Chapters "TWO MEN ENTER, ONE MAN LEAVE! TWO MEN ENTER, ONE MAN LEAVE! TWO MEN ENTER, ONE MAN LEAVE! TWO MEN ENTER, ONE MAN LEAVE!"
The crowd roared as he walked forward to the arena, his opponent already waiting for him. When he came on the floor the dome cage was lowered , once hooked up the both of them were lifted in the air.
They came to a stop while the announcer´s voice came up. "Gastowners! Wastelanders! War boys! it´s time for a second part of tonight´s show! THE THUNDERDOME FIGHTS! Tonight´s first fight will be between, the cold, the brutal, the ruthless, the unbeatable. STRIKE! Tonight he´s standing againts a wasteland fightter. DUKE!"
'Duke? Fitting considering how armed he is .' he thought, seriously he looked like he was about to take on an entire base full of Scrotus´s nutbars. He was wearing kevlar vest, his arm guards had metal plates with protruding screws and nuts and some heavy padding fixated with leather belts, on each of his gloves´s knuckle was more metal with small part protruding. Definitely don´t want to catch a blow with it.
Getting into boxing stances, started to slowly circle one another. Cheering of the crowd and beating of the drums was all around them
After some time Strike charged, he pulled his leg high in the air and forcefully swung it down at his opponent only for him to block it, grab it and sweep his other leg, sending him to the ground. Wasting no time, he rolled away. He could weakly hear how something fell on the ground, getting to one knee he saw the guy quickly getting up, he stood up and get into the stance.
They were circling each other again, he was stunned that Duke managed to block his kick. People his size either get kicked or dodge, only the big guys would blocked his kick and they rarely even manage to catch it.
Strike went few steps back then he charged once again but this time he got down managing to do very nice slide, when he got close enough he kicked out hitting the side of opponent's knee making him go down.
He immediately went behind him and got him into a chokehold, he grabed his arm trying to get it off, when that didn´t worked he started punching haphazardly and scoring hit right into his face, fortunately it was protected by his mask but it was still strong enough to make him let go, rolling backwards he used my fists to push himself upwards.
Strike didn't have time to react before he was punched into his chest and then being pulled by his hand and punched into his face. He lost balance and fell, looking up he saw that the guy wanted to stomp on his head, lifting his hands he blocked the attack, he tried to push him away but couldn't so he moved his hand to the right. Or atleast he tried.
Strike felt his abdomen getting stomped on, he breathed out and rolled to the left, when he stood up he saw the guy charging him. He used push kick to make him stumble backwards, wasting no time he came up to him and chained up with series of strikes. Jabs, hooks and right uppercut, once he was dazed he clinched him and started to kick him with knees into abdomen.
Then Strike for a double leg takedown and then brutally dropped on Duke. He stepped back to see if he would stood up. When he saw him trying to he began to kick him in the abdomen and stomped on his back hard. 'Come on just stay down,' he thought. He began rising again. 'He doesn't know when to quit, does he?' Admirable but useless in this place. He came up to him from the front and locked my arms around his neck. With a jerk of his arms, it was over.
The arena was lowered to the ground with its cage part lifted allowing Strike to take his leave as the cheering didn't ceased. He walked for some time before he got to his destionation, the man he made a deal with was already waiting for him. "Did you get it?" he asked indifferently as the man nodded and lead him to the back of the alley where was a box which was suposed to be full of water and gas. Lifting the lid and looking in he saw that it was less then they agreed upon, slowly lifting my head his glared at him through his mask, mentally asking if he was seroius.
"This was all I could get without getting myself killed, besides be glad I'm doing this at all,"
incapable and rude as hell. He had half of mind to gouge his eyes and snap his neck but the potential commotion would draw unnecessary attention, sighing he lowered the lid and just gave him his payment in a form of hard hook to his temple knocking him out instantly.
Grabbing the box he ran as fast as he could to his car, once close to it he oppened its trunk and put it in there, closing the trunk he ran to driver's seat, started the engine and took off. The engine revved loudly with the tires kicking cloud of sand, he kept going on a full throttle until he couldn't see Gastown. Only then did he slowed down to check if he had everything, 'knifes? Check, box? Check, full tank? Check, enough water to last me days and with gas lasting months? Double check.' Satisfied, he kept going on a much reasonable speed to save gas.
'Still can't believe that it worked without a hitch, pity I don't have any wood in here to-' he was interrupted from his brooding by sounds of other engines, looking back he saw War Boys chasing after him. He just shook his head at that and kept going, they want to die? Let them.
A car has caught up to him from the right. Pulling out his Glock he disabled safety then took aim at the driver and shot him in the head. Without anybody to control it the car soon went up a small dune and before crashing. A war boy jumped on the hood of his car and was greeted with a hole in his head. One shot a harpoon on the passenger door. Strike turned to left sharply, almost ripping the door out, crashing into another car making it lose control and crashed. He looked at the car that was connected to his up and down, spotting the sticking thunderpoon. Before he could take aim the truck rammed into him and caused him to loose grip on his gun and dropping it on the floor.
'Relentless, crazy and fucking annoying,' he thought darkly. The truck crashed over and over and over and gave him absolutely no time to pick up the gun. 'I have to come up with something, or I'll either end up back in the arena, or in the better case; dead,' that was decided for him when the door couldn't take it anymore and got ripped out.
Snapping his head to the left he saw a War Boy Holding Thunderpoons in reversed grip. 'Oh hell no,' he waited until he jumped before jerking the steering wheel to the right. The explosion shooked his car harshly but he managed to keep it going. When the car began ramming into him again he had just about enough of this shit. Looking around he put a brick he had stashed on the accelerator to keep it down. He grabbed his gun and enabled the safety before crawling through windshield on the hood. He jumped on the other truck's hood and disabled safety and took aim but before he could pull the trigger he was jumped by another War boy making him almost lost grip again.
"YOU'RE GOING BACK TO THE ARENA ,YOU THIEVING SCUM!" he screamed at him. He lifted him and threw him in back of the truck making him loose grip and dropping his gun. He got atop of Strike and began pummeling him. Strike managed to catch his left hands before he lifted my pelvis and wrapped his legs around the Boy's shoulder and brough him down. He kept increasing the presure until his elbow snapped making him scream in pain. Letting go of his hand, Strike stood up and kicked him off of the truck before searched for his gun. When he found it took aim at the driver only to get shot in return in his body with what he assumed was a shotgun.
Fortunately most of the damage was caught by his own kevlar vest which he kept hidden underneath his leather jacket but some pellets still managed to get through. He fell on his back from the inpact clutching at his chest in pain. Looking up he saw the War Boy fiddling with his sawed-off double barrel shotgun. Before Strike could aim on him, he jumped at only to get shiv into his neck.
Shoving him off himself, Strike stood up and saw that the cars heading right into a ravine. Fast. He unzipped his jacked a bit and set the safety back on he putting in and zipping the jacket back up. He got on the roof of the truck and jumped back on his car and got back inside it.
Once inside when took off the brick of off the accelerator before pulling up the handbrake and jerking the steering wheel the left he began drifting on the sand. When his car finally came to a stop, he crawled up the passenger seat to see how far he was from plummeting down.
Few more centimeters and it would be the end of him, sighing he got back to my seat. he took off his mask and tossed it on the back seat and rubbed his face with his hand, "what a day. What a lovely day," he said sarcastically. He turned rear view mirror on his face and saw that his hair was getting long again, 'two more weeks and I'll look like a hobo,' he thought as he checked his teeth for decay, most of them them were dark yellow and some had black head.
He turned the mirror back and slumped in his seat and closed his eyes. 'Where did we went wrong as a species? Who was the first one to strike and why? No point thinking about that, what happened, happened, now I can only adapt.' He dozzed off and didn't registered the sound of engine coming until it was too late and got rammed into and shoved off of the ravine.
Author's Note
Few things I'd like you to know:
From wasteland into peaceland (Edited)
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:
263 - 213 = 50cm
Going back to Canterlot was easy enough. Yes the start may have been a little rough, with Strike refusing to be away from that thing that he called a ´car´ with the guard being heavily against it. Saying that he wanted to use it to run away, these claims were quickly destroyed by Strike, stating that he had nowhere to run and went as far as to give the ´keys´ to his car so they didn't had to worry about him ridding away in the middle of night.
That was something that both suprised and pleased Celestia greatly. Usually any other being would try to make a run for it or tried to sweet-talk their way either into her panties or the underwear of her guards, and one managed that. The grifin's tongue was cut out and the guardsmare fired immediately.
Before they got off their train, the princess told Strike that were going to take a carrige to the castle. He asked just nodded, having nothing to say. Getting off the train, Strike and Celestia went into the carrige, most of her guards asking to in too and when she politely declined they tried inconspicuously to glare at him hatefully. Needless to say they absolutely fucked that up. Celestia was no fool of course, she knows a danger when she sees it and uh... Strike, yes, is very dangerous and watching his fightstyle in the desert two days ago she did not doubted that if decided so he could hurt her and he was lucky enough he could do so badly before she would put him down, so she had a... precaution at the ready.
Strike was one hundred percent sure that if... um... Cel- Celestia decided that he was too dangerous to be left alive she could and wound kill him before he could even blink. That's why he had a precaution prepared in reserve. As the carrige began moving they both sat opposite of each other, keeping the other one in their peripheral sight and prepared to attack should their different needs require it. As Strike looked from his window he saw the ponies as he learnt they're called, walking to and from various establishments such as shops of all kinds, restaurants, clubs, pubs and other. What got to him the most was the way they're all behaving, happy, smiley, joyous, no visible weapons on their persons and he could tell just by the atmosphere alone that neither they had any hidden ones. And the children . They behaved as they should and not like wild animals and the amount of them he was seeing was stagering. If he wasn't the way he is he would've cried, this way it just felt weird and surreal.
"What are you thinking about?" Celestia asked, seeing that he was deep in thought. Strike looked at her and was silent for a bit before replying.
"Just thinking about your subjects. They're so... normal, no sudden jerking moves, no senseless screaming, no carrying weapons just... living their lives without the care in the world. It's... weird I guess," he said.
"Weird how?" She asked. It was not lost on Strike that she was trying to assess him, most probably to see what he was. What made what he is.
"I'm telling you this because you're future boss. Manipulating me won't get you far, what more I'm cat turn it against you." He realised what happened the moment he said that. "Nice one princess, I definitely didn't see that coming." He clapped, honestly impressed that she managed to fool him.
"Thank you." She said sincerely. she was impressed that he noticed her hidden intent. Good. She is going to need somepony like him to guard Luna until she is back to her full power. "And I am sorry for that, I simply wish to know if you are up to the task and so far I am pleased with the results.," she finished.
"Both understateable and suspicious," he replied.
"Why suspicious?"
"The last part you said ´I am pleased with the results´? Some people would say that you care only that the job's been done while not caring how it was done," he explained.
Celestia thought about it for a second and nodded. "Yes, I see your point but no, I do care about how ´the job´ has been done. I would never allowed the innocent to die becau- oh you little," she laughed. Celestia could not believed that she has revealed a bit about herself yet was still impressed that Strike managed that.
He nodded to that and looked out of the carrige window again.
When they finally got into the castle, Celestia asked Strike to join her in the louging area. Walking a lot of hallways they got into the area. The room was interesting to say the least, when Strike walked in there were two spacious gouches in front of him facing each other, one was crimson red and the other one was royal blue with a table made of dark oak between them. to his left were two smaller gouches both deep purple with dark blue recliner between them all of it facing a big fireplace in front of them. And to his right was a half circle made out of six armchairs each with different colours. The wall around them were filled to the brim with books.
"Come. We have somethings that we have to talk about," Celestia said as she sat down on the blue gouch, point her hand towards the crimson one. Sitting down Strike waited for Celestia to begin. "Before we I believe that a proper introduction is order," She said before reintroducing herself, Strike doing the same. "Now I am going to ask you series of questions and you are going to answer me truthfully, note that I have put you under a ´I-lie-not´ spell so any attempt at lying to me is both useless and ill-advised.
"I'm a female," he said before Celestia's horn flashed with her magic. She gave the man a deadpan look before replying.
"And as seen I am serious about this matter," she said, "now, I have seen your combat abilities, so I would like to know what do you specialize at."
"I'm pretty adept at hand-to-hand combat, maybe even borderline on being an expert. Next I'm fairly knowledgeable in the use of knifes and which one is good for," he replied.
"Good that gives an idea at what you will need to train, such as swordplay, archery and other." Celestia said as she thought about some of the details before continuing. "What was your employment before this?"
"I was a soldier for five years before becoming a mechanic," Strike replied.
"A mechanic?" Celestia asked.
"A person that specializes in production, repairing and- " he thought about the proper word, " -enhancing vehicles like my car."
"Could you make one?" Celestia asked curiously, it would definitaly not only help Equestria's transport but the world's as well.
"I certainly do have the knowledge to do so but if you don't the materials and tools required, you can only dream about that idea," Strike explained.
"And what are the materials and tools that needed?"
"For the materials it's; steel, plastic, aluminum, rubber, glass, fiberglass, lead, copper, titanium and magnesium. As for the tools; oil filter wrench, wrench set, impact gun, screwdrivers and blowtorch. I could go ooon and ooon about how some or other things are supposed to be done, what safety measures and more," he explained.
Celestia nodded to that, impressed. "Some of the materials could be delivered but I am afraid we do not know how make the plastic, fiberglass, titanium and magnesium and from the tools only the screwdrivers and wrenches could be delivered," she said.
"Oh and don't let me start about the production of gasoline," he said. "It's the fluid that powers vehicles ." Strike explained to her confused face. Celestia then began to ask Strike various other questions like his abilities, combat experience, ect.
The doors oppened and in walked princess Luna in a formal deep purple dress, visible bags inder her eyes. Luna stopped when she noticed Strike sitting the crimson gouche but decided to ignore him as she came up to the blue one.
"Did thee called for Us, sister?" she asked, giving Strike a side glance.
"Yes I did. I wanted to introduce you to your bodyguard until you will recover." Luna looked over at Strike, looking him up and down. Whatever he is, he looked like he have seen better days to be honest. This is suppose to be her bodyguard? He looks like can barely take care of himself and is suppose to guard her? What is Celestia thinking?
"We do not want him," Luna said bluntly. Celestia sighed. Of course she did not, she was always free spirit, never wanting to be chained down by others, always wanting to do everything herself. While an admirable trait, it is not up to debate.
"This is not up to discussion, Luna. You need somepony to watch over you until you are back to your full power," Celestia said sternly.
"We can defend Ourself without someponies else intervention," Luna defended harshly.
"You have been kidnapped by cult full of lunatics and almost killed by them and goodness knows what else would have been done to you if I and my guards would not showed," Celestia countered.
"We have been caught off guard and Our lunar guard will be better prepared for events like this so We assure thee that it willst not happen again," Luna's patience was running thin and so was Celestia's.
"There is not nearly enough of them to be able to react fast enough if you happen to be in danger again, that is why I am hiring this stalion to be by your side until your condition will change and that is final." Celestia said with finality, making Luna glare at her then supposed guardian who was quiet the entire time. Luna turned around to leave but stopped when she reached the doors.
"We will have our maid bring the dinner to our chambers and then We will retire for the day," she said before she left. Celestia sighed as the doors were closed. Putting her hand on her forehead she began.
"Nothing to say?" she asked.
"What do you want me to ask?" Strike asked back.
"Anything would be better than silence," she said in weak voice.
"Give her time she'll eventually gets use to me being close to her."
"I hope so and thank you." Strike nodded to her as he thought for a few seconds.
"What am I suppose do to before my first shift begins?" he asked. Celestia thought about it for a second before replying.
"You could wander the castle hall or read a book or two," she anwered.
"I think I'll go with the latter, this way I can learn somethings about this place and not get lost." Celestia nodded before her horn with her golden magic pulling a few books from their shelves and putting them on the table.
"Here, you have history, culture, economy, language in here. Are there any others wish for?" she asked.
"I would like books about your knowledge about mathemathics, physics and chemistry and I would also liked to learn about that thing you do," Strike said.
"What thing?" she asked, confused.
"The one with your horn you just did," he explained.
"Oh you mean my magic?" she asked before she thought about the request. "Are you not a non-magical being? How do you plan on learning about magic? I do not know any non-magical being even grasping the contents of it, so much as learn it."
"I just want to understand it since there was no magic back in my world," Strike explained.
"There was not?" Celestia asked, shocked that such a thing is possible. A whole world without magic.
"Well the closest thing you could find some were just tricks and art but not the real deal." Celestia nodded. It was still an alien concept for her, to have a world without magic. She will have to find out more about that.
Celestia looked at a clock that was hanging from a wall and found out that she will have to attend the court soon. "As much as I would like to sit and talk some more, I have to adress my duties as a princess. I will come to take to you to Luna's living quarters when she is awake." Strike nodded to her before she left, leaving him alone with a pile of books for him to read. Deciding a bit which he should start with he went with the three scientific department closest to him.
What Strike learnt was a bit mixed. The pony math was a few decads, maybe even a whole century behind while the physic and chemistry were only in their diapers so to say. He knew that he would need more time for the history, economy, culture and laguage books so he went for the one about the magic. To say that couldn't understand a single thing written in the book would be an understatement. ´I need to find something more simple to explain it. Maybe a book for an elementary school pupils? Well... it would be much more better than going straight for the ones for toddlers that's for sure." He thought before the doors oppened making him turn around and spot the princess standing in the door frame.
"It is time," she said simply. "I was thinking during the court and on the way here that you may have some questions about your new position so we can talk about that on the way to my sister," she said as she pointed her hand towards the halls out side. With a simple nod Strike stood up and came up to her.
Turning the princess began leading Strike to his destination and once more they went through many halls as they went so he began looking around for indicators of where he is for future references.
"So, do you have any questions about your job?" Celestia asked. Strike nodded and thought about multiple situasions that could and some would happen.
"The first and fore most is about to whom I answer to?" Strike asked.
"You answer to me but should Luna give you an order I would advise to follow it," she explained.
"Which brings me to my next question. If she gives me an order that's in a conflict with yours, then which one should I follow?" that was a good question, one which made Celestia think a little bit before answering. She choosed the right stalion for this job. Attentive, calm, seeing through manipulation, asking questions. Most would just took the job and be done with it, this realisation about Strike made her smile a bit.
"Should her order prove to be more... correct, you are to follow her order." Strike nodded.
"Alright... your sister will no doubt ask personal questions, am I to answer those?" he asked, hidding his concern.
If Celestia noticed, she didn't comment on it. "Not unless you wish so." Though he didn't showed it great relieve spread through Strike when Celestia said that. Strike still had a few more questions to ask as he continued to follow Celestia.
"What about my car?" he asked.
"What about it?"
"Where's it?"
"I cannot answer that question. However you can rest easily because it is kept safe," she explained.
"What will you do with it?" Strike asked while hiding his emotions as best as he could.
"I was thinking about studying but that would no doubt require to disassemble it. While I would like to learn about its contribution to the society I do realise that would make you angry and make you do your task sloppily on purpose so that is why I decided agaist it for the time being." Celestia explained which made Strike greatful.
They stopped once they were at his Ward's room. Turning, Celestia asked, "before I open these door I must warn that my sister may try to use various techniques to discourage you. You see she have never liked when somepony was watching out for her and it became much worse after we returned from our first battle. She always felt as if she can do anything, fortunately she did not let get into her head, she is just... well, stubborn." Strike nodded before replying.
"I figured the first part, though I'm gonna need my gear to do my job more adequately," she nodded and oppened the door with a knock.
"Come in. Ah sister We wanted to..." Luna trailed off as she saw Strike standing next to her sister, she scowled immediately. "What is that doing here?" she asked in cold voice.
"First of all it ishe , not it . And second, I have already told you his pupose here," Celestia explained.
"And We have told thee that We are not a child to have somepony to protect Us!" Luna exclaimed.
"Nopony is treating you as a child," Celestia said.
"It certainly does not feels like it," Luna said angrily, making Celestia sigh.
"I am going to send a maid to retrieve your equipment," she said to strike before she left the room, leaving him and her sister alone.
Strike looked back at the princess and found her staring at him with frown while her hands were crossed underneath her chest. She got into his face making him took a step back as he didn't like when people did that. Luna huffed before she asked. "So what is making thee believe that We need your protections?" she asked in cold voice.
"Nothing," Strike stated with blunt and even voice making Luna blinked, "this is just a job I was hired to do and I intent to accomplish it." That was not something she expected. What she expected was either boasting or some talk about service to the princess and higher good, though she scowled when she thought about what exactly he said.
"So it is the promise of wealth if thee do this?" if there is Luna really hates, it is the mercenaries. Those dishonorable fiends doing anything as long as they are paid for it, never caring for anypony but themselves.
"Not exactly -" she blinked again "- I'm suppose to atone by walking behind your ass until you're okay." Strike said, making Luna blush when she realised he meant her posterior. Clrearing her throat Luna stood up in regal manner.
"Ignoring what thee said about following... behind Us, what are thee suppose to atone for?" she asked, curious about what he had done to make Celestia furious enough to make him atone.
"If you must know, I killed three of her guards, crippled another two for life and almost killed a fourth one," he said as the princess hid her shock. She did expected that he killed one at most, not three and the others were not that much better. Luna thought about all of the infomation she received and nodded slightly before she responded.
"Well if nothing else, atleast We can rest assure that We got assigned somepony that is not afraid to get his hands dirty, that does not mean We want thee here any more though."
"Noted." Just then the door to the chambers oppened to reveal a maid carrying a bag in her hands.
"Um..." she bagen in weak voice, "I was supposed to bring this to somepony called -" she trailed off as she lifted a tag before continuing, "- Mr. Strike," she finished.
"That's me." Strike said as came up to the maid and took the bag in his hand. Looking around he found a table and put the bag on it before dumping the contens on it.
"We thank thee, dismissed," Luna said before coming towards Strike's left to see what he was doing. What she saw confused her a little, she recognised most of knifes but not all of them. One of them did not had a blade which she assumed were hidden somehow while others looked like nothing more than scraps of metal and glass that were just sharp enough to cut through skin and parts were wrapped by what she recognised as a worn out duck tape, making an impromtu handle on their more broad ends. What really gave a pause was the strange metalic contraption, no doubt a weapon of some kind. It was shaped like a letter ´L´ with small lever in the part where it bented which had a guard which could host a single finger at most. Then there was a sword if it could even be called so. It looked more a oversized knife than anything else, even a short sword is longer than that .
Luna also saw what were undoubtedly an arm guards, shin guards and gloves but they looked more unpleasent. The arm guards were hard leather bracelets which had thin metal plates on the top part with sharp protruding nails, some shorter than others, thinking about bit more, Luna realised that they must have been broken during a fight and then sharpened later. The shin guards were metal plates with sharp bumps, as if somepony took a hammer and hit them hard. The gloves were to made of leather while faded yellow in color did not looked all that special at first, she then noticed that they also had bumps in part where knuckles are suppose to be.
Luna took one glove while Strike was strapping his gear and rubbed her thumb on the knuckle part and felt hard material which she assumed was metal. The glove snachet out of her hand and before she could make a sound of protest she was met with a hood that hid Strike's head so that only a black mask with black glass which was hiding his eyes, allowing her absolutely no way to read his expresion. The mask too looked like it had seen better days, what with all the scratch marks and cracks.
"I'm going to stand over there," came Strike's muffled voice, " and do my job while you do yours, how about that?" Luna nodded slowly, too caught off guard to do much else. When she finaly got out of her stupor she found Strike leaning next to the door to her chamber, one leg over the other and hands crossed underneath his chest. Luna was contemplating what to do next
"What is thy name," she said.
"Strike," he said simply which did not pleased Luna.
"Is that all thee will tell?"
"It's all you asked." She huffed annoyedly before speaking again.
"Will thee tell Us something about thyself?"
"What's the point? I'm here to do a job and that's what I intent to do. And once it's done you won't see me ever again, so let's make it easier for the both of us for the future," he said, never looking at Luna. She was looking at him for a minute before deciding to fulfil her duties.
"Very well but first We are going to get a breakfast," Luna commanded before she left her room as headed for the dining hall with Strike following behind her. The thought made Luna slightly uncomfortable.
´What kind of psycho has dinner at 10:00 and breakfast at 19:15´ Strike thought as he continued to follow his ward.
Author's Note
A few things I would like to say:
Celestia lifted her head the doors to the dining hall were oppened before Luna and Strike came in. Luna came up to the table and sat next to her sister while Strike was leaning next to the doors the same way he did in Luna's bedchamber, Celestia gave a small smile to Luna.
"Good morning Luna, slept well?" she asked in a kind voice, "and good evening to you Strike, why won't you join us for the meal? You must be hungry," she said but Strike gave her no answer.
"Our sister asked thee something," Luna said through gritted teeth. She does not like it when her or her sister are ignored by others, especially by those like her personal guard. Oh how she hates the sound of it.
Strike took breath in and out of his nose, "I'm not hungry." A growl could be heard from his abdomen making Celestia smirk at him.
"Hmm, it sounds that your body does not agree with you," she teased. She likes it when she gets the opportunity to do than over simple things like this. "but in all seriousness when was the last time you ate?" she asked in a more serious voice this time.
"that's my thing, not your," he replied evenly before another gurgle louder echoed. Celestia did not liked how much louder this one was.
"Are you sure? We could order you-" she began but was interupted by Strike.
"I'm pretty sure." She frowned at him before ordering herself a meal with Luna following suit. Now that Strike had thought about it he didn't observed either of the sisters all that well, always focusing on other things. Celestia is big, like really big. She is about 260cm tall with well-endowed curves to both her chest and hips and her breast about the size of well grown melons, and while she is soft and plump in the right places he didn't doubt her physical strength. Her eyes were some kind of pink if Strike had to guess and her hair and tail were billowing in a non-existing breeze while divided into pink, bright purple, cyan and blue and her coat was milky white. She was wearing simple purple sleeveless dress with skirt that reached up to her shins, with she had a golden tiara, some kind of neck gear and horseshoes.
Luna was more lithe and athletic but was good-looking with endowed curves in her own way, even if she wasn't as tall. She was closer to Strike's own height of 185cm, maybe 2cm shorter. Her hair wasn't billowing like her sister's but was acting like normal hair which Strike assumed to be because of the lack of her power. It reached down to her jawline and was bright blue in color much like her coat. Her dress was slightly darker blue while her tiara and that neck gear were black, her horseshoes were silver.
But there was one thing that he noticed but ignored thus far the sisters had in common, besides being royalty. They both had horns and wings, and from what Strike saw from the equine society, they're the only ones to have both. The others either one or other or neither.
"How long is from when you have eaten?" Celestia asked again as she heard another gurgle from Strike, causing him to sigh.
"If I eat something will you let me do my job at peace?" he asked to her to which she just nodded, seeing that she will not get any more out of him.
Strike took a seat on the opposite side of the table before he pulled down his hood and pulled uo his mask. The reason being so he could see on the sisters and to be alone. He put his head on his hands as he waited for anyone to take his order before he heard the sound of small bell ringing in front of him. Lifting his head he saw the bell wrapped in golden aura before it disapeared right in front of his eyes, blinking he looked at Celestia to see her smiling at him.
But before he could do anything a buttler this time came from a doors that were directly behind Celestia's chair. "Your wish your, Highness?" he asked with slight british accent.
"I would like you to take our companion's order please," she asked in a kind voice which suprised Strike. He would've never expected a royalty to use a kind voice but then again, what did he know. The buttler turned towards Strike before coming next to him.
"Your wish sir?" he asked in profesional manner.
"Anything rich in protein and energy ," he answered without looking at him. His order made both the buttler and princesses blink before the buttler looked at Celesia who just nodded to him.
"Very well I will be back shortly," said the buttler before he departed, leaving 2 puzzled princesses and 1 brooding human behind.
"Why such an odd order?" Luna asked.
"If I'm to guard you properly, I'm going to need the strength and energy to do so," he answered before going back to brooding, then he realised something. Looking up at Celestia he began, "you said that there wasn't enough of your sister's guard, correct?" she nodded, "so will more come in the following months?" she nodded again.
"Yes, they are very dedicated to her and would do anything- " she chuckled " -to see their ´beloved Lady of the Night´ unharmed," she finished with a joyfull smile, making Luna blush at their praise.
"So I why can't I just be done with it when there is enough of them?" he asked, both curious and dreading about the answer.
"Because Luna might not be at her peak, so she will still need somepony at her side," Celestia looked to her sister to found her glaring daggers at her. "But you will have more time to yourself and will not have to be with her so much," she said without looking away from Luna, her glare did not lessened in the slightest.
"As We have said, We are not-"
Just then the door behind Celestia oppened reaveling cooks bringing their meals on silver platters. What he saw was assortiment of various fruits and vegetables, the main course for the sisters were soups followed by rich salads but he saw no meat. ´Naturaly,´ Strike thought, before him was placed a bowl of oatmeal with bannanas, yogurt, sesame seeds and all of that was slightly coated in cinnamon. ´Whoa,´ Strike thought in awe, ´ So... much,´ he was almost shaking from the shock that was couring through him.
Strike picked up a spoon so he could began eating. ´Oh man,´ he thought when he realised that he was holding it like bricklayer would a trovel. ´Now waaait just a... there´ he thought before he picked up a large chunk of his meal and put it in his mouth. Strike almost moaned from the taste but managed to drop into his seat like a sack of potatos instead and didn't move for a while.
Strike's lack of movement concerned Celestia, "Strike?" she aske carefully, "Strike, are you alright.?" Now Celestia was begining to worry, Strike was not moving, not breathing. Did he ate something he should not? Did her cooks accidentaly poisoned him? questions like these were going through her head and was about to stand up and check him up, but then suddently he shot up straight and began eating messily. Pieces of sesame seeds were clinging to his thick lumberjack-like beard which got a new coat of white.
"Slow down a bit, then you can savor it," Celestia commented, put off by his manners while Luna was down right disgusted.
But Strike did not listen, instead he continued to eat as if he was starving animal. In the meantime the buttler came back, "is there anything I could bring you while you are enjoying your meals?" he asked.
"Red wine please," Celestia said before the buttler turned to Luna.
"We humbly ask for the same," Luna said.
"And for you sir?"
"water," Strike said simply. The buttler frowned at him before he left deciding that the creature was not worth his patience. They all wnet back to eating before Luna had enough.
"Will thee stop eating like an uncouth brute?" she snapped. Strike looked up at her and kept staring at her before speaking.
"I don't about you but I haven't noticed that you being strapped to that chair so if I disgust you that much you can always leave," he said as he pointed his hand at the door they through before going back to eating.
Luna was furious at him, "HOW DARE THEE TO INSULT PRINCESS OF EQUESTIRA, A ONE THAT THEE IS SUPOSE TO BE PROTECTING!"
"Luna, calm down it is not appropriate for you to be yelling like that," Celestia said, trying and failing to calm her down.
"Thee cannot be serious sister. First thee will not allow Us to follow thee when danger is looming ahead, then thee hire a creature thee do not know anything about, then thee gives Us the same creature as a guardian withou Us having a say in it." Aftre she got out some of the steam, Luna calmed down a bit, "If thee will excuse Us, We believe that We have a royal duty that is in the need of our attention. Have a good night sister." Luna stood up left the dining hall and into the thore room instead.
Celestia looked at Strike with very displeased expresion, "I am giving you this warning because I believe in goodness of heart. Do not antagonise my sister or I will find somepony else to guard her and you will be sentenced for 10 years of prison with high security. Is that clear?" she asked sternly, like a mother scolding her child.
It didn't move with Strike though. The only reason the thought of prison wasn't so appealing was his car, if he was send to a prison only god knows what they would do to that precious. "I assume that the same warning extense to you as well?" Celestia thought for a second before she nodded, "then understood, I think I should go as well since I can hardly do my job when I'm not with my V.I.P."
Just in time the buttler came back with a tray that held 2 full wine glasses, 1 glass full of water and 1 still not oppened bottle of wine. The buttler blinked at the absence of Lunar Princess, "May I ask where princess Luna went?"
"My sister had to attend the Night Court," Celestia said smoothly.
"I see. So what should I do with this?" the buttler asked. Just then Strike took the glass of water and drank its content with 2 big gulps before leaving. "What was that about princess?"
Celestia sighed, this is going to be for long.
Luna was quietly sitting on her sister's throne and waiting for any petitioners to come thorugh the throne room doors. She was quite bored, what with leaning her head on her right fist and tapping her fingers against the armrest with her left hand. Luna perked up when the doors finally opened but groaned invardly when she saw that it was just her personal guard, his mask covering his face. Walking up the stairs leading to the throne he came up to her right side. He turned so he would be facing the doors and without a single word as he stood there.
Luna watched that display as it happened before going back to being bored.
"That was unprofesional of me," came Strike's muffled voice. Luna turned towards him with a questioning look and waited for him to explain but he just kept standing there like a statue. She looked towards the doors and continued doing what she was doing until now. It wasn't until 5 more minutes before she had enough of the boredom and decided that if she is to have a personal guard, she could get to know to atleast make this bit more bearable.
"Where are thee from?" Luna began.
"Irrelevant," Strike replied bluntly which did not pleased Luna.
"Will thee not say more?" she insisted.
"No."
"Why?"
"It's not an interesing story. I was there, I now I'm not. End of story."
"We would like to hear," Luna did her best to keep her tone pleasant but Strike was not making it easy. The throne room doors opened and in walked a pony cladded in a white robe with a hood that was hiding their face. "Maybe later, We have petitioner to help." Luna said as she looked back at the pony slowly coming closer to the throne.
Something was off about the pony to Strike. Why would somebody hide their face and their body like that? Unless they were hiding something and that color was awfully reminding him of somebody. The pony then tossed a cylindric object at them.
Both Strike's training and instincts worked faster then anybody, even Strike could realise. He grabbed the princess by her arm and back of her dress and violently yanked her from the throne. Then he layed down on her to use his body as a shield. There was a loud explosion that made Luna's ears ringing loudly and her sight slightly blury and unfocused.
Meanwhile Strike was okay as he knew what to expect. Getting off the princess he turned and two more hooded figures. Beneath them were two pony bodies with pool of blood leaking from them. The first figure lifted its head and pulled its hand from said head and looked at Strike. While he couldn't see their face he was 100% sure they were not happy with him.
Strike quickly stood up and lifted his hands while the figure unsheathed their broadsword. The other figures came closer only for the first figure to struck out their hand making the other two stop. They looked back at Strike and tilted their head. Whether it was a challenge or question Strike didn't know.
He slowly walked down the stairs and came closer to the figure until he was standing opposite of them. The figure brought their sword up until its hilt was infront of their head. Then they swung it downwards which made their right hand stick out. They looked up at Strike and awaited his response which didn't came.
Strike could hear a soft ´hmpf´ from the figure before they rushed at him. They spun around and brought their sword in wide arc. That blow would have decapitated Strike have he not dodged into the arc. He then brought a hard left hook to the head and front kick to the back. At the back of the robe was clearly visible the mark of a sun which confiremd Strike who they were.
The figure spun around and pointed their sword at Strike for a second before going into a defensive stand. They circled one another before the figure lost their patience and charged Strike again. This time however Strike met it in kind. When he was close enough he jumped as high as he could. He brought his knee to his oppenent's jaw. The the figure down he prepared himself for the others. None of that happened however as the figure ordered them to stay put again. They stood up again rubbing their jaw before they nodded to Strike.
Luna was entrapped by the way her gurdian fought. He relied purely on his fists and managed to strike twice already and going without a scratch. So entrapped in fact that she failed to notice that one of the figure was slowly coming from behind her. Until they stepped on a loose tile which made Luna turn back and sprung into action immediately.
Meanwhile the figure managed to score a hit against Strike. A shallow cut across chest but nothing serious. They circled each other again and this time it was Strike's turn to charge. As he sprinted he faked a jump which made the figure lift their sword in defense. Instead Strike lifted the figure by both legs and slammed them hard against the floor.
The figure lost their grip on their sword. Strike then landed a knee on their solar plexus which knocked the wind out of them. He put his knees on either side of them and began pouding them mercilessly in the head. Whenever they lifted their hands for defense he went for their body. The body shots were hard and unforgiving as they made their reciever yell several times in pain. Strike then got shot off his opponent and whatever it was it hurt like a bitch.
Luna was now fighting an unfair fight of 1 against 2 and one of them just shot a spell at her guardian. Her dual-wielding skills have rusted slightly over the 1000 years on moon and the time spent in the castle. They were still more than sharp enough to deal with these welps however.
A figure from her right thrusted their sword at her. She pirouetted to the right and parried the sword before stabing her dagger into the figure's shoulder. She ripped the dagger in a way that made the wound bigger. While the figure clutched at their booboo moaned the other one charged Luna.
With a flick of her wings and stay airborne she evaded the figure sword. She snapped her wings to her back she plumeted down at the figure. Said figure lifted their sword up in an attempt to impale her. Cute. Shooting a spell from her horn the figure was laying on their back before being pierced through theit chest.
Luna stood up and looked at her handywork with pride before she was stabbed in her side by a dagger. She yelled in pain before she used her magic to drag the culprit towards her snarling face. Without a word she shot a thin magic beam which went through their head and broke a window. Luna dropped the dead body before limping towards the throne and sitting down slowly and began pulling out the dagger.
"Don't!" yelled a masculine voice, making her stop, "don't pull out that dagger!" Strike ordered as he dragged an unconscious .
"Why?" she asked sternly, not liking to be ordered around.
"Wh- do you have a brake liquid in your head or something? If pull that dagger will die." Luna scoffed.
"We have pulled many objects out of Our body and We still live," she informed.
"Then you're officialy both the dumbest and the luckiest being alive, congrats, princess! You may pick up your prize," Strike exclaimed sarcastically.
Luna frowned at him before attempting to remove the dagger again only for Strike to drop the figure and stop her. "I'm not fucking around, Princess. You won't. Pull. That. Dagger. Out," he growled. He meant it, he wasn't going to protect the princess, only for her to commit a suicide. Accidentaly or not.
The doors to the throne room opened violetly and in walked a large group of solar guard lead by some stalion in purple armor and blue plume. Next was princess Celestia who teleported to her sister side immediately when she saw her. She gasped when she saw the dagger in Lunas's side and immediately ordered for a madic team to arrive.
"Oh, Luna are you okay," she coddled before turning to Strike with an angry expression. "What is this?"
"A job well done," Strike replied evenly.
"You call this ´a job well done´? She has a dagger stabbed in her side!" she exclaimed.
"Yes. And if it wasn't for me your sister would gurgling on the floor by now." Celestia opened her mouth to rebuke him but soon realised that he was right. She looked away in embarrassment at her outburst.
"Yes, of course. You are right... I thank you and... I am sorry for my behavior. It was unbecoming if me," she apologised.
"Firstly, that apology would've more meaning if you were looking into my eyes but it's whatever now. Secondly, understable, you love your sister and don't want her see her hurt." Celestia looked at Strike and smiled a little.
"Thank you for undestanding." A white furred unicorn stalion came to them as the medics came too.
"Reporting in, Princess," he said.
"Proceed, Shining Armor." The stalion plulled off his helmet, revealing two toned blue mane. "We have 2 dead thestral guards, their throats have been cut open." He shivered and fought the urge to rub his own throat. "Then we have 2 dead cultists and 1 unconscious cultists. Then there are blood stains and a broken window. For now the dead ones are being taken for analysis while the unconscious one into a medical ward so her wounds clould be treated," he informed.
"What is the extend of the wounds?" Shining Armor sighed.
"Medics have reported cracked and broken bones, strong concussion, lots of bruises, bruised organs and then some more." He shivered again. "Whoever did that, I'm going to fight them from a safe distance." Celestia slowly turned her head towards Strike with a very shocked expression. He just shrugged at her.
"I was just doing my job," he said.
"Oh, that's your job? Beating ponies within an inch og their life?" Shining Armor asked.
"Only those who threaten my V.I.P. Speaking of, I have to find her," he said as was about to leave but stumbled and if it wasn't for Shining cathing him, he would've roll down the stairs. Shining sat Strike down and was about to remove his ´armor´ when he was stoped by the man.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked with irritated voice.
"I'm just trying to look at how bad is it," Shining informed.
"Atleast let me do it," he said in strained voice as the pain on his left side became worse and moving his left arm was only aggravating it. Celestia used a spell to remove his cloathes and put a hand to her mouth in horror. Strike's entire left side was purple, almost back. The bruise covered on only his left side but the left side of his back and left shoulder as well.
"Well, you are not going to move a lot for some time," Celestia's tone had no space argument. "Both you and Luna need to recover before going back to your duties." Another medic team has been called this time for Strike. As the man being taken away, Celestia could not help but think about the injuries he dealt and recieved. ´Maybe I hired somepony who's overqualified for this?´ had it been some other job like a teacher, a gardener, a maid she would have laughed. ´Only time will tell, for now I'm just glad that somepony cableable is watching over Lulu.´ She teleported to her bedchamber as the following day is going to be a long one.
Rewards and short recovery
Luna opened her eyes and looked around and confirmed that she was still in the medical ward. She exhaled loudly through her nostrils as she dropped her head down on the pillow. She thought about yesterday, about how the... whoever he is came into her chamber accompanied by her sister, about what happened in the dining hall then the throne room and then how she was taken from there to here so nurses and a doctor could treat her wound. She still remembers what her, ugh, ´guardian´ told her.´If you pull that dagger you will die,´ she scoffed inwardly at that.
"Well, glad to see you're not fucking dead from that spectacle you pulled off," came Strike's sarcastic voice.
"And tis good to see thee in such a jolly mood," Luna replied in kind.
"You would be like that too if somebody tried to turn you into Thanos and then got that awful mint ointment," to say that Strike didn't have good morning would be an understatement. Seriously, who came up with that stuff? Anyway back on track. Strike dropped his head down and tried to get a little bit more rest but was interupted when the door in the ward opened and in walked Celestia with 2 guards. She came up to her sister's bed and nuzzled her lovingly which Luna was more then happy to return. The display was strange to Strike, sure he was affectionate with his siblings but never anything like that. But he dismissed it as something ponies do. When the nuzzle ended Celestia sat down on the bed and took her sister's hand in her own before she spoke.
"How are you?" she asked in a gentle voice.
"We are fine, tis simply a minor injury," Luna replied with a smile to her sister. Celestia then looked at Strike and saw that he was looking.
"What about you? How are you?" he shrugged as much as his body allowed.
"You were there when that guy listed what I did to the other one and you also were there when that bruise was revealed," he answered. Celestia nodded before she looked back at her sister.
She looked back at him. "I have few things that I wish give to you. First are your living quarters-"
"What? Was I supposed to sleep on the ground before?" he interupted.
"You don't interupt the princess, ape," growled an earth pony stalion. Strike couldn't be bothered enough to make any comment to that.
Celestia cleared her throat before continuing.
"No, you would be given chambers even before, you will only be living in better conditions." Strike briefly wondered if she meant that the previous room was supposed to be simple or broken to shits. "As for a second thing, I was thinking how may I help you with your work and I realised that you will need a proper equipment as well as a training. What were you thinking ? To recklessly charge somepony that has a sword while all you have are your fists ?"
"I won, didn't I? And besides, I had and still have equipment on me and I already underwent a training, a military one at that. I just choose not to use the equipment, that's all," he replied simply.
"Be as it may, it was still reckless and stupid and once the Lunar Guard has grown in numbers, you will receive both of those things." Celestia let out a tired breath before looking back at her sister with a loving smile. "Get well soon, Lulu." She wispered before she stood up and headed for the door with the guards following behind her who closed the door.
Strike closed his eyes to get more rest before the sound of someone clearing their throat came out. Strike opened his eyes and saw Princess Luna looking at him.
"Despite what Our sister said, Thee fought well. Impressive even. We have not witnessed somepony who was willing to stand against somepony with a sword or any weapon while they themself are unarmed. Such act would certainly be inspiring to both poets and guards alike," she said. "We could spar once we are back on our hooves."
"Hmmm." Strike hummed in disinterested tone before he slowly turned to his right side and layed down as best as he could without agravating the bruise.
Luna thought as she was looking at him, ´what made him the stalion he is today?´ that question is for later to answer. now it is time to rest. Luna layed down and closed her eyes before she fallen asleep.
After 2 more days spent in the ward and being visited by Celestia, Luna was released together with Strike. Fortunately there were no more attempts so far but it was only a matter of time before it happened again. When they were released Luna immediately went to the dining hall to finally get something proper to eat as the medical food tasted horrible. When they got to the dining hall Celestia was already there, enjoying a slice of cake. Strike was offered to take a seat and have a meal by her but he was adamant this time about not wishing so, stating that the medical meals have disgusted him food for the time being.
During the meal Luna asked Celestia if there was any paperwork or any petitioners that needed her attention. Sadly there were no petitioners but there was some paperwork that Celestia missed during her shift, so when the Princess of the Night was full she went into Celestia's office and began going through the papers. She did not take any break even after 4 hours of reading and granting some of them while declining others. It was getting on Strike's nerves how he was doing nothing, just standing there like a statue, It was making him feel exposed. He kept looking to and fro with his eyes as if every corner was hiding some kind of threat that was just waiting for the right opportunity to attack, which went unnoticed by the princess as she was both too focused on the papers and his face was covered with his mask.
Strike layed his eyes on a paper that was going to be next after Luna was done with her current one. The paper caught his interest so he took it out of the pile and began reading it. The paper was about a mare who's son went missing after he went to his friend's birthday party but never came home, so she asked some of her friends to help her find him. But what they found wasn't what they hoped for. They found the boy laying in a puddle of his own blood. No witnesses, signs of a fight, nothing. The perpetrators left no trace of any magical signature or any kind of trail that could be followed directly, then it was asking for someone to investigate it and-
"It is not very clever to take official documents from a princess, especialy right from under her snout." Luna said as she took the paper from Strike and began reading it herself. Her eyes widen as she read the contents.
"The poor mare. We cannot imagine how heartbroken she must be," she said as she looked at Strike who gave no answer. Her face became one of determination. "We will order captain Midnight Shine to send a detachment of royal guards to investigate this occurrence." Luna stood up from her seat and was gone in a blink of an eye. Strike could only looked at the spot the princess was standing on only seconds ago.
With no direction and knowledge of where the office is located, Strike could only wander the castle's halls and hope to find it soon. As he was wandering the halls he came across maids and solar guards and while the maids either moved out of his way or pretended the he was not there, the guards weren't as quiet.
"Freak."
"Beast."
"They should throw you into the tartarus."
"The princess shouldn't be protected by a monster."
These and other opinions were said as Strike continued to traverse the halls. Memorazing them as best as he could, he checked every door that looked like they led into an office instead of bed chamber before giving up and going back into the princesse's office. Opening the door, he found her standing inside the office. They were both looking at each other before Luna came up to him.
"Where in the tartarus have thee been!" she exclaimed.
"Searching for you," Strike replied.
Luna sighed before she continued. "That is irrelevant right now as We did as We said, a detachment of 5 guards is on its way as we speak." She as said as she went back to her previous spot with Strike not far behind her. "Murder is a very serious crime and We will not allow it, We must find out where the perpetrators are and behead them!"
"Behead them?" Strike asked.
"Yes." Luna said sternly. "How would thee feel if thy own child was murdered and thee could not safe them?" Luna asked.
Strike was quiet for a moment before replying, "I would't know the feeling as I never had children of my own."
Luna sighed before continuing. "We suppose that it does not matter then, only a parent could understand the pain of a another parent."
Strike kept looking at her before she spoke again, "We should go rest and hope that the perpetrator will be caught soon." She said before she left the office and went for her chamber with Strike following behind her.
Once there, she oppened the doors to her room and went in. She then heard the sound of metal meeting metal, looking back she saw thestral guards posted at her doors blocking Strike entrance with their pikes.
"Hold there!" one of them ordered, "who goes there?"
"It is fine, guardsponies. He was assigned to Us as a personal guardian by Our sister." She said before she looked at Strike, "Thee may leave for thy own chamber. We will be alright in Our own," she said. Strike thought about it a little before nodding and leaving.
He wasn't able to find his room, fortunately he found a maid and asked if she knew where his room was. She nodded and told him to follow her, once they were at the door, the maid was on her way quickly. Opening the door, Strike saw that his room was in the shape of a square 3x3m in length and width, making it pretty spacious for one person. To his right was a bed that was facing door to his left. In front of him was a desk with quil and inkwell with a window that was slightly on the right of it.
On the said bed layed to piles of cloathing, one of it was the top parts and the other bottom parts. Turning towards the door he oppened them and what little light peered through the darkness told him that it was a bathroom. Strike looked around and soon found a switch and used it to turn on lights. Now that he could see more, he saw a bathtub that would fit both him and someone if he had a company, next was a toilet with prepared paper and a sink with soap. He also saw towels that he could use to dry himself.
He looked at the tub with uncertainty if this was a good idea. On one hand, it would be nice to finaly wash himself and be clean again, however he didn't wished to waste water on cleaness when... Strike had to remind himself that this wasn't The Desert, but another world entirely. He saw grass and flowers and trees on his way here on the train. Taking a deep breath he began slowly removing his cloathes and droped them on the tiled floor, once he was done and he stood naked, he picked up the cloathes and put it on the bed before coming back and slowly climbed into the tub.
The showerhead was fasten in a shower holder so he could just pull it up a little bit and the water would rain down at him. He turned the nob to the left and then pulled it up before hot water began pouring down at him.
Strike was panting driely while the sun kept frying his exposed body. He wasn't even sweating at this point and was seeing things that weren't really there.
He had to leave his car behind after what the War Boys did to it while they were chasing him, for what reason they did it, he didn't know and neither he wanted to. The only things he managed to save were his glock and a machete.
Strike kept walking before he heard the sound of multiple engines, "HAHA, THERE HE IS!" roared one of those whoresons in glee.
"QUICK, HE'S GETTING AWAY!" screeched another one. Their engines revved as their vehicles began moving towards Strike.
In a desperate will to survive. Strike began running as fast as his beaten body would let him. A small part of him that was shrouded by his instincts knew that it was to no avail. They were moving faster than him.
A thunderpoon flew over his head and landed several meters ahead of him. Thanks to the air blast the fire from the explosion didn't reached him.
He layed on the ground as a War Boy jumped off of his friend's car and began sprinting towards him. The War Boy picked Strike up but was quickly knocked-down by a hard head-butt.
The War Boy felt something trickling from his nose. He licked the liquid off and the taste of iron entered his mouth. His expresion of suprise quickly turned into an insane smile. He stood up and charged Strike again.
The War Boy threw a jab at Strike who dodged it before slashed against the Boy's side. The Boy Stumbled and turned around only to be stabbed deep in his abdomen.
Strike pulled out his machete and began turning around to face another opponent only to be smacked hard on the back of his head.
With a dull thud Strike was laying on the ground and was holding to his consciousness only by a thread. Another War Boy came up to him and was ready to end him before he was stop by one of his friends.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!" he roared.
"WHAT THE FUCK DOES IT LOOK LIKE?" the one who wanted to kill Strike roared back.
"We can use him for better things then killing him."
"YEAH? AND WHAT'S THAT!" the War Boy who 'saved' Strike head-butted his friend hard enough to knock him down. The War Boy who got knocked down quickly stood up and got into his friend's face.
Their forehead were touching each other and they both had their teeth bared at each other before their faces turned into crooked smiles. The War Boy who was knocked down realised what his friend meant. "Oh, now you speak my tongue. He's going to be a great addition." They both made their way towards Strike before he finaly lost his consciousness.
The flash was sudden and as fast as it appeared it disappeared. Strike quickly turned off the nob and climbed out of the tub before he slipped and fell on his right side. He was breathing quickly and clutching at his chest. It took him some time but he began slowly calming down and stood up before he looked back at the tub. He came up to it and looked at the nob before climbing into the tub and setting the water on ´cold´ temperature and pulling the nob up. His feelings to feeling cold again were mixed, on one hand, it felt wonderful to feel differently then like he was going to be cooked in his own juices. On the other however it felt shity just from the principle of feeling cold.
A mixture of dried blood, sweat and filth was falling from Strike's body and into the drain. Strike stopped the flow and looked around for some shampoo but all he found was bar of soap, that would had to suffice. He took the bar and began rubbing it against his body. Once he was done with that and the bar was almost completely gone, he turned on the stream and washed the soap from his body. Now clean, Strike climbed out of the tub and went for the towels and began drying himself. He then dropped the towel on a puddle he made before going out of the bathroom, he looked at the piles and simply choosed the first pieces on tops. Putting them on and putting the rest on the desk, he then looked out of the window and saw that it had to be atleast 6 in the morning.
´I would like to know one thing. Why does the Night Princess have to work in the night and sleep during the day.´ He thought about it a little, ´I guess she just got the night shifts.´ He closed the curtains and came to his bed before he dropped into it like sack of potatoes and fell asleep quickly.
Strike woke up and turned around and found a digital clock on his nightstand which showed 16:10. He closed his eyes again and began working the energy to stand up from his bed before he got interupted with a knock on his door.
"Excuse me," called a weak voice, "um, are you the one who's been assigned to princess Luna?" instead of answering, Strike stood up and came towards the door and opened it. Outside was a maid that looked up to look into his face and she saw a tired frown, "uh, I'm s-suppose to b-bring you t-to the dining hall," she said weakly. Strike gave her ´hold up´ gesture before he closed his door and got dressed, he then opened the door and nodded for the maid to lead the way, she did so until she brought him to the hall. Strike then walked to the doors and opened one of them before entering.
Celestia looked up from her meal to see Strike closing the doors and leaning against a wall next to them with his arms crossed. She thought about asking him to sit and eat but decided against it and returned to her meal. They stayed like that for a while before the doors were opened again and in walked Princess Luna. She looked at Strike before greeting her sister and sitting down and waiting for somepony to take her order. The same maid that brought Strike here came out the door that was behind Celestia's chair and took Luna's order.
When the maid left, Luna looked at Strike. She thought about the same thing as Celestia did before and too decided against it and instead began talking with her sister until her meal was brought. Strike only watched in silence as the 2 princesses ate together while he felt an emptiness in his stomach. It didn't take long before it growled softly which made the princesses looked from their meals and look at Strike. They kept looking at each other before Strike breathed out through his nose and took a seat on the same chair as before and took off his mask, after that the maid came back shortly.
"W-what do you w-wish?" she asked.
"The same as before," Strike answered.
"R-right," the maid said before she left. Strike put his arms on the table and connected his hands together and put his head on them before closing his eyes. He didn't have to wait long and as the maid was making her way to Strike, a spoon slipped from her grip and clattered loudly on the ground.
The chains rattled as Strike hang upside down and kept jerking in them. He snapped his jaws at any War boy that got too close. Strike still didn't know what they were planing to do with him but that mattered little as his current problem are the chains and War boys that keep poking him hard with pipes. They were laughing like psychos at his defenselessness as they poke him.
The door leading into the room were kicked open, "ENOUGH!" roared a deep voice before heavy footsteps made their way towards Strike. He looked up and saw someone he thought he would've never see. Damian Richards, who is now known as Scrotus.
"Never thought I would see you again," Scrotus said before he gave a croocked smile, "no wonder my boys were so enthusiastic. You are a great fighter after all," he finished before Strike frowned up at him.
"I heard what happened to you. Pity that whoever they were, they weren't good enough to finish the job," Strike replied.
"HE FAILED BECAUSE I'M A GOD!" Scrotus roared and kneed Strike hard in the abdomen which knocked the wind out of him. What Strike was refering to was the contraption on Scrotus's forehead. He then noticed the curved horn on Scrotus's groin.
"Compensating for something? Eheh ehehe," Strike laughed weakly. Insulted, Scrotus pulled Strike's head to his groin to give him the scent of a god and his recent carnal activity. Scrotus roared when a great pain erupted from his balls. He immediately delivered a hard gut punch to Strike but he didn't let go so Scrotus hit the man in his own ball. Strike yelled as he let go of Scrotus's groin. Both of them were suffering in silence until the pain dulled a little, then Scrotus looked at Strike before his face contorted in rage.
"You will pay for this. You will fight in the Arena until you die, you dog," Scrotus stated.
"I'm looking forward to taking you down with me," Strike replied. Having nothing more to say, Scrotus was about to leave the room but turned back and smiled.
"Prepare him." Was the only thing he said before he left. The War boys tore Strike down from the ceiling before they began to prepare him for his first fight.
All of Strike's muscles were tensed and prepared to fight any kind of threat. It took him a second before he realised that he was holding the chair he was sitting on and was aiming it at he maid before which was standing Celestia who was prepared to detain him at a moment's notice.
He slowly put the chair down and sat back down on it. "What happened?" he asked.
"When the maid dropped the spoon, you stood up all of a sudden and began aiming the chair on her," Celestia explained. " What heppened? Why did you react as you did?"
Strike breathed in and out through his nose, he thought about what good it would do to tell her. None but it wouldn't help him if kept it to himself. "I have PTSD," he said simply.
"PTSD?" Luna asked slowly.
"Post-traumatic stress disorder. It's a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence or other threats to person's life," he explained.
"Is there a way to cure such thing?" Celestia asked.
"No. The best thing you can get is a supression from medicine and reguraly visiting psychiatrist. Which if you wonder, is a medical practitioner specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness such as PTSD, ASD, anti-social disorder and others." The princesses looked at each other and thought about what they were just told. An illness that cannot be cured, and there is multiple of them. They looked back at Strike before Celestia asked.
"This... PTSD, was it?" Strike nodded, "what happened to you to bring you such illness?" Strike thought about before starting.
"I would prefer to not talk about it," Strike did his best to supress any kind of feeling that was bubling inside of him. fortunately for him, the maid haven't dropped his meal so it was just question of getting him a new spoon before putting it in front of him. Once he had his meal, he began digging into it.
Celestia wanted to press further but she knows when there is time for that and when not. When he and the princesses were done eating, Celestia exused herself while Luna came into Celesti's office and began going through paper work again. Once she finished, she and Strike came into the throne room and waited for petitiones but none came. While Lune was leaning her head against her right fist and tapped her fingers on her other hand impatiently, Strike on the other hand looked to be relax but with a much closer look one would see that his muscles were tensed as hell and prepared to sprung into action.
After some time of waitinf the throne room doors were opened and in walked a stalion in black suit. His mane and tail were both blue and Strike also noticed a small mustache on his muzzle. When the stalion came up what Strike assumed was a respectable distance, the stalion bowed deeply before speaking. "Princess Luna, I was hoping that could meet you," Strike's muscles tensed even more as the stallion said that, "my name is Fancy Pants."
Luna looked at Strike who was staring at Fancy Pants like a hawk. Even though he appeared calm on the outside, one looked at his hands told her everything. She looked back at Fancy Pants who was still bowing deeply. "Thee may arise Fancy Pants. What ails Thee for wishing to see Us?" she asked.
"I served in the Solar guard for your sister and whenever there was a serious problem, I was the first one she turned to. Over time we became good friends so I simply wished to meet the pony she loves the most," Fancy Pants replied.
This was certainly going to be interresting for Luna.
