Strike groaned as he slowly oppened his eyes and rubbed his face. ´What the hell happened?´ he thought as he tried to remember what exatly had occured. There was the fight, the deal off, speeding off, death chase then... falling down into the ravine and then nothing.

Strike slowly oppened driver's door and clutching at his shot wound as he got out of his car to see that he was still in the desert but to his confusion and great relieve it was oppened. No high walls of ravine on either side of him, only sand as far as eye could see, getting back into the car and closing the door he looked to his left and saw that the door on passanger's seat was still missing. Maybe he just fall asleep after the chase and dreamed the ravine? No. No that's not it, he hasn't dreamed since the world ended. There's something else in the play but what, was beyond him.

No matter, he must find some scrap and fix the hole in his car before he can run into more War Boys. Putting his mask on he started the ignition, the engine revved to life and pressing down on the accelerator the car began moving, shifting to two then three the car moved faster leaving cloud of sand behind it.

Strike has been traveling few days now and thankfully he had to refill the tank once so far and the buckshots were only superficial so getting them out and patching himself up was easy enough but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that, for the love of god he couldn't find any scrapyards, junkyards or camps where he could loot some of the scrap. It was pure desert as far as it went. Right now he was leaning against his car's hood and thinking were to next, so far he refused to go north were Gastown was but he didn't have much of a choice. Sighing he got back in his car and went north.

It is not often that situation occurs that needs Celestia's direct attention but this is an exeption that just can't go ignored by her. First was the magical anomaly that sent her Alicorn Senses and magic into overdrive, then there were reports from the Badlands Royal guard detachment at far south sent reports about unnatural roars occuring followed by a long could of dust, coming from one side and not ending until they were on the opposite side and even then the echo stay for a few seconds. She shudders on the thought of what may have came through, what kind of beast or monster could be lurking in there now. Fortunately nopony was kidnapped or worse; killed. Yet.

Luna wanted to go with her but Celestia didn't allowed her, saying that she still has to recover most of her former strengh and as much as she new Twilight would be able to help with the paperwork and would undoubtedly be happy to be with her older brother again. Celestia would have taken Luna with her but both her physical and magical power had dimished significantly and wouldn't do much against invaders. She didn't like the idea of leaving her little sister alone, not after the incident with the more... religious ponies let's say. Her anger rose at the though that they almost succeeded with their goal.

Celestia left those thoughts behind, she can't let that bother now, her royal duties came first... even before her own family, as much she hates that.

"Your Highness we're almost there," said a guardsmare. Celestia just nodded and kept thinking more about her task before leaving her carrige and stretched her wings to their full extend , after that followed her arms, legs, back and neck, making popping sounds that made most of her guards cringe in sypathy or in the case of the more ´I'm better than you´, disgust.

"We are going to camp here for the night!" she ordered, her guards immediately building a camp. Celestia looked around the camp to see if she could contribute but there was nothing, so she just went around to see what else could be done to make the camp more secure. She managed to find a good lookout spot for her guards which allowed them to see to a great distance to warn the other of incoming danger.

"I am going to retire for tonight. Unless it is matter that requires my attention, I do not wish to be disturbed!" she ordered, getting salutes in return. She got into her tent and used a spell to summon her sofa and climbed into it. Using the same spell she summoned a book and began reading until her eyes grew heavy, using a different spell she changed into her night gown and went to sleep in her sleeping bag.

"Wake up princess!" exclaimed a guardspony. She woke up, displeased at being disturbed from her sleep.

"What is happening?" she asked.

"The guards at the lookout spotted something heading our way, going really fast," that got her attention.

"What is it?" she asked as she summoned her armor and longsword which for average sized beings can be considered a greatsword and last but not least her kite shield.

"We don't know but it's leaving a big cloud of sand in its wake," he said nervously.

"Tell everypony to spread out and keep their distance from one another, we do not know what we are facing and I want as little ponies to die as possible," she ordered, the guard saluted and left. Using the spell she summoned a chainmail onto her before donning her full-plate armor with the help of her magic.

The engine revved as the car moved at high speed through the sand leaving a big cloud of sand in its wake. Strike originally didn't want to go during the night but supposed that the darkness is better then the War Boys, in it he could at least hide easier when he used evading maneuvers. When he notices a light in front of him he slowed down to a halt to ponder it. ´Lights. A lot of them. Junkyards don't tend to have those so it might be a camp but then again, it's the night. Now, do I want to just sneak in there and take some scrap and be done with it or do I engage an unknow number of enemies and take all of their scrap...?´ he sighed, ´fuck it, might as well. Not that I have much to lose anyway,´ he stomped on the accelerator and the engine revved loudly.

He began approaching the lights rapidly and saw that this was indeed a camp. And just as quickly he noticed several things wrong with, no walls, no gate, no lookout towers, no nothing. Just tents and wooden barricades, a lot of them. And he also saw that the occupying it, ´are those humanoid horses? I'm either dehydrated as hell or I finaly lost it.´ Though it changed nothing. People were hardly welcoming and he didn't have much to offer except water and gas and he sure as hell wasn't going to treade that for a pile of plate.

Shifting gears higher, Strike easily broke through the wooden barricade. As he race through the camp he saw that the camp was indeed full of humanoid horses. ´Definitely lost it ,´ he thought to himself.

A horse landed on his hood but before it could do anything else, Strike shot it with his glock. It fell down and under Strike's tires. Next was a horse with horn that was glowing green. Strike's widen and jerked the steering wheel right. A large wall of sand came over the horse. Strike then engaged reverse gear and run the horse over. 'Idiots, leaving such a spacious area for me to use.' Strike thought darkly.

Just then something exploded close to his right, causing Strike to lose control for a moment. He looked back to see what caused it but that was a mistake. When he looked back ran through a tent which stucked to his car. Not only that but it also obscured his sight. Strike groaned a bit before putting the brick on the accelerator. He grabbed the cloth before tosing it away.

Strike only had enough time to sit back before something grabbed him by his vest. He turned and saw another winged horse. They began strugling for dominance before Strike jerked the steering wheel right. The horse's eyes widened as it began flying out. It barely caught the frame of the car before getting shot in the head.

Taking off the brick he stomped the accelerator he began jerking the steering wheel left and right to evade them but one managed to land on his hood again.

Glock already in his hand he shot the horse in its leg and stomped on brake making it roll in front of him. stomping the accelerator quickly he ran over it, ´three down, who knows how many to go´ he thought as his car was lifted into the air surrounded by glowing orange aura. Looking around he quickly spotted a horse who's horn was glowing the same aura.

Taking aim he shot it in the head making his car plummet to the ground. Stomping the accelerator yet again he got caught off guard when another horse managed to get in through the hole in the car. Reacting before he could do anything else he shoved a shiv into its eye making it scream in agony and kicked it out.

He made more evading maneuvers. Suddenly he lost control as a tire was shot of. When the car stopped, he reached behind him for his machete. Undoing the velcro he turned off the ignition and got off before slaming the door behind him. He got attacked by a horse with a pike. He jumped to the left and turned around as the horse thrusted its weapon which went through the window-space of the car. Strike grabbed the shaft and with one hard slash he bisected it.

Taking advantage of the shock the horse had he shoved the broken shaft in its throat. Turning around he barely managed to block an attack from what felt like battering ram. His arms got locked as someone grabbed him from behind. He headbutted them before they could do anything else. He began running to get some distance so he could figure out something.

Turning around he ducked when he saw a horse with a longsword swinging a him from its right. He plunged the pike's head into an unprotected area on its thigh near its groin and severing a major artery. To be sure, he twisted the head before ripping it out, the horse bellowing the whole time. He got bashed from behind knocking the wind out of and making him fly two meters foward before everything went black.

This was a disaster. Some may say that it worked out in the end but the casualties. Yes, they were not as bad as Celestia feared but what angered her was that they happened anyway, even if they may have been avoided if she had just intervened sooner. She does not knows what was stopping from doing so but whatever it was it has to wait for now.

"six dead, two crippled for life and one seriously injured" she muttered, clutching at her head. She watched the whole spectacle as it happened, one of her pegasi got run over... whatever that thing was, an unicorn got a hole in the middle of her head out of nowhere then the other pegasus lost an eye and got kicked out of that thing, one of her earth ponies has a hole in his throat while the other one is slowly bleeding out. Wonderfull. Wonder-bucking-full. She sighed and looked down at the creature that she knocked out with a spell. It was the size of an average pony a yet it managed to kill three and cripple two of her guards before going down. She fears how many would have followed if she have not intervened as she has, would it be able to take down the entire platoon if she have not? No. No no she didn't believed it would, not without the use of dark magic, now was not the time to linger on such thoughts however, she has an unknown creature in front of her and she has to interrogate it.

"Guards! Bound this creature and take into one of the tents, I will interrogate it come morning!" she ordered.

"Yes your, Highness," said a guardsmare as she and other guard took it away as Celestia retreated into her tent. She began taking off armor and then her chainmail before she went back to her bag for a bit more sleep before she had to rise the sun.

When Celestia woke up she rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she thought about her agenda for today. there was the sun, then the interrogation and then she would see how it developed further, standing up she poked her head out of her tent to rise the sun before doing her routine of brushing her mane, breakfast, washing he teeth, morning toilet and no morning shower since she is in a desert.

With her routine down she donned back her gear and went to interrogate the creature. Asking one of her guards for directions she got to one of their more spacious tents, going in she found the creature sitting on the ground with its hands tied behind a pole, its mask and hood hiding its indetity though if she had to guess then judging by its anatomy she would say that it is a male at the very least.

She put the hood down and took the mask off, confirming that yes it is a male. Celestia watched his face for any indication of waking up and noticed how vastly different it is. First of all it was almost completely furless except his dark brown hair and light brown beard. It was almost complately flat with the exeption of a protruding nose, his ears were on the sides of his head instead on top and finally his pair of closed, sunken, foward-facing eyes indicating what his diet might be. Though what got her more was not were they are facing but how small they are, can he even see with eyes like that? And his cheek bones were also clearly visible.

None came though so she summuned a large and sturdy crate behing her and sat on it, putting her shield in front of her legs. She watched for five minutes but no sign of even a stiring came, the stalion slept like killed. She shot a bolt of magic into him, waking him up violently, he shook himself and looked at her.

"Well I must say that I got nicer wake up calls from the War Boys and that's saying somethin'," he said as stretched as much as his bound body would allow. She did not like the name.

"War boys?" she asked.

"A group of insane psychos that will turn you into a bloodbag, forced racer, fighter or if they feel like being nice they kill right before you can even realise it," he explained calmly as she looked at him with disgusted face. What kind of bucked up monsters are they? In all of her years she faces countless foes most of them cruel tyrants but nothing of this magnitude.

"Blood bags?" she asked, disgusted.

"Yep, when you have the type of blood they need they'll tie you up, hang you upside down and start pumping your blood out when someone else needs it, and if they don't feel like saving some for later they'll suck you dry in one go," he said as if it was the most normal thing in the existence. She did not know if she wanted the answer to her next question.

"Why are you so calm about that? that's a horrible thing to do to anypony," she said. What would drove somepony to do such atrocity?

"Well," he began, his voice sounding like a gravel, "when someone survives through all of the near death experiences like I did, does terrible things like I did, they would grow apathetic or became crazy like the War Boys," he finished. Celestia narrowed her eyes at him.

"And which one are you?" she asked with suspicion in her voice. She had to make sure that he was not threat to her subjects.

"Maybe I'm insane... maybe apathetic... maybe both... and maybe neither," he said cryptically which displeased Celestia. She was in no mood for riddles.

"Speak clearly," she ordered before he began squirming. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"My back itches." He explained as continued to squirm.

"I can scratch that itch but only if you answer to my previous question. And clearly," she specified.

"Yeah yeah just scratch it already," he said, then as if by a miracle the itch disappeared but the... whatever she was haven't moved from the crate, no matter he could worry about that later ha had more pressing matters to focus on. "Okay, now we haven't introduced to each other," he said.

"My name is Princess Celestia, I'm the co-ruling diarch along side my younger sister Princess Luna," she said formaly, "now you."

"Well my name is Strike and I'm my own lord," he said, "well... what will you do with me now?" he asked.

It was a good question. What will she do with him? She can't just ignore the fact that he killed five of her solar guards and three have been mauled in some way. She strongly believes in justice but she also believes in redemption. "There are but two things I can do with you. Which will come to pass I leave upon you... now can either atone for your crime by fullfiling a request of mine or you can go into a high security prison for ten years. Your choice." Strike nodded in understanting.

So he could either do one thing for the princess which no doubt is going to be hard and possibly be her slave for god knows how long or he could throw away ten years of his life with the guarantee of eventual freedom. He looked into her eyes to see if there was deception but found none. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt too much to earn the trust of someone of your stature. So what do you want me to do?" he asked.

Celestia thought about it for a moment trying figure out were she could use his abilities to their fullest. After a bit of thinking she founded the perfect spot for him. "I want you to guard my sister until she regains her full strength."

Author's Note

UF. BUCKIN- I mean, FUCKING FINALLY! this took me some time to finish and soooo look foward to your thoughts and ideas for this story.(keep in my that I just wish for some inspiration, so your ideas may or may not appear in the story). I also spent an hour to calculate in precisely.(just for you ;) )

The math with Celestia and her sword and it fits perfectly:
Celestia's high = 263cm (8,63 ft)
zweihander's high = 213cm (7 ft)
greatsword's high = 127 - 183cm (4,2 - 6 ft)
longsword's high = 90 - 100cm (3 - 3,3 ft)
average person's high = 180 - 185cm (5,9 - 6,1 ft)

263 - 213 = 50cm
185 - 50 = 135cm
263 - 90 = 173cm
263 + 213 = 476cm
Celestia would need a sword that would be over 4,5m (14,8 ft) long so it would count as zweihander for her. Imagine a human trying to use full-featured zweihander that big. They wouldn't even lift it, proving my calculations.