“Say Titanfall!” I call out with a group of other Pilots, as someone takes our picture in front of a cardboard replica of BT.
After the picture, I gently pat the replica, then start to head off. “See you guys another time.” Pausing, I look at the replica, “Maybe next time don’t make a cosplay so big you can’t leave the lobby.” I get a grumble from the guy inside the replica and laughter from the other Pilots as I set out to look around the convention center. Stepping over to a wall, I double check that my cosplay is in place and smile at the fact that I was able to do my favorite Pilot loadout justice even though the grapple doesn’t exactly work. Putting the backpack I added to the costume on, I continue into the vendor hall.
After spending a couple hours looking around at vendors, I come across one that has a Spitfire LMG on display. As I walk up, the Trader from Resident Evil 4 comes up to the front. “Whatcha buying stranger?” the trader asks in a raspy voice.
I take my backpack off and hand him a water bottle from my bag. “If you’re going to be doing that voice the entire day, you’re going to need this more than I will.” He takes it with a thankful look on his face. Putting the bag back, I continue, “I was looking at the Spitfire there.”
He brings the replica over and sets a Wingman and a set of Firestars down with it. “That’s a hundred dollars for the Spitfire and, for your generosity, I’ll throw these in.”
Blinking, I pick them up and look them over, then notice a keychain of the Scorch Prime insignia. “Well, I’m not completely opposed to it, but how about these three and that keychain for $200?”
He looks over at the keychain and nods, bringing it over to me and we complete the transaction. “Well Pilot, prepare for Titanfall.”
As I finish getting everything situated, I'm smirking behind my helmet, thinking he's just joking around. It's then that I notice everything beginning to go dark as the ground gives out beneath me.
=====================================================================
Coming to, I notice I’m freefalling into some strange forest I’ve never seen before. In the distance, I see what looks like a village. As I approach the ground, jump jets on my suit activate, righting me to land on my feet. As my heartrate falls, I notice my helmet is giving me a heads up display. “Okay, the fact that my suit is actually functional is weirding me out. If the stories are true, it might also mean I’m no longer on Earth, or at least my Earth anymore.” Drawing the Wingman, I start wandering through the dense forest, “I can panic later. First objective, get to that village I saw on my way down, and for the love of the flame keep my armor on at all times.”
I eventually come across what appears to be a medieval village from ancient Europe. “If this is the standard for this world, then I am the most heavily armed person on the planet with just my pistol.” Putting my pistol away and storing my Spitfire on my back I start walking towards the village. “I’ll have to use my firearms sparingly, maybe I can get away with just using the Firestars.” Moving my hand down to the Firestars my hand brushes against something else and I look down at a data knife, “Ok, if anyone asks I'm an eccentric inventor and made this armor.”
I drop to the ground as I notice some armed creatures flying in the other direction, “Those looked like griffons, if that’s so then magic may exist here so it might be able to play off the stars as a magical weapon.” Staying low, I make my way towards the village and notice the villagers are anthropomorphic ponies in a panicked state. “Going off how those ponies are acting, it could be safe to say those griffons were raiders, let's go see if I can confirm that and, if so, do something about them.” Staying low, I sculk back into the forest, keeping to the tree line and making my way towards where the griffons were heading.
After a while, I hear talking and see a big raiding party. “That village has no chance of fighting them off.” I hear the sounds of trees snapping coming from behind me as something heavy hits the grounder deeper in the forest and the griffons seem to start rushing to get something together to go investigate it. Thinking it would be bad for the village, I immediately set out to get there first.
Arriving at where I heard the crash, I come across what looks to be some sort of metallic building. As I get closer, a red light scans me up and down and I hear some sort of automated voice say, “Welcome home Child of Man.” I watch a vault door open with a hiss, the telling sign of pressurized air releasing and head inside.
“Computer close and lock the door until I say to open it.” The door closes and locks behind me. “I was not expecting that to work.” I keep going deeper in discovering it’s some sort of hangar. Noticing a terminal, I walk over to it and start hearing banging on the door. “Looks like they're here.” Sifting through the terminal’s data, a manic grin starts crawling across my face, and I download the information into my helmet, “Not letting anyone else have this information. Now, where’s that door?” I continue further into what I’m going to refer to as a vault until I come across a giant door labeled Armored Fire Unit, “Here we go.” With a maniacal grin, I open the door, head inside, and look up at what I was searching for, a Scorch Prime Titan. “Add this to the list of things to figure out later, there’s no hiding this thing from anyone.”
After climbing in and noticing a lack of verbal response, I realize that there’s no AI inside the machine, only a basic learning processor. I start making my way towards the hangar door, “Time to show those griffons what they are trying to mess with.” As the door opens to show a handful of startled griffons armed with medieval swords and spears wearing what appears to be leather armor, I waste no time in grabbing two and crushing them with the Titan’s robotic hands as I stomp on another and burn the rest with the Thermal Shield, “Why do they smell like chicken?” After having the door close and lock again, I start driving the Titan back to the village to see if I can get them to evacuate.
I crash through the trees and eventually get back to the village noticing them moving carts as makeshift barricades and jump out in front of the villagers that came to investigate, getting a count that most of the villagers are female and not prepared to repel raiders. Motioning to the prototype Titan to go keep an eye out for more griffons, I turn to the ponies, noticing some pegasi as well, “So I doubt you will believe me, but it might be the best for you to evacuate the village, if you had plans to fight off the griffons don’t bother they’re about, twice the size of those capable of fighting here, well, no me taking out those five wouldn’t have made a big enough difference”
One of the older ponies comes up to me, “Who do you think you are?”
I roll my eyes under my helmet saying in a harsh tone, “Someone who will use force if necessary if it means getting all of you out of here alive.”
While a few of the more stubborn ponies stick around challengingly the others scatter to go pack up while they can, “Sonny, you have no right to come in here and tell us that we have to leave our home and thre…”
Before he can finish his sentence I throw a handchop at the spot between neck and shoulder knocking him out and throwing him over my shoulder. I then look over at the others who stepped back, “Anyone else want to test me?” I take and place the old man into a cart before looking at them and cracking my knuckles. They proceed to go pack up their things as well. I go to the front of the cart and start pushing it around to help the ponies get their things ready to move and one pony was kind enough to pack up some things for the old pony. As the ponies keep filling the cart, they stop and stare as I push it with no trouble at all.
Some of the more willing ponies offer to pull the cart out of town letting me climb up to the shoulder of my Titan to keep an eye out. Commanding the Titan to follow behind the cart, I take a closer look at the schematics I downloaded on my wrist computer and turn off the mic in my helmet to keep it from projecting. “Okay from what this is saying the Titan is more of a metallic golem that only follows commands, I need to find some way to make an AI to give it personality.” Turning off the computer and looking up, I see a filly flying in front of me. I turn the mic on and pat a spot next to me for her to sit. “Can I help you with something, little one?”
The filly lands at the spot and says nervously, “What are you?”
I smile under my helmet, looking at the position of the noon day sun as I think about how to respond. Deciding to be somewhat truthful, I reply, “I’m a Pilot. That means I'm trained to work with this big guy here.” Patting the Titan with respect, I then turned to the filly. “Now you might want to go down to the others before they get concerned.” We both looked down and noticed the concerned looks of the ponies below us. I notice some ponies weren’t looking at us but what was behind us making me turn around to see a column of smoke going into the air. Calling down without looking at the ponies, I ask, “How long till the next town?”
A pony calls up, “At this rate it will take us three days to get there.”
I look at the ponies and think to myself, “I’m not much of a strategist, but right now since none of them are speaking up it falls to me to come up with a plan, and the enemy will be on us in a day.” Closing my eyes to think, I sigh, not coming up with much, “Okay, pegasi, can you take the children ahead to the village and get them to safety?”
One pegasus says, “If we empty out one of the wagons, we can get the children and the elderly to the village.”
I nod to the pegasi, “Do so, at this point it’s your valuables or your life for those about to complain about leaving stuff behind.” My response shuts down any protests and a wagon starts being unloaded of belongings and loaded with ponies. I look back at the smoke column again and draw my Spitfire and pull the charging handle back on it letting it spring forward. With less baggage and the less physically inclined moving on ahead, we were able to pick up our pace. “Now we might get a couple days ahead of them, I also hope local forces see the smoke and move to assist.” Looking down at the ponies, I consider why I'm helping them. I have no reason to go this far for them, but I just wouldn't feel right leaving them like lambs to the slaughter.
I elected for us to stop for the night so we are well rested during our move, during the day to get more distance without anyone collapsing and just in case we get attacked. While the Titan can keep an eye out for any griffons that may sneak up on us, I explain to the ponies about getting a watch set in place while the rest sleep. Day arrives without warning from either my titan or the watchers, so we are safe for now.
Oddly enough the second day came and went without the griffons catching up as well. While most think that is good it sets me more on edge it just means that they are more likely to catch up to us tomorrow. Fresh guard rounds were decided for tonight as well. I'm taking the late shift to ease my worries.
We make it halfway through the day and have the town within sight when the griffons catch up to us. “Why did I have to be right about this?” I take a glance over my shoulder seeing the ponies pushing on to the village under the watchful optic of my titan. I’m glad these griffons are so focused on taking out the biggest threat, that being the combatant that is ground-based shooting them out of the damn sky.
Seeing a blip on the rader in my HUD rushing at me knocks me out of my stupor; I dodge out of the way and throw a Firestar into the lunging griffon's neck. “Okay Sky, you’re in the middle of a combat zone. Focus.” Letting out another burst from my Spitfire, I drop another group of griffons. “I’ll need to hold them off to buy time for the ponies and hopefully until reinforcements come.”
Four hours. I have been fighting for four hours. Two hours ago my Spitfire ran dry, one hour ago the Firestar printer overheated. “As long as I have my knife and pistol I will not stop fighting, I will hold them here or die trying.” I hear a buzz in my head followed by a firm and melodic voice.
“Well spoken soldier, we are here to relieve you of your burden.”
Turning around, I see a regiment of ponies rushing the remaining griffons and I take a look around at the corpses I caused and take pause. “How many did I kill?” I finally notice what could be described as mounds of corpses filled with holes or burnt to cinders. Noticing the ponies giving chase to the fleeing griffons I put my weapons away and look at my hands, literally and metaphorically covered in blood. I hear heavy thumps as my Titan approaches, and I climb inside and attach my Spitfire to a slot on the side of the cockpit to rearm.
While taking a few breaths to decompress some from within the safety of my Titan I notice a few ponies walking towards the Titan. I turn on the microphone to project my voice through the speakers of the Titan for the conversation coming up.
I recognize the voice as the mare in the middle speaks, ”Good construct, I wish to speak with your master.”
Chuckling internally, I respond, “Sorry ma’am, my partner doesn’t speak much, I can still hear you and speak to you from inside.” I take an audible breath for everyone to hear. “I apologize but I'm too exhausted to move out of here, I was fighting off those griffons for four hours before you arrived.” I see all the ponies including the mare listening, go wide-eyed and look around at the corpses and just catch one muttering quietly about what kind of magic could have possibly done this.
She coughs to regain her composure, “I see, Well, let us retire to yon village so you may rest and recuperate.”
I go to nod then stop myself remembering they can’t see me. “Understood,” I say, suppressing my emotions.
Not noticing her concerned gaze, I direct the titan to head towards the village while the ponies regroup after finishing off the last few stragglers. I set the Titan to autopilot, turn off the microphone, and take off my helmet to let my shoulder-length brown hair fall free. “Even with those fans it’s still hot in there.” I bundle up my hair again and put the helmet back on, “I still don’t feel safe out in this area, I'll fully relax when I know I’m somewhere safe.”
As we arrive at the village I hear several voices call out, “Princess Luna!” Looking over I see eight ponies running towards the mare that I was talking to. Noticing that colors are blending together from exhaustion, I turn my focus away from them and look around for a place to park the Titan and try to take a nap.
I get woken up by a ball of pink knocking on the titan and the warning lights going off. Unamused, I use the Titan to pluck the pink off and hand her to what I believe are her friends. “Did you need something?” She starts talking hyperactivity and I immediately tune her out. I open the cockpit, climb out, and hold her mouth shut. I wait for her to stop talking, then let go. “I’m tired and currently not in the mood to have protracted conversations.”
A white mare with a purple mane pipes in, “Well that's quite rude,” and grumbles something about tacky colors.
I look her dead in the eyes and gesture to the red on my armor. “This is not paint or dye, it’s blood. I just spent four hours out there fighting griffons non-stop, so excuse me for not being fashionable you pedantic bitch.” Not caring about the gasps behind me, I climb back into the Titan and shut the cockpit. I shut off mics on both ends and try to resume my nap.
Another hour later, my Titan wakes me to the approach from the mare from earlier that I now notice has a blue, flowing mane and dark blue coat and looks concerned. “If it’s about the mares whom came to talk to me earlier, I’m exhausted and in an unfamiliar environment. If the exhaustion was not there, I would have had the patience to deal with them, or brush off that mare’s comments.”
She nods in understanding. “We are going to head to the capital soon to report in, we were wondering if you would like to come with us or stay here and help with defense.”
I open the cockpit, wobbling a little as I get out before regaining my balance. “When do we head out?”
After saying goodbyes to the villagers, we make our way to the train and head to the capital which I have learned is named Canterlot. Choosing to remain in my Titan to not expose everyone to the smell of blood, After entinger through some modified doors I wait in the cargo compartment of the train. I hear a noise and look up from inspecting my wingman and see a butter yellow mare with a pink mane wearing a green skirt and white blouse walking over. I turn on my mic, “May I help you?”
She jumps then tries to compose herself. “Uhm, I was wondering if there was anything I could do to help you?” Not hearing an immediate response from me she continues after a moment, “I could tell you were under a lot of stress and my friend just provoked that response out of you.”
I use the Titan to lightly pat her on the head. “I’ll have to take you up on that vent session later, right now I just need time to take everything in, and that may take awhile.”
She gives a small nod and a smile before leaving, where I hear someone talking excitedly to her about how awesome me and my Titan look as they walk away.
I spend the next few hours deflecting questions from several of the mares, a lavender mare in particular asking me all the questions about my gear, the Titan, and myself. One yellow and red mare did decide to just join me in sitting in silence, but she does keep giving me or, more accurately, my Titan occasional glances.
I receive word from one of the troops that came with that dark mare that we are approaching Canterlot, make some last minute checks, and ask the soldier, “Would there be a place up at the castle for me to park this?”
He stops and thinks, “I think there may be a chariot hangar big enough, if not, the princesses could probably direct you to a warehouse to store it.”
I give a thumbs up with the Titan, ”Thanks for the tip.” Taking my hands off the controllers, I stretch my fingers then notice the mare that was with me had fallen asleep. I nudge her, but she refuses to wake up. I feel us pull into the station and the modified door opens up and I gently pick up the mare and carry her out. An orange mare walks over and offers to take her and I hand the sleeping mare over thinking I should really learn their names. As we make our way there I notice all the odd looks from the ponies and the snootiness of what I believe are the so-called nobles. I then quickly realize my fingers are tapping near the fire trigger and move them away.
As we arrive, what I now realize is a guard leads me to the hangars where I park the Titan, power it down, and lock it. I look at myself, “Uh is there some place I can get cleaned up?”
Before the guard can say anything he stops and bows and I turn around and see the mare, whom I recall the other mares calling Princess Luna. I give her a quick salute out of formality for her rank. Giving a nod back, she speaks, “I will have some of my guards lead you to a private room where you can rest and recuperate for the rest of the day, we shall talk more tomorrow, once you are situated.”
I give a nod, then make a request, “Any chance I could get the room soundproofed?”
She blinks in thought, then nods. “Of course, that won’t be hard to do.”
I give a courtesy bow. “Thank you, Princess.”
A pony with bat wings leads me to the private chambers. I go inside not paying attention to anything, and no sooner than the door is shut and the privacy enchantment is in place, I tear off my helmet and go into the fetal position against a wall. Going into a panicked state holding my knees and rocking back and forth, I start talking gibberish to myself.
=====================================================================
Elsewhere
=====================================================================
Looking up from a report, Celestia stares incredulously at her sister, “One pony did all this?”
Luna nods, “I’d say the same thing if I didn’t see it for myself. Also, I don't think they’re a pony.”
A look of concern crosses Celestia’s face. “Do you think they could be a threat, sister?”
A small smile creeps onto Luna’s face, “If their interactions with the Elements are anything to go off of, as long as we talk to them while stable and not force our ideals on them, they should be more than willing to hear us out.”
Celestia looks at another report. “And what of this mechanical golem?”
Luna sighs and shakes her head, “That’s a question for them sadly, Laughter decided to climb on it and I heard alarms go off, I don’t think it’s wise to try anything further.”
Celestia nods, “I see, we shall have to wait then.”
=====================================================================
Griffon Empire
====================================================================
There's the sound of glass shattering followed by an irate griffon yelling, “What do you mean we lost an entire fighting force!”
A nervous griffon speaks quickly, “Just that sir, when we sent scouts to investigate there were corpses everywhere, too many for the standard forces to handle.”
The irate one sneers, “Get this incompent thing out of my sight.” They turn away from the begging for mercy from the griffon as they are dragged away. “Did she find some way to open those vessels? If she has a way it shall be mine, and then after, the world shall bow to the Griffon Empire.” The sneer grew into an evil grin which, in turn, morphed into mad cackling, backed by the sounds of a thunderstorm in the distance.
After a few hours I collect myself and weakly get up, putting my helmet back on. I open the door and ask the guards if they could have someone come here and clean my armor. Getting a positive reply, I strip down, go into the bathroom, and start up the bath. After locking the door, I climb in, trying to relax more than get clean. Once the water starts to get cold, I decide to climb out and dry off. I hear someone call out that my outfit has been cleaned then the sound of the bedroom door closing. Peeking out of the bathroom, I see the bedroom is empty so I step out, make my way over to my gear, and put it back on. As I finish putting everything back on, I put my helmet on and get static through my radio.
A familiar, though less raspy, voice can be heard, “Hello again, Pilot.” I go to say something but the voice interrupts, "This is a one way call, so I won't be able to hear you." I move over to the bed as the voice continues, "First, fate has decided for you to come here, no idea why. Second, you are not the only one for this to happen to, though they are on their own versions of Equestria." Blinking, I lie on the bed with some relief that I'm not completely alone in this. "I'm only giving you this information since you were kind enough to give me some water, good luck out there Pilot." And with that the transmission ended. There's a beep from my computer with instructions on how to make something called a token, a question I’ll worry about later.
Standing back up, I take in my armor in the mirror, the purple armor plates have gained some wear and tear, but the underarmor with blue and silver flames looks fine. I look out the window at the rising sun. "How long was I in the bath for?" Noticing the red dawn, I sigh. "I killed, but it doesn't mean I liked it."
An alarm triggers in my helmet and I rush out of my room, surprising the guards as I make my way towards the hangar. ‘Thank you onboard GPS.’ I enter Hanger Two and see three ponies messing with Scorch, the lavender unicorn with wings, the blue pegasus, and the orange pony, with the last looking at the other two in disappointment. Stomping my foot to get their attention, I march towards them. "What are you two doing?"
The lavender one is startled and the blue one is trying to play it off like nothing happened. I shake my head and look at the orange one. She sighs and starts talking, "Twi there figured since you parked it here she could take a look at it." Smiling like it's an achievement, she continues, "Ah did convince her not to take it apart though."
The room physically gets colder as I snap my head to the lavender pony. "Excuse me?!" I stomp towards her, "You thought you had the right to take my Titan apart, do you think everything belongs to you or something, that you have the right to take them apart?!"
Twilight looks to her friends for help. "Well, I figured I could put it back together." She shrinks down some, "or you could call for a new one?"
I freeze in anger. "A new one?" I point to the Scorch, "That is the only known one in existence and you wanted to take it apart like it's your property."
Before I can continue my tirade or the other two ponies can intervene we hear a motherly voice from the door. "Twilight Sparkle, what do you think you're doing!?"
We all look towards the voice which comes from a mare coming from a head taller than everyone else, ivory-white fur and wings, long pastel multicolor mane broken only by the horn on her brow, and garbed in a long white dress with golden bracelets, flanked by guards in golden armor, as well as what look like differently armored officers. The mares gasp out, “Princess Celestia.” I turn back to the pony named Twilight and she looks like she was wishing she was invisible.
The Princess and her guards walk over to me as I step away from Twilight. She gives a polite bow before speaking again, "I am sorry for what my fellow Princess has done, she has a habit of putting science before permission, though she has improved."
I cross my arms as I look at her, "Apology not accepted." Everyone goes wide-eyed as I turn towards Twilight. "As you are not the one that wronged me."
Celestia nods to Twilight and she stands up straight and gives an apologetic bow. "I am sorry for messing with your Titan without permission, can you forgive me?"
I move over to inspect my Titan, "I won't forgive you, but I am willing to move on."
While most of the ponies accept that, a certain cyan pegasus does not, "What the Tartarus!? She apologized, and you're not going to forgive her?"
I turn to look at her. "Correct, as someone in authority she needs to be aware that there will be some entities that won't accept apologies and will ask for compensation." I check a beep that comes from my wrist computer and continue, "If you are concerned about something like that I would accept compensation in the form of showing me around." My focus goes to my wrist computer, "Now what the hell is the sterilization process."
The ponies blink, confused at my statement with Twilight being the one to speak up. "Sterilization process?"
I look over at her, "Huh? Oh I found a vault in the forest by the village I helped, and my computer says there are five more here but one triggered the sterilization process." Twilight grows a big grin and takes a breath then I grab her muzzle keeping it shut. "Just show me where they are, okay?" She nods and I let go, hearing two quiet breaths of relief from her friends.
As we walk I hear the southern voice of the orange mare come up to me, "Howdy, ah’m Applejack or AJ to mah friends and the hot-headed pegasus there is Rainbow Dash." I look over at Rainbow and she nods then I turn back to Applejack as she continues, "Ah realized we haven't been properly introduced."
We hear an apologetic gasp and Twilight turns around. I say, "Focus on the path ahead of you Twilight, you can do a formal introduction later." She pouts and turns back.
AJ chuckles then continues talking, "How did you know Twi was gonna start a lecture back there?"
I look over at her, "First: past experiences with people after bringing up a topic they like, second: personal experience of doing it myself."
Rainbow sighs, "Oh great, another egghead."
I snap my head to her. "Is there something wrong with that?"
She shakes her head. "Of course not, if you're a nerd that enjoys books."
I put my hands behind my head. "I'll take my life as a bookworm over a musclehead who can't tell when they are in the wrong." I smirk under my helmet noticing her small chest, "Random fact: breasts are mostly composed of fat and not muscle."
Rainbow stops and looks down at herself. She notices we keep walking and catches up, smirking like she thinks she’s being clever, "Okay egghead, do you know of any way to make them bigger?"
I shrug. "Nothing with hard evidence, only old wives tales and hearsay." We arrive at a big room that is holding the vaults and tables with scattered tools and equipment as I continue, "I wasn't too concerned about it myself as a male." Ignoring the frustrated look at her failed attempt to fluster me, I walk up to a vault that seems to have a hole burnt through it.
A familiar mechanical voice pipes up for all to hear, "Welcome home, Child of Man." The voice drops to a synthesized sorrowful tone, "It is with great regret that I must inform you that with the damage to the outer casing I had to proceed with sterilization protocols on the contents of this vault." The door opens and all we see is an ash-filled vault.
As I silently download the digital contents to my wrist computer, I look around. "So this is the sterilization process, a termination of all contents in the vault."
Turning her focus from the vault, Celestia approaches me. "What did that voice mean by ‘Child of Man’?"
I look up at her. "Just that, I'm human, and as this is the second vault I have opened I believe it scans for human DNA or biology before opening." Turning away from Celestia, I look through the vault’s contents on my wrist computer. "This appears to have been an agricultural vault."
Rainbow asks, "What do you mean by agricultural?"
I turn to Rainbow, "To summarize, it contained crossbred plants that could have grown in nearly any environment." I turn to my wrist computer, realizing something. "Computer, when a vault scans me please also send a signal to not automatically open, unless the contents can save my life in an emergency situation." Getting an affirmative beep, I look up to a confused Celestia and some annoyed scientists. "These belonged to my people, so I am rightfully claiming them, as such I'll decide whether or not I share its contents."
Celestia gives an understanding nod while the scientists gripe about being unfair. "Is there a particular reason why?"
Going over to the second vault, I review the contents. "There are some things that would mess up the world if released too early or at all." Nodding to this vault, I order it open and it reveals tools and hunting supplies.
Twilight grows concerned. "Why would humans preserve such weapons?"
I blink and look at her. "Well, I guess they could be used as weapons, but these are tools for farming and hunting." Twilight and the scientists notably recoil in surprise at that. "Humans are omnivores, so we eat plants and meat." Putting my hand to my chin, I continue, "Well, it actually depended on the particular human, I can confirm I'm an omnivore." I chuckle as the scientists and Twilight put aside their shock as they write down a finding on a long extinct species. The information in the first vault showed me that humans here went extinct millions of years ago.
Rainbow gets in my face. "Where's all the cool stuff, is it in the other vaults?"
I lightly headbutt Rainbow to get her to back up. "I don't know which vault contains what, but if I could guess, what you want won't be in these vaults." Walking over, I check its contents and open it. "Medical supplies and details on an average human, useful if I'll have to visit a doctor." Some of the scientists break off from the tool vault and go to check it out.
Rainbow groans, "These vaults are filled with nothing but boring things."
Walking to the next vault, I say, "Scorch came out of a vault, so there’s that." Noticing Rainbow grumble at the comment, I look over the contents then quickly move onto the next.
Twilight twitches at the lack of explanation but calms herself. “What was in that one?”
I turn to her as we arrive at the last vault. “I’m not gonna say because every fiber of my being is telling me not to say it out loud.” Beginning to search through the contents, I find something unexpected, "Wait, did they include--yes they did." I turn to the others with some excitement in my voice, "This one contains board games and card games." I open the vault letting Twilight and her friends look at the contents then motion Celestia aside for a private chat. "So the one I did not say is full of my race’s books, whether it be textbooks or stories it's in there."
I notice a pair of guards smirk as Celestia chuckles to herself. The stallion of the pair claps his hand on my shoulder. "Smart idea not letting our sister know."
The mare snickers and nods, "We would have lost her in there for hours."
I blink at the statement and sigh. "I'm gonna have to set limitations on that vault aren't I?" I get a nod from all three ponies then something crosses my mind. "Are you two twins?" The two higher-ranked guards, on closer inspection, appear nearly identical. White furred, blue maned unicorns, differentiated by armor and gender.
The stallion chuckles and nods. "Most ponies don't realize but yes we are. I'm Shining Armor and my twin there is Gleaming Shield."
I nod and shake their hands. "Pleasure to meet you both." Looking over Shining Armor, I realize how different his armor is from the other guards. "I'm just gonna take a wild guess here, you're from a different kingdom or empire, but you came to support allies and learn the situation."
Gleaming pipes up this time, "How did you know that?"
I give her a deadpan look then realize I'm still wearing my helmet. "His armor is different, in color and design." They hear me take a deep breath leading to a heavy sigh then call Twilight over.
Twilight comes over with a scroll, rolling it up. "Yes, did you need something… uhm?"
"Sky, call me Sky." She gives me a nod. "I'll tell you what is in the other vault, but I have some stipulations." Intrigued, she pays even more attention. "You are only allowed in there for an hour, and none of the contents are allowed to be removed by anyone." I cross my arms and look at her. "The moment either one of those are broken I shut the vault for anyone that is not me, save for special circumstances, understood?"
Twilight sighs and nods as her friends join us at this point, "What's in there?"
I look at her and say one word, "Books." Given the older princess’s amusement and the other ponies’ embarrassment, I can only hazard a guess what her wings shooting up like that mean. "Twilight, I'm trusting you with this you bibliophile, don't make me regret it. Also, go take a cold shower."
She puts her wings down in embarrassment and leaves the room. Gleaming grins and looks at me. "So you seem to have a handle on our sister, is there anything going on between you two?"
Before Shining can pull his protective big brother routine I promptly respond, "Nope." I go and open the vault letting the scientists know of the stipulations then return. "Gleaming, I just arrived here, I have barely had time to get to know anyone, and ponies are probably already spreading rumors of me fighting off griffons for four hours."
Gleaming and Shining’s eyes go wide and their jaws drop. "That report was about you?"
I go into the game vault and come out with a box the size of my chest that reads Sentinels on the top. "Yep, first time I have ever seen combat, period, but I wasn't going to stand by in a situation like that with how well-armed I am."
The Princess and the twins drop their air of authority and Celestia asks, "Are you okay?"
I just look at her, "Before or after I had my mental breakdown after the adrenaline wore off?" Rainbow takes the box, confusing me, and sets it on a table right before I get pulled into a big hug from everyone around me.
Eventually, everypony lets go of me and I stretch my arms after being squished. Applejack looks at me confusedly. “From what I knew of humans being in a hug with the lot of us would have required more than a stretch to fix.” I motion for her to continue. “Why are you more durable then?”
Before I can say anything we hear a robotic voice come from the entertainment vault. “Nano-machines, son!”
I snap to the vault, firing a shot from my Wingman at the vault speaker. “Fuck off!”
================================================================
A cloaked figure with a scythe on their back approaches a table of various creatures with files in their hand. The figure turns to a heavily armored dragon, “War, did the sisters petition you to send one of your avatars to help them?”
All the creatures snap towards the dragon in confusion, “No… why?”
The figure looks at the files which causes everyone else to look at them as well, “I just spent the last four hours sorting out the souls of dead griffons, without stopping.”
War coughs up their drink. “I swear on my seat that I did not send any of my avatars to fight in their war.” War cleans up their mess. “I may be the Embodiment of War, but I do hold true to pacts we all make as a pantheon.”
A cloaked figure with no discernible features speaks up from the side after looking into a crystal ball, “Death, it looks like one of yours.”
Death tilts their head. “My avatar doesn’t get involved in fights, only collecting souls of the dead.”
The seer shakes their head. “Not avatar, what you are.”
Death slams the files down onto the table. “Fate, show us.”
Fate nods and pulls what they saw up on a screen. They see a lone human fighting off thousands of griffons by themself.
Death slumps into their chair and puts their hand to their head. “Where was that one hiding?”
An elderly deer sets an hourglass on the table. “They weren’t hiding, they belonged before the events that wiped out humanity.”
Death removes their hand from their face. “Thanks for that info, Time.” Getting a nod from the deer, Death continues, “With what I have here, maybe they can help with the rogue ones.”
War stands up with surprise. “You can’t mean to send them against our brethren by themself.”
Death looks at War. “They bear no allegiance to us or the rogues; they are the only ones we could turn to to deal with them.”
Fate speaks up again from their seat, “If we do that, you’ll need to make contact with them to give them something to destroy the rogue ones’ physical forms.”
Death nods to Fate then looks at the files again. “When they aren’t so busy as to be helping in a war between two nations, I will make contact with them.”
War scratches their chin. “Hey Death, if you don’t want them--” War ducks a boot thrown at their head, getting a chuckle from everyone around the table. “I’m joking!”
