being swallowed up by the veil of darkness, until they were gone completely. In a panic, he turned back to Rainbow to ask if she was seeing this, but she too was gone along with the table they had been sitting at. He jumped up from his seat, only to see it too vanish into the blackness that had enveloped the land. The only thing that seemed to be immune to the encroaching darkness was the blinding white snow road. His heart was racing as a nervous sweat broke out across his body. Not having any other plan, he began to run down the road as fast as he could in an effort to outrun the darkness. No matter how fast he moved, he felt as if he were standing still in the freezing darkness of this land. His legs began to ache and his lungs burned as his stamina faded, as if being swallowed into the darkness as well. He fell to his hands and knees, his fingers digging into the snow under him as he panted. Moving a hand up to wipe away some of the freezing sweat on his brow, he gasped in horror as he realized that under the snow was a thin layer of viscous red liquid. As he knelt in the snow, the liquid began to permeate the snow, turning the entire road into a red strip along the ground. Getting to his feet and looking closer at his red coated hand, he realized what the viscous substance was. The entirety of the ground was soaked in a thin river of blood, lying just under the powdery layer of snow. As he stood there, unable to move from the shock of this revelation, he felt an arctic-like chill pass over him. His instinct told him to turn around, but he was hesitant to see what awaited him if he did. Taking a deep and shaky breath, he forced his body to cooperate and turned around, coming face to face with Spitfire. Only, her form seemed to fade in and out of existence. She stood and stared him down silently, her eyes cold and lifeless. Where her wings once were, there was now only two torn nubs that were spurting blood.

“Why…?” She asked, her voice seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

“W-What…?” Jet responded, his voice wavering quite a bit.

“Why did you kill me… You should have helped me…” She replied, her ghostly voice sending chills up and down Jet’s spine with each word.

“I… I tried… B-But…” Jet said, trying in vain to keep it together.

She wailed like a banshee and took a swing at him. He dodged out of the way of the swing, unsure if she could hurt him, but not willing to find out. As he dodged though, he ran into something behind him. He turned to see the ghostly visage of Emerald Daze. His limbs floated limply in the air, separate from his body and the severed connecting joints spurted blood as well.

“You should have tried harder to save us, Jet!” Emerald screamed at him, his voice much deeper than Spitfire’s but still sent chills along Jet’s spine.

“I did everything I could… I swear…” Jet replied, his will starting to break.

Emerald made a move to grab him, his disconnected limbs snapping and crunching sickeningly as they flew through the air towards Jet. Jet hopped backwards to avoid the grab. Just as he landed from the jump, a figure rose up from beneath the blood soaked snow. It turned to look at Jet, it’s face pale and lifeless like the others. It was Big Macintosh, his arms flopping loosely at his sides and a gaping wound seeped blood from his midsection.

“You could have done more!” Big Mac bellowed out at him, his thunderous voice shaking Jet to his very core.

“N-No… S-Stop… Please…” Jet pleaded, baking away but having nowhere to go.

The three spirits closed in on him slowly, each one’s injuries adding to the river of blood at Jet’s feet, which had now grown to cover the tops of his boots.

“You did this to us, Jet… You murdered us in cold blood…!” The three yelled out in unison, their voices coalescing into a chilling symphony of ghostly wails.

“No… I… I’m sorry… Please…” Jet continued to plead to no avail.

“Murderer! You called us friend and then murdered us because we stood in your way! You could have helped us, saved us from that brainwashing!” They screamed again, now hovering directly over Jet.

Jet could do nothing but slide to the ground in horror. He looked down to see that both of his hands were now soaked in blood, dripping and further adding to the increasing river under him. He covered his face with his hands in an attempt to shut out the cries of the spirits of his dead friends, but it was no use. Their wails penetrated him down to his very soul, making him shake with anxiety and fear. Their words cut deeper than any blade could hope to achieve. Having become emotionally broken by this encounter, he began to weep into his bloody hands. His tears streaking his face and falling down into the rising crimson tide that was slowly starting to swallow him up. The wailing continued to the point that Jet hoped he would go deaf, just so he wouldn’t have to hear it anymore. There was no end in sight for this horror show, their cries of pain and judgement ripping his heart and soul to shreds as Jet was forced to continue listening. He wept harder, feeling as if his heart would shatter from the force of their combined sorrow. Gritting his teeth, his sadness began to dissolve and give way to rage. Having had enough, he uncovered his face and struggled through his fear and got to his feet.

“ENOUGH!!!” Jet screamed at the spirits, causing them to back off as the air grew still.

“Was it enough when you blew off my wings?!” Spitfire retorted with a glare.

“Or when you left me to be torn asunder by the spirit of the Everfree?!” Emerald stated coldly.

“Or how about when you tore my arms from their sockets and then sliced me open like a Hearth’s Warming turkey?!” Big Mac replied, his thunderous voice ice cold.

“All of you, shut the fuck up! You’re not really the spirits of my friends!” Jet cried out loudly, pointing at each of them.

“How can you be so sure?!” They asked in unison, closing in again.

“Because my true friends would never want me to suffer like this! They would not break me down with these soul crushing words!” Jet screamed at them, stopping them in their tracks.

The spirits said nothing this time, they simply floated in place silently. Jet grit his teeth hard and lashed out at the spirits, his fist passing through their ethereal forms seemingly harmlessly. As Jet readied another swing, they faded away into nothingness along with the crimson river that had made it up to his calves. He collapsed to the ground and started weeping again, his sobs echoing in the void he was left alone in. As he sobbed quietly in the empty void, a small light started to materialize in the distance. He looked up, wiping some tears from his face and moving towards it. As he got closer, he could see a faint silhouette emerging from the light source. It was Luna, she once again wore her starry embroidered dress and had a shiny metal spike on her head where her horn once was.

“L-Luna… What are you…” Jet started to ask before she suddenly embraced him in a hug.

“I sensed you were in distress by way of my dream magic. Before I could intervene, you broke yourself free of your own torment…” She replied softly, her tone sounding amazed.

“Dream magic… So this is…” Jet started again, being cut off by a small giggle from Luna.

“Yes, Jet. This was a nightmare, but somehow you had the willpower to disperse it on your own. Something that not even I could do with my own personal nightmares… You truly are an incredible pegasus, Jet Stream.” She said with a smile.

She waved her hand as her metal horn glowed briefly, the empty black void changed into a bright and beautiful replica of the Canterlot Gardens where the two of them used to sit and share coffee as they talked late into the night. Everything was as Jet remembered, from the immaculately trimmed hedge maze in the distance to the vast variety of colorful flowers and fruit bearing trees. Even the small wicker table and chairs where they had spent most evenings was right where it always was, centered between a pair of pink rose bushes and covered by a small terrace that was laced with slightly overgrown ivy and off-white marble tiled flooring. Luna walked over and sat in one of the chairs, motiong for Jet to take the other one across from her. He obliged and sat, though his gaze was focused on the marble tiles under him.

“Luna… About earlier…” He said, referring to when he had screamed at her.

“It is fine, Jet. You were upset. I, of all ponies, understand that feeling better than anybody else.” Luna replied softly.

“It’s not just that I was upset… Everybody keeps telling me I’m destined to end this war and do big things, but…” Jet said, stopping mid sentence.

“But?” Luna asked, sitting forward on her elbows on the table.

He looked up from the floor, his eyes full of pain and still red from his tears. With an uneasy breath, he set his own arms on the table, pressing his thumbs together until his nails turned white in an effort to focus his mind.

“I don’t know that I’m strong enough to finish this… There’s already so much blood on my hands… Blood of ponies I cared about before all this started…” Jet said, his voice faint and barely audible as he tried to keep his composure for her sake.

“Jet… I know how you are feeling… It is not much different than what I felt after I was brought back from my time as Nightmare Moon. The ponies I killed and the destruction I caused… It ate away at me for years, so much so that I created an entire entity with the sole purpose of tormenting me in my own dreams, just so that I would never forget how much of a monster I became. But, do you know what eventually got me through that and gave me peace of mind?” Luna said calmly, placing a hand over Jet’s.

“What?” Jet asked, still fighting back his own pain.

“I forgave myself. I came to terms with what I had done and realized that those I had killed would have forgiven me after seeing the torment and pain I put myself through to honor their memory.” Luna replied with a smile.

“How am I supposed to forgive myself for this…?” Jet asked again, shaking a little from the strain of keeping his emotions in check.

“That is something you must discover for yourself, Jet. But, giving up now will not be the answer to that problem. You must persevere, if for no other reason than to avenge those who have fallen under Sombra’s reign.” Luna replied, giving his hands a light squeeze to help steady his composure.

“I guess you’re right, Luna… But how much more blood is going to be spilled because of that monster…?” Jet asked, biting his lip nervously.

“I wish I had that answer for you, Jet. I truly do. Unfortunately, we will not know how many more familiar faces are hiding under the guise of his assassins until this is all over…” Luna said with a heavy sigh.

“Right…” Jet replied, his composure breaking as he thought of all the friends who were still missing and presumed dead that were likely being forced into servitude by Sombra.

“In any case, I know you are strong enough for this. You have to be, for the sake of what’s left of Equestria.” Luna said, sitting back in her chair.

“I guess all I can do is try.” Jet replied, a few tears escaping his eyes and rolling down his cheeks.

“It is all anybody can ask of you.” Luna said with a reassuring smile.

“By the way, where’d you get the fancy upgrade?” Jet asked, pointing to her horn to change the subject.

“Oh, your little friend Sunblast crafted this for me. He made one for Cadence as well, but between you and me, he put more effort into mine than he did hers.” Luna said with a giggle.

“Yeah, that sounds like Sunblast alright.” Jet said with a small laugh.

“I have been curious, why do you keep going around without your mask?” Luna asked curiously.

“What do you mean?” Jet asked in return.

“The toxin in the air, Jet. The whole reason for the masks.” Luna replied, sitting forward again.

“I don’t know. It hasn’t seemed to really affect me.” Jet said with a shrug.

“That doesn’t make any sense. Do you not feel any sense of weakness or fatigue while you are breathing the air outside?” Luna asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No, not really. Should I be?’ Jet responded.

“Well… Yes. The toxin that Sombra has pumped into the air is designed to sap someone’s magic essence. For natural magic users, it’s not a big issue as we have magic to spare for the most part, and what we lose our bodies recover with ease. However, for the ones who do not have natural magic use, they recover at a much slower rate and their essence is drained much faster.” Luna explained.

“Huh… I don’t then. Maybe I’m immune? I have become essentially a magic sponge.” Jet replied with another shrug.

“Hm, yes. Sunblast had mentioned that when you came up in conversation. I still do not understand it myself. Perhaps your magic ‘sponge’ ability counteracts the toxin somehow. Be that as it may, I suggest you be careful with it.” Luna replied, scratching her chin in thought.
“May I ask you something, Luna?” Jet asked slowly.

“Of course.” Luna said with another soft smile.

“How do you know so much about this toxin in the air…?” Jet asked, his tone a bit worried for the answer.

“Oh… It is the same thing he attempted when Tia and I fought him a millenia ago, only this time, it is on a much larger scale. I do not really know how he has managed to disperse it so far from the Crystal Empire though.” Luna explained slowly.

“Actually, Discord solved that mystery for us.” Jet replied with a chuckle.

“Oh? That draconequus is actually being useful again?” Luna asked, giggling lightly.

“Surising, isn’t it?” Jet replied, laughing more.

“What did he find out?” Luna asked, still lightly giggling about their light bullying of Discord.

“He said he saw some airships patrolling the sky and pumping the toxin into the air.” Jet said, sitting forward on his elbows.

“Hm, interesting… If you go to investigate, please be careful. There is no telling what or who is controlling those ships.” Luna replied with a concerned look.

“Of course, whoever it is, I’ll do what needs to be done… “ Jet said solemnly.

“That is good to know, at least. As much as I am enjoying this revelry of old times, it is probably about time you woke up, Jet.” Luna replied, tapping her wrist where a watch would sit.

“What, already?” Jet asked with a sigh.

“Just hang in there, Jet. We are getting closer to ending this war.” Luna replied as she stood.

She moved over to Jet and pushed back his hair to plant a light kiss on his forehead, just as Celestia used to do to calm him if he was depressed over a failed task or mission. Before he could say anything else, the scene of the garden vanished and Luna along with it. He was once again left alone in the empty black void.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He sat up in bed, panting and his eyes lightly burning from the tears that had welled up and ran over while he slept. He looked over to see Rainbow sprawled out on the bed, snoring softly and the blanket kicked off of her still naked body. With a smile to himself, he slowly got up and found a fresh set of fatigues. He slipped on the vambraces and put the nanobot unit back on his chest. Before leaving though, he stepped around the bed and gently kissed Rainbow’s cheek as he slipped the blanket back over her. She briefly stopped snoring and smiled in her sleep as she rolled over. With another smile to himself, he headed out of the room and down the hallway to get his next target from Sunblast’s intel.

Chapter 9: Friends, New And Old

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.

Chapter 10: Double Sided

A couple minutes after Jet had left, Rainbow heard a commotion from downstairs. She descended the metal staircase and out into the hallway by the ladder. At the end of the hallway, she could see some odd pink barrier standing in front of the ladder itself. She also saw the source of the commotion, Luna was banging on the barrier and shouting in some foreign language with Cadence standing beside her with a childish smirk on her face. After another moment, Luna gave up and turned to walk away. Rainbow walked over with a concerned look.

“Everything ok, princess?” She asked once she was close to them.

“No. Jet Stream refused to allow me to aid him in his mission.” Luna replied in a huff.

“Yeah, that sounds like him. Always wanting to do everything himself. What’s with the weird pink wall?” Rainbow replied, pointing behind them.

“That’s a barrier conjured by my royal armament. He used it to keep Luna from following him.” Cadence answered.

“I see… How long do they last exactly?” Rainbow asked, moving over to tap on the wall with her knuckle.

“Depends.” Cadence replied.

“On what?” Luna asked curiously.

“However long he focuses on keeping it up.” Cadence answered with a shrug.

“Probably won’t be long then, he’s always had problems focusing on a single thing for too long.” Rainbow said with a small laugh.

“Fair point, I suppose.” Cadence replied with a laugh of her own.

“Just wait for it to go away then head out and follow him anyway. He can’t stop you if you’re already out there with him.” Rainbow suggested.

“That… Is a brilliant idea, Rainbow Dash.” Luna said, turning back towards the barrier.

“Hey, don’t sound so surprised.” Rainbow said jokingly.

“Yeah, Luna, you make it sound like she doesn’t have good ideas.” Cadence said, keeping the joke going.

“That is not what I meant, you two.” Luna said with a slight smile.

“Oh, we know. It’s just kinda fun to give you a hard time.” Cadence replied, gently elbowing Luna in the side.

“Why must you insist on acting like a filly, Cadence?” Luna asked with a smirk.

“The same reason you insist on acting like it’s still the nineteen hundreds with your mannerisms and speech.” Cadence retorted and returned the smirk.

“I cannot help how I speak and act, this is just how I was brought up by my parents, Lord Galaxian and Lady Starshine. Gods rest their souls.” Luna replied, a brief frown crossing her face.

“Hey, it’s ok Luna. I know it’s a touchy subject, but I’m sure they’re looking down on you with pride over what you’ve become.” Cadence said in an attempt to lift her spirits back up.

“Thank you, Cadence. That does give me some solace knowing that.” Luna said quietly.

“Uh, should I get some tissues or some wine? I can’t tell if this is a pity party or a girl’s night. Maybe both would be best?” Rainbow chimed in with a small laugh.

A small reluctant smile crept across Luna’s face, followed by a giggle. Even Luna and Cadence had to admit that the atmosphere of the conversation was changing more than the seasons do. The trio shared a laugh that lasted several minutes. Once the mutual laughter came to a close, Rainbow wiped a small bit of tear from her face.

“I guess this whole situation has our emotions all over the place, huh?” Cadence asked rhetorically.

“I suppose that is a fair assessment.” Luna agreed, placing a hand on Cadence’s shoulder.

“Sooo, no tissues or wine then?” Rainbow asked, crossing her arms with a grin.

“No, we don’t need any tissues, though some wine would be awesome if we had any.” Cadence replied, nudging Rainbow with her elbow.

“Yes, I believe we are fine now, Rainbow Dash.” Luna agreed with Cadence.

“Well, alright then. It’s been a fun chat, but I gotta go deal with some crap. Catch you guys later.” Rainbow said through another small giggle, giving the pair of princesses a smile before turning and heading back down the hallway.

As Rainbow proceeded down the hallway, she could hear the princesses still talking and carrying on. At one point, she heard Luna exclaim that the barrier had gone down and she was heading out now. After that, it went quiet from that end of the hallway as Rainbow made it out into the cafeteria. The crowd from breakfast was already dying down, leaving the cafeteria mostly empty. Though it was fairly dirty and there were several trays left out on the tables as well. She saw Applejack sweeping up the floor. Before AJ could protest the offer of some help, Rainbow slipped into the kitchen and grabbed a clean rag from the cupboard. She quickly wet the rag down before heading back out into the cafeteria and started to wipe down the tables.

“Well howdy there, Rainbow. How ya feelin’ today?” AJ asked as she looked up to see Rainbow wiping down the tables.

“Can’t complain, not that it’d do any good even if I did.” Rainbow replied jokingly.

“Yeah, I hear ya. Ya have been seemin’ more upbeat since Jet woke up though, not to mention more… relaxed.” AJ said, giving Rainbow a knowing look.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Rainbow replied, playing dumb to what AJ was hinting at.

“Oh, come on, Rainbow. Ya can’t get nothing past me. Plus, Rarity told me that ya borrowed her copy of the Pony Sutra.” AJ said, giving Rainbow a sly grin.

“That gossiping little… Ok, fine. You got me, but can you blame me?” Rainbow asked, her face red as a beet while she picked up some of the left behind trays.

“Well dang, Dash. You’re redder than a red delicious. And no, I don’t blame ya one bit, if I swung that way, I’d probably try to steal him from ya.” AJ replied with a chuckle.

“You’d have to fight me for him if that was the case. Though, he’d more than likely enjoy that too much.” Rainbow said, sharing the laugh with AJ as they finished up wiping down the tables and retrieving the left behind trays.

“You’re probably right about that, what stallion wouldn’t enjoy two mares fighting over him?” AJ asked rhetorically as the pair headed back to the kitchen.

“Good point. Did you need help with anything else? I’m kinda putting off some shit right now.” Rainbow said, setting the trays in the sink.

“Nah, I can do those bit of dishes on my own. Besides, shouldn’t ya be training them newbies?” AJ asked with a quizzical look.

“Not since those rescues came in, apparently some of them used to be guards. So, I put them in charge of that so I could start sleeping in a little bit.” Rainbow admitted with a shrug as she hopped up to take a seat on the counter.

“Well, that makes sense. Heck, even me and Bloom got some help tending to the greenhouse. Things are certainly getting better around here by the day.” AJ replied with a smile, starting some water for the dishes.

“Yeah, mostly…” Rainbow said, an ere of skepticism in her voice.

“What the dickens is that supposed to mean?” AJ asked, turning to give Rainbow a soft glare.

“What it means is that there's a traitor in our midst according to Jet.” Rainbow replied with a groan.

“Why the devil does he think that?” AJ asked suspiciously.

“He heard from one of the assassins that Sombra knew about his coma.” Rainbow said, rubbing her temples.

“I see… Any ideas who it could be?” AJ continued to ask as she went about washing up the few remaining dishes.

“I have a couple suspects and an idea of how to weed them out.” Rainbow replied with a smirk.

“Ya should probably get to it and stop procrastinatin’ then.” AJ said with a raised eyebrow.

“I know, but on top of everything else, this is too damn stressful.” Rainbow said, letting out an exasperated sigh.

“The longer ya put it off, the longer it’s gonna eat at ya.” AJ replied matter of factly.

“You’re right, as always. I used to wonder what prissy pants Rarity saw in you, but I think I’m starting to see it too.” Rainbow said jokingly.

“Don’t let her hear ya say that, she might get the wrong idea. You know she gets jealous easily.” AJ warned with a chuckle.

“Yeah, especially when it comes to fashion.” Rainbow said with a laugh.

“But, that’s our friend and my fiance.” AJ replied.

“I guess I better go get this over with… Thanks for being there just to talk, AJ.” Rainbow said as she hopped off the counter.

“Just don’t go making accusations against anybody without proof now, I know how ya are.” AJ replied with a serious expression.

“No promises, but I'll try.” Rainbow said as she headed for the kitchen door and back out into the cafeteria.

Without any further distractions, she set out on a path for the gym. Along the way, she pulled a cord that was dangling from the wall just outside the gym. As soon as she pulled it, a small alarm rang throughout the bunker, signifying an emergency meeting. She stood in the middle of the gym while everybody in the bunker gathered inside to see what the commotion was about, The bleachers slowly filled with bodies as Rainbow waited patiently. After a few minutes, the entirety of the bleachers and even some of the floor was filled with ponies. Once she was sure that everybody was in the gym, she walked over and pulled the doors shut. She took her spot in the middle of the gym floor and scanned the crowd, spotting who she was looking for.

“Sunblast, Discord. Can you two join me up here please?” Rainbow asked calmly.

The two slide from within the crowd, having to step over and around others to get through. They took position on either side of Rainbow. They tried their best to look professional and intimidating like she did, but Discord’s complete lack of clothing and Sunblast’s disheveled hair and lab coat made it kinda hard for them.

“Thank you. Now, I’m sure you’re all wondering the same thing. Why have I gathered you all here? Well, the short answer is that there’s a double agent among us somewhere.” Rainbow stated, keeping her voice steady.

There were several gasps from the crowd as they all began to look around at each other. Some of them shifted to one side to make some room beside whoever they were sitting next to. There was now so much tension in the air that you could cut it with a butter knife. Rainbow took a long deep breath before continuing, steadying her nerves.

“That’s right. One of you is feeding information to our enemy, and I plan to find out who it is, through whatever means necessary.” Rainbow continued.

“Uh, how do you plan to do that?” A pony, that Rainbow recognized as Fleetfoot from her days as a Wonderbolt, asked from within the crowd.

“I’m so glad you asked. The answer is as simple as the question itself. Our brilliant inventor, along with some help from Discord, has managed to cobble together a makeshift lie detector. Bring it out, boys.” Rainbow answered the question.

Discord snapped his fingers and a cart popped into existence in front of him. On the cart sat a rather sketchy looking device that had several wires running from it. The device itself looked to be a welded together contraption of miscellaneous pieces of metal, wire, and duct tape. In the center, somewhere below all the metal and tape, a bright light sparked and glowed worryingly. The wires that were extending out from the main body had small suction cups on the ends. From the top sprouted a small laptop looking screen that showed a variety of readings along with a computer chair with wheels. Sunblast took a seat in the computer chair and fired up the device with a few quick presses on the laptop screen. Discord grabbed the wires with the suction cups and held them up, tiny jolts of electricity arced between them.

“So, who’s first?” He asked with a rather wicked looking grin on his face.

“If I were you, I’d fess up now. This thing isn’t exactly… Safe yet…” Sunblast said to the crowd with a serious expression.

Aside from a few concerned murmurs and whispers, nobody said anything or volunteered. Rainbow took this as a sign to just randomly pick somebody. She looked through the crowd and tapped her chin lightly. With a sudden flick of her wrist, she pointed at somebody in the crowd. It was Sea Foam, the only one under Rainbow’s training regime that she had issues with.

“Come on down, Sea. Your lazy ass is my prime suspect right now.” Rainbow said, motioning for her to come down onto the floor with them.

“What? Why me?” She complained, but got up and made her way down from the bleachers.

“Because you’ve been slacking ever since I saved your ass eight years ago. Now stop complaining and take a seat.” Rainbow retorted as Discord materialized a chair next to the cart.

“Fine, but if this thing hurts me, you’re getting me a gift dude.” Sea Foam said with a huff as she sat down in the chair.

“Yeah, yeah. If this thing hurts you, I’ll give you whatever you want.” Rainbow replied with a roll of her eyes.

Without another word, Sunblast started to place the suction cups on her face and arms. After they were all placed on her, she looked like some kind of mental patient getting ready for shock therapy, which got a small chuckle from Discord.

“So, how’s this shit supposed to work anyway?” Sea asked, looking between the three.

“It’s simple really, we ask you a couple questions and if you lie, you get a… Relatively small shock.” Sunblast answered absentmindedly as he fiddled with the setting of the device.

“Relatively small shock?” Sea asked nervously.

“Don’t worry, it won’t hurt… Too bad, at least…” Sunblast replied, saying the last bit under his breath so she didn’t hear.

“Wait, what did you say?” Sea asked, giving Sunblast a very worried look.

She got no answer as Rainbow stepped in front of her, holding a sheet of paper with a stern look on her face.

“Question one, what is your name?” Rainbow asked, reading from the paper she held.

“What kinda question is that? You know my name, dude.” Sea replied, confused.

“Just answer the damn question, slacker.” Rainbow retorted in an irritated tone.

“Fine… My name is Sea Foam. Happy now?” Sea answered, nothing happened when she did.

“Thank you. Question two, where were you born?” Rainbow asked calmly.

“I was born in a hospital, duh” Sea answered with a roll of her eyes, almost immediately a jolt of electricity went through her body.

“I warned you to not lie. Maybe you’ll take this seriously now.” Rainbow said with a small giggle.

“What the hell! You said this wouldn’t hurt!” Sea yelled, her ears still ringing from the electrical shock

“I also told you what would happen if you lied. Now, try that answer again.” Rainbow replied coldly.

“Ugh, this is so fucking stupid… I was born in the backseat of a cab in Manehttan…” Sea said, a bit angrily but with no shock this time.

“Good. Question three, do you support the Lunar Empire or the Celes… Discord, what the hell are these questions?” Rainbow asked as she scanned over the paper.

“Hey, you asked me to write the questions. I couldn’t come up with that many, so I checked some internet forums from another universe.” Discord replied with a shrug and grin.

“Forget it… I’ll ask my own questions.” Rainbow said with a groan, tossing the paper to the side and onto the floor.

“That wasn’t part of the agreement, Dash.” Sunblast said, briefly looking up from the readout monitor of the device.

“I’m changing the agreement. Now, Sea Foam, I have a question for you.” Rainbow said, leaning closer to Sea.

“W-What is it?” Sea asked nervously, gulping dryly.

“Did you steal a pair of my panties from the laundry hamper?” Rainbow asked, locking eyes with Sea.

“What? W-Why the hell would you ask something like that?” Sea replied, trying in vain to avoid Rainbow’s gaze.

“Because I’ve caught your ass going through the hamper before and I’ve been missing a special pair for ages. Now, answer the damn question before I slap the lazy out of you.” Rainbow retorted irritably.

“N…” Sea began, immediately getting shocked.

“You fucking perv! I knew it!” Rainbow shouted.

“F-Fine… Yes, I stole them… But why do you care so much? They’re just panties.” Sea asked, a little dazed from the shock.

“I care so much because those were a pair that my husb… Boyfriend bought for me.” Rainbow replied, faltering slightly in her frustration.

“How fucking cliche…” Sea said, rolling her eyes.

“LIsten here you little bitch, I will slap you so hard that not even your own mother will recognize you.” Rainbow said, getting close enough to Sea’s face that she could smell the breakfast on her breath.

“Rainbow, calm down now. No need to get upset, you can deal with her later.” Sunblast chimed in, to which Rainbow took a deep breath and backed up.

“Last question, have you been feeding any info to Sombra?” Rainbow asked, trying to keep her voice calm.

“Of course not. I’m lazy, not a fucking snitch.” Sea answered, getting no response from the device.

“Alright… Go sit on the other side of the gym. I’ll deal with you later.” Rainbow said, grabbing the wires and ripping the suction cups off her with several loud pops.

Sea Foam yelped slightly from the sudden jerk of the wires, but stood and made her way to the opposite side of the gym from the bleachers that still held the other residents of the bunker. Rainbow picked another from the crowd and hooked them up to the device. She asked the same basic questions of name, birthplace, and if they were working with Sombra. With no results from that pony, she moved on to the next and then the next. This went on for over an hour, until there were only a handful of potential suspects left. Rainbow called up the next one, who was all too familiar to her. She was hooked up just like the others.

“Lightning Dust…” Rainbow said coldly as she approached the light teal mare with two-toned orange mane,

“Sup, Crash?” Lightning replied with a sly grin.

“Let’s just get this over with so I can go back to pretending you don’t exist. What’s your name?” Rainbow asked, getting exasperated with her already.

“Lightning Dust, the one and only.” Lightning replied, eliciting no response from the device.

“Thank the Gods for that… Place of birth?” Rainbow asked, rolling her eyes at Lightning’s cockiness.

“Cloudsdale, duh.” Lightning answered, getting shocked immediately, which got a curious look from Rainbow.

“Oh? Is the perfect Lightning Dust a liar?” Rainbow asked, a smirk crossing her face briefly.

“I don’t lie, this stupid thing must be broken or something.” Lightning replied with a frown.

“Funny, it didn’t mess up with anybody else or when you gave your name.” Rainbow said, giving her a suspicious look.

“For fucks sake… I was actually born in Phillydelphia, but I was raised in Cloudsdale.” Lightning retorted in a smartass tone, the device did nothing in response to that.

“I always knew you had that big city vibe to you. Last question and we can be done here. Are you working with Sombra and feeding him info?” Rainbow asked in an accusing tone.

“Fuck no, I might hate you but I’m no traitor to Equestria.” Lightning replied, getting no shock to Rainbow’s surprise.

“Gotta say, I really thought it would turn out to be you…” Rainbow said, unhooking Lightning from the device.

“Gee, thanks for that.” Lightning said as she made her way to the back of the gym with the others who had already been tested.

Rainbow turned back towards the few ponies who remained on the bleachers and looked between them. The only ones left were AJ, Sweetie Belle, Redheart, and one that she didn’t recognize. He had a pink coat and a red mane, his eyes darted around the room nervously before suddenly locking eyes with Rainbow. He gulped visibly and quickly looked away.

“You there, come on over and have a seat.” Rainbow said, staring right at him.

“M-Me?” He asked, pointing a shaky finger at himself.

“Yes, you.” Rainbow replied, giving him a slight glare.

With another visible gulp, he stepped down onto the floor from the bleachers and slowly made his way over to the chair and plopped down into it. Rainbow hooked the wires up to him and took a step back, looking him over again. She really had no idea who this guy was, and that only added to her suspicions.

“What’s your name?” Rainbow asked in a very suspicious sounding tone.

“I-It’s uh… Um… Wilfred Warfstache?” He said slowly, getting an immediate shock.

“Lying about your name? Not a great start for you.” Rainbow replied, raising an eyebrow.

“B-But I’m not lying!” He protested, getting another shock, but this time with more voltage.

“Yeah, the device doesn’t believe you, so neither do I.” Rainbow said with a frown.

“This is stupid, I’m not lying about my name!” He continued to argue, getting yet another much more intense shock.

The shock lasted for almost a full minute. The intensity of the shock caused the mystery pony to seize violently and his eyes to roll back in his head. While the electricity flowed through his body, a sudden bright flash of green lit up the gym. The flash momentarily blinded everybody in the immediate area. Once the spots cleared from her eyes, Rainbow gasped loudly, followed by several gasps and a few screams from the crowd, as they all saw what now sat before them. Sitting in the chair where the mystery pony had been sitting was now a changeling. Its black carapace shimmered ominously in the light of the gym as its bright green eyes darted around in a panic and its dragonfly-like wings fluttered in an attempt to escape the electricity.

“What… How?” Rainbow asked in shock.

“Shit, shit, shit… This is bad, so very bad…” He said in a panic.

“Who are you and how the hell did you get in here?!” Rainbow yelled loudly.

“Please, have mercy! I didn’t want to do this, but she said she’d kill me if I didn’t comply!” He pleaded, tears forming in his insect-like eyes.

“You’re going to tell us exactly how you got here or so help me I will mash your skull like a pumpkin on Nightmare Night.” Rainbow threatened, getting close to the changeling's face.

“I’ll tell you whatever you want, just please don’t hurt me…” He pleaded again, tears streaming down his face now.

“Good, get to talking. I don’t have all day.” Rainbow replied, pleased with his willingness to cooperate.

“I-It all started the day of the attack…” He began, trying to keep his voice steady.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The freezing wind and snow whipped around Sombra as he stood at the perimeter of the Crystal Empire, his ebony mane blowing violently with the wind. The only thing that kept him at bay was the power of the Crystal Heart, for now. He watched as the ponies roamed about around the city, happy and carefree under their new rule, the sight made him sick to the very pit of his stomach. Since his defeat at the hands of that eyesore of a princess a few weeks ago, his anger and hatred for Cadence and her wife-throwing husband had only grown. As he brooded in his quiet solitude, he heard footsteps crunching through the snow from behind him. He looked over his shoulder and briefly smiled.

“You’re late. What took you?” He asked as they approached.

There were two figures, both shrouded in dark green hooded cloaks. Once they were standing beside Sombra, they lowered their hoods, revealing Chrysalis and one of her changelings. This particular changeling was much smaller than the normal offspring of Chrysalis. He was carrying something long wrapped in a cloth that was tied with twine and a small burlap sack.

“My apologies, my king. It took longer than anticipated to cocoon all those pesky royal guards at the palace. But, our plan is underway and my children await our signal to destroy the Crystal Heart.” Chrysalis said.

“Excellent work, my dear. Our vengeance is close at hand.” Sombra replied with a wicked grin.

“It gets better, my king. I managed to track down that thing you asked for. Show him, you useless runt.” Chrysalis said, looking over to other changeling she had brought along.

The changeling slowly handed the burlap sack over to Sombra, who snatched it from his hands. Sombra held the sack in his hands and untied the top of it. He looked inside to see a rather familiar looking amulet that was a silver and black metal piece in the shape of an alicorn mid-flight, in the center of the amulet was a glowing red gemstone.

“My dear, you are magnificent. Everything is almost in place, we’re just awaiting one final component then we can begin.” Sombra said in a pleased tone.

“What are we waiting on, my king?” Chrysalis asked curiously.

As if on cue, a pair of flares shot up into the sky in the distance. They were a vibrant blue and the smoke trails they left in the air formed into what looked like a pair of dragon talons pointed upright.

“That.” Sombra answered, a wide devilish grin crossing his face.

He gave Chrysalis a knowing look and she nodded. She sent a wordless order to her changelings stationed inside the kingdom. It wasn’t long before the barrier formed by the Crystal Heart dissipated, letting both the snow and the three intruders inside. They stepped into the kingdom and made their way to the city itself. On their approach they could hear the commotion and fear of the crystal ponies in the air. There was next to no resistance as the crystal ponies were all too familiar with Sombra and his heartless ways of doing everything. With nobody willing to fight and the guards replaced by changelings, they were able to make their way straight to the palace effortlessly. They passed the spire-like altar that had once held the Crystal Heart, now empty with only some shards left on the ground as an indicator that anything had even been there at all. Sombra stepped forward and kicked the door to the palace open, the three of them stepping inside. The interior was bright and colorful, columns of crystal with a rainbow sheen lined the entrance hall. Even the floors and ceilings seemed to be made of the same type of crystal, Sombra cringed and frowned at the sight.

“Look at what those do-gooders did to my beautiful palace! Disgusting!” Sombra exclaimed in anger.

“Don’t worry, my king. We will have it back to its former glory in no time.” Chrysalis reassured him.

With a deep uncomfortable shudder, they continued on through the palace. Sombra led the way, even though it had a change of decor, the layout of it was more or less the same and he knew the layout of this palace like the back of his hand. It didn’t take them long to find the throne room and barge in, just like the uninvited guests that they were. The interior of the throne room was no better, everything being made of the same iridescent rainbow hued crystal. Sombra visibly gagged as he looked upon where his once glorious throne had been, now replaced by a cheap iridescent knockoff.

“This whole place disgusts me to my core. It’s all so gaudy and flamboyant…” Sombra said to nobody in particular

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing you won’t be here long then, huh?” Cadence’s voice suddenly called out from behind them.

Just as Sombra turned to face the source of the voice, he was greeted by the sight of Cadence barreling towards him. Her teeth were gritted and her gauntlet clad fists flying surprisingly fast towards Sombra’s face. Though, not quite fast enough to actually land any hits as he dodged her strikes with ease. He visibly smirked as a way of taunting her. It worked like a charm as she started to strike faster and more erratically. After a few moments of dodgin her attacks with almost no effort, Sombra grew bored of it. Without any warning or sign of any kind, he suddenly teleported several feet behind where he was previously standing.

“What’s the matter princess, is that body of yours wearing down already? And here I thought you’d actually put up a proper fight this time.” Sombra taunted her.

“We beat you once before, we can do it again!” Cadence screamed and charged.

She put all the power she could muster into Love Spell and swung at him, her eyes shut tight as she strained both her body and her magic. There was a very loud ringing thud that echoed off the walls and high ceiling. Panting incredibly hard, she opened her eyes and was horrified at what she saw. Sombra had completely stopped her fully powered royal arm attack without even flinching.

“So confident, and this is all you can deliver? Tsk tsk, little princess. You’ll have to do much better than that.” Sombra boasted with a villainous toothy grin.

“B-But… How…?” Cadence asked in shock.

“Are you really so foolish as to think that you faced me at my full strength before?” Sombra asked rhetorically, clenching his hand around the gauntlet.

“How are you even back? We destroyed you with the power of the crystal heart…” Cadence said, her gauntlet starting to crack from the force of Sombra’s grip.

“No, my dimwitted false princess. You merely destroyed my body, but my horn remained. Then, my new queen here found it and kept it safe until my body could regenerate fully. Lucky for me, that didn’t take long, so I didn’t have to wait too long to take my revenge.” Sombra explained casually, putting more force into his grip on her gauntlet and causing more cracks to form.

Before Sombra could shatter her royal arm, she banished it back to the pocket dimension she usually kept it in. Just as she did, a series of footsteps could be heard running down the hallway towards them.

“We may want to keep this brief, my king. Sounds like we have company.” Chrysalis said.

“Hm, indeed it does. Well, it was an absolute pleasure catching up. But, unfortunately for you, we are through here.” Sombra replied, quickly headbutting Cadence hard enough to bust her nose and knock her out.

She fell in an unconscious heap on the floor just as Shining Armor burst through the door. He was dressed in his old royal guard armor and was wielding a sword and shield. He let out a loud gasp when he laid eyes on Cadence and Sombra, not paying any attention to Chrysalis and the other changeling.

“Cadence?! You monster, what have you done?!” He shouted with rage.

“Monster is such a strong word, I prefer the classic tyrant or dictator.” Sombra said tauntingly.

“You son of a…” Shining started to say, but was cut off by Chrysalis grabbing him from behind.

“Hey there, Shiny. Miss me?” Chrysalis whispered in his ear as she slowly wrapped one of her clawed hands around his throat.

“C-Chrysalis…” Shining whimpered and gulped dryly around the encroaching hand on his throat.

“Aww, you do remember me. I’m touched.” Chrysalis said, fully gripping him by the throat now.

“You w-won’t get away with this…” Shining choked out around his closing windpipe.

“Oh? And who’s going to stop us? From where I’m standing, we’re pretty in charge here. With that being said, we don’t really have a need for you, do we?” Chrysalis asked, looking up at Sombra, who shook his head.

Chrysalis grinned wide and tightened her grip around Shining’s throat. He gasped and choked audibly as his airways were squeezed shut by the pressure of Chrysalis’s hand. He tried in vain to escape her grasp, but she had a death grip on his neck.

“Aww, what’s the matter Shiny? Don’t want to die by strangulation?” Chrysalis asked coldly.

“N-N-No…” Shining roughly choked out through her squeezing hand.

“Hm, well how about this then?!” Chrysalis screamed in his ear before quickly dragging her claws across his throat.

She let him go and backed away. It took a moment before Shining realized what had happened. A thin crimson line began to form where her claw had drug across. The thin line quickly grew and began gushing crimson all over himself and the floor. His hands flew up to his throat in a pointless attempt to stop the bleeding, but he was already getting lightheaded. His body grew weaker and he fell to his knees, making pitiful pleading gurgling sounds as he bled out quickly. As a last effort, he began crawling towards Cadence’s unconscious body, leaving a trail of blood behind him. He reached out with his hand towards her as he made a few last gurgles before slumping forward onto the cold crystalline floor. Satisfied with this outcome, Sombra gave a long evil laugh and kicked Shining’s motionless body. The changeling guards filed into the room and knelt near Sombra’s feet.

“What are your orders, my liege?” One of them asked.

“Prepare our troops and send for my ride. We are ready for phase two of the plan.” He replied, grinning wide and taking a seat on the throne.

“Yes sir!” All the guards replied in unison before filing back out of the door.

Almost as soon as he sat down, the whole palace began to rumble. As Chrysalis and the other changeling watched, the throne started to grow and contort. A black shadow emanated from the base of the throne and engulfed the entirety of the room. Before their eyes, the palace walls began to shift and reshape themselves into fractured looking black crystals. At the base of the throne, a large hole opened up which led to a staircase that spiraled down further into the palace. Several minutes passed before the rumbling stopped and the walls quit reforming. Once he was satisfied with the reforming of the palace, he used his magic to conjure a stereotypical red king robe with a puffy white neckline.

“Ah, much better. Feels so good to be home at last.” Sombra said loudly in delight.

“It looks wonderful, my king.” Chrysalis agreed as she came over and plopped down on the arm of his throne.

“Indeed it does, my queen. It won’t be long now before we can settle down and rule as proper tyrants.” Sombra said with a wicked smile as one of the guards from before came back.

“Sir, your troops and ride are ready to depart when you are.” The guard said with a salute.

“Excellent. We will leave immediately.” Sombra replied, shooing the guard away.

“What do we do with her, my king?” Chrysalis asked, pointing to Cadence.

“She’ll be thrown in with the other slaves in my crystal mines. She’ll never see the light of day again.” Sombra answered with an evil smirk.

“Oooo, what a devilishly horrible idea. I love it! You can carry her to the ship, runt.” Chrysalis exclaimed, kicking the unconscious princess in the direction of the other changeling.

The changeling reluctantly picked up Cadence and carried her toward the exit doors and outside, where a pair of airships were hovering in wait. They were huge wooden ships held aloft by a series of massive steel propellers. As they approached the ships, a pony clad in dark gray armor from head to toe with a black bodysuit underneath stepped out of the cabins of one of the ships. They looked over the railing at Sombra and Chrysalis.

“You take that ship. This one is ours.” The armored pony said before disappearing back inside the cabin.

“I don’t mean to question you, my king, but how exactly did you get these ships again?” Chrysalis asked skeptically.

“I got in touch with an old acquaintance.” Sombra said, boarding the ship with Chrysalis and the other changeling following behind.

Sombra and Chrysalis stood at the bow of one of the airships, the other one following close behind. Having just conquered the Crystal Empire and taken that dreadful princess of love as a hostage, they were en route to Canterlot, the very heart of Equestria itself. Both airships were loaded down with soldiers clad in the black armor of Sombra’s army. The wood of the ships groaned against the whipping winds that surrounded them and the propellers that held them aloft creaked loudly against the strain of the speed they were traveling. As they approached their destination, the tyrant king looked down at the small city below them as it bustled with the citizens, unaware of what was about to befall them. With a devilish smile plastered across his face, he turned to address his army, who was waiting patiently for their king’s orders. He shed his red kingly cloak to the side.

“My loyal army, It brings me so much joy to say that we are on the very precipice of victory, and thus, the total rule of this land. You have played your respective parts well, and for that, I am so very proud. But, I would be remiss if I did not give credit to my new queen. Without her, none of this would’ve been possible.” Sombra spoke to his army, giving them a proper speech.

“Why, thank you, my king. My changelings are at your beck and call, so long as you keep feeding me that delicious love of yours.” Chrysalis said with a villainous giggle.

“Of course, my queen. With your nearly endless army and my war strategies, we will put an end to those pesky princesses that have been a thorn in both our sides for far too long. We will destroy them and everything they stand for, starting here.” Sombra exclaimed as he turned back to face Canterlot.

“So, shall we begin, my liege?” Chrysalis asked with an evil grin.

“Yes, we shall. Troops, are you ready?!” Sombra yelled out, looking back over his shoulder at the well equipped army.

“Yes, my lord!” They all exclaimed at once.

“Excellent. Let it begin!” Sombra cried out, throwing his arms into the air.

“To the skies, my children! Rain hell on those pathetic ponies!” Chrysalis screamed as she started laughing maniacally.

“I do so love your laughter, my queen.” Sombra said before joining in with her laughter.

The troops jumped over the sides of the ship and took to the air, immediately diving straight down towards the city. Sombra laughed loudly as the troops started the attack, watching as they rained chaos from above onto the unsuspecting ponies down below. He paid close attention to the castle, as he was waiting for his sign to join in and take the castle for himself. He hoped with everything that was in his black heart that Celestia would be there and he could finally get some revenge for all those years ago. Even if she fought back, things would be different this time. He had been preparing for this encounter since he was defeated by them over one thousand years ago. As he watched, an explosion could be seen just inside the castle walls. That was it, his sign to join the onslaught.

“It is time, my queen. Our plan is entering its final stages.” Sombra said, turning to Chrysalis with a wide evil smile.

“Very well, my king. Thorax, come forth! Now!” Chrysalis shouted towards the back of the ship.

There was some commotion from down in the cargo hold under them as a rather small changeling made his way up top, emerging from the grate leading down to the cargo hold. He carried a large black sheathed sword and a small red gem stone that was housed in a gunmetal gray amulet that resembled an alicorn that had been frozen mid-flight. He stumbled a little as he approached the pair of tyrants, his nerves a wreck and his hands trembling.

“Y-Yes, mother?” Thorax asked timidly, to which Chrysalis slapped him hard across the face.

“You will address me as queen, you little worm!” She shouted, baring her fangs at the small changeling.

“I’m s-sorry, my queen. P-Please forgive me…” Thorax pleaded, rubbing his cheek where she had struck him.

“Better, I suppose. Now, give our king his gear. He has to go and be useful, unlike you.” Chrysalis replied, turning her nose up at him.

He very timidly handed Sombra the sheathed sword and the amulet, his hands shaking from his nerves. Sombra snatched the items from him and slipped the amulet around his neck and the sword on his back before stepping up onto the bowsprit of the ship. He turned back towards Chrysalis and Thorax, giving the smaller changeling a look of utter disdain. He looked back up at Chrysalis with a bit of a scowl.

“Please, make that… Thing useful while I am gone.” Sombra said with a frown as his horn lit up and he disappeared into a black mist, which quickly flew down towards the castle just as the second explosion rang out across the valley.

“What use could I possibly have for you? You’re not big enough to do any actual fighting, not smart enough to do any recon, and definitely not fast enough to loot anything of value.” Chrysalis berated the timid changeling like a scolded dog.

“T-There must be something I can do…?” He asked nervously.

Chrysalis looked over the side of the airship and happened to see a group of ponies fleeing from the castle and picking up stragglers along the way. They were headed somewhere and she intended to find out where.

“Actually, I may have a purpose for you after all.” She said with a sneer.

“What is it m-my queen?” He asked, trembling a little.

“Put on your best disguise and follow that group of ponies. You will be my eyes and ears for whatever they think they’re planning to do.” She replied, pointing down to the fleeing group.

“O-Of course, my queen…” He said, straining a bit and changing into a pink pegasus with a red mane.

“Ugh, is that the best you can do?” She asked in disgust.

“I-I’m sorry, my queen… I n-never had any training to use my powers…” He replied, looking down at the floorboards of the ship in shame.

“Whatever, it will have to do. Now, get down there and try to blend in. This is your last chance to impress me, fuck this up and I will personally rip your wings off and shove them down your throat, then watch and laugh as you either choke to death or bleed out from your wings stumps.” She threatened with a glare.

“Y-Yes, my q-queen!” Thorax stuttered out in fear of the threat.

Without another word, he flew down and joined the groups of fleeing ponies. Seemingly unnoticed by anyone due to the commotion happening all around them. He followed the group along as they ran away from Canterlot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You’ve been with us that long?” Rainbow asked, her anger subsiding briefly as she felt kinda bad for him.

‘Yes…” He admitted, the device not making a sound.

“How much have you told them?” Rainbow continued to question him.

“J-Just about the coma, I swear. After seeing and experiencing how nice you ponies are to one another… I just c-couldn’t do it anymore, so I stopped contacting them…” He answered, the device not reacting.

“You defected?” She asked curiously.

“Yes… I never knew any form of kindness until I came here, and after experiencing it, I couldn’t go back to her abuse…”

“I see.” Rainbow said, rubbing her chin in thought.

“What should we do with him?” Discord asked, walking around the changeling like a vulture circling its next meal.

“I could always take him. I’ve never gotten to dissect a changeling up close before.” Sunblast chimed in, looking the changeling over with a brightly lit endoscope.

“What?! You c-can’t be serious!” Thorax cried out, visibly shaking now.

“Sunblast, stop it. You’re freaking him out.” Rainbow said, giving his chair a light push which caused it to roll a few feet away.

“Aw, but I’m curious how a changeling’s anatomy differs from ours.” Sunblast complained.

“You might still get to. We’ll let Jet decide what to do with him when he gets back, for now we’ll lock in one of the isolation chambers in the lab.” Rainbow replied, unhooking Thorax from the device.

“Y-You mean if he comes back…” Thorax said softly, looking at the floor.

“What do you mean ‘if’ he comes back?” Rainbow asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

“He w-went to Canterlot, right? Well, there’s s-something there waiting for him… Something I’m not sure he can handle alone…” Thorax explained vaguely.

“Elaborate or I’m letting the crazy unicorn in the lab coat have you.” Rainbow replied with a glare.

“O-Ok, but you’re not going to like it…” Thorax said, frowning as he started to explain what lie in wait within the walls of Canterlot.

Chapter 11: Duel At The Castle

Meanwhile, back in the dank dusty chamber of the sparring pit in the guards barracks, Jet and Fluttershy were catching each other up to speed with everything they knew about the events of the past eight years. After each one had told their respective tales, they both sat back on the creaky wooden bleachers. The room was deathly silent for what seemed like ages, before finally being broken by Jet.

“So, you don’t remember anything else other than fleeing from Canterlot to check on your animals?” He asked.

“I’m afraid not… One minute I was showing Angel and Beary into a cave for safety, then there was a loud boom and the next thing I know, I’m waking up here sitting next to you…” She replied, keeping her head down.

“Hmm… Well, whatever happened, I’m sure Sombra is responsible. Don’t worry though, he’ll pay soon enough and I’m sure we can find a way to fix you.” He said with a light smile.

“Even if not, it’s ok… I just hope that Angel and Beary are ok…” She replied, looking up and giving Jet a wavering smile.

“They’ll turn up, especially now that we’ve gotten you back to your senses.” He said, trying to brighten her mood a bit.

“She has animal friends?! I bet they’re adorable!” Bright Heart chimed in loudly, giving Jet a jolt as he had almost forgotten about her.

“They were and I really do hope they turn up safely.” Jet said with a slight frown.

“I just love cute cuddly animals!” Bright shouted and giggled.

“Hey, cool it with the screaming will you please? My ears can only take so much.” Jet said with a light chuckle.

“Oopsie, sorry.” Bright replied with a sheepish grin.

“Um, Jet… Who are you talking to?” Fluttershy asked, worriedly.

“Oh, uh… It’s the spirit that’s attached to Cadence’s Royal Arm.” Jet explained as he held out the gauntlets for Fluttershy to see.

“S-S-Spirit? L-Like a ghost…?” Fluttershy whimpered and slid further down the bleachers away from him.

“Kind of? I think? It’s the representation of Cadence’s true inner self. Apparently each of the princess’s Royal Arms has a similar spirit attached to them. But, don’t worry, they’re harmless… At least physically anyway…” Jet explained, giving Bright a look.

“What do you mean harmless physically? Oh Celestia… Is it gonna possess me?!” Fluttershy asked, freaking out a little.

“Calm down, she won’t possess you. They can’t even do that. You can’t do that, can you?” Jet said, looking down at Bright.

“Don’t know, never tried.” Bright replied with a shrug.

“They can’t do that, you’re in the clear Flutters.” Jet reassured the frightened pegasus.

“W-Well… If you say it’s ok…” Fluttershy said quietly, scooting back to where she was originally.

“Uh… Not that I’m trying to look or anything, but we should probably address the elephant in the room… Or rather elephants…” Jet said with a small chuckle, motioning down to her chest.

She looked down, just now noticing that she was wearing rags. She ‘eeped’ loudly and blushed a deep crimson, moving her arms to cover both her chest and lap.

“I-I-I might as well be naked!” She cried out in embarrassment.

“I got you covered, hold on.” Jet said as he stood.

His armor receded into its containment unit and he quickly stripped off his shirt, revealing his scarred and lightly toned chest and stomach. Fluttershy gave a small gasp and covered her mouth in shock as she saw all the various scars he had. She was so shocked that she had briefly forgotten about her modesty and even failed to notice he had moved to hand her his shirt. It was only after he called her name that she came back to her senses, shaking her head slightly.

“W-What? I’m sorry…” She asked timidly and looked up.

“My shirt, take it. It should be big enough to cover you. Rainbow used to wear my shirts as nightgowns. You’re a little taller than her, and a bit more endowed, but it should work all the same.” He said, his metal hand holding out the shirt.

She stood and took it, shuddering lightly as her fingers met the cold metal of his. After unfurling it, she slipped it over her head, it still smelled of washing soap and was surprisingly soft material. Sure enough, it did fit like a nightgown on her, draping down to about her mid thighs, though it was a bit tight in the chest. She had never realized just how much bigger than her he was until now that they were standing directly face to face. To look him in the eye, she had to slightly crane her neck upwards.

“Fit alright?” Jet asked, snapping her from her thoughts.

“Yes, it fits fine. Thank you, Jet.” She said with a smile.

“You’re welcome. Now, I gotta wrap up something here, then we’ll see about getting you to safety with the others.” Jet said, his armor sliding back on as he stepped back out onto the floor of the sparring pit.

“Oh, that would be lovely. I’m sure that Twilight will be able to fix me.” Fluttershy said, a tone of hope entering her voice.

“I, um… I hate to be the bearer of bad news… Again, but, we don’t know where or even if Twilight is alive…” Jet said, stopping in his tracks and turning back to her.

“Oh…” Fluttershy said quietly, sitting back down and going silent.

“Sorry…” Jet replied.

A heavy silence filled the room as Fluttershy sat on the bleachers saying nothing. Jet took this as a sign to leave her to process this whole thing a bit more. He turned back around and headed towards the center of the pit once again. Once there, he knelt and started brushing some dirt away from the center. The dirt began to give way to a tarnished chunk of steel covering something on the floor. He banged on it with his fist and was met with an obvious hollow echo from the other side.

“Definitely hiding something…” Jet said to himself.

He reared back with his fist and in one swift motion, drove it through the steel covering. With a grunt and several loud screeching sounds, he began to peel back the steel sheet. Once it had been peeled back far enough, he peered under it. Inside was a roughly dug out cavern with walls that sloped downward into it. The main floor of the cavern was housing another of the arcing pylons he had encountered before. This one was much larger in scale and took up nearly the entirety of the cavern below, leaving just enough room around the edges for someone to walk. With another loud screech of metal tearing, he ripped a hole big enough for him to slip inside and slide down the edge of the cavern wall. He skidded to a halt just in front of the pylon, looking up at it and tapping his chin in thought for a moment.

“Just like before, only bigger, right?” He asked himself, a bit worried that it might not work.

Hesitantly he put out his hands, having second thoughts about this as he moved ever closer. He took a deep breath and steeled his nerves. With a swift movement, as to not give himself time to chicken out, he clamped his fists around the cold steel bars that made up the pylon. Immediately he was greeted with a very intense tingly sensation all throughout his body. The pylon arced off the cavern walls and ceiling as if it were sentient and angry at the pony that was stealing the one thing keeping it alive. Despite every fiber of his being telling him to let go, Jet held firm onto the pylon as its electrical charge slowly drained into him. A burning sensation began to radiate up his arms and up into his chest. His heart started to pound as if he was running a race with Dash and it became increasingly hard to breathe.

The burning sensation quickly gave way to sheer pain as the amount of electricity surging into his body was making his muscles ache and spasm. As the pylon continued to drain into him, his thoughts became hazy as his vision slowly started to blur. It was at this moment that he realized what was happening, he was dying. This sheer amount of electrical energy was too much for his body to handle. He could feel his legs wobble and shake under him as they struggled to support his weight under the current conditions. His eyelids began to feel like they lead and he could feel himself losing consciousness slowly. Without any further warning, his legs gave out under him and he fell to one knee. This was it, his number was up and he knew it. As he stood there on the verge of meeting the reaper of souls, and ready to let it happen, a slideshow of memories crossed his mind. They were all memories of the times that he had spent with Rainbow Dash, laughing, smiling, and just enjoying each other's presence. They were so happy then, before all of this. Now, he would never see her smiling face again…

No… He refused to accept this fate. If he was going to die, it would be honorably in combat, not in some dark cavern where nobody would even find his body. He gritted his teeth and forced himself back to his feet. His grip on the pylon tightened as his wings unfurled behind him, the electricity arced between them, traveling from base to tip. With a scream of rage and defiance, he continued to drain the pylon entirely. Small bits of saliva flew from his mouth and spattered against the steel bars of the pylon. The arcing of the pylon slowly died down to a soft sparking and eventually fizzled out altogether. Once it had stopped making any form of electrical sound, Jet finally let his grip loose. He almost immediately fell to his knees, panting and sweating harder than if he had just run a mile in the midst of Summer time. After a few moments of recovery, he forced himself to his feet slowly. Once he was steady on his feet again, he began to climb back out of the cavern and into the sparring pit once more. He emerged from the jagged metal hole in the floor to see Fluttershy standing not too far away with a look of concern on her face.

“A-Are you ok, Jet?” She asked softly, moving to put a hand on his shoulder, only to be met with a harsh electric shock.

“Fine… Just… A lot of energy… All at once…” Jet managed to say through his panting.

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked.

“Long story short… I’m a living sponge for energy… Magical or otherwise apparently…” He replied with a shrug, still not having an answer for why it happens.

“How strange…” She replied in a tone of mild confusion.

“Yeah, tell me about it. Now, let’s get out of here, all this dust is killing my sinuses.” He said with a chuckle, making his way towards the gap in the rubble he had come in through.

“Right behind you, Jet.” She replied, moving to follow him out.

As they made their way back through the decimated barracks, Jet noticed that Fluttershy kept staring at his hair for some reason. Once they were in a more open area, he stopped briefly and turned to face her.

“Ok, what’s up? Do I have a spider in my hair or something?” Jet asked, trying to look up at his own head but to avail.

“Goodness no, I was just trying to figure out if I liked your new hair color or not.” She replied, tapping her chin and still staring at his hair.

“New hair color? What are you talking about?” Jet asked, furrowing his brow in confusion.

Fluttershy looked around for a moment before picking a shield up from the floor and dusting it off enough to see herself in. She then held the newly shined surface up to Jet. He looked closely at his slightly dusty reflection and his eyes widened. The normally red stripe in his hair was now a bright pink, almost the same shade as Fluttershy’s.

“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY HAIR?!” Jet screamed at the top of his lungs, making Fluttershy wince a little.

“Y-You mean, you didn’t dye it like that?” She asked sheepishly, setting the shield back on the floor.

“No, I most certainly did not! How would I even dye my hair during an apocalyptic event?!” He yelled at no one in particular.

“Then what happened?” She asked, worried now.

“I don’t know!” He replied, still yelling.

“I might have an idea.” Bright Heart said from behind them.

“I’m open to all theories and potential remedies here!” Jet yelled again.

“You said you were some kind of energy sponge, right? Well, the gauntlets are very rich with Cadence’s magical energy, for obvious reasons. Maybe this is your body’s reaction to that residual energy?” Bright suggested with a shrug.

“I… Suppose that makes sense… One way to find out for sure…” Jet said before slamming his fists together and returning Love Spell to its pocket dimension.

“It worked!” Fluttershy exclaimed quietly, picking the shield back up and holding it up for Jet to see.

Sure enough, the pink stripe had returned to its original red color.

“Oh, thank the Gods…” Jet said, breathing a sigh of relief.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why were you so worked up over that?” Fluttershy asked, genuinely curious.

“Are you kidding? If I walked back into base with a pink stripe in my hair, Sunblast would kick my ass for trying to steal his look.” Jet said in a pretty serious tone.

“Hm, that does make a little sense.” Fluttershy admitted with a giggle.

“Now that that catastrophe is avoided, let’s get moving.” Jet said, starting to walk again.

Fluttershy joined him and the pair quickly made their way back out of the barracks and onto the main street of Canterlot. As they walked down the ruined road, Fluttershy gasped loudly at the utter destruction that had befallen the once beautiful land. Her heart wrenched at the thought of all the furry critters and other wildlife that had lost their lives in the midst of all this chaos. Tears welled in her eyes, but they quickly turned from tears of sadness to tears of anger and hatred towards the monster responsible. In her anger, she unintentionally let out a low growl that sent chills up her own spine.

“I know how you feel… I’ve been there myself…” Jet said, snapping Fluttershy back from her hate filled thoughts.

“It’s all so much to take in… I knew it would be bad, but this is…” She began, choking back a sob.

“Yeah, but once this is all over, we can rebuild and make a new home for everybody.” He said with a reassuring smile.

“I guess you’re right, you and Twilight almost always are.” She replied with an uneasy smile.

“Don’t worry your batty little head about it, this’ll be over before you know it.” He said, chuckling and gently elbowing her.

“I’ve heard of going batty, but I think I took it to a new level.” She replied, giggling a little and wiping her face.

“That’s the tru… Wait, do you hear… Music?” Jet asked, cutting himself off mid sentence as his ears perked up.

Flutterhy’s ears perked up as well. Both of them looked around cautiously, unsure what to make of the music coming from seemingly everywhere and nowhere all at once. The thumping beat of the music slowly grew louder and louder, to the point that it seemed to be coming from right on top of them. Fluttershy doubled over in pain, holding her ears tightly.

“Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop!” She screamed in utter pain.

The intensity of the music was too much for her newly elevated bat-like hearing and her head felt as though it would explode from the sheer pain that was coursing through it. Jet tried to focus his own hearing and locate the source of the music as quickly as possible. He shut his eyes and gradually shut out the sound of the blaring music, focusing only on any other sound there was around them. He didn’t hear anything at first, just a few whistles from the wind through the ruins of town. Then, he heard it, it was faint but it was distinct. It was the sound of rubble on the ground being shifted as somebody moved through it. The spot was just to the right inside a slightly intact house. Without a second thought, Jet jumped into action, running towards the sound with his blade now drawn.

He jumped into the air and crashed through the roof of the house. His sword plunged into the ground, just narrowly missing an armor-clad soldier. Jet quickly dislodged his sword and took a step back, staring down this new foe. They were dressed like the other assassins, black armor, and this time a very light blue trim around the panel lining. This one’s armor was a bit bulky in design with heavy and almost clamp looking boots, but he could tell whoever it was was female by the body shape. The helmet on this one was different as well, having some sort of LCD screen as the face plate. The screen currently showed an exclamation mark, a clear sign that they had been caught off guard by his attack. Something clicked in Jet’s memory about an assassin of this description.

“You’re one of the Soundwave duo, aren’t you?” Jet asked, brandishing his blade, buying time while he scanned the area for the source of the music.

The screen on the helmet suddenly displayed a thumbs up, the assassin still made no attempt to move from in front of his blade.

“Wait… Then that means…” Jet started to say, looking to the side just in time to get kicked square in the face through the window beside him.

He was knocked out of the doorway on the other side, but he caught himself by digging his fingers into the loose dirt and skidding to a halt in a spider-like stance on all fours. After jumping to his feet, the pair of assassins both stepped outside and took stance next to each other. He rubbed his jaw and looked them both over. The one that had nearly broken his jaw was wearing a similar sleek armor style to Deathstorm, clearly meant for agility more than anything and also clearly female as well. Her armor was trimmed in a bright purple that matched the brightness of the other one. Before he could move, she threw a pair of glowing daggers that she had materialized from her armor into his ankles, pinning him in place. He winced in pain and tried to pull the daggers free but was met with searing pain in his hands.

“Good luck taking those out, they are genetically coded to my armor. If you try, you’ll only burn your hands to ash in the process.” The purple one taunted, her voice sounded hollow and robotic, but her tone sounded familiar.

“F-Fuck you. You’re only prolonging your death, bitch.” Jet retorted with a glare.

“My dear, I think we should make this fast. Lord Sombra is fed up with this pathetic excuse for a rebellion. Do your thing, and do try not to make as much of a mess as last time.” She replied with a snicker.

The blue one nodded and held out her arms, the metal plates shifted and slid around until they formed large barrels at the ends of her wrists. Her large boots shifted around as well, two large spikes coming from either side of her ankles and burrowing deep into the ground. The air suddenly grew eerily quiet and still, then was just as suddenly interrupted by the whining hiss of a weapon being charged. Jet looked up to see that the large barrels on her wrists were beginning to glow a similar blue to her armor and quickly becoming brighter. The screen on her helmet displayed a winking face as the cannons became entirely enveloped by the glowing blue auras they were generating. Without any further warning, the cannons went off.

Thinking quickly, Jet summoned Love Spell and managed to get the shield of them up just as the blast hit him. It sheened off the shield and around him. His ears rang with the blaring sound that he was being assaulted with. He was holding his ground, but the force of the soundwave was slowly pushing him backwards, his boots were digging into the loose soil under his feet. With a groan, he did his best to hold back the forceful barrage of sound, but he could see the shield was starting to crack under the pressure. Just as he was sure he was done for again, a sudden high pitched wail cried out over the music. The sound was so sudden and so loud that it made the two assassins recoil and cover their ears. A dark shape shot out into the air above them. Jet looked up to see that Fluttershy had taken to the sky, her eyes once again red in color.

“I said… MAKE IT STOP!!!” She screeched and dive bombed the assassins.

She managed to knock the blue one off balance enough to disrupt her attack. As soon as those cannons were off of Jet, he dropped his shield and with a cry of pain pulled the daggers free from his ankles, pocketing one just in case he lost his sword again. Fluttershy seemed intent on focusing her attacks on the blue one, dive bombing and clawing at the black armor while the assassin fired shots of sound into the air in an attempt to hit her. While Fluttershy was keeping the blue one distracted for now, Jet ran over and tackled the purple one through the wall of the house they had previously been in. The rubble and dust flew everywhere as the assassin was knocked to the ground. She didn’t stay on the ground long though, as she quickly recovered and sprang to her feet, materializing another set of daggers to use.

No words were exchanged this time around as the assassin was fast to make the first move. She swiped at Jet with a flurry of slices, which he dodged by ducking and backstepping until his back was literally against the wall on the opposite side of the house from where they had crashed through. He ducked once more in time to narrowly miss getting stabbed by her dagger, instead she got it stuck in the brickwork of the wall. Jet used this opportunity to slide under and behind her. She slashed at him angrily as she tried to remove her stuck dagger. He kicked the back of her leg and made her fall to her knee, but she still held onto the dagger in the wall. Without a second of hesitation, he kicked arm at the elbow with as much force as he could muster. The assassin cried out in pain loudly, Jet could feel the crunch of her elbow snapping against the toe of his boot. Her arm fell limply off the dagger and to her side. She stood, panting and clearly angered even more now. With her good arm, she continued to hack and slash at Jet.

In the midst of all this, Fluttershy was still attacking the blue one from the air, making slow but steady progress against the armored cannons with her claws. With each swipe, a decent sized claw mark was left in the armor. The screen on the assassin's helmet now displayed an angry face as she kept trying and failing to hit the irate pegasus-bat. In her moment of rage, Fluttershy landed briefly in front of the house that Jet and the other assassin were fighting inside of. The assassin fired right at her but missed as Fluttershy jumped back into the air, the blast instead blasted the already ruined house to bits. The source of the music seemed to have been in the area of the house too as it stopped at that moment. There was a mixed yell of surprise from both Jet and the other assassin from inside the house. It crumbled into a hail of bricks and dust, obscuring the assassin’s vision as she was caught up in the dust cloud. Her screen displayed a question mark as she looked around for the pegasus-bat. The dust cloud was the perfect smoke screen for Fluttershy to use her newfound speed to tear the armor of the assassin apart piece by piece. The assassin could do nothing but look around in confusion. By the time the dust had settled, only her boots, chestplate, and helmet remained intact. The helmet still displayed the same question mark as she finally laid eyes on her target. She made an attempt to fire her cannon, but realized that her arm was bare and defenseless. Fluttershy stood just across from the assassin in a pseudo Mexican stand-off scene. With the music finally gone, Fluttershy’s head began to clear and the violent rage she had been flung into ceased. She reeled on her feet and stumbled slightly, with a barely audible sound of confusion, she fell to her knees. The assassin began trying to free herself from her now locked in place boots.

Behind them, the rubble left from the house began to shift and bulge upwards as Jet emerged from it. His hair and wings were coated in a thick layer of white drywall dust from the house. He stood upright and brushed himself off quickly before taking a look around. The other assassin was nowhere in sight, which meant that she had either fled or was preparing another sneak attack. He figured it was the latter of the two and turned his attention to the air and remaining rooftops around him. Just as he was turning, he saw her. She was already in the air, having jumped from somewhere in his blindspot, and was aiming another kick at him. With a movement speed to rival that of the legendary Flash Magnus, he stepped backward and grabbed her by the ankle. He then spun and flung her into the side of one of the larger buildings still standing, the runes on his vambraces glowing brightly. She was flung into and through the wall, the large building crumbling on top of her and sending a gust of wind across the area.

“And stay down this time.” Jet grumbled to himself.

He turned back around just in time to see the other assassin finally pulling free from her massive boots. From somewhere on the back of her armor, she pulled a long thin needle-like thing and gripped it tightly in her hand as she moved towards Fluttershy. She hadn’t noticed Jet, which he used as a major advantage. Before the assassin could get even halfway to Fluttershy, he sprung into action. He grabbed her by the back of the head and slammed her face first into ground in a face crusher move, hard enough to indent the ground fairly deeply. Her limbs went limp and everything went completely silent for a few moments. The silence was just as suddenly broken by a sharp ‘crack’ sound. Under Jet’s hand, the helmet started to split and spark as the LCD screen broke first. The crack became more visible as it made its way across the helmet and began to split apart. As the crack widened, the helmet itself was splitting apart like an egg, right down the middle. The helmet fell off to either side of the assassin’s head, clattering to the ground with a few sparks from the shattered screen. Once the helmet was free, a spikey tangled mess of two-toned blue hair unfurled from beneath.

Jet rolled her over to see if his assumption about her identity was true, and it was. The one he had just knocked unconscious was none other than Sunblast’s DJ friend, Vinyl Scratch. Thinking quickly, he slapped his palm against the bicep of his metal arm. The little panel opened up and he grabbed one of the antidote syringes. Without any hesitation, he jabbed the needle into her exposed neck, right at the jugular to make sure it distributed throughout her body fast enough. Once the antidote had been ejected into her veins, Jet quickly pulled the needle free and tossed it to the ground nearby. Once he made sure she was still breathing, he stood back up and threw Vinyl over his shoulder before making his way over to Fluttershy. She was holding her head with one hand and was breathing heavily. She stared at the ground in a sort of daze, staggering on her feet a bit as Jet tried to help her up. Her head slowly lifted, her gaze moved from the ground and up to Jet. He had her other arm around the back of his neck and had somebody slung over his shoulder. They were moving forward, well he was moving forward, she was sort of being dragged as her legs seemed to have lost feeling temporarily.

“Ugh, my head… What happened?” Fluttershy groaned out in a semi-hoarse voice.

“Assassins attacked, then you went feral somehow, but we’re fine now.” Jet explained in a huff as he dragged them both back over to where Vinyl was laying.

They stopped after a decent while and Jet sat Fluttershy on the ground before laying Vinyl back down. He sat between the two and retracted his armor, turning his attention to the still slowly bleeding wounds through his ankles. He looked them over and tore his pant legs enough to get a clearer view of the wounds. They were deep and clearly went all the way through to the other side of his ankle. Fluttershy looked at them as well, then turned attention to their surroundings. There wasn’t much as he had stopped in the midst of what used to be the Canterlot town garden near the town center. It mostly consisted of dead and dried out plant life, but somehow in the midst of it there were some plants still growing. She unsteadily stood up, her legs wobbling slightly. After a moment to steady herself, she wandered into the remains of the garden. Jet was just about to get up and head after her when she returned with a few plants and flowers in one hand and a couple small rocks in the other. She knelt in front of him and began to crush up some of the plants with the rocks as a makeshift mortar and pestle.

“What are you…” Jet began to ask.

“Helping you in return for you helping me. I have most of what I need here, but we’ll still need a bandage.” She said, seeming strangely calm about this.

“This should work, but can I ask what exactly you’re making there?” He asked as he ripped his pant legs the rest of the way off and handed them to her.

“Thank you, and I am making a homemade pain killer slash cauterizer. That way you won’t bleed out.” She explained casually as she continued to crush up the plants into a paste of sorts.

“I see… I only have further questions. Where did you learn this and what is it made of…?” Jet asked yet again, genuinely curious.

“Jet, you don’t live with and take care of as many wild animals as I do… Did, without picking up some home remedies. As for what’s in it… It’s a blend of ginger, aloe, rocksalt, and hot pepper. Legs out please.” She replied, beginning to scoop the paste up into her hands.

“You found all that out in this dead garden?” Jet asked, stretching his legs out for her.

“Well, rocksalt is fairly easy to find this close to the castle and ginger grows underground so it was protected from the harsh environment above. And I was just as surprised as you to find peppers surviving out here. Hold still, this is going to burn, probably a lot.” She said, suddenly slapping the paste onto the wounds on one ankle and rubbing it in as gently as she could.

Jet winced a bit and clenched his jaw as his ankle was struck with an intense burning sensation. It lasted only a short while, but it felt like she had lit his leg on fire. He braced for the burning again when she moved to the other ankle, it came and went just as suddenly as the other one had. Once the burning sensation was gone from both of his ankles, they began to feel cooler and the tension around them even relaxed a bit. He breathed a sigh of relief as the pain itself began to subside.

“Wow, thank you so much Fluttershy. That feels sooooo much better.” Jet said with a relieved smile.

“You’re welcome. Um, what do we do with her…?” She asked, pointing to Vinyl who was still unconscious and snoring now.

“Hm, I think it might be best if you and her go back to the safehouse. You can’t control your new abilities yet and Vinyl won’t be much help when she wakes up with no recollection of where she is or what happened.” Jet replied, tapping his chin lightly.

“That’s fair, but how will we get there?” Fluttershy asked, a bit confused.

“Don’t worry, I got that covered. Use this mask, it’ll act as a GPS to get you there.” He said, holding out his hand as the faceplate he had given Luna before materialized from the nanobots of his armor.

“Oh, ok then. But… What will you do?” She asked, taking the mask and slipping it over her face.

“I have a date at the castle with a tyrant.” Jet replied, standing.

“Be careful… You know what he’s capable of…” Fluttershy warned, picking up Vinyl by slinging her arm around her shoulders.

“Yeah…” Jet said solemnly, looking down at his arm as it glistened in the pale light seeping through the thick clouds.

He clenched his metal fist and turned to see Fluttershy already off heading towards the safehouse. He turned and headed off towards the castle, pushing his way through the dead plant life and back onto Main Street. From here, he could see the road extending towards the shopping district and the castle gates. The castle itself loomed in the distance, outlined by the pale light as if beckoning him to venture closer. With a deep breath, he pushed the memories of his past experience aside and made his way down the road. As he walked by the deserted and desolated shops, he was flooded with various memories of shopping with Dash. He shook his head to keep from getting distracted as he neared the castle gates for the first time in such a long time. The gates were still the way he last remembered, blown open and no longer protecting anything. Taking a nervous step forward, he set foot inside the castle walls. The courtyard was littered with dust and old dried out bones from the bodies that had once been laying around.

Steeling his nerves, he stepped around the bones and headed up the castle steps. Everything inside the castle was coated in a thick layer of dust. The hallways were dark, Jet decided to move his armor bots around to form goggles so that he could use his night vision to see. The halls were littered with destroyed and ransacked suits or armor, paintings that were torn beyond recognition, and various shards of marble and ceramic that had once been pottery. Besides the destroyed decor, the halls were surprisingly mostly intact. Even through the mess, he still knew his way to the throne room like the back of his hand. He weaved his way through the maze-like hallways and to the throne room.

He stopped just outside the doors and drew his sword. With as much caution as possible, he slowly pushed the door open and looked inside. It wasn’t a whole lot brighter inside the throne room than it was in the hallways, but it was bright enough that he no longer needed his night vision. He crept inside cautiously, pointing his blade as he checked all angles for any sign of Sombra, but saw nothing in the shadows. On the other side of the room, behind the now warped and twisted throne, he could make out a faint glow. Still watching all his sides, he made his way towards the throne and the glow. His boots crunched softly on the remains of the stained glass windows that were scattered across the floor. A very soft breeze flowed in through the window and gently shifted the few tattered remnants of the banners that had adorned the ceiling. Jet noticed that the only things still intact were the pillars and sconces that were attached to them, but no fires burned on the candles stuck inside them. About halfway across the room, he stopped in his tracks and looked around intently. Something about the air in the room changed, a chill ran up his spin. He gripped his sword tightly and steadied his nerves against the uneasy feeling in the room.

“I know you’re here, show yourself!” Jet yelled into the seemingly empty room.

“Why would I do that? The thrill is in the hunt, afterall.” Sombra’s voice rang out from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

“What’s wrong? Afraid I’ll kick your ass?” Jet taunted the tyrant king in an attempt to draw him out.

“You couldn’t handle me eight years ago! What makes you think you will fare any better now?!” Sombra yelled out with an echoing laugh.

“Guess we’ll never know since you’re too chicken to show yourself.” Jet continued to taunt while minding his surroundings.

“Then I shall show you just how insignificant you are!” Sombra yelled out.

Jet rolled to one side and just narrowly avoided being split in half by the blade of a scythe being swiped at him somewhere to his side. Sombra had appeared out of thin air and began attacking immediately, though not with the sword that Jet remembered him having. Instead, he was attacking with a strange looking scythe. It had a handle that curved in a sort of ‘S’ shape and looked like it was made from someone’s spine, at the top of the handle where the blade protruded from was what looked like a pony skull with the blade sticking out of its gaping jaw. The blade itself was very long and thin, curving outward about half as long as the handle and seemed to be glowing with a greenish tint. There looked to be some kind of symbol or emblem on the bottom of it, but Jet couldn’t make it out from this angle. The scythe had a familiar aura about it, but Jet couldn’t place it. Sombra however looked no different, he was still dressed head to toe in his signature black armor with spiked knee and elbow joints. His curved red and black horn extended from his head, where his pitch black hair flowed and draped over his piercing red eyes. He grinned menacingly at Jet, his pointed white fangs glinting in the pale light that was let in through the broken windows.

“Here I am, boy. Show me what you got.” Sombra said with an evil chuckle.

Jet gritted his teeth and gripped the hilt of his sword tighter before moving forward and striking. Unfortunately, Sombra was quicker than him and easily avoided the various slashes that Jet attempted. That didn’t keep Jet from continuing to try, slashing with a relentless flurry of varying attacks from various angles, but still to no avail. Slowly but assuredly, Jet’s already beaten and bruised body was beginning to tire. Sweat formed on his brow and his breathing was starting to grow ragged. After a little while longer, he backed off a few feet to get a bit of recovery time.

“Tired already, boy? You are just as pathetic as your mother.” Sombra said with an echoing cackle.

“Shut your mouth! You didn’t even know my mother!” Jet yelled in reply, a bit confused as his mother had passed years prior to Sombra’s return.

“Oh, on the contrary. It is you who didn’t know your mother.” He replied with an evil sneer.

“What the hell are you even talking about?” Jet asked, angry and confused by the tyrant’s words.

“You will see, in time. But until then… No spoilers.” Sombra responded, giving Jet an unsettling wink.

Jet could swear he saw some kind of weird discoloration in Sombra’s eye during the wink, but he didn’t have the time to dwell on it as Sombra was quick to launch an attack while Jet was distracted by his words. Sombra swung his scythe downward toward Jet, leaving little time to react. With a back step, Jet narrowly avoided being split down the middle, but his arm wasn’t so lucky. Two of the fingers, the ring finger and pinky finger, were sliced clean off of his false arm. The stumps of the fingers sparked and fizzled slightly from the damage. Jet reeled back even further from the pain that he felt due to the arm being connected to his nerves. Sombra laughed and twirled the scythe between his hands like a baton twirler in a marching band. He slowly moved closer to Jet, the scythe twirling in one hand seemingly of its own volition. While Sombra was busy being cocky and taking his time showing off, Jet used the opportunity to sneak a hand to his pocket where the assassin’s dagger from earlier was still sitting in wait. He pulled it out slowly and kept his hand at his side, waiting for the perfect moment. Sombra stopped just in front of Jet, glaring down at him with a wide villainous grin as he stopped twirling the scythe.

“You really thought you were ready to take me on? The way she talked, I was convinced you’d put up a bigger fight. Oh well, time for you to die.” He said, raising the scythe high above his head.

“Not today, you piece of shit!” Jet yelled as he sliced upward with the dagger.

He caught Sombra in across the eye, which made him reel backwards in pain, holding his eyes. Jet used this opportunity to make a move with his sword as well, slicing Sombra across the midsection. This extra attack made Sombra reel back even farther. His groans of pain strangely quickly devolved into feral sounding hisses. As Jet watched, Sombra lowered his hand from his face. Jet’s breath caught in his throat as he saw that there was bright green blood seeping from the wound across his eye and the one from his abdomen. He snarled deeply before there was a flash of green light. The candles around the room lit up with green flames and Sombra was gone. Before Jet’s eyes, Sombra changed and shifted into something else. Where Sombra once stood an insect-like creature with a warped crown atop her head now stood. Her holey, dark green hair draped down across her wounded eye and her crooked broken looking horn glowed green. Her remaining bright green iris focused on Jet like a hungry predator spotting its prey after a long hunt.

“C-Chrysalis…” Jet said absent-mindedly in shock.

“That’s QUEEN Chrysalis to you, boy! You will pay dearly for damaging my royal peron! Let’s see how you do without a soul!” She screamed and twirled the scythe around so that the blade was pointed down.

She ran at Jet with the bottom of the scythe aimed at him, it was only now that he could see the symbol on it. It was some kind of skull surrounded by a single flame. He didn’t recognize the symbol, but it seemed to be occultish in nature. He shut his eyes and braced for impact. She slammed it into his chest and he was immediately hit with a feeling like he had gotten the wind knocked out of him, but he hadn’t fallen over. He opened his eyes and let out an inaudible gasp at what he saw. He was looking down at his own body, which was slumped forward at the waist with his arms dangling down. He looked like a puppet that had had its strings cut. His hands patted his body to find that his hands passed right through his chest, he realized he was currently in some kind of spiritual form. Chrysalis was still standing in front of his physical body with a wicked grin on her face.

“Confused? Wondering what’s happening? It’s simple, wonderful things can happen when somebody is able to bend a Royal Arm to their will. They gain new, some might say unholy, abilities. I knocked your soul from your body so that now you’re just a defenseless lump of flesh.” She said to his physical body, seemingly unable to see him in his current state.

He tried to yell out in response, but nothing came out when he opened his mouth. Even though he was separated from his actual body, his heart was pounding. He tried to re-enter his body, but there seemed to be some kind of barrier preventing him from entering. Panic was beginning to set in as he watched Chrysalis raise her scythe once more. The only thing he could do was watch as she swung at his body. To at least spare himself the pain of watching his own execution, Jet looked away. An echoing clang of metal against metal caught his ear. He looked back to see that his body had raised its hand, with Love Spell in tow. Except, it wasn’t quite Love Spell, what had previously been flattened fingertips were now more triangular and looked filed to a point. The color was off as well, the dark pink had darkened even further into a brick red color, the golden accents were now a more rust-like color, and the knuckle studs had extended into sharp spikes. The violent looking gauntlet was tightly gripping the blade of the scythe, but only that one arm was raised, the rest of the body was still slumped forward. Chrysalis let out an almost fearful sounding gasp and visibly tried to pull back, but couldn’t get away from the grip of the gauntlet. As both Jet and Chrysalis watched, Jet’s body began to move. With several twitchy motions, his body stood upright. Its head jerked upward very quickly. Jet saw the eyes and let out another inaudible gasp, they were solid black, save for a pair of dark red irises.

“W-What is the meaning of this?” Chrysalis asked, finally managing to pull her scythe free and back up several feet.

Nothing was said, but those irises locked onto Chrysalis with murderous intent. She took another stumbling step backward. Jet’s body moved incredibly fast, closing the distance between him and Chrysalis in the blink of an eye. He attacked her with an almost endless volley of hits with the spiked gauntlets. She managed to block a lot of them, but in the long run, she was getting pummeled. Jet could only watch as his body acted of its own freewill and pummeled Chrysalis with an almost feral volley of punches. Just when it seemed like the volley would never end, Jet’s body jumped back and let Chrysalis fall to the floor onto one knee. She was heavily bruised and bleeding from several places across her body. Slowly she struggled to her feet and pointed the blade of the scythe at Jet once more.

“Y-You think you’ve b-beaten me…? I w-will not d-die here… I will l-leave your bones f-for the crows…” She muttered out through her own blood.

Jet’s body suddenly moved and vanished from her sight.

“You… Don’t have… The heart…” She heard a voice whisper in her ear, it sounded like Jet’s but much deeper and more hollow.

Before she could react, there was a loud sickeningly wet thud. Chrysalis’s remaining eye went wide and she froze in place, the scythe falling from her hand. She looked down to see one of his gauntlets sticking out of her chest from behind. It was holding a writhing green mass of flesh. Chrysalis realized in horror that it was her own heart. She was face to face with the organ that kept her blood pumping, kept her alive. In one swift motion, Jet pulled his hand free from her chest. She immediately fell forward, but she managed to roll herself over to look at Jet. He stood over her with an expressionless face, those red irises peering deep into her slowly darkening green ones. She tried to reach out for her heart in an attempt to get it back in before it was too late, her changeling body would be able to reconnect it. Jet looked at the heart then back at her before chucking it across the room, not very far but far enough that he knew Chrysalis would never reach it in time. She made a vain attempt to crawl towards it anyway. Her dying pulse pounded in her ears as her remaining organs tried to stay functional, but she could feel herself fading fast. She crawled as fast as she could, the sight of her still beating heart the only thing she was focused on. Her arm was outstretched as far as it would go, the tips of her clawed fingers just barely grazing the flesh of the heart before going limp and the heart ceasing its pointless beating. Just as Chrysalis’s last breath faded from the world, there was a sound of running footsteps coming towards the throne room from outside in the hallway. Both Jet and his body turned to see the source of the noise as Luna ran into the room, a short sword and her dagger drawn and at the ready.

“Jet Stream, I have come to lend assist…” She stopped in her tracks and midsnetence when she laid eyes on the scene before her.

Her hands went to her mouth in horror, but she was not looking at Chrysalis’s lifeless body. She was staring at Jet’s body, or rather the monster it had become with his soul separated from it. It stared her down as well, moving to grab the scythe and take a step towards Luna. Jet panicked and looked around for any way he could prevent what was about to happen, but there was nothing and his body was already picking up speed moving towards Luna. His mind raced and he did the only thing he could think of, even though it had been fruitless before.

“ENOUGH!!!” He shouted at the top of his voice, actual words coming out this time.

His body fell to its knees, gripping the sides of its head tightly in pain. There was a sudden flash of light and when Jet opened his eyes again, he was on his knees looking up at a frightened Luna. His head felt like it had been the victim of a drummer mistaking him for a drum set.

“Oh… W-What the actual fuck was that…” Jet asked, staggering to his feet.

‘We… We will talk more of this later… For now, it might be best if we get out of here…” Luna replied, still keeping a decent distance away from Jet.

“Not yet… There behind the throne…” Jet pointed to the faint glow coming from behind it.

Luna saw it too as Jet made his towards it, before joining him, Luna picked up the scythe that was lying discarded on the floor. Without any distractions, it didn’t take any time at all to make it. Once there, they saw that behind the throne sat a very large, glowing, oval shaped mirror with intricate carved runes around the outer edges.

“We need to get this out of his hands at least. Come on, help me carry this…” Jet said, moving to grab one end.

“Hmm, I have a better idea. Hold on tight.” Luna replied, putting her hand on one side of the mirror.

“What are you…” Jet started, but Luna’s artificial horn lit up bright blue and another very bright flash of light filled his vision.

The two, and the mirror, were gone. Leaving the now empty throne room to sit in the silence and stench of death that it had been unfortunate enough to bear witness to so many times.

Chapter 12: Final Preparations

Back at the bunker, Vinyl and Fluttershy had made it safely inside. Luckily for Fluttershy, Vinyl had woken up sometime midway through the journey there. Once they had descended the ladder and stepped onto the floor below, they took a moment to breathe in the clean air. After making sure she was ok, having suffered just a few scratches and a very clearly broken nose, Fluttershy caught Vinyl up to speed on everything. Vinyl didn’t really act all that shocked to hear any of it though, but she always had been pretty laid back and easygoing. She was so busy chatting that neither of them heard the footsteps coming down the hallway towards them. It wasn’t until they heard the sound of someone gasp that they stopped talking and turned around to see Sunblast and Rainbow Dash standing there. Fluttershy teared up when she laid eyes upon her old friend. She knew that Rainbow would look bad, but this was worse than she expected. The metal of her left wing and arm gleamed in the light like Jet’s had, a large chunk was missing from her right ear, and a faded pink scar adorned her right eye and cheek. Rainbow’s eyes lit up in shock at seeing her friend here, safe and sound. Without any exchange of words, the two embraced in a tight friendly hug. Meanwhile, Sunblast and Vinyl locked gazes, Vinyl giving him a casual ‘sup’ nod. He could tell by the slight angle of her muzzle that her nose had been broken. After a moment, the two girls broke their embrace and stepped apart.

“Fluttershy, I can’t believe it’s really you. Holy hell, what happened to you? I assumed the worst….” Rainbow said with a wide smile.

“I wish I had an answer for you, but I don’t know. It’s really good to see you though.” Fluttershy replied.

“Whatever it is, I’m sure we can get it figured out.” Rainbow said, putting a reassuring hand on Fluttershy’s shoulder.

“That’s pretty much what Jet said.” Fluttershy said with a soft giggle.

“Oh yeah, speaking of, where is he by the way?” Rainbow asked, finally realizing he wasn’t with them.

“He told me to bring Vinyl here then headed off towards Canterlot castle.” Fluttershy replied, looking down briefly in a moment of worry.

“Right… He was going to try and intercept Sombra. He better come back alive or I swear to Celestia I’ll kill him myself.” Rainbow said idly.

“Uh… I’m not sure that’s how that works, Rainbow…” Sunblast chimed in, gently nudging her with an elbow.

“Shut up, it makes sense to me.” Rainbow retorted, trying to stay serious.

“In any case, I’m sure he’s just fine. We all know he’s not one to give up or give in. He might come back beaten and bruised, but he’ll win the day. It’s what he does.” Sunblast said in an attempt to lift everyone’s spirits.

“You know what, you’re right. I worry too much, I guess.” Rainbow said, seeming to be cheered up by Sun’s upbeat words.

“Good, because there’s something we need to talk about when he gets back. Something Discord dug up.” Sunblast said in a slightly hushed whisper to Rainbow.

“Should I be worried?” She asked, giving him a concerned look.

“I don’t think so, it’s nothing harmful or bad this time. It’s just… Strange, is all.” He replied, scratching his head lightly in thought.

“I see… We’ll cross that bridge when the time comes. For now though, let’s get these two a shower, some fresh clothes, and some medical attention.” Rainbow said, motioning for Fluttershy and Vinyl to follow her.

Sunblast nodded in agreement, he and Rainbow leading the way down the hall and into the cafeteria. It was empty for the time being, dinner still being a few hours away. Though there were a few random ponies milling about, some of which were shocked to see Fluttershy in her current state. They decided it was probably best if she took the girls to get showered and changed. Sunblast went back towards his lab to get some things prepped there while Rainbow showed the girls to the shower room. She got them fresh towels and showed them where the soaps and things were before heading out to fetch them some clean clothes. To make things easier and quicker, she just got some of her own fatigues from her room. Thinking smart, she grabbed her hairbrush.

By the time she had returned with the clothes, both girls were done showering. Vinyl didn’t look much different, having been stuck in that suit of armor for who knows how long. Fluttershy on the other hand looked much different, her hair was still a tangled mess, but it was a lot lighter in color and the various leaves had been washed out. With it being wetted down, Rainbow could see just how long her hair was now, reaching nearly down past her ass. The two of them sat on the benches with their towels wrapped around their wastes. Rainbow handed the pair the neatly folded fatigues and hairbrush without trying to seem like she was staring. The two of them quickly got dressed and stood. Vinyl had no trouble running the brush through her still short hair, but Fluttershy was having an awful time trying to brush the large tangles out. She got frustrated when the brush got stuck entirely and hung in her hair freely. With a huff of exasperation, she gripped her hair tightly and in one swift motion from her clawed hand, she slashed at it near the top. She continued at this until she had gotten through all her hair, then picked up the brush from the tangled remains on the floor and finished brushing her hair out. She had very roughly cut her hair into a wavy shoulder length mass of light pink. It was clearly much more manageable now as she had almost no trouble brushing the remaining tangles out.

Once they were both satisfied and cleaned up, Rainbow led them back up the hallway and towards the medical wing where Redheart was already waiting with a couple of clean empty cots. The pair each took a seat on one of the cots as Redheart came over to them with her clipboard and pen. She looked over Vinyl first, figuring she'd be the easier of the two to diagnose. After a quick standard check-up and once over, Redheart scribbled some things down on her clipboard before flipping the page over and moving to start on Fluttershy. She made a slight look of worry as she started examining the clearly mutated pegasus. She looked over Fluttershy's claws, fangs, and even leathery wings. After another few scribbles on her clipboard and she stepped back, taking a few steps back to look over her notes. Without a word, she turned and headed towards the medical supply cabinet. She grabbed a handful of things out and returned to the side of the beds, handing Vinyl a wooden tongue depressor.

"Bite down on this, raise your arms, and brace yourself, this is gonna hurt like a bitch." Redheart said calmly.

Vinyl gave a thumbs up and put the depressor between her teeth, biting down hard before raising her arms. Without saying anything else, Redheart put her palms on either side of Vinyl's muzzle. With a sudden jerk and sickeningly loud pop, Vinyl's muzzle was straightened back out. Vinyl winced in pain and her eyes watered from the sudden burst of pain as her nose was broke back into place. Once it was set, Redheart put another wooden depressor on either side of the bridge of her nose to stabilize it before wrapping her muzzle in gauze to keep it all in place, followed by wrapping her chest in gauze as well.

"Very good. Take two of these tonight and come see me tomorrow for a follow-up examination." Redheart said, handing Vinyl a small bottle of pills.

Vinyl gave a thumbs up again as Redheart moved back over to Fluttershy. She gave her a nail file and a small baggie of blood.

"Get your nails in check and drink this, you should feel a ton better afterwards." Redheart said.

"I h-have to drink b-b-blood?" Fluttershy asked, staring down at the baggie of blood in disgust.

"Yes. I'm assuming you feel sluggish and tired?" Redheart replied, looking down at Fluttershy curiously.

"Actually, now that you mention it, I have been feeling run down since that fight with those assassins." Fluttershy said.

"Thought so. Like I said, drink this and do something with your nails. You'll feel better, trust me." Redheart replied with a warm smile.

"Well, ok then…" Fluttershy said, reluctantly taking the file and baggie.

"Good, now both of you get out of here and get some rest. I need a moment with Ms Dash here." Redheart said, motioning to shoo them away.

The pair took the hints and got up from the cots, walking out of the med wing and leaving Redheart alone with Dash. Once she was sure they were out of earshot, Redheart turned to Dash with a serious expression.

"So, what's the damage on them, nurse?" Rainbow asked curiously.

"Well, Ms Scratch wasn't too bad. A broken nose and a few fractured ribs. Ms Shy on the other hand though…" Redheart started, drifting off with a distant look in her eye.

"Don't sugar coat it, just give it to me straight." Rainbow said, bracing herself for the worst.

"From what I can tell, she's suffering from some form of vampirism." Redheart replied calmly.

"But how? Twilight said she got rid of that part of Flutters personality after the fruit bat incident." Rainbow explained with a quizzical tone.

"I'm not entirely sure, it's a pretty rare occurrence, so there's not really a whole lot about it in terms of research. If I had to take a guess though, it could be a result of exposure to the megaspell bomb. She's been out there in the wild all this time being exposed to the aftermath, it could've awakened some kind of mutation that was already present in her DNA." Redheart replied, scratching her chin in thought as she spoke.

"Hm, that does sound possible. None of us are really sure what kind of effects those bombs have on living ponies." Rainbow said.

"Exactly. So it could be that or it could be Sombra's doing. He does seem to have a knack for corrupting ponies." Redheart said.

"One way or the other, it's still his fault though." Rainbow replied with a shrug.

"There is one thing that concerns me though…" Redheart admitted with a frown.

"What is it?" Rainbow asked, getting a little worried.

"Without knowing the extent or the reasoning of her mutation, there's no telling how much control she actually has over herself. She could potentially go feral again at a moment's notice." Redheart said, her tone grim.

"Oh… Is there anything we can do?" Rainbow asked on a concerned tone.

"Until we know more, all we can do is keep a close eye on her and hope for the best." Redheart replied.

"Right… Well, thank you Redheart. You're a big help to all of us." Rainbow said.

"No problem at all, Ms Dash. I'm just happy to be of service during this whole ordeal." Redheart retorted with a half smile.

"Hopefully I won't be seeing you again so soon, but we both know reckless Jet is." Rainbow said with a giggle as she turned for the door.

"Yes, yes we do. Take care, Ms Dash." Redheart replied, going back to sit at her own desk.

"Later, Redheart." Rainbow said as she made her way back out of the med wing.

She headed back down the hall and into the cafeteria, debating on trying to get something to eat, but ultimately deciding to head to the gym and get some training in. They were close to the final battle after all, and she'd been sleeping more than training lately. While on her way down the hall towards the gym though, she heard some kind of commotion coming from inside the gym. Picking up speed with her walking, she quickly made her way down the remainder of the hallway and into the gym to see what the commotion was about. As soon as she stepped into the gym, she saw the source of the commotion. In the center of the gym floor stood Jet and Luna, between them sat an ornate and dirty mirror that was glowing ominously. There was a wide scorch mark on the floor around their feet, Rainbow had seen enough teleportation spells to know that that was a scorch mark from one. Sunblast sprinted in behind her, the two of them looking the returning heroes over with concern. Luna looked perfectly fine, though she looked like the grim reaper herself with the scythe in her gloved hand, but Jet was beaten and bruised far beyond what he had come back with so far. His armor was fractured in various places, his ankles were bleeding, and his mechanical hand sparked lightly from two empty spaces where fingers had once been. She sprinted over to them quickly, worry in heavy in her chest.

"Jet, you're back! Are you ok?" Rainbow asked in a hurried voice.

"I'm fine, just a few minor scratches and such. Nothing I can't recover from with some pain killers, bandages, and a new arm. Speaking of which, heads up Sun!" He replied with a light chuckle to ease her worried mind before detaching his metal arm and chucking it towards Sunblast.

Sunblast said nothing as he caught the arm, he was too entranced by the artefact that Jet and Luna had teleported into the gym with.

"Yeah, I guess so. But you still look like you've been through the ringer. And is that blood or snot?" She said, half jokingly, pointing to the dried green on his gauntlets.

"You'd look like hell too if you had to fight the queen of the changeling right after a pair of assassin's. Also, it's blood, not snot, smartass." Jet replied with a shrug, looking down at his gauntlets.

"Queen of the changelings?! As in, Chrysalis?!" Rainbow exclaimed in surprise.

"The one and only… Well, the former one and only." Jet replied with an empty tone.

"Wait, so lemme get this straight. You went up against Queen Chrysalis alone… And won?" Rainbow asked confused.

"Sure did. Why are you so surprised?" Jet asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm surprised because it took me, you, and all five of the elements to beat her before. And that was just barely a victory. Either you've gotten much stronger or she underestimated you big time." Rainbow said, still surprised he'd come out on top this time.

"To be honest, it was probably a combination of both. She seemed pretty confident that she'd win." He replied with shrug.

"Well, in any case, I'm glad you came back in one piece. I was a bit worried when Fluttershy and Vinyl came back without you and said you ran off to the castle alone." Rainbow admitted.

"No need to worry, I'm fine and here now. We can start plotting our final move against Sombra. There's not much left for him to defend, so he's likely panicking." Jet said, scratching his chin lightly.

"That's true, but still. I think you should take some time to rest and recover before you head back out into the field." She replied, giving him a serious look.

"I'll rest plenty while we plot and catch everyone up to speed on everything." Jet said with a shrug.

"You're so damn stubborn, you know that?" Rainbow asked rhetorically.

"I do know that, but that has nothing to do with this specific scenario. I'm just so ready to be done with this whole thing and go back to how things used to be." Jet retorted, in a matter-of-fact tone.

"If I may interject, there is quite a lot to do before we end this. I suggest we save the bickering for a later time." Luna interrupted from behind Jet.

"Fine… First things first though, you should at least shower and get some fresh clothes on." Rainbow stated, motioning to his less than presentable appearance.

"I know that you may want time with him before we begin strategizing for the final battle, but I wish to steal him once he is cleaned up. There is something we must discuss." Luna interjected as they began walking off down the hallway.

"Yeah, sure. Probably some royal thing right?" Rainbow asked, turning back towards Luna.

"Hm, yes. That's the best way to put it." She replied with a tap of her chin.

"Alright. I'll send him your way when he's done." Rainbow said with a smile and a wave.

With that, the two of them headed down the hallway and disappeared around the corner towards the shower room. This left Luna and Sunblast alone in gym with the mirror. Sunblast was already examining the mirror with deep interest.

"Is this really the same mirror that Starswirl enchanted to act as a portal to other timelines?" Sunblast asked casually.

"It is indeed the very same one." Luna replied with a nod.

"And that…" Sunblast stood upright and pointed at the scythe she was holding.

"Moonshadow, yes." She said with another nod.

"But why does it look so… Wrong…?" He asked.

"It has been touched by darkness and corruption. It can be fixed, but I cannot do it myself or I fear the corruption will take hold of me once again." She replied with a nervous tone in her voice.

"Well, alright then. What did you intend to do with the mirror?" He asked, looking it over again.

"I am not sure to be perfectly honest. Though, I am assuming that we will be able to make some use of it. Cadence said that this is how Sombra was obtaining all the resources that don't belong in our world." Luna replied, tapping her chin in thought.

"Hm, I think I overheard her saying that too. I'm sure I can figure out how it works and get us some resources to at least level the playing field for our final push against him." Sunblast said with a shrug.

"That is very wise, but do not endanger yourself any more than necessary. You are much more vital to things than you realize." Luna replied, giving him a soft smile.

"Oh, t-thank you princess. That means a lot." Sunblast said with a slight blush across his face.

"You are welcome, but it is only the truth. Now, I do not mean to be rude but I must be off, I have much to do to prepare." Luna said sweetly as she turned to leave as well.

Luna set off down the hallway and up the staircase that was halfway between the gym and the cafeteria. Upon the insistence of almost everyone in the bunker, she had been given a private room to herself on the upper floor. She stepped off the stairs and onto the metal walkway that served as the hall between the various rooms. Her shoes clanked softly against the metal as she walked past the rooms on her way to her own. Some had their doors open with the occupant lounging about studying up on tactics and such or were actually working out to some degree. As she was about to reach her room, which was on the far end of the walkway, she passed the recreation room. With a glance inside, she could see a few ponies watching some old movie and a couple having a game of Chess. She smiled to herself, taking some solace in the fact that they could still enjoy small thing like that even with everything happening outside this place.

Pushing open the door to her room, the lights flicked on with a loud buzz from the fluorescent bulbs but it quickly dimmed down to the same dull hum as the other lights in the bunker. The room she had been given was basically the same as the others, but had an old slightly tattered banner with her insignia on it hanging above the headboard that she had previously used to cover the entrance to her home where Jet had found her. Aside from that, everything else in the room was the same from what she could tell. A long dresser against the wall across from the bed, a footlocker for belongings at the foot of the bed, a small table on one side of the bed, and a small bathroom with only a toilet and sink inside. She pushes the door shut as she stepped inside, laying the scythe on the bed and made her way to the bathroom. She flicked the faucet of the sink on and, while waiting for it to heat up, she took a moment to collect her thoughts and reflect on the events she had just witnessed.

Her mind knew what she saw, but it shouldn't be possible, the entity responsible for such things shouldn't be here anymore. Splashing some warm water across her face, giving it a good wash from being outside, she turned the water back off and grabbed the small hand towel that hung nearby. The towel was soft and warm against her face, giving her a brief moment of comfort before her mind switched back to the coming task. She knew she had to somehow explain what had happened to Jet, he would obviously want to know, but the fact was she had no explanation. A sudden knock at the door broke her free from her thoughts. Stepping back out from the bathroom, she took a seat on the edge of the bed near the headboard before clearing her throat.

"You may enter." Luna said, looking towards the door.

There was a brief moment of silence before the door creaked open slowly, revealing Jet in a set of fresh clothes. His hair was still damp against his neck and forehead, his arm was still missing, and he had bandages around his midsection and ankles.

"So… You had something to talk to me about?" Jet asked sheepishly as he stepped inside.

"I did, yes. Close the door and take a seat please." She replied, patting the edge of the bed on the other end from her.

He nodded and shut the door quietly before coming over and sitting down at the foot of the bed. There was a long awkward silence before either of them said anything.

"I understand you may have many questions in regards to what took place in the castle back there…" Luna began, breaking the silence.

"That's an understatement, but yeah." Jet replied with a shrug.

"I do not enjoy being the messenger of bad news, but I do not have many answers for you. I will tell you what I believe and do know, hopefully that will shed some light on what you require answers to." She said, giving him a half smile.

"I don't expect you to have all the answers, but I'm sure whatever you can tell me will set me on the right track to the full picture at least." Jet reassured her, returning the smile.

"That is very nice of you to say, Jet, thank you. Now then, the best that I could tell from what I saw, you had somehow briefly been corrupted by the nightmare mist. Which does not make sense as it was banished from our reality not long after my own reformation." She explained.

"Maybe? When you were corrupted, did you have like an out of body experience? I was floating in the throne room and could see everything as if I was watching a movie." He replied, raising an eyebrow.

"No, when I was corrupted it was more like I was a passenger in my own body. I could still see everything through my own eyes, but I had no way of controlling it. How did you come into this out of body experience?" She asked curiously.

"I'm not sure really, Chrysalis hit me with the end of that scythe and I was kinda forced out of myself. If that makes sense." He replied, looking over at the scythe laying across the bed behind them.

"Strange… The end of the scythe is enchanted with a rune that knocks a soul from its body and renders the recipient incapacitated. If that happened to you, then how was your body able to keep fighting? That should not be possible… Unless…" She trailed off, looking at the scythe lost in thought.

"Unless what?" He asked, snapping her from her thoughts once again.

"I do not know much aside from what Tia told me, but your parentage is a mystery to even her. That could explain your strange power absorbing ability, as well as this new turn of events." She replied.

"What do you mean? I know who my parents are. They are… Were Tidal Breeze and Swift Feather from Cloudsdale." He replied, confused.

"No, Jet Stream, those are your adoptive parents. As she told me, Tia found you near the forest one night doing my patrol before I had returned. She did not know where you came from nor who you were birthed by. The only thing she knew was that she could not just leave you to the Timberwolves or worse. Through the use of medical records, she was able to find a pegasi couple that could not have foals of their own. So, she left you on their doorstep one night so as to not raise any suspicion of the princess leaving foals around town." She explained, not meeting his eyes.

"I… W-Wha…" Jet stuttered out, at a loss for words.

"I am sorry you had to find out like this, but it had to be said eventually. I know this is a lot to take in and process, but I hope it helps you in your search for answers." She said, reaching up to put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Uh, yeah… Hopefully…" He replied absentmindedly.

"I feel it best to change the subject, so I would like to try something if it is alright with you." She said, turning to pick up the scythe, still with a gloved hand.

"Sure… What is it?" He asked, watching her bring the scythe to be in front of them.

"This, if you had not guessed, used to be my royal arm. It has been touched and warped by corruption." She explained with a frown as she looked up on it.

"Woah… Can we fix it?" He asked, looking it over.

"That is what I wanted your help with. I am afraid to try it myself, due to my previous encounter with corruption, but it should be able to be cleansed with the use of a clean slate. So to speak." She replied with a slight shrug.

"I think I understand… You're thinking that with my ability to absorb magical essence, I can absorb and cleanse Moonshadow?" He asked, just to make sure he understood properly.

"That is the jist of it, yes. Will you try it?" She asked, scooting the scythe closer to him.

He nodded and stood up, positioning himself right in front of it. His hands reached out slowly and hovered inches from the handle. Something was telling him not to do this, but he couldn't tell the princess 'no'. With a deep breath, he clamped his hands onto the handle tightly. A surge of otherworldly cold ran across his entire body and he could hear an echoing hollow voice rang in his ears. The sound could only be described as demonic whispering, which he couldn't make out what it was saying but it made his blood run cold in his veins. As he watched, the scythe began to glow, faintly at first but slowly grew brighter. Its shape twisted and bent in his hands, molding into something new instead of its villainous corrupted form. After a few moments, the glow died down and scythe stopped writhing like a worm. The handle had straightened out quite a bit, the blade shortened and became much thicker, the pony skull that the blade had once protruded from was replaced with a pair of symmetrical bat wings on either side, and a smaller secondary handle had emerged from about midway down the handle. The scythe was fixed, but something felt different inside him, almost as if something had fed on the corruption he just absorbed.

"It… It worked… I can't believe it…" He said, stunned.

"I had a feeling it might, but I wasn't sure. Well done, Jet Stream. You continue to surprise me at every turn, really makes me realize why my sister insisted on keeping an eye on you for so long." Luna replied with a pleased smile.

"I'm happy to be of service." He said, handing her the scythe, to which she held up her hand in denial.

"You are much more of a help than you know, and I think it is fitting if you hold onto that for me. It only serves as a reminder of my cowardice that day…" She replied, her voice going momentarily soft.

"I understand and I'm honored to be given yet another Royal Arm. I will weild it with pride." He said with a short bow.

"I am sure you will. Now, I hate to be rude, but there is much I must do to prepare for our final assault on that tyrant's black palace." She replied, standing up from the bed.

"Right, of course. I'll see you down in the briefing room in a few." He said, heading for the door.

"Yes, we will be there. Make sure you are prepared as well. This will be your toughest battle yet. Oh! And we have an unexpected guest in the holding cell. You may wish to check up on that before we do the briefing." She said, closing the door behind him as he exited.

He gave her a nod as the door shut completely before heading back down the metal walkway and then down the stairs with the scythe in his hand. He made his way through the cafeteria and down the hallway the room they had dubbed the holding cell. It was a small room that was on one side of the hallway leading to the medical wing. In actuality, it was just a small padded room meant for anybody suffering from mental illness of some kind and required isolation. There was a single guard standing outside the room, he was armed with a spear and looked like he was taking his job way too seriously. He was a stallion Jet had never met, but he looked familiar. His buzzcut orangish-yellow hair and well trimmed goatee stood out against his pale white coat and strangely reddish eyes. He was buff but slightly slender, evident through his exposed biceps and the way his clothes cling to his body. Jet walked up and the stallion instantly saluted, standing upright with his spear at attention and his free hand to his head.

"Commander Stream, sir. I've been awaiting your visit!" He yelled, his voice is what tipped Jet off to his identity.

"Bulk Biceps?" Jet asked, hardly recognizing him with his newly more slender appearance.

"Sir, yes sir!" He yelled again.

"Wow, you look so much different than I remember from meeting you before." Jet replied with a surprised tone.

"My workout regime has suffered greatly since Sombra's take over, sir!" He yelled in response.

"Uh, at ease soldier. You don't have to call me 'sir' all the time. It makes me feel weird…" Jet said with a slight shudder.

"Oh, sorry si… Um, Jet. Anyway, I guess you're here about the prisoner?" He asked, finally speaking in a normal voice.

"Yeah. I'll see what this is all about and then you can go relax or something, ok?" Jet replied, moving to open the door.

"Sounds great!" He yelled, stepping out of the way for Jet.

Jet stepped into the small room, his boots sinking into the soft padding that lined the floors, walls, and ceilings. The light inside was dim, but bright enough to see fairly well. He had to steady himself slightly against the soft terrain to keep from losing his balance and falling over. Once he had his balance back, he looked up and laid eyes on a small timid looking changeling balled up in the corner. The two locked eyes for a moment before Jet sighed and shook his head.

"How… Why… Look, I'm not really up to dealing with this so I'll make it short and simple. Who are you?" Jet asked, having had enough changeling interactions to last a lifetime

"M-My name is Thorax." It said shyly, sort of reminding Jet of Fluttershy.

"Why are you here?" He asked again.

"Um… I w-was a spy…" Thorax replied with a shudder as he thought about Chrysalis.

"A spy, huh? Well, Chrysalis is dead. So either side with us or take a quick death." Jet stated, pointing the scythe in his hand at the trembling changeling, making it obvious he was serious.

"I'll side with you! I s-stopped being a spy for her a long time ago anyway… D-Did you really kill her?" Thorax answered quickly to not irritate the pony standing over him.

"Good. And yes, she's dead. Her body's still in Canterlot Castle if you need proof." Jet replied, lowering the scythe back to his side.

"That's the best news I've ever heard." Thorax said, a small smile crossing his face.

"Yep. We good here?" Jet asked, a little coldly.

"I guess so." Thorax replied nervously.

"Great. Head to the gym, we'll tell you where you're needed in the upcoming fight." Jet said, pushing the door open.

"O-Okay…" Thorax responded, heading out of the door and back towards the gym.

"Alright, Bulk. Go enjoy some free time while you can. I'm done here." Jet said as he left the room, heading back down the hallway.

He planned to head back to his room as he stepped onto the first floor, making it as far as the cafeteria before being interrupted by someone yelling his name from the other end of the cafeteria. Turning around, he saw Sunblast jogging over to him. Sunblast had a very excited look on his face as he ran over, his hair a mess and his usual clipboard of notes nowhere to be seen. He stopped in front of Jet, panting lightly, but he had a wide grin on his face.

"Jet, there you are! I've made an incredible breakthrough! I need your help in the lab right away!" He exclaimed in earnest.

"Okay, okay. Chill out a little and lead the way." Jet replied with a chuckle.

Sunblast motioned for Jet to follow as he proceeded down the hallway that led to the labs. Jet followed behind him as they walked down the hall and into the lab. Off to one side of the room, inside a thin tube-like container, hung the suit that Sunblast had mentioned he wore on his scouting excusions. Set up in the center of the lab was the mirror, it had several wires hooked up to it, some of them leading to a separate secondary generator and the rest to some sort of large empty metal pedestal with what appeared to be a trio of claws extending up from its base. The lab was otherwise empty easide from the two of them and the mirror. There was a chair sitting a few feet away from the mirror, pointing at the shimmering reflection contained within. Once they were both inside the room, Sunblast shut the door behind them.

"Sooo, what's this all about?" Jet asked curiously.

"Well, first I have discovered how Starswirl's mirror works! Also, this!" He exclaimed, still very excited, pulling a remote from his other pocket and hitting the button on it to which a second much larger tube-like container ascended from the floor.

Sunblast's grin widened as he stepped over and threw open the long doors of the tube. Inside was a massive suit, completely black in color. On one of its hands was a huge a seemingly oversized hammer-like fist, the other was what looked like a Swiss Army Knife of various blades, and one shoulder bared a launcher of some kind.

"Really? That's amazing, Sun! Also, what the hell is that?" Jet asked in return

"This, is the secret weapon I've been toiling away on in my lab. I call if the Sombra Buster. It's equipped with a seismic spell enchanted hammer fist, a variety of obsidian laced weaponry, and a Poison Joke bomb launcher. All wrapped up in a suit of armor that is made of anti-dark magic steel and miniaturized anti-hypnosis field generators." He replied, running his hand across the suit.

"Wow, you made this? That's truly incredible." Jet said, giving his friend the praise he deserves.

"Thank you, I'm sure it will give you the edge you need to kill that bastard." Sunblast replied with a smile.

"Me? I appreciate the effort and thought, but I'd rather take him down without a crutch that large." Jet said, giving his friend a solemn look.

"That's fair, I suppose I could always use it myself." Sunblast replied with shrug.

"There you go, I'm sure you'll kick so much ass in that thing." Jet said with a smirk.

"Indeed. Now, onto the bigger matter at hand." Sunblast replied, stepping over to the generator the mirror was hooked to and flicking it on.

The mirror flower dimly, but didn't change other than that. Sunblast walked over and knocked against the glass with his knuckle.

"You see, even with a power source the portal ability of the mirror doesn't come into effect. But…" He explained, moving over to stand beside the empty pedestal.

"But?" Jet asked, watching him with interest.

"If you give it a catalyst to pull dimensional resonance from…" He continued, pulling Jet's nano suit unit from his pocket.

He deposited the nano unit onto the pedestal gently. The pedestal began to glow and silently hum, the nano unit levitating between the claws. The mirror briefly glowed brighter and the reflection warped from the center of the mirror like a drop of water falling into a puddle. The ripples in the reflection continued for a few moments until they became almost unnoticeable. Jet's eyes widened a bit as he watched this unfold. Sunblast walked over to the mirror again and went to knock on it, only this time his hand went through the reflection and disappeared through to the other side.

"That's incredible, Sun! But where does it lead?" Jet asked, venturing closer to the mirror portal.

"Well, I haven't done a full reconnaissance of the other side. But, I did peek through and from what I could tell it's some sort of futuristic version of our own world, but with what appeared to be a dictator of some kind given the amount of dictatorial propaganda I saw." He explained, pulling his hand back in front the portal.

"Ok, but why?" Jet asked, still confused.

"As I mentioned, it's using the dimensional resonance of the material found in the nanites that we originally stole from Sombra's supply shipment forever ago. Which means that wherever this place leads, it's the same place he was getting all of his resources." Sunblast explained with excitement.

"I see. Last question, what the hell is dimensional resonance?" Jet asked, trying to understand as much as he could.

"Alright, so you're familiar with the theory of the multiverse right?" Sunblast retorted.

"Sure, that's a really easy one to remember." Jet replied with a wave of his hand.

Sunblast smiled and pulled down a retractable chart that was from the ceiling. It showed two sound waves like graphs, one in blue and one in green. Both were very obviously different frequencies.

"Ok, well that theory goes a bit further. It says that the atoms of any given resident or object native to one universe will vibrate at a specific frequency, or resonance. While something or someone from a differing universe will vibrate at a differing resonance. The blue graph is a normal piece of steel from our universe, while the green one is from the steel that comprises the nanites of your suit." Sunblast explained, pointing to the graphs as he did.

"So that means…" Jet stepped forward excitedly now.

"We can get enough resources to equip everyone in the bunker and make our army even more powerful!" Sunblast finished, still just as excited.

"I can't believe it, we finally get something that works in our favor!" Jet replied, grinning.

"My thoughts exactly! Now, all that remains is to venture into this other world and actually obtain the resources." Sunblast said.

"I'm guessing you want me to go?" Jet asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"For once, no. This is the scientific discovery of a lifetime, I'm calling dibs on this one." Sunblast said with a giddy laugh.

"Oh, I suppose that makes sense. What did you need me for then?" Jet asked.

"I'm glad you finally asked. While I'm inside the portal, I will obviously need to leave it on so I can come back through when needed. So, I'll need somebody here guarding the this side in case anything other than me decides to come through, and you're the most capable of anybody in the bunker." Sunblast explained, already grabbing his suit from the tube-like container.

"That's fair and very smart. This is why we trust you with our scientific stuff." Jet replied with a smile.

"And I'm glad you do. Now then, shall we?" Sunblast asked, motioning to the chair.

"Oh, yeah. Gotcha." Jet replied, sitting in the chair.

"Wish me luck." Sunblast said before stepping through the mirror portal.

With that final statement, Jet was left sitting alone in the labs. Only the gentle hum of the generator and the occasional 'beep' sound from one of the other science-y things in the room, it was the fairly quiet. Jet sat back in the chair, crossing one leg on top of the other. He waited patiently, wondering how long this excursion would take his friend, mostly just to get his other arm back. Heaving a sigh and stretching out as much as he could, he started to whistle an old tunelessly to pass time and fill the silence. His whistling eventually died down and stopped as he grew bored with that as well, always having a short attention span.

Luckily though, before he could grow any more bored, a figure stepped through the portal. It wore an entirely reflective silver suit of armor, welded some kind of glowing spear, and had a large sack on its back. Jet jumped to his feet and gripped the scythe tightly, drawing it back and ready to strike. The figure ignored him and quickly dropped the sack to the floor, rushing over and flipping the switch on the generator. The portal powered down with a soft and sudden 'whirr' just as another hand came through the portal, getting severed by the sudden stop of the connection. The mystery figure turned towards Jet and stepped closer. Unceremoniously the helmet folded in on itself just like Jet's did when he controlled his armor. To Jet's surprise, it was Sunblast, but he looked rough. A five o'clock shadow adorned his face and his hair looked longer and unkempt. He moved past Jet and flopped into the chair behind him.

"It's good to see you, Jet. Sorry it took so long. Thank you for keeping watch all that time though." Sunblast said, speaking as if he'd been gone longer than a few minutes.

"Uh, you're welcome. But, what are you talking about? You were only gone for like ten minutes at most." Jet replied, furrowing his brow.

"What…? But that would mean… Oh, this is incredible!" Sunblast exclaimed, jumping to his feet and pulling a small notebook from a pocket in his armor.

He scribbled something into the notebook, mumbling to himself feverishly in the process.

"You okay, buddy?" Jet asked, not wanting to get too close in case his friend had lost his mind completely.

"Okay? Okay?! I'm fan-fucking-tastic! This is huge!" He yelled in excitement.

"Calm down and fill me in?" Jet asked with an amused smirk on his face.

"You said I was only gone for around ten minutes, right? Well, long story, but I was in that other world for nearly a week trying to gather the equipment and resources while avoiding their emperor." Sunblast explained with a hurried voice, barely taking a breath.

"So, does this qualify time travel?" Jet asked.

"I suppose in a sense, yes. But what it really means is that not only do other universe vibrate at a resonance different than ours, it means they move at a different rate of time as well!" Sunblast replied with increased excitement.

"I see. And the equipment?" Jet asked in response.

"Oh, right! It's in the bag. There's enough for everyone in the bunker, plus I made custom suits and weapons for our heavy hitters to make them hit even heavier. Which reminds me, heads up!" Sunblast said, reaching into the sack and pulling out a brand new looking arm.

He tossed it to Jet, who caught it easily from the short distance between them. It was shiny and smooth all the way around instead of having the obvious look of being cobbled together with whatever was available to make it work. It looked as if it has been pulled straight from a sci-fi comic. Without any delay, Jet attached it to his shoulder. He barely felt anything as the arm connected itself to his nerve endings. He flexed his new arm, the metal elbow joint gliding effortlessly. The hand and fingers flexed just as easily, acting more like a real arm and hand instead of a false appendage.

"Amazing, thank you so much Sunblast." Jet replied with a wide smile.

"That's not all, hang on just a second. Let's see… That's not it… Not that one either… Is that, no… Aha!" Sunblast muttered as he dug through the large sack, tossing Jet a new nanite unit.

It was different from the one he had before, this one was circular and was red all the way around save for a a series of symmetrical black stripes around it. He put it on his chest like he had the other one and it sprang into action. It was quick to engulf Jet's body with the nearly invisible nanites, flowing over him like water in a warm shower. Once it had engulfed his entire body, he stepped in front of the mirror and looked himself over in it. This new armor was sleeker and seemed to be made of the same newer metal as his arm. It was red with thin black lining at the joints and between the panels. This model had a full helmet instead of just a face plate, the helmet was red like the rest of the armor but had a solid black face section. Jet willed the armor back into its housing unit.

"This is one hell of an upgrade, Sunblast. We're gonna wipe the floor with Sombra and his army." Jet asked, still baring a wide smile.

"Not a problem, I just used what they had available. Which, yes, is one hell of an upgrade. Which brings me to the next item on our shared agenda, the mission briefing. These are for AJ, Rarity, Pinkie, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Vinyl, and the princesses. They're our biggest hitters, so they got specialized suits. I'll bring their weapons after I get these handed out." Sunblast replied, pulling a handful of the units out of the sack and handing them to Jet.

"Right. I'll send out the announcement and see you in the briefing room." Jet responded before turning to head back down the hallway.

They shared a nod and headed out of the lab wing, Jet towards the briefing room on the second floor above the kitchens. Only accessable by himself and the handful of others that would be attending the briefing. He clambered up the stairs quickly, lightly jogging towards the briefing room. Reaching the bright red double doors, he stopped just in front of them. A mechanical 'whirr' emanated from the door and a scanner of some sort sprang to life above the door. A wide white beam flowed across Jet with a quick and sudden scan. The beam disappeared and was immediately replaced by the hiss of the door opening as the seal on it was broken.

He quickly stepped inside and took a look around to get his bearings. The majority of the room consisted of a long rounded wooden table with several chairs around it. The wall closest to him was made up of a single large window pane that looked out over the rest of the bunker. In front of the window sat an intercom system. Behind the table on the opposite wall from the window, was a large screen meant to display things of interest. He sprinted over to the intercom and picked up the mic, hitting the button to talk.

"Attention, all authorized personnel to the briefing room immediately please. All other personnel report to the gymnasium to receive your new battle gear from our resident head scientist." He said into it, broadcasting his voice throughout the entirety of the bunker.

With the announcement made, all he had to do now was wait. He took a seat at what he assumed was the head of the table as it was the only single chair positioned at one end of it. He could hear the commotion from down below as everybody headed to their required destination. It wasn't much of a wait as soon the others filed into the briefing room. Jet stood and deposited the nanite units onto the table, looking them over. They were like the one he'd been given, but some had minor differences in them. He noticed they were color coded, likely to distinguish between each recipient. Assuming that is what the case was, he began handing them out to each of them. There were several thanks as they took them and Jet explained what they were. They repeated what he'd done and put on their new armor to check it out. Each one was similar to his, but colored to match their own styles and had minor differences in design.

Rainbow's was sleek and slender, with retractable roller blades to enhance her speed. Applejack's was bulky and heavily armored, a pair of jet boosters were attached to her shins to enhance her kicking power. Rarity received a suit similar to Rainbow's, except it had a magic ring around where her horn came out of her helmet to allow for greater use of her magic. Pinkie's suit was clearly designed with both speed and strength in mind as it resembled a cross between Applejack's and Rainbow's suits, but instead of jet boosters or roller blades, her suits had boot jets that would increase her jump height exponentially. Fluttershy's suit was the most modest in design as it had armored plating along her shins, wrists, wings, and chest with just a chainmail looking under suit covering the rest along with what appeared to be steel enhancement for her talons. Vinyl seemed to have gotten an upgraded version of her old suit from her time as Sombra's pawn, but likely without the brain washing element. Luna and Cadence received nearly identical suits, both moderately armored and sporting the same horn enhancements as Rarity's suit. Jet decided to suit up as well. They all chattered amongst themselves about their new suits, until Sunblast came in shortly after, carrying the sack once again.

"Ah, I see you ladies are all suited up. I hope they are to your liking." Sunblast said, a seemingly nervous tone in his voice.

"Yer darn tootin it is!" AJ replied with a hearty chuckle.

"They're simply divine darling, you really managed to bring out my eyes with this purple highlighting." Rarity chimed in, checking herself out in the reflection of the window.

"We're going to kick so much ass in these things!" Rainbow screamed in a psuedo battle cry.

"It's fantast-amazing!" Pinkie yelled with a giggle.

"I-It's nice, thank you…" Fluttershy said quietly, barely heard over the clamor of everyone else.

"We are honored to have received such a gift, thank you Sunblast." Luna said, giving him a small hug.

"They're great, though I'd expect nothing less from your brilliant mind." Cadence added.

Vinyl gave him a wide smile and a thumbs up.

"Thank you, all of you. I'm truly flattered and frankly embarrassed to have this much attention all at once. But, there's more to this." Sunblast responded to their thanks and praise, plopping the sack onto the table with a soft 'thud'.

"What else you got for us?" Rainbow asked excitedly.

"Well, what's a suit of armor without weapons? We've got… A seismic hammer for AJ… Wrist mounted 'party' cannons for Pinkie… A pair of energy shields for Rarity… A far more destructive sonic cannon for Vinyl… A pair of energy short swords for Rainbow… An obsidian sickle for Luna… An energy katana for Jet… And finally, an energy crossbow with magically controlled bolts for Cadence." Sunblast described each weapon as he handed them out, giving everybody an idea of what they could do and how to wield them.

"These are awesome!" Rainbow exclaimed again.

"Indeed. Now than, any questions?" Sunblast replied.

There was a short murmur from everybody but no one piped up.

"Great, then we can proceed onto planning. If everybody will have a seat, I'll let Jet take it from here." Sunblast said, taking a seat on one side of the table.

The others followed suit and sat down, Rainbow and Sunblast sitting closest to Jet as they were essentially his right hand cohorts and assistants. Jet pressed a button on the helpfully labeled control panel that sat in front of the head seat. The screen behind him lit up, displaying a shot of Sombra's black palace, the dark layer of clouds hovering ominously above it, and above that was just a black void with a set of white question marks to indicate the unknown abobe the cloud layer.

"Thank you, Sunblast. As we all know, after dismantling his other operations, plus my siege on Canterlot Castle, he has nowhere else to run except his black palace in the Crystal Empire. Our plan of attack is seemingly simple, but it's deceptively simple enough to work. You all will be splitting into teams, leading a chunk of our army from one side of the empire border. Those teams will be Luna and Cadence, AJ and Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy. You'll each lead your part of the army in a coordinated rush attack on the border, hopefully throwing both Sombra and his forces off guard long enough for phase two to commence. Phase two of the plan will consist of Rainbow, Sunblast, and Vinyl. Your task will be to make your way to the palace doors during the chaos. Sunblast and Vinyl will hold the doors while Rainbow slips inside to locate Sombra's throne room." Jet explained thoroughly, making marks on the display with a dry erase marker to indicate each position and step.

"Wait, what about you?" Rainbow asked, sitting forward with concern.

"Glad you asked. While you guys are bombarding the palace and keeping him distracted, I'll be up in the air working to get those airships, that Discord told us about, down. That will give us clear skies and even more of an advantage by taking away his permanent shadows and toxin. Rainbow, when you find the throne room through those hallways, you'll relay that location to me so I can meet you and we can finally finish this. Now, any questions about the plan?" Jet asked, finishing his briefing.

"Why in tarnation are ya having Dash go inta tha palace? Won't that be tha most dangerous place?" She asked in a sort of accusing tone as she stood up.

"I'm sending her in because she's the fastest and will be able to navigate the potentially maze like halls of the black palace, locating the throne room, quicker than anybody else." Jet replied with a frown at her tone.

"Oh, well… Ah guess that makes sense." She said, sitting back in her seat.

"Good. Anything more questions?" Jet asked again.

Nobody else said anything or made any motion to do so. Jet took this as everything being understood and gave the room a nod.

"Great. There is one more thing, before you head out to take position with your troops, I require a thirty minute lead. There's something I have to tend to before we do this." Jet said, his voice wavering ever so slightly.

"Got it. We'll get everything set up and I'll see you in the throne room. Be careful up there, it's hard to tell who or what he's got guarding those airships." Rainbow said, standing to give him a hug.

"I will, I'm well prepared for whatever he's got waiting this time." Jet replied, returning the hug.

Everyone finished up saying their 'good lucks' and 'be safes' before adjourning the briefing room. Jet walked to the mic again to make one final announcement.

"Attention all personnel, you will have the next thirty minutes to get your affairs in order before deployment for the final push against King Sombra. If you are not ready and waiting to deploy within the allotted time frame, you will be considered a deserter and a traitor and will be dealt with accordingly. That is all, may Celestia's light guide us all in our hour of need." Jet announced, shutting off the mic and leaving the room himself.

Slotting the scythe into a holster his armor has created on his back, he headed for the exit ladder with a heavy heart. He knew that this coming goodbye he was headed for would be the hardest after what he had learned from Luna, but it had to be done. He hadn't visited them once in quite some time.

Chapter 13: Unexpected Visitors

Author's Note

Hello, reader. Chapter 13 was initially going to the be the last chapter. But, as I wrote more and more, I felt it would be better to split it into two more chapters so that it fits better with the length of the previous chapters. So this is only half of what I currently have typed out I'll try to finish up and get the next part out tomorrow hopefully.

I just wanted to add that this indicates a scene break/meanwhile scene:

Thank you for reading, hope you enjoy, and Happy Halloween 🎃

Chapter 13: Unexpected Visitors

Jet climbed the ladder and up to the exit hatch. He pushed it open with a loud creak and climbed the rest of the way, stepping out onto the dirt outside. After activating his armor, the HUD on his helmet came up around his vision inside it. It was a slightly brighter shade than the previous version and the details were smaller, allowing more space to actually see out of the visor. He watched as the HUD readings booted up and set up for the first use of the new system.

"Cognitive AI online, telepathic link to user successful, flight systems online, biofuel level at maximum, mapping system… Partially online, combat systems operational, nanite stability at peak efficiency, musical playlist updated and available." A familiar computerized voice rang in Jet's ear.

"Ah, hello Friday." He said happily.

"Greetings, sir. How many I assist you today?" She asked.

"I need a path to the Ponyville cemetery please." Jet replied, voice wavering slightly.

"Of course, sir. On moment." She said with a happy inflection.

It took a few seconds before a small beacon appeared at the top of his HUD just like before, acting like a compass to point him in the right direction.

"Thank you, Friday." Jet said politely.

"You're welcome, sir. Can I help you with anything else today? Shall I give you a rundown of new features?" She asked in response.

"No, I think I'm good for now. Just keep on standby, I might need to make use of that musical playlist you mentioned earlier." Jet replied after a moment of thought.

"Of course, sir. Good luck out there." She said before going silent for now.

Jet smiled and took off in the direction of the beacon and followed it in silence. It shouldn't take long to get there, but it would feel much longer due to the heaviness of the coming situation. He hadn't visited his parents graves since they passed. They had started in Cloudsdale, but after Jet joined the guards academy, they opted to move closer. Canterlot was a bit out their price range, so Ponyville is where they laid their heads. Jet knew he probably should've visited more even while they were still alive, but growing up with them, life was rough. At the time, he didn't know why they acted how they did, but after having heard from Luna that they were infertile it made sense.

Throughout the majority of his childhood, his father was a heavy drinker and his mother was just absent most of the time working at some diner. Once he grew up a bit and hit mid teens, his father had stopped drinking and gotten a job allowing his mother more time at home, they tried to make up for the lost time but the damage had already been done. They both wanted a child they couldn't have and dealt with that sorrow in their own ways, his father drowned his sorrows in alcohol while his mother drowned hers in her work. He didn't resent them or hate them for it, but he just couldn't face them after all that, it was too hard. But now, he wasn't leaving himself a choice. He might die today and he didn't want to leave any unfinished business or loose ends. His heart beat like a drum as he saw the large metal sign loom in the air ahead of him, accented by the barren skeletal trees that littered the grounds around and inside the cemetery. It was a foreboding scene, one that made Jet second guess his decision to come here.

As much as he wanted to turn back and forget this, he had already come this far. Turning back now would only waste time and energy for an end result of nothing. Stepping over the threshold of the cemetery gate, he took a deep breath and headed in. The old cobblestone path was faded, cracked, and heavily covered with dirt and debris from the years of no vistors. It wound and curved around the graves, leading deeper inside the land of death. He may not have visited, but he knew where they were buried. As he made his way through the cemetery, passing the various headstones that were in varying degrees of decay and weathering, he passed by a large monolith monument in the center of the cemetery. He knew this monument well as Twilight had told him about it a few times. It was a monument built to honor Starswirl himself, his body wasn't here of course as there had been no body to be buried. There were dozens of variations on stories about what happened to him, with only Luna and Celestia knowing the truth but refusing to talk about it in any kind of interview. The one thing that all the stories seemed to agree on was that he had vanished under mysterious circumstances, his study being found empty one day when everyone noticed his absence.

Jet stared the monument down for a brief while, reflecting on his life before moving on. Descending further into the cemetery and into the section with the mausoleums. They ran along on either side of the path and made it feel as if the graveyard itself was closing in on him. He'd never been claustrophobic, but this made him feel trapped and compressed for some reason. The path eventually wound back out of the tight feeling space of the mausoleums and out into another section with regular graves. He followed the path up a small hill in front of him, where a pair of chipped and worn headstones sat in the pale light that was barely able to pierce the thick clouds above. His stride slowed as he approached the headstones. They were chipped in a few spots across the surface and covered in a thick layer of dirt, obscuring the etched details beneath. At the base of them sat a pair of brown, dried out, and very dead roses. He sighed and bent down, brushing the old dead flowers away with his hand along with the built up dirt from the etchings. They almost instantly crumbled into dust and blew away in the breeze. Satisfied with having cleaned it enough to be legible, he knelt down and took a moment to collect his thoughts.

"Hey, mom and dad… Well, I guess technically not really huh? I… I don't really know how to take this new information. Hell, I'm not even sure why I came here to be honest. It's not like I ever came to see you while you were alive…" Jet said to the headstones.

The air grew eerily silent and colder as a dense fog started to roll in, but Jet hardly noticed. He had a lot to get off his chest and he wanted it over with.

"I guess the reason I'm here is to… To apologize. I should've visited more, alot more, but I just couldn't bring myself to face you guys. I was afraid… Afraid that something would happen if I came to see you. After everything when I was a colt… By the time you guys were ready to give me the love I needed, I didn't want it anymore. I feel awful about not giving you the chance to make it up to me and I really hope that wherever you are, you can forgive me. And if it's any consolation in the afterlife, I never hated or resented you for anything that happened. I was just too afraid of what could've happened, that I never even tried to see what would happen." Jet continues, spilling his guts to the emptiness of the cemetery and the headstones of his long deceased parents.

Biting back a sob, he was about to say more, but before he could, he was suddenly hit by something from his right side. He didn't catch what it was, but whatever it was hit him hard enough to knock him off the small hill and back onto the flat ground near the entrance to the mausoleum path. He lay on the ground on his back, dazed and confused as to what the hell hit him. Without wasting a second, he jumped to his feet and looked into the foggy abyss around him. There was nothing in sight that he could see, but as soon as he had that thought he was hit again. This time from the front and knocking him backwards, through a few of the mausoleum walls. The walls and coffins crumbled around him, leaving him covered in a combination of concrete dust and remnants of dead ponies. He quickly got back to his feet and brushed himself off with a deep shudder and gag, imagining who he had just had brush off himself.

"Alright, that's just fucking disgusting and disrespectful! Seriously! Who the hell attacks somebody in a cemetery?!" Jet yelled into the inky darkness.

There was no answer, just an eerie laugh from somewhere within the thick fog. He began to back up down the path, back towards the center where there was at least somewhat more light to see. From within the fog, he heard what sounded like chains rattling, followed by a sudden shape coming from the darkness. It moved fast, but Jet was luckily faster this time and managed to roll out of the way. He looked back to see a weapon of some kind that bore three claw-like blades, it had a strange iridescent purple chain attached to it and the claws appeared to be flashing with purple arcs of electricity. The claw, having missed it intended target, had become lodged in the concrete of one of the mausoleums.

Jet used this opportunity to turn and take off running, trying to at least get out of the cemetery for the sake of the dead surrounding him. He was almost back at Starswirl's monument when he was attacked again, this time being tripped up and knocked into the air in a matter of seconds. Making use of his wing thrusters, he reoriented himself upright. As he did, a figure cloaked by the fog and shadows jumped from the ground somewhere on his left. The figure spread its large wide wings, in what little light there was, he could make out only the vague shape of this one. The same eerie giggle from earlier rang out again, followed the by the same subtle rattle of chains. Before he could react, the figure moved its arms, the clawed weapons from before shot out from the fog suddenly.

Jet didn't have time to react, as the claws caught him. They didn't pierce his armor luckily, but they still gripped onto him tightly at his ribs. As he was about to yank them off, the purple chains they connected to flicked hard. A very quick and very harsh jolt of electricity was sent down them, through the claws, and right into Jet's ribs. This electricity was different from what he had found in the generators that he had found at Sombra's operations, it was much more volatile and felt almost alive. He screamed out in pain as it coursed through him, seeming to be deliberately targeting his wounds as most of the pain was concentrated in those spots. It lasted only seconds, but felt like minutes to Jet. Then just as suddenly as it started, it stopped, leaving Jet numb all over as he fell to the ground with a hard thud.

The shock combined with the impact left him dazed with the wind knocked out of him, on his back and vunerable. He tried to make his body move, to get out of this current vulnerable position. Slowly, but surely he got his limbs to move. Getting to his feet after a minute, he wheezed and coughed, still recovering from having the breath knocked out of him. While he recovered, he watched his surroundings for any more surprise attacks. None came for the time being, giving him time to both recover and think. Something clicked in his brain and he remembered the files on the assassins. By his count there were three left, and two of them fit the description of what was happening. He smirked to himself, having formed a plan now.

Regaining his ability to breath, he stood and summoned Love Spell. Ready and on guard, he listened closely for any sound to give away their position. It wasn't long until he heard the very soft crunch of gravel under a boot, followed by a very quick 'whoosh' of air being pushed at a fast rate. That was it, the tell he was looking for that would indicate an attack from whoever this was. He got hit from behind again, but this time was ready with a shield. The attack bounced off harmlessly, sending the attacker reeling backwards and throwing them off their balance. This gave Jet a good look at one of his attackers. They wore the same black armor as the other assassin's, but this one had very dark pink highlights and was very streamlined and sleak. Looking similar to the armor that Sunblast had gotten for Rainbow. Judging from the design of the armor, this was also a mare and different from the one who just electrocuted him.

Jet couldn't help but notice that one the shins and ankles of the assassin, a series of runes was glowing brightly, indicating another of the Founder's Relics. He recognized this assassin as Speed Freak, having the ability to attack their targets faster than they can see or react, but Jet was no ordinary target. They stared each other down for several moments before the assassin sped off back into the murky foggy darkness. Shutting his eyes tightly, he slowed his breathing and listened, waiting for the telltale sign that the assassin was about to attack again. As he focused on listening for that specific sound, everything else around him faded into silence. It wasn't long before he heard it, the soft crunch of debris under a boot followed by the 'whoosh' of the wind. He gave it only a second before he acted, leaping into the air with Love Spell above his head. The vambraces adorning his arms flower vibrantly as he added the strength of it to Love Spell. Wasting not even a second longer and chance giving the assassin time to react, he slammed his gauntlet clad fists into the ground below him.

The ground erupted in a shower of dust and chunks of stone, fracturing in portions and jutting upwards, sending now loose cobblestones flying every which way. The ground went from flat to the unstable aftermath of an earthquake in a matter of moments, the crags of the Earth itself around Jet stuck up like teeth from a gaping maw. The newly uneven ground was quick to trip up the assassin, Jet watched as she stumbled and face planted with a very audible thud. Unable to get enough footing to keep her speed, the glowing of her greaves dying down. Pulling his gauntlets free from the ruined cobblestone path, leaving two huge fist shaped indentations in the Earth, he made his way over to the assassin. He knelt down and grabbed her by the ankle, picking her up without much effort as she didn't seem to weigh a whole lot even with her armor. His gaze focused onto the silver greaves she wore, and just as he thought, it was another of the Founder's Relics.

"You probably wouldn't tell how you got these, huh?" Jet asked rhetorically, not expecting any answer.

"Lord Sombra gave them to me! They are my property, hands off!" She screamed, voice distorted by her own helmet.

"Interesting… And how exactly did he come to have them?" He asked, looking down into the faceplate of her helmet while he held her in the air.

"None of your fucking business, now fuck off!" She screamed again, kicking her free leg to no effect.

"Figured you'd say something like that, any chance you'd tell me who it is I'm fighting under that helmet?" Jet asked, hoping for the best but definitely not expecting it at this point.

"Again, none of your fucking business! Now let me go, jerk!" She cried out, thrashing around pointlessly and grunting with effort.

"Wait a minute… I know those fighting grunts…" Jet said to himself as something clicked in the back of his mind.

Before he could do or say anything else, out of the corner of his eye he caught the slight glint of a set of claws flying at him. Without thinking, he bent backwards just enough to avoid getting caught by it again, dropping the assassin in the process. She hit the ground with a thud, quickly rolling forward and landing on her feet before speeding off into the foggy abyss once again. Thinking fast, he grabbed at the chain attached to the clawed weapon, but his hand passed through it like he was grabbing at smoke. There was another eerie laugh from the direction the chain led in just before it pulled back into the mist and disappeared. Jet gritted his teeth in frustration, he really didn't have time for this. Once again he strained his ears and listened, but this time for that rattle of the chains from that weapon.

He didn't have to wait long as it came almost immediately. With a roll to the side, he dodged the claw again. It lodged in a tree behind him with a loud 'thunk'. Acting fast he got to his feet and grabbed the claw itself, managing to get a solid grip on the weapon this time and pulling it free from the tree trunk. Feeling a tug from the other side, he grinned to himself and held onto it tightly. He didn't budge as he felt the assassin tried to tug the weapon free from his grasp. The runes on his vambraces lit up again as he gave the chain a very hard yank, pulling the assassin out of the fog and into view. His suspicions were confirmed as he laid eyes on this one, evident by the build of the armor, this was yet another mare.

Her armor was much bulkier than the other one he was fighting, it looked more akin to a traditional set of knight's armor as opposed to the advanced look of the suits the other assassin's wore. It was black just like the others and sported a very dark purple highlighting detail. Sat atop her head was a horn that was also covered by her helmet but still jutted up from her head like a sore thumb. He didn't need more than one guess as to who this was, since all of the alicorns were accounted for except for one. Lowering his guard for a moment, he took a step towards her.

"Twilight? Listen to me, you can fight him. You're stronger than he is. Don't let him control you like this." Jet said calmly, still holding onto the claw so she couldn't run off easily.

She cocked her head to the side, leaving the air open to silence for a moment. Then, faster than Jet could react, she let out another eerie giggle and flicked the chain he was holding. He watched as another jolt of the strange purple electricity arced its way along the chain towards him. Bracing for the coming shock, he gritted his teeth and waited for it. The shock hit him hard, but not as hard as before, likely due to the fact that it was only one of the claws delivering the shock. He pushed through the searing pain in his muscles and gripped the claw tighter. With a strained groan of effort, he yanked on the claw again. This time, pulling the assassin off her feet and sending her flying right at him.

He stood his ground and steadied his stance. Leaning his body forward slightly, the two of them collided headfirst. Jet head butting her with a very loud 'crack' that echoed through the empty cemetery. He let go of the claw finally, letting her stumble back in both pain and surprise. As she stumbled back away from Jet, a hairline fracture began to appear down the front of her helmet across the faceplate. She jumped back further away from Jet and let out an angry scream before taking to the air. She didn't retreat like the other assassin did, but instead began to levitate in a single spot. Her horn glowed intensely against the dark foggy background. The usual purple of her magic now much darker and visibly tainted by a black aura. As he watched, she began to fling her clawed weapons in a seemingly random pattern. Before long, the claws were swirling around her every which way, giving off frequent sparks of purple, like a whirlwind of electricity.

The claws sound around her faster and faster until they became a blur altogether, making it look as if she was floating in the midst of a furious electrical storm. The purple electricity arced to and fro as the claws spun which left scorch marks on the trees, gravestones, and trees. Jet grabbed and threw a gravestone at her in an attempt to throw off her rhythm with the claws, but it was shredded into dust almost immediately due to the speed they were spinning around her. He backed up away from the pseudo electrical storm, his back hitting up against Starswirl's monument. Turning to look up at the pale white marble monolith, he hatched an idea. He had no clue if it would work, but it was the best he could do under the current circumstances.

"I hope you can forgive me for this, Starswirl, wherever you may be." Jet said to the monument quietly.

With Love Spell still equipped, and his vambraces glowing once again, he began to punch at the base of the monolith. The marble chipped and cracked under the force of his blows, creating a shallow indentation at first. Slowly but surely, the indentation began to grow until it was a full on hole. He continued to chip away at the marble, all the while the assassin was closing in behind him. Sweat began to bead on his forehead as he worked away at the thick marble. Eventually, he had it worn down enough that one final strike broke it the rest of the way through. The monolith began to tip over away from him. He quickly grabbed it, gripping tightly at the base of it. His gauntlets dug into the marble, giving him a better grip on the otherwise smooth surface. The vambraces adorning his arms flower even brighter as he grunted loudly, picking the entire monument up into the air. With another strained grunt of effort, he swung the monolith over his head and towards the assassin. The whirlwind of the claws shredded at the monolith for a moment, chipping away a good chunk before they got stuck and wedged themselves in the marble beaten marble and ceasing their spinning.

Before she could dodge or pull away, the monolith slammed down on top of her with a loud 'thud'. Jet smacked her with the massive slab of marble like he was squashing a bug under a newspaper. The pseudo electrical storm died off and all went silent for a long moment. The impact of the hit slammed her into the ground.. Tossing the monolith to one side, where it crashed onto the ground with an echoing slam. He walked over to where she lay, in the middle of a small crater. She wasn't moving, save for the subtle rise and fall of her chest that was barely visible under her armor. Acting fast, he reached to the compartment in his false arm, pulling out another of the antidotes syringes. He knelt beside her, pulling her helmet off and revealing what he already knew. Under the helmet was a very dishevelled looking Twilight. Her mane was a frazzled mess of helmet hair, her nostrils were slightly red with fresh blood, and her top lip was busted on one side. He rammed the syringe into her chest like an adrenaline shot. She sat bolt upright, panting hard and looking around in a panic. Her eyes locked onto Jet in surprise.

"J-Jet?" She asked, still in a bit of a daze.

"Yeah, welcome back to reality Twilight." He replied with a small smile.

"H-How…" She started, visibly confused.

"A little over eight years. Don't feel bad though, I was out for most of that time too." He said, finishing what he already knew she was thinking.

"I knew that already… It's been a nightmare, trapped inside my own head with no control. I was going to ask how you pulled me back from that darkness…" She stated, starting to make an attempt to stand.

"Believe it or not, I actually know that feeling…" Jet replied, helping her to her feet.

"Wait!" Twilight yelled, a sudden look of realization crossing her face.

"What is it?" Jet asked, concerned.

"T-The other one… Where did she…" Twilight started, being cut off by a sudden body slamming into her from behind.

As if on que, the other assassin had charged out of the mist and run Twilight over like a train passing through. The alicorn was thrown to the ground, landing face first pretty hard. She groaned and rolled onto her back.

"I guess that answers your question?" Jet asked, getting his guard up.

"Y-Yeah, guess so…" Twilight replied, clearly winded from the hit.

"So, uh, any chance you know who this is?" He asked, keeping his ears open.

"Actually, yes and you know her…" She replied, sitting up and holding her side.

"I was afraid of that. I've noticed something about these assassins." Jet said, straining his ears against their conversation.

"What's that?" She asked out of curiosity.

"There's two types. Some of you are being mind controlled, some still have their free will because they willingly sided with Sombra. Any chance you know which type she is?" Jet asked, possibly hatching an idea.

"I do, but you won't like the answer…" She replied with a dry gulp.

"I think that's all the answer I need…" He said, putting his weapons away.

"W-What are you doing?" Twilight asked, shocked.

"Something stupid probably…" He replied, stepping out into the middle of the area.

He stood on top of the remaining base of Starswirl's monument, listening intently to the deafening silence around him. The mist rolled and wafted through the air eerily, setting quite a mood for the encounter. There was only silence for several moments, only broken by the sound of Jet's pulse pounding in his ears. As he waited for the telltale sign of her coming attack, the clouds rolled slowly overhead, streaking the landscape in unnerving moving shadows that seemed to stretch and contract with Jet's heightened heart rate. His eyes scanned the area around him, straining his eyes against the misty blackness, but to no avail. Just when he was about to write off the other assassin as having retreated, he heard it. The distant, yet distinct, sound of gravel being crunched under foot. He stood dead center of the cicular area, his arms stretched wide and his armor receding back into its housing unit as his weapons clattered to the ground having been freed of their holsters and sheaths. He heard the wind whistle intensely somewhere in the smokey darkness to his right. Turning toward the sound, he gritted his teeth and waited for movement. He didn't have to wait long as he suddenly saw the vague outline of a pony approaching him at a very fast pace.

"Scootaloo, stop! It's Jet!" He yelled out at the figure speeding towards him.

There was a subtle tinny gasp from under her helmet as she tried to skid to a stop before plowing over her adoptive brother. It was too late and she was going too fast, her sudden skid only resulting in her losing her balance and tripping. She tumbled head over heels for several feet before coming to a stop. She had somehow managed to come to a stop in an upright sitting position, her head bobbing back and forth slightly, no doubt dazed from the sudden halt. She slowly raised a hand to her head and groaned as she lifted the helmet free from her head. Her gaze shifted up towards Jet, her purple irises tearing up as she looked into his deep blue ones.

"J-Jet? Is… Is it really you?" She asked hesitantly, her definitively tomboy-esque voice reminding Jet of the old days yet again.

"Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be?" He answered her question with one of his own.

"Sombra, he… He told me that you and Rainbow had…" She started, cut off by the tears streaking down her face.

"Of course he did… Is that why you joined him…?" He asked, a look of worry on his face.

"Yeah… He said he could make me as fast as Rainbow if I agreed to help him… You just think so little of me…" She replied, wiping at her eyes with her hand and sniffling lightly.

"What? I could never think any less of you, Scoots. By default, you're my sister and I love you regardless of what you do." He said with a warm smile to try and help console her.

"R-Really?" She stuttered out through her sniffles.

"Of course, and to be perfectly honest, if I thought that everyone I held dear was gone, I probably would've done the same." He admitted, rubbing his neck awkwardly.

She smiled and slowly got to her feet, suddenly embracing Jet in a tight hug. She'd grown quite a bit since he last saw her, before she had barely reached his midsection, but now she was about the same height as Rainbow Dash and was able to hug him properly. Her hair was much longer as well, reaching past her shoulders now that it was free from the helmet. She buried her head into his shoulder as she hugged him tightly. He returned the hug and gently patted her back. Letting her have this moment of solace before the impending storm of the final assault on the Black Palace.

"I really hate to break up this moment, but I have to be somewhere soon and I think you girls do too." Jet said, gently pulling away from Scootaloo.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Scootaloo asked confusedly.

"Well, your timing is a bit unfortunate. As we speak, the others are making their way to the Black Palace for our final stand against Sombra." Jet explained in a serious tone.

"You want us to help? But we're just…" Twilight began, being quickly cut off.

"An alicorn princess with nearly limitless magic at her disposal and a pegasus fast enough to make Rainbow Dash jealous. Having you two on our side would only give us even more of an edge over that tyrannical bastard." Jet stated, giving them a pep talk to negate any second thoughts they might be having.

"Yeah! You're right! Let's do this!" Scootaloo yelled with a big smile on her face.

"You do make a valid argument, Jet." Twilight chimed in with a small smile.

"Glad to hear it! Twilight, can you walk on your own?" Jet asked, offering her a hand to help her up.

"I think so, nothing feels broken. Just bruised unfortunately…" Twilight replied, taking Jet's hand and standing with a light groan.

"Even better. I'll send you the coordinates to their rendezvous point on the outskirts of the Obsidian City." Jet said, his armor flowing back across his body.

After kneeling down to retrieve his weapons and resheathing them, he held out his hands, a pair of face masks with visors forming out of the nanites of his armor just like he had for Vinyl and Luna before. The lost nanites only took away from some of the finer details of the armor, leaving him with plenty to actually cover himself. He handed the masks to Twilight and Scootaloo. The two mares took the masks and put them on, being a bit taken aback by the sudden upgrade to their visuals. Jet put his own helmet up and checked his HUD.

"Friday, can you link and send the coordinates for the rendezvous point to the masks I just created?" Jet asked into the soft glow of his HUD.

"Certainly sir, one moment." Friday replied in her chipper robotic voice.

"Woah, I see it. It's like a compass in a video game!" Scootaloo announced with a childish giggle.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool. Thank you Friday." Jet replied, giving Scootaloo a smile through his helmet.

"So, what's the plan exactly?" Twilight asked, moving to stand beside Scootaloo.

"Phase one is me heading up above the clouds to locate the source of all these clouds and toxic air. Phase one point five, you two get to the rendezvous as fast as possible. Rainbow will fill you in on the rest when you get there." Jet replied thoughtfully.

"Right. I guess our fastest way would be to utilize Scootaloo's greaves. Do you think you can hold my weight?" Twilight asked, turning to Scootaloo.

"Yeah, should be no problem." Scootaloo replied with a nod.

"Great. Was there anything else we should know, Jet?" Twilight asked, already getting behind Scootaloo.

"Nothing comes to mind right away, but if I remember something I'll contact you through the comms in your mask there." Jet responded, pointing to his own helmeted ears as example.

"Got it. You ready Scootaloo?" Twilight asked, giving her a pat on the shoulder from behind.

"Ready as I'll ever be. See you later on, Jet?" Scootaloo replied, hoisting Twilight's legs up onto her hips giving the alicorn a piggyback ride.

"Of course, I'm harder to kill than a cockroach. You two be safe out there, hopefully next time we see each other this whole thing will be behind us." Jet replied cheerily to keep their spirits up.

The pair exchanged a nod before heading off in their respective directions. Jet took off into the air while Scootaloo sped off towards the Obsidian City with Twilight on her back. The plan was set into motion, even if Jet was running behind time wise. It would take him some time to make it to the air space above the Obsidian City, but everything should still fall into place.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Luna and the others were leading their separate armies towards the Obsidian City. The groups had nearly made it to their respective rendezvous points. The boots of the soldiers stomped loudly against the compacted dirt of the ground. Rainbow and her troops were nearly at their destination, coming up on a ridge that gave a decent vantage of the Obsidian City. It was just high enough that it overlooked the city, giving them a good view of the ominously black buildings it was composed of. If not for the overall evil feel and the obvious soldiers walking around, it might have passed for a normal city. The Black Palace loamed up over the city, it's various jagged crystalline spires protruding into the sky, casting an intimidating shadow over the landscape. The way it stuck up from the ground and loomed over the city made it seem as if Hades himself had rammed a spike up from Tartarus in some sort of act of defiance against his fellow Gods.

Luna stopped on top of the ridge, signaling for her troops to stop as well. The soldiers stomped to a halt a few feet behind her. Rainbow, Vinyl and Sunblast had tagged along with her team as a pair of princesses would theoretically serve as a good enough distraction to allow them to slip through to the Palace doors. Rainbow, being the Lieutenant, opened the comms line in her helmet. Giving Luna a nod, she readied to send out a communication to the others.

"Everyone, status report." She said into her helmet's commlink.

"In position and ready to rock." AJ's voice piped up after a moment of radio static.

"Yes, what she said darling." Rarity's voice chimed in.

"I'm just ready to see what these party cannons can do!" Pinkie's voice exclaimed excitedly.

"I, um, I guess I'm ready…" Fluttershy's voice squeaked quietly.

There was nothing else but some more static that followed. Rainbow waited patiently, but started to become concerned with the length of time.

"Jet, what's your status?" Rainbow asked.

The silence continued for a little while longer before it was finally broken by the voice she was hoping to hear from.

"Sorry, had something come up. I'm running behind, but everything should still fall into place. Just stick to the plan." Jet's voice said in her ear.

"Alright. Just make sure you keep your ass safe. Won't be much point in this whole thing if I can't be happy once it's over." She replied, half jokingly.

"Don't worry about it, I'll be fine. Just make sure you find that throne room for us." He said, a hint of a laugh in his voice.

"No sweat, I got this." She responded cockily.

"Oh, by the way, I'm sending you guys some extra muscle. Be on the lookout." Jet said casually.

"Wait, what do you… Jet? Oh, you asshole." Rainbow said, realizing he had switched off his comms after that.

Before she had time to dwell on it, she could make out a large cloud of dust that looked to be moving towards them. The cloud itself seemed to be in the vague shape of an arrow, slimmer in the front and much wider at the back end. She couldn't make out who or what it was at the head of the cloud, but whatever it was was moving incredibly fast and with clear purpose. It only took around a minute for whatever was approaching reached them and skidded to a halt just before slamming through the army like a set of pins set up in a bowling alley. The dust cloud caught up to them and was cast over the group in a sort of smoke screen. It quickly dissipated as a compressed wave of air from the speed they were moving followed shortly behind. The cold blast of air washed over the group, nearly throwing some of them off balance entirely and chilling them all to the bone. Fortunately, the wave of air went just as fast as it came, leaving them standing in the quiet of the empty ridge once again. Rainbow looked up and her eyes narrowed as she laid eyes on what she believed were the assassins of Sombra's, one carrying the other. She drew her blade and took an offensive stance. Just as she was about to make a move, the pair of armored assassins pulled off their masks. Rainbow took a step back in shock as she saw who was under those masks.

"W-Wha…" She stuttered out, not believing what she was seeing.

"Uh, hey Rainbow Dash…" Scootaloo said nervously.

"You're… You're alive?!" Rainbow exclaimed, tears of joy welling in her eyes.

"Yeah, but about the whole assassin thing, I…" Scootaloo started to say, being cut off by an embrace from Rainbow.

"I don't care, I'm just so happy that you're ok!" Rainbow replied, tightening the hug a bit too much.

"I'm happy… To see you too… But, I can't… Breathe…" Scootaloo managed to gasp out through the hug.

"Oops, sorry Scoots. Oh, uh, hey Twi." Rainbow said, pulling back away from Scootaloo.

"Hello, Rainbow. Good to see you again." Twilight replied with a small smile.

"I hate to break up this display of affection, but we should probably make a move sooner rather than later." Luna interrupted from behind them.

"Right. We'll have time to catch up once this is over." Rainbow said.

"Very good. Whenever you are ready, signal the others and we will start the assault." Luna replied with a nod.

"Pinkie, launch the flare! We're ready to start this party!" Rainbow yelled into her comms like a battlecry.

"Finally!!!!!" Pinkie exclaimed back through the comms.

The next thing that was heard was a large boom as Pinkie fired her cannon for the first time. The blast was large enough to be visible to Rainbow from the other side of the, soon to be, battlefield. It gave off a huge blast of dust followed by a seemingly small firework that launched high into the air. It exploded in the air in a shower of bright pink sparks and light. As soon as the flare lit up the sky, the group that Pinkie was with charged into battle. Even from their vantage, Rainbow could see that the sudden noise and light had garnered the full attention of the guards within the city. This gave the other two groups the advantage of a flanking position given the right timing. They watched as the guards all headed to confront the charging group of soldiers. Once the guards were sufficiently distracted and engaged with the frontal assaulting army, the other two charged in.

With the majority of the guards distracted, there was little resistance left actually inside the city. The few guards they did encounter were easily dealt with by the rushing armies with the advantage of surprise. As they drew closer to the palace itself though, they encountered increasingly heavy resistance. This caused their ranks to thin out as they had to break off to fend off groups of soldiers in order to allow the plan to continue as intended. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of blades clashing in the air as the various battles raged around them as they ran through the city streets. By the time they made it to the center of the city and neared the overhang that held the palace doors their group had been reduced to just Rainbow, Sunblast, Vinyl, and the two princesses. Everybody else had broken off to keep various soldiers busy.

They had finally reached the Black Palace. It loomed high into the sky over them, almost as if staring down at them in judgement. The entirety of it was made from some kind of cloudy black crystal. Its edges were so roughly hewn looking that it seemed like somebody would be risking impalement just by brushing up against it the wrong way. High up on the monument to tryanny was a small balcony that was currently empty. The entryway to the palace was contained within a small overhang under the main portion of the palace. Comprised of a series of six arched entrances that were supported by two columns each on either side. The flat entryway itself led to a single large, equally black, set of double doors with a small set of stairs leading up to it. Everything seemed to have a purposeful asymmetrical look to it.

After taking a moment to catch their breaths, they crossed the threshold of the overhang. Almost immediately, the entrances were sealed tight with a bright red glowing energy field that was not unlike the weapons that Sunblast had given them. The sudden sound of clapping hands startled them, causing them to be on guard more now than before. As they looked around the jagged entryway, a pair of figures stepped out from behind one of the columns. One of them was clapping their hands, clearly sarcastically. The other, much larger, simply stood there with their arms crossed. The one that was clapping had a sleek suit of armor that was highlighted by deep purple accents. She elicited a low growl from Vinyl, signaling that she was the one that Vinyl had alongside while under Sombra's influence. The other had a much bulkier suit with red accents, there was something mounted to his wrists, but with his arms crossed it was impossible to tell what it was exactly. The purple one, presumably Octavia given the clues, stopped clapping and looked at the small group of rebels.

"Look who came crawling back. I'm surprised you made it this far, honestly." Tavi said, seeming to direct her words at Vinyl specifically.

Vinyl simply glared and flashed her middle finger at Tavi.

"I had a feeling you would feel that way. No worry, you were easily replaced as my muscle. As a plus, I don't have to listen to those awful 'wubs' of yours anymore. So, if you think about it, you getting your arse handed to you back in Canterlot was a blessing in disguise. For me at least!" Tavi taunted with a laugh.

Vinyl started to take a step forward, but was stopped by the large metal hand of Sunblast's Sombra Breaker armor. She looked up at him, fire in her eyes. He shook his head at her slowly.

"She doesn't mean that, Vinyl. She's just under Sombra's spell. If we can get that helmet off her, she'll be freed just like the others were. Then, we can administer the antidote and get her back." Sunblast reassured her.

She took a deep breath and nodded, that fire in her eyes dying down to a smolder for now.

"Cease this talk, either fight us or stand aside agents of Sombra. We have not the time to deal with this sort of tomfoolery." Luna interjected, already frustrated with this taunting.

"In a hurry to die, princess? Or will you cower and run like you did with your dear sister?" Tavi said, her voice deepening and taking on that of Sombra's as he spoke through her to directly taunt the former princess.

"You frighten me no longer, king of shadows! It is you who cower behind your mind controlled puppets! Today you will draw your final breath, whether it is by my hand or another's, you will not see another day!" Luna yelled, pulling out her sickle with a soft metallic grind.

"Rainbow Dash, you see the plan through, we'll keep these assholes busy." Sunblast said through gritted teeth.

"Right. Hey, don't die out there, I was just starting to like you." Rainbow said with a smirk before charging off.

She ran through the entryway, nearly getting hit by a slash of Tavi's blade but luckily Luna swooped in to block it mid swing with her sickle. The two exchanged a nod before Rainbow took off once more for the huge black doors. Dodging a few sudden shots of glowing crimson energy, which she noticed had come from the red accented assassin, she made it to her destination. Once at the doors, she turned back to see how things were going so far. Luna and Vinyl were tag teaming Tavi while Sunblast and Cadence were surprisingly working together to assault the other assassin.

Tavi threw a handful of daggers at Luna and Vinyl, only to be dodged by the pairs nearly equal quick movements. The throwing daggers stuck in the wall behind them, Vinyl used this moment of opportunity to give a sweep kick to Tavi's legs. Tavi fell onto her back only to see Luna coming down at her from above, her sickle held high. Tavi rolled out of the way just in time though. Meanwhile, Cadence was firing a series of her bolts at the other assassin whole Sunblast tried to keep him busy by matching his strength by way of close quarters combat. Cadence's bolts were sticking into the assassin's armor and making significant dents and holes, but was having overall no effect for the moment. The red accented assassin was having trouble getting shots off from his now obvious wrist mounted blasters as he had to contend with Sunblast's melee strikes.

Rainbow smiled to herself, taking solace in the knowledge that they could hold their own here. She pushed the huge doors open with a long and loud creak, revealing the inside and her eventual goal of the throne room. The inside of the palace was the same black crystal as the outside and just as maze-like as they'd assumed. There were hallways streching in all directions and staircases leading in a variety of different directions.

"You gotta be kidding me…" Rainbow muttered to herself.

Judging from the fact that the hallways and staircases seemed to stretch on and lead in directions that defied the size and geometry of the palace, she figured there was a trick at play. She also figured this would take a while, even with her speed. Activating her rocket skates, she chose a direction and took off. Her skates skidding lightly against the smooth crystalline floors.

Chapter 14: Long. Live. The King

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Epilogue: Things To Come

Somewhere across the multiverse, an Equestria that was already taken by corruption and despair lay in wait. It was nearly identical to the one that Jet called home. The key difference was the evident lack of ponies in the streets of what would be Ponyville, indicating that this was yet another oppressively ruled Equestria. The houses within the town were boarded up from the inside. Iindicating the residents, if there were any, greatly feared whoever or whatever ruled this land. A few tumbleweeds rolled through the streets. It was deathly silent, as if even the wind was afraid to blow.

A long winding road led through the town and towards the Everfree Forest. The road continues on into the forest, carving a pathway through the thick trees. It stopped in front of a moat that surrounded a huge castle. The castle was hewn from a dark grey stone and protected by the moat, which a family of rockodiles had called home. It was a traditional styled castle, having four outer walls, four large circular towers on each corner, and a series of ballistae sat atop each tower. The interior held a sizable courtyard that sat in front of the castle keep. The courtyard itself wasn't much to see, a dusty rectangle with a few sparse flowers and a few training dummies set up against one wall. A massive drawbridge covered the entrance along with an equally massive steel gate. Along with the drawbridge and gate, an invisible barrier was domed over the top of the entire castle. It was clear that whoever or whatever occupied this castle didn't want any unexpected guests. The castle keep itself was one huge block of stacked stone. A few windows lined the front of it, looking more like an office building than part of castle.

It was much more lively than the nearby town. Guards patrolled along the tops of the walls and towers, as well as the courtyard. Four guards, two one each side, were positioned by a singular wooden door that led inside the keep. They stood upright at full attention, garbed in light leather armor that was bolstered by steel rivets. Bidents were gripped tightly in their left hands, their right hands occupied by small round ornate shields. The shields were mostly wooden, ringed by a steel band. A large hump of stell sat in the center of the shield, ringed by a design that was half a blazing sun and half a full moon.

Inside the keep, in the archives, a figure bearing a large horn stood silently illuminated by a dying candle. The candle sat on a small table, flickering frequently as it struggled to light up the spell tome that was laying open on the table. The archives looked as if a tornado had hit it, scrolls and books lay everywhere. They had been thrown from the weathered wooden shelves in a heated search for something specific. There was hardly any room for the figure to move around through all the scrolls on the floor as she paced anxiously. Nearby, a familiar mirror glowed dimly, its glass cracked in a spiderweb from the center as if it had been the victim of somebody's unbridled rage. The shadowed mare paced back and forth, mumbling to herself frantically. As she paced, the mirror began to flicker slightly. This caught the mare's attention, stopping her mid stride as she turned and ran to the mirror. A distorted silhouette appeared in the reflection, surrounded by static. The mate stood in front of the mirror tapping her foot impatiently, clearly waiting on something.

"Well?!" She demanded from the silhouette in the mirror.

"I bring good news, I believe we have found him." The silhouette replied casually.

"Where?! Tell me, damn it!" She yelled furiously.

"Calm yourself, sister. You will need to repair your portal before you can even make it to the universe he's in." The silhouette stated, a hint of a giggle in her voice.

"Just tell me, sister." She said through gritted teeth, putting a spiteful emphasis on the word 'sister'.

"Fine, fine. Here is your catalyst for the portal. Just make sure to fix the damned thing." The silhouette said with a sigh, a small piece of black crystal flying through the none broken portion of the mirror.

The figure scrambled to catch it from the floor. She picked it up and held it between her fingers, giving it a thorough examination.

"Are you certain this is from the correct universe?" She asked suspiciously.

"Of course it is. The pawn of mine that found him is from that universe, that in your hand is a fragment of the crystal he holds dominion over." The silhouette replied.

"You better be sure. I have grown so tired of searching… Almost thirty years…" She said absentmindedly.

"Uh, right. After you get your portal fixed, I would highly recommend cleaning yourself up. I swear I can smell you from across the multiverse." The silhouette stated.

"Are you still here?" She retorted with a glare towards the mirror.

"I am beginning to remember why I did away with my sister from my own universe…" The silhouette said quietly before disappearing from the mirror.

She returned to the table, flipping through the pages of the open tome in a hurry. Eventually stopping on one specific page. It detailed a spell crafted to repair enchanted objects or materials. She grinned widely in the dim light, her pointed fangs the only thing able to be made out in the flickering candle light. She stepped back from the table and faced the mirror. Muttering some kind of incantation, her horn lit up slightly and launched a concentrated beam of magic at the spider webbed mirror. The mirror glowed brighter, the crack slowly sealing itself up as she watched. In a matter of seconds, the mirror was good as new. She grinned wider and slotted the chunk of crystal into the catalyst spot in the mirror. The mirror flickered for a moment before lighting up and displaying a view of a laboratory of some kind.

"There you are. Slave!!!" She yelled, turning towards the door.

A pegasus sprinted into the room, her wings bound to her body by a thick iron clasp. She panted lightly from the exertion of using her legs more than usual. Stopping in front of the darkened figure, she bowed and kept her head down.

"Y-Yes, my queen?" The pegasus asked, keeping her voice low as well.

"Fetch me the elements. I have a mission for them." She replied, snapping her fingers idly.

"M-My queen…?" The pegasus asked again, unsure if she heard right.

"Do not make me repeat myself, slave." She stated coldly.

"Y-Yes, my queen. R-Right away." The pegasus said quietly.

The pegasus sprinted back off out of the room and down the hallway. The figure waited patiently for her elements, her elite sentries. Her mind wandered off, reminiscing on the past three decades of searching and only now getting a result. She didn't have to wait too long, as the sudden 'pop' of teleportation was heard behind her. She turned to see her six elite sentries ready and awaiting command. The only thing that could be made through the darkness were six glowing gemstones. Their colors were muted, but they were distinguishable as an apple, a lightning bolt, a balloon, a diamond, a butterfly, and a six pointed star.

"Ah, there you are. I have a special assignment for you six." She said, her grin returning.

"What is your command, my queen?" They all asked in unison, their voices melding together into one eerie cohesion.

"I need you to go to this portal and search the universe there for my son, bring him back to me. I have been assured that he is there." She stated, knowing they already knew who she meant.

"What of the remainder of the inverse, my queen?" One of them asked with an unhinged giggle.

"Hmm… I do not particularly care honestly. Have fun, do your thing. Just make sure your bring my son back to me." She replied with a wave of her hand.

"It's been so long since we were let off the leash! This is going to be so much fun!" The one from before replied, the same unhinged giggle growing louder.

"Now go, my Elements of Disharmony! Find my son and make that world pay for stealing him away from me!" She screamed, pointing to the mirror portal.

She stood and watched, cackling loudly as the six figures filed through the portal. Bringing with them the next wave of evil and destruction upon a still recovering Equestria.

Author's Note

If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading. I do plan for a sequel at some point, but it all depends on how long it takes me to plan it out then actually write it lol. This was quite the feat for me, I second guessed myself a multitude of times along the way, but I managed to power through and finish things with a bang. I sincerely hope you enjoyed the journey with me through my own version of a war torn Equestria.

Prologue: Equestria Falls

It had started as a bright and clear Fall day in Canterlot, not a cloud in the sky, showing that the weather teams were in top form for the day. A flock of geese flew by overhead, honking as they went and adding to the noise of the city. The various multi-colored denizens of the city milled about, heading into and out of the various shops as they tended to whatever errands they had planned for the day. A cool breeze blew through the streets, kicking up small piles of leaves that had fallen from the nearby trees. This created miniature multi-colored tornadoes that danced and swept across the cobblestone streets like ballerinas performing a beautifully rehearsed dance routine. As well as the leaves, the breeze was also rustling the brightly colored overhanging awnings of the storefronts. Seated under one of these awnings at an outdoor cafe, was a pair of pegasi, more specifically a couple. They sat across from one another, sipping from steaming cups of fresh cappuccino as they talked, smiled, and laughed. The pair of pegasi would be fairly easily recognizable to the many passersby, as both had been part of recent important events that transpired within the areas of Canterlot and Ponyville alike. One dressed in a Wonderbolts branded letterman jacket over a loose white t-shirt and sweatpants, the other dressed in just a Ponyville High sweatshirt and jeans with a long thin katana on his hip.

On one side of the table sat the messy rainbow-haired, Rainbow Dash, her thin fine coat of cyan fur on her face was being lightly blown by the brisk and chilly breeze. The only heat source nearby to keep her from freezing was her steaming cappuccino, which she slowly took another sip from to warm her lips before speaking again.

“So, how long are you off duty for this time? And if you’re off duty, then why bring that thing along?” She asked with a motion to the katana as she looked up into the bright sky blue eyes of her suitor, whose black and red striped hair was almost equally as messy as hers.

“Well, I’m not quite sure to be honest. After that disaster at the wedding a few weeks ago, Princess Celestia just told me and a few of the others to take some time off to be with our loved ones. I keep my sword with me at all times, you know that. Equestria has a long history of unexpected disasters happening out of nowhere” He replied with a smile and a small shrug and took as he took a drink from his cup.

“That seems a little… I don’t know… Weird?” She said back, referring to his description of Princess Celestia’s words, an eyebrow raised in suspicion.

“Yeah, it is, but it gets weirder… The way she said it… It’s as if she knew something that we didn”t. She spoke like she knew something would prevent us from seeing our loved ones” He spoke slowly and with a tone of worry in his voice, she hardly saw this serious side of him, and she didn’t like it. She decided to change the subject.

“Anyway, let’s just enjoy the free time we get to spend together. You called me here for a reason, so what was it?” She asked, referencing the text he had sent her the night before.

She figured something was up because this was the cafe where their first official date had started around five years ago, now where it ended was another story entirely. He sat there without anything for a moment, fiddling with something in his jeans pocket.

“Jet, is something wro…” She began to ask, but was cut off by a sudden ground shaking explosion from somewhere in the direction of the castle, followed by the loud blare of a siren and a huge gust of wind that blew everything away from the area.

Without warning, a swarm of black armored soldiers landed onto the pavement around the area and began attacking the random citizens in the plaza the two were standing in. Four of them took notice of the pair of pegasi and swarmed them. Rainbow and Jet jumped up from their seats, and got into a back to back position. Jet quickly drew his sword and got into a defensive stance.

“I don’t know what’s going on here, but I feel like we’ll be needing those friends of yours and their magic jewelry. Go get them, I’ll cover you.” He said slowly, keeping his eyes on the armor clad goons in front of him.

“Are you sure you can handle these pricks on your own?” She asked with a nervous tone in her voice. He simply nodded in response, she accepted this answer and took to the sky. One of the armored soldiers almost immediately darted after her.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Jet said with an angered tone, grabbing the soldier by the ankle and slamming it into the ground, creating a small crater and knocking the other three off balance.

Without missing a beat, he took this opportunity to leg sweep them, causing them to fall flat on their backs. Jet took this moment to zip past them and make his way towards the castle grounds. Along the way, another explosion rang out, this one shaking the ground and sending huge chunks of debris into the air and crashing down around the area. As he ran towards the castle, he noticed an enormous chunk of wall falling towards a small filly sprinting down the street. Without a moment of hesitation he dove forward, grabbing the filly and dodge rolling out of the way just as the chunk of bricks crashed to the ground behind him. He stood and gently set the filly back on the ground in front of him. Other than some dirt and dust clinging to her face and hair, she seemed to be fine. He recognized the filly as Rainbow’s self adopted little sister, Scootaloo.

“Hey, Scoots, you ok? And what in bloody hell are you doing out here anyway?” He asked in a bit of a panic, worried for the filly’s safety with everything happening all of the sudden.

“I-I’m fine, thanks Jet. I was out here looking for Rainbow, she told me she was meeting you in the plaza today, but then something blew up and I just ran…” She said, blinking a few times to get some dust from her eyes.

“Well, you should get home to your aunts. Hopefully you’ll be safe there.” Jet said with a small sigh of relief, knowing that she wasn’t injured.

“I will, but what about you and Rainbow?” She asked, giving him a concerned look.

“Don’t worry about us, squirt. This isn’t the first disaster we’ve dealt with. She’s already one the way to fetch the others and their elements” He replied with a reassuring smile.

“J-Just promise you guys will be ok. I don’t exactly have much in terms of family these days…” She said, a small ere of sadness in her voice.

“I promise, Scoots. We’ll have this nonsense dealt with before dinner time,” He said, giving her a small hug before standing upright again and continuing along his path to the castle, Scootaloo running off in the direction of Ponyville.

As Jet ran through the city, dodging debris and slicing his way through the soldiers who stood in his way, he couldn’t help but to worry about the little pegasus filly as she tried to get home to safety. By the time he made it to the castle, his katana was soaked in the blood of the soldiers he had slain on his way. He made it into the castle grounds and was horrified at the sight before him. The usually beautiful and lush garden of flowers and fruit bearing trees that populated the grounds were now charred and mostly barren. The normally clean and pristine cobblestone pavement was now running red with the blood from the bodies of royal guards and invaders alike, which were strewn around the grounds haphazardly, most with spears or swords still sticking out of their desiccated corpses. The most shocking thing to Jet though, was the castle doors, which were no longer even attached to the entrance, the hinges still smoldering. They had been blown from their hinges completely, one of the massive steel doors was lodged in the castle wall and the other was nowhere in sight, presumably launched into the city by whatever explosive force had released them from their previous position of keeping out unwanted visitors. With a long shudder at the gruesome sight, he headed inside. The interior halls of the castle were no better than the grounds. The once ornate halls decorated with various statues and tapestries were now the site of a battlefield, the tapestries were soaked in blood and ruined beyond repair, the statues were broken and some had body parts hanging from their limbs. Jet proceeded through the halls quickly but also very carefully just in case an ambush might be waiting around any of the corners.

After a few minutes of traversing the bloodied and ruined hallways, he made it to the throne room. This room was no better than the rest of the castle, unfortunately. The banners displaying the symbols of the princesses were shredded and torn from the ceiling, and the stained glass windows that displayed the various important events of Equestria’s history were shattered and the glass was strewn about the floor. At the other end of the room sat the thrones of the royal sisters, two figures were in front of said thrones. Upon closer inspection, Jet could tell that one of the figures was Princess Celestia herself, but something was wrong. The princess was kneeling in front of the other figure, her golden armor broken in places and the dress she wore underneath was tattered and torn. The other figure, dressed in a similar armor to that of the invaders currently attacking the city, had a sword pointed directly at Princess Celestia’s neck. As Jet approached, his boots crunched against some of the stained glass shards, catching the attention of the two figures. They turned towards him, Princess Celestia let out a soft gasp while the other figure simply gave off a deep unnerving laugh from behind his helmet. At his feet rested two pointed cylindrical objects, with a closer look, he could see with horror that it was the horns of the princesses. He looked around for Luna, but did not see her, only seeing her severed horn and her discarded scythe laying by one of the shattered windows.

“I don’t know who you are, and frankly I don’t give a damn, but if you don’t put down that sword right now I swear on the Gods that I will make you suffer more than you can imagine.” Jet said through gritted teeth, gripping his katana so tightly that his knuckles began to turn white.

“N-No… Y-You can’t stop him.... P-Please Jet… Just run…” Celestia said steadying herself with her broadsword that was lodged in the ground beside her, she was clearly in a great deal of pain judging by her missing horn and the way she was speaking.

“She’s right, run while you can little pegasus.” The mystery figure said, his deep gruff voice echoing slightly from beneath his helmet.

“No! I won’t run and I won’t abandon you princess. It is my duty to protect you and this city.” Jet said with a determined tone in his voice, his stance changing to that of an offensive state as he readied himself to attack this unknown invader.

“Noble, but a poor choice on your part, boy. Perhaps this will change your mind.” The figure said with another unnerving laugh, removing his helmet and revealing his identity.

“N-No… It can’t be… You’re supposed to be dead…” Jet replied, his voice wavering as he laid eyes upon the king of shadows, Sombra.

“Now do you see? You have no hope of winning against me. These royal fools couldn’t get rid of me a millennium ago, what hope do you have?” Sombra asked rhetorically with yet another unnerving laugh.

“I don’t care how powerful you are, I won’t run from a fight. Ever.” Jet said, his confidence returning slowly but surely.

“Then you will die with the rest of the fools who dare oppose my rule.” Sombra retorted with a wide villainous grin.

“Jet… Please… Get out of here while you c…” Celestia started to say, but was immediately cut off by Sombra swinging his sword and severing her head, a geyser of crimson spouting from her neck stump.

The princess’s head flopped onto the stone floor and bounced a little before rolling down the steps of the thrones, leaving a trail of blood in its wake, and coming to rest right at Jet’s feet, a pool of blood forming around it and staining her multi-colored colored hair crimson. He looked down in horror as he watched the last fleeting moments of life drain from her eyes.

“You… You… Monster!” Jet screamed at the tyrant, readying his stance to launch himself at Sombra.

Just as he was about to launch his attack, he was distracted by the sound of several footsteps running into the room, followed by a horrified scream from a familiar voice. He turned to see Rainbow and her friends standing in the doorway of the throne room, their elements at the ready. Twilight had been the one to scream, as seeing her mentor’s severed head had unnerved her beyond words. In a matter of seconds, her expression went from horrified to completely pissed off. Without warning, the elements started to glow very brightly and hum audibly as the magic powering them revved up for an attack.

“S-Sugahcube, ya might wanna calm down a bit, These necklaces are kinda startin’ to burn here.” Applejack said, trying to calm down the very angry alicorn.

“No. This monster is dying here and now.” Twilight replied in a steady tone, her mind made up and her horn glowing to match the brightness of the elements.

“What’s this? A fourth alicorn? What a very interesting turn of events.” Sombra said casually, not even remotely afraid of what she might be planning.

“Jet. Get out of the way.” Twilight said, her voice wavering now as she struggled to hold back whatever spell she was about cast. Jet moved to be behind her as the elements hummed ever louder.

“Go ahead then, show me what you got, princess.” Sombra retorted, putting emphasis on the word ‘princess’, as if knowing which buttons to press to get under Twilight’s skin.

She let out a low growl and lowered her head slightly, pointing her horn directly at Sombra. He simply stood there cockily, even going so far as to put his sword on the sheath on his back. Without any further hesitation, Twilight grunted hard and let loose a massive blast of pure magical energy that was almost blood red in color. Just as it was about to his Sombra, he laughed loudly and suddenly put up a magical shield which deflected the blast back at the group.

“Jet! Watch out!” Rainbow screamed out as she dove to push him out of the way, the rest of the group having already moved to avoid the blast.

But, she wasn’t fast enough. The blast hit them both, the brunt of it hitting Jet head on and just barely clipping her right side. As the magic surged through Jet, he shook violently, Rainbow holding onto him for dear life with tears in her eyes. Then, everything faded into distorted screams and blurred visuals as Jet and Rainbow both blacked out.

Chapter 6: Night On The Town

Jet and Luna stepped outside, pushing past the thin sheet that blocked the light inside from escaping out and giving away Luna’s hideout. They both looked around suspiciously, seeing nothing but a moderately sized indentation in the ground on the remnants of the pathway that lead to the ruined castle, a few feet away from the entrance they stood at. The sparse patches of pavement had tiny spots of grass and weeds sprouting up from the cracks that had formed on them over the years. The wind whistled quietly through the trees of the Everfree, blowing the small remainder of leaves and grass around to recreate a very faint rustling that was nearly inaudible against the louder whistling of the wind itself. The wind that was blowing was strangely warm and had a slight sulfur smell wafting through it.

Both of them had their weapons in hand in defensive stances, ready for whatever has created the indentation in the pathway. Jet noticed that the edges of the ground around the indentation were ever so slightly blackened with fresh char, which set his nerves on end. As the pair stood there looking off into the dark twisted remains of the Everfree forest, the wind suddenly stopped blowing entirely. This left them standing in the increasingly warming and acrid sulfur reeking air. Jet took a deep breath and closed his eyes, listening closely for any sound in the darkness surrounding them. A trick he had learned from an old martial arts sensei ages ago.

“We should go, I do not like this. Something feels wro…” Luna began to say, being abruptly cut by Jet.

“Wait, shhh. Do you hear that?” He asked, opening his eyes again and looking off into the darkness of twisted tree trunks.

“What are you…” Luna began again, only to get cut off again.

“Get down!” Jet yelled, pushing her to one side and diving to the other just as a massive stream of flames streaked by, just barely missing them.

Luna fell back through the sheet and into the castle foyer with Jet rolling and regaining his balance as he turned to face the direction the flames had come from. There was a huge smoldering and smoking hole burnt through the tree line, at the end stood a figure slightly shrouded by the smoke emanating from the still burning trees. The only thing that gave away the fact that somebody was standing there was the bright almost neon orange panel lining on the figures’ armor. As Jet watched, the figure moved closer, stepping through the hole they had made, the magical trees of the Everfree closing up behind them and erasing any trace of the hole. Up close, Jet could see a pair of blades strapped to the hips of this assassin and a weapon of some kind mounted to one shoulder.

“I only anticipated coming for you, Stream, but I’ll be rewarded even more when I bring Lord Sombra the heads of both you and the last remaining princess. I might even get my own city to rule over.” The figure spoke calmly as they came closer to Jet, Luna coming back out of the doorway and moving back to Jet’s side with her knife pointed at the figure.

“What manner of creature are you?” Luna asked, staring down the orange and black clad assailant.

“Be careful, Luna. That’s one of Sombra’s assassins. This one calls itself Heat Stroke, it uses napalm and fire based attacks against its targets.” Jet said, stepping in front of Luna defensively, his sword at the ready.

“Ah, so you know me.Your time in a coma didn’t do much to hurt your skill, I see. Good, wouldn’t want this fight to be over too soon, now would we? By the way, you can stop with the whole ‘it’ talk. I’m a stallion, not some creepy clown from a horror novel.” Heat Stroke said with an ere of cockiness in his voice.

“Wait… How did you…” Jet started to say, poising his weapon in an offensive stance.

“What? Know you were in a coma and not dead like my boss and colleagues seemed to think? If I told you that, it would ruin the surprise, now wouldn’t it?” Heat Stroke taunted with a raspy laugh.

“If you know so much, then you must know that I’ve already killed one of you psychos. If you have any kind of value for your life, you’ll leave now and forget you saw us here.” Jet said, trying to intimidate the assassin.

“Pfft, you mean that waste of nanite armor that Lord Sombra called Death Storm? Don’t make me laugh. She was easily the weakest and most useless of our ranks. Deadly, sure, but only at a distance. I think we both know that’s not a very good tactic against one such as yourself.” He continued to taunt Jet, never losing his cocky tone.

“So, you think you’re gonna fare better than her? Wanna put your money where your mouth is, or are you just gonna stand there talking?” Jet asked with a scowl.

“Oh, I’m just talking to keep you distracted and bide my time. Which, don’t worry, I’m done now and so are you.” He said with a small raspy laugh, pointing to their feet as the weapon on his shoulder slowly began to glow bright orange.

Jet looked down to see that they were standing in a fairly decently sized puddle of some kind of fuel, evident by the glossy rainbow colored sheen that was stretched across its surface due to the light that was being cast upon it. With a look of horrified shock, Jet realized what the assassins’ intention was. Without a moment of hesitation, Jet grabbed Luna’s arm and leapt into the air with the aid of his wing boosters. They managed to jump away just as the assassins’ shoulder mounted weapon sprang to life, a blast of bright yellow and orange flames shot out of it, lighting the ground under them ablaze. The pair settled back to the ground a few dozen feet away.

“You idiot, you’re going to set the entire forest on fire!” Jet yelled down at the assassin.

“Why should that matter to me? As long as my job is complete, that’s all that matters to me.” He retorted with another raspy laugh.

His shoulder weapon lit up again, spraying yet more flames forward and coating the landscape in a bright orange flickering glow. Jet and Luna once again dodged out of the way, the trees around them creaked and groaned as if becoming angry themselves. Just as Jet regained his footing from dodging, the assassin was upon him, the blades that had been on his hips now drawn from their sheaths and blazing with the same flames that were now coating the ground around them. The assassin was quick, already moving to bring his scimitars down in an overhead swing towards Jet. Thinking quickly, Jet willed the nanobots of his suit to form a shield to block the attack. The scimitars collided against the nanite shield with a very loud bang, almost instantly destroying a large chunk of the newly formed shield and sending the assassin reeling backwards on his feet. It wasn’t much, but it gave Jet enough of an opening to land a kick into the assassins’ chest and knock him into the wall of flames that burned brightly behind him.

Jet took a moment to assess the damage to his own armor, a good chunk of nanites had been destroyed by the heated strike of those scimitars, leaving his one arm exposed and unarmored now. He gave a look around to see Luna not far away, he gave her a nod from across the burning field and motioned upwards. She nodded back and took to the air, out of harm's way for now. The flames were spreading quickly, engulfing the clearing that held the old castle. The forest creaked and groaned louder, almost sounding animalistic and alive now. Jet stared into the burning flames, expecting screams of pain to be coming from within, but nothing of the sort happened. Without warning, the assassin jumped out of the fire and leapt towards Jet in a flurry of angered sword swipes, his armor not even charred from the flames. Jet dodged again, but wasn’t quite fast enough, a few of the swipes frp, the assassins’ blades caught his exposed arm and sheared the flesh from it. To Jet’s relief, it was the arm that had been replaced by a cybernetic one, the metal of the replacement gleamed in the flickering light of the flames. The false skin covering it was torn and ragged looking, he decided to tear the rest free, leaving his arm full metal up to the shoulder.

“You’re fucking lucky that was my fake arm, asshat.” Jet said with a glare at the assassin, who was standing just a few feet away with his scimitars still drawn and at the ready.

“Oh, please do forgive me. I’ll make sure to get the real one this time.” He replied, his flame thrower glowing again before blasting yet another wall of flame towards Jet.

Jet used his wings to block the blast this time, the nanites holding up a bit better than before, but not well enough as they soon gave way under the intense heat of the fire. The blast subsided and Jet lowered his wings just as Heat Stroke was charging him again with his scimitars poised to slash from either side. In a move of pure desperation, Jet swung his sword upward and across the chest plate and shoulder of the assassin. The strike collided with the flamethrower on his shoulder, causing it to fizzle and spark before exploding. The explosion sent small orbs of blazing orange outward in a shotgun-like spray around the area, setting more of the clearing on fire and sending Heat Stroke several feet backwards and straight onto his ass. The forest groaned even louder against the sudden increase in flames. Jet was shocked that his last ditch attack had been so effective, standing upright and shaking some bits of burning fake skin from his wings. He had never been more glad to have these false parts than right at this moment,

“I-Is that the best you can do, asshole?” Jet taunted, readying his blade again as Heat Stroke got to his feet.

“I haven’t even begun to show you my best. Hope you’re fireproof, you little bastard!” He yelled and flung one of his scimitars at Jet.

The blade spun horizontally in the air as it made its way towards Jet. He jumped and flipped over the blade, landing on one knee after it passed under him harmlessly and embedded itself in a tree behind him. The tree started to crackle and burn, which elicited an echoing screech from somewhere deep inside the forest. The sheer guttural nature of the screech sent a chill down Jet’s spine, he stared off into the blackness of the dark forest trying to see anything that could have possibly made such a noise. He was so distracted by the screech, that he didn’t see the second scimitar flying at him. Before he could react, the blade flew in front of him, cutting past his armor and slicing through his stomach horizontally. A large gush of crimson blood burst forth from the newly opened gash in his midsection.

Jet cried out in pain and doubled over before falling, his own sword clattering to the ground as he moved his arm to grasp at his wound in an attempt to keep his guts from spilling out onto the cold ground. His vision was fading, his heartbeat thumped loudly in his ears, and his blood felt cold as it ran through his veins. He struggled to look up as the heavy steps of the assassins’ boots coming closer. To his relief, Luna had taken his signal and fled, as she was nowhere to be seen in the sky. Jet’s gaze moved back down from the sky and fell onto the assassin, who had removed his helmet now. Jet recognized him as one of the rookies that he had trained beside at the knights academy. They had been friends at the academy, but once Jet had gotten promoted to personal guard status, they had lost touch. His bright green coated face sneered cockily and his piercing orange irises stared down into Jet’s with a sense of malice that could be physically felt.

“E-Emerald Daze…?” Jet asked through a cough, spitting up some blood in the process.

“That’s right, Stream. How does it feel to be done in by your old friend?” He said coldly, putting a strange emphasis on the word friend.

“But… W-Why? Why would y-you turn on your own n-nation… And h-help that psycho…?” Jet struggled to say, his vision starting to fade.

“Why?! Isn’t it obvious?! Lord Sombra recognized the potential I had! The potential that Celestia overlooked! I was top of our class, the best rookie in the academy! But, for some unknown fucking reason, that bitch of a princess chose you! You! The rookie that flunked every exam he ever took! Why would she have chosen you?! Were you and her having some kind of fucked up concubine relationship?! Answer me!” He screamed, his raspy voice echoing through the woodland.

“C-Concubine? A-Are you serious right now? She p-picked me because she saw actual potential in me, you f-fucking psychopath! You r-really sold out your entire n-nation because you were butthurt about not being p-picked for the personal g-guard position? You’re pathetic…” Jet replied, wiping some blood from his lip with his good arm.

“No! It’s you who’s the pathetic one here! I beat you in every sparring match we ever had, you’re no different now! It’s time to end this! Goodbye, old friend!” He continued to scream, moving to pull one of his scimitars from the tree.

Jet struggled to his feet and grabbed his sword in the process, refusing to die like a defenseless animal on the ground. He faced Emerald, his body shaking and freezing from the amount of blood he was losing. Their eyes met as Emerald stepped back in front of Jet, his blade poised to deliver the final strike. Jet didn’t have the strength to move his arms, let alone raise his sword to block. He shut his eyes tightly, awaiting the inevitable fatal blow. Before Emerald could take the swing, another screech rang out from the forest, this time much closer. He stopped and turned to look towards the noise, dropping his blade and backing away in fear as he laid eyes on the source of the screeching. Just on the outskirts of the clearing stood a tall, dark figure with glowing red eyes. The creature appeared to be made from the forest itself. Its body was a tangle of vines and leaves, it’s limbs made from thick cracked bark, and its head formed from various bits of moss and forest mushrooms. Emerald looked on in horror as the creature stepped forward, moving right for him. It stopped just a few feet from him as Jet opened his eyes to see what had caused him to stop.

“W-What the fuck is that?!” Emerald asked in shock.

“You have hurt my forest with your flames, I do not stand for such things. You must be punished for this crime against my children.” A wordless voice spoke inside both of their heads as a series of vines lashed out, grabbing both of them by their limbs and hoisting them into the air.

“You i-idiot… I tried t-to tell you…” Jet said through a groan of pain from being stretched out by the vines.

“What are you talking about?! Do you know what this thing is?!” Emerald yelled in response.

“Enough of your petty words. There must be payment for your crimes against my forest. Payment in blood!” The mysterious voice rang out in their heads again.

The creature moved closer and looked them over for a moment, the vines gripping tightly against their ankles and wrists. After a few moments of near silence, the only sounds being the pair’s small grunts of pain and the crackling of the fading fires around them, the creature made a soft groan and backed away from them. It gave what seemed to be a nod to itself and Emerald was suddenly pulled into the blackness of the forest behind them. He made several failed attempts to struggle against the vines and made even more swears at both Jet and the creature. Shortly after, there was a loud scream of pain that lasted only seconds before receding into a deafening silence that gave Jet chills. The creature once again closer to him, giving him yet another look over.

“You… You have a fate greater than dying in my forest. I have my blood debt, you may go. But first…” The voice echoed in Jet’s mind again, it moved one of its tree branch hands.

A very small and thin vine with a sharp needle-like tip slithered across the forest floor. The vine slithered towards Jet and wound its way up his leg, pulling back into the air at his waist and pointed at his open wound, the needle-like tip pointed leering like a snake readying to strike. Without any further hesitation, the vine struck. It pierced Jet’s skin just under his wound, then back up to the top of it and pierced his flesh there. The vine wound its way back forth, stitching his wound as if done by a surgeon. Jet groaned quietly in pain during the process of his gaping wound being stitched together. It only lasted moments, as the vine was quick to do its work. Once the vine’s work was done, it tied itself into a knot at both ends and snapped itself off where it had begun. Afterwards, the creature silently moved over to the other flaming blade that was still lodged in one of the trees. It grabbed the blade and freed it easily from the tree then moved back towards Jet. It gave him a quiet nod as it held the blade with the flat side pointed at Jet. Jet nodded and lightly grit his teeth, knowing what the creature intended to do.

Without any further delay, the creature pressed the blade against his wound, eliciting a small outburst of pain from Jet. It only took seconds for the flames from the blade to burn his flesh and cauterize his wound, but it felt like an eternity to him. Once the creature was finished, the vines released him and he fell to the ground with a soft thud. His hand immediately went to his midsection, gripping against the newly resealed gash to his guts. With a deep breath and a groan of pain, he slowly got to his feet. As he stood, the creature grabbed his sword from the ground and held it out to him.

“W-What did you mean… Greater fate…?” Jet asked as he took the sword by its handle.

“I cannot say more than that, lest it alter the series of events you are meant to follow.” The voice sang out in Jet’s head once again.

“How…” Jet started, his voice wavering slightly with a small groan of pain as he sheathed his sword.

“Now is not the time for questions, you have much to do. Here, take these. They will help you regain your strength.” The voice rang again, the hand of the creature extending with a couple of small green hued beans in its palm.

Jet took them and looked them over, they were a bright green color and looked like a lima beans. They didn’t look like anything poisonous that he could recall from the survival guides he had read before. With a shrug, he threw them into his mouth and ate them. They tasted terrible, but once he had swallowed them, he felt as if none of this had happened. There was no pain and no more weakness in his body. He looked up to thank the creature, but it had disappeared back into the forest. He gave his limbs a stretch and took to the sky to make his way out of the forest. Once he was free of the forest’s edge and landed, there was a rustle from the trees behind him. He turned to look and saw Luna emerging from the tree line. She brushed some dead leaves from herself and walked over to him.

“Luna, you got out okay. Thank the Gods.” Jet said as she approached him with a solemn expression, he noted a fairly large satchel was now slung over her shoulder.

“Yes, thanks to you Jet. Though I had to go back for some of my more important items and… Well… I am glad you are ok…: She said hesitantly, her staggered tone indicating she knew something.

“Luna… How much did you see…?” Jet asked, hoping maybe she could explain what just happened.

“I saw enough… Just count yourself lucky to be alive.” Luna replied slowly.

“That creature. Was it… What I think it was?” Jet asked again, already knowing the answer.

“The spirit of the forest, yes… Very very few survive an encounter with it. As I said, you should count yourself lucky to be alive.” Luna replied again, a tone of finality entering her voice.

“Right… Uh, we should get going then…” Jet said, giving the forest one final look before turning and heading in the direction of Sombra’s warehouse, with Luna following suit with a nod.

The pair walked in eerie silence as they went, the only sound being the occasional howl of the wind. The dust clouds being kicked up by the wind made the pair have to don their masks, this leaving Jet’s metal arm exposed due to having a good chunk of his armor nanites destroyed in the previous battle. Luna wore a mask she had pulled from her satchel, it was a slightly worn solid piece of silver that was etched with runes and had holes drilled out for the wearer’s nostrils, horn, and eyes. The trek through the deserted terrain was a fairly long one, but they’d have a better chance of not being spotted on foot. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, the ruins of Sweet Apple Acres came into view up ahead, the deserted farm would give them plenty of cover and a good view of Ponyville. The pair decided to take up a recon position in what remained of the old treehouse on the edge of the farm, a perfect position to see Ponyville main street.

“Okay, Luna. This warehouse is supposed to be located around where Ponyville Town Hall used to be. It’s shielded with both a cloaking device and an electrical barrier. It’s best to stake out until we can get an exact position of it.” Jet said quietly as he set up a small camp inside the treehouse, readying for a long stay.

“Or we can just go right now and get it over with.” Luna said coyly, removing her mask and winking as if she knew something.

“How do we attack something that we can’t even see?” Jet asked, turning from the window to look at her.

“Wellll, this mask of mine isn’t just a fashion statement. Don’t tell me you don’t recognize it. If memory serves, you used to know your Equestrian Legends and Myths better than that.” Luna said with a light chuckle as Jet looked closer at her mask, gasping lightly at the realization.

“Is that the Mask of Revelations? How? It’s supposed to be lost to the ages!” Jet exclaimed, a bit loudly.

“It was never lost, I just chose to keep this little relic for myself and started the legend that it was lost to time.” Luna said with another chuckle.

“You’ve been keeping a piece of history for yourself all this time…?” Jet asked incredulously.

“Oh, relax. Who do you think it was made for anyway? I have every right to keep it for myself. Besides, Tia did it too.” She replied with a shrug.

“Hold up, Celestia secretly kept a relic too? Which one?” Jet asked curiously, kind of enjoying this bit of relatively normal conversation with her.

“I don’t really remember, it was some kind of wing armor.” Luna replied casually, also enjoying having someone to have a normal conversation with after all this time.

“Was it the Dragonscale Wings? I read that they were forged from the scales of a dragon that had once tried to assassinate her.” Jet continued on asking questions.

“Yes, that was it. I knew you knew your legends of Equestria.” Luna said with a smile.

“Incredible to think that two of Equestria’s lost relics were right under my nose all that time…” Jet said, thinking back to all the time he spent serving the princesses.

“There are lots of secrets you don’t know about, Jet. Just… Keep that in mind for the future.” Luna replied, a little ominously.

“What do you…” Jet started to say, but was quickly cut off by Luna.

“Enough talk for now, we have a job to do, yes?” She said casually as she slipped the metal mask back on.

“Right, let’s get to it then.” Jet replied with an affirmative nod.

She ran her fingers across the runes etched into the bridge of the nose and the eyes began to faintly glow dark blue. She slid in beside Jet at the window and looked out onto the townscape. After a brief moment of silence, she pulled back away from the window and stood up. She motioned for Jet to follow suit and he obliged. They headed for the door and outside, ducking behind the various charred trees as they made their way closer to the cloaked warehouse. The pair stopped short of the seemingly empty center of town, ducking into the crumbling remains.

“So, you mentioned an electrical barrier. How did you intend to get through that?” Luna asked in a hushed whisper.

“You let me worry about that. I just need to know where the power sources are, they’re likely cloaked as well. Possibly hidden around the ruins of the town.” Jet replied, surveying the area but not seeing anything.

“Well, alright then. Lemme see what I can see here.” Luna responded, activating her mask again and looking around the town.

There was another brief silence as Luna surveyed the area. Through the eyes of her mask, she could see the warehouse clearly. Its form distorted slightly by the cloaking field and a few small arcs of electricity that streamed across it every so often. She was able to barely make out a pair of incredibly thin wires running from the top of the warehouse within the barrier. She followed the wires with her eyes and traced their origins to a couple of nearby buildings. The buildings were familiar to her. With a nod to herself, she deactivated her mask and turned back to Jet.

“The power supplies are located within Sugarcube Corner and another inside the old Grocer N’ Go across the plaza. Whatever you’re going to do, I would suggest doing it sooner rather than later. There’s no telling how long until a shipment truck comes through here.” Luna said, giving him a concerned look.

“Right. Just stay here, once the barrier is deactivated, that’s your signal to move in.” Jet replied with a nod before standing and readying himself for his task at hand.

He jumped up onto what remained of the roofs of the buildings and made his way towards Sugarcube Corner, it being the closer of the two locations right now. With quick and quiet movements, he moved from broken chimney to broken chimney, ducking behind them as he went to avoid being spotted and making his job harder. After a few short minutes, he was on the roof of Sugarcube Corner. He was shocked to see that the building was still mostly intact, with only a few holes in the roof. Peeking in through one of the holes, he could barely see anything except the blackness within, only faint blotches of light could be seen thanks to the hole strewn roof. He put his mask up and like before a readout of the immediate area showed up on the HUD. To his surprise, there were only around three guards roaming around the dirt covered floor. He slipped in through one of the holes in the roof and landed silently onto the wooden floor of the upstairs portion of the building.

“Sir, I am detecting extremely high levels of darkness. Shall I activate night vision mode?” Friday rang out suddenly in Jet’s ear, causing him to jump a bit.

“Yes, please do.” Jet replied softly, straining his eyes against the blackness surrounding him.

Without another word, the lenses of his facemask slowly shifted and began to highlight the room with an eerie green glow. He gave his eyes a moment to adjust to the new green environment before looking around to get a bearing on his surroundings. To his realization, he has dropped right into what used to be Pinkie’s room. He gave a small smile to himself as he remembered the first time Rainbow had introduced him to her. Pinkie being her usual hyper self made a big deal about and had even teased Rainbow about finally getting herself a man. Jet missed those days, everything was so much simpler then. They didn’t need to worry about the possibility of being captured and brainwashed into fighting their own friends, there was no need to hide away in a bunker, and no hassle of strategically dismantling a tyrant’s operations. Those truly were the days he yearned for again. Maybe one day once all this was over, they could get back to how things used to be, but for now he had a job to do. With every advancement against Sombra, they were brought that much closer to getting those days back.

With a heavy sigh, he made his way out into the hallway of the second floor. To his left, the hall extended into darkness, an assortment of broken pictures and furniture littered the floor of the hall. To his right, he could make out the stairs that led down onto the first floor where the few guards patrolled, unaware that this was to be their last patrol. Jet began to descend the stairs, making sure to keep to the shadows and away from the patches of faint light that made their way through the holes in the roof. Through his night vision, he could see that the ground floor was mostly empty. The chairs and tables were haphazardly tossed to the sides of the room, presumably to get them out of the way when they had brought in whatever power source he was here to destroy. He quickly and quietly made his way down the stairs and onto the first floor. Ducking behind one of the overturned tables, he began to watch and study the patrol routes of the guards. As luck would have it, they were all a decent bit away from each other, which gave Jet ample opportunity to pick them off one by one.

He watched silently as one of the guards began to walk towards where he was hiding. Bracing himself, Jet readied to strike. The guard walked right by him and started to head up the stairs, but was intercepted by Jet. Jet grabbed the guard, one hand over his mouth while his other arm went around his neck and began squeezing hard. He quietly brought the guard back over to where he was hiding and kicked the guard’s legs out from under him, forcing him to kneel. Jet continued to squeeze the guard’s throat with his arm as the guard struggled, kicking his legs against the air and attempting to pull Jet’s arm free from his throat. The struggling quickly became weaker and eventually stopped all together. With one final squeeze and a jerk of his arm, a sickening snap came from the guard’s neck and his body went limp. Jet silently laid the guard against the overturned table and turned his attention to the two remaining guards, one was off in the kitchen section of the floor and the other was leaning against the counter of the store. Using the tables and darkness as cover, Jet made his way over to the counter. Situating himself directly behind it, he was in prime position to take out guard number two. Jet sprang up and pulled the guard back flat on top of the counter, quick as a serpent, he then gave the guard an incredibly hard punch in the throat to silence him before pulling him across the counter. Just as quickly, he unsheathed his sword and drove it into the chest of the guard, ending yet another life because this guy had chosen to be on the wrong side of this war.

Jet wiped his sword clean and heaved a shaking breath, slowly but surely, he was becoming numb to the feeling of taking a life. He was unsure whether this was a good or a bad thing, but what he did know was that he would take back his home from these scum, even if it meant having the blood of an entire city worth of ponies on his hands. He shook himself free of these thoughts and turned his attention to the final guard stationed here. By the readout on his HUD, the guard was fiddling with something in the kitchen. If he had to guess, it was whatever was powering the warehouse defenses. Jet stood and began to make his way towards the door to the kitchen, there was a faint and wavering red glow coming from underneath it. Slowly Jet pushed open the door and was greeted by the sight of the final guard knelt down in front of an electrical pylon, fiddling with a series of dials at its base. The pylon glowed and ebbed with a powerful, almost blood red, electrical force. Jet crept inside and quietly made his way behind the guard. Just as the guard stood and turned around, Jet gave him a hard kick in the chest. This sent him reeling backwards and right into the pylon. The pylon sparked and fizzled violently as the guard was electrocuted against it. It gave off a few red sparks and started to whirr loudly, Jet decided it best to take cover behind one of the kitchen counters. Almost as soon as he did, the pylon sparked very violently one last time before exploding in a shower of red sparks and burning hot metal shards which embedded themselves into the walls and floor of the kitchen.

Once the barrage of searing metal subsided, Jet stood and took a look at his work. The pylon was completely destroyed, leaving only a smoldering base of steel left in its wake. Satisfied with his handiwork, he made his way back out into the main hall and back up through one of the roof holes. As soon as he got back out into the open air, his night vision switched back off, giving him his normal sight back. Landing on the tiled roof, he noticed that the warehouse was now fading in and out of existence. Losing that one pylon had already disrupted the power supply to the warehouse. He saw a small gleam from across the plaza. It was Luna, using what little light there was to signal out to him from across the way with her knife using morse code. He followed suit and drew his blade, signaling back.

‘They just dispatched a handful of reinforcements to the second building.’ Luna signaled from her hiding spot.

‘How many?’ Jet signaled back.

‘Looked like around ten.’ Luna answered.

‘They should’ve sent more.’ Jet signaled again before putting his sword back and moving towards the second location.

Jet made his way across the rooftops as quick and silent as a ninja tracking a target. It didn’t take long for him to reach his target location. The roof of the old grocery store was flat and coated in gravel, unlike the other roofs around it which were tiled in the typical shingles. Unlike the previous location, there was only a single hole in this roof. Jet made his way over to the hole and peered inside, to his surprise, there was actually lighting inside this place. As he looked through the hole, he could see via his HUD that there were fifteen guards stationed inside here. He gave a smirk to himself and drew his sword again before leaping into the hole. Inside he could see that mostly all of the shelving was still intact and even still fairly stocked with a variety of canned goods and other non-perishable items. As soon as he landed within, the guards took notice of him. He stood there casually and sized them all up, nothing more than the standard grunt soldiers.

“Is this really all you boys bring to the table? You should’ve taken the day off.” Jet said, staring them down as they drew their own weapons.

“Lord Sombra was right, the prodigal son does still live.” One of the guards said aloud, a bit of hesitation in his voice.

“Prodigal son? I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I will be destroying your pylon. Any objections to that?” Jet asked rhetorically.

“Don’t just stand there, you fools! Attack!” Another of the guards shouted.

“Alright, your funerals.” Jet replied coldly.

The squad of guards all charged him as one unit, swords and spears drawn and ready to impale him. With a quick leap into the air, Jet dodged and landed behind the group. He grabbed two of them by the back of their heads and slammed them face first into the floor, shattering the tile floor and creating twin pools of blood around it. The others turned to face him, some of their hands shaking around the grip of their weapons. In a matter of moments, Jet was upon them, pushing through the group as he dodged the swipes of their weapons. He made his way into the center of the group and performed a leg sweep, knocking a majority of them to the ground. The few that remained standing tried to get him with their spears. Still on the ground from doing the leg sweep, Jet swung his own sword downward, severing the tip off one of their spears and kicking it into the air. Before it had time to fall back to the ground, he grabbed it from the air and hurled it at the guard that he had broken it off of. The pointed spear head hit him directly between the eyes and he slumped to the floor, joining his other two fallen comrades. Behind Jet, the other guards were getting to their feet. He moved quickly and ran into one of the aisles. The group of guards were just as quick to follow him, splitting into two groups and covering both ends of the aisle in an attempt to box Jet in. He grinned to himself under his mask and watched as they started to make their way down the aisle towards him.

“Y’know, Sombra really oughta employ smarter soldiers.” Jet said loudly, as to make sure all of them heard him.

“What are you talking about? We have you cornered. You can’t possibly get through all of us.” One of them said from the group in front of him.

“I’m guessing you idiots don’t see it, do you?” Jet asked with a small chuckle.

“See what?” The same guard asked from the group.

“Look around you. These shelving units, combined with the items on them weigh in at more than two-hundred pounds a piece. You walked right into my trap.” Jet replied with another chuckle.

“What are you…” The guard began again, but was cut off when Jet leapt into the air yet again.

While in the air, Jet kicked the tops of the shelving units. This caused them to tip over and fall inwards. The screams of the guards could be heard echoing throughout the store as they scrambled in vain to get out of the way of the collapsing shelves. Unfortunately for them, they had caused a traffic jam amongst themselves and couldn’t get free before they were crushed and bludgeoned to death under the weight of the falling cans and heavy shelves. Once he was satisfied with the outcome, Jet made his way back down to the floor at the end of the aisle. To his shock, one of the guards had managed to survive and was crawling along the floor towards the exit. Jet intercepted him and picked him up by the collar of his armor.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Jet asked menacingly, pressing his face against the guard’s helmet.

“P-P-Please… Don’t kill me… I h-have a family…” The guard pleaded for his life.

“Oh, do you now?” Jet asked in a mocking tone.

“Y-Yes…” The guard replied desperately, trembling in Jet’s grasp.

“So did the thousands of ponies you and your tyrant king have slaughtered.” Jet replied coldly, shoving his sword through the guard’s chest in one swift motion.

The guard trembled again briefly and coughed loudly into his helmet before slowly going limp in Jet’s grasp. Without another word, Jet threw the guard to the floor with a loud thud and made his way to the back of the store in search of the pylon. Once in the back, it didn’t take him long to locate the pylon. He sheathed his sword and looked around for something to use to destroy it, as it didn’t appear to just have an off button. Having not found anything useful enough to destroy it with, he went with his plan B. With a deep breath, he held out his arms and moved towards the pylon. Before his mind could have time to second guess this decision, he leaned forward and gripped the sides of the pylon tightly. Instantly his arms lit up with pain as if on fire, but he refused to let go until the job was done. Slowly the electricity arced its way up his arms and across his chest. He screamed out in pain as the arcs met in the center of his body and began to form an electrical tether between themselves. This only made him grip the pylon tighter, which in turn syphoned even more of the electricity into his body. His HUD became a muddled mess of static and distortions as the intensity of the electricity seemed to be frying his suits AI system. Even with as much as this hurt, he refused to give up. He grit his teeth against the pain and kept holding tightly, his hair began to stand on end as the pylon began to dim. Eventually, the pylon grew dark and Jet was finally able to let go. He stumbled in place for a moment before falling to the ground. His body seeming to have given up on him as he lay on the cold floor, small streams of smoke coming off of him.

“My, my. Such a noble sacrifice. But, it was in vain, boy. You were the ace in the hole for your entire operation, without you, those pathetic weaklings stand no chance of winning. A shame really, I was hoping to defeat you myself, but oh well. Don’t worry though, I’ll make sure to tell them of how noble you were in de… What? Impossible!” Sombra’s voice rang out from the speaker system of the store, cutting himself off as Jet slowly and painfully got to his feet again, small lines of electricity arced off of his body and onto the floor around him.

“S-Shut your mouth, y-you monster. If you th-think you can get rid of me that e-easily, think again!” Jet yelled out into the empty store.

“No, this is impossible. That much electrical energy should have stopped your heart. What… What are you?” Sombra asked, his voice growing louder with anger.

“What am I? I am the vengeance of those you have killed on your path to your reign, I am the embodiment of hope of those who remain, I am the last remaining personal guard to the throne of Equestria, I am your death Sombra. That is what I am.” Jet replied, his strength quickly coming back and his determination shining through.

There was nothing but a growl from the speaker before it went silent again. Jet made his way back out of the store and stood outside, the warehouse loomed over him. It was a huge structure made of grey brick that was chipped and cracked in places. High up near the roof was a series of dirty windows that ran along its entire side. Closest to him was a large pair of rusty chained up steel doors with a padlock hanging from it. As he stood there in the ominous presence of the warehouse’s shadow, he didn’t notice Luna jogging over to him from her hiding spot. She gently put a hand on his shoulder, which made him jump and turn towards her, his sword drawn. Luna quickly pulled away with her hands in the air.

“Easy Jet, it is just me.” Luna said quickly, to which Jet lowered his sword.

“S-Sorry, Luna. I was lost in thought…” Jet said softly, a distant look in his eyes.

“Do not worry, Jet. I should have known not to sneak up on you. Are… Are you ok?” Luna asked, a look of both concern on her face.

“I’m fine… Just a bit on edge is all… Are you ready for this?” Jet replied, turning back to the warehouse.

“As ready as I will ever be.” Luna said with a small nod as she moved to stand beside him, ready for whatever awaited them inside the huge structure.