Test of Ideals

Chapters

Chapter 1: Awake and Afraid
Chapter 2: A Helping Hoof
Chapter 3: Return
Chapter 4: The ‘Dream’ Team
Chapter 5: Braving the Elements (Part 1)
Chapter 5: Braving the Elements (Part 2)
Chapter 6: Dark Against Light
Chapter 7: Unraveling (Part 1)

Chapter 1: Awake and Afraid

Darkness, that was all Zero could see around him.

“Hello? Can anyone hear me?” His voice echoed through the total emptiness.

He tried reaching out with his senses. He could see nothing, feel nothing, and the only thing he could hear was… birds?

Zero awoke with a jolt, his head fuzzy and his vision blurred. “Ugh…. What happened?” he groaned as he put his hand on his throbbing head.

After bringing himself to his feet, he dusted off his white full-body armor, decorated in a few blue-grey markings including a zero painted in aurebesh on the top left side of his helmet.

Slowly, he took in his newfound surroundings, he was in a grassy field filled to the brim with flowers, in the east of the sky was a large, shining star which must have acted as this planets sun. On the horizon was a dense looking forest, and below his feet was a grayish-white parachute of which the strings were still attached to the backpack he was apparently wearing.

“I definitely don’t remember performing a jump.” he thought.

As he disconnected the chute from himself, he noticed his blaster was not attached to the magnet that held it to his back. He looked to his left, it wasn’t there. He looked to the right and, sure enough, laying in the grass was his carbine, a DC-15s. It wasn’t as popular as the much larger standard issue DC-15a, but Zero preferred it for its more compact size and versatile utility. As he bent over to retrieve his weapon, he tried to piece together what it was he COULD remember. The last thing he could see clearly was being told his battalion, the 624th Enforcement, was about to be deployed and should prepare for a briefing. Everything after that was just fog.

“Does anyone know what happed?” he asked his squad mates.

No one answered. It suddenly occurred to him that he was alone. He turned around to see if anyone was behind him. Nothing. Just the rolling plains reaching as far as the eye can see, all the way to what appeared to be mountains in the distance. His thoughts began drifting away from the ache in his head and toward his rising predicament. He checked the radar in his helmet, there were no pings.

“Where am I? How did I end up here? And where is everyone?” He thought to himself. Lifting his right forearm to his mouth, he activated his communication link that was built into his armor. “This is CT-30-0700 does anyone read me? I repeat, this is CT-30-0700, I’ve been separated from my squad and am unaware of my location, over.”

A familiar voice came from the device. “Is that you Zero?”

The trooper cracked a smile at the words. Though it sounded just like the voice he has heard from thousands of lips, he was able to determine who it came from. “Affirmative, it’s good to hear your voice Trinket.”

“I told you to stop calling me that.” Trinket said, he sounded annoyed.

“Oh yeah, you did didn’t you?” Zero sarcastically remarked, “though I don’t know why, after all you were so kindly bestowed that name.”

“That THING did NOT name me.” An agitated Trinket stated.

Zero couldn’t help but joke a bit more, “Well Serg. and the boys disagree, and he IS your boss so what he says goes.”

“You’re all the worst.” Trinket retorted in a tone giving away that he didn’t mean it.

Zero was relieved to hear the voice of one of his brothers, who sounded like he was just fine. At the same time, he wondered why were they separated in the first place? Switching back to the matter at hand, Zero asked Trinket where exactly WAS everyone?

“What do you mean?” Trinket questioned, “all the escaped pods were damaged before they were launched, everyone had to evacuate them mid-decent one-at-a-time which split us up, you know that.”

Well, at least that answer explained the parachute. “Actually I don’t,” Zero informed, “I can’t seem to remember anything about the mission we were on, are we still on it?”

There was concern in Trinket’s voice when he spoke, “No, we’re not, are you ok? Did you hit you head?”

Zero removed his helmet to feel his head, his hand running through his hair. The haircut he chose to have was a slightly shorter version of the standard cut he and his fellow troopers were given during training. A jolt of pain as his hand felt something gave Zero a sinking feeling that was made worse when he brought his gloved hand back into his view to reveal it was stained with some blood.

“Yeah, I’ve definitely got some sort of injury, not sure how bad though.” Zero plainly stated.

“Can you travel?” Trinket asked.

“Yeah”

“Well then can you make your way to my position? I landed in a thick forest, my parachute got stuck in a tree. I can’t disconnect it and I’m unable to reach my vibro-knife.”

“Sure thing.” Zero said, “If I can find you, your signal isn’t showing up on my radar.”

Trinket sighed on the other end of the radio, “Well THAT figures.” Zero looked behind him at the forest he originally faced. He didn’t notice how dark and overgrown it had looked before. Weirdly it almost reminded him of some of the abandoned buildings and strongholds he and his platoon would sometimes station themselves in when they needed to lie low, what with all the vines and foliage creeping down from anywhere that had any space to grown in.

“The forest you landed in, did it- well, did it look like, for a lack of better terms, like it was reclaimed by nature? If you know what I mean?” Zero felt a bit awkward with the dumb description he had given the place.

“I know what you mean, and yeah, it definitely looked like that.” His brother responded.

“Well I think I can see the forest, is there any way you can signal me where you are?” asked Zero as he put his helmet back on.

“The only thing I can reach is a thermal detonator,” -There was a pause in Trinket’s words, like he was thinking- “I can prime it and chuck it as high as I can, if you see the explosion you can find me, at the very least you can follow the sound until my signal pings on you radar.”

Zero admitted to himself that under another circumstance, it would be a solid plan. However, he had no idea of what was in that forest. What if it was crawling with Seppies? Or some gang of outlaws or pirates had a hideout in there. They would get to Trinket before him. “No, we need to think of something else.” Zero replied.

“Well I’m all ears.” Trinket huffed.

Zero stopped to think for a moment. “Well if his signal is being blocked by the thick foliage that’s one thing, but if it’s being jammed that’s another. But if his signal was being jammed, then wouldn’t his communications be jammed as well? Well maybe he could-“ his thoughts were interrupted by a loud boom echoing across the fields. Zero wiped around to his left to only just see a cloud of smoke dispersed across the tree line.

“Whoops.” Trinket’s barely contained sarcasm rang through the comm link.

“Are you crazy!” Zero growled.

“Well I didn’t hear you coming up with any ideas.” Trinket remarked.

Zero let out a long deep sigh, “Alright, I’ll be at your position shortly.”

He then saw a stupid opportunity, “just hang in there.”

“…” “I’m going to get you for that.” Trinket said in a jokingly foreboding tone.

Zero turned off his comm link and started to jog his way towards the explosion in good time. “Trinket always seems to be rather impatient,” Zero thought to himself. He was practically a shiny, the mission that Zero last remembered going on was only Trinket’s second. “and he didn’t really didn’t get to do that much on his FIRST mission.” Zero thought to himself, letting out a little snicker at a memory of said mission that Trinket would like for everyone to forget. “He seems to be a good man, competent too. Maybe, no, definitely a bit reckless, then again, plenty of shinies were. I know I was on my first deployment.”

His smile faltered at the thought.

He didn’t like to think about Geonosis, no one who landed there did.

The sound of an incoming transmission interrupted his thoughts. “Zero, you there?”

“Yeah, what is it?”

“I think I heard something.” Trinket’s tone was calm, but Zero could detect the slightest hint of worry in his voice. “I- I can’t reach my blaster. I can’t defend myself.”

“It’s probably just some little critter running along the ground.” Zero reasoned.

“No, it sounded… bigger.”

Zero started to get concerned, he hadn’t known him for long, but Trinket didn’t seem to be the kind of man to get rilled up over nothing. He quickened his pace.

“Perhaps it’s just some grumpy creature passing through?” Zero said, attempting to calm Trinket’s nerves.

“It’s getting closer, it sounds hungry Zero.” Trinkets voice was slowly getting quieter.

Zero was now running, almost tripping over some roots as his surroundings grew darker. A quick glance at the now barely visible sky told him the sun was falling. “Blast!” He hissed.

“I can hear it. It’s almost on top of me.”

Zero pushed himself to sprint through the dense forest.

“Zero…” a soft whisper emitted from the comm link. “I want to get down now.”

“Just hold tight I’m almost there!” Zero said as quietly as he could, trying not to alert whatever was on the other end.

“I- hold on- I can see it…”

Trinkets’s words, though barely audible, rang through Zeroes head. He cursed himself for not being there already.

“It- it’s disgusting”

How much further could he be?!

“It’s wrapped it’s self on branch right next to me…” Trinket sounded squeamish, he had NEVER sounded squeamish.

A ping popped up on Zero’s radar. “Gott’em! He’s- what!” Trinket was far further away than Zero imagined.

“It saw me.”

Zero’s heart stopped.

“It’s looking right at me!”

“no no no no… please no…” Zero silently pleaded.

“What th- It’s eyes are turning red, ITS EYES ARE TURNI-“

Trinket was cut off by the sound of a blood curling growl, then nothing but static.

“Trinket? TRINKET!” Zero yelled to his comm link.

The other end was dead.

Zero’s heart was practically beating out of his chest as he charged with all his might towards where the now absent ping used to be on his radar. He stumbled into a clearing. Almost losing his balance in the growing dark. He was about to keep moving when he saw something in the corner of his eye.

Zero reached into his utility belt and pulled out some helmet flashlight attachments. After fixing them in place, he turned them on, revealing that what he saw was Trinket’s parachute, entangled up high in the branches of a large tree. Zero looked down at where the strings would have connected to its deployment pack. The ends were ripped and mangled as if something had torn off the pack itself, and who was wearing it.

“Oh, no.” Zero rasped. Clenching his fist, he could feel a mix of sorrow and rage building in his chest.

Zero took a deep breath, slightly pulling his thoughts and emotions back together. “Maybe that THING didn’t kill him, maybe it only grabbed him to save him for later.” Zero didn’t believe his own thoughts, but he wasn’t going to give up on Trinket just yet.

Priming his weapon in case there was something lurking in the surrounding umbrage, he studied the parachute as well as the nearby growth, making sure to keep alert. What immediately stuck out was the lack of blood. In fact, apart from the fact he was missing, there was nothing to suggest that Trinket was indeed killed.

“Maybe he’s still alive after al-“

Zero was cut off by the sound of the faintest footsteps behind him. He whipped around to the find the origin of the noise. Just a few meters away from him, hiding in some tall bushes, was a pair of big lime green eyes, about as high up as Zero’s chest. As it moved closer it let out an unnatural snarl, sounding as if it didn’t come from anything organic.

“Aye! Don’t get any closer!” Zero commanded as he raised his weapon, slowly backing away.

The animal let out a low, almost gurgling howl before stepping out of its hiding place. It started to circle its newfound prey. Coming into the light of his head lamps, Zero could see it was a more top heavy creature, Having lean hind legs, a slim torso that gradually grew up to its broad chest and strong forelegs. Its head resembled many different wolves he had encountered before, with the exception of its horns and that it appeared to be made out of… wood?

“I’m warning you…” Zero aimed the weapons between the eyes of the brute.

A rustle of leaves drew Zero’s attention to his right, spotting two more similar sets of eyes. It was an ambush.

“Blast it!” Zero muttered.

The first wolf moved an inch, Zero made sure it was the last thing it did as a heated gas projectile appearing as a blue bolt of light fired from his weapon into the head of the beast. Immediately he turned to the pair of wolves on his flank, now launching at him. Zero fired a quick volley of shots from his carbine, shattering the fauna to pieces. He had to side step to avoid their bodies, now no more than debris, from flying into him.

Zero was about to resume his search when the sound of almost half a dozen howls echoed from the forest. They didn’t sound too close, but he knew they wouldn’t stay that way.

Zero debated in his head, “Can I take all of them on? I can’t run, what about Trinket? I’d be no good to him dead though…”

His internal argument was settled at the sight of the first wolves remains shaking.

“What the-“ Zero began before he lost his words at the display in front of him. A green glow, the same color of its eyes, engulfed the timber, levitating bits and pieces back together until you could never tell anything had happened to it.

“Well that’s new!” Zero blasted the monster again sending its parts tumbling pack to the ground before retreating to the thick brush behind him. Before he escaped the clearing he noticed the other wolves were already repaired and in pursuit. His heart thumped in his chest as he ran as fast as he could to evade the nightmareish creatures chasing him. The rhythmic sound of their paws slamming the ground grew quieter as he gained some distance from them. He was never more grateful for all his years of conditioning than he was right now. His gratitude was short lived, however, as he tripped on a tree root, dropping his blaster and falling to the ground.

His body crashed onto the dirt. Zero tried to roll with the momentum and get back on his feet, but mid-maneuver he was tackled by one of the wolves. Slamming into the ground again, this time pinned face down. Instinct told Zero the wolf was going for the back of his neck. He raised his head up, causing his helmet to make contact with his back plate just in time for the wolf to latch is jaws around where his neck used to be unprotected. As quick as a flash, Zero unsheathed the vibro-knife in his belt with his right hand, and stabbed at the wolf over his left shoulder, aiming for its eye.

The blade connected just under his initial target, but still caused the wolf to recoil in pain. Now able to look around for a split second, Zero noticed the second wolf was about to lunge at his left flank. Immediately Zero used his left elbow to strike the wolf the had him pinned in the face, knocking it just a bit off balance. As the wolf to his left jumped at him, letting out a vicious snarl, Zero rolled towards the wolf he had just unbalanced causing it to tumble with him, flipping their positions Now he was haphazardly laying on top of the beast, which gave out a low growl before its pack member collided into it. Both of them exploding into sticks.

Scrambling to his feet, Zero quickly scanned the area for his blaster. He found it laying on the ground just a couple of meters in front him. As he raced to pick it up, he heard a malicious bellow from behind him. Zero rolled to his left just in time for the third wolf to soar over his head, landing heavily in front of him.

As quick as lightning, the wolf twisted around and chomped down on the soldiers right forearm, eliciting a yell of shock from the warrior. When the animal realized it couldn’t bite through Zero’s tough armor, it tried rolling to its left, attempting to rip off the troopers arm. Zero’s reflexes saved him as he rolled with the wolf, coming to his feet before it did. Wincing in pain, Zero pulled on his right arm to get to wolf to move a bit closer to him before throwing all his body weight into a left jab his foe’s nose. Needles of pain shot through his hand, he had probably fractured it, though he couldn’t tell with all the adrenaline surging through him.

The wolf yelped at the surprising force of the attack and released Zero’s forearm, his hand still holding his knife. Which he instantly brought down on the top of his opponent’s head. As it turned to a pile of lumber, Zero heard the other wolves getting up again.

“Seriously!?” Zero rasped. Growing tired.

The first wolf charged him. Zero waited for it to get closer, his years of training keeping his nerves under control as it grew close enough to throw itsself at him again. Just as it tensed its muscles, Zero executed a near perfectly timed spinning kick, nailing the creature in its muzzle. The wolf fumbled to its right revealing that behind it, its wooden companion preparing its own attack. Zero had just enough time to turn a 180 and go for his blaster. However, he didn’t have time to turn around and properly aim at his target so he improvised. Gripping his carbine in his right hand, he positioned the barrel of his weapon between his left arm and his torso. The animal was within a few centimeters of him as a shot echoed through the forest, the remains of the creature spraying against Zero, almost knocking him over.

As the soldier climbed to his feet. He turned to see the last standing wolf was now snarling at him in a defensive stance. A tired Zero nonchalantly raised his weapon with one hand and blasted the fearsome predator to smithereens.

Zero tried to catch his breath before he heard more wolves in the distance advancing quickly to his position. Just when he thought things couldn’t get worse, the savage brutes he had just defeated were putting themselves back together yet again.

“You have got to be kidding me!” Zero shouted. Turning to run once more.

There was no way he could keep fighting them off, and he was growing too tired to outpace them. He needed a plan.

Zero began thinking about what he had on him, his DC-15s, a grapnel attachment for said DC-15s, some thermal detonators, ration bars… “THE DETONATORS!” If he threw them behind him now he would take a few out for who knows how long, but the rest would continue their relentless pursuit.

“But if I can just find some sort of funnel…”

“There!” A thin crevice between a long sort-of cliff face and a few very large trees. Zero bolted for the life saving strip, his hunters gaining on him.

“Made it!” Zero side stepped his way through the miniature valley dropping a single detonator as he exited. The sound of its high-pitched ticking being drowned out by the over half-dozen wolves scrambling their way through the hole.

Zero managed to put some decent space between he and his attackers from the crevice alone, much less from what was about to happen next.

A thunderous boom echoed throughout the forest, causing birds to flee from their perches and any critter that was in view scurried away to hide from the loud sound.

“Yes!” Zero thought to himself. He slowed down to a walk to catch his breath, relief washing over him. He was now left with nothing but a question. “Now what?”

For the first time since he had left the clearing Zero seemed to have time to plan his next move. “What about Trinket?” Now with a more calm mind all he could think about was his brother. Zero looked down at his right forearm, his armor tattered but not broken or torn, and no bleeding or any wound on his body.

“If those things couldn’t make me bleed maybe they couldn’t maker Trinket bleed either? Perhaps they only incapacitated him then dragged him somewhere to save for later.” Zero knew the chances were beyond slim but he couldn’t abandon his brother unless he was absolutely sur-

Thunder clapped overhead

Zero looked up, slightly shocked by the noise, but was more worried of what could follow.

“No no no no…”

First it was a slight drizzle, then a light rain, then a downpour. Zero clenched his hands. Though he couldn’t see much in the dark, his head lights showed that the rain drops falling through the tree line were as big a hailstones. Making it drastically harder to see even what he could. And worse, any track he could have found as to Trinket’s whereabouts were all washed away now.

Rage and grief building up, Zero let out a loud yell.

“SKRAIG!”

He stood there, alone in the rain for a few moments; it felt like a few months.

“I’m sorry brother…” Zero muttered.

He hated losing his brethren , especially if he had a part to play in their demise which, in this case, Zero convinced himself he did. “He only partook in two missions… I don’t even know if he ever fired his blaster…”

Zero didn’t think this moment could get worse, a snarl behind proved otherwise.

He wipped around to see those dreaded monster wolves emerge from the dense growth about 9 meters away from him.

“That’s impossible! How did you track me in this rain?!”

The wolves only response was baring their fangs, and racing toward him.

Raising his blaster, Zero fired a large volley of shots toward his familiar foes in attempt to slow them down before turning tail and making a bee line for the shrubbery behind him. He didn’t know how much longer he could run for. He had to get out of this forest, or find a permanent way to loose them.

He could barely see in front of him now, the forest was pitch black and the rain was making it hard to see two feet in front of him. He tried to turn up the brightness on his head-lamps but grinded to a halt at the sight in front of him. It was a sudden steep drop, small rivers caused by the enormous rain cascaded into the darkness below. Zero couldn’t even see the bottom. On the other side just a few meters away was a cliff face just a few meters tall.

“If I can just get over there…”

The sound of a dreaded howl made his blood run white. If he was going to do something, now was the time.

He fired his ascension cable at the wall. The rain prevented it from getting a grip causing to fall to the ravine bellow.

Zero reeled the cable back in.

He could hear their growling now.

Where could he fire now? The tree line!

He fired his cable at the leaves above the trench. A hard tug told him it had caught on something that could support him.

“Yes!”

Zero jumped over the ravine just as the wolves made it to the drop

“Yes yes yes!”

Zero had jumped off fast to avoid the wolves, too fast. He crashed into the wall his already injured head slamming into the hard rock.

He attempted to grab at the cliff face.

His hand slipped off in the rain

“no No NO!” He yelled as he swung back toward his apparent doom.

With his head still fuzzy he readied himself, waiting till he swung close to the wolves. He faked like he was going to kick at the one in the front with his left leg, causing it to bite at that direction. He then switched to his right and drilled it as hard as he could in the neck, sending him back to the cliff.

This time he caught a firm grip on the steep wall. He let out a slight sigh of relief as he began his accent upward. When he finally reached the top. He rolled onto the solid ground letting out a long exhale. He proceeded to pick him self up and teeter to the edge.

The wolves were furious that they had no way of further pursuing their prey.

“Not so tough now are you? Are you!?”

The wolves snarled in return.

Zero reached for his blaster and sprayed as much plasma punishment as he could on the enraging wildlife. After splitting into sticks, some of their remains fell into the ravine bellow, engulfed by the darkness.

“That was for Trinket!” Zero bellowed.

The remainder of the pack retreated into the darkness. Zero settled down, and turned to see what was behind him.

Nothing but forest. With a sigh Zero started his trek forward. Surely he would find an exit eventually? He walked for what felt like hours, dimming down his head lamps as to not attract attention. His head was pulsating the whole time, growing worse with each moment. His massive headache, when combined with the still heavy rain that even through his armor felt like he was being aggressively tapped by a million little hands, made him feel woozy. He was so soaked he felt as if the water had seeped through his skin and was now softening his bones.

“So this is what it must be like to be stationed on Mimban.” He thought to himself.

Eventually, just when he thought his legs would stop carrying him. He saw the forest start to give way to what looked like a field.

“Finally…”

Even the rain looked like it cleared up, if only a bit. As Zero stumbled onto the grassy hills. He scanned the area hoping to find someplace he could rest. “Just for a bit….” He told himself.

He had barely finished his thought when he noticed something, hardly visible through the rain, on one of the nearby hills.

It looked like… could it be?

As he inched closer his suspicions were confirmed.

“Shelter!” It was what looked like a two story building with a grass roof and was surrounded by dozens of little houses, some of which appeared to be built into the main structure.

“Weird,” he though to himself as he looked at the unusual display, “how hard did I hit my head?”

Zero trudged his way toward the house, his legs falling from under him just as he reached the outer fence.

“Oof!” He gasped, as he landed hard on the ground, bracing his fall with his hands to make sure to not hit his head again.

He had forgotten about his left hand which, he was now sure was fractured.

“AAArrgh!”

He crawled his way to the house. Making it to the front door. As he reached up to knock on it, his body finally gave way to exhaustion. Collapsing on the floor in a puddle of rain.

Author's Note

Hello there everyone!

I hope you enjoyed the start! Sorry if the chapter is rough. This is my first time writing any sort of story or anything really.

Any and all feedback you could give is greatly appreciated, negative or positive.

Anyway I hope you liked it, and I hope you enjoy the next chapter as well! I’m looking forward to sharing more of this story with you for some time to come!

Chapter 2: A Helping Hoof

The sun rose in the west of the clear blue sky, its shine warming the outer walls of the welcoming looking shelter. All signs pointed to it being a bright, sunny day today. Apart from the damp ground, there was not one hint of the monsoon from the previous night. The sun’s rays seeped through a window, into the house, and on the green couch where Zero was sleeping on. The radiant beams shown in his eyes, causing him to stir.

“Ugh…” Zero moaned. He had a splitting headache, as well as a burning sting in his left hand. His right food didn’t feel to good either, probably from kicking those wooded mongrels twice with it last night. Slowly, he sat up on his makeshift bed, the blanket that laid on top of him slipping off, and raised his good hand to his helmet, which he was apparently still wearing. He applied his hand in the spot where he hurt most but immediately recoiled as it sent a stab of pain through his cranium.

“I’ve got to get that treated.” he muttered.

Speaking of treatments, he noticed his banged up hand was wrapped in a bandage as well as his right forearm.

“Odd…” Zero concluded, “How did this happen?” Come to think of it, what am I doing inside the house anyway? And where is my weapon!?” Zero looked to his sides to no avail, he then searched near the edges of the interior, he found it resting on a high shelf on the wall his body faced. “What happened last night?”

His questions were put on hold as he heard the footsteps of something approaching him. He looked to his left at an empty doorway just as the source of the noise came into view.

“What the-“ he thought as he tried to wrap his head around the sight in front of him. It was some sort of equine though nowhere near as big as others he had seen. It looked a whole lot different too, it appeared to be feminine, her coat was a creamy yellow with wings attached. She had a long, pretty pink, flowing mane that partially covered her slightly greenish-blue eyes. She was in a scrunched up position as she entered the room with what appeared to be an ice pack in her mouth whilst she focused on balancing some sort of good smelling soup on one of her hoofs.

Zero was too stunned by the sight to say anything to her as she approached, he had to admit, it looked kind of cute. As she got a bit closer, Zero noticed she was shaking. Right before she reached him she looked up from her soup and locked eyes with his visor.

“EEEEEK!” Her cry half sounded like a scream, half like a squeak. The mare dropped the items she was holding as she bolted back to the room she came from.

“What was that about?” Zero asked himself as he got up from the couch. He limped his way to the doorframe and peeked inside. He heard another squeak to his right, as he turned his head in its direction, he saw her huddled in a corner, looking at him like she was staring down a ghost.

To be fair, perhaps he looked like one to her. “Easy ma’am,” he gently said as he lowered himself to her eye level, I don’t mean you any harm.”

The equine let out a tiny yelp at his words

“Y-you can t-t-talk?” She murmured, barley audible.

“Of course I can.” Zero said, personally surprised that she could speak.

The mysterious mare was shivering so hard Zero almost though she had hyperthermia.

“I’m sorry I startled you Miss. Here, let me get you a blanket.” Zero stood up and returned to the couch where he slept to retrieve the cover he had found on himself when he awoke. When he went back to the other room, however, she was gone.

“Miss?”

A soft whimper from one of the nearby cabinets revealed her location. Zero limped over and began to open its wooden doors but she immediately pulled them shut again.

“Miss, would you please get out of there? I promise I mean no ill will towards you.”

A shaky “mm-mm” showed she had no intention of doing such.

Zero paused for a moment. What had he done to cause her to fear him this much? He was about to instinctively scratch his head before he thought better of it. “Head injury.” he thought. “Injury…”

“Hey,” he began, are you the one who patched me up?

“Mm-hmm.” she confirmed.

“Well I wish you’d come out so I can thank you in person. I promise there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

The door cracked open the smallest of slivers, Zero could see the equine’s eye staring at him.

“I’ll show you.” he offered as he put his hands on his helmet. The mare let out a squeak as Zero slowly removed it, revealing his face. “See? I’m flesh and blood,” he said as he put his hand on his chest, “just like you.”

She didn’t budge from her improvised sanctuary.

Zero let out a sigh, “Welp, I apologize for bothering you Miss, I’ll leave you alone now. Um, sorry for scaring you, and thanks for your aid.”

Still holding his helmet, he got up and turned around to leave before he heard a small gasp coming from the cabinet.

“S-surely not with that wound on your head?” The soft-spoken equine said.

“Well, I’ve got no way of treating it.” Zero replied.

The equine paused for a moment as she looked away from him, seemingly deep in thought. “Um- well- I- I can help.” she muttered after a while as she slowly and shakily exited her hiding place.

Zero made sure to give her plenty of space as she made her way to another cabinet, constantly glancing over her shoulder. Opening the storage space revealed a bunch of first-aid that seemed a good deal less sophisticated than he was used to. She somehow grabbed some bandages from it, she didn’t have any fingers or anything, it’s like the item just attached its self to her. Zero didn’t know if what he was witnessing was real or if it was his head, he decided not to question it. The mare also reached for what looked like some sort of gauze which she put under some running water.

“Um- this way.” She said, hardly any louder than a whisper. She lead Zero back to the room he awoke in, continuing to eye him like he was the strangest thing on the planet, though to be fair, he was to her. When they both entered, Zero was shocked at what he saw, a bunch of little eyes from critters of all shapes and sizes eyeing him down from nooks and crannies around the house.

“I think you have a bit of an animal problem.” he stated.

“Oh- um- th-they’re no problem, these are s-some of my animal friends.” the mare replied.

“So I see.” observed Zero, right before almost tripping on something. He looked down to see the soup that his apparent caretaker had earlier entered the room with was now spilled all over the floor. Some of the animals were eating some of it while simultaneously keeping a close eye on the new strange person in the house.

“Sorry about the mess ma’am, I’ll clean it up before I go.”

“Oh- t-that’s quite alright, I’ll clean it, I don’t mind.” She insisted. She sat down next to the couch Zero had slept on and asked him to lay down. Zero placed his helmet on the ground next to the couch and did what was asked of him as she grabbed her wet gauze. “Ok- this is going to sting just a little bit.”

“I think I can take it.” Zero stated in a slightly sarcastic manner.

“O-ok then.” She said as she started to clean the wound. Zero was surprised with how gentle she was. Apart from the stinging warm water, he didn’t feel a thing.

“I appreciate your help ma’am.”

The fragile-looking equine muttered something in return but Zero couldn’t hear it.

She appeared to still be quite frightened of him, perhaps he should introduce himself.

“My name’s Zero, it nice to meet you Miss…?”

“Oh, um, my n-name’s Fluttershy.”

“Excuse me, could you repeat that?” Zero requested.

The mare slowed down her work a bit, “I’m Fluttershy.”

“I’m sorry?”

She stopped what she was doing and took a deep breath, “I’m F-Flutershy.” Though her hooves were steady, her body and voice were still trembling, albeit less than before.

“Well I’m pleased to meet you Miss Shy.” Zero stated.

“Oh, y-you can just call me Fluttershy.” She said.

“Oh, alright then Fluttershy.” Zero said semi-awkwardly, it was weird being on a first-name-basis with a civilian. Speaking of civilians, where exactly was she a civilian of?

“So, where is this place?” Zero asked.

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy questioned.

“Where are we, what’s the name of this system?” Zero replied

“System?”

How could she not know what a star system was? She must not have payed attention during her schooling.

“Y’know, star system? Solar system? Where a bunch of planets orbit around a star?”

“I, um, don’t know what you mean,” she replied, “The sun and stars rotate around the world. They’re raised and lowered by our princess, Celestia. You know this surely?” she stated, looking at him funny.

“Oh, no…” Zero inwardly started to panic, “Oh, no no no.” Did all the inhabitants believe this? There was no way they could be a space traveling species and still think that ridiculous claim was true. Imagine how strong you’d have to be to move one star, much less thousands! Zero’s fear rose more when he looked around him, there was no data pad, no holoprojecter, not even any kriffing air conditioning!

Fluttershy stopped cleaning his injury, “Is something wrong? Did I hurt you?” she asked seeming concerned.

“Uh, ma’am, er, Fluttershy. Is your home considered… up-to-date?” Zero questioned.

The mare looked puzzled and, if it was possible, more nervous at the awkward change of subject.

“Um, well, it doesn’t have all the modern conveniences like the houses in Canterlot but I wouldn’t say it’s out-dated or anything…”

It seemed like she took the question as a put-down.

“No, I don’t mean it like that Miss,” Zero began, “it’s just, what do you have in the forms of communication?”

“Well, I can send a note through the mail, d-do you need to get in touch with someone?”

“Is that the best form of communication you have?! On, this planet?” Zero questioned. Though he kept his tone calm, his body language let off that he was distressed.

“Um, yes.” she answered starting to shrink away from him.

“Skraig!” he inwardly yelled.

How in the galaxy was he supposed to contact the Republic now? His commlink didn’t reach any friendly ships before. “Maybe it would now?”

Zero sat up and looked down at the forearm armor his radio was attached to, remembering it was, for some reason, covered in bandages. He began to desperately unravel them, making Fluttershy more uncomfortable, only to find it was completely busted after getting chewed on by that monster. This time Zero’s ‘skraig’ was out loud.

This was horrible, he was stranded on an unfamiliar, backwater world, with no means of calling for help. Zero hunched over and put his hands on his forehead, his mind racing with questions. What about his brothers? Were they in the same predicament as him? Was the cruiser that had brought them here still in orbit? If it was, then was the crew searching for them?

“Are- are you ok?” The soft voice beside him asked.

Since the first time since Zero’s slight downward spiral he noticed how scared his newfound acquaintance was getting, even slightly reeling away from him.

“No.” Zero said as he clenched his good fist, “I -*sigh*- I’m sorry for my outburst.”

“What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked as she delicately put her forehoof on Zero’s shoulder. She stopped shivering now, seemingly because she was too concerned for her strange guest’s emotional condition.

“I, I think I’m stuck here.” Zero grimly stated.

“How so?” Fluttershy’s voice was still soft, though it was now more because she was trying to keep him calm more than it was her fear.

“I don’t know where I am.” Zero responded, “I’m lost, and I have no means of calling for help.”

The kind mare moved her forehoof down from Zero’s shoulder and onto his upper arm. “Oh, that’s ok, I sometimes get lost too, I can help you find your way home if you want? And if I’m no help I know some ponies who are good with maps, perhaps they can find your home?”

Zero was stunned at her suggestion, apart from his brothers, no one had really ever offered to do something so kind for him, it felt weird. He was flattered, not knowing what to say, he figured he should start with the truth. Zero sighed, he knew what he was about to say would be a tough concept for her to understand.

“Fluttershy, I’m not… from around here.” he began.

“Where are you from then?” she asked, clearly confused. Her voice was more steady now as she tried to empathize with the unusual being in her home.

“You know the stars in the sky at night?” Fluttershy nodded. “Well that’s where I’m from.”

She looked dumbfounded, “You mean… like an alien?” she said as she cautiously removed her hoof from the white-clad warrior.

Zero nodded.

“B-but there are no s-such things as aliens!” she exclaimed as she shrank downwards.

“I can prove it.” Zero started as he reached into his utility belt, wiping out his holoprojector. As he activated it, the thin circular device attempted to play the last holoshow that Zero watched. But, of course, it couldn’t get a signal and displayed a hollowpraphic sign that said just that in red aurebesh.

Awestruck, yet scared, Fluttershy slowly raised up a bit, and stared at the machine with wide and cautious eyes. “What is that?” She wondered aloud.

“It’s a hollowprojector,” Zero shrugged, “it can show images from messages, shows, even display words from a book to read.”

“It’s, unusual, but in a good way.” She quickly clarified. “A-are you really from a different world?

Zero nodded.

“Oh my, I-I don’t know what to say,” she stuttered, looking uneasy, “um, w-welcome to Equestria.”

“Is that the name of this planet?” Zero questioned.

“Oh, no,” the mare responded, shaking her head, “that’s the name of this nation, the whole wide world is called Equus.”

Nervously, she then asked him a question, “So… w-where do you come from?”

Zero paused for a moment, all he wanted was to find a way to reach his brothers and get off this rock. But he supposed he owed her some answers, after all she had taken him in for the night.

“I hail from the planet Kamino,” Zero answered, “it’s nothing like here, it’s all ocean, despite this there are grand cities that are sprawled all over the surface. And it’s constantly raining.”

“That sounds fascinating.” Fluttershy spoke, “but also a little dreary.”

Zero shrugged a little, “You get used to it.”

The mare rested her hoof on her chin, though she didn’t dare look away from the strange being in her home. “What are you doing so far away from your home?”

Zero struggled to find a good way to put this. “Well, there’s… a war, raging in the stars, and I’m fighting in it, I’m a proud soldier of the G.A.R.” Zero said puffing out his chest a little.

“A- a war!?” Fluttershy squeaked, scrunching backwards into a ball.

Zero didn’t like seeing her scared again. He gently rested his right hand on her shoulder which made her flinch.

“Easy now, it’s nothing for you to worry about.” Zero assured her, mostly believing what he said was true. “If the Separatists were here, believe me, you would know about it.” he stated more confidently.

“Separatists?” she murmured.

“They’re the organization the Republic is fighting against.” Zero answered as he removed his hand from her shoulder.

“W-what’s the Republic? And w-w-why are they at w-war with the Separatists?” Fluttershy continued to question, a nervousness showed on her face.

“The Republic is the ruling government of the galaxy; its constitution sates that all sentient beings have rights to freedom, comfortable living, stuff like that.” Zero raised his head as he continued, “I am a soldier in the Grand Army of the Republic, or G.A.R.” he explained, “and to be honest… I don’t really know why the war started.

“Y-you’re a soldier? I’ve never meet a s-soldier before…” she shrunk back a bit, the new information clearly made her more nervous.

“There’s nothing to fear,” he reassured her, “being a soldier of the Republic means I protect people, not harm them.”

The small mare gave him as shy smile that warmed Zero’s heart as she calmed down a little. Looking in his eye, she then asked something very unsuspected, “Why would you risk your life to fight in something if you don’t even understand how it happened?”

Zero was a little shocked at the question, “Well,” he began, “it’s not like I don’t know anything about its origins, I’m pretty sure it was because some systems wanted ‘freedom from the tyranny of the Republic’ or something ludicrous like that, so they left. But because they’re all, I would say, evil, it wasn’t enough to simply not be apart of the Republic so they declared war on it and deceived many planets into joining their cause.”

Fluttershy didn’t seem satisfied with his answer, “But why did you join the army if you didn’t fully understand what was going on?”

Zero inwardly cringed, he knew she wouldn’t get what he was about to tell her. “Well, I didn’t chose to fight in the war, I was made to fight in the war.”

The mare looked both puzzled and concerned, “What does that mean?” she asked whilst subconsciously and anxiously fidgeting with her forehooves.

“You see,” Zero started, “the Republic is a peaceful organization, it doesn’t stand for war. So when the Separatists amassed a massive army, the Republic had no way of defending itself. That’s where we come in.”

“Um, who’s we?”

“Me and my brothers. See, many years before the war started, an order was placed on Kamino to create an army big and strong enough to fight, and win, a galactic-scale war. The Kaminoians are specialists in the cloning field, so they found the best person to use as a template, had an above-elite training and fitness regime prepared, and then made us, the clone troopers.” Zero proudly lifted his head, “We’re the best soldiers the galaxy has ever seen!”

Fluttershy’s jaw dropped. “You mean you weren’t born, you were made? How?” she seemed deeply disturbed.

“Oh it’s nothing unnatural,” Zero promised her, “the Kaminoans have artificial eggs cells that, once they fertilize, they can alter the genes by copying them from a template, making identical replicas of the host. They then put the egg cells in an artificial womb until we’re ready to be born, so we do come into life the same way as everyone else, just a little differently is all.”

The answer seemed to take some of the mare’s edge off, however, she didn’t look like she believed or understood what she heard, but she was trying to. “So, are you all, well, the same?” she wondered aloud.

“We have the same face, similar tastes in food and stuff like that but we’re all individuals, like an army of identical twins. At least, that’s how I figure it. The Kaminoans believe us to be unanimous, but if we were, then I don’t believe our personalities would so naturally differ from one another. At least that’s how I figure it.”

Zero looked back at Fluttershy expecting to see her still confused, but much to his surprise, she had a look of sadness on her face.

“So… i-if you were, -made- for the w-war, then does th-that mean you couldn’t chose not to fight?”

Zero begrudgingly nodded his head, he knew she wouldn’t understand…

“So what you’re saying is that you’re all forced to fight? That’s sounds wrong…” she said, her ears drooping.

“It’s not like that,” he assured her, “even if I could choose what life I wanted I would choose to stay in the army. I’m proud to fight.” Zero said earnestly.

“But if your always fighting, then do you ever get to enjoy yourself?” The mare asked.

Zero shrugged, “Well usually once we get back from a mission we have to start preparing for another,” he explained, “if we weren’t constantly fighting the Seps, they’d overwhelm our forces and destroy us, I can’t even imagine what they’d do then...”

Fluttershy looked Zero in the eye, her faced showing her concern and worry, “Are… Are those ‘Separatists’ really that bad?” she asked, slipping more into her anxious state.

A memory flashed before Zero’s eyes, his battalion was assisting in a daring assault on a landed Separatist cruiser. Blaster bolts were flying everywhere, illuminating the ship in blinding flashes of blue and red. The room was filled with the shouts of his fellow troopers, some of them were triumphant yells while many where screams of agony. Zero was spraying down as much fire as he could, but his platoon was losing momentum. “How could this have happened? We planned this attack down to the last detail! How was this ship crawling with so many undetected droids?”

“Everyone. Fall. Back. Now!” ordered the battalion’s captain.

“We can’t just retreat now sir!” A voice spoke up, “We’re so close! If we don’t take this ship now they’ll call for reinforcements! The population won’t stand a chance!” Zero looked to the voices origin. It was his squad mate, Milo.

“We can’t help them if we’re dead! Fall back! That’s an order soldier!” barked the captain.

With an intense glare at the droid force, Milo began advancing backwards without turning his back to the enemy.

“Sir,” he glanced at the captain, “permission to assist stinger platoon in covering our retreat, Sir!”

“Granted.” replied the captain

Milo fired at the incoming wave of droids with his carbine as fast as he could, barely even bothering to aim as he helped send them to the scrap pile. He was surprised when he heard the sound of another blaster firing beside him, it was Zero.

“Aye Zero! Me and the rest of the boys have got this! Go retreat with our squad!”

“Not a chance,” Zero responded, “I’m with you till the end.”

Then, as if fate was playing a cruel joke, a small rocket struck Milo, blasting his body into a gory pulp so hideous that it almost made Zero vomit.

“MILO!”

Zero snapped back to reality, shaking his head a little. He found Fluttershy looking into his eyes awaiting a response.

“Yea…” he said grimly, looking away, “and that’s why I fight, if no one stands up to them, the entire galaxy could fall under their sinister will.” he simply put. “And I won’t let that happen.”

“Oh… Well, that’s very kind of you,” Fluttershy stated as she looked away, seeming a bit intimidated. “you must be very brave.”

“I dunno, I’ve never really thought of it,” Zero said. “Y’know you’re pretty brave yourself.” he claimed as he turned to look at her.

Fluttershy was taken aback by the compliment, “Oh surely you don’t mean that.” she said as she turned her head in a way in which her mane hid one of her eyes.

“No I’m serious,” Zero stated, “I don’t think it’s any secret you don’t exactly have nerves of steel. But when you saw a literal alien lying outside your doorstep, you helped me, despite your fears.”

“Well I didn’t know you were an alien then,” the mare countered, “I’m still not so sure now…” she said meekly.

“Eh, that’s not the point,” Zero argued, “you were scared, but you didn’t let that stop you. Bravery isn’t the absence of fear, it’s being afraid of something but facing it anyway. In that regard I think you’re really quite brave.”

“Fluttershy looked away from Zero, clearly flustered, “oh- um- thank you then.”

“I wouldn’t be saying it if it weren’t true.” the conversation made Zero curious as to why the mare had helped in the first place. “Speaking of it, why did you help me?” Zero pondered aloud.

The mare inhaled to prepare for her answer, “Well I was about to go outside to check on my animal friends, but when I opened the door, I saw you on the ground and I- um,” she started to blush, “I ran inside and hid… for about five minutes.” she said, sounding embarrassed.

Zero held back a snicker as he pictured how adorable she must have looked during the scene. “When I noticed you weren’t moving I decided to help you.” Fluttershy finished.

“Well I am very grateful Fluttershy,” Zero said, “thank you.”

Zero was glad to have stumbled upon the home of such a kind individual.

“Oh- it was really nothing…” Fluttershy remarked.

Zero shook his head, he about to object but the equine let out a small gasp before he could.

“Oh- your head! I forgot to wrap the bandage around it. I’m so sorry!”

“It’s alright,” Zero assured her. “I forgot as well.” He said with a small chuckle. He guessed he was too focused on their conversation to notice.

Fluttershy requested that Zero lay down again, which he did, before she started to wrap the bandage around his head.

She was so gentle in her technique Zero thought, the only time he felt anything when the fabric wrapped around the hurt spot on his head. “She’s much softer than Mak.” Zero thought to himself. Mak was his garrison’s medic, and to be fair to him, Fluttershy wasn’t balancing a dozen patients while light beams of death zipped over her head.

Her wrapping the healing band around his cranium made Zero curious as to why she had apparently put a bandage on his arm armor, like that was going to help it.

“So… why’d you try to fix up my right arm?” he asked as he raised it and shook it a little, “The only thing busted up a little is the armor.”

Fluttershy looked a bit embarrassed, “I- uh- thought you were some creature I’d never seen before, and I assumed your armor was some sort of shell...”

“Huh.” Zero said. “Well that I guess that explains why you reacted the way you did with my helmet, huh?”

“Yes,” she confirmed. Fluttershy decided to switch subjects. “If I may ask, what did you do to get so hurt?” the mare questioned.

“Well I don’t know about the head wound,” Zero began, “though I suspect I got it when I landed here, everything else I got from an encounter with some wooden wolf things in that dark forest out there.” he said as he signaled with his head toward where he came from.

Flutershy stopped applying the medical wrap, partially because she was done and partially because she wasn’t moving. “Y-y-you f- fought t-t-timber wolves, in the e-everfree f-f-forest?”

“Is that what they’re called?” Zero pondered, “well yeah, I did.”

“How d-did you escape?” she asked him.

Zero sat up from his position. “Well at first I tried fighting them, but they kept on… reviving, or something like that, so I ran, eventually I got lucky and escaped.” Zero explained.

“Wow…” Fluttershy exclaimed, looking intimidated again. “You’re seem to be quite good at fighting…”

“Well I’m no Mandalorian,” Zero began, “but apart from G.A.R. special forces, my brothers and I are as good as it gets!” “Besides,” he reasoned, “those timberwolves weren’t that tough. Certainly not like those Nexus on Cholganna…”

Fluttershy perked up after Zero finished.

“You mean there are creatures on other planets?” she asked with a grin. Her manner had completely shifted from concerningly shy, to cautiously, yet joyfully curious.

“Oh yeah,” Zero answered, liking this new side she was showing. “And I’ve got plenty of experience with them.”

Fluttershy stood up from her spot on the floor and sat down on the couch next to Zero which informed him she wanted to hear the long versions of his stories. “Like what?” She sounded eager.

“Well…” Zero began.

**********

The conversation was still going strong after over a half-hour, Zero enjoyed sharing his experiences with someone and Fluttershy loved hearing them. Zero made sure to avoid speaking of anything that might stress out the fragile equine, though there was one story that he couldn’t help but share…

“…and then the whole swarm of them just yanked Devor right off the ground!”

“Oh, no!” exclaimed Fluttershy, who had stayed seated on the couch throughout hearing all of Zero’s escapades.

“Yeah, he was kickin’, screamin’, and everything,” Zero told the mare, trying not to laugh.

“How could you find that funny?!” she demanded.

“I’ll get to that, so anyway he’s all yelling for help as they fly him somewhere, and we don’t know what to do. So we’re all just following them and hoping that we can get to wherever they’re taking him. They finally drop him in a nest, high in some tree, that’s just filled with their fuzzy friends, so we start climbing. No one said anything but I’m sure we all thought he was getting torn apart.”

“W-was he?!” Fluttershy squeaked.

“Oh no no no, he was to busy being… cuddled.”

“What?” Fluttershy wondered aloud, her eyes winding with newfound curiosity.

Zero tried to explain but he started to laugh and couldn’t stop. Fluttershy tried to calm him down, wanting to know what happened next.

Zero pulled himself together just enough to finish.

“*snicker* yeah, apparently those little thing have a form of symbiosis with some white bipedal creature on the planet. Supposedly the biped supplies protection and the fuzzy things supply *snicker* warmth.”

Zero let out another bout of laughter, “Th-they must’ve- ha haa!- they must’ve mistook Devon for one of those things. Anyway, Devon was just sitting there, practically covered from top to bottom by the little mites, all of them were nuzzling him and everything! So he’s staring at us, you could tell he’s ticked off, and he goes, ‘Well come on! Get it over with’,” Zero mocked, trying to imitate his brother even though they already shared the same voice.

“Then Rygg- he he!- then Rygg says, ‘What were you so worried about, scared of a little TLC?’ “

Fluttershy seemed to disapprove of the teasing but Zero went on, “After that it became a running joke in our squad, some other boys from the garrison got in on it as well, even the Serg. joined in! I remember the first crack he made was during a strike operation, we were ordered to press a heavily fortified bunker, Devor voiced his concern with the plan and the Serg. just went, ‘What? you afraid their going to wanna snuggle?’ “

Zero returned to his hysterics as Fluttershy looked down.

“Isn’t that a little… I don’t know… mean?”

Zero contained his laughter, wiping away newly formed tears. “Nonsense, that’s just how we are. In fact, it’s how I got my name.”

“How so?” Fluttershy questioned curiously.

“Well when we’re born, we’re given designation numbers, not names, my designation is CT-30-0700. I got named ‘Zero’ because one time during a combat drill, I hit my head hard, which is becoming too commonplace for me, and blacked out. When I came to, I was asked to give my CT number but apparently I just kept repeating ‘zero’. Well the boys ran away with that, they said it applied to so many different parts of me, like how often I hit my target, how many thoughts were flying through my head, y’know, stupid stuff like that, and it stuck.”

Fluttershy appeared to be a little confused, partiality because she thought it was unusual to give a newborn a number instead of a name, and partially because of how fond Zero seemed of the memory.

“Don’t you mind that your name is a joke at your own expense?” she wondered aloud.

“Not really,” Zero responded, “in fact I like that it’s how I got it. It builds the bond I have with my brothers, plus I like the sound of it.”

“Oh, well alright then” Fluttershy said, satisfied with his answer. “You seem very close with your siblings.”

“I am…” Zero replied.

Zero suddenly recalled the spot he was in, stranded alone on the planet, his brothers lost somewhere out there.

“How could I have lost my focus!?” he inwardly scolded himself. Though he wouldn’t admit it, it was because he had never had someone show such an interest in his life before, and he was enjoying it.

“Speaking of which,” he resumed, “I need to set off to look for them.” Zero stated as he stood up. They could be in trouble, I shouldn’t have stayed as long as I did, sorry about that.” Zero said, berating himself for spending so much time imposing on this kind mare instead of looking for his fellow clones, perhaps one of them had a commlink able to contact a rescue ship.

Fluttershy stood up to object. “Oh no no no, you don’t have to apologize, I enjoyed talking with you, and there’s no way I can let you leave in your condition!”

Surely she wasn’t serious? A fractured hand was common in the army due to the clones’ near-addiction to punching things they probably shouldn’t, and his wasn’t even that bad. Apart from his left hand, all he had was a bruised foot and a lump on the head far as Zero was concerned.

“I appreciate it, really, I do, but I’m fine. And I really ought to be going. My squad might need me. Thank you so much for your generosity and hospitality, I’ll be forever grateful.”

Zero headed for the door but the persistent equine blocked his way.

“No, your not fine,” she shook her head, “you can’t go get in another fight, you could get more hurt or worse.” She looked like she truly believed what she was saying, “I can go into town and ask some pegasi to look for your family, they could cover far more ground than you. And besides, I was about to leave anyway to go-“

She interrupted herself with a gasp, “oh my! I completely forgot! I was supposed to do a rehearsal with my birds to prepare for the summer sun celebration!”

“The what?” Zero questioned.

“Oh, it’s the night we celebrate the summer solstice, it’s being held in Ponyville this year.” Fluttershy’s ears perked up, she looked like she just had an idea.

“You should join us.” she looked unsure of her own words, but she kept going. “Princess Celestia will be there to rise the sun for dawn, if you really are an alien she’ll know what to do, perhaps she can even find a way for you all to get home. Besides, it’s always a wonderful time, I think you’d have fun.”

Though speaking with a leader sounded promising, Zero didn’t think she could really help if her species wasn’t space faring. “I don’t know Fluttershy, I really should be searching for my brothers…”

“But you can’t! I promise those pegasi will find them! You need to stay where it’s safe while you heal. And the summer sun celebration is a great tradition, I’m positive you’d love it!”

Zero looked at her eyes, they seemed so genuine. He wanted to object, but how could he say no to a face like that?

“Well… okay. As long as those pegasi agree to search for my squad.”

“Yay!” Fluttershy quietly exclaimed. “I just know you’ll enjoy yourself!”

“I trust your judgment.” Zero responded.

“Alright, I’ll come back and get you before it’s about to start.” Fluttershy said. She shot him a quick smile before she left. “Goodbye!”

“Uh- bye…” Zero responded as the door closed.

He had never actually been invited anywhere before. It felt very weird, though Zero would be a liar if he claimed it didn’t make him feel good.

He returned to the couch and sat down. “So… what to do for the next couple of hours?” He looked around the house for something that interested him, but nothing caught his eye.

Zero let out a deep sigh. It was going to be a long day, wasn’t it?

Author's Note

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

If my dialogue felt off, please let me know, as I’ve said, I’m new at this. Any feedback is welcome.

Also feel free to share what you think of the story so far. Like, to the people who are unfamiliar with Star Wars, what are your thoughts on the clones? Do you think the Republic is justified in making them or no?

Anyways, thanks for reading! I appreciate it!

Chapter 3: Return

Zero stood up from his seat. “Welp, until those, pegasi were they called? Until they return from their search I can’t do anything of use.” he thought. “Which means I have some down time.” He decided to give the house another once over.

He hadn’t noticed how cozy looking it was before. To his right was a staircase leading to an apparent second floor; built into the stairs was a neat and organized bookshelf. To his left was a nice wooden table resting beside a chair that had matching green colors with the couch. A couple of meters in front of him was the front door, to its left was a fine stone fireplace, its chimney was surrounded by little homes for the critters and tiny walkways. The whole house appeared to be made of wood, even the floor that was decorated with multi-colored rugs.

Right next to one of the rugs was the soup that Fluttershy had dropped. “Well, she’s not here, so…”

Zero went through a doorway that lead to the kitchen and grabbed what cleaning supplies he could recognize. As he returned to start washing, he noticed the animals were all coming out of their homes now, apparently no longer seeing him as enough of a threat to hide away from, though they still kept their distance. Among them was a little white bunny. It looked sorta cute, but something about the look in its eye made Zero’s gut feel like the little thing was the embodiment of mischief itself or something. He decided he should steer clear of the mite before he arrived at the soup.

It still smelled good, making Zero realize how hungry he was. “Eh, I’ve gone without eating for a while before, I see no reason it should stop me now.” he thought, though it did make cleaning up the mess much less enjoyable than it already was.

Once he was finished, he returned the cleaning supplies to where he found them and placed the bowl in the sink after giving it a good rinse.

“Alright,” Zero thought as he clapped his hands and rubbed them together, “what’s next?” Zero returned to the main room, as he entered, his blaster caught his eye, still in its spot on the high shelf.

“You could use a good wash yourself.” Zero silently said to the gun. He made his way over to it, making sure not to step on any of the animals that now covered the ground. As he grabbed it, he reached into his belt for the cleaning kit he used only for weapons and armor maintenance.

Sitting back down on the couch, he began to thoroughly clean his weapon, after a good while he couldn’t find a speck of dirt on it. Zero admired his work, he always loved the look of a freshly scrubbed blaster.

Zero attached his weapon to the backplate of his armor which he had also given a little attention to, removing any grit staining it, and returning to it the shiny gleam it once had. Well, about as gleamy as it could get now anyway, clone armor couldn’t hold on to its reflective shine all that much after combat, which is what birthed the nickname ‘shiny’ for rookies.

Now with cleansed gear, Zero stood up again, looking around for any appropriate chores he could do. When he found none, he plopped right back down.

“Well…” he began as he eyed the front door, “I did agree that I would stay where it’s safe, but if she could venture out there then it must not be dangerous. I can be out and back before she returns.”

He made his way out the front door, taking in his surroundings. He hadn’t appreciated just how beautiful this planet was until now. The sky was the brightest of blues with the most fluffy clouds he had ever seen. As far as he could observe was a carpet of light green grass sprinkled with relatively small trees.

Zero scanned the area around him, spotting a village way off to his left. There was a path leading away from it all the way to the cottage he was standing outside of, and there appeared to be someone using it off in the distance.

Reaching into his utility belt, Zero took out his micro-binoculars. The devise was a slightly curved, grey rectangle that was big enough to use with both hands, but small enough that he had to hold it with only two fingers and his thumbs.

Looking through it revealed that the thing on the path was actually Fluttershy, and she wasn’t walking on it, she was just standing there and talking to seemingly no one.

“Odd...” Zero said to himself as he looked for anyone she could be speaking to. “The only thing around her are those birds on that tree-“ his thoughts stopped once he realized Fluttershy was facing the tree.

“Oh you can’t be serious.” He muttered to himself.

When she said that she was late for a rehearsal with her birds he though she meant she was going to train them to fly out of something during the ceremony, not whatever it was that she was doing.

Zero continued to try and find out what her goal was, “Maybe she’s trying to get them to memorize a signal or-“ His thoughts trailed off as all the birds appeared to start chirping. He could only just barely hear them from here. It wasn’t like any bird noises he had heard before, they were in unison, almost harmonizing with each other.

“That’s weird.”

After they had finished their song, Fluttershy said somethings to a few different birds, they then began to sing the same song again, this time in greater harmony.

“What?…”

When she said rehearsal did she mean, like, literally?

There’s simply no way. Only the Jedi could communicate with animals, but even the wisest of them couldn’t actually talk to them, much less get them to perform in a kriffing symphony.

“Must be that head injury.” he told himself, an excuse he had now found himself using often.

Zero decided he would leave her to, whatever it was she was doing, and scout out the town. Learning about the life and culture of the natives from a new planet was always a good plan, no matter the situation.

He searched for a way to get close to the village whilst staying out of sight. The main road was, of course, not an option, to the right of the main road was a small river, across it was a field with a few trees, but not enough to supply substantial cover. There was also a river to the left from the path, though it was further away. A ways away from the other side of the river was that eerie forest that he had wandered through the prior night. As much as he didn’t like the idea, it would provide great cover, besides, the outer edge was nowhere near as dense as the area he had been lost in.

With a begrudging grunt, he made his way to the river. Crossing it at the most shallow spot he could find, he made his way to the giant mess of foliage, only going as far in as was necessary. He jogged his way in the village’s direction, making sure to be aware of his surroundings, both in and out of the forest, while also keeping an eye out for any signs of his brethren or a crashed vehicle.

It wasn’t long before he reached as far as the trees would take him. Preparing his next move, Zero studied the area around himself.

There was another semi tree filled field at the end of the overgrowth he was in. To the east of the field was the river he had crossed. Zero now saw it was flowing away from an intersection directly in front of him about a hundred meters away. The other stream split west, making the land Zero was on look like a tiny peninsula.

After a quick look around, Zero saw that there was no building near him, apart from the village, and not one of the equines in sight. He crept his was out of the foliage and over to the point where the rivers met. Once he arrived he crouched next to a tree for cover.

Again equipping his micro-binoculars, he scouted the village. Now that it was in full view he could get an idea of how big it was. For a backwater planet it was decently sized, it looked like it was a little over half the length of a standard G.A.R. cruiser.

Zero focused in on the structures. The building that was closed to him appeared to be a carousel, if you could believe it, around it was a bunch of buildings each about two stories tall. They all seemed to be made of wood with thatch roofs, all connected by dirt roads which were filled by the populace in the distance. Most of the buildings looked similar to each other with a couple of exceptions. Apart from the carousel there was a building off to the left that had a bunch of smaller looking quadrupeds running around outside.

“Could be a daycare or a schoolhouse.” Zero muttered to himself as he continued his survey.

Way to the right of the carousel was what looked like the largest building in town. He couldn’t make out its finer details and it only looked like it had three floors, though it could have had between five or seven considering its height. He continued his gaze to the right, most of the houses in this direction were the common wooden types, over one of their roofs, he saw a building with a big sign on it it that looked like a few weirdly shaped, haphazardly placed, white cylinders with a red zig zaggy pattern at their thinnest point.

“Unusual,” he thought, “perhaps it’s some sort of entertainment center or business or something or other.”

Behind that building was another tall structure, however, it was too far away to determine anything about it. Zero searched back to the left of the village. The structure with the fillies around it appeared to be the edge of town, beside it was a large orchard, separated from the town by a large strip of fields. The trees there looked like they had something growing on them, something spherical and red, however, it was to hard to see exactly what they were. A quick glance over the area and Zero saw what he believed was a farm, the center piece of which being a large red barn with white detailing. Zero thought he recognized some of the crops that were growing there, though he couldn’t be sure.

“Well whatever they are I’m sure they’re enjoying this sun.” he stated as he craned his neck to look up at the bright star, now stationed right at the top of the sky. As he was looking up, he saw a flash of blue streak across the sky, leaving behind a multicolored trail.

“What was that!?“ he blurted out as he observed it zip right towards the village.

Bringing his micro-binoculars back to his visor, he watched as the projectile crashed right into a bystander, sending them both into a puddle of mud. Zero squinted his eyes to see if the poor equine was hurt, but he couldn’t make out anything in the mess. What he could see, was the cyan missile… standing up?!

“There’s no way…” Zero gawked as the form of a light blue mare with a multi-colored mane removed her self from the mud.

“How did she survive that fall!? How was she even flying?! Surely it wasn’t the use of her wings? They were far too small to support any form of aviation that I have ever se-“ his observations were instantly proved false as the mare flapped her wings and began to levitate. She zoomed into to sky. Almost faster than Zero could comprehend, and grabbed a grey cloud, bringing it back down with her to the equine she had buried in mud.

“Di- did I just see that right?” Zero questioned to himself, completely dumbfounded, a feeling that only grew as he saw her start to bounce at the cloud, somehow making it rain down on the purple mare beneath her.

“The- I- wha- it- *sputter* HOW?!” There was no way that was real, it was simply not possible

“Welp,” Zero began, “it’s official. Hitting my head made me lose my mind.”

He didn’t actually believe the thought, it’s just that it was the only thing he could think of that could explain the events he just witnessed.

Zero was about to take a minute or two to comprehend what had just happened but apparently the mare wasn’t done yet. In a blur she flew circles around the other mare, creating a tiny cyclone for a little bit before dispersing it.

“…”

“Where am I?!”

Zero lowered his binocs and sat down. He rested a hand on his head as he tried to wrap his mind around the things he saw.

“How did she do that?” was the only thought going through his mind for a while before it was replaced by others.

“Were they all capable of those feats? What about Fluttershy? Did all of them posses wings?” The last thought made him decide to check. Against his better judgment, he raised the binoculars, focusing on the equines once more.

He couldn’t seem to catch a break as the second he spotted them, the blue one started to dash around the sky, somehow vaporizing every cloud in the area.

“…” “ok then…I’ll just add that to the list…” Zero switched his attention to the purple one, she actually didn’t have any wings that he could see. Her mane was atrocious, definitely a consequence of the cyclone she a been in the eye of.

“So there are at least two different types of equines here,” he thought to himself, “good to know I guess…”

He was still bewildered by the newfound knowledge he had obtained. He was struggling to think of what his next objective should be. “I- I’ve seen everything in the village there is to see from this angle, and I’m unable to get any closer without risking a good chance of getting spotted.

On the subject of spotted, Zero remembered the offer that Fluttershy had made him. “How am I supposed to go to this ‘sun of summer something’ without being seen? Or is she just going to let me waltz right in, I already know she’s planning to introduce me to the Princess…

The Princess! Could what Fluttershy have said about her moving the heavens be true?

Zero shook his head, “Unnatural speed and operating clouds were one thing, moving a celestial body was another.” Thought Zero, though he was feeling a faint bit of doubt.

A crackling behind Zero alerted him that someone was approaching. He dove behind a bush right as three equines walked by the tree he used to be under.

One of them began to speak up, “You chose a wonderful spot for the picnic Sunshine Gleam!” said a light purple mare.

“I know, right!” Replied the orange one she was talking to. “I found this spot a couple of days ago and I just knew it would be a great place to hang out!”

“Well, you were right,” said the third masculine equine boasting a black coat. “It looks great.”

The one called Sunshine Gleam spoke up again, “yeah, I just said that.”

Zero had to get out of here without getting spotted, luckily a nearby rock meant he could use an old reliable trick. After grabbing the rock, he waited till their backs were turned away from the bush he was behind before he crept out a little. He then chucked the rock very hard into the nearby river, causing a large splash.

When equines turned their heads to the source of the noise, Zero knew now was the time to move. Slouched over, he made a silent beeline toward another, way further out bush. When he arrived at his target he gingerly set himself down on the ground again, and peered back at the group. They didn’t suspect a thing, which increased Zero’s gratitude for all the stealth training his Mandalorian instructor put him through.

He waited for them to settle down before he quietly made his way back to the dark forest.

“I best be headed back now, Fluttershy could be on her way home. Besides, I think I’ve seen enough for one day…”

**********

Zero still hadn’t totally accepted what he saw by the time he arrived at the cottage. As he entered he made sure to not accidentally let any of the little animals escape the house. He made his way to the couch that he had grown all too familiar with him. Plopping down on it reminded him of just how uncomfortable his armor was to sit in, though that was the least of his concerns right now.

He was about to start thinking about what he should do next when he heard the door creak open. Fluttershy had returned from the apparent bird orchestra she was conducting.

“Hey there,” she began, still looking a tiny bit uneasy at the foreign creature in her home, “I’m- oh! You cleaned up the soup.”

“Huh?” Zero wondered for a moment, “Oh, yeah, yes I did.”

The mare walked over to inspect where the mess used to be. “You did a very good job,” she gently said as she looked up at him, “and you’ve cleaned your armor up as well. It looks quite nice…” she trailed off as eyed his boots which had a few blades of grass littered on them from his escapade.

Welp, cover blown.

“You went outside didn’t you?”

“Um… yeah?”

“I told you not to. What if you got hurt?” Her tone sounded a little angry.

“I stayed safe,” Zero objected, “I didn’t go near anyone or anything, it was just a look around was all.” he said with a shrug. He was, again, surprised at her concern.

Fluttershy shook her head, “But what if someone saw you? W-what if something from the Everfree forest saw you ‘looking around’ and got curious? With your hurt talon you wouldn’t be able to defend yourself, and with that bad hoof you couldn’t run! You’d just be standing there helpless and-“

Zero interrupted her by putting both his hands on her shoulders, making her let out a tiny squeak as she recoiled back a bit.

“It’s fine. I’m fine. No one saw me and I promise you I was careful.” Zero didn’t know what she was making such a big fuss about. Just because he had an injured hand didn’t mean he couldn’t defend himself, and his foot was at most just bruised.

Fluttershy let out a sigh, his words seemed to put her at ease, she still looked a bit mad though.

Zero decided it was best to discuss something else, “So,” he started as he took his hands of her, “what’re you doing back here?”

“Oh, um, well, right when I had finished with the rehearsal, Pinkie Pie, a friend of mine, came up to me and invited me to a party.”

“A party?” Zero wondered. “But weren’t you already invited?”

“Oh, no this was different from the Summer Sun Celebration. You see, somepony just moved into town, so Pinkie wanted to throw her a big welcome party.”

Zero had heard her say pony before, he made sure to make a mental note that it was probably the name of their species or some form of addressing or something.

“They ran out of ice, so I came home to get some.”

“Do you always have a party when someone moves in?” Zero asked.

Fluttershy nodded, “Pinkie makes sure every time. This time it’s a bit different though, Twilight Sparkle, the mare the party’s being thrown for, came here from Canterlot.

“I take it that’s a big deal?” Zero guessed.

Fluttershy nodded again, “Very, it’s the city the royal palace is in! Most ponies from there don’t come down here often, much less move here.”

“Huh.” Zero said to himself. “Well that must be exciting.”

“It is,” Fluttershy responded, “in fact, her party is still going strong, it might even last up-until the festival.”

“Speaking of,” Zero began, “how exactly am I supposed to go there?”

“Don’t worry, I have an idea.” she said with a smile.

“What?”

“It’s a surprise!”

Zero hated surprises, but he figured he should trust her on this. “Well… okay then.”

“Great! I’ll come pick you up before it starts! she quietly exclaimed, “Alright then. I should be headed back soon, the ponies at the party still need ice.”

“Wait.” Zero put his hand in between her and the kitchen.

“What is it?”

“I- um- is there anything I can do for you while you’re gone? Like some chores or tasks or something? I don’t have much to do here and I want to pay you back for all your help.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t ask you to do chores for me…”

“Why not?” Zero reasoned, “You’ve helped my with my wounds, gave me a place to stay for the night, it’s the least I can do.”

She still looked unsure.

“Please?”

“Um- alright.” she caved.

Zero let out a grin, he stood up from the couch and clapped his hands together, “So, what do you want me to do first?”

**********

A couple of hours had passed. Zero had finished almost all of his chores, most of which included taking care of certain critters or organizing something, like the bookshelf he was focused on right now. The sound of a door opening let him know it was time to go as Fluttershy entered the cottage.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

“Yup.” replied Zero as he place the last book where it goes. “Alright, let’s head out.”

They both made there way out the door and onto the path that lead to town. The night here seemed more beautiful than the day! The sky was almost purple rather than black, with almost as many visible stars out here as there were in space. The sight made Zero question just how did it get so dark that one night in the forest.

“Thank you for doing all those things for me, Fluttershy said as they walked, “I really appreciate it.”

“It’s no problem, I was glad to have something to do, especially if it was paying you back a bit for the stuff you did for me, like getting those pegasai to look for my brothers. What is their progress on that anyway?”

“They said they would set out to look tomorrow morning.” she replied.

“How’d they react when you said they were looking for aliens?” Zero questioned.

Fluttershy looked a bit uneasy, “I didn’t think they’d believe me if I told the that, so I just described what you looked like and asked that they just look for anyone with your appearance and come home without talking to them. N-not that you all look the same or anything!…”

The mare turned her head away from Zero, she must have thought she offended him.

Zero let out a chuckle, “Well we’re supposed to be clones. I’d be quite concerned if they didn’t!”

The joke let her know she didn’t hurt him. She gave him a shy smile as they continued toward the village.

They trodded in silence for a while, not knowing what to say to each other.

“So…” Zero began, “What the name of this town?” He was pretty sure he heard her mention it before, but he didn’t remember.

“Oh- it’s called Ponyville.” she answered.

“Okay…”

Silence once more fell on the two as they made their way to the town. Zero never was good at small talk, mostly because he had never actually done it before.

“Um… so, your day, how was it?” Zero asked, nagging himself for his awkward delivery.

“It was quite well, thank you.” she replied, also seeming a bit awkward.

“What’d you do?” Zero continued.

“Well, after I left, I met with my bird friends for that rehearsal to prepare for tonight. I was just about finished but Twilight, the new mare, startled me and the birds flew away.”

“I’m sorry about that.” Zero empathized.

“Oh it’s fine,” Fluttershy assured, “she didn’t mean to, and the birds already sounded perfect, I’m sure they’ll come to the celebration. Also that mare, Twilight Sparkle, she had a baby dragon!” Fluttershy said with a tiny squeal.

“A baby whatnow?” Zero stuttered.

“Uh huh! His name is Spike, and he was just the cutest little thing!” she exclaimed.

Zero thought that dragons were the thing of myth, at least, it was everywhere else in the galaxy.

“What’d he look like?” he asked.

“He was small, a little over half my height, he walked on two legs, like you. He had purple and green scales with the most adorable little eyes!”

The description didn’t fit any Zero had heard of. Where he was from, the most commonly spoke of dragon was the Krayt Dragon that was supposedly on some dessert planet. It apparently looked more like a giant snake with seven legs on each of its sides, and a sort of spiked hammerhead. It was also certainly not small as it was rumored to be able to grow about a hundred meters long, perhaps more.

“So anyway, after I met them it was time for the party, and you know all the rest. Um- so how was your day?”

“Oh, well I uh…” Zero stuttered, upset with himself for not foreseeing the question. “Well after you left I cleaned up that soup, which smelled really good by the way, you must be a good cook,” Fluttershy looked down at her hooves, seemingly flustered at the compliment a little, “then I polished my gear before I headed outside.”

The mare looked like she was still a tad bit upset that Zero did that, but he went on without acknowledging it.

“I went to get a closer look at, Ponyville was it? It’s a nice town, I can see why you live here.”

Fluttershy nodded her agreement, “Thank you, I do love it here.”

“It certainly looks appealing,” Zero continued as they entered the town. It looked barren what with all the townsfolk at the celebration, “I was looking over it when I saw… um.”

“Yes?” The equine pressed.

“Well, I saw a blue projectile fly around the sky at ridiculous speeds before it crash landed in town, except it wasn’t a projectile, it was a person.”

“Yes, I heard about that at the party,” Fluttershy stated, “Rainbow Dash crashed right into poor Twilight right?”

“I guess…,” Zero replied. He didn’t really care about the semantics. Right now, he just wanted to know how it happened.

“But I’m more interested in how she was even flying, much less that fast! I mean there’s no way her wings were big enough to cause flight!”

The mare looked at him like he just asked the dumbest question she had ever heard. “Um- she can fly because of pegasus magic, all pegasai can, well, not as fast as her but-”

“Wait wait wait…” Zero interrupted, “so you’re telling me, you can fly?”

“Um, yes, would you like for me to show you?” she offered.

Zero nodded his head.

“Alright then…” she said as she started to flap her wings. It was unbelievable, just by flapping her wings at a slow and steady pace, she just lifted off the ground without losing any forward momentum. “See? There’s nothing to it really…”

It was a good thing Zero was wearing his helmet or his jaw would have just about hit the floor. “How are you doing that?!”

“It’s the pegusus magic.” she stated, “you did hear me say that the first time right?”

Zero wasn’t able to speak, and even if he was he couldn’t think of any words to say.

“Don’t you have magic where you come from?” The mare wondered.

Zero shook his head.

“How to you get by without magic? I don’t know what we’d do if we didn’t have it.”

“H-how so?” Zero pressed.

“Well it’s just that we use so much of it in our day-to-day lives, pegasai use it to fly and manage the weather, unicorns use it to assist their businesses, and earth ponies use it to help them tend to soil amogst other things. Not only that, but the biggest pegasai city, Cloudsdale, wouldn’t even be accessible without it.” she explained.

Zero was trying to keep all the information he had just learned straight. So everyone here had magic, there was another pony type, that being the unicorns, creatures Zero thought were only legends, and apparently they also controlled the weather here as well as the sun and stars?

“S- so, where did it come from? How do you use it? Wh-“

“I think it would probably be best if Princess Celestia explained it to you…” she pondered.

“Y-yeah, perhaps you’re right.”

Right as Zero finished his sentence, Fluttershy’s ears perked up. “We’re here!”

They had arrived at the largest building in town that Zero had scouted earlier. “This is the town hall. The celebration will be held inside.”

“It’s a good looking building,” Zero admired, “but that leaves the question, what am I supposed to do?”

“I already told you, I have a surprise.” the mare said with a smile. She trodded over to a bird which was perched on a nearby fence. She whispered something that Zero couldn’t hear before the bird flew off to someplace.

“Is this part of the surprise?” he asked.

“Uh huh!” The mare confirmed. She sounded exited, her voice was a few octaves higher than normal.

A rattling sound caught Zero’s attention, he couldn’t believe his eyes when he turned to find what made the noise. Dozens upon dozens of birds were carrying a huge ladder over to the town hall.

“What.” Zero didn’t mean to say that audibly, but Fluttershy didn’t mind. The birds quietly set the tall latter against the building.

“Go on.” The mare coaxed.

“Okayyy…” Zero replied as he made his way up the ladder. It lead to a ledge just outside of the second floor. Zero didnt know what to expect was at the top, but if he had to guess, he would never have suspected what he found.

From the top of the ledge you could look down and see everything happening in the building through the open window. It was practically packed to the brim with ponies, but that’s not what caught Zero’s eye. On the ledge, was a small table and chair, on the table was a lone, cozy candle that bathed the scene in its dim, relaxing light. Around the candle was an assortment of cupcakes and other pastries as well as a glass of punch.

“I hope you like it.” Fluttershy said as she flew up to join him, “I wanted you to be able to experience the celebration with us but I know you can’t exactly be down there, so I prepared this. I know it’s not the same but you can still watch the sun rise with us. And you can also see what the celebration is like down below, I placed the table on the opposite end of where Celestia will raise the sun so no one should be looking up here, and even if they did it’s placed too far away for them to see you.”

Zero was stunned, absolutely gobsmacked. Not one word escaped from his lips as he looked at the place Fluttershy had made for him.

“I- is something wrong? Do you not like it?” she worried.

“No no, it’s just that… it’s amazing!”

“You really mean it?” the mare asked.

“Of course I do!” Zero remarked. He had never been treated like this before, a beautiful spot to sit and enjoy a party of all things, all prepared by someone he barely knew. “I don’t know what to say. Th-thank you.”

“Oh- it was nothing.” she said modestly.

“No, it’s definitely something.” Zero insisted. “I, it- thank you.” he repeated himself.

“You’re welcome,” said the mare. “Once the celebration is over I’ll try and talk to Princess Celestia, then I’ll have my friends return the ladder to get you down.” With that the birds that had carried the latter to the building now carried the object away from it.

Fluttershy started to fly down to the ground but before she did, she turned back to Zero. “I hope you enjoy yourself!”

“I do too! Er- to you, I mean, I want you to have fun as well.”

She gave him smile before she descended to the ground as well as perhaps an innocent giggle at his stuttering, though he wasn’t sure.

Zero took his seat, admiring the good looking food in front of him, this would be his first time eating what his instructors called ‘junk food’. Everything he had ever consumed before was either specifically planned, bland meals designed to be as nutritious as possible, or the emergency ration sticks that tasted like cardboard.

He removed his helmet, placing it off to the side, and picked up one of the cupcakes. It had pink frosting covering the top and was glazed with multi-colored sprinkles.

“Here goes…” he thought as he took his first bite.

It was now official. He was addicted.

Zero felt like his eyes dilated after swallowing the scrumptious desert. Remembering just how hungry he was he started to wolf down every one of the pastries. He had no idea how bad they were for his near peak physical condition, and to be truthful, he didn’t care. They were just so good!

Before he practically inhaled the whole tray, he took a sip of the punch to wash it down. It tasted delicious, it wasn’t long before he finished off the entire glass. After that he returned to the remaining treats, taking a bit more time to savor them now. Once he was done with his meal he let out a nice, hearty “Mmmmmm…”

“That was amazing!” he thought to himself. His only regret was that he couldn’t lick the frosting off his fingers because off the black gloves attached to his body suit, forcing him to resort to a napkin.

Zero’s attention turned to the ponies bellow him. “Do they have evenings like this often?” he wondered.

He continued to observe the mingling beneath him, “Is this the way that life was like back home before the Separatists attacked? Is this peace and harmony what we’re all fighting to achieve?”

All those smiles, all that laughter, if it was what he was working to build, then it’s worth it. Well, as ‘worth it’ as a war can get anyway.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of trumpets playing as well as the sound of singing birds. Following the sound to its origin, he saw Fluttershy conducting the flock, helping them sing in perfect harmony with the instruments.

“Very impressive.” Zero inwardly commented.

A spotlight flashed on one of the walls before it lowered down onto a stage at the bottom floor. Standing on the stage was a mare with a pair of eyeglasses; she had no horn or wings so Zero assumed she was an earth pony. The mare had a dark-wheat colored coat with a grey mane and tail, suggesting she was an elderly equine.

“Phillies and gentlecolts,” she began, “as mayor of Ponyville, it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration!”

The crowed cheered after she finished her sentence, even Zero joined in a little with some inaudible clapping.

“In just a few moments,” the mayor continued, “our town will witness the magic of the sunrise, and celebrate this, the longest day of the year! And now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very pony who gives us the sun and the moon each and every day, the good, the wise, the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria… Princess Celestia!

The trumpets and birds sounded again as on the second floor, a white mare with a purple mane pulled on a rope, causing the curtains of the stage their to part, revealing… no one?

The crowd of equines started to whisper among themselves with worried expressions on their faces.

“This doesn’t look like it was planned…” Zero though with growing concern.

“Remain calm everypony,” the mayor spoke up, there must be a reasonable explanation.”

Zero leaned in towards the crowd, “What’s going on?”

The white mare on the second floor made her way onto the stage, searching around the area before she faced the crowd. “She’s gone!”

Almost everyone in the crowd gasped, faces of panic were worn on almost everyone. One of them let out a scream followed by many more as a dark, starry, and purple mist started to flow up from the higher stage before aggressively dispersing, revealing a pony that was much larger than all the rest in the building. She was clad in purplish-blue armor, and appeared to be a mix of both pegasus and unicorn with a pitch black coat and wavy mane the same color as the mist she appeared in.

“Oh my beloved subjects,” she started, “ it’s been so long since I’ve seen your precious, little, sun-loving faces.”

Zero reached for his helmet, he knew this wasn’t good.

“What did you do with our princess?!” said a mare that looked very similar to the one he had seen crashing into town. Immediately after she finished talking, she charged for the black equine but was held back by a different pony with an orange coat. The orange pony, who was wearing what appeared to be a stetson hat, muttered something Zero couldn’t hear as she struggled to keep the blue one from attacking the intruder.

The scene made the dark equine laugh, “Why? Am I not royal enough for you?” Don’t you know who I am?”

Zero wasn’t liking the signals she was sending, he removed his blaster from his back and took a ready stance. He intended to keep the safety on, not wanting to use the weapon unless it was absolutely necessary, but when the sinister looking equine leaned uncomfortably close to Fluttershy, he primed his weapon, ready to fire it at a moments notice.

The onyx intruder scared away the birds as she continued to speak. “Does my crown no longer count now that I have been imprisoned for a thousand years?”

She turned away from Fluttershy, which slightly eased Zero’s nerves, before wiping around to the white mare behind her. “Did you not recall the legend? Did you not see the signs?”

“I did,” a voice spoke up from the crowd. It was a purple mare boasting a darker purple mane with a light purple streak in it, “and I know who you are. You’re the mare in the moon, Nightmare Moon!”

The statement made the crowd gasp, all of them turning their attention back to the fiendish looking equine.

“Well well well,” she began, “somepony who remembers me. Then you also know why I’m here?” she questioned.

The purple mare looked distressed as she spoke up again, “you’re here to- to…” she couldn’t finish her statement, lowering herself in fear of the menacing presence above her.

The black pony let out a sinister laugh, “Remember this day little ponies, for it was your last. From this moment forth, the night. Will last. Forever!”

Lightning cracked into the building causing Zero to jump a little, the mare’s mane swirled up and around her in a huge rising circle that almost brushed past the white-clad warrior. Nightmare Moon started laughing again, this time louder, more triumphant, and continuous as the townsfolk stared in terror.

“Is she actually planning to force an eternal night?!” Zero thought, “Is she insane!? That would kill everything on the whole planet!” Zero readied his gun, he was prepared to fire, but hesitated, as he had no jurisdiction here. Any act he committed could be interpreted as hostility towards the people.

“Seize her!” Commanded the mayor, “only she knows where the princess is.” As the mayor spoke, three armored guards made a dash for Nightmare Moon. “Stand back you fools!” she said as she struck them all down with lightning. She closed her eyes and leaned back as she again started to laugh again.

“Well that does it!” Zero decided. There was no one here that was strong enough to stop her, he had to act. Accepting whatever consequence the Republic could give him, however grim, he stood up from his position to get a clear shot, but right before he was about to fire, the dark mare opened her eyes.

She was already facing upward from her maniacal laughter, opening her eyes revealed the strange, pale being on the edge of the second floor. Their line-of-sights locked together before Zero fired a shot from his blaster. The sound echoed around the building. Just as the blue bolt was about to hit its target, the mare’s horn glowed with a dark purple aura. A transparent purple shield materialized out of thin air just in time to protect her from the shot.

“What was that” Zero internally yelled before he prepared to fire again.

Nightmare Moon’s horn glowed once more, this time causing an aura to form around Zero himself!

“What the-!” Zero blurted as he was lifted from the ground.

“And just what are you?” the onyx equine questioned.

Zero didn’t answer, instead opting to fire a flurry of shots at the mare. Another flash of her horn and she deflected every one of them. “Very well then…” she said.

She used her magic to flip Zero over the ledge and onto the ground like a fishing cast, causing him to collide with the ground back first.

“Uunfff!” He groaned as shards of pain erupted from his spine.

With one last crazed laugh, Nightmare Moon shifted back into smoke and charged for the door. Even in the form of mist she was able to smash the doors wide open, escaping far away into the black sky…

Author's Note

Welp, I planned for this to be the shortest chapter and it became the longest. If that doesn’t describe to you what my writing process is like I don’t know what will.

Chapter 4: The ‘Dream’ Team

The blue mare managed to escape from being held back and bolted out the same door as the smoke, flying over the new, strange being on the floor.

Zero tried to come to his senses, the plastoid armor he wore did very little to protect him from the fall or the pain it caused, making him grit his teeth.

“What was that?” He wondered, pondering at that glowy stuff the mare used to not only defend herself from blaster bolts, but also throw him around like a rag-doll.

Groaning, he tried to get up.

“Bad idea!” he thought as more pain shot through his back, causing him to immediately lay back down with a grunt. Whatever injury he sustained, it hurt. There was no way he was any good to anyone like this. He began to slowly reach for one of the two pain-relief injectors located in his utility belt when a shadow loomed over his head.

“What are you?!”

Zero looked up to see a pink, female pony with sky blue eyes and a darker pink, curly mane looking down at him. To his surprise she didn’t seem scared, more confused and curious.

The clone ignored her for the time being, grabbing his pain reliever and injecting it into his neck. The mild procedure stung a lot, almost more than his actuall injury, but after a few moments the pain subsided and his back began to numb. The reliever only kills pain and discomfort. It doesn’t actually heal anything, meaning Zero was now on a ticking clock to get his back fixed.

“But not before I stop this eternal night.” he told himself.

“A-are y-you o-k-k-k-kay?” said a familiar, scared voice.

Zero sat up and looked to his right to see a terrified Fluttershy creeping her way down from the ledge she was leading her performance on.

“I’m fine.” Zero responded, both somewhat hazily and cold. Almost like a flick of a switch, Zero’s demeanor leaned far into his stern and tactical side in order to prepare for combat against the newfound threat. His change in tone seemed like it startled the mare, though that didn’t look like that was a very hard thing to do right now anyway.

He began to gingerly get up before the orange mare that was earlier restraining the blue pegasus spoke up.

“You know this- er- person?” she asked Fluttershy, looking bewildered as she made her way over to the clone. She had an accent that Zero hadn’t heard before.

“Well- um- I uh…” the yellow mare stammered.

“No,” Zero cut in, “but we’ve met.” he answered, making sure no one suspected Fluttershy of her relations with him, for her sake.

He was now sitting on one knee and had decided to stay that way, trying to make himself seem smaller as to not frighten the surrounding ponies any more than they already were. Now that the pain was all but gone his mind raced to find a solution to the predicament they were all in.

“I have no idea where that thing went, and I don’t know anything about her, or what she can do. Someone has to know something… The purple pony!”

Zero scanned around the crowd for the lavender mare that had confronted Nightmare Moon. Every one of the ponies looked terrified, not just because of the evil fiend that had apparently kidnapped their princess, but also of the frightening new creature in their midst.

“You,” Zero began as his gaze came to the unicorn. She appeared like she was formulating some sort of plan. She looked like she wanted to leave, but her curiosity and fear of the soldier kept her in her place. “You know about Nightmare Moon.”

Some ponies dared not look away from the clone whilst others tore their gaze towards the unicorn, awaiting an answer.

“I do…” the mare responded as she pulled herself together, “and that means I’m the only one that can stop her!”

With a final perplexed look at Zero, the mare took off, galloping out the door.

“Miss, wait!” Zero shouted. He grabbed and holstered his blaster before clambering to his feet and racing after her. The sound of gasps filled the room as ponies hid from the charging biped as he exited the building.

“Now where did she…” Zero wondered as he looked for where the unicorn went. Something purple flashed in the corner of his eye, running down a street leading away from the town hall. “There!”

Zero tore his way down the road, this mare was his only hope to finding, and stopping, Nightmare Moon. He started to gain on her, his superior conditioning outperforming her four legs, she was heading toward what looked like a structure built into a tree.

Before Zero could catch up to her, he was slammed in the back by something, which didn’t do his spine any favors, sending him tumbling to the ground.

“And just what do you think you were doing!?” sounded a raspy female voice from behind him, “Why were you chasing Twilight?! Were you gonna kidnap her like the princess!?” she said as she placed one of her hooves on Zero’s backplate.

“No!” Zero retorted. “Now get off, I just need a word with her, that’s all!” he said as he wrestled the mare’s hoof off and began to get up only to be shoved back to ground.

“Riiiiight, and I’ll just believe that, since you put it so nicely!” the mare sarcastically remarked before planting her hoof down on Zero harder than before.

The clone held back a ticked-off growl, he didn’t have time for this. He was about to wrestle the pony off himself again but stopped when he heard footsteps, er, hoofsteps approaching.

“Rainbow Dash, please get off of him, he doesn’t mean any harm.” said a fragile mare. It was Fluttershy, followed by that one pink pony, the orange mare wearing the Stetson hat, and some other white equine he didn’t know. Fluttershy seemed sincere, but sounded like she doubted her own words a smidge.

“How would you know?!” responded the pony Zero could now see was that blue pegasus.

“Um, w-we’ve met.” Fluttershy replied.

“You mean you know this thing?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“She doesn’t know me.” Zero grunted as he shoved Rainbow Dash’s hoof off his back and made his way to his feet, “no one here does.”

“Then just who are you,” the orange equine asked as she stepped in front of the group, “and whered’ya come from?”

“That’s not important,” Zero began. There was no way they would believe his ‘alien’ story and right now time was of the essence, “now what is important however, is stopping that mare from keeping the sun from rising. Now that pony,” he said as he pointed to the library door, “knew who Nightmare Moon was as well as her goal. If anyone knows how to stop that thing, it’s her.” he finished.

Before anyone else could say anything, he walked towards the entrance to the building. Opening the door revealed what looked like an archive, except for where there would be holo-books there where, well, books books, some of which were being tossed to the ground by the pony who was apparently Twilight.

“Elements, elements, elements! Ugh! How can I stop Nightmare Moon with out the elements of harmony!” she said, her voice increasing with worry and concern.

“And just what are the elements of harmony?” demanded Rainbow Dash as she shoved her way passed Zero, “and how did you know about Nightmare Moon?” she question as she thrust her muzzle against Twilight’s, “Are you a spy?” she wiped around to face Zero, “Is that why you where chasing her? Are you working together?!”

The orange mare pulled Rainbow Dash away from Zero by her tail, making her give out a little yelp.

“Simmer down there Sally,” she reasoned, “she ain’t no spy, and if that feller was working with Nightmare Moon then don’t you think she wouldn’t’ve treated him like fishing bait?”

Rainbow Dash let out a small grunt, seemingly agreeing with what she heard as the mare continued, “But Twilight sure knows what’s going on and it’s quite the coincidence that you showed up tonight of all nights.” she said as she faced Zero. She was looking at him like he was, well, an alien.

“It is isn’t it?” Zero admitted, he had to tell them something to get their attention off him and onto the matter at hand.

“My name’s Zero, y’know, like the number, and I’m from someplace… far far away, nowhere you would know.” He stopped for a moment, he didn’t want to lie, but he couldn’t let them know where he was from just yet, “I was- er- traveling, but I got hurt, I was going to keep going on my way but Fluttershy here,” he said as he motioned towards her, “showed me great kindness by patching me up and letting me rest in her cabin for a while.”

The unknown white mare leaned in towards Fluttershy and muttered something that Zero could just barely hear. “Did you really let that, stranger in your house?” she questioned with a fine accent that Zero had heard many times on Coruscant.

“Well he was exhausted and he looked so hurt…” Fluttershy muttered.

“Honestly darling I thought you of all people would know better!” the pale equine huffed.

“Anyway,” Zero continued after the interruption, “since I’m new here Fluttershy offered to show me around the celebration, after all, it was a good chance to learn about a new culture, and you all saw what happened after that.” he finished.

“Is this true Fluttershy?” The orange mare asked.

Everyone turned to look at the equine who shrunk back from the attention. For a split second she glanced at Zero who gave her a nod, hopefully signaling to her to go along with what he said as revealing he was an alien wasn’t a good move right now.

“Um, yes. Yes that’s true.” she answered, looking a bit relieved that she didn’t have to lie to her friends, only keep a secret.

“Alright, then,” the orange pony started, “but then why are ya carrying around that there weapon for?” she said as she motioned towards his blaster.

“Oh, this? I use it for protection, you see I’m a soldier where I come from, which is, y’ know, why I’m wearing all this armor.” Zero stated as he motioned his hand from his chest down to his hip.

“A soldier huh?” the mare responded, “and what’re you doin’ so far from yer home?”

“That doesn’t matter,” Zero replied, “all that matters right now is stopping Nightmare Moon, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

“Well ah certainly believe you got a bone to pick with her alright,” the mare began again, “but that doesn’t mean you don’t intend to do something else afterwards.”

“I promise I have no ill will towards you all.” Zero stated.

“The mare edged closer, trying to peer past Zero visor. “What’re you doing?” he asked.

“Tryin tuh get a read on ya. It’s not exactly easy with that thing on your noggin.”

Zero held up a finger before he started to take off his helmet, revealing the sincerity on his face.

“I give you my word, my one and only goal is to make sure the sun rises again. I know it’s a lot to ask you to trust me, I wouldn’t want too either, but we don’t have much time.”

The equine kept eye contact with Zero, her face revealing nothing about whether or not she believed him. “And why is it you care to help?” she questioned.

“Well a permanent night doesn’t exactly sound pleasant to me, besides, I can’t just stand bye and watch you all rot in the darkness.” Zero replied, “I just want to make sure everyone stays safe, it’s my job.”

The equine looked so deep into Zero’s eyes he was almost positive she could see his soul. He was starting to feel uneasy before she stopped and flashed him a smile.

“Well it seems like you mean it.” she stated, looking somewhat satisfied with his answer. “The name’s Applejack,” she said as she extended a hoof. Zero guessed she wanted to shake his hand, he regretted going along with it though as the second he grabbed her hoof she shook his hand so violently he felt like he was standing during a hyperspace jump.

“M’glad to have ya! It looks like we’all need all the help we can get to stop that no-good mare anyway.”

“We?!” Zero and Twilight said simultaneously. They both turned their heads to face one another.

“Look I appreciate the offer,” Twilight began, “but I’d really rather do this myself.”

“No way!” Rainbow Dash blurted. “We would never let a friend of ours face her alone!”

“Or at all,” Zero intervened, “none of you are.”

Rainbow Dash wiped around to face him. “Are you crazy?! D’you think we’re just going to let you go, without anyone to keep you in check.”

“Are any of you trained soldiers?” Zero retorted, “How about guards, or law enforcers?”

“No but-“

“Then it’s settled.” Zero stated, “If those guards back at the celebration couldn’t stop her, then a bunch of civilians certainly can’t.”

Rainbow Dash looked like she was about to argue but Twilight Sparkle spoke first. “But you can’t stop Nightmare Moon either, no one can without the elements of harmony.

“The what now?” Applejack asked.

“The elements of harmony,” Twilight answered, “I was trying to learn more about them but I can’t find the book about them anywhere!”

“Found it!” chirped the pink pony.

“Wha- how!?” Twilight demanded.

“It was under ‘E’!” she said in a sing-songy tone.

With a groan Twilight’s horn started to glow the same way as Nightmare Moon’s did, as a pink aura engulfed the book levitating it over to herself. The sight of magic made Zero instinctively reach toward his blaster, but he stopped himself before he grabbed it.

Twilight flipped through the book, only stopping once she reached a certain page. “There are six elements of harmony,” she began, “ but only five are known, kindness, honesty, laughter, generosity, and loyalty. The sixth, is a complete mystery. It is said that the last known location of the five elements, was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. The castle can be found in what is now, th-the everfree forest!”

The other ponies gasped in shock when Twilight finished.

“Oh, great.” Zero thought to himself, “now I gotta go back there.”

“I- um, I did hear you right?” The white mare asked, “you said it was in the e-everfree forest?”

Twilight said nothing, only giving a slight, shaky nod.

The white mare let out the most dramatic sigh Zero had ever heard before placing her forehoof on her head and falling towards the ground. Zero reached down with his left arm and caught her before she hit the floor, he then lifted her back to her hooves all while not taking his eyes of the book.

“So does this book keep any map of how to find this castle?” He asked.

“Well yes, but-“

“Well then I’ll be needing it.” he said as he extended his hand, signaling to her to give him the parchment.

“You not dumb enough to go in there alone are you?” Rainbow Dash asked as she flew up to his eye level. “No one who’s gone in there has ever been seen again!” While her tone sounded serious, there was a hint of tease in it, like she was trying to scare him.

“Actually, I’ve been in there, and I’m fine.” Zero stated.

“No way! You’re lying!” she snapped a she edged a little closer to him.

Zero shrugged, “It doesn’t really matter if I am. If someone doesn’t stop Nightmare Moon and fast, we’re all bantha fodder.”

Everyone eyed him weirdly, clearly confused by his figure-of-speech. “Dead,” he explained, “we’re all dead.”

As Zero was saying this, Twilight had managed to sneak past everyone, stuffing her book in a saddle bag. She was about to head out the door but opening it caused it to creak.

Everyone turned to look at her. “Hey, where are you going?” Applejack asked.

“Listen, Twilight began, “I appreciate the offers, from all of you, but I think it would be best if I went alone.”

“Didn’t we just go over this?” Zero thought to himself. He was about to relay this to the purple mare but Applejack spoke first.

“We are not letting you go into that forest alone surgarcube.”

Sugarcube?

“Besides, yah can’t face Nighmare Moon alone.”

“Which is why I’ll go instead.” Zero interrupted as he made his way towards the door.

“Hold, on,” the mare continued, “while we all appreciate your help,” she began as she stared at Rainbow Dash, signaling her to keep quite, “we’re not just gonna let you go handle somethin’ this important without us being there to keep an eye on ya.”

Zero wanted to object but he more than understood there skepticism. “Alright, but only the people who are qualified to-“

“We’re all goin’” Applejack firmly stated, “and that’s final.”

Zero noticed that Twilight Sparkle let her shoulders sag at the mare’s words, Zero felt like doing the same. To be fair though, they were already putting a ton of faith in him to let him help in the first place.

“Ok then,” he replied, “but I’m the only one here with experience in this sort of situation, which means you need to able to trust, and follow, what I say.”

“Who put you charge?” Rainbow Dash questioned sarcasticly.

“No one, it’s just that-“

“Listen up!” Applejack boomed, “Twilight will lead the way, and Zero will handle the technical things under our watch, alright?”

The room’s silence spoke of everyone’s agreement. “Ok then,” she continued, lets get ‘er done.”

She motioned for Twilight to head out the door. Everyone followed her as she begrudgingly exited the building. Zero had to admit, he was impressed with how Applejack had taken charge of the situation. If he was to suggest anything to the group, he thought it would be wise to bring it up with her first.

Zero put his helmet back on as the team made their way to one of the roads leading out of town, a quick glance up showed that the once purpleish sky that had shown with so many stars now looked black and barren.

Once Zero looked back down, he met face to face with the pink pony who was bouncing up and down backwards, able to look Zero in the eye and keep in front of him at the same time. She breathed in large, loud inhale which set Zero on edge before being yanked away by Applejack.

“How ‘bout we let ‘em settle in a bit before your little interrogation Pinkie Pie.” she told the pink, bouncy-ball impressionist.

“ButIwannaknowwherehecomesfromWhoishewhathishishomelikeWhat’shecalledImeanI’veseennewpeoplecomeandgofromPonyvillebutI’veneverseensomeponywhowalkedsouprightAlsoIwannaknowifhe…”

Zero slowly and careful backed away from the mare, refusing to take his eyes off her for a second. As he fell back he failed to notice the yellow pegasus dropping with him.

“Are you ok?” Fluttershy’s soft voice asked Zero, “ever since what happened at the celebration, you seem more… assertive.”

Zero guessed his more direct side must have seemed distressing to the small mare. “I’m ok.” He assured her, easing up on his demeanor. “It’s just in situations like these, it’s more important to be expeditious than polite.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Fluttershy mummered.

Now he felt a little bad, Zero let out a sigh. “I’m sorry if I was rude, I guess I’m just used to dealing with professionals in times like these.”

“Oh, I understand.” she replied. Looking down at her hooves.

Zero hadn’t meant to put her down, “Er- that’s why I’m so glad to have you around.” he stated.

Fluttershy turned to face him, “what do you mean?”

“Well I mean you fixed me up all nice like, it’ll be good to have someone around with a little medical expertise.” Zero decided not to mention that he was trained to perform any medical task outside of surgery, besides, he didn’t know pony biology anyway. “Plus,” he continued, “it’s seems to be impossible to feel down around you, at least it is for me, it’s always good to have someone to keep morale high.”

The mare looked at her hooves again, this time because she didn’t know what to do with Zero’s praises. “Um, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Zero said, glad to de-stress for a moment before their mission began.

Speaking of which, they had arrived at the entrance to the forest. Its dark green foliage almost appeared black in the cold night.

As he began to enter, images flashed before Zero’s eyes. He saw Trinket, struggling to free himself from his parachute before he was torn from it by some unknown beast. Zero felt his heart weigh down as he envisioned Trinket giving a terrified, painful yell as he was pulled into the darkness, gone forever.

Zero blinked the thought away, but the harrowing idea still lingered in his head as he looked over the group. “What if one of them gets caught in there?” he thought. “Would the others even be able to cope?” His head tuned towards Fluttershy. “What if…”

“Listen,” he said to her aloud, “if you want to stay where it’s safe I’d more than under-“

“I-I-I’ll b-be f-fine.” she spoke, not daring to look away from the forest. It was unlike her to interrupt him, or anyone for that matter. Zero guessed she was trying to get her point across, though it was hard to tell from her trembling voice.

“Alright then,” he said begrudgingly. He didn’t like this one bit, but he admired the mare’s courage. He fell into step beside her, then hunched over and whispered to her, “See? Like I told you earlier, brave.”

Fluttershy looked over her shoulder to give Zero a shy smile before turning her attention back to the growth, keeping alert for any signs of danger.

“Welp,” Zero thought to himself, “I’m about to travel through a forest of death with a rag-tag group of civilians in order to find magical mumbo-jumbo so we can bring down a being who is apparently strong enough to control celestial objects…”

“…”

“This ought to be fun….”

Author's Note

Sorry it took me an eternity and a half to put this out. I haven’t had any time to write recently.

If this chapter doesn’t have to same quality as the rest that’s because I wrote it in the quickest amount of time, and did all the editing at 2 A.M. I didn’t rush it per-say, but I also didn’t want to have to delay it yet again.

Thanks for reading, I’ll see you in the next chapter!

Chapter 5: Braving the Elements (Part 1)

Zero attempted to better position himself as the group continued into the forest. His primary goal was to make sure to keep close behind Twilight, she had the knowledge of what to do so protecting her blind spot was his top priority.

As he maneuvered towards her, Zero made sure to inconspicuously nudge Fluttershy, signaling her to follow him so he could keep her close as well.

The soldier fell in step behind Twilight’s left flank, the side of which Pinkie Pie and the white mare were walking on, putting the trooper in prime position to protect the suspected weaker members of the team.

Continuing to move forward, Zero began to study the contents of his surroundings.

Leaves and bushes weren’t the only thing growing in here, clumps of dark-pink mushrooms were scattered around every which-a-way and off in the distance, the clone could also see a huge patch of some sort of blue foliage. They were too tightly knit together to make out any individual plant but Zero guessed they were flowers. Closer to him were some swindling vines that sported their own leaves and grew straight from the ground next to the haphazard path he was on.

“At least we’re not treading directly through the underbrush…” Zero thought to himself. He was still uneasy with returning to these grim woods, the cold air when combined with the humidity made the trooper feel like he was traveling through the belly of a dead monster. The others, however, seemed to be a bit more optimistic. Some were even chatting amongst themselves.

“They do realize there’s a high chance that we could all die tonight right?” Zero thought to himself.

The man shook his head, believing the equines simply must not understand the gravity of the situation they were in, a thought which only made Zero more tense and alert.

While they were talking, Zero reviewed any and all useful information he had gathered that could help him now.

All he knew about the forest as of this moment was that there were at least two types of predators in here, the wooden wolves, and whatever had claimed Trinket’s life. It was very likely those weren’t the only hostile creatures in here and the trooper had to be ready for anything he might have to face.

Zero did a once-over of his gear, he was holding his carbine, its grapnel attachment was resting in his belt along with a lone detonator, and his head-lamps.

The lamps made him realize that, strangely, the forest this time around wasn’t as dark as his last escapade here, which made no sense.

“Figures,” Zero inwardly huffed, “with the way this world is, I’d be more surprised if it was actually darker.” he thought as he eyed the shadows which appeared more as dark violet rather than pitch black.

Speaking of this world, would Zero even be able to combat anything that attacked the team? The equines themselves seemed to be unnaturally durable, and if they were at a disadvantage to the creatures in here what could the trooper possible do?

Zero looked down at his blaster as he remembered his altercation with the wolves yesterday. “This seemed to get the job done,” he thought, “until they, resurrected or whatever that was. Can it harm anything else though?”

What was confusing Zero was the idea that if the wolves were able to at least be stunned by his own physical assault, why are the ponies scared of them? They can handle falling from the sky like it’s nothing.

Zero shook his head. “They have ‘magic’, maybe that protects them somehow?”

Whatever the reason for the equines’ endurance didn’t matter all that much. What did, however, was whether or not Zero could actually damage anything here.

He recalled that the lightning that Nightmare Moon used on the guards worked on them well enough, though it strangely didn’t look like it shocked them, only that it knocked them unconscious. That was not only weird because of the lack of electrical burn, but because lightning didn’t hit harder than falling from a hundred meters. Why did the current’s impact cause so much more effect on them as opposed to such a drop?

”It just doesn’t make much sense, unless perhaps…”

Though it was out there, that closest thing that Zero could compare the equines’ apparent durability to was a starship, the interiors of larger ships to be exact.

The metal hulls were built to be able to withstand the force of a reasonable crash, tanking a lot of punishment throughout its body, yet it could still be pierced by high-powered shots from a blaster.

“Perhaps that’s how their strength worked? They can take a beating if it’s distributed around the body but can be punctured or harmed by excessive force if it’s in a small area?”

It was just a theory, a half-baked one at that, for all he knew everything thing here could be invincible or maybe the equines were only resistant to certain hazards. But his conclusion seemed to be the most plausible to him. Either way, Zero was reasonably confident that the rifle he held could do something any foe that may cross him, after all it was quite the formidable weapon.

At its highest charge it could fire 300 shots each able to punch a 0.45 meter hole in a solid ferro-concrete wall, not to mention if an un-armored target got hit by the carbine, the blaster bolts were hot enough to incinerate most organic matter around their initial entry points, which can commonly lead to lethal blood boiling.

But even with his trusty weapon, Zero was still on edge. The further he and the others moved into the dim confines of the woods to more he felt like he was cornered.

“It does look terribly dreadful doesn’t it?” sighed the white equine.

Her words made Zero’s heart jump, he had been so focused on his reasonings and the surrounding area that he hadn’t noticed the pale mare walk up next to him.

“Er- how so?” he asked.

“Well of course it may be different wherever you come from,” she began with her familiar, classy accent which made Zero instinctively stand at attention, “but I much prefer the outskirts of town to, well, this. It simply feels like everything here is either bland, eerie, or revolting. Not to mention there is simply nowhere that shows any promise of safety or security.”

Zero agreed with every one of her sentiments.

“Eh, it’s not so bad.” he fibbed with a shrug, trying to appear more strong for the rag-tag team.

“Oh, so you’re familiar with places like this?” the mare questioned.

“Oh no,” Zero responded, “I just meant as far as deadly territory goes, it could be worse. If anyone actually said someplace like this felt ‘homey’, I wouldn’t touch them with a stick.”

His attempt at humor strangely made the equine let out a little laugh, it made Zero feel a false pride about himself. He made sure to remember she was a civilian not a senator or one of the V.I.P. members of Republic society. That accent of hers kept throwing him off.

“I’m inclined to agree with you.” the mare politely stated with a confident yet cautious smile. “Oh my! Where are my manners? I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Rarity.” she informed as she raised her head.

“Nice to meet you.” Zero said with a nod. “Rarity huh? That’s a peculiar name.”

“Aren’t you named after a digit?” the mare jousted with a smirk.

Zero chuckled at her response. “Yes ma’am, I am.”

The unicorn looked at him strangely. “Did- did you just call me ‘ma’am’?” Rarity asked.

“Uh- yes ma’am, I did. Is something wrong with that?” Zero responded as he wondered why everyone here he made an acquaintance with seemed to be so flustered with proper protocol.

“Oh no, not at all!” Rarity chirped, she sounded like she just won a prize or something, “It’s just different is all, not that I mind!” she finished as she raised her head even higher and flipped her mane. She looked like her confidence just shot up.

“Uh- Rarity?” Rainbow Dash started as she flew over to her friend, a sight that still dumbfounded Zero, “Can I talk to you for a sec?”

“Hmm? Oh, yes yes in a moment.” The white equine half-answered, never taking her eyes off the equally pale trooper.

“Moments over.” Huffed the pegasus as she grabbed Rarity’s tail in her mouth and yanked her backward.

Zero’s head turned to see Rainbow Dash pulling Rarity a couple of meters behind him, she looked like she wanted to talk in private. Zero returned his gaze to the forest, but couldn’t help overhearing their conversation.

“Well I never!” Rarity guffawed “Now why did you do that?”

“Don’t you think you’re getting just a bit too chummy with this thing.” Rainbow Dash remarked in a lowered tone.

“Oh come now Rainbow Dash, it’s not like we’ve never seen someone from a different kind of people before.” The mare reasoned, “I am simply just being polite to our guest, which is something that has seemed to slip your mind.”

Rainbow dash let out a grunt. “You know there’s a difference between just being polite and trying to befriend somepony right?” she muttered, sounding agitated.

“Well yes, of course,” Rarity started, “but did you hear what he called me? ‘Ma’am’! Like I was Celestia herself! He obviously knows a mare of class when he sees one!”

“Yeah well if he is a soldier then he probably talks to everypony that way.” Rainbow Dash stated.

“Don’t ruin this for me.” Rarity replied.

The forest around them started to get darker causing Zero to feel more unease. He would feel a lot better if he had some sort of idea of what he was up against, perhaps Twilight’s book had information about this place?

Zero subtly motioned to Fluttershy to stick close as he quickened his pace to walk beside the purple mare, which garnered a barely audible, disappointed sigh from Rarity.

“So, is there anything I should know about this forest?” Zero asked.

Twilight opened her mouth to speak but Applejack beat her to it. “We was hopein’ you could tell us.” Twilight seemed to not care for the orange equine’s use of ‘we’.

“Well I didn’t really see all that much my first go-around.” Zero explained. “I was making my way through a monsoon in the dark.”

“How did you stay safe anyway?” Twilight pondered. “Didn’t you get attacked?

“Oh yeah,” Zero replied, “something called ‘timberwolves’ gave me a hard time, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle.”

His statement seemed to stun the two ponies for a moment before Zero continued. “I had to retreat though once they started to, well, come back to life. Any clues as to how they do that?”

Applejack shook her head. “Not a one, everything here’s unnatural. Folks say it don’t work the same as Equestria.” she nervously stated. Zero wondered if a part of her stress was because of the overhang they were now treading on.

“What do you mean by that?” he asked.

“Well, it lives here all on its own! No earth ponies to help it grow no pegasi to water it. It just is.

“So, like normal?” Zero thought to himself, “perhaps I was too harsh on this place.” he inwardly joked.

His thoughts were interrupted by the ground its self as it suddenly started to shake violently. Zero barely had time to process what was going on before the overhang he was standing on fell from under his feet, taking the whole group with it. Zero’s heart rapidity shot blood through his veins as they all landed on a steep cliffside, sliding down without losing any momentum.

Immediately Zero reached for his grapnel cable, time felt like it slowed a little as he attached it to his gun in a couple of swift, semi-precise motions. Out of the corner of his eye, the soldier could just barely see Rainbow Dash swoop down to save Pinkie Pie.

Fluttershy! For a split-second, Zero twisted his head to look for his fragile acquaintance before he spotted her flying, heading for Rarity, whom was trying her best to halt her decent.

Zero was uncertain of weather or not Fluttershy was strong enough to help the terrified mare so he rolled over toward Rarity and wrapped his left arm around her. With the rocks now scrapping against his body, Zero quickly aimed his blaster at the top of the cliff and fired.

He hit his target as the cable’s tip dug into the stone, lodging into a firm grip. Zero allowed the grapnel’s pulley some leeway as to not dislocate his arm, Rarity tightly held onto him with both her front legs as their fall slowed down. Once they stopped, Zero immediately looked for a way he could help the others. Rainbow Dash had Pinkie, he had Rarity, Fluttershy was fine…

What about Twilight and Applejack?!

He looked down over his shoulder to see that Applejack had stopped herself by biting down on some sort of root, but Twilight was still sliding toward the cliff’s edge!

Zero stared in desperation, hoping that she could stop herself before she fell. His heart skipped a couple of beats as he saw her halt just after her back legs went over the edge.

“Hold on ima comin’!” said Applejack as she let herself gently slide down to where her friend was dangling. Twilight lost her grip just as Applejack grabbed onto her hooves.

“Applejack, what do I do!?” She pleaded.

Zero saw Fluttershy fly over his head, following the lead of Rainbow Dash as they both flew down below the cliff.

“What’re they doing down there, why don’t they help pull Twilight up?!” Zero wondered. He tried to get their attention but Rarity was holding onto his neck so hard she was practically chocking him.

Applejack spotted the duo as well before she looked down at Twilight once again. “Let go.” she spoke.

“Are you crazy?” Twilight snapped, almost more annoyed with the suggestion than concerned.

“No ah ain’t.” Applejack assured. “I promise you’ll be safe.”

“That’s not true!” Twilight wailed.

“Now listen here,” Applejack began as sincerely as she could, “what ahm sayin’ to you is the honest truth. Let go and you’ll be safe.”

Twilight closed her eyes, and released her grip, screaming in terror as she dropped. Zero felt Rarity tense up in his grip before the lavender mare’s yell was cut off.

“Twilight!” she wailed, staring at the cliff her friend had been holding onto.

“She’s ok!” Applejack shouted over her shoulder. Both joy and relief sounding in her voice. She then started to make her way down the mountain.

As Rarity relaxed her grip, Zero realized he had been holding his breath the whole time. After letting out a long exhale, he pressed the ‘descend’ button on his grapnel.

Rarity let out a tiny squeak and returned to choking Zero as they were slowly lowered down the rock face to the grassy floor.

Zero could already hear Twilight thanking Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy before he touched down. Once he landed he gently set Rarity on the ground who immediately went over to her friend to make sure she was okay.

While she was doing that, Zero made his way towards the pegasi. “Nice work, both of you.”

Fluttershy turned her head in a way that hid half her face in her hair while Rainbow Dash struck a pose. “Oh that? It was nothing!” the mare boasted.

“Even then,” Zero said as he rolled his eyes a bit, “you both did good, especially you with the one and half saves and all.” he said as he motioned toward the blue pegasus.

Her eyes darted to the side for the moment before she gave a reluctant response. “Thanks, um- you didn’t do all that bad yourself. And that counts as two saves!”

“If you say so.” Zero joked as he shook his head slightly. “So why did you catch Twilight instead of just helping Applejack lift her up anyway?” the trooper questioned.

“Well duh!” interrupted Pinkie Pie, “the writers needed someway to show Applejack’s incredible honesty! If you know what I mean.” she said before winking at Zero several times.

“N-no, no I don’t,” he responded, “what do you mean- w-what does she mean?” he asked the pegasi as he turned to look at them.

Rainbow Dash shrugged, “No idea, she sometimes does that, you get used to it.”

“Okay then…” Zero responded as Pinkie hoped away towards Twilight.

Speaking of the lavender equine, Rarity had finished talking with her and was now heading towards him with a smile.

“I want to thank you for saving my life-” she began.

“Just doing my duty ma’am. It was nothing, I’m sure Fluttershy would have helped you if I didn’t.”

“Regardless,” the mare continued, “you sacrificed a great deal for me.”

“What do mean?” Zero asked.

“Why your divine armor of course! It’s ruined!” Rarity said in a higher pitch than usual, “that gleaming splendor it once had is all but gone now because of those jagged rocks! Not to worry, I’ll find a way to return to it its glory as soon as we get home.”

“I appreciate that,” Zero started, “but that’s really not necessary-“

“Oh nonsense darling!” the mare huffed, “you saved me, why I’d have to be a monster to not help you. A monster!”

“Well I- … wait what did you just call me?” Zero blurted.

Rarity tilted her head. “Hmm? You mean darling?”

“Yeah…” Zero answered.

“Oh, I suppose I just call people that, you don’t mind do you?” she wondered aloud.

“Well I don’t mind per say,” Zero said though to him it felt very off, “I suppose I’m just used to protocol, y’ know, being addressed either by name, rank, or as ‘trooper’.”

The mare’s eyes widened as she cracked a small smile, “Oh you’re right, we mustn’t break protocol, right?”

Zero let out a small sigh, “No ma’am.”

Rarity’s smile grew from a sliver of one to a full on grin, she seemed to be getting a kick out of this.

“If you two are done gazing into each others eye’s,” Applejack teased, “we have to keep moving forward.”

Everyone grouped back together before they started on their way again. This time Zero went ahead and moved to his self-designated spot, making sure that Fluttershy wasn’t too far away. As they all trotted together, Rainbow Dash did a play-by-play of her heroics during the hazardous scene, just in case anyone hadn’t seen her.

Once she finished, Twilight, though thankful for her rescuer, tried to change the subject. At that moment she was interrupted by a loud thud.

Zero whipped his head in front of him to the source of the noise. It was some hideous monster, it had a feline like body and head, with a bushy mane and a tail that could be found on some arachnids along with a pair of wings.

It stood on its scrawny hind legs whilst lifting its powerful fore legs over its head and unleashing a thunderous roar.

“A Manticore!” Twilight yelped.

Zero thrust his way to the front of the group. “Fall back!” He ordered as he raised his blaster to fire.

“No!” Fluttershy yelled as she shoved his gun towards the sky right before Zero pulled the trigger. The sound of the shot echoed through the trees as a blue bolt flew into the overhead leaves, burning a path towards the sky and sending cinders down on the ferocious looking fauna.

It now looked even more ticked off than before. Zero wanted to fire at it again but Fluttershy looked him deep in the eye with an assertiveness and certainty he had never seen in her before.

“Just- just wait a moment.” she told him before making her way toward the creature.

“Are you crazy?! Get back here!” Zero barked through gritted teeth, trying his best to keep quite as to not to set the animal off.

The mare was walking towards the beast like it was a friend or pet, showing no fear, which was the only emotion pounding in Zero’s chest right now.

“Don’t die, don’t die, don’t die, please don’t die.” Zero silently pleaded.

As she got up close with the monster it raised it paw to attack her. Zero immediately raised his weapon, in one moment this would all be over.

“Sshhh, it’s ok,” Fluttershy coddled the creature, leaning in to nuzzle its opposite paw.

Zero watched in shock as the animal not only held back its offense, but lowered its guard altogether.

Though he now breathed easier, Zero didn’t remove his weapon from where it was aimed, between the thing’s eyes.

The part-feline opened its left paw to show it had a very quite large thorn was stuck in it. Fluttershy talked to the brute like it was an infant. “Oh you poor poor little baby…”

“Little?!” Blurted Rainbow Dash, with a bewilderment that Zero shared.

“Now this might hurt for juuust a second.” Fluttershy gently informed the fauna as she reached to pull the thorn out with her mouth.

Once she did, the monster picked her up and raised her to its jaws, releasing an ear-splitting roar.

“Fluttershy!” some of the ponies wailed with worry. Zero looked to get a shot off but Fluttershy was now in his way. He began to charge at the beast, prepared to try and wrestle the equine away from the hulking brute but stopped as it started to lick her like a dog.

“Huh?”

Fluttershy started to giggle, “Oh you’re just a little ‘ol’ baby kitty aren’t you? Yes you are. Yes you are!”

“Huh?!”

After a while the others passed Zero with smiles on their faces, making their way to continue on the path. Zero just, stood there.

The animal gently set down Fluttershy who gave it one more nuzzle. She then looked over her shoulder at Zero. “He’s nothing to be afraid of see? Come on over so you can meet him.”

Zero gingerly stepped toward the two, his hands didn’t even leave his sides. As he got closer, the creature bared his teeth.

“Settle down,” Fluttershy coaxed. “He’s not so bad.” she said as she trodded over to the clone, putting one of her front hooves on his forearm, “See?”

The creature let out a snort but showed no more hostility.

“Now why don’t you two shake and make up?” Fluttershy asked.

The animal let out a huff before extending its right paw. Without moving anything else, Zero extended his hand as well. The animal shook it like a trained canine, then went over to Fluttershy to give her a little nuzzle before flapping its wings and taking of into the sky between some of the trees.

Fluttershy walked over to Twilight who was waiting for her, they said something to each other but Zero couldn’t hear them, he was still staring straight at where the monster had left, his hand still extended.

“…”

“Huh!?”

Author's Note

I think we can all agree that the best part of this chapter is the name, right?

I love dumb fun, and there is nothing dumber than puns :D

P.S. I’m sort about splitting this chapter in parts. I wrote these 3500ish words yesterday and was planning on finishing it today, but wouldn’t you know it, something came up. :applejackunsure: I didn’t want to delay this another two days so this was my solution. I’ll try to get part two out as soon as I can.

Chapter 5: Braving the Elements (Part 2)

“Are ya comin’ or what?” Applejack called out.

Zero pulled himself together enough to lower his arm and turn towards the group.

“The- I- what just happened?!” he pondered to himself as he caught up with the ponies. His thoughts continued to race as he walked.

“What was that thing, why did it- how did she-“ Zero shook his head in an attempt to clear his mind, all it did was bring his thoughts to how Fluttershy had tamed the beast, how she had recklessly stoped him from ending the creature.

“She could have gotten herself killed!” Zero thought with an unusual anger along with some other feeling he wasn’t able to pinpoint. He was about to try and separate her from the group so he could have a few words with her, but instead, she seemed to drop her way back to him.

Zero was about to start before the mare beat him to the chase. “Why did you attack him like that?” she asked, she sounded angry.

Surely she wasn’t serious?

“You’re mad at me?!” Zero questioned, forgetting for a moment that he was speaking to a civilian and thus shouldn’t talk to her unprofessionally. It was strange, he had seen civilians in danger before, but nothing had quite disturbed him as much as what had just happened.

“I was trying to protect you, before you shoved my gun away! What were you thinking?!” he said as he slightly raised the weapon in his right hand and gingerly shook it, “This thing is dangerous!”

He was about to continue but the mare interrupted him, “Then why were you pointing it at him?” she asked.

Zero took a deep breath to calm his anger, “Listen, I know you have a soft spot for animals, but that thing was and ‘it’ not a ‘him’, and I was attacking it for a multitude of reasons. You all were frightened of it, which means it was likely dangerous, it looked very aggressive, and we have a extremely important mission to complete right now, much to important to risk it over some monster’s life!”

“That ‘monster’ can feel!” Fluttershy started. “And even if he was aggressive, that’s no excuse to rob him of his life!”

“Well if killing something is ‘robing it of its life’ then that thing was a top-tier thief!” Zero retorted. “And you don’t seem all that mad at it!”

“We are gifted with more understanding, “Fluttershy reasoned, “we should know better!”

“So you thought you should go and talk to it?” Zero asked, “What if it slaughtered you? Your friends sure thought it was going to, it wasn’t just me!”

“Something was wrong, I could feel it!” Fluttershy pleaded as she scrunched up a little. Zero was too mad to notice the mare’s growing discomfort. “I just wanted to help! Hopefully keep everyone from delving into violence…”

“It’d be kinda hard to help if you’d been torn to shreds!” Zero remarked.

Fluttershy flinched. “Why do you feel so strongly about this?” she asked in a slightly lowered voice.

“Because you’re taking up for animal,” Zero answered, “even though he was going to kill us all ‘cause of a splinter! I don’t think you understand that you could have died. I was just trying to make sure no one else will get lost to this place!”

The soldier expected to hear some sort of comeback but was surprised to hear nothing come from the mare’s mouth. She just looked at him with a gaze of both curiosity and concern on her face.

“Someone else?”

Zero hadn’t meant to let that slip out. His shoulders sagged. “Uh- n-nothing…” he responded, trying to hide the hint of grief in his voice.

Fluttershy didn’t believe him. “What happened?” she asked, appearing more concerned than angry now.

The soldier let out a defeated sigh. He didn’t want to bring this up, but she didn’t look like she would let it go.

“You know how I’ve been in this forest before? The reason why is because I was looking for my brother-“ as Zero was talking Fluttershy stopped walking, pulling the trooper back with her. She then placed a hoof on his forearm, giving him a nod to continue.

Zero cleared his throat, it was strange talking to a civilian about something like this. “Um- he was in trouble and I was on my way to help him but… I was too late.” Zero said as he shook his head, his shoulders falling even more.

He looked up at the pegasai, though he didn’t know what reaction to expect, it certainly wasn’t the empathy and grief that showed in her eyes.

“Well, I- I, uh…” Zero tried to say something else, but was unable to find any words, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway as Fluttershy intervened into his ramblings to wrap him in a hug.

“That’s horrible! I’m so sorry…” she murmured.

Zero hadn’t really processed Trinket’s demise until now, he was trained to not let grief affect him, to just brush it off. But he never could seem to do that, most of his brothers couldn’t.

For the first time he thought about his loss. Trinket was still a relatively new graduate, so Zero didn’t know him that well and now, he never would. Zero blamed himself for the death of his sibling, one who had such a burning passion for the Republic and its people, who would now never be able to share it.

Zero found himself returning the embrace, though its didn’t make the pain go away, something about being so close to someone, someone who cared, and feeling their warmth, their touch, it made him feel a little better. He had never been hugged before, and he would be lying if he said it didn’t make him feel good.

It took a bit before Zero realized how unprofessional it was for him to be making physical contact with someone. He gently left the hug, keeping one hand on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Er… thanks.”

“Don’t thank me,” Fluttershy softly reasoned, “no one should have to deal with that alone.”

Even though he was still hurting, a small smile formed on Zero’s face. The mare looked so sincere, a far cry from the way she had looked at him a while back.

Zero felt bad about how he had talked to her now, after all she must have known what she was doing when she approached the creature right?

“Hey I’m- I’m sorry.” Zero apologized, “For the way I talked to you, and for escalating that situation with the manti-whatsit too quickly.”

“It’s okay.” she gently responded as she again put her hoof on Zero’s arm, “with what you’re going through, and all that you must deal with up there,” she said as she looked at the stars, “I understand.”

“Thank you.” The trooper said as he rubbed the mare’s shoulder for a moment before he removed his hand.

“Just, please try to avoid violence if you can, especially anything lethal.” Fluttershy asked.

“I’ll do my best.” Zero promised with a nod.

The mare shot him a smile before a call rang through the forest,

“Hey, Fluttershy? White guy? Where are you?” shouted a familiar raspy voice.

“Here!” Zero called as he and Fluttershy started to make their way towards Rainbow Dash.

“Where were you two?” asked Applejack. Once they had regrouped.

“I was… stuck with something, and Fluttershy helped me.” Zero said as he gave the pegasus a slight nod.

She appeared to understand his metaphor, and responded with a smile.

“Well I’m glad she did,” Rarity started, “whatever had you bound could have made your armor even more dirty than it already is! And we can not have that now can we?” The unicorn asked as she leaned in a bit towards the soldier.

He noticed she had purposefully ended her statement with a question, which now garnered a response. This was starting to get annoying.

*sigh* “No ma’am.”

The mare lifted her head and closed her eyes as the soldier spoke. Which made Rainbow Dash give her a small shove in an attempt to knock down to size.

“Alright then, can we please get going?” Twilight asked, sounding agitated.

“Sure thing!” Applejack spoke, “let’s move on.”

As everyone started back on their journey, Zero cast a quick glance towards Fluttershy. He had no clue as to why she seemed to actually care about him, especially since, to her, he was an alien.

“Well one things for certain,” he thought to himself, “she may be the kindest person I’ve ever met.”

********************

The team had been traveling for a while, Zero was focusing in on the forest, keeping alert whilst the rest talked amongst themselves.

“Eeewwgh! My eyes need a rest from all this icky muck.” Rarity stated.

She had barely finished speaking when the path they were on took them beneath a thick tree line, making it much harder to see.

“Well I didn’t mean that literally.” the mare stated.

Twilight spoke up, “That ancient ruin could be right in front of our faces and we wouldn’t even know it!”

The group started to mutter between themselves, either apologizing for bumping into someone or making statements about the dark.

The lack of light reminded Zero of the last time he was in here, he didn’t like the thought. The trooper began to reach into his belt to find his head-lamps, but was distracted by what he was sure was a purple-ish mist.

“What’s that?” He muttered to himself. It almost looked like the smoke Nightmare Moon had shifted into, whatever it was it warranted a closer look. He began to make his way toward where he thought it was, again reaching for the lamps in his belt, but before he finished pulling them out, he bumped into who he thought was Applejack, dropping them in the dark.

“Blast!” he muttered to himself, as he kneeled down to find them. “Er- sorry for bumping into you.” he said to the mare.

“You’re fine.” she assured before a splotching sound came from where her hooves were.

“Uh wait, Ah think Ah’ve stepped in something…”

“AAAAAA!” Futtershy screamed, causing Zero to instantly abandon his search and quickly back up to where she was. He scanned the forest for what she must have seen, his weapon primed just in case.

“It’s just mud.” Applejack explained, sounding a bit annoyed with Fluttershy’s reaction. Zero turned to look at the orange equine, she was still making her way forward, in front of her was a-

”What is that?!” Zero thought as he saw a bioluminescent, fierce looking, tree?

“Whhaau!” Applejack yelped as she saw the figure and jumped away.

Zero moved forward to pull the mare behind him as he kept his eye on the ferocious looking flora.

He heard what sounded like a gurgling noise to his right, a quick glance revealed that another tree had somehow appeared to the side, followed by more growling to the left, then his behind!

“We’re surrounded by these, things!” Zero thought as he backed up towards the ponies. All of the plant life were grunting, sounding like they were frothing at the mouth, every one of them bearing hideous faces.

Zero didn’t know what to do. The trees weren’t moving, but in this place, that didn’t necessarily mean they weren’t dangerous. He was waiting for anything to happen, something to react to, but they were all completely still, growling like they wanted to destroy the makeshift squad.

Everyone behind Zero let out a scream as more and more trees appeared, which didn’t exactly help the soldier’s nerves, everyone yelled except Pinkie who was, laughing?

The other ponies sounded as surprised as Zero was as they all turned to look at her. The pink pony was directly in front of one of trees, making faces at it then laughing in hysterics.

“Hey hey hey!” Zero called to her, “get away from that!”

“Oh, come on, don’t you see?” she said before she started to move up and down in a rhythm, for some reason the area they were all in started to brighten up.

🎶When I was a little filly and the sun was going dooown!🎶

…

“What is she kriffing doing!?

“Tell me she’s not-“ Twilight began before Pinkie Pie interrupted her with her song. A song. A. Song!

Bouncing around like a pinball, the mare sang an up-beat tune as she hopped from tree to tree, all of which didn’t seem to be doing anything to her.

Zero decided to get a closer look at the flora himself. Cautiously walking over to one, he studied it in its entirety. The bark appeared to be made of a dark purple wood and had darker pink, bioluminescent carvings all over it. The plant sure looked like it had a head or face or whatever but apart from that didn’t show anything else unusual.

Zero bent over to pick up a rock which he chucked at the tree, nothing happened. Prepping his gun, he then got closer and rested his left hand on the bark, still nothing, not even when Zero placed his hand in the thing’s mouth.

“Guess these things are harmless, just a little eerie is all.” he thought.

By now Pinkie had started dragging everyone over to the trees as she sang, Zero wasn’t exactly listening to the lyrics but from what he understood, the gist was she was trying to get the group to laugh at the flora instead of be frightened by it.

Songs were never really Zero’s cup of tea, perhaps he would have been more open to hearing Pinkie’s show if they all weren’t on a desperate quest to save the world. Still, she seemed to be brightening everyone’s spirits.

Zero had to admit, watching everyone start to laugh at the trees made him see the humor in some of them as well. There was one to his right who’s eyes were crossed and who’s mouth was curled in a snarl, but in the brighter light it just looked goofy. Then to that tree’s left was another one which looked so comically mad, he could promise it just lost a bet on a podrace or something.

He was starting to snicker at the plants before one in particular caught his eye, it was one further away, and was partially blocked by others, but something about it…

Its mouth almost protruded from its head and was lined with two rows of teeth. Its eyes were large and bulgy and each looked like it had multiple pupils.

Looking at it made Zero’s head hurt exactly where his head wound was, as well as a dull pain somewhere that felt like it was deep in his mind. He wasn’t sure why, but the sight unnerved him, he couldn’t even take his eyes of it.

Something grabbed hold of him which made him uncharacteristically jump. He spun his head to see it was Pinkie, who yanked him towards a nearby tree, still singing her tune and trying to get his spirits up.

His head’s ache started to ebb as he looked at the thing. Though part of him was still wondering as to why he had just felt the way he did. The bigger part of him was too distracted by the tree in front of him.

This one didn’t even look like it was trying, its lips were curled inward and its eyes were both looking outward. It was enough to warrant a little chuckle from the soldier.

He could hear the rest of the team laughing in hysterics especially Pinkie, who had now stopped singing as was rolling on the floor, grasping for each breath in-between her laughter.

Something about the tree in front of him, and Pinkie’s laughter beside him made Zero’s little chuckle turn into a small bout of laughter. He didn’t know why he laughed, the tree wasn’t that funny, it must be Pinkie Pie’s hysterics. Something about the way she laughed just made Zero want to smile, like just hearing it was funny.

Zero looked over at the other ponies, they were now all lying down on their backs, all laughing together. Seeing their joy and unity in this star-forbidden place warmed his heart. Watching them laugh in a grim situation reminded him of his own experiences with his squad.

And just like that, Zero’s heart sank back down.

“Where are they?” Zero thought as he tried to look to the sky that was blocked by the tree line. He both missed, and was worried for his brothers. The soldier still couldn’t remember how he had ended up here and had no idea how many troopers could be elsewhere on the planet. For all he knew, most could have been killed in some sort of attack and he was one of the sole survivors.

Zero shook the thought from his head, worrying wouldn’t solve anything, if he wanted to know what happened then he needed to locate his brothers, or find some way to contact the Republic.

“The Republic…” Zero thought, “What’s going to happen once I do call them?”

Zero had earlier taken a shot at Nightmare Moon, and though she was threatening a whole planet, he had attempted to use lethal force on a non-combatant, something the Republic did not take lightly.

“I sure hope this ‘Celestia’ is gonna be grateful when we rescue her, I am most certainly going to need her to vouch for me if I want to keep from being court marshaled.”

Zero rubbed his throat, “And I especially want to avoid what would happen after that.”

For a moment, Zero wondered why he was risking his skin for people who weren’t Republic citizens, but shook the thought from his head. The way he saw it, he was born to uphold the constitution of the Republic. The constitutions goal is to help and protect people, so in a way, he was born to help others. Moreover Zero didn’t value his life over the lives of the people on this rock. And if he could have a do-over, he wouldn’t take it.

“Actually, I would.” Zero thought, “I would have made sure to hit her...”

Remembering the urgency of their mission, Zero called to everyone, suggesting that they continue on their way.

Still giggling, they all brought themselves to their hooves, and began to trudge back to the path they were walking.

As they passed him, someone slugged Zero on his arm.

“Don’t have a sense of humor then, huh?” Applejack sarcastically asked, still smiling.

“It’s not that,” Zero stated, “it’s just that we should be moving now.”

“Nah it’s fine, I get it,” the mare teased, “that bucket you wear on you head must drain all the fun from ya.”

Zero let out a chuckle, he couldn’t help but go along with her. “Oh yes, it is my burden to bare.”

Applejack snickered a bit as she made her way to the others. As serious as this situation was, it was good to take a moment to have a little fun.

Now able to see better, Zero went to retrieve his head-lamps, finding them resting in the grass. He then jogged to catch up with everyone.

Pinkie Pie was leading the way now, bouncing along and still giggling, same as the rest. She was headed for a raging river that she had somehow not spotted yet, once she did, she came to an abrupt halt, causing the ponies behind her to collide with each other.

“How are we gonna cross this?” Pinkie questioned as she stared down the roaring waves.

“Well, we can always swim.” Zero said, immediately feeling awkward about his dumb joke.

Twilight responded with an appropriate eye roll, thought Zero was pretty sure he saw Applejack smile a bit.

Just then, a puny wail rang out to his left. The first thing the sound made Zero think of was and old lady who got her foot ran over by something.

He decided to examine the source of the noise and found that it was coming from behind some bushes.

He shoved his way past them looking for the origin of the moan, and was now staring directly at… it.

…

Zero’s jaw hit the floor.

“What a world, what a world!” wailed a humongous, purple, scaly sea serpent… with hair and half a mustache.

Surprisingly, this was the first thing Zero saw on this planet that truly freaked him out. It was almost too much for him to wrap his head around, he just stood there, taking very deep breaths, barely moving.

“Uh, excuse me sir,” Twilight spoke up, “why are you crying?”

“Well I don’t know! I was just sitting here, minding my own business when this, tacky little cloud of purple smoke just just whisked past me! And tore half of my beloved mustache, clean off! And now, I look simply horrid!”

The serpent then let out a wail so dramatic that it sounded like it had just lost its entire family, before it fell over into the river, sending a large splash of water directly on top of Zero and the ponies.

The mares all ducked or scrunched up when the water hit them but not Zero, he was still just standing there.

“Are you okay? Are you breathing?” Fluttershy asked Zero. He gave a nod, at least, he thought he did. He wasn’t sure.

Some of the ponies seemed agitated. “Oh gimmie a break!” Rainbow Dash retorted.

“That’s what all the fuss is about?” Applejack joined in.

“Why, of course it is!” Rarity stated. “How can you be so insensitive!” she remarked in her classy accent as she walked over to the serpent who had now rested its head onto the bank.

“Oh just look at him!” Rarity said in a babying tone. “Such lovely luminescent scales!”

The serpent let out a whiny sniff, “I know!”

“And your expertly elegant mane!”

“Oh, I know, I know!”

“You’re fabulous manicure!”

“It’s so true!”

“All ruined without you beautiful mustache.” Rarity finished.

“It’s true!” Wailed the sea snake, “I’m hideous!”

“I’m simply cannot allow such a crime against fabulousity go uncorrected!” The mare insisted.

With that, she leaned toward the snake and bit off one of its scales.

“Ow!” It screamed as it flailed its arms, sending more water at Zero. He didn’t even bother wiping the liquid off his visor.

“What’d you do that for?”

The pale mare raised the sharp edge.

“Rarity what are you-“ Twilight started before cutting herself off after witnessing what the white mare had done. She had sliced off a large portion of her very well-styled tail.

Throwing the scale away, she used her ‘magic’ to pick up her tail and levitated it over to the serpent. She somehow was able to ‘forge’ it with the snake, giving it a different colored, more swirly, second half to its mustache.

“Oh! Ho ho ho hooo!” The serpent bellowed, “My mustache! How WONderful!”

“You look smashing!” the mare commented.

“Oh Rarity, you’re beautiful tail!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Oh, i-it’s fine my dear. Short tails are in this season, besides, it’ll grow back.”

“So would the mustache…” Rainbow Dash observed.

Twilight gave out a small gasp before heading across the now still river. “We can head across now! Let’s go!” she said before something below her hooves started shaking. She was lifted by the snake.

“Allow me!” It’s said politely as it laced its body across the water.

As the grouped started to cross, Zero tried to move, but found himself still grounded.

“You comin’?” Applejack called.

“…Er…yeah.” Zero softly called back. He gingerly walked across the body of the snake, crossing over to the other river bank. The serpent gave a final farewell before casting a strange look at the trooper and plunging into the water, swimming away.

Zero was not sure what he had just seen and he didn’t want to be. He just tucked what he saw away in the back of his mind and refused to acknowledge he ever witnessed it.

“Let’s, move…” he told the team as he started his way down the path.

“Hold on there.” Rarity said as she trotted over to the trooper’s left side. She was “holding” a large, wet leaf with her magic that she must have dipped in the river.

“It’s nothing like what I have at home but it’ll have to do.” she stated as she started to wipe down the troopers armor, removing most of the loose dirt as well the majority of grime.

It was quite unusual to be touched by a floating leaf, having it wash all around his upper armor. Watching it levitate reminded him of the stories he had heard from some of his brothers about Jedi lifting and moving stuff without any physical contact.

“Well, that’s the best I can do with this.” Rarity stated as she tossed the leaf away.

“Um, thanks.” Zero said.

He thought it was highly unusual for someone like her to even conceive the idea of washing armor, much less actually doing it. Come to think of it, maybe it was just her voice but she reminded him so much of the dignitaries and politicians back on Coruscant who would rather buy ten more expensive robes than to wash one themselves. Also, the way she earlier had so quickly decided to sacrifice her own appearance to satisfy the wants of some large worm genuinely impressed Zero.

“Hey,” he spoke the the unicorn, “that thing you did, you did good.”

“Thank you, I was happy to help.” she responded.

“Well it couldn’t have been easy, couldn’t’ve it ma’am?” Zero said with a slight, humorous grin.

The mare answered with her own smile. “No, it wasn’t, trooper.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, Zero let out a chuckle before he heard a sound to his left. It was a low-pitched growling noise and it sounded close. The rest of the team heard it too and were frantically looking for its source.

Quick as lightning, a tall, mangy, snarling monster charged out of the growth directly at Zero. Rarity, who was in between the two, let out a shriek as the beast rambled closer. Immediately Zero grabbed her and dove to his side, narrowly avoiding one of its paws as it slashed down at them.

He rolled as he hit the ground, though he almost regretted it when Rarity rolled on top of him. The weight of the equine almost drove the breath from the trooper, but he managed to quickly shove her aside and climb to his feet.

He the turned to face the creature, its head had two, swirling horns on either side of it, below of which were two sets of three eyes. Its mouth appeared lizard like and had a tentacle looking tongue. The thing stood on two, small, fragile looking legs, and had a tail almost as long as its body, which looked like it was at least two humans tall. It also possessed a set of long, fierce looking forearms that it was about to use to attack Pinkie!

Zero instantly raised his weapon and fired at the animal, not at its head or heart, but at its arm, hitting it right before it took a swing at the pink pony.

The monster let out a frothing roar that didn’t sound like it was in as much pain as Zero had hoped it would be, before it turned to face the soldier, preparing to charge.

Remembering his promise to Fluttershy, Zero set his weapon to stun, enough to knock out a wookie for over an hour, then he fired multiple shots at the fiend.

All the stun particles landed on the creature’s head. It certainly did something as the monster looked like it lost all concentration and even started to fall over.

Zero weaved to his left to avoid getting crushed by it, just before it slammed into the ground right in front of Rarity. The mare quickly turned her body and kicked the creature with respectable force, though unfortunately, to not much effect. The animal swiped one of its paws at her, but Rainbow Dash swooped in to lift her away in the nick of time.

The monster clambered up to its feet, looking for its next target. Zero’s immediate response was to find and protect Fluttershy but the tactical part of his mind told him the Twilight was who he should really be protecting. Begrudgingly, he scanned the area for the unicorn, spotting her near the back of the group.

“Fluttershy! Get her out of here!” Zero commanded, hoping to get them both to safety.

“I-I-I can’t just l-leave you here!” she squeaked as the beast lunged for Applejack.

A instantaneous volley of shots from Zero’s blaster again dazed the creature enough to give the orange equine time to hop out of the way.

“Do it now! That’s an order!” Zero shot back at her.

The pegasus looked shocked by Zero’s hard tone-of-voice, but she did as she was told, lifting Twilight away to, well, anywhere else.

As the mare carried her friend to safety, Rainbow Dash came barreling towards the monster, slamming right into its chest.

It definitely sounded like it did some damage, and was followed by a subsequent buck from Applejack which also looked like it hurt.

The fauna was now more mad then before, it swung its arm at Applejack, knocking her far away. It then spun around with the same motion, trying to hit Rainbow Dash, but the pegasus dodged. She got overconfident though, as she eyed the creature with a look of mild triumph before the animal back-handed her.

Watching the mare slam to the ground, Zero started to devise a plan to lead the monster away from the others. In about two seconds, the trooper decided to go with ol’ reliable.

Switching his gun back to ‘lethal’ for a moment, he took a shot at the fauna’s rear, causing it to howl in pain.

“Hey ugly!” he called, “Come and get me!”

The monster began another ferocious charge. Zero tuned tail and began to retreat into the growth.

“What’re you doing?!” Applejack called.

“Distracting it!” Zero called back, “I’ll handle this, you all run!”

The soldier dodged and weaved his way through the more tight areas of the forest in an attempt to put more space between him and his hunter. He had no such luck though as the creature started to gain on him fast! Zero tried to dodge to his side again but this time the monster was wise to it and grabbed Zero with its tentacle tongue.

It brought Zero up to its mouth and was about to take a life-ending bite out of him, Zero had other plans however, as he took a shot at the inside of the creature’s cheeks. It bellowed in excruciating pain as it bent over, spewing out over a buckets worth of saliva all over the trooper, lubricating the suction cups on the tentacle enough to release him.

A wet Zero landed on the grassy floor with a thump, he tried to get up, but the foul fiend was now trying to stomp him into the ground. He rolled left and right, narrowly evading death each time, but he was now trapped.

He had no room to get a clean shot off, and was about to be crushed any second now. Luckily for him, a flash of blue collided with the beast’s back, causing it to fall forward. Zero rolled far to his right as the creature landed with a thud. He quickly clambered to his feet and was dismayed when the flora did the same.

He needed a plan to take this thing down for good. His stun blast seemed to daze it and Rainbow Dash was able to harm it. Then if they worked together, they had a chance of defeating this thing. Zero gave a volley of shots at his foe in order to buy him some time to relay his haphazard plan the the pegasus.

“I’ll stun it! You hit it as hard as you can in its head!” Zero ordered.

“Who put you in charge?!” demanded the mare.

“Just do it!” yelled Applejack as she ran up to join them.

The monster had now recovered and took a swing at Applejack who ducked under it. Zero raised his weapon to fire.

“Hold on!” Applejack yelled as she barely escaped another swing. “Ah’ll distract it, Dash, get a running start, Zero, wait for my signal!”

The mare then bucked her opponent to aggravate it even more before charging right past it, using her superior mobility to lead it in a haphazard circle. Out of the corner of his eye, Zero could see Rainbow Dash had already flown a considerable distance away, and had started her run at the beast, a very fast run.

“Now!” Applejack hollered.

Zero immediately placed two shots on each of the creatures knees, causing it to buckle and slow down, he then hit it as many times as he could in the head, causing it to start to keel over from the repeating force slamming in its cranium. Right when it landed on its knees, Rainbow Dash nailed it in the head with authority, a thunderous, high-pitched crack rang through out the forest.

The monster’s head jerked right from the impact before it turned back to the front. Zero was beginning to think they were going to have to have another go at this, but his doubts fell away just as the animal went crashing down.

Applejack started to approach the creature to make sure they got it.

“Stay back.” Zero told her, preferring that he do it himself.

Once he got up close he could already hear its shallow, rhythmic breathing. A couple of pokes on the shoulder confirmed what he thought. They had knocked it unconscious.

“We got’em!” Zero called out triumphantly.

Rainbow Dash retuned right as Applejack let out a hardy “yee haw”. “Did we get him.” she asked.

“See for yourself.” Zero said as he stepped aside from the beast.

“Aw, yeah!” Rainbow Dash cried a she stuck a pose. “Did ya see me!”

“Kinda hard not to!” Zero praised, “Here I was, thinking you were a pegasus instead of a rocket!” he joked as he raised his hand for a high-five.

“How about both!” the mare said as she smacked her hoof against Zero’s hand.

“And you,” Zero said as he turned to point at Applejack, “that was some great coordinating! My C.O. would’ve been proud!”

Applejack looked like she didn’t know what a ‘C.O.’ was, but she took the complement regardless.

“Mighty thanks! Maybe you’ll remember this next time you think about going off on your own to get yahself torn to bits.” she teased.

“Eh I had everything under control.” Zero remarked.

“That’s the first time I’ve seen anypony call rolling around like a fish out of water ‘under control’.” Rainbow Dash sarcastically stated, garnering a snicker from everyone.

“Well alright then,” Applejack started, “now that we got that varmin’ taken care of, we should start on our way again.”

Zero and Applejack walked back to the path they were on while Rainbow Dash flew off to find the rest of the group. She had accomplished her goal by the time the other two returned to the walkway.

“Oh my gosh! Are you okay?!” Fluttershy asked as she hurried over to Applejack and Zero.

“We’re fine sugarcube.” Applejack answered.

Fluttershy looked at Zero to get his confirmation, he answered with a nod.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, insinuating that see had got this treatment as well.

“W-what about the injuries you already had?” the mare asked.

“They’re fine.” Zero stated, glad that the reliever he took hadn’t worn off.

Rarity walked over to Zero as well, he suspected her to ask him similar questions once she started to look him up and down.

“And I had just washed all that off!” she whined.

“Or not.”

********************

The group walked in relative silence for a while apart from the occasional chat. In fact, Pinkie Pie and Rarity were discussing something in this moment, before they were interrupted by Twilight’s gasp.

“There it is! The ruin that holds the elements of harmony, we made it!” she stated before she made a beeline for the fallen castle.

“Twilight! Wait for us!” Applejack yelped as she and the others ran to catch up. Zero followed behind from a distance, making sure to keep a closer eye on the foliage after what happened awhile back.

“We’re almost there!” Twilight exclaimed, right before she almost fell into a gorge. Luckily for her, Rainbow Dash had grabbed the unicorn’s tail in her mouth.

“What’s with you and falling off cliffs today?” she remarked after she pulled Twilight to safety.

The other ponies gathered next to the cliff side along with Zero, there was a rickety bridge that used to connect this side of the cliff with the other, foggy side the castle was on, though it had disconnected years ago.

“Now what?” Pinkie wondered aloud.

“Duh.” said Rainbow Dash as she wiggled her wings. She took off in the sky before diving down into the gorge grabbing the end of the bridge and soaring up towards the other side, disappearing into the fog. Zero was impressed with how much she could carry, much less whilst flying!

One of the tethers looked like it tightened. Rainbow Dash must’ve tied it to something. Zero waited for the other tether to tighten, it didn’t.

“What’s taking her so long?” he thought as he tried to peer through the fog. Just then a sense of worry overcame him. His helmet could see through the thickest of smoke so why couldn’t it see through this?

Zero waited some more, the other ponies were starting to get concerned as well.

“Rainbow!” Twilight called. “What’s taking so long?” she asked, echoing Zero’s thoughts. “Oh no.” she said as she peered into the mist.

Zero looked for what see could have seen, but saw nothing himself.

“Rainbow Dash!” he called.

Silence.

Zero reached for his grapnel and attached it to his blaster. If he had to, he was going to shoot the cable to the other side and shimmy over the abyss to find out what happened.

But before he did, he decided to wait just a bit longer. He was glad he did as the other tether finally tightened and the pegasus flew out of the fog and landed on the bridge, striking a pose. She was met with praise which didn’t make much sense to Zero as all she did was tie a knot.

“Me and the boys had to dig a multi-kilometer long trench once. A couple thousand men worked on that and not one of them got a ‘thank you’.” He grumbled to himself.

“See” I’d never leave my friends hanging! Or you I guess.” she teased Zero.

“Aw come on now.” Applejack jokingly started, “don’t talk to him like that, why he so worried sick about you he was about to go crawl over a wire to make sure you were ok!”

“Say what!?” Rainbow Dash remarked.

“More like I was about to go see why you were taking your sweet time, but yeah, ‘worried sick’.” Zero joked.

Once everyone had crossed the bridge, they all entered the ruins, they looked much bigger inside than out which was strange, even warranting a “woah” from Rainbow Dash. Stones and old supports were laying everywhere and the whole building had been reclaimed by the surrounding foliage that had been growing through cracks in the walls, and the numerous, giant, broken windows.

“Now come on Twilight,” Applejack started, “isn’t this what you’ve been waitn’ for?”

Twilight Sparkle was eyeing a stone structure in the center of the room. On it, were five engraved stones, each on their own pedestals.

“The elements of harmony!” Twilight exclaimed, “We found them!”

Both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy went to retrieve the precious artifacts.

“Careful, careful!” Twilight warned.

“One, two, three, four…” Pinkie counted, “there’s only five!?”

“Where's the sixth?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“The book said,” Twilight began, “once the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth element to be revealed.”

“What in the hay is that supposed to mean.” Applejack wondered.

“I’m not sure but I have an idea.” Twilight answered. “Stand back, I don’t know what will happen.”

Zero and the others backed away as Twilight began to work her magic.

“Come on now y’all, she needs to concentrate.” Applejack stated as she lead the others outside the ruins. Zero only followed half way.

“I’m gonna stay here, make sure Twilight stays safe.” he declared.

Applejack turned to look at him, she appeared like she disagreed with his idea.

“I’ll be quiet.” Zero said as he motioned her to keep moving. Applejack reluctantly turned back to walk with the others.

Zero found a fallen support near one of the walls, he sat there and observed Twilight as she did her thing.

He then looked up at the sky, the ruins had no roof so he had a clear view of the stars.

“I wonder if there are any Republic ships up there…” he thought before he returned his gaze to Twilight, only to see a purple mist was heading right for her!

Nightmare Moon

“Twilight!” Zero yelled as he raced toward her.

Twilight let out a gasp as the smoke swirled around into a miniature tornado, scooping up the stones.

“The elements!” Twilight exclaimed. Before she jumped into the whirlwind, vanishing in a flash.

Zero didn’t know wether to follow her in or not, and now he didn’t have time to think as the tornado started to destabilize.

“Blast!” He muttered as he jumped into the violet, raging mist, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Author's Note

I stayed up like five hours to finish this. Safe to say I wasn’t expecting it to take that long.

As I said, I wrote this mostly at night so if you see any errors feel free to point them out.

Also, if you wish, you can tell me what you have liked about the story so far and what you haven’t. All this helps to make the next chapter better than the last :D (hopefully)

Chapter 6: Dark Against Light

Though it only lasted an instant, the teleportation jump felt as if it had taken a couple of seconds as everything in Zero’s vision started to distort and shift into a purplish color. With a flash, he and Twilight Sparkle were standing in a much larger room than the one they were just in.

Looming many meters away from them was Nightmare Moon, stating tall on what looked like a pedestal. Behind her was a ginormous, broken window which gave a clear view of the sky cackling with lightning. The pedestal was surrounded by fallen stones, debris, and a few, worn-down support pillars. The black mare laughed as she looked down at something near her hooves, the elements!

“If those elements are strong enough to take her down, then I can’t let that scum use it against this world!” the soldier thought as he raised his gun. Zero knew the chances of winning were slim, but he was a clone trooper; he was either going to win, or die trying. Though before the soldier could fire, Twilight shoved her way past him.

“I have an idea, stay here!” she ordered with a look of determination. With that, she took off right at the onyx equine as her horn started to glow.

“You’re kidding? You’re kidding right?” Nightmare Moon questioned, almost mirroring Zero’s own thoughts.

The trooper still readied his weapon, prepared to use it at a moments notice.

The dark hybrid leaped from her perch and charged towards her pint-sized foe. Right before they made contact, Twilight’s horn let out a burst of light as she warped over to the elements.

“No!” Nightmare huffed before turning towards the little pony, her horn glowing.

Seeing Nightmare Moon use magic was all Zero needed to see to try and put her in the ground. Side-stepping to the left in order to make sure any missed shot didn’t hit Twilight, he unleashed as many bolts as his blaster could fire.

As she was charging, Nightmare’s ears perked as she heard the shots fire off. Immediately she teleported to her side, bolts wizzing by her head and blasting straight through the stone walls.

Zero was about to fire once more but was halted as his body was engulfed in a dark-purple aura.

“Not again!” Zero yelped as he was lifted off the ground and tossed aside, colliding with one of the many fallen pillars. His head whipped back as his spine smashed into the stone, the teeth-gritting impact made the soldier loose his grip on his gun, sending it flying from his hand.

Zero recovered as fast as he could and took a ready position against Nightmare Moon, but the equine had focused her attention on Twilight, shifting into a misty whirlwind before dashing towards the unicorn.

Zero had barely noticed the lavender mare using her magic to harness the elements as he turned around to desperately search for his gun.

“There!” he thought as he found it laying atop some rubble. He was racing to retrieve it before he heard a loud zapping sound, turning his head revealed that Twilight had been launched several meters away from the elements, which were now being loomed over by Nightmare Moon!

“Blast.” Zero muttered.

Picking up his weapon, Zero’s mind began to race for an idea on how to combat his powerful foe. His thoughts were interrupted, however, when he noticed the elements were floating, glowing, bathing the dim room in its pink light.

“No… NO!” Nightmare Moon screeched, her eyes showing a hint of genuine fear.

The elements started emitting electricity, their cackling sounds grew louder and louder until…

They stopped, the elements’ magic faded as the stones fell to the ground.

“This can’t be good…” Zero murmured.

Twilight let out a gasp, “But- where’s the sixth element?!”

Nightmare Moon let out a loud, triumphant laugh as she lifted her body and smashed the elements into minuscule pieces.

Skraig!

“You little foal!” Nightmare Moon spat. “Thinking you could defeat me!”

Twilight shrunk back as the fiend continued, “Now you will never see your precious princess, or your sun! The night, will last, forever!”

Zero watched as Nightmare Moon erupted in triumphant laugh, her mane started to elongate, grow, and swirl around her head as lightning crashed in the sky.

“Wanna bet?!” Zero hollered at the mare before lowering himself down. Nightmare Moon turned her head to look at the soldier as he swiftly picked up a large stone, about the size of his fist, and hurled it at the equine.

In a show of dominance, Nightmare Moon shot a magic beam at the rock with much more force than was necessary, blowing it into a big cloud of dust.

“Was that your best?” the mare wondered to her challenger as she tried to spot him through the debris. Many loud blasts came from his direction, in a split-second the mare, through nothing but instinct, used her magic to create a shied around her upper body, only just deflecting the bolts mere centimeters before they made contact with her head.

Thanks to his helmet, Zero looked through the dust cloud to see that the equine had defended herself, he immediately fired at her legs in an attempt to cripple her.

Gasping, the mare lowered her barrier to her legs, the second she did, Zero shot at her now exposed head. This time, instead of raising the shield, she increased its size to cover her whole body just in time as bolts slammed into the glowing aura.

Enraged, the dark hybrid engulfed the trooper in her purple magic, scrunching his limbs to his sides. She pulled him toward her until he was close enough to reach out and touch.

“You!” she hissed, hostility and recognition gleaming in her eyes!

“Put him down!” said a voice off to the side. It was Twilight, standing as tall as her nerves would let her as her horn glowed.

“I’ll deal with you later!” Nightmare Moon snapped at her as she used her magic to throw the unicorn across the room, forcefully sending her into a pile of rubble, where she now laid unmoving.

“You’re gonna regret that!” Zero groaned, struggling to breathe in his opponent’s grip.

“And just what will you do?!” the pony challenged as she slammed Zero into the ground. “Are you going to attack me again with your pathetic wand?”

The mare released Zero, letting him climb to stand on one knee.

“In all my years,” the equine began, “I have never seen anyone of your kind before!”

“Well, I’m from out of town.” Zero bluntly joked.

“And yet,” Nightmare Moon replied,” you decided to assault me with your powerless wand and worthless armor! Now tell me, just what inspired you to risk yourself by challenging me! Alone much less! How foolish.”

“What’s really foolish,” Zero retorted, “was assuming I did come here alone.”

The mare eyed the trooper suspiciously, unsure of what he meant.

“Now boys!” Zero yelled as he looked over at the window.

Nightmare Moon whipped her head around, ready to face any opponent.

With his foe distracted, Zero instantly raised his gun and fired at the hybrid’s head. Without any time to create a barrier, the mare ducked, though not quick enough as the bolt drilled into her horn, causing a tiny fracture to form.

The mare’s eyes were now almost bloodshot with rage as she yelled in pain. Zero fired again but a dark-purple aura surrounded his gun, aiming it upwards. The blast rocketed through the fine, chiseled roof, spraying dust down as the sound of the shot rang throughout the room an into the night sky.

Nightmare Moon tore the weapon from Zero’s hands. “I’ve had just about enough of this!” she grunted through grit teeth. She eyed the blaster, like she was trying to do something to it but nothing happened. In fact, the aura around the weapon faded as Zero watched it fall to the ground beside the dark equine.

“What? How!?” she stuttered as she looked up at her horn. Zero followed her gaze to find sparks were flying out of it, but they weren’t affecting anything.

Nightmare Moon turned to screech at the soldier “What did you d-“ she started before Zero interrupted her with a forceful punch in the teeth. The blow made her turn her head to her right and was then promptly met with a powerful left hook.

Realizing she was going to have fight, Nightmare Moon swung her head low, trying to slash at Zero with her horn which he effortlessly evaded. She tried it again, though this time when she swung, Zero ducked, his opponent’s horn zipping just over his head.

Right as the pony’s horn passed, Zero reached to grab for it. The strength of the mare’s strike lifted him from his feet, Zero used the momentum to pull himself up onto the back of Nightmare Moon’s neck.

She looked like she had barely processed what had happened before Zero immediately began to send a barrage of strikes into Nightmare Moon’s right eye, throwing all his body weight into every punch.

The mare shook her head violently in an attempt to throw the trooper off. She managed to make him loose his balance, causing him to swing down. Now he was dangling just below hear head, still holding onto her neck.

Zero used his core strength to pull himself closer to the equine before beginning to repeatedly knee her in her throat.

Nightmare Moon didn’t even cough as she managed to throw Zero away from her, sending him tumbling into a pile of stony debris.

The soldier clambered to his feet as his enemy started to taunt him. “You’ll have to do better than that if you think your going to-“

Zero didn’t let her finish as he grabbed a long, broken-off piece of a pillar and took a swing at the dark pony. The mare dodged his initial strike , but thanks to his training, Zero didn’t over-extend his swing and was able to recover quickly enough to smash the other side of the chunk on Nightmare Moon’s armored head.

The hit didn’t faze her at all as she slammed her cranium into the clone, causing him to fall backwards. Rolling with the momentum, Zero jumped back to his feet, grabbing two rocks about the size of his hand in the process. He threw the one in his left hand at the pony’s right side, causing her to weave to her left, exactly where Zero wanted her to move as he swung his other hand from behind his side in a large, quick motion, smashing the stone against his opponent’s jaw with all his might.

With a grunt Nightmare Moon raised her fore-hooves before slamming them down in an attempt to crush Zero. The trooper rolled out of the way and towards his foe’s side.

The equine bumped her body into the soldier, shoving him away from her before turning to buck him.

Zero weaved backwards, though not far enough away as Nightmare Moon landed just enough of her kick to send the soldier flying into the fractured wall behind him.

He let out a scream of pain as one of the wall’s pieces punctured into an unarmored portion of his shoulder. Zero could feel that the rock had lodged somewhere near his shoulder blade. To make matters worse, the pain reliever had finally worn off, his spine and hand erupted in pain, every movement the soldier made was pure agony as he felt his body-glove grow wet with his own blood.

“Zero!” Twilight Sparkle blurted.

The trooper turned his head to face the lavender unicorn, she looked woozy, appearing to have a mild concussion.

Nightmare Moon cast a glance at Zero. Coming to the assumption that he was not going to move, she began to make her way over to Twilight.

“Not on my watch.” Zero muttered as he painfully reached into his belt for his last reliever. He let out a loud, half-grunt, half-yell as the injection caused another eruption pain before it started to numb his body.

Zero didn’t wait for his pain to fully dull before he pulled himself from the stone, feeling a big sting along with a ton of tingling in his nerves as the stone ripped out of him as he moved forward.

The noise alerted Nightmare Moon, who turned to face the white-clad warrior.

Eyeing his blaster on the floor, Zero picked himself up and hobbled over to his weapon, but Nightmare Moon beat him there, kicking the weapon away before she swung her head at the trooper.

He dodged to his side which the mare had unfortunately predicted as she turned her whole body with her momentum, slamming her flank into the soldier and sending him crashing to the ground.

The dark hybrid let at a bout a laughter as she started to try and smash the soldier, Zero rolled to his sides, barely avoiding each blow from the powerful mare. Each stomp made Zero feel like it shook the ground around him.

“Leave-him-alone!” Twilight demanded. Her face showed both fear and determination as she started to stumble her way over to the conflict, her horn beginning to glow a faint pink.

Nightmare Moon stopped for a moment, whipping her head around to look at the unicorn. Zero tried to escape his unfortunate position but as he got up, his enemy turned back to face him and forcefully placed her fore hoof on Zero’s hurt shoulder.

An enormous tingling sensation erupted throughout the soldier’s side, his nerves carried the jolt all the way down to his hand which jerked into an awkward position.

“Stay. Put!” the mare growled before she started to march her way to Twilight.

“There’s nothing I can do to hurt her,” Zero thought, “and if I don’t stop her now, everyone on this planet will die…”

Seeing no option left, the soldier reached to his utility belt, he didn’t reach for the thermal detonator, he needed something stronger, something attached to the very back of his belt that was only to be used if he was unable to fight and was completely overrun.

“This is what I was born for…” Zero assured himself with a whisper as he reached for the cylindrical device.

Gripping the suicide detonator in his fist, Zero crept up behind Nightmare Moon. Twilight glanced over at him as he made his way the black mare, giving the trooper away. Nightmare Moon tried to whip around but it was too late. Zero jumped onto her using all his limbs to cling to her neck and upper body.

The soldier started the detonator’s countdown as the sinister equine tried to throw him off.

“Twilight! Look away!” Zero ordered.

“Why!?” she demanded, scared of the tone of his voice. She started stumble her way closer.

“Get back!” he bellowed, holding on to his foe with all he had, “Turn, your head, away!”

Nightmare Moon seemed deeply concerned with Zero’s demeanor, the fear gave her all the strength she needed to finally toss the trooper away.

Zero lost his grip on the bomb as he fell, the soldier scrambled to his feet as he listened for its quickening beeps, getting closer to the final countdown. He found the detonator just a meter away from himself, the quick high-pitched beeps alerted him that time was up.

Zero kicked the bomb over to Nightmare Moon who let out a gasp before he dove as far away as he could behind a fallen pillar.

Quicker than an instant, a flash of blue erupted from the casing with a metallic hum then was pulled back into the grenade for the smallest of moments before a blinding explosion brightened the entirety of the room followed by a deafening, ear-ringing, vibrating, ‘boom’.

The explosion decimated the pillar Zero was behind and launched the trooper at the wall behind him, slamming him into its stone plane with great force.

Shakily, the soldier picked himself up and looked over at Nightmare Moon. Zero’s heart fell to his stomach as he saw she standing there, unscathed, surrounded by a transparent, dark-purple bubble, her horn again glowing in that sinister aura.

Twilight, who was outside the implosion radius, let out a tiny gasp, sounding as if she were still shocked from what she had witnessed.

Nightmare Moon looked the slightest bit shaken as she observed the scene. The bomb had completely eradicated everything in a three and a half meter radius and did unnerving damage to the surrounding area. Bye the look on her face, Zero guessed the detonator would’ve have affected her after-all.

Zero looked to his surroundings to try and find anything he could use to fight, he came up empty, just staring at a blood-lusting Nightmare Moon.

Guess I got this to work just in time!” she half-laughed half-snarled, as she looked up at her still barely cracked horn. She lifted Zero with her magic and slammed him into the floor, sending a jolt throughout his body.

“Vermin!”

The mare threw Zero over her head and smashed him into the floor again, through his numbness, Zero could feel something in his body move in an way it wasn’t supposed to, and his hand again screwed up in an awkward position.

“Stop!” Twilight yelled.

“Weakling!”

Nightmare Moon quickly and ferociously dragged the clone across the jagged floor near the explosion site before throwing him into a wall.

“Scum!”

“Let him go!” Twilight wailed, “i-it was my idea in the first place to-“

“I’ll see to you in a moment!” Nightmare Moon hissed, using her regained magic to throw a large stone at the unicorn, the force of it sent her crashing to the ground.

The dark mare then lifted Zero over to herself, her victim’s limbs were dangling from his barely conscious body.

“Heed my words you mongrel! You could have just left, lived your life, but you simply had to intervene, didn’t you?! Now if you are lucky I just might keep you living as a trophy!” The mare growled.

Zero turned to look her in the eye before replying in a soft, shaky, raspy voice,

“What’s wrong? Mad you just got your tail handed to you by a ‘weakling’?”

Nightmare Moon’s eyes dilated, “So be it.” she murmured before she sent Zero through the broken window. Lightning light up the sky and thunder roared through the ruins, the last thing Zero heard was Twilight’s scream…

“No!”

Author's Note

Legend says that the last thoughts going through Zero’s mind before he was sent through the window was…

“Just, like, the simulations!”

As always, feel free to leave any feedback if you wish :D

Chapter 7: Unraveling (Part 1)

Light.

Blinding light.

Zero could barely even open his eyes to squint and yet brilliant, shining rays bombarded his vision. He could hear voices around him, though the man could understand none of them.

They were to fast and garbled, not to mention muffled by the pulsating of his head.

Zero tried to move something, anything to no avail.

Almost everything felt numb, and anything that didn’t was burning with an incredible pain.

He had never been so aware of his body, through either the burning the stinging or a dull pressure he could feel every part of himself all at once, overloading his senses.

It was a horrible feeling, Zero’s mind strained at a snails pace, attempting to piece together what happened to him, and what was going on around him.

It was useless, his senses were failing him, and any thought he could contrive was instantly driven out by his natural instinct to put all focus into surviving.

With no alternative and a ticking clock, the man tried to call for help with all his might, all that escaped his lips was a faint mix between groan and a deep, raspy exhale.

He felt the ground ever so slightly tremble around him as his little noise seemed to disturb the beings that the voices were coming from, causing them move around him.

One voice sounded something urgently, the trooper then felt a pressure at his side. Even the slight touch of one of the beings hurt tremendously, garnering a weak groan from the man.

He tried again to look at what was around him, hoping to see what had touched him. It was fortunate that Zero was already facing the direction of the thing, as he was unable to turn his head.

Light again blinded Zero as he cracked open an eye. Though barely, he could make out the shapes of the beings around him, the silhouettes were that of familiar quadrupeds. One of them, the closest to himself, was holding up one of their legs, a red liquid staining it.

Blood

Were they hurt? Or had it come from when it had touched him. Zero guessed it was the latter, either way the quadruped seemed to be distressed.

The others started to react to the one with the bloody leg. All the movement made Zero feel woozy.

With a deep, shaky exhale, Zero closed his eyes again. He could feel himself slipping, falling asleep. Little needles stabbed his sides as he felt himself get lifted off the ground.

The wonder of what was happening and who was around him were the last things Zero thought of before he gave into the relieving, comforting darkness…

********************

Luna wasn’t used to all the noise, ponies cheering, hooves stomping in applause. Years of exile on the moon had eased her into familiarity with silence. All the sounds of the surrounding welcome party made the mare uncomfortable, especially because of the guilt weighing her down.

Even though they still seemed to be afraid, the equines of ponyville had welcomed Luna back as the rightful, second princess of Equestria, and though she was grateful, the alicorn continued to scorn herself for what she had become.

Her amazing sister, Celestia, had completely forgiven her for who she used to be and for what she had tried to do, even for what she did do.

Luna couldn’t shake the thought from her mind, what she most regretted was what she was attempting to do to her people, in her blind rage and jealousy she was going to enforce her night permanently, she hadn’t even thought about how that would have affected the land.

Without the sun, all the world’s crops and every single plant would soon die. Without them, all life would have followed, it wasn’t her intent, but intentions don’t matter when it comes to such actions. At least she was stopped before she enacted her plan, but not before she attempted murder.

At that moment it was like Luna was still there, watching. She knew it wasn’t exactly her, but even still, seeing herself attempt to destroy the pale warrior, watching his limp body fly through the window of her old castle, it filled the princess with shame.

After those brave ponies had used the elements of harmony to save Celestia and free Luna from her malice, she had only wanted to hide away, too ashamed to even look at the magnificent mare that was her sister. Luna couldn’t believe how Celestia had so eagerly accepted her back. For a moment, she almost forgot what she had just done, only to be reminded as soon as she saw the purple unicorn running toward that window, starring in horror at what laid below.

Luna quickly made her way over as well, removing herself from her sisters embrace, at first she was washed with such a relief when she saw he had only fallen down to the edge of the cliff holding up the ruined castle instead of off into the forest far below.

That relief immediately twisted into worry as she saw that the abnormal being was unmoving.

It hardly made any sense, how could such a competent and confident warrior be so fragile?

Celestia came over to observe what was going on, upon seeing the state of the thing she flew down at once to check on him.

Luna could hardly move, mortified at what she had done, was he dead? Am I a murderer? By now the others had rushed over to see for themselves what was happening, all of them let out a collective gasp of shock. The yellow pegasus Luna now knew as Fluttershy, lead the blue pegasus named Rainbow Dash down to the cliffside, her aquamarine eyes showing nothing but fear and worry.

The others beside Luna simply starred down below, Rarity looked like she was doing all she could to not faint at the sight while Applejack removed her hat and held it close to her chest, not daring to take her eyes of the warrior.

It felt like for so long they were all just watching, waiting for one of the ponies below to find out how bad the situation was.

Suddenly, the stranger made a strained sound, both revealing he was alive, and that he soon might not be.

Luna remembered how terrible the gargling noise made her feel, and how much worse she felt when Fluttershy had tried to check his body for what was most damaged, and raising up a bloody hoof.

A cheer ripped her from her memories, reminding her of the celebration around her, honoring the return of both Celestia, and herself.

Luna lowered her head, she felt so undeserving of the necklace sown with flowers that hung on her neck. The mare was so focused on her thoughts that she barely even noticed somepony bumping into her.

It was a young colt with a brown mane and grey coat. “Oops, sorry about thaaa-” he started before locking his mouth shut at the sight in front of him, clearly petrified.

“There is no need to be afraid youthful one.” Luna stated in a steady tone. She had almost spoken to the foal in the traditional ‘Royal Canterlot Voice’, but had caught herself. Earlier that day she had greeted one of the townsfolk that way before they oddly scrambled away in fear, Luna’s sister had advised her to not speak that way. When Luna asked why, Celestia simply told her she would explain later and to ‘follow her lead’ for the day.

The colt’s father came over to collect him, giving a thousand apologies in the process, no matter how much Luna explained to him that it was fine.

“Will it always be this way?” The mare thought to herself, “Always being reared away from like thou is a monster?”

She let her head hang a little as a lone tear formed in her eye, “But thou was a monster…”

“Are you alright.” asked a gentle voice to her left, even a thousand years apart couldn’t make her forget who it belonged to.

“No sister,” Luna informed her fellow princess, “Thou is not, thine doesn’t deserve this.”

Celestia lowered her head to give her sister a nuzzle, “Maybe, but right now, all that matters is that you’re home, that you’re you again, and that’s worth celebrating.”

Luna give her a little smile. “Thank you, you always were there for thee.” Luna stared into Celestia’s eyes, “Thou loves you sister.”

The face the shown on the white alicorn warmed Luna’s heart. “And I, you.”

Though she still struggled with her shame, Luna straightened her head. Her beloved sister still cared for her, that fact and a desire to atone motivated her to be the best princess she could be for her people.

She had many wrongs to make right, and now that she knew her sister had, undeservedly, forgiven her, there was one other person, or, thing she wanted to do right by.

“If it is alright with thou,” she began to ask her sister, “We would like to go see Zero.”

Celestia’s smile faltered, though just a bit. “Are you sure? He still has yet to awaken, besides, he did try to…”

“We know,” Luna assured, remembering how the unknown being had tried to take his own life in an attempt to destroy hers. The mare looked away for a moment. “And we don’t blame him.”

Though Luna had never met somepony quite so extreme she had witnessed many times during one of Equesrias darker eras where an evil had to be vanquished. At worst, with lethality. Yet those who partook in such actions were seen as heroes forced to do what they had to in order to protect what is right.

Why should this being be looked at any differently? It would be wrong to judge him harshly just because the evil this time was of royal lineage.

Fortunately, Celestia agreed.

Luna always admired her sister’s commitment to being noble and just, observing any scenario with unbiased eyes. She had already admitted to Luna that though she was mortified at the thought of losing her sister, she would not hold that against the strange being considering the circumstances, regardless of how she felt. Though like Luna, she believed anypony who would so willingly use lethal force, even though it would have been the same for himself and was warranted, it was still of concern.

No matter if he was willing to die, Luna hated that she was the one who put him in the state he was in, that she was the consequence of him putting his life on the line for a people he didn’t call his own. In her eyes, that stranger, though he may be violent, deserved this event infinitely more than she did.

Luna wanted to do something, that would help him, but Celestia was not so sure that now was the proper time.

“I think this party is good for you. I believe it’ll help you ease your way back into the swing of things, after all much has changed over the millennia.” Her face showed not an expression of doubt, but of sincerity.

Luna had to admit that the party seemed well put together. She was impressed by the resolve of the one who put it all together, Pinke Pie.

Upon their return to Equestria nopony knew what to think, on one hoof, the sun rose again, Celestia was safe, and Luna had returned, but on the other hoof… Zero.

Pinkie Pie had requested that they throw a party to enjoy all the good that had come from that night. At first it seemed she was being insensitive but she insisted that if Zero were awake, that he would have wanted them to celebrate the safe return of both Equestrias leaders.

Celestia had accepted Pinkie’s offer, after all her kingdom was awaiting her and she needed to address her beloved subjects. When they left to begin preparations, Luna noticed that the pink mare had stayed behind for a little while in the ponyville hospital room that Zero now laid.

She recalled the last words she heard the earth pony speak before she walked out of ear-shot.

“I Pinkie promise I’ll save you some food! And I super duper aliooper Pinkie promise to plan the bestest get-well-soon party ever once you wake up!”

“Luna? Did you hear me?” Celestia asked.

The dark mare blinked away the memory, “Yes, but thine event is dying down anyway, and besides, should we not try and investigate Fluttershy’s claim now?”

“I suppose you’re right.” Celestia admitted, “Let’s us give our goodbyes and thanks, then we’ll head on our way.”

The white alicorn walked over to one of her guards, she asked him to retrieve the six ponies that had searched for the elements of harmony. Now that she had the time, she wanted to hear all of their testimonies before deciding the best course of action to take with what could very well be Equestrias first alien encounter.

Luna had hardly believed it herself, neither had any of Fluttershy’s friends. If it weren’t so far-fetched it would make sense of a lot of things about the stranger, but that was impossible. At least that’s what Luna used to think.

Years on the moon alone, gazing into the empty reaches of space had all but convinced her the there was no life elsewhere. She started to doubt her beliefs though, when the doctors had begun to work.

They removed all of Zero’s belongings, which were going to be locked away on account of how dangerous they could all potentially be, but Fluttershy insisted they let her view the items.

With Celestia’s permission she retrieved a small, thin, circular trinket from the stash. She started fiddling with it for a bit before the most incredible thing happened. An image just displayed in the air, no picture frame, no book, just floating red letters in an unknown script.

Neither Luna nor her sister had ever seen anything even remotely resembling this disk.

While not enough to prove Fluttershy’s claim, that when combined with the unusual look of the creature, his unique weapons and armor, and his lack of knowledge on the most basic of things, made the theory very plausible.

During Luna’s ponderings, Celestia had taken care of the formalities, all that was left to do was say goodbye, and head for the hospital.

********************

The sisters had decided to fly to their destination on their own, the royal carriage was not built for two yet after all, but it was able to hold the four grounded ponies of the group bolstering the elements.

The two pegasai, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, flew next to the guards pulling the cramped carriage. Inside it appeared that most of the mares in there were uncomfortable, with the exception of Twilight. Though she was still shaken from what she had recently witnessed, she couldn’t help but be overjoyed at the thought of riding in the royal carriage.

The princesses started to descend once they had reached their destination. After landing they waited for the wielders of the elements to exit their ride before entering the large building.

The eight mares walked up to the front desk, the sight of the princess of Equestria standing next to what used to be its greatest threat made the receptionist stand straight.

“Your highnesses.” He greeted as he bowed down.

“Hello Rusty.” Celestia responded, remembering his name from the last visit. “Has the patient woken up yet?”

“I’m afraid not ma’am.” Rusty informed as he stood back up.

“May we go and see him?” Celestia asked. Luna looked at her a bit awkwardly, she was starting to find it odd how her sister communicated with her subjects.

“Of course your majesty.” answered Rusty, “Right this way.”

The stallion lead the mares down the selection of hallways that lead to emergency care before coming to a stop outside of Zero’s room.

He then turned to address the group, “If I may, I would recommend consulting the head doctor before letting more than two ponies inside, but of course, only if you wish ma’am.”

“I will,” replied Celestia, “may you retrieve her?”

“Yes ma’am, right away.” With that the yellow unicorn made his way down one of the hallways and vanished around a corner.

“If I may,” Rainbow Dash began, “what’re we doing back here?

Celestia turned to answer the pegasus. “Well since he is not awake yet, I thinks it’s best we do what we can to figure out if Zero really is an alien. I will discuss with each of you what you experienced on your journey,” the alicorn then turned towards her sister, “meanwhile I believe you should try looking into his dreams, I do think that is the best way to find the truth.”

Luna saw the little ponies glance at each other nervously, it was clear that they all were still struggling to trust her.

“Is thou sure that would be what is best?” Luna questioned.

“Without a shadow of a doubt.” Celestia assured. The look on her face, the complete trust inspired Luna do what she had to, perhaps earning a little smidge of trust from the equines around her.

Giving a look of gratitude to her adored sibling, Luna left to find a quiet place to work her magic, one of the staff suggested a little used room near the back. After giving her thanks the black mare departed for the sanctuary. After entering the room, she observed just how calm it was, the dust scattered about reminded her of the moon in a way, not of its loneliness, but the serenity.

After choosing a spot in the dark confines, she closed her eyes, and rested her mind. Her horn started glowing as she began to transport her psyche to the land of dreams.

Opening her eyes revealed the familiar realm. Though it had been centuries since she was last here she still knew it like the back of her hoof.

She took a moment to enjoy once again gazing all the stary, crisscrossing roads and paths, all lined by the doors leading into the dreams of others.

Focusing hard, Luna closed her eyes and pictured Zero in her mind, once she opened them she stood in front of a metallic door. It looked rectangular in shape, though it had diagonal edges on the top sides rather than corners. Instead of a normal door that would swing inward or outward, this door was split in the middle with the lower half being painted with a red stripe. Luna tried to enter but the door was locked.

Peculiar

Luna studied the door for a keyhole or some sort of locking mechanism that was keeping her out. Her eyes fell upon a small box on the right side of door, sporting a bright blue, light-image, just like the disk Fluttershy had showed them, except this time the letters were more numerous and displayed on the surface of the box.

Again Luna used her magic, focusing on making the mechanism release the door’s lock. The box glowed with her dark purple aura as one by one some of the letters would flash before the image blinked green.

Instantly the door parted, revealing a misty fog on the other side.

Suddenly Luna’s nerves were overwhelmed with a terrible sense of anxiety. She could hear many loud noises coming from the other side of the smoke, it almost sounded of the ambience of Canterlot, albeit more chaotic and less comforting.

It didn’t look like there was anything to be afraid of, Luna was sure this wasn’t a nightmare, but there was something about this dream.

Some foreboding, ominous feeling that struck deep into Luna’s very core as she entered through the mist, and into Zero’s mind.

Author's Note

Hey that’s unusual, a chapter just got posted.

For real though, I wanted to get this out three weeks ago, but a ton of stuff has come up recently, and the times when I would usually write are simply few and far between.

Just to get this chapter out I had to stay up till 1:30. Which would also explain why I feel this is one of my weaker chapters, rest assured I will be revisiting it to clean it up a lot.

I’m very sorry for how long it took to post this, especially since I had said that it was coming sooner, like, three times. I know “you can’t predict life” or whatever but I value my word and I feel bad for breaking it.

I’m going to be posting new chapters less frequently for the time being, while I’ll try and post part 2 in the coming weeks, until things improve on my end I think I’m going to have to slow down to a chapter a month, so to everyone who enjoyed the weekly releases, again, sorry ‘bout this :p

I honestly do wish I had more time to write. I mean, if I could post a chapter a week again,

that would be my dream…

…

I’ll see myself out…