"Evil can never be born with, Only taught to those that listen to it and take it."

Grey sits alone in his room at Cantorlot Castle, staring through the glass balcony doors. He can feel the season slowly beginning to change as it gets colder and pegasi move clouds around in the night sky. He again reminded himself why he was here, in this world, how he got on it, what had happened from the last seconds on Cadia Prime, and learning of its fall. The missing lord castellan of the guard and Cadia, the awakening of one of the Emperor's sons followed by support from the alien Eldar, the death of the hero of Hades Hive Lord Commissar Sebastian Yarrack, the war between the Orks and the Tyranids. So much he missed all being either lost within the warp or here spent on this world.

He only stared out at the night sky with his face scrunching up into a snarl before he punched through the door's window, shattering it with his bionic hand and felt a cold breeze blow within his room as he only looked down to see no blood stains or the sharp pain, no scratches or cuts, no flesh. Just metal parts replacing his lost limbs; he hated it all. Yet, as he looked back, he wasn't staring out at the night sky, but at his reflection, seeing what little remains of his face, his left burnt eye, and the large burn scars that took the left half of his face stretched down his neck and shoulder.

He places his hand over his shirt to touch his chest. He can feel nothing, not the touch of his skin against both shirts or the bionics cold metal, not the cold breeze that blew through the broken window, or his heartbeat from his chest. He felt nothing but the rising heat of his anger within his body, clenching his shirt and wanting to scream out his lungs of all the rage and hatred he felt. Yet he resisted, not for reasons from memory, the times of war, the death of his home, and all those he once knew, but for no reason; it would release the pain nor let it off, only grow.

So he held it in and only took a breath to calm himself; he was now this worlds defender but a false hero, a toy to the inquisition and their weapon to use against this world, and a failure, to his friends, to his family, and his loved ones. He looked back at his reflection in the glass, and it wasn't there; it was gone. He sighed as he then sees the face of a hated being that could only lurk within his mind alone as it haunted him during his time in prison.

"Miss me, Cain, or did you think ol' Mad Dog would run off to the emperor?" Mad Dog said with a chuckle at the end and getting a blank stare from Grey.

"Leave my mind, I would prefer you dead then to hear your chard voice."

"Well that's not very nice, and here I thought we were mates, I taught you how to kill properly, and you let me stay here just to continue to be your teacher." He said cocking his head to the side and with a smile revealing the muscles of his burnt face.

"You are no teacher nor being I would dare call a friend, you lurk in my mind to remind me of what I am and a burden not to me but my blood lineage!" Grey said as Mad Dog only laughed,

"Oh shush now, "Hero of Equestria," I only wish to talk to you." He said as Grey walked away, shaking his head, agitated.

"Then speak now so I can endure this tormenting silence, mutant." He said, closing his eye.

"We're not alone, Cain, theirs is another beast within our minds, and it is something from one of your friends; know this, it has power over us, and worst, I might say she's quite the doll if you turned around now."

"What are you speaking o-" Grey stopped to see two large tears, cat-like slit eyes docked with his before falling back and seeing them tower over him. The moon's light slowly peaked in, revealing a tall alicorn with a coat even blacker than the shadows around him and in blue armor with a mystic mane and tail that reminded him of Lunas as she smiled at him.

It reeked of dread of horror as if he was a recruit fighting against the living metal skeletons again; as he crawled back, he heard whispers in the dark, stopping him

"You fear us, good little one. She always had a taste for the "exotic" specimens."

It said in a familiar feminine voice as the room around him faded into shadows with the giant pony leaving them in total darkness; he couldn't see, even switching his bionic las-eye. It was nothing but shadows, voiding him from barely seeing the rest of his body standing up to take a defensive combat stance for anything to come at him; this wasn't regular shadow play or even of the darkness of the warp could conceive.

"So much fear, hate, regret yet you still stand waiting for a fight that is not to come, for now at least. I see why even both she and our sister took a liking to you, you share similar pain with them yet different reasons, and it tastes delicious."

Grey looks at her looming over him, looking down with a smirk plastered on her face at him.

"What are- who are you and what is this power demon!?" Grey says with a sneer as he backs away from her, only for her to walk closer.

She held her smile at him. "It is normal to feel fear in my presence, yet from a being like you, it is incredibly pathetic." She said, chuckling before giving a throaty laugh. Seeing Grey getting pressed against a wall as she pins her hooves over Grey, standing on her hind legs towering over him with her face close to his.

"Do you require a hint, stupid human? We are a Nightmare that haunts all creatures, even you."

She said as a memory came to his mind for that word, and Grey only looked at her. "And here I thought the story was just more heresy and this worlds stories, but it's- your really that nightmare moon creature, the same that possessed over Luna."

"Hm, is that what you believe from their stories now? You should know that stories of this world can, are, and always altered from those who tells them. Even somepony such as you should know that from experience Cain."

Anon narrows his eye at her. "If that freak of humanity Mad Dogs spoke of our name then I will gladly kill you here and now beast!?" Nightmare Moon only chuckled again at him.

"You still dont know do you? Their are many things this world and these ponies you haven't learned about, even of the ones you call "friends," but it's not my place to say for now nor of your other half."

Nightmare Moon looked off into the darkness, and her smirk drooped. "But enough foreplay, now is time for the main course." She gives Grey a smirk. "Hope to see you once more again for little one, as I'll be waiting for dessert, toy~."

"Karkin throne I would dar-"

Grey's eye shoot wide as Nightmare Moon mashes her lips against his and his metal jaw. His mind couldn't understand what was happening, comprehending these disgusting heretical feelings of her tongue wrapping around his and slipping down his throat, forcing him to gag and struggle to breathe. Nightmare Moon slowly pulled away from him with his mouth gapped and drenched in mixed saliva, making Nightmare moon can only chuckle at his dazed expression panting and coughing for air.

She kissed him on the lips once more, then on his right cheek and down the side of his neck before biting and sucking on his skin; he groaned softly as she pulled back and vanished into the darkness chuckling as he fell into the darkness only to walk up falling on his face flat on the ground. He quickly pushed himself up and scanned his scenery before reaching for his laspistol from under his bed and looking around frantically. Seeing he was back in his "real" room, letting out a sigh of relief before a sickly feeling came to his mouth and stomach with the urge to hurl, making him rush over to a private bathroom breaking through the door and to the toilet.

"Captain Grey!"

A voice called out to the sounds of galloping came over, and to see a one-eyed Straight Arrow see a half-naked human he was assigned to protect vomit out his stomach into a toilet bowl, he rushed over.

"Celestia's flank, sir! What in tartarus happened to you!?" He said, placing a hoof on his bareback, looking back at the broken doorway and around, watching for any signs of a break-in or clues to poison.

Grey used his arm to push Straight Arrow away from his, sit on the bathroom floor, and lean against the wall with a light coat of sweat dripping from his paler face and him panting heavily with laspistol in hand. He closed his eye, feeling his headache in pain pounding heavy and hard within his mind.

"What the fuck happened last night? Felt like I took twelve hits from an orgyn and took a long whiff of W.P-90." He said, rubbing the bridge of his nose gently with his free bionic fingers waiting for Fletcher Fray to speak.

"Well, sir, after your "Jackass" stunt, you pulled on the princesses along with dislocating Commander Fletcher Fray's jaw and attempt to knocking his eye out of socket." He said, making Grey open his eye and look at Straight Arrow as he grew a smile on his face.

"Which he deserved wholeheartedly."

He remarked, getting a look of disapproval before he continued. "And receiving a talk from both princesses about "manners, behavior, and respect to those with and under you," you came back here before writing a letter to somepony within ponyville and had Specialist Hanzel deliver it with telling us to prepared for your visitor for tomorrow, sir."

He finished as Grey only sighed and sat there tired and leaned his head back against the wall, starting at the decorated ceiling and thought about that strange dream and a weird sensation and taste within his mouth and throat.

"Also, sir, I do hope you knew this and wouldn't want to remind you about your bringing a "bed companion" and alerting so that we may be aware of them, and perform an inspection on them, sir." Fletcher said as Grey squinted his eye at him, confused.

"The hell you on about "bed companions." I may have committed crimes and sins against the emperor, but I ain't no xeno lover or a damn a degenerate for such things." He said as Straight Arrow just gave him a blank stare seeing right through Grey before raising a hoof to point at his face.

"Then I guess your "companion" left parting gifts on your face and neck, sir, but I recommend you have that bite mark checked out within the castle hospital; it may be the source of your sickness, captain."

"Parting gifts?" The fuck are you talking about ya kidney Bean?"

Grey said, slowly getting up onto his bionic feet and looking into the mirror only to feel a cold crawling shiver crawl up his bionic spine to his horror of seeing black lipstick kiss prints on his lips and metal jaw, as well on his right cheek and on his neck followed by a substantially sized bite mark and a dark purple spot.

Now realizes that his dream was no mere dream. But, much near reality, and with that came a hard realization of the heretical actions he had forced on him, falling to his knees, clasping both his bionic hands tightly, and muttering every prayer he could remember as quickly as he could. Purging all memory and feelings of the disgusting acts that had to happen by that beast of darkness.

'Emperor, no, please, no, I would undo every action of crime and sin I've done and sworn to be anew! I beg thee, don't let these feelings and memory be true; I'm no heretic but your expendable servant to your holy imperium. Emperor, I beg thee, bless this loathsome failure not to fall to the same disgusting level as the xeno, the mutant, alien, demon, traitor, and heretic I've killed! Please, I beg you, my holy lord!' He screamed in his mind concerning Straight Arrow.

He was unable to understand what had happened and what had gotten to his V.I.P. only to see the look of panic, dread, desperation, and disgust on his face was clear as day. He'd seen that look on many faces from many battles in his lifetime, especially those that had done more wrong, made more regrets, and only wished to be rid of all the bad things they made.

He only sighed and watched the human, knowing he would have to report all this later, but for now, all he could do was watch and observe Grey, now seeing his body; he only felt pity and empathy for him, witnessing every scar on his body.

From third-degree burns, stabs, lacerations, clumps of his skin missing clumps of his skin as if it were bitten, clumps of ripped or blown off chunks of flesh on his lean body, metal ports on his body but what Straight Arrows eyes focused on. Was Grey's back seeing his metal muscles, infused bone, and even his ribs with metal aligned and fused branching out metal that stretched out underneath his flesh with marks and ripples from whip lashings and an iron branding of two X's on the back of his neck.

Straight Arrow could only imagine the horrors Grey won't go through, those he lost and each scar, yet seeing him now, even with metal limbs to replace Grey's and hold his broken body, he remembered what Grey once said during their first meet: "Experience outranks all ranks in my book boy." He knows what Grey means by that and can only feel sorry for disrespecting him, being untrustworthy, and even hating him.

Still, for experiences he couldn't imagine he faced and adventures he was forced to bear with. For that, he only sat with him and bowed his head, closing his eyes as he heard him mutter to himself and recapped on his own wrongs he made from one veteran of war to another.

'Forgive this guardspony and the reckless actions that they have done, my friends, family, sir... As your loyal guard, tasked with your protection and life I, Captain Thorn "Mad Dog" Grey, promise to better myself to you and for the crowns. For this is my promise to you and the guard, I failed today just as I did long ago to those I sworn to protect, but not now for you sir, not now.'

"I'm... Sorry, Captain... Take your time now we got the hole day."

He said quietly and silence came between the two as they sat in the bathroom, Captain Grey seated by Second Senior Petty Mage officer Straight Arrow Medical Mage and Veteran of the second Anti-Air Mage Defense Brigade. Grey dropped both of his hands to the ground but kept his head bowed only to lift one hand and rest it on Straight Arrows wither.

“Thank you...”

Author's Note

Well, ain't that nice, two soldiers, both veterans on same ground and with some same experiences.

Yet I feel a great disturbance in the force... Wait never mind that's just me... Yeah don't worry sex is coming to town and it might get messy so be careful around the splash zone, unless you got your front row seat tickets in and your into that... ya sick fucks.

And I’m currently having a fucking blast in Darktide hope to see maybe two of y’all their