Redemption

Chapters

Prologue
Alone
Intelligence
Diplomacy
Royalty
Conversation
Consumption
Finale
Discovery
Records
Contact
Phoenix
Escape
Conviction
Upgrade
Conference
Third
Coal
Infiltration
Extra
Clothing

Prologue

The buzz of digging machinery filled the air, thousands of pounds of dirt being shifted in minutes. The excavation site was thick with the scent of weeks-old must, and air purification spells filled the air alongside the dust that needed purification. Ponies milled about, polishing an artifact here, unearthing a piece of scrap metal there.

Twilight Sparkle was fascinated by the most recent developments. The dig team had just broken into a new, unexplored area of the archaeological site, and actual, working, lights had been discovered. The ancient, unbelievably old artifacts had never been found in such condition before, only broken parts and theoretical assemblies. Never before had such a perfect example of old-biped tech been found before. She was nearly giddy with excitement.

Her path took her down a series of winding paths, more convoluted than diamond dog tunnels. The flattened earth had taken her for nearly half a mile before it leveled out, and as she passed dozens of ponies moving in and out, she followed it into a new chamber. The chamber opened up, the ceiling nearly five times as high as the tunnel she had traveled through. Her gaze did not wander, though. It fell quickly upon the opposite entrance, where a large metal door lay, upright, surrounded by a group of ponies. Noting the lack of normal human decorum, she quickly closed the distance between herself and the portal in the effort to reach it as soon as possible.

Upon arrival, she was met by a mint-green unicorn, Lyra Heartstrings, if she remembered correctly, and a group of other 'anthropologists'. Ruins of the old-biped civilizations had been found around Equestria, and due to the apparent technological superiority of the creatures, ponies had devoted their time to studying the creatures, as much could be learned from them.

The matter at hoof, or hand as the old-bipeds would have said, was the newly unearthed area. Working oB creations had been found and unearthed, their inner mechanisms to be studied. In this new area, there was one last thing that nopony understood. There was a door. Not just any door, but a huge, high density, oB alloy door with no means of opening, other than a red button on the side laid on top of a metal plate with holes punched in it.

Why was she here? Well, she was here on behalf of Princess Celestia, as the Princess had a world summit meeting with the ambassadors of multiple neighboring countries, and as a result, could not attend.

The group of ponies gathered around Ms. Heartstrings as she detailed the procedures surrounding the opening of the door. Obviously, the red button would do so, and the ponies needed to be prepared for whatever they found. The mechanisms were still working, so, potentially, there could be a living creature, or well-preserved ruins. The possibility of the former was very low, as multiple spells had been used to try and detect any sort of life inside the room, and nothing had been detected. But of course, the oB technology may have avoided detection.

The button was to be pressed, and the ponies were to wait around in a semi-circle, not only taking notes of observations, but also recording the event from multiple angles. This was the greatest breakthrough in oB history since the first discovery of their kind.

The ponies began to move to their positions, Twilight standing slightly off-center in relation to the door, watching intently with a pair of notepads and pencils (another oB technology, sticks of graphite embedded inside wood. Ingenious!), ready to annotate and record any and all observations she had.

Lyra moved forwards, towards the button, and the recordings began. She spoke aloud, giving the date and background for the event. Then, she raised her hoof, and pushed on the red button.

A mechanical and monotonous voice spoke from the door. "Welcome to the [redacted]. [redacted] is currently under lock-down procedures. It has been [-2375742] years since this lock-down was initiated. Please, clearly state the passcode for entry and removal of lock-down procedures." Some parts of the voice seemed to contrast with the fluent speech, and some parts had been replaced with a single tone.

The ponies at the door, the anthropologists, looked at each other strangely. What passcode? This meant that access was potentially denied for all of eternity.

Twilight sighed. This door was going to take a while to open. She spoke up.

"Maybe we could just use magic to open it. That should work, right? I mean, it can't be that hard of a door to open, right?"

The other scientists looked at her for a moment, pondering her suggestion. Lyra spoke up. "I guess we could. It can't hurt to try."

"Access Denied." Nopony paid heed to the voice, ignoring it and preparing for the next attempt at opening the door.

The ponies gathered around the door once more, this time a little farther away. Twilight, as the most powerful unicorn in the vicinity, had been given the opportunity to try and pull the doors apart.

Lyra spoke again, detailing the method to be used to the cameras, and Twilight prepared herself. As Lyra finished, Twilight's horn lit up with a lavender aura, and her brow furrowed. Moments later, the doors began to glow, the same aura appearing around them. Twilight grunted with exertion, and the door shifted slightly apart. A puff of dust was propelled out of the room, but nothing else happened. Twilight strained harder, and sweat began to form at the edge of her mane. The doors, however, ceased their movement, and remained still. She put even more energy into it, but it was to no avail. The doors refused to budge any farther. She cut the flow of energy to the door, and stood, panting, as nothing more happened.

The room was silent.

The voice spoke again. "Door calibration error. Select option. [1], contact maintenance. [2], follow step-by-step instructions to recalibrate doors. [3], warning, emergency only. Activate door charges and forcibly disengage doors."

The room was silent again.

Lyra spoke up, trepidation in her voice. "Three..."

The door spoke again. "Command accepted. Please move back. Disengaging doors in 5...4...3...2...1..." The last word was muffled by a series of muted thumps and dust flying out of the sides of the doors. Ponies stepped back as the voice spoke again. "Door disengaged. Please clear space for removal." The ponies watched as the doors tilted outwards, and as their center of gravity passed from underneath them, they toppled like dominoes.

A cloud of dust billowed out from behind the doors, and was quickly cleared by the lavender unicorn. As it cleared, the grandeur of the room that lay behind the doors became apparent to all. Not a single eye passed over it.

They had all fallen on the elliptical object lying just inside the entrance.

Lyra was the first to break out of her stupor. With a few quick and quiet steps, she approached the egg shape, and her horn lit up. What seemed to be some sort of identifying spell passed over it, and she backed away.

"It's made of metal, but it's hollow on the inside. There's something inside that..." She spoke loudly, her voice falling with each word, until it was nearly a whisper. Her eyes widened at the prospect of the preserved artifacts inside of it. "It must be some sort of storage container. And we have clearance to open it...!"

The team advanced to the 'egg', and surrounded it. On closer inspection, the cover of the thing seemed to be a shiny, silver color with a strip of white, and was cold to the touch. Next to the white strip, on the silver, there lay an abnormally flat surface.

Lyra raised a hoof, and rested it on the surface of the 'egg'. "It's cold. Colder than it should be. I wonder why?" She pondered aloud. She ran her hoof along the surface, and brushed the flat portion of the curved surface.

As she did, the flat portion began to glow, dimly. Lyra backed away for a moment, looking at it. Momentarily, it projected a flat surface with three sections. The first of the three was a bar across the top of the surface, and it read something in the oB language. There were five characters. They looked like a circle, a vertical stick with a bump to the right, a vertical stick with three perpendicular sticks to the right, a pair of vertical sticks with a diagonal stick going from top-left to bottom-right, and a curved stick that went up, around, and back under the middle of the curve, and it had a dot underneath it. The second and third panels were simply half of the leftover space. One had a stick with two protruding from the top of it at angles, and the other was the fourth symbol from the first panel.

Lyra spoke again, out loud to the cameras, obeying protocol. "Egg shaped artifact was found inside the door. It seems out-of-place, and after physical contact was made, it showed a flat panel made of light. There are three sections, indicating the long 'word' symbol now."

Ponies watched with bated breath as she tapped the long, horizontal panel with her hoof. Nothing happened.

"Now trying the right side panel, with the two vertical lines and connecting diagonal."

She tapped the right panel. The panel lit up, and then disappeared. The ponies stepped forward involuntarily, the loss of the panel unexpected. Brushing the flat surface of the pod again, Lyra made the panel reappear.

"Trying the third and last panel, with the vertical line and two angled intersecting lines." Lyra poked the last panel, and it lit up with a soft blue light.

The panel disappeared. The white began to clear away, and the substance was revealed to be somewhat translucent. Minutes passed, as ponies waited with enthusiasm, watching the material defog, hoping to catch a glimpse of the artifacts inside.

Then, after the color of the material stopped changing, a slight hum filled the air, as two black lines appeared on the border of the previously white surface. Ponies stepped back as the cover split into three parts and began to unfold, mist and cold air pouring from the gaps. The pod opened up, and Lyra poked her head over the side, giddy with excitement.

"Guys. Look. A body!" She was nearly jumping up and down. More heads appeared next to hers, and they peered at the cold body of the biped in the pod.

They backed away for a moment, allowing the camera to get a good view of the creature, and they began chatting quickly and quietly in excitement with one another, hardly believing what they had just seen. A real, fully preserved, old-biped corpse. Such a discovery had never been made before. Fossils had been found, yes, but never had a full body, with all the soft tissue intact, been discovered or recovered.

"We need to take it out of here. Get a stretcher or body-bag and a preservation spell ready." Lyra had retaken command of the throng of excited scientists. "This discovery could change the way we look at the old-bipeds forever."

She turned back to the specimen inside the pod, and looked into its cold face. Reaching a hoof towards it, she spoke lovingly, like a mother to her foal. "You are history in the making, may you rest in peace, wherever you do."

Her hoof made contact with the side of the body's face, and strangely enough, it felt somewhat warm. It must have been the air heating the skin.

At least, that's what she thought until my eyes flicked open and stared straight into hers.

Alone

In my line of work, when one was faced with an unknown, due its hazardous nature, one was taught to 'shoot first, and ask questions later'. I had no weapon, so the first thing I did...

I jerked my right hand up at the creature, fingers curling into a fist. I felt a solid impact as my bludgeon of a fist impacted the side of the thing's head, and following the momentum of the punch, I leaned upwards. With my left hand, I reached behind my head, to my neck, and grabbed the cover of my adaptive helmet, pulling the face-mask over my head as fast as I could. As I flipped myself over to the far side of the pod, I shot a glance in the directions of the group of... horses..? And I drew my right hand back to the side holster I always wore. With my left, I tapped the side of my helmet, activating the augmented reality, heads-up-display, information gatherer, active projection devices, and everything else in the package. The HUD pulsed once, and I could see the last known locations and projected movements of the creatures, as well as the ammo counter of my now drawn side-arm and mag-rifle resting on my back in addition to my armor status and estimated body condition.

My back fell against the pod as I crouched behind it for cover. I spun the pistol in my hand around the trigger guard, inspecting it for damage, as I felt the last vestiges of cryo-strain leave my body. After a deep breath, I called out to the technicolor equines on the other side of the pod.

"What the fuck are you, and where the god-damned world am I?" I was never one to cuss, but the confusion and panic of being woken up from cryo, after the end of the world by nuclear winter, by strange, as far as I could tell, equine creatures that seemed intelligent, was probably getting to me. My hands tightened on the pistol, the familiar groves where my fingers still fit doing miracles to my state of mind, calming me down and hardening my thoughts. The feeling was therapeutic.

Another deep breath, and I turned around, kneeling behind the pod, arm braced on it, pistol and gaze towards the creatures.

They hadn't moved. So this projected movement thing didn't work very well. Or maybe they were as shocked as I was, and the augmented reality didn't catch that. None of them seemed to have any indication of advanced technology on them, nor did they wear any clothes. They must be relatively un-advanced. The one I had punched was a few steps back from where I hit it, and it was on its haunches, a hoof up to its muzzle. Its eyes were wide in pain, as well as shock and fear. It had a horn in the center of its forehead, and it was mint-green. On its side, or to be anatomically accurate, flank, was the tattoo of some sort of string instrument, like a harp or something. I was woken from cryo-sleep by a technicolor unicorn then? I don't remember seeing anything remotely like this on earth. It must have been something new from the radioactive fallout. And on that note, its species must have become dominant, as there were more horse-things behind it, watching me with shock and awe.

Something moved suddenly, and I redirected my aim to it, pulling the trigger of my gun twice or thrice, not seeing my entire target. The bullets would have probably eviscerated the purple unicorn who made the movement, had it not been for the safety on my gun being on.

Cursing for my rookie mistake, I flipped my thumb back up, tapping the safety, and I returned my aim to the purple one. Its horn lit up, and a sound passed through the air, a high-pitched noise, like the sound of a building charge. Knowing the sound of something being readied for discharge, I dived to the side, hoping to avoid what the creature was about to fire. I got lucky, and a beam of purple light passed over my old spot, right where my chest would have been.

Finishing my roll and dropping to my knees, I pulled off two shots in quick, succession, keeping close eye on my ammo counter and the target in my sights. Two thunderclaps later, two orange lines appeared on my augmented reality, tracing my bullet paths. My first shot went wide, bouncing off the wall somewhere, as indicated by my HUD. My second shot, however, pinged off the horn of the unicorn, deflected by it. Had my aim been a few inches lower, the creature would have a hole in its head. My augmented reality flashed information to me. The horn was obviously strong enough to deflect a gunshot, and it seemed to be sensitive to the creature, as it was now on the ground, incapacitated.

I redirected my aim around to the still-stunned creatures, obviously not accustomed to combat or anything remotely like it, and shouted again. "Answer my damn question!" I realized, after the first traces of panic left me, that I may or may not be over-reacting. Then, quieter, I spoke to them. "Where am I? Please tell me." It helped to be the one holding the gun, but I was seriously doubting they spoke English, let alone anything remotely like human speech.

And I was proven wrong, when one stuttered out something indistinguishable, but clearly in my own tongue.

"What?" I questioned, the previous statement lost in the lack of clarity in the creature's speech.

"D-don't h-h-hurt us."

My mind instantly left the place, thinking back to Earth. I was always good with kids, back before I was a soldier. The creature's voice sounded surprisingly like a little girl's. This could really be its voice, or it could be some sort of devious distracting or debilitating predatory adaptation.

I lowered my sidearm, body still tensed for action, adrenaline beginning to wear off. "Where. Am. I?" I spoke slowly and quietly, trying not to scare the thing earlier. Yeah, I definitely overreacted. Two creatures incapacitated, one nursing a darkening patch on its face, and the other in the fetal position, hit with a high-velocity projectile in what was probably the sensitive equivalent of a guy's... well, you know.

"I won't attack anymore, unless you do. Will you PLEASE, for heaven's sake, tell me where I am?" This was getting tiring. These creatures should know better than annoy a highly trained killer with a gun.

One spoke up, the same as before. "You're i-in Equestria, in an a-archaeological dig site of the o-old b-biped, your, civilization."

My ears perked up. Archaeological dig site? We're history now? It was like just yesterday when human civilization was at its pinnacle. I was hit by a wave of fear. The great human race, reduced to 'old biped'? It was not possible. After all, I survived. Some others must have too. I needed to know, and there was one very valid, direct source of information I could use.

I moved back over to the cryo pod, making sure to watch the horses. Using my left hand, I tapped the command panel. It lit up, and a holo-panel lit up above it. Navigating through a menu and some sub-menus, I selected the information tab. A status report materialized in front of me, and through it, I could see the horses watching me, less with fear, and now with more intrigue. They seemed fascinated by the ease with which my fingers flew across the holographic surface. Attention reverting to the status report, I scanned it and other tidbits of information until I finally found what I was looking for.

The most recent 'freeze' had lasted -2375742 years. My brows furrowed for a moment, pondering the negative number where time should be, and then my augmented vision displayed two words. Integer overflow. Then it hit me, numbers never went negative when they shouldn't unless they were really big. My augmented vision began displaying calculations. The current model of the pod had a 32-bit counting system in its counter, which meant the largest number it could reach was... 4,294,967,295. The calculation scrolled for a moment, and then projected itself above the holo-panel.

My arms went limp and my legs turned to jelly. I fell to my knees, tears pooling at the edges of my eyes inside my helmet. I didn't believe it, I couldn't believe it. My mind reeled as it processed the number in front of me.

4,292,591,554. I had been asleep, no, frozen, for 4,292,591,554 years. I had lived, if one could call it that, for 4,292,591,554 years inside a pod. It had been 4,292,591,554 years since the humans initiated nuclear winter. The number burned itself into my mind. 4,292,591,554.

My mind could hardly comprehend the sheer size of the number indicated. It wasn't possible. I shouldn't be alive. How could I be over four billion years old? The cryo pod should have broken, or something! Something must have failed. This room should have collapsed. The world should have eaten me up. How in the damnedest form of hell could I still be alive? I very nearly put a hole in my head right there.

I was entering the first stages of a panic attack, and I knew it. The information was too much. I slapped my head, shutting the augmented reality device off, and pulled my helmet off, allowing the nano-plastics to hang loosely behind my head. My hands grew numb and I dropped my pistol on the floor, despair and shock overwhelming my senses. 4,292,591,554. How?

I buried my head in my hands, and I cried, for the world, for humanity, and for myself. I was alone.

Author's Note

If you wanted to know, the augmented reality is like having Splinter Cell's last known position, burning atium like a Seer misting or mistborn, the Halo HUD without the crosshair, and the Pip Boy's body thing, but smaller and with vitals next to it...
Or, imagine it how you will.

Tell me if I got that overflow calculation off...

Intelligence

It's not in my nature, as a human being, or as a soldier, or as a cold-hearted killer, or as whatever I am, to cry. But this was an exception. This was the utter and complete feeling of loneliness, the knowledge that I was, or am, the last living human on earth. I was over four billion years old, meaning that whatever was left of our planet was now probably gone. I had just spent the same time it took for the earth to cool inside a cryo tube as my own species bombed itself to oblivion.

And the last thing I expected from the creature I had slugged was a hug. I vaguely felt the creature wrap it's forelegs around my neck, and rest its head on my shoulder. I was too busy grieving for my kind. Deep in my mind, I knew that I needed to act, do something, but the feeling of overwhelming despair had begun to desensitize me.

I simply leaned into the hug and wept.

People don't understand what depression is. They think it's just some sort of temporary thing, that one can just go and have fun to get rid of. That's not true, at all. Depression is much, much worse. I felt like there was nothing I could do, the hopelessness, the despair, the grief. This depression was my mind's inability to feel anything but those three feelings.

The next part, for me, was a blur.

The creatures led me out of some cave, and they took me somewhere. I vaguely remember the words "pony", "princess", "Canterlot", and "dungeon", but nothing clicked in my head. The feeling, however, was slipping away, my soldier mentality overcoming my human nature. My line of work had no place for this... but I wasn't needed anymore... was I?

They had confiscated my sidearm, I knew that because if I had it, I'd have a hole in the side of my head. My place was not with these creatures. It was with my kind, dead.

They put me in some sort of carriage, and I was mildly surprised to see that it flew. It didn't really matter to me, I was still contemplating my existence. Had I been in a more analytical mindset, I would have noticed that some of the horses had wings; they were pegasi, and could actually fly. The unicorns could levitate objects, and do some other physics-defying things, like teleport and create fire. In the back of my mind, I could only wonder what we did to our earth.

I began to feel tired, the depression weighing heavily on my shoulders. It didn't help that I hadn't eaten or drunk anything in over four billion years. In addition, considering cryo-sleep was not actually sleep, rather one's body being frozen in whatever state it was, I hadn't had any more than four hours of sleep in the past week, assuming cryo-sleep didn't count.

I fell asleep, and for the first time in my life, my dreams were of home, of earth, and of the people who had passed on.

v^V^v

I woke up on a bed. Well, it was probably the most comfortable thing I had ever slept on in my military career, but it was really just a flat piece of stone with a thick blanket on top of it. Eh... a bed.

I could still feel the last traces of depression, and I knew that I was alone, but a good rest, for God knows how long, did wonders for me. I felt rested, better, but still hungry and thirsty. My sidearm was gone, but my rifle was lying in the corner of the room, alongside my helmet and a bowl of some sort of clear liquid.

I sat up, and lifted my legs over the side of the bed. Examining my cell, if that's what it was, I stepped over to my gear. I lifted my rifle, feeling it's familiar weight, and cycled the chamber once. A cone of ceramic popped out, and I caught it out of the air. Lifting it, I inspected the slug for damage. The four-inch long cone of metal was a bullet, but it was very simple. It was a core of hyper-magnetic iron covered with a shell of ceramic. At the tip, was a blunted point of depleted uranium. The shell would keep the shape of the slug when fired, and the iron would allow the solenoid in the barrel to fire it. The depleted uranium would give penetration capabilities, and on impact, the ceramic shell would shatter, dealing shrapnel damage to the target also.

Rechambering the slug, I set my rifle back on the ground. I picked my helmet off the ground, and I inspected it for damage. Satisfied, I put it over my head, and I tapped the left side of it, activating the AR. My HUD pulsed once, and the AR went to work, scanning the room. Three walls were made of an unknown type of stone, and the lack of magnetic resonance in them showed me that they were not reinforced. The fourth, however, was made of reinforced metal bars. In the middle of this wall, there was a door, or really, a door frame with metal bars across it, and a lock on one side and hinges on the other.

Returning my attention to the bowl of liquid, which I highly suspected was water, I put two fingers on my right hand together, the hand signal for my AR's substance analysis, and placed my fingertips in the liquid. I waited for the result, examining the information being projected on my HUD. Momentarily, a small label appeared on it, detailing the substance as just that, water. I pulled up the base of my adaptive helmet and lifted the bowl to my lips.

As I did, the sound of hooves clopping on a hard surface reached my ears. Taking a quick, refreshing, swig, I placed the bowl back on the ground, pulled my helmet all the way off, deactivating the AR, and grabbed my rifle. I then moved to the wall opposite the door and pulled a rag out from somewhere, in one of my armor's pockets, and sat down, resting my rifle in my lap. Just as the first flash of a pony became visible, I began to disassemble my rifle, cleaning and lubricating each part as I began my calming ritual.

Four ponies stood at the door to the cell, two bright-white, gold plated pegasi, whom I suspected were some sort of military, as the armor seemed to resemble that of Earth's old Roman legions. One was the mint-green unicorn from earlier, the one I slugged in the face, and the fourth was one of the camera-ponies from the cave. They watched silently as I cleaned my rifle, my beautiful reaper of souls, and as I lovingly handled each part. As I finished lubricating the last moving part, I picked up the scope on the top. It was a 3x zoom standard issue marksman scope, meant for middle range targets. My most recent had been just that, but I did have a spare 6x zoom sniper scope somewhere in my armor.

I held the sight up to my eye, and I looked through the scope. I began to calibrate it as best as I could without testing it, and I realigned the scope's lenses. The ponies had not moved yet, but the one with the camera was still filming.

I placed the now-calibrated scope next to my disassembled rifle, and I took a deep breath. I might as well give these ponies a show. My record assembly time for my rifle was six seconds. Let's see what I could do now. I shifted the pieces around for a moment, optimizing accessibility, and then I began.

My hands flew across the pieces, assembling the rifle. The jaws of two of the ponies dropped as each piece of the rifle clicked into placed with mechanical efficiency and, five seconds later, I loaded the single slug into the receiver of the rifle and cycled the bolt, chambering the round.

I set my rifle to the side, clasped my hands, and spoke. "Hello."

The mint-green unicorn seemed to break out of her stupor. "H-hello". She stuttered, with that same girlish voice, seemingly very excited.

"What do you want?" I was never one for formalities.

She seemed slightly taken aback by my lack of politeness. "Um... I was wondering if you could maybe... answer a few quick little basic questions?" She spoke the last part pretty quickly, and she seemed really excited.

"Sure. Ask away." I replied. "But could I possibly get something to eat first?"

She seemed confused. "Oh... I guess?" She whispered something to one of the white ponies, and he nodded and walked back the way they came.

"He's going to go and grab you some fruits. Is that okay?" She questioned, seemingly concerned about my hunger.

"Sure. Now, what were you going to ask me?"

"Oh, oh yeah. Let's start, first question. What is your name?" Oh, that's a really hard one. I've had my identity changed so many times, I really don't have one. My first one was dropped after my first kill. I should probably tell her my callsign.

"I've had too many, but I've always gone by one. Call me Virus."

"Virus... what type of name is that?" She really was confused.

"My callsign. The only name I have always gone by." I explained. She still didn't seem to understand.

"Um... okay... second question. What were you sleeping in, and for how long?"

I grimaced, the feeling of depression pushing on the borders of my mental wall. "I was frozen inside a cryo-pod for over four billion years... half of the age of the earth we are living on. It was pod that froze each and every cell in my body and kept them frozen... I am the last of my kind." A tear pooled at the corner of my eye, and I wiped it away.

"Oh... Third question. What was that thing you attacked us with?" Easy.

"That was a nine-millimeter 'Metalstorm' side-arm, standard issue for our military forces." This was bordering on classified information... but there was no one to classify it from anymore. However, I have principles, and to disclose classified information to those without access was a breach in protocol. I am loyal to my country; it exists as long as I do. I almost laughed at the irony of it, we actually won the war... but we lost it too.

"Hmm... what was that?" I had missed the last question.

"Oh. I had asked what a side-arm was."

"It's a type of fire-arm, a handheld weapon that fires projectiles at high-velocities. Somewhat like a cannon, but handheld, smaller shots, and faster rate of fire." Her eyes widened at the description.

"H-how strong are they..?" It's almost as if she didn't want to ask the question...

"Do you really want to know?" I raised an eyebrow at her face.

She gulped. "Y-yes."

"With my pistol, I guarantee that I could have killed every single one of you within the span of four second from fifty meters away... you know what a meter is, right?"

She gulped again, and became far more nervous, finally aware that she was standing in front of a killer. "O-okay... What about the l-long stick you j-just put together?"

Hmm... That was technically classified... but not very much.

"That's classified information, only accessible to enlisted troops. I cannot disclose that to you." Standard response and level of classification.

"Okay... what happened to your people, and how many of you were there?"

This was edging on my ability to keep myself from crying. "We destroyed ourselves, alongside the earth." I whispered.

Her eyes widened, and she looked at me again in shock. It seemed like these creatures are very ignorant of war...

"We created weapons of mass destruction by harnessing the very power of creation and destruction. We could split the nuclei of atoms, and we did so. Our world broke into war, and we used this ability to release massive amounts of thermonuclear energy to devastate our enemies cities. The problem is, they did the same to us. The world was covered in the heat of a thousand suns, and people were vaporized alongside cities. We went from the pinnacle of our civilization to gone in seconds. There were literally billions of us, and only a single one survived..." I was tearing up. This was too hard to go on about. Witness the end and then tell a little, ignorant pony, of all things, about how your race was so arrogant they destroyed themselves? No. I couldn't do it.

"I'm not going to talk about this anymore. What next." I suddenly felt very tired.

"Um... that's all for now. Is it okay if I come back later?" She asked, somewhat shaken by our old world.

"It's not like I have a choice..." I leaned back against the wall, and I closed my eyes.

My life, as I knew it, was over. I no longer knew my purpose in my life. I needed to find it again.

Author's Note

Virus... why virus? Well, think about it. A virus goes into a body, quietly, invisible, and then multiplies, without notice. Then, it attacks, ripping the body apart from the inside, and is incurable, but preventable. Kind of like 'me'. Once 'I' get somewhere, you can't stop 'me', and I will tear the place apart if commanded to. But if you stop 'me' from getting in, you're safe... from 'me'.

Now... should I make this before the wedding, and throw in some changelings? I need conflict.

Diplomacy

I don't know how much time had passed since the unicorn left, but I didn't care either. My mind was still focused on comprehending the fact that I was the last of my kind in existence. Humans. The Homo sapiens, wise men, really weren't wise at all. We killed ourselves off, after all. Well, close enough. And not just that. The world was now inhabited by magical sentient ponies. That, to me, is absurd. Although, the radiation after our bombs could have done something to them and made then like this, they're still magical fucking ponies.

I was broken out of my stupor by the clopping of hooves on stone. This time, however, the speed seemed a little higher than that of the unicorn earlier. This might not end well, the hoof-steps sounded pretty rapid, like the pony was galloping or something.

I laid my rifle on my lap, and I checked the chamber, making sure it was loaded and ready to fire. Double-checking the safety, I made sure it was off, not wanting to repeat my previous mistake. I didn't want to shoot anything, but if it came to it...

Three ponies appeared in front of my vision, two of them identical to the guards from earlier, though I highly doubted that they really were the same, and a white unicorn with a blue mane. He seemed to be really freaking mad, going by the near-literal steam fuming from his ears and the fire-like quality to his eyes. It seemed as if I was becoming adept at telling whether a pony was male or female. It must be the head structure...

"What the fuck do you think are, hurting my sister like that?! I'm going to destroy you, you filthy piece of biped trash." I stood up, rifle still pointed down. What the fuck was his problem... did he say 'sister'? Fuck me...

His horn lit up, and a blue wall appeared in front of me.

"Motherfu-" I didn't get a chance to finish as the wall of blue light slammed into me. I felt something in my abdomen give way, but my adrenaline had already been released. It was on now.

That was painful. I raised my mag-rifle as the blue evaporated into the air, and, steadying it with my left hand, I dropped to a knee and fired. Following that, I dropped the rifle to the ground and got back to my feet, ready to move fast if I needed to.

As I'm not stupid enough to murder something here when I'm already the bad guy, the bullet blasted through the lock on the door, shrapnel pelting the unicorn assaulting me. Think fast: fight, run, or talk?

This was going to leave a bruise. I dashed forwards, and I rammed my shoulder into the door, whipping the loose door around, breaking the concentration of the pony and causing him to stumble backwards. Continuing the rush, I lowered my right arm and uppercut at momentarily imbalanced unicorn. My fist made impact, and I felt him lift slightly into the air, trucked by my fist. Given the moment of respite, I flipped my helmet back over my head, and tapped the left side quickly.

Ah, augmented reality, how I missed you. Just before the stallion lashed out at me, my AR projected his movement, based on rapid-fire calculations of his apparent weight shift and body position. I snagged the hoof that flew at my face and leaned my head to the right, pulling the hoof over my left shoulder. Twisting around, I pulled his foreleg as hard as I could forwards. I felt something give way for a moment and then I slammed the foreleg on my right shoulder, having spun around it. I let the foreleg go, and I stepped back into my cell and turned to face the three ponies.

The two 'guards' were just beginning their movement, recovering from the shock of my brutality. My AR predicted that they were going to adopt defensive stances, based on their reaction to my attack and wariness of my counter. I agreed with it, and we were right.

The white stallion struggled back to his hooves, one held awkwardly at an angle. With my AR analyzing the 'normal' movement of the foreleg, I held myself in a right-handed ready position. Reaching into another slot in my armor, I withdrew a long, somewhat-thin, knife. Gripping it underhanded, I readied myself.

The stallion looked even more enraged, if such a thing was possible. But now, he also seemed very much in pain. My AR finished its scan. No wonder. I had dislocated it's foreleg in addition to breaking the limb at the 'elbow' joint. I'm glad I'm not him.

Not to be cliché or anything, but if looks could kill, I'd have been dead forty thousand times over. I stood there, ready for round two, as the stallion cast one last spell on the door to repair the lock and stalked away.

I sighed and sheathed my knife. It was going to be a long day.

Author's Note

Not a long one, but when I update twice in a day, can you really complain? But I really felt this one was begging to come out. The 'helmet' is really a ski mask-like piece of nano fiber that is inlaid with adaptive camouflage processors and projectors.

Royalty

I was having an existential crisis.

Well, I had been having one since I learned I was the last human on our earth, and although it may not be as shocking now, it really wasn't the most pleasant of feelings. Everyone asks themselves 'Why am I here?', and everyone has their own answers. Back before the bombs fell, I had a purpose in life. I was a sniper. I was an assassin. I was a killer. But I'm also a very spiritual man. If God didn't think what I was doing was what He wanted me to... would I be doing it? But regardless, every shot I made, every head I blew apart, every young life I cut short... I wasn't a monster. But that never stopped me. I had a duty, and I lived to fulfill that duty.

Now, I'm not of any specific religion or faith. I choose what I want to believe and I believe what feels right. I knew that my actions were for the greater good. 'Kill the few to save the many' and all that. But also, every shot I took was still ending a life. Although it was simply the killing of a body and the release of the soul, the body is what we know is there. Each kill... They hurt me more than the target. But I can sleep every night because I believe that the body is merely the 'clothes' of the soul, and the soul sheds these bodies like we do clothes. But what I've done... I can only hope I will be forgiven. If not... I will take any punishment that is given; my kill count... I remember every single shot, every scream, every plume of red, grey, and white, and I remember every single face.

Tears began to pool at the corners of my eyes.

But that all is one side of me. I'm... I was more than that. I wasn't just a soldier or assassin at one point. I was a person. I wasn't just a mechanical reaper of bodies and collector of souls. I was a man.

I was kneeling in front of the cell door, meditating on myself, reaching for my inner peace, my center.

I was more than just a tool to eliminate targets...people. I had a life outside my job. I was a man.

My eyes opened, and I reached into one of my armor's pockets. My fingers found what they were looking for, and they brought the folded piece of paper up. I reached my other hand up to it, and I unfolded it.

I looked at the faded picture of my most valuable loss... and the first tear rolled down my cheek.

The sound of clopping hooves broke my concentration. I sat up, replaced the picture where it was, and waited.

The sound grew louder, and I could make out two distinct sets of hooves. Moments later, two ponies appeared in front of my still-unlocked cell. They were both stark-white pegasi in gold-trimmed armor. There was no possible way these were the same two soldiers as the other pairs.

"You will follow us, and you will not make any aggressive moves. Understand?" The one on the left spoke.

I nodded, and stood up off the ground. The guard opened the door with a wing, and I stepped out. So they were finally doing something with me, eh? About time...

I followed the two guards mindlessly as I returned to my introspection. 'Why was I here?' As of now, I had a legacy to live. I am human. We don't give up. Ever. If nothing else... I would leave my history and my race's in the legacies of these creatures, so that we could serve as examples to these all-too-human ponies. My race... we were the greatest. There is no denying it. But that greatness destroyed us. We focused so much on advancement of ourselves, we forgot to help our neighbor up the slope too. And then we turned on each other. No surprise there.

We had walked for a while, and I wasn't keeping track of where we were going... but my AR was. It was probably analyzing the routes and alternative routes I could take to get from point A to B, C, D, E, or F. We passed by everything from janitorial closets to giant, ornate stained-glass windows.

Soon enough, we came across a crossroads. To the right was a huge set of opulent doors, made of what seemed to be solid gold, engraved with a stylized sun and moon. To the left... a pair of doors, just like those, double the size of the right side's.

Really? These doors were probably worth in the billions of credits melted down... and probably trillions if one were to count their origin and engravings... each.

I sighed to myself as we turned right, and the doors opened into a large room. Or, more like a giant freaking gorgeous throne room for a god-princess. The floors nearly shined with polish, and the checkerboard pattern had perfect shades of white and black. I had never seen such a bright white or dark black before in my life. A red velvet carpet led up to a set of stairs, and on top, were a pair of thrones. One seemed to be made of pure marble, as stark-white as the floors, and the other was a jet-black onyx. They were both adorned with jewels and engravings of the opposite color. The black throne had white gems, probably diamonds and opals, and the white had black gems, probably obsidian or something. The sides of the halls, nearing up to the throne, had sets of bleachers, what I would assume were for some sort of Parliament or council. There was room for around a hundred ponies on each bleacher.

There were two things, however, that drew my wandering gaze from the throne room's decorations. There was the purple unicorn, the one I shot, sitting next to the white throne, and on the white throne, there sat a taller pony, with both wings and a horn, glaring at me. For a moment, I could actually feel the heat radiating in that stare, and I decided that this pony's looks could kill. I followed the pair of guards up to the throne, but I did ensure my mag-rifle was easily accessible from my back.

The pegasi guards walked me up to the throne, and they began to speak to the large pony, probably a ruler of some sort. The second throne indicated either a monarchy, with the king being absent, or a diarchy.

My eyes wandered their way over to the purple unicorn, and I realized that she had been staring at me the entire time. I looked at her for a moment and then smiled. She looked slightly... well, very nervous, but the presence of the white pony seemed to calm her down.

This was going to be a long day.

Author's Note

He still has his rifle because SA did NOT go and tell the Princess what he had done. And nopony knows exactly what it is...

Yours truly is starting to go into Writers' Block. This is not good. I'm probably going to release another chapter of my Epics of Equestria thing first, and then probably work on one from the Barrows crossover, and then maybe even put out an anti-chapter for Infamous.

If you have ever role-played the Princess and/or know how her personality works, PM me, cuz I don't.

Conversation

The guards were dismissed shortly after they had delivered me to the ruler. They seemed to quickly leave the area, as if they were anxious to leave, or even scared of the Princess. I suddenly realized something. I should probably be scared too.

I looked at the white pony again, and I made eye contact with her. She narrowed her eyes again, and then spoke. The voice itself... well, I couldn't really hear the tone, per se, but there was something there betraying the mind of a... mother..? Something that would go to extreme lengths to protect that which it held dear.

"Who. In. Equestria. Do. You. Think. You. Are?" The voice was dangerously low. This was not going to end well... And on that note, my name is technically classified information. But to deny this creature information would probably get me killed... Time to play the peacemaker.

"Ma'am, I'm Virus." My call-sign wasn't exactly classified. "And I'm a billion year old creature fresh out of suspended animation." She probably wouldn't know what a cryo tube is.

She seemed slightly put off by the billion year old thing, but otherwise, she still seemed just as mad. Maybe I'd just be deep-fried, not vaporized.

"And what, Virus, gives you the right to attack helpless ponies as you see fit?" I had a feeling that whatever I said would make me guilty.

"My fight-or-flight response. They scared me. I reacted like I was taught. I hit the one who was above me touching my face, and then hid behind the pod." Hey, it's not my fault they spooked a killer. "I might have overreacted, but it was justified at the time. And then that one over there-" I pointed at the purple unicorn next to her, "- tried to shoot me with some sort of energy blast. I shot back." I'm totally telling the truth, but if the big horse thing tries something... Let's see how mag-rifle round work against these things...

Her face seemed to calm, ever so slightly, and then she looked at the unicorn with a sideways glance. Looking back to me, she then spoke again. "Virus, what a distasteful name. So you reacted in perceived self-defense? I technically can't punish you for anything other than threatening... and even then, it's not worth it. Are you a violent being? I know but a little on your species."

Are we violent? Let's see, war since the beginning of the Stone Age, and never stopping for longer than a few years. "No, I'm not a violent being." Assassination is not fighting. Fighting implies a two-sided conflict. Assassination is not really violent... from my point of view.

"So what exactly happened to your species, that led you to put yourself in suspended animation?"

Hmm... "A... cataclysm on our world. We destroyed the surface of the planet with weapons so powerful they could vaporize entire cities, emit pressure waves that crossed the globe, and blocked out the sun with the giant clouds of ash and dust they created. The world fell into eternal winter; radioactive dust and nuclear fallout covered the globe. I locked myself away, hoping to survive and be awoken shortly after. It obviously didn't work." I shrugged to her, and she stood there for a moment.

"Are... are you lying to me? You just said you are not violent." She seemed disbelieving still.

"I'm not lying... completely. I'm an assassin. I was sponsored by my country to kill people. Now, don't get me wrong. I could easily kill someone, but I never have and never will for no reason. Back then, I was killing people who were considered 'evil', people who oppressed their subjects, persecuted others, and had no hope for redemption."

Her eyes were wide, and her jaw seemed to lower a little, aghast at my profession. A moment passed, and she regained some of her composure. "You're... you're a monster... You... killed... other people as a job? You're no better than those you killed." She still seemed too shocked to respond in any other manner.

That hurt. It really did. For a man to be called a monster for doing what his country asked of him, for doing what was right... I exhaled sharply. My voice grew quiet and remorseful. "Do you think I enjoy ending men's lives? Do you think I'd put a hole in a person, a fellow human being, just because I felt like it? It was my job, my duty, and my obligation as a man to do what I did. If there was another way, do you think I'd resort to killing?" I sighed. "What do you know of war anyways? My race... since the beginning of time, since we discovered that sharp stone can cut flesh, we have been in conflict with each other. Why? Well, it's because of our nature. We were hunters, predators, feared by all creatures. We disagreed, and those disagreements turned to arguments. From there, it escalated into fighting and war. Not a single age in our history was spent in complete peace. All that was... we paid for...I paid for... heavily."

Just as I spoke, my mind decided to betray me. My thoughts began to drift on home, my four billion year-old planet, and all that I left behind. My friends, my family...

"Virus. Are you okay?" Suddenly, she cares. Damn this peace, damn it all to hell.

"Yeah. Just thinking about... prices..." Her face softened. She seemed to understand something about my loss. Now that I notice it, I think she was just kinda spooked about the pony being hurt. I sighed again.

I really wasn't feeling up to talking anymore. Everyone, to a certain extent, knows how it's like to lose a family member. Now, imagine that feeling thousandfold. I just realized, and the feeling had finally sunk into my brain, that I had lost everything I held dear, except my uniform, my rifle, and the majority of my sanity. I subconsciously dropped my hand into my pocket.

The princess seemed to notice this, and as her horn glowed a pale gold, an aura of the same color appeared around my hand, now closed on a slip of paper. Gently, like a mother raising her child's hand, the aura tugged on my hand, raising it out of the pocket with the slip of paper still in it. I looked her in the eyes, and an understanding passed between us. What she was about to see... it was something very dear to me.

My hand uncurled, out of my own free will, and the aura picked the slip of paper up. Raising it to her eyes, the Princess stared at it for a moment, and then turned to me, pity in her eyes, a sad smile on her face. Without a word, she placed the slip back in my open hand, and I replaced it in its pocket.

Feeling a slight bit of wetness rolling down my cheek, I turned back to the white pony, hardening myself against my own loss.

"I hope you understand just what I've lost. Four billions years... and more..." I sighed.

She nodded. "I understand. And I also believe that you deserve a rest. Please, meet us once more in the dining hall for dinner. If you would like, I can have the guards escort you to a guest room in the palace?" She really sounded even more like my mother...

Brushing away a second tear, I responded. "Yes. I-I would like that." My voice cracked once.

She stood up, the purple unicorn next to her somewhat confused, and called out. A pair of guards entered the doors, as if waiting for her call, which they probably were, and approached me. Without a word, I followed them out of the room.

Author's Note

I hate myself for this chapter. It feels so... off. But it also feels necessary. I'm probably going to end up redoing this...
Did I get Tia okay Duvagr?

EDITED AND REPUBLISHED!

Consumption

A dying man once told me that every man has his limits. The more hidden their weakness is, the smaller and more concealed, the more they burst when it is realized. For some their limit is broken and they crack instantly, other crack after a time, but in the end they all will crack in the pressure that is placed on them. This man, in my opinion, was very wise. He was also my father. He had been a soldier before me, but he was in direct warfare. He was infantry, and he knew about that limit all too well. He suffered from a severe case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that never truly went away. He was old, literally on his deathbed, when he told me that. Why? I had told him a piece of information he would take to his grave. I had told him about my real profession. I told him of my job as an assassin, and every last kill I'd ever made. If one couldn't face their father and tell them anything...

Regardless, he had received it well, he understood the reason behind my assassinations. And he had even congratulated me on a pair of them, saying that I really was good at what I did. From my father, who was a Medal of Honor recipient, this was high praise. But now I finally understand the last thing he ever told me.

I sat up in the bed that was provided to me. I palmed my eyes, relishing the warmth of my palms on my face, and then extricated myself from the covers. I took a glance at the grandfather clock sitting in the corner, and content with the amount of time I had spent asleep and the time left until 'dinner', I stripped my combat suit off myself and headed to the shower in the adjacent bathroom.

Stooping a little in the stall made for ponies, I enjoyed the first hot shower I had had in over four billion years. Finally free of the caked mud and sweat on my body, I moved to my discarded combat suit. Reaching into one of the pockets, I pulled out a razor-sharp knife, about the length of my finger. Moving to the sink and washbasin, I poured a bit of warm water onto the hand towel next to it. After wetting my face, I raised the knife to cheek and scraped it along my skin, the wicked-sharp blade removing all traces of a beard from my face.

I washed the basin and cleaned my knife, my clean-shaven face much more comfortable without a beard. Replacing the knife in it's pocket, I picked up my under-suit and took it, too, to the sink. Turning the hot water tap on, I scrubbed the article of clothing as best as I could, and then I wrung it between my hands to eliminate all traces of wetness from the body suit. Satisfied with the results, I once again donned my body suit, my second skin. Moving back to the center of the guest room, I donned my armor once again, and archived the data my plastic cowl had accrued, clearing the used space for other uses. I replaced the hood on my head and tapped the side, rebooting the Augmented Reality. After seeing it reboot once, I checked the clock on it. It was A) synchronized with the wall clock, and B) only about fifteen minutes before 'dinner'.

I sat myself down on the floor, legs crossed underneath me, and began to relax my breathing. I flicked my head to the left, and twisted a little. Using my eyes to navigate through a set of menus, I turned my HUD to a recording mode. I began to dictate to it, and I began to pass my time.

A few minutes later, there was a knock on my door. Finishing up my recording, I stood back up, stretching my legs, and opened the door.

A pair of pegasus guards, still stark-white in gold armor, stood there. I just had to ask...

"Are you the same guards who-" I began.

"No. We have an enchantment on our armor to make us look the same. Virus, sir, we are here to escort you to the dining room."

I raised an eyebrow, and then realized my cowl was still on. Pulling it off, I re-raised my eyebrow and looked at the guard. "So I'm still not to be trusted?"

His eyebrow raised, matching mine, and a slight smile appeared on his visage. "No, the Princess just thinks you might need a guide to get to the hall."

That makes sense. "Okay then, lead the way." I smiled and gestured with my arm. "Also, could I possibly have my pistol back? It's more of a comfort thing, really."

The guards turned on their hooves and began to walk away. "Of course, please follow us to the armory and then we'll take you to the dining hall."

Perfect. My dear old pistol, God knows how many situations that thing has gotten me out of. There was even this one time, when it wasn't even loaded, and it saved my butt.

I had been cornered inside an apartment building. My mag-rifle was already hidden at a dead drop for one of our moles to get to, and all I had left was my pistol. With no ammo. Next to me, hands cuffed behind their back and mouth gagged, the enemy VIP was sitting on a chair. I had been on a capture-or-kill mission, sent after our first team failed. I was to capture the VIP and bring him in for interrogation, or, barring that, kill him. I was sorely tempted to do the latter.

I was surrounded by cops. Of all people, cops. This was bad. A loudspeaker blared from outside, and I heard them say to leave the building, or something like that. This was really bad. I looked at my pistol for a moment, and then inspiration struck. I knew it was empty, but they didn't. This might actually work. Grabbing the VIP, I put my (empty) gun to his head, and slowly stepped outside the building.

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" A voice called. I was surrounded by enemies.

I spoke loudly. "If you move, if you shoot, if you do anything, I will put a bullet through this man's head. If you shoot me, my spasm will pull this trigger, and he will still die. Now move aside, and I won't hurt him, and I will let him go." I began to step forwards.

The people around me backed a step with mine, their weapons trained on me. I could probably take a body shot or three before my armor failed, but a head shot would give me a concussion. My AR predicted that they wouldn't shoot... yet.

With my gun to the man's head, I passed the outer edge of the cops, and headed towards an alley in the dark street. Upon reaching it, I checked my mission timer once again. Extraction minus twenty. Sending a short burst transmission through my hood's radio, a response was sent moments later. They bumped the timer up and had a lock on my location. I smacked the VIP in the head with my pistol, and flipped his limp body over my shoulder. Then, I took off at a dead run through the dark streets of the megalopolis, stalling for my extraction. It was almost here...

My mind returned to the present. We were just entering the armory, and upon entry, I noticed the racks of swords, spears, shields, and crossbows lining the walls. From a chest in a corner, one of the pegasi flipped my pistol over his wing and leveled it out in front of me.

"Here you go. Shall we head to the dining hall now?"

I flipped the pistol off his wing, and with a quick spin, I holstered it in my ever-present side holster. "Let's go."

A few minutes later, we had reached another set of overly-expensive doors. With a flourish, the guards in front opened them, allowing me to gaze upon a mid-sized table, large enough for a feast, but also small enough for the ponies sitting at it to actively socialize. Oh God, I just used 'ponies'... I'm going native...

Regardless, I entered the hall, and approached the table. The white 'alicorn', the Princess, sat at the head of the table, and on her sides sat the purple unicorn from earlier and another white unicorn I didn't recognize. To the right of the purple unicorn sat who I think is her brother, the one who I injured, and to my pleasure, he was staring daggers at me with his broken and dislocated arm in a sling and cast. To his right, another 'alicorn' sat, this one hot pink, and the 'foot' of the table, alongside the seats next to the unknown unicorn, were left empty.

The Princess seemed to notice me, and she looked up from her conversation with the purple unicorn and smiled. Beckoning me with a hoof, she motioned to the 'foot' of the table, and I complied.

I took my place in front of the occupants of the table, and looked across the currently-empty table.

"Hello Princess. Hello Captain." I put as much sarcasm into the second one as I could, and I could feel his eyes narrow as I continued looking at the Princess.

"Greetings Virus. It seems as if you have already met Prince Shining Armor, husband of my niece, Princess Cadence. This is Prince Blueblood-" She motioned to the unicorn. That makes sense, this seemed like a relatively exclusive dinner. "-And this is Twilight Sparkle, sister of Shining Armor and my personal student." Oh. OH. That makes so much sense now. No wonder she wanted to kill me on the spot at the beginning...

"Well, it's nice to meet you all. I am Virus, a human, or as you may know my species, an Old Biped, and I'm pleased to meet you all. Meeting royalty isn't a thing we did every day, back in my world. I'm truly honored to meet you." And I also may be laying it on a little thick, but it can't hurt, can it?

"Well then, I believe it's about time for the food to arrive. Are you hungry, Virus?" The Princess seemed to be directing this conversation to food. I'm an omnivore... maybe I could play this right...

"As a matter of fact, Princess, I am. Food would be spectacular." I responded, my upbeat attitude overlaid onto my voice. I really hope they have some serious protein...

As I spoke, serving ponies rushed out of niches in the side of the room carrying silverware, setting the table with mechanical efficiency. Moments after that, platters of food were set upon the set table, their lids being removed and steaming-hot dishes opened to the hungry ponies. I watched with enthusiasm as the dishes were uncovered, but my smile began to droop. Everything looked appetizing, yes, but it was all fancy shmancy stuff, nothing fit for a soldier like me to eat... or even a human for that matter. I could see some sort of carbohydrate dish and some sort of salad, but besides that, everything else either had hay, flowers, or alfalfa on it. I sighed to myself, and reached into one of the multitude of pockets on my armor. I extricated a pre-packaged bag of artificial protein substitute and a knife. I slit the package top open, and I noticed the funny looks I was getting.

Every pony at the table was staring at me, confusion lining their faces. I shrugged and returned to my opening of the packet. With an audible *plop*, the mush fell on my plate.

I looked back up. "What? I eat protein. So what? Ever seen synthetic protein substitute before?" I asked, faking ignorance. I returned to my 'meal', and I picked up one of the spoons and dug into it, plopping a spoonful of the tasteless mush in my mouth.

"Please pass the salt?" I asked, hopeful for some seasoning. A shaker floated over in a lavender aura, and I deftly picked it out of the air, sprinkling generous quantities of the seasoning on my mush. Returning to the now-salted mush, I put another spoonful in my mouth.

Not a single pony had moved. They were all looking at me with varying degrees of uncertainty, confusion, shock, and amusement. That last one was the Princess.

"Did I use the wrong spoon or something? I'm pretty sure the small one's for dessert..." I broke off, playing the part for all it's worth.

Princess Cadence was the first one to speak up. "No... but why don't you eat the actual food here... it's really good..."

"Oh. That stuff? You mean the hay and flowery stuff?"

"Yes..."

I smiled. "Simple. I can't eat hay or flowers. A good salad is great though. But meat is much better." I smiled even wider, showing her my canines. I sighed, falsely. "Too bad there's no meat. I could really go for some ribs right now. Or even chicken wings..." I put another spoonful of the bland protein in my mouth, and studied the reactions of the ponies. The Prince Blueblood was currently dry heaving, gagging due to the horrifying thought of meat-eating. The Princess was still there, the smirk on her face, understanding what I was doing. Twilight Sparkle was shocked, like a deer in the headlights, and her horn glowed faintly, a glowing pencil evident behind her back. She must be taking notes. Cadence looked just as shocked, and Shining Armor stared at me, brows still narrowed.

"Could you please pass the salad please? I think it'll go well with this protein." A gold aura enveloped the salad bowl thing, and I snagged one of the tongs and flipped a little bit of it on my plate. I used the longer fork to puncture some leaves and vegetables, and alongside some protein supplement, I ate the 'food'. It was actually pretty good.

"Got any sort of fish, chicken, beef, pork, goat, lamb, sheep, or shrimp I can eat? I'd prefer it well-done..." I asked hopefully, this time with a real desire for meat.

"I'm sorry Virus, but we are all herbivores. You would be hard-pressed to find meat inside Equestria, and the practice of eating it is basically taboo. I apologize for the inconvenience. Could I possibly interest you in some stew? It's made with vegetable stock and is quite the meal?"

"Definitely. Thank you Princess." She had floated the soup pot over, and poured a little bit into my bowl. "We are omnivores, after all. We don't need meat to survive, per se, but it really helps to have the protein for muscle building." I smiled back at her, and an unseen joke passed through our eyes.

A moment passed, and then I broke out laughing. The Princess chuckled alongside me, a much more regal and conservative laugh, but I was almost on the ground, clutching my sides.

"You- You shoulda seen the l-look on your f-faces!" I could barely hold it in, and the ponies around me looked at me funny. Was I crazy? Maaaaaaaaybeeeeee.

Author's Note

fun to write, gonna try and get an infamous chapter out tomorrow. I want 2 stories in the feature box. Right?

Finale

"Another day, another dollar"... or so the saying went. It was more like "Another day, another body" for me. My superiors had finally deployed me out on something more than a simple assassination mission. It was my turn, now, to eliminated a full room, at the top of a building, of enemy leaders. They had said that this mission would mean the difference between winning and losing, between 'Mutually Assured Destruction' and 'I win, you die'. Bullshit, in my opinion. But it was my job to do this, and the military would pay me a fortune if I could pull this off. It would be enough to last me for the rest of my life, and even then some...

I refocused on the task at hand. I was so close. I had entered the country nearly a month ago, and had nearly 'gone native'. I could speak eloquent Russian, and had a job as a teacher here. I was what we call a 'deep-cover' agent, I almost literally became the person I was playing. There were no records of me in my own government's system, except for a single flash-drive located in a place that didn't technically exist. In the Russian database, however, I had a social security number, a birth certificate, a full history, 'known relatives' and everything that a real citizen would have. The only thing different about me was that I wasn't a real citizen.

My teaching job was partially a front and partially not. I actually made money from the job and used that money to pay for necessities. But now, I was in a semi-secret basement, the kind that nobody talks about but everyone has, that the government dislikes but allows. Everybody got one after the war started...

I was a day away from the beginning of the end of my career. I could finally go home...

I drew my hand across the holographic map in front of me. The three-dimensional image grew and twisted, zooming in on the room where the Russian VIP's would be gathering. They would be just two floors from the top of the building and heavily guarded. There was no way I was going to be able to infiltrate the place, even with my active-camouflage. The nearby buildings would also be filled with Russian agents, Secret Service, KGB, and most definitely snipers. I wouldn't be able to do that either.

I was running out of options. I couldn't use artillery of any sort; I didn't have any. Maybe a long-range sniper shot? I'd be able to do it... hopefully... I'll keep that just in case. Perhaps I could blow up the entire building? No, there would be no confirmed kills. What could I possibly do...?

It seemed like long range sniping was going to be it. But that wasn't necessarily a bad thing; I am probably the most accomplished sniper in the world...

---

I was laying on my back on the ledge on the roof of a building, nearly a mile and a half away from the target. My rifle lay beside me, loaded with a special set of rounds. I had ten shots in my clip, and they were made accordingly. Every single one was hand-filled by me. The first was a part armor-piercing, part shatter burst round that would utterly destroy the window it passed through. The next seven were armor-piercing, sharp rounds made completely of iron covered with depleted uranium. The amount of iron in the bullet would ensure the magnets in the rifle pushed it the most it possible could. The last two rounds were a pair of rounds I developed. They were explosive. Highly so. The pair of bullets at the bottom of my clip could tear a hole in the side of the building I was about to shoot into. A little more collateral that I'd have preferred, but there wasn't much I could do about it.

I checked my HUD's timer. I only had a minute to go. I rechecked the magazine that I had hand loaded, and then slid it into my mag-rifle, my augmented reality linking the status of the rounds to my HUD. I rolled over, and slid my rifle to a comfortable position, braced on my shoulder. I calibrated my AR once more, ensuring the correct aim. Wind speed and air pressure appeared on my HUD for a moment, and I mentally calculated my angle adjustments. I lowered the rifle, the barrel pointing slightly above and to the right of my target. The wind speed slowed for a moment, the numbers dropping. I waited.

My timer touched zero. I took a breath. I blinked. All noise seemed to fade as I sighted, my cross-hairs locking on the head of the first target. I shifted my aim, compensating for drop and wind. Then once more for barometric pressure. I released my breath, and in the same motion, pulled the trigger. I felt a slight pulse of electromagnetic force wash over me, and as I adjusted my second shot to the perfect location, I pulled the trigger again. Just as I began my third pull, the window I was looking at shattered. All the occupants seemed to freeze for a moment. I kept pulling the trigger. A flash of red. And then another. And then a third. The lives of men snuffed out my the tiniest twitch of my finger. I didn't miss a single shot.

My clip hit the final two shots. I stopped myself for a moment, took a breath, and quickly pulled off the last two shots. I saw a bright flash of light where the top of the building used to be, and then smoke poured out. My job was done.

I removed the magazine, loaded a fresh one in, and slipped my rifle into a black golf bag. I placed a head cover over the little bit that was protruding over the top. My job was done here. Now just extraction, and I could go and live my life in peace. Finally.

I made my way down the building. People were staring at the target building, pointing and speaking. I kept walking.

I made it to my house, and I slipped my rifle into another bag. I was nearly there. I grabbed a bag off the floor in my living room, and I slapped a sequence of buttons on my stove. It was a self-destruct sequence that also told my superiors I needed extraction, mission accomplished or not. They would know by now anyways. I hopped in my car, and headed off towards a private airfield, owned by my 'uncle', another deep-cover agent, family and all.

I boarded a plane there. It was a private jet, full of everything a person could want. I took a long, hot shower, my mind wandering. I was done. I was finally done. I could finally drop my callsign, Virus, and get my name back. Finally.

I left the shower, feeling clean and refreshed, and headed back to the lounge of the jet. Pouring myself a glass of bourbon whiskey, I sat down on one of the few couches, and I glanced at the news scrolling across the flat screen. Apparently, news of the assassinations were already hitting the world. "Russia in chaos", one read. "No leadership", read another. I smiled to myself and leaned back into the cushions. My job was done.

I fell asleep, a content smile plastered on my face.

---

I woke up. The news channel was blaring out something I couldn't understand. I cleared my eyes, and saw the launch of what could only be a nuclear warhead. What had happened? Did I fail? No. Not my fault. It couldn't be my fault. I watched in horror as nuclear missiles launched from silos all over the world. I had woken up to the end of the world.

Author's Note

It's a filler... but not really. This is the finale of Virus on Earth. Comment, concerns, criticisms, commands, and compliments welcome. Anything not defined by a word that starts with 'C' or 'c' is not. I will definitely release a chapter on the 27th, it's my birthday, and I have a special planned.

Discovery

I lurched up in my bed, fingers grasping for the pistol that wasn't there. I could feel adrenaline pumping through my veins, and a strange feeling of cold washed over me. I took a deep breath and held it for a moment. My memories swirled around in my head, the most recent just finishing its course. Not the first time I had a nightmare...

I rolled off the bed and took a quick glance at the clock on the wall. Five-thirty. Not too bad, seven hours of restful sleep... except for the dreams. Regardless, I needed to do something...

I rubbed my eyes for a moment, clearing my mind. Who would be awake this early in the morning, it was, after all, a little too early for most people. Wasn't there some sort of military here...?

v^V^v

The military barracks weren't hard to find, as at almost every single corner, there was a guard or two. I was on my way there now, awake and ready for action. In my line of work, being in and staying in top condition was a priority. I guess old habits die hard... they've survived even four billion years. My armor was back on my body, and my adaptive helmet, more of a cowl or hood, really, was attached to my neck, hanging backwards as a hood would.

I exited through a door into a sort of courtyard. A rush of cold air brushed past me, and with it, an overpowering but familiar scent. Good, I was in the right place.

I jogged down towards where a group of ponies stood aligned at what I could only call attention, their backs to me. A voice was addressing them from the far side, and it sounded somewhat familiar. The voice began detailing the drills for the day, and I began to move. Passing between the guards and drawing a few looks, I made my way towards the head of the rows, hoping to find their officer. He might be slightly annoyed to see me here, but I'm fairly certain he would be mostly accepting...

I finally reached the front, and a relatively surprised Shining Armor paused his lecture for a moment. He tensed up, and his brows furrowed, but after a moment, he relaxed once more.

"I figured you would end up here, Virus." He said the name with as much disgust as he could manage, but compared to what we could do back on Earth, it was nothing. "It seems like a soldier can't stay away from the field."

"Yup. I hope your leg's doing better. You wouldn't want to fall on it again." I raised a pair of fingers and made a pair of quotation marks in the air, and his brows furrowed again. "I'm here to get some exercise, habit and training, you know." I spoke nonchalantly, my tone bright and pleasant, regardless of the bad blood between us.

"Oh really...?" He spoke for a moment, and then stopped, thinking. "How about some sparring? I'm sure some of my troops would love to test themselves against a new opponent, not to mention a highly trained one..."

This game, really? It's going to be like an old Bruce Lee movie. The guy would beat the daylights out of ever single one of the bad guys minions and henchmen, then finally turn around and beat the crap out of the villain. Oh well, it'll be fun.

"Sure, why not. I could use the practice, if I'm going to be stuck here. What are the RoE's?"

His face lit up with a malicious grin. "Knockout, try not to break anything, but sometimes, you just can't help it, right?"

I smiled back at him. "Of course. Shall we start?"

With a wave of his good leg, Shining Armor's troops split and surrounded us. He backed away, reaching the edge of the gap, and called out to his troops. "Alright guards, which one of you wants to try out the old-Biped first?" I saw quite a few eyebrows raise and eyes widen. Apparently they knew what old-Bipeds are...

A few moments passed, and not a single guard stepped forward. Shining Armor's smile began to seem quite forced.

"Alright, whoever volunteers can take a day off after today." Some hooves shot up into the air, evidently ponies eager to not have to work. Laziness knows no bounds.

The first pony stepped up. He was a burly pegasus stallion, probably one of the more brute-force types. I began considering the possibilities.

How can he attack? He has wings, so his flanks won't be entirely unprotected. He can probably fly, and that means add a little force to body-based hits, using his wings to propel himself. His hooves are bludgeons, wings can, for lack of a better term, buffet me, and other than that, he can use them to trip and poke.

He snorted once, and pawed the ground with his right forehoof. His wings unfolded slightly, preparing themselves for use.

He's about to attack, the classic animal body language of breath intake and higher breathing rate, alongside the tensing of the wings and the pawing of the ground... if I can take him off balance, the wings will try to compensate, not his hooves. He'll try to pull back and away, not down and roll. He's a quadruped, meaning if I get above him, I can avoid most hits.

The pair us were standing about ten feet away from each other. Not very far, but not close enough to lunge from a standstill. I stepped forwards once, and then sprung up off my right foot, jumping towards him.

The pegasus reared up onto two legs and his wings flared out, keeping him balanced. I brought my foot around in mid-air, swinging at his head. As expected, he blocked the kick with his foreleg, one wing pushing to the opposing side. The resulting impact was not only a block but also a deflection and a hit packed into one. Not bad.

Landing back on my feet, I grabbed his forelegs and dropped to my back, extending my leg out from underneath me. As I pulled his body down, I slammed my foot into his rib cage. His body braced on my leg, and I continued the roll, pulling his forelegs down. As he hit the ground, he staggered and swung one of his legs. I was already moving. I rolled out from underneath him, knocking aside one of his hind legs, and sprung to my feet as he fell onto two knees. I charged him, lowering my shoulder and tucking in my head. I felt a whoosh of air and the slap of a wing against me, but I didn't stop. My shoulder rammed into something thin and I heard a satisfying *crack*. Pushing the pegasus to the ground, I stepped back for a moment. The pegasus's wing left wing lay at an unnatural angle, and he was trying once more to get back up. Shining Armor said knockout, right?

I stepped back twice, and then charged towards the downed pegasus again. He tried to lift his head, but it was in vain. Just as he looked up, I stepped off my left foot. My other boot rocketed towards his head, and he could do nothing to stop the solid thunk that came after. He was out cold.

I unfocused from the downed pegasus and looked around once at the crowd. They were all standing silently, shocked at my brutality. That seemed to be a pattern.

"What? He said until knockout... by the way, you may want to call a medic or something." Even Shining Armor looked annoyed. Apparently after I dislocated and broke his foreleg, he still thinks his ponies can win.

"Anyone else want to have a go? I'm sure you might actually be able to land a hit or two." I laughed at their lack of reaction. Apparently these guards are the best of the best...

My taunting was interrupted by a messenger pony, a pegasus. He handed, or hoofed, a letter to the captain, and then hurried off. Shining Armor opened it without hesitation, and he scanned it over once. "It's for you. The archaeologists want you to help them with some stuff." He passed it over.

To Virus,

As a member of the very civilization we are researching, it would be spectacular and more than optimal if you were to assist us in the excavation, retrieval, and analysis of several artifacts we have located inside the cavern where you were originally found.

Please meet us in front of the Castle at 9:00 A.M. sharp if you wish to join us. We are hoping you accept.

Author's Note

I got old-Bipeds from the Geth name for the Reapers.

Records

After a quick jog to the castle, as it was quickly nearing the ninth hour of the day, I joined Twilight, Lyra, and a few other archaeologist-type ponies in a carriage.

"Sooo... where exactly are we going? I figured we'd be heading towards another dig site or something, but d'you know where it is?"

Twilight looked at me for a moment, her eyes filled with excitement, and then answered. "It's actually directly adjacent to where you were found. You were just in the atrium of the building. We haven't found a fully intact building of yours for over a year. This could be the breakthrough we've been looking for!"

I looked back at her, a slight smile on my face. The infectious excitement of these ponies spreading was spreading to me. These ponies looked like something out of a fairy-tale, now that I took the time to examine them. I stared at the curvature of their muscles and the protruding points of their bones. I also noticed the fact that they could bend like no other equine on old-Earth could. That must be an adaptation for dexterity of flexibility.

The carriage continued it's path, and we soon reached the entrance to the tunnel. We filed out of the carriage, and I followed the archaeologists down a set of tunnels, past dig-sites and other marked areas. Finally, we began to reach the end of our path, the amount of ponies mulling about eventually dwindling to none. I glanced around the tunnel, and it seemed familiar, but that was to be expected as I'd come from here not too long ago. We finally reached the fallen pair of doors, the giant slabs of metal laying on the ground, like fallen behemoths from a lost age. In my mind, I could see the comparison between the ponies and humans with clarity. We were warriors, and our doors reflected that. They were huge metal contraptions built to scare people and keep them out. The ponies, however, were artists. They built their doors to impress and draw people in. How the Earth had changed in a billion years...

Within moments, the cryopod, no, my cryopod came into view. That little, tiny capsule had been my home for billions of years. Whether this was a blessing or a curse, I have yet to decide. Behind my pod, there was another set of doors, close still, and a control pad next to it. The mint-green pony, Lyra, walked up to it, and her hoof hovered over the flat panel, unsure of what to do.

I stepped forwards and gently pushed her out of the way. She reminded me of my... I shook the thought out of my head. This wasn't the time. I looked at the dark pad for a moment, and then swept a finger across it. A holopanel shined above it, ready for use. I quickly hit the 'open' panel, and it prompted me for a code. I entered my access code, the same one I had before the Earth died, in the hopes it would work. I was surprised.

A mechanical voice called out from hidden speakers. "Welcome, callsign Virus. We would like to inform you that you have now been given administrator access to all of our systems as we have detected no awake and active agents of a rank above you. You are now hereby appointed commander-in-chief of the United States of America. Congradulations."

I stared for a moment, unresponsive. A tear began to form in the corner of my eye. I was really alone. I was the last... one... left... Wait! It said 'awake and active'! That means there could be some active but sleeping agents out there... We might still have a chance after all!

I quickly pushed the last key, prompting the doors to open. And open they did.

We filed into the currently dark room, and one of the unicorns' horns began to glow. A soft lavender light filled the gloom, but we could still not see anything. Let's see here...

"Designation: Virus, command: LIGHTS." I spoke out loudly and clearly, emphasizing the last word. I waited for a moment, and then stopped, something was off...

"Do you ponies hear that?" They had been following me, some taking notes, some taping, and all watching with intent silence. They all shut up as I spoke.

"Hear what...?" A pegasus spoke out. Just as he spoke, a soft hum began to fill the air. It grew louder, and the ponies began to look around them, wary of the noise.

"That." I was relieved, and very surprised. It seems as if electronic circuits can last as long as s a cryopod can. Then, a set of lights overhead flickered to life, thirty feet above us. And then another. And then another. Rows of lights began to light up, each one illuminating another section of the building we were in.

I stared in wonder as I looked upon thousands of thousands of crates, each one labelled with a complex set of numbers and a designation. I turned around to see the faces of the ponies behind me, looking on in confusion.

"Crates. What do we do with crates...?" One pony hesitantly asked. I turned to him, a huge smile on my face.

"It's not the crates... it's what's inside of them that matters." I noticed a holopanel sign hanging over the door we just entered. "I would like to welcome all of you ponies to..." I paused for dramatic effect, sweeping my arms wide as the last of the lights turned on in the background. "The last archive of humans. You are standing inside Project Warehouse Prime, the first, only, and last complete history of humans." I began to go into full lecture mode. "Long ago, before the Third World War, this place was known as the Smithsonian Institute, the greatest museum institute on Earth. This is where you will find the pride and joy of our species, along with the most detailed history of it you would ever be able to find in all of the world. We stored, in this room, every single historical artifact we could lay our hands upon, and if not, a replica of it. We have, in this room, the history of the greatest race to live on this planet. You have, here, the legacy of a species long dead..." My face turned down. "Welcome..." I trailed off, turning back around to the part storage, part archive, and part museum of a building.

Contact

I could almost feel the gaze of the ponies on my back as I took my first steps towards a monument-like structure directly in front of us. Around it, the rows of crates and storage containers spread out in a radial formation, with aisles leading down towards different sections. If I was at the vertex of a 'v', the aisle would be spreading between the two prongs. But there was one thing off about it...

I turned back to the ponies, and I spoke out to them, especially Twilight and Lyra, the two I knew best. "Now, I will say this once only. Much of what is inside this building is not suitable for the eyes of a pacifist. In addition, many of these things are harmful, deadly, and could easily mean the end of peace as you know it if exposed to the public. I strongly advise telling the Princess about this now and not opening a crate unless it is specifically made for peace. We humans have a tendency to turn everything into a weapon..."

The ponies seemed to gulp down a knot of apprehensiveness as one. Lyra stepped forwards, and then turned to the ponies, and she began giving orders. It didn't matter to me, I was drawn to the monolith like a moth to a flame. As it was brought into view, I noticed it's size. It was a series of statues, each of a different person. I could see Thales, Pythagoras, Newton, Edison, Ford, Archimedes, Socrates, and a few others. Engraved on their pedestals were a set of quotes, presumably one from each. However, the man in the center intrigued me the most. It was our own William Shakespeare, and engraved upon his pedestal was a quote, a single quote: "Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven."

I pondered for a moment about this, and then I began to make my way down the center aisle. I turned around for a moment and waved at the ponies, and I'm fairly certain that I was seen by Lyra and a few others, so I continued my walk down 'memory lane'. I passed crate after crate, the aisle only branching off at certain points, probably in a very organized format. As I reached about three-fourths of the way down the aisle, a hatch in the floor caught my eye. I might as well as check...

I quickly opened the hatch and descended another thirty feet, and then my boots hit the ground. Turning around from the ladder, I was greeted by the sight of a relatively small room, as compared to the warehouse, only about fifty feet in length and width. However, that wasn't what caught my eye.

In front of me, a series of huge plasma screens lay, each displaying a readout or picture. As I neared the display, I saw some video feeds of the ponies, some video feeds of other places, and some covered in static. Strangely enough, in the center, where a person would be, there was a sort of projector lens in the ground. I carefully stepped onto it and then over it, and it didn't seem to move or give way underneath me. I returned my attention back to the screens in front of me, and I began to observe them. After a moment, I stopped on a single screen. It had a display of the continents of the planet, but they weren't in the correct locations. Landmasses had broken apart and reformed, some had been subducted back into the mantle, and some had been formed from eruptions of d volcanoes all over the world. I subconsciously raised a hand, tracing the borders of the land, and as my finger touched the screen, the map began pinging. Red dots began to appear on the map, along with some green and some blue ones. They had small labels next to them, displaying what I could only perceive as serial numbers and status lights. My hands fell to a pocket in my armor, and I pulled out a rolled up plastic piece. Placing it down on the desk next to the display, I tapped a few keys on it. Moments later, the status lights of red and blue winked out.

I looked back at the display, now projecting what appeared to be beacons of some sort. My smile returned to my face, the last few remaining archives of my race still existent. But then, the display next to it caught my eyes. It was a list. A list of serial numbers, names, ID tags, and... statuses...

I moved myself over, alongside my wireless keypad, and stood in front of this display. Each item in the list had the serial number of a cryopod, followed by either a blank or the information of the thing inside of the cryopod. I quickly filtered the contents of the list, my admin status helping quite a bit, and I began to search for a set of people. I scrolled through names and ID's looking for any members not labelled 'deceased'. No luck. I would not give up. I set up another filter, this time on the units and their statuses. I found a single active agent... Me.

I shook my head and continued. There was no way on this god-forsaken, pony-colonized planet that I was the last, damn human alive...

Another filter went through the list. There were names. Names and numbers. Names and numbers and statuses, but not a single one showed 'active'. Not even a single one showed 'suspended' or 'inactive'. All of them were either 'deceased' or 'missing'. I slammed my fist on the desk. No. I couldn't be the only one left. I couldn't have left everyone behind. No...

I turned to the other displays, frustration building in my head. I glanced at the inventory display, searching for a moment for things of value, like ammunition, rations, or repair equipment. I got lucky, for once, as this building also contained a built-in storage for ammo and military equipment. Then, as I was leaving, a silent alert flashing on the corner of a display caught my eyes.

'Signal detected. Designation: Phoenix. Rank: Sergeant. Immediate aid requested.'

I laughed out loud at the signal, relief spreading through my body. Someone else had survived. I wasn't alone!

I took a glance at the location of the distress beacon, and I quickly marked its location on my AR. Taking up my armor's mic and syncing it with the frequency being broadcast, I spoke. "Override code Alpha-Sierra-Niner. This is designation: Virus, receiving distress. Help is on the way, hang tight." Without waiting for a reply, I left the console. I had work to be done.

I quickly made my way out of the communications hub, and then over to the armory of the warehouse. I could hear pony voices and hoofsteps, but I had work to do. I grabbed an Mk. 2 - Strun shotgun. the familiar texture of the magnetic coils laying against my lower back as the gun clamped magnetically onto my armor. I snagged a pair of smokescreens and a pair of flash-bangs, lowering them into pockets on my armor, and then I headed back towards the voices.

A worried Twilight met me as I returned to the statues, her face clearly agitated.

"Where have you been? You should tell us before you g-" I cut her off with a hand on her mouth.

"There was a distress beacon from a human somewhere on this continent, quite nearby. This is where it is." I projected the point and a map of our location on the ground, so the lavender unicorn could see. "It's underground, by the way." I added, making sure she could help me.

After a moment of staring at the map, her eyes lit up, and then darkened once more. "That's diamond dog territory. I've been to some of their dens, and they're not pleasant at all. You're going to have to fight your way in if you do, they don't take kindly to visitors, especially the more feral ones."

I nodded, and then motioned to the door. "Well, I'd better get going then."

Phoenix

The warehouse in the back of the Smithsonian also had a fully-stocked vehicle bay. On second thought, this was probably also one of the many military warehouses set up around the country in the case of invasion, and even now, four billion years later, other than a little(lot) dust, the machines and weapons still worked. I suppose the fact that every single one of these items had been hardened and armored against most damage, and were sealed inside a, if my AR was correct, sterile environment, would contribute to that. If I wasn't in the process of starting up an Mk. IV Roadrunner ATV, I'd have actually appreciated the fact. Needless to say, I think most of the ponies on the way up out of the digsite were confused, to say the least, at the speeding metal box whipping past them with a screaming mint-green unicorn on top.

I left Lyra at the top of the digsite, and after re-calibrating the map on the ATV with the one stored in my helmet, the two-man transport was hurtling towards a beacon with me behind the handlebars.

How much time did I have? I honestly don't know. The transmission was brand-new when it came it, and it was bounced off a signal relay and a satellite, meaning some of our self-sustaining creations actually were as useful as the government said they were going to be. But where there are two of us, there could easily be more. I survived, Phoenix obviously survived long enough to send out a distress call, so that means we can't be the only ones. There has to be someone else out there. But that, for now, is irrelevant. I need to focus on the task at hand. There is a potentially injured human, most likely so, who has sent out a distress call. He is stuck underground in Diamond Dog territory, whatever they are, and they are most likely hostile.

v^v^v

The beacon was close. At least, it was within a kilometer of me. That would probably explain the large amount of holes in the ground, assuming these 'Diamond Dogs' actually lived underneath the earth. Those holes were probably ventilation shafts of some sort, since surface access tunnels would be larger.

Then, an alert appeared on Augmented Reality. There was a single IFF tag in the area, close enough to be detected by my helmet's sensors. I quickly added it to my HUD, so I could continue watching it. I stared for a moment, and watched as Phoenix's vitals came online and began to display. I inwardly cheered, but we weren't nearly out of the waters yet.

I took a peek down the hole in front of me. Even with my helmet's filters, it was all black. I stepped into the hole, using my spread arms and legs to control my descent, pushing against the sides of the hole to hold myself steady. It was slow going, but eventually, I reached the bottom of the shaft, which opened into a moderately sized room. The walls were misshapen and uneven, claw marks evident on them. That means these 'Diamond Dogs' are like moles. Whopdee-fucking-doo, now I have to watch my front, back, sides, and under me. At least they didn't know I was here... for now.

I felt them before I heard them. There was some sort of vibrations outside the room I was in, and momentarily, I heard the sound of multiple creatures, running or scurrying, through the tunnel. I quickly fell to a crouch and moved to a corner, my armor's dark coloring and its adaptive camo working in tandem to keep me unseen. But if they're dogs, then scent should be more of an issue...

The diamond dogs looked like... well... dogs, but they stood upright and ran on all four. They carried spears with them, and they seemed to be in a hurry. They spoke in growls and barks, and after I heard a strange repetitive noise, I realized one was laughing. Sentient, but primitive. They're probably quite strong, and they can dig. This'll be interesting...

They quickly passed my nearly-invisible self, and I began to follow them, worrying slightly less about the vibrations of my footsteps. Nearly four times, I had to move out of the way so that other dogs could pass me by. Either they patrolled these warrens like a top-secret facility, or they were gathering somewhere. It was probably the latter.

It wasn't long before I could hear a continuous low roar, like that of a crowd at a football game. I would know, I used to go to them all the time... And I could feel much more in the ground, almost to the point where it was shaking. I followed the noise, and as I rounded a corner, I approached what could be considered a wonder of the engineering world. It was a huge open space, and in that space was an arena. It was a massive construction of stone blocks, actually leveled out and cut well, and then stuck together. All the blocks seemed to be made of some sort of light-colored stone, like sandstone, but I don't think it was all the same stone. It reminded me of the Colosseum, but it was stretched out slightly and was not nearly as tall. And it was filled to the brim with dogs. Dogs of all shapes and sizes, of colors ranging form a dull blue to a grey to a crimson red filled the seats, and even more were on their way in. The worst thing, however, was that Phoenix's IFF indicated he was right in the damn middle of them.

An idea began to form in my mind as to what was happening, but I hoped I was wrong. I began circling the arena, looking for a way in. About halfway around it, I saw my chance. There was a small portal into the stone, a service gate of some sort. I made my way over to it, and after a quick juggle of the lock with my picks, the door opened. As I entered the gate, I heard steps. There was an empty hallway in front of me, and at the end, there was a metal door on either side of the hall, and it continued to extend. I quickly made my way over to the doors, and tried them. Neither were open. Then, I heard the jiggling of a key in a lock, and a growl from the other side of the door on the right. I took a step back and drew my knife.

The door opened, and I lunged. The poor canine never had a chance. A fountain of blood spurted from his neck as my knife passed through it. His eyes widened and his hands reflexively jerked to it, trying to stem the bleeding. Within moments, his choked growl ended, and his body fell limp to the ground. I laid him down, and then liberated his keys from him.

Turning my Augmented Reality to analyze, I began to dissect his corpse, making a trio of surgical incisions with my knife, examining the placement of his vitals and muscles. I mechanically searched through the chest cavity, and then moved on to the arms and legs, my AR analyzing his bone and muscle structure, allowing for better predictions of movement. Gruesome, but effective, and important if I wanted to fight these creatures. I quickly finished and dragged the still-warm body into the room it came from. It seemed to be some sort of break room, with a pile of gems in the corner, a table in the center, and an unfinished game of solitaire on it.

I left his body in the room, and I locked to door on my way out, snapping the key off inside the lock. That should stay for a little bit, at least long enough for me to get in and out of this damn burrow.

I continued to navigate the hallways, the general slope of the tunnels leading me downwards. At least I had a map, a way back up to my ride, in case I needed to bug out.

I came across a crossroads in the path, and I stopped. Which way... I was interrupted my more vibrations, coming from the right. I took a step back and stuck my back against the wall, waiting. The cool, rocky wall poked into my back, but I was concealed... for the most part. A pair of dogs reached the junction, and they stopped. They, unlike the previous ones, wore no armor and carried no weapons. They stood shorter than the others and were probably younger than the others. Perhaps they were pups. They spoke for a moment, their harsh barks sounding off the walls. One pointed one way, straight for them, left for me, and the other pointed in my direction. Not good.

I removed a silencer from the side of my pistol holster, and I began screwing it on the front of my gun, preparing for the worst. One of them took a step in my direction, and I raised the gun, holding it up. Then, he took a step back at the call of the other, and they began to move to the left path. Close call.

I followed the pair around a series of tunnels, twisting around in a rough circle, my AR laying out a path behind me. We traveled for a while, and finally, we came to an archway in the side of the path. The two dogs chattered excitedly, and they poked their heads through. I took the opportunity. I raised my knife, and mapping out their internal organs with my AR, I lashed it through the left lung and heart of the dog on the right. Ducking under the blood and kneeling on the ground, I hamstrung the other dog, shocked by the sudden passing of his comrade, and buried the knife in his chest, slanting upwards and piercing his lung, too. This ensured they didn't scream. I caught the second's body as it fell, and I laid it beside the first. To confirm the kill, I slit open both their throats, ear-to-ear.

I followed their once-living gaze out the archway, and I saw what they did. It was impressive, to say the least...

Around me, in the gloom of the half-dark, a massive arena spread. Lit up by torches and glowing gems along the stands and a sort of luminescent dirt in the actual arena, I gazed upon an architectural marvel underneath the earth. Dogs of all shapes and sizes lined the stands, silent for some reason, and they all seemed riveted to the spot, staring at the center of the arena. As my eyes lowered to their subject, my eyes tightened into a glare, but a sliver of relief wormed its way into my head. There stood Phoenix, her fiery red hair billowing behind her as she flipped into the air and swung a sword, the deadly steel biting into the neck of her opponent.

Author's Note

You would not believe how annoying this chapter is. I feel it's a little bit weird, and it gets better towards the end, but it feels a little rushed to me. Meh, enjoy.

Also, help me get featured on this one!
XD

Escape

The crowd spurred into a frenzy at the execution of their favorite gladiator. Howls of uproar and rejection at the sight filled the air, along with the jubilation of those betting on the underdog. I couldn't move now, that would be the end of us both, with every single dog watching. I needed to wait...

I stepped into the arena, sticking to the walls, hoping my camouflage worked properly. I needed to get to Phoenix and get us out of here. And any other humans here.

As the body of the dog dropped to the ground, another four dogs, some types of moderators or handlers, appeared from a doorway to the arena and moved towards her. When they reached the ring, one raised its hand, and the crowd grew silent. For a moment, an eerie silence reigned, but after a moment, he 'spoke'. A series of harsh barks tore through the silence; the dog appeared to be some sort of announcer. After a moment, he grabbed Phoenix's limp hand, and raised it into the air. The crowd roared, overlapping howls of disappointment and roars of approval. After a moment, he headed back to the doorway, Phoenix behind him and the other three flanking her. Now.

I followed them, sticking my back to the wall, a shadow, flitting around the arena, unnoticed by the dogs. It appeared as if there was more to come, I might actually be able to get out of here without heavy resistance. Within moments, I was entering the door they had used, and I found myself in a passage not unlike the previous ones. This one, however, was a sloping circular column with doors at regular intervals. I listened, assisted by my AR, for sounds, and I could hear footsteps above me. I hurried around the spiral, following the sounds. There were a distinct five pairs, give or take one, so it was probably Phoenix and her handlers. They were going somewhere, probably some sort of housing.

I reached a door at the top, and the footsteps on the other side stopped. I removed a small optical probe a pocket in my armor, and poked it under the door. I was mildly surprised to see Phoenix facing some sort of upper ranking dog; he was decked out in a white robe and sat on a plush chair, overlooking the arena. Maybe he's some sort of alpha? He was flanked by a set of honor guards, two with spears, and two with swords, all dressed in fancy armor. They were standing in a rectangular room, like the atrium of a large building, and the side of a red carpet leading up to the chair was lined with torches, each topped with a red crystal, letting out an eerie crimson light. It was as if the entire room had been infused with translucent blood.

I checked my AR's map to see what exactly this arena looked like, and to plan an escape route. Not much luck there. The only route I had for certain was the one I had used to get here. I needed a map.

I looked back through the probe, and the fancy dog was speaking, in English. Somewhat surprising, but it was the language of the ponies after all. Diverting my attention back to the room around them, I searched for a ventilation hole of some sort. They had to get air from somewhere. I got lucky this time, as there was one in the corner of the room. Now that I think of it, there are probably many more around the place, and I should have mapped them out, but I digress from the task at hand. I highlighted the darkened corner of the room and marked it with a waypoint.

Now, how to draw them out here? I could barge in with my shotgun and kill a few, but it could result in the death or injury of me or Phoenix. I needed a diversion. I had two smokescreens and two flash-bangs. Perhaps I could use my helmet speakers to draw them out, flash-bang them, and them take them out. Then I could lay down a smokescreen to escape. Now, how could I alert Phoenix to my plan...

I'm an idiot. She still has her distress signal, she used it. That means she probably has some sort of earpiece. It's worth a try.

I whispered into my comm unit, directing the message to her. "This is Agent Virus, tilt your head if you can hear me." Phoenix's body stiffened as I spoke, her back straightening and her body tensing. She tilted her head to the right, slightly, as if confused, but then moved it back to its original position. Good.

"I will draw them out here, and then hit them with a flash-bang, close your eyes. Then, our escape is that vent in the back-right corner of the room. I have a Roadrunner up top ready to get us to friendly territory. There's time for questions later, and yes, I have a gun for you." I spoke with a slight smile, adrenaline building in my veins. I reached behind me, and replaced the optical probe, and grabbed my shotgun off my back. Here's to humanity.

I chose a song, one that we humans used for so long to mess with people, and jacked the volume up to the highest I could on my speakers. I turned my vision to infrared, and turned off my external audio input. I tossed a flash-bang to the ground, the pin already pulled, and I readied my smokescreens. The first dogs burst through the door, attracted by the music, and I hurled one smokescreen down and the other forwards, into the room. Smoke began to fill the air, a breathable but obscure cloud, as the flash-bang went off, stunning the trio of guards in front of me. The shotgun came out, and I raised it up to my shoulder, leveling it with the nearest dog's chest.

The whir of an electromagnetic circuit sounded as slivers of metal were shred from a block and propelled out of it at mach 3, disemboweling the dog in front of me. A cloud of misted blood mingled with the smoke, the leftovers of his digestive system left hanging out of the gaping hole in his body. My second shot blew open a hole in the chest of a dog, one of his arms falling to the ground, separated from his body, and his heart disappearing in a flash of red. It too was blasted backwards by the shot. My third and final shot liquefied the head of the third dog, bits of white and grey bone and brain spraying the air behind him as his head was turned into a streak on the wall.

My fingers were already replacing the metal block, the ammunition, of the shotgun as I stepped forwards, heat signatures popping up on my AR. I flipped my pistol out of its holster and fired once at a dog, and using the recoil, I flipped it back over my hand to catch it by the barrel. I stepped past Phoenix, jamming my shotgun into the chest of one of the dogs next to her, and freeing him of his chest cavity. I placed the pistol into her open hand, and as her grip firmed around its handle, I stepped forwards again, shotgun leveled at the honor guards, now advancing towards me. The smoke still hung in the air, but it was rapidly fading, being dispersed by something. I heard the crack of a pistol shot behind me, and the responding howl of a dog. Good.

I fired my next round, aiming for the center mass of the leftmost dog, the shot skating along his plate armor, punching through it in some places and deflecting off of others. Figures, I didn't pack my flechettes. Other pieces of the metal slivers tore through exposed skin, and I saw blood fly from some weaker points in the armor. My AR, always-adapting, instantly updated on the location of these weaker points, and areas of the dog's armor began to flash across my HUD, both potential from the previous set or armor and theoretical from the normal weaknesses of armor in general, namely, the joints.

I worked my way towards the right side, my second shot finding it's mark, this time far more accurately. As I pulled the trigger for the third time, a trio of cracks split the air behind me, three high-velocity pistol rounds eviscerating the right-most dog just as my third shot turned the third dog into a sack of meat riddled with holes. Time for us to move.

"Nice shooting. I spoke over the comm, making my way to the marked corner. The last dog was no threat, no need to kill him.

"Thanks... Nice... music... by the way..." Her voice wavered, as if she was somewhat in shock, and she seemed quite young. That may have just been the nerves, though, and besides, I almost burst out laughing at her comment on the music. It would be, after all, quite memorable. We had reached the hole, and surprisingly enough, the current directly underneath was actually quite strong. It must have been sucking the smoke out of the room, it would explain the lack of thick smoke after not one, but two smokescreens.

"Let's get out of here before their reinforcements arrive, I'm fairly certain they'll be here in a moment." I turned around, under the hole, and faced Phoenix. I knelt then, my hands flattened on top of each other. Phoenix took the hint, and after stepping backwards, ran towards my open hands. She used me as a springboard to hop up into the hope, catching onto the sides with her arms and legs braced against the sides. I backed up and waited for her to clear the bottom of the hole, and then I took a running jump onto the wall and pushed backwards off of it, placing myself in the hole. I had to show off somehow, it's human nature. After a few feet of a climb, scrambling up the sides of the shaft, we reached a flat connecting shaft, extending off, perpendicular to the vent, which ended with a metal door.

We followed the shafts, with only a general direction where to go. On the bright side, it might actually throw off any pursuers. But I'm not counting on it.

It was a while, a while full of backtracking and trying to determine elevation before we finally reached a surface access point. The sky was visible through a hole in the ceiling, yellowish sky looking down upon us. After a few moments of climbing straight up the shaft, we finally reached the surface. The Roadrunner wasn't even a click away, and we managed to get to it before the ground started shaking.

Speaking of which, it did, as we were just mounting the roadrunner. Dogs started popping up out of holes everywhere, trying to stop our escape. Needless to say, not many, after the first two, were willing to stand in front of a speeding motorized vehicle, and most cleared out of our path.

We were left riding into the sunset on a Roadrunner, leaving the caves of the diamond dogs behind for the opulence of the ponies. But we still had work to do...

Author's Note

I'm so sorry about updating. I have no excuse, other than Warframe, Smite, and Fallout:New Vegas.
But I promise I'll get working on this asap and give you guys more.
Sadisticnerd is back with a vengeance.

Conviction

Phoenix was probably one of the smartest people I know. Well, including the people before we killed ourselves. She's a CQC specialist, but also quite experienced with military computer hardware and equipment, and honestly, a whole buncha doohickey's I don't know the real name for. She had asked to see my AR HUD on the way, and it didn't even take her ten minutes, on a speeding Roadrunner, to start accessing the 'developer mode' or something like that and start examining the specs with what she called 'administrative commands'. Frankly, she got farther into the techy aspect of the thing than I ever had, and frankly, as long as I got it back in working condition, I was okay with that. She was even able to access the thing's classified database and get the blueprints for some other... 'interesting'... pieces of equipment. Not only that, but she was able to calibrate the thing (it took me a weeks worth of taxpayer sponsored training) and clean the 'frostburn' damage it had from being frozen. Needless to say, I understood maybe half of what she said.

Her youth showed. She was barely a woman, in her late twenties, and she talked... a lot. Maybe it's a coping mechanism, I didn't know. But I wasn't going to straight out tell her about us, humans, until we reached Warehouse Prime. I'm sure the military base inside the thing had some sort of barracks we could use, maybe even an officer lounge. But I digress. She'd be considered 'attractive' back on old Earth (which I've taken to calling our home before we killed ourselves), and I'd be surprised if she wasn't dating someone before. I didn't ask... yet. She had flaming red hair, maybe or maybe not dyed, and fit the name 'Phoenix'. I wouldn't be surprised if she had some experience with fire, as back on old Earth, we got our nicknames and callsigns for doing... stuff. Virus came from me overthrowing a start-up communist regime in Japan after a full year of being declared MIA. My handlers were shocked when the first news broadcasts hit the net, especially when they saw me and the new president shaking hands like old buddies at his inauguration. I suppose she burnt something or another.

I had explained to her what our world looked like now, and more importantly, who controlled it. She didn't seem too surprised to hear about ponies, but I suppose she had experience with the dogs. It still felt unnatural to me, but I suppose this isn't our nature anymore.

It wasn't long before we had reached the digsite, now the location of Warehouse Prime. The WP would most likely end up being our home for now. Perhaps we could rebuild... if we could find more of us...

But we had a bigger problem, a snag if you will. Approaching the entrance I noticed the entire place was roped off by yellow tape, and even worse, a huge crowd brimming on the other side. Ponies of all backgrounds were trying to catch a glimpse of the side of the mountain where the digsite was located, trying to see if something was there. Probably for us, if I were to hazard a guess. They were swelling against a wall of similarly colored ponies, guards, not actively pushing, but trying to inch their way to the cave's mouth. It was really more of a gaping hole in the side of a mountain, but I digress.

Frankly, I was right. As we neared the entrance ponies started shouting and pointing, trying to muscle their way over towards us. No need, I was heading for them faster. This would be tiring. We don't have the time to deal with paparazzi, we're goddamn soldiers. I saw camera's begin to flash towards us, and I sighed. This was going to be a long day. If they want to see us, meet us in the damn Warehouse. But I did have a passenger.

"Do you wanna talk to the damn ponies. It's gonna take a really fucking long time if we don't head straight for the Warehouse." I spoke into the comm on my replaced cowl.

"No. I want to see if they still have a working plane or chopper down there. God knows we could use one." The response was given after a moment. It had conviction, Phoenix agreed. Present course of action, don't stop, but don't hurt a pony unnecessarily.

I gunned the engine, a roar filling the air as the distance between the ponies and ourselves quickly closing. I slammed my hand down on the horn, its loud wail filling the air. Ponies near the front of the group seemed to freeze up, our vehicle bearing down on them. I let go of the gas and started easing down on to the brake, slowing us down so we wouldn't turn the first wall of ponies into red paste.

I started jabbing the horn, over and over again, in order to let them know I wasn't going to stop for them. They seemed to get the idea as they began moving to the sides, parting, and opening a path for the Roadrunner. I started accelerating again, preparing the map of the cave in my AR. But honestly, with the size of the damn Warehouse, I'd be surprised if it didn't take up the entire mountain.

We passed the first ponies, kicking up dirt behind us as they stared on in barely- to unconcealed fascination. Jaws dropped, pegasus wings flared, and I swear I saw a dozen or so faint outright. Glad I made a good first impression. More than one pegasus tried to keep up with us, but I don't think it's easy for them to maintain a good sixty for any more than a few seconds, as I saw. We made it to the ring of guards, and after a quick stare-down with the approaching vehicle, the unluckiest guard on the planet probably pee'd his pants and definitely dove for cover as we passed over his position about three seconds after he hit the floor, traumatized. My passenger was turned around, watching the ponies with a cocked head in what I think was a thoughtful expression.

We reached the entrance to the warehouse quite quickly, passing architects and whatnot, and finally as the Roadrunner came to a standstill, I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. Where did that come from? I dismounted the vehicle, and Phoenix slid to the ground, eyes wide at the... stuff.

"By the way... what's your rank? You keep showing up as just 'Virus' on my IFF. You must be something." Her voice crossed over on the comms.

"Honestly, I don't know anymore. I did have top-level clearance and was allowed to see past some redacted shit. Also, a lot of that redacted shit was my shit. And now, the computer here told me I'm officially the president." I responded after a moment with a deadpanned last sentence.. "But no need for that crap now, it's basically just the two of us." Shit. Not the way I meant to say it.

"Yeah? Figured. We never had any mutant dogs or ponies walking around. And frankly, it took you long enough to get the distress. I'd normally get a response within seconds, whether it be 'sure, we got you' or 'busy, give us a moment'. I hated that last one, but it at least meant someone was there." Her tone was bitter, and I could tell she was laughing at herself. "I almost killed myself, after I decided I was the last one of us. Did you know that?"

I chuckled a bit, laughing at our situation. "Really? I did that after I saw that my cryopod's year counter had hit an 'integer overflow'." I mimed the quotes with my fingers, and she started laughing, full out. I chuckled alongside her, and pulled my cowl/helmet off of my head. "I even got to shoot a pony. In the horn and with no serious damage, but either way..."

She pulled off her helmet as I did, her hair cascading around her face, the last remnants of a laugh in her voice. "Really? Why'd you want to shoot one of those adorable things. They look like they could hardly hurt a fly. And I'm glad to know I'm not the only one."

"Well, she shot first. but you should see how they look when they try to look mean. It's fucking hilarious." I cracked a smile, laughing. Damn. If I was twenty or so years younger, I'd be asking her out. Doesn't matter now, anyways. We actually might have a chance at living. "But anyways, I found a console down in the basement with some master controls and shit. You should go have a look at it, I'm sure you could do better than putting a filter on a search." I started walking down towards the hatch from earlier. "I'll see if I can get an inventory on the place. And I wonder where the hell the rest of the ponies are."

As if on cue, I heard the trotting of hooves. "There they are, you may want to stay. And by the way, we still can't give out classified info. We might still be alive." I tossed that comment out backhandedly, but it actually filled me with a little bit of hope. We actually might have a chance.

After a minute or so, we finally saw the ponies arrive in. Princess Shiny was here with Twilight and Shining Bitch. Behind them, a few ponies followed, about half a dozen guards, a pair of researchers, and Lyra. I can honestly say she's the only pony I like, and that might just be out of pity because I punched her.

I moved back to the Roadrunner, and I snagged the shotgun off of my back. I tossed it over to Phoenix with a "Hey, take this" and grabbed my rifle off of one of the racks on the vehicle. I quickly flipped the scope to the holographic sight, just in case.

"Wait. You have a mag-rifle? I though those things were... oh wait... right." I heard Phoenix behind me as I stepped to meet the pony entourage.

"'Ello Lyra. Oh and you guys." I spoke to Lyra first, just to see what would happen. The Princess seemed preoccupied, Twilight still had her notebook-thing, and Shining was still glaring at me. It's starting to piss me off.

"Hey Virus. What's up?" Lyra spoke back, thankfully, after glancing at the Princess and getting a nod. "I see you found somepony else."

"Yeah. Phoenix! Get over here!" I beckoned to her, and she approached us, the shotgun now set on her back. She waved slightly, and got back to calibrating... a wrist mounted computer of some sort? I had my helmet, so I suppose it's fine.

"She's Phoenix. CQC spec and tinker. But anyways, what's up with all the crowd and everything?" I kinda knew the answer to this already.

"Oh... I think that's better for the Princess to answer." She turned her head to the horse-sized monarch.

"Yes, I do agree. Virus, you've cause quite the stir. Your existence is hitting the headlines as we speak and ponies are trying to get to this location as fast as they can. Rumors of your behavior have been spreading like wildfire, in addition to your diet and technology. The other nations are probably going to be at our doorsteps soon, asking to see you. Do you realize what you've done?" The Princess frowned down on me, from a few inches up.

I returned the frown. "Did you realize that not five minutes ago, we-" I gestured between me and Phoenix "-were joking about suicide and being the last of our damn species on this planet. Is a life worth the media? I say yes." I might have been a little too harsh, judging by Twilight's gasp at my language, Shining's deepening frown, and Lyra's subconscious step backwards. The Princess' gaze, however, softened and she sighed.

"You're right. I judged you too quickly, but please try to refrain from it in the future. Also, I'd like to know what your future plans are. You seemed to be at a loss as of this morning."

"I was. Now, not so much. We aren't dead yet. We're like fucking cockroaches. Now... Well... I plan on trying to rebuild. We'll use this warehouse as a home, it has what we need to get to work. But it would be great if you could bring us food. If you want compensation, I think we have the tech to trade. But I do demand privacy. Not request, demand. Oh, and this mountain we're under is now human territory, no negotiations. We have secrets, which for your own people's sake, should be left that way for now." I don't know where that came from. It seems as if I actually learned a little from my experiences. One doesn't live over fifty without some tricks.

She sighed, conflicted for a moment, and then seemed to acquiesce. "Fine." Twilight seemed to droop at her words, as did Lyra. "I suppose I can't really stop you from becoming independent, but if I find you harming my ponies..." She glared at me.

"Understood. However..." I couldn't stand the faces of the pair of mares wanting to research us. "... as a gesture of good faith, I'd like to give to you some of the research we humans have done into various branches. I'll make sure I get you guys a copy of some of our medical and scientific data. All our weapons, however, are off-limits. I'd be insulting the memory of our past presidents if I started arming the hell out of some underdeveloped nation." I smiled at the last bit, to show my jest. Good to know that they agreed, as the Princess seemed to lose a little tension, and Twilight almost squee'd. I almost had a heart attack; it was so cute.

"Fair enough. I'd also like to offer a few guards to patrol the entrance, at least, until you get your defenses running, as well as a supply of food. I'll also be calling an international meeting soon, as you've just made the entire world aware of your presence, you'll receive an invitation soon." This seemed to piss the Shining Bitch off even worse, but he held it in. At least he was a decent soldier. Twilight was happy, to say the least, as she was almost literally jumping with joy. Lyra was pleased, also, but somewhat unsure. The other ponies behind them seemed to share Twilight's reaction.

"Well... you may need an electric grid for some of our stuff. Also, I'm not letting any more than five ponies at once enter this archive at a time. One of them is Lyra, no exceptions." An idea struck me, just as Lyra's face turned to joyful shock. "Also, I propose that the conference be held here, as it's technically as neutral territory as we can get."

Celestia thought for a moment, then extended a hoof. "I agree, 'President' Virus. Let's see if we can't help each other. I'll send over a team of guards as soon as I get back to the castle, and I'll have the five sent over immediately. If you would let us, I'll leave Twilight and Lyra here, as researches. Is that okay?"

I shook the hoof, strangely enough, it had a grip on it, looked them over for a moment. "Sure, why not." I cracked a smile as they both nearly squee'd... again. "But you need to do two things. One, stay away from anything even remotely combat-related, it will scar you for life. Two, if me or Phoenix tells you anything, no matter how trivial, you do it, no questions asked. If you fail to do so, we will remove you from the area, immediately, and you will be hard-pressed to get back in. But anyways, let's get started. If you'd follow me..."

I turned around and began walking to what I recognized as the history section, the normal one. "Why don't you two start here." The pair split up, each with a pad and a pencil. I chuckled... they were going to need a lot more than that...

"Phoenix." I called and turned to her. "Check out the hatch. I want you to first get the surveillance and security systems online, then upload the new data on the species from my AR, and then see if you can get the sensors back, then check the inventory. Comm me if you need me. I'll go check out the barracks and quarters, and prepare for the conference. Oh, and stop by the armory and get yourself armed and armored."

The other group of ponies had just left the entrance, and I followed them to the door. I turned to the control panel. I quickly entered the system and closed the doors, linking the entrance panel and comms to my neural interface implant. I linked it to Phoenix's too, and then I spoke to her.

"We got work to do. We might actually be able to rebuild. We're gonna be fine. There are more of us out there. I can feel it. All we need is for the other races to know, and for the rest of us to get up. Once everyone knows how we react to our own being harmed... they will give us peace, or they will pay. It's the only way for us, there's not enough room to make mistakes. Sorry if I'm rambling, but it helps settling my mind. We're gonna be okay." Now that I think of it, she's probably old enough to be my... no, that's not going to help now. I need to focus on the present. There will be time to mourn the past later.

Author's Note

Name suggestions for Virus?
Not gonna use it except when he's with Phoenix. But it's classified, so maybe not.

Name the references. Some are not hard to spot, others, more difficult.

Updates every day until Seventhbrony read this.
Two weeks after finals.
One at home, one in India, before my muse returned to me in full force. But it's like Cole, half as long, twice as bright.

I'm looking for a few people to help my with the persona's of a bunch of the ambassadors/rulers of nations. I'd appreciate if any could help. PM me. I want this done ASAP. Otherwise, it's me, myself, I, duvagr if he's around, IamMemorial, and maybe some other friends.

Upgrade

The next few days, to say the least, were surprising as fuck. Phoenix is a fucking boss. She was able to access the entire mainframe of the warehouse, and we had more information than I could ever want in my life. She managed to get the security systems online on day one, and had a set of working auto-turrets up halfway through the second, guarding the entrances with visible lights scans, infrared, ultraviolet, and I swear she said we have working sonar on them. The mainframe's VI, or virtual intelligence, was also working quite well. It's a relatively new thing, the VI's. They were created by the military not long after they requisitioned some tech from this really big tech firm. VI's were ridiculously efficient, and as a soldier, I don't know exactly how they worked, but they made us win a few fights. I heard some rumors about full blown AI's, but I don't think we managed to make any. We were able, however, to make self-repairing armor and then nano-skins like the one my helmet is made of.

Speaking of which, we had two huge discoveries thanks to Phoenix's skills with the mainframe. We learned that we actually had two sets of working nanobots. One set was currently repairing, constantly, a space station orbiting the Earth in a geosynchronous orbit above... Washington DC. Guess where we were? Yes, it moved with the beacon from the Smithsonian with the continents. It was named Space Station One, and if that means exactly what I think it does...

The second discovery was that this entire warehouse was filled with nanobots. Well, not entirely nanobots. They were more of really small maintenance robots, built as self-sustaining off of solar energy absorbed from external arrays. They had been keeping this place active for nearly a billion years, just a little bit dusty. They had obtained resources from mining underneath us, with a set of bots built specifically for the purpose. We actually were able to make something completely self-fucking-sustaining for once. Wow.

But that's not my priority. I spent my first day organizing the ponies outside and in, showing them around and explaining to them why they were not going to be shot on sight, as long as they were peaceful and followed instructions. I answered questions, with the help of Phoenix and the mainframe, whose VI I've taken to calling Muse, due to the shortness of the name and the whimsical nature of its speech. I have yet to show her to the ponies, but I will eventually. On the second day, I let them do what they wanted, and I allowed Celestia to send in a full team, but with food added. We couldn't get meat, but we made do with eggs. God knows how much I could have used a strip of bacon.

Day three was more boring for me. I spent it researching the other species on the planet, joining my preexisting information with that of the Equestrians. It was tedious, but I managed to end up relatively well-read about the others, enough to get around anyways. Besides that, there was one security breach, but the turret on the door took out the intruder without hassle. It was some sort of black, big-ass bug. Regardless, it was half cleaned up by the time I got there; the bots had almost cleaned up the entire mess beforehand. In addition, during inventory, we had found out that underneath the warehouse was a factory, but a very complex one at that. It was a military supply factory, there was no doubt about that, but the VI controlled it completely and could build any thing with a schematic in the database. I asked if it could build me a Mark IV EMC, or as the military guys call it, the Eat-it Motherfucker Cannon. Yes, they actually named it that. It had the specs on my suit, but not the resources, so that was a bummer. I was, however, able to find a ridiculously large amount of medical supplies. That could prove helpful for negotiation purposes. I also tried to see if we still had any weaponized orbital platforms around, but we couldn't get a signal from any of the known ones. We need to make it to Space Station One asap. Adding it to the list.

Day four, I received confirmation of the conference. It had been agreed upon by a majority of the rulers to hold the meeting in our Warehouse. Good. I am totally, although this is a 'peace' talk, going to set up a pair of turrets in the room we're meeting in. I returned the message, stating that we would be meeting inside the mess hall, on even territory, and I also informed the rulers that they would be sitting on the ground. It always helps to show yourself on even ground, especially if that ground is the ground. It makes intimidation harder, too... unless you've been through a lot more than any of the others. I'm still worried about the dragon, but I read something about them being able to manifest themselves in a smaller form, otherwise they'd eat the world or something. Phoenix and I also did a little more chatting over the comms, as usual, but this time we talked a little more about personal things. Like our lives before the war, our experiences, and... family. I know I should probably talk to someone, but, it can wait. Hopefully, she found a cryopod too. Or at least one of my... No. Not now.

I was also able to rig some speakers up around the place, and I made sure to give a comm unit to each unicorn, so they could communicate their findings to each other and myself and Phoenix. From what I heard, they had already made use of the printers and printed and published a rough history of us. The book was published with permission from me, as it used our subject material, and we received compensation, in the form of food and resources. Not bad profit for information. But now that I think about it, we really needed to keep some of this information to ourselves. We don't actually have the resources to make anything, so we need to... Shit. I'm already speaking as if there's actually some of us left. I can't count my chickens this quickly.

The fifth day finally rolled around, the day of the conference. It was still the morning, and I had just taken a shower and dressed up in uniform. I was on my way to the control room with a pair of mugs of steaming hot coffee, when I heard Phoenix over the comms.

"Virus. We have a situation. Get to the control room. Now." I quickened my pace, my earlier weariness forgotten.

"I'm on my way. ETA thirty seconds." I was just about right, but it made no difference. I slipped down the hatch, and into the mainframe room. "What's up?" I silently handed her a mug, and she silently thanked me for it.

"SS-One is responding to pings. It's an automated message, but it's still something. Let me play it for you." She tapped a few keys, and the center screen on the display lit up with a face from a video feed. Static crossed the screen, and the voice was garbled. It was hard to make out, but it was there. After a few moments it began to clear up.

"...lo. This is Pre... rn. Day... We have been floating up here for a few days, and I'm recording this because I just got word that... eted his mission. We basically won, folks. Good job troops, the war is over. I want to congratulate you all on a marvelous job, and that you are a.. oes." The man's head turned to the side, suddenly, and indistinguishable voices were heard in the background. Something about a 'launch'. My blood froze...

The man gave a defeated chuckle. "Sorry, just kidding. Nukes have been... ll over the world. We're firing them now, there's nothing we can do. Troops, I recommend that if you can, freeze yourself in a cr...d or hide in a bunker. We might just live through this. But anyways, I'll see you all on the other side. Just know that you all, you brave souls, have made me proud." The man had started... crying? He reminded me of my old man, and I touched my cheek to find a tear rolling down it.

He stepped out of the camera, and then back in. "Oh, and if you're still alive at the end, report to Warehouse Prime, you know where it is. It will still be active, waiting for us to get back..." He stepped out again, and the sounds of cryopods opening were heard through the interference. The feed cut off.

I stood up straighter, and then saluted. I wiped the tear away, and then turned to Phoenix. She was wearing casual clothes, a t-shirt and sweatpants or something, and she was tearing up. That magnificent bastard. He was the best president the US had ever had...

She turned to me and buried her head into my chest, sobbing quietly. I cocooned her in my arms, swaying. I myself felt another tear, a drop of cold, wet, sorrow, roll down my face. That was for my family, who I'm never going to see again in my life. That was for my friends, for the ones who died with a bullet in their chest or a new sun on the horizon. That was for humanity, the doomed race. But most of all, that was for hope, which had just sparked itself within me.

After a moment, she broke the embrace, recoiling backwards, back into her seat at the console. She had the same look on her face as I most likely did.

"No..." *sniffle* "...more crying. Okay?" She asked me, her hand flying over the keyboard. "No more. We have to find them. There has to be some of us left..."

I silently nodded to her. That was what I said before I found her. Maybe it works the same way... Just then, two alerts went off on the console. One was a proximity alert, people were approaching the door; and the other was a 'connection established' alert.

Her gaze locked against mine, and with a silent nod, I turned for the hatch back to the main level, and she turned back to the console.

"Meet me in the mess when you're done here." I exited the control room, headed for the main doors. Time to meet our guests.

Author's Note

Short chapter, double update.
Deal?

Conference

On my way to the door, I took a moment to pay my respects, at the front, near the monuments. I added another thing to our production list. A statue of our past president with his last few words engraved on it. Fitting, he honestly deserved it. But I had no time for that. I quickly wiped away the last of my tears and made my way to the now-opening doors. My hand fell to my pistol, the comforting grip molded to my hand. It was time for business.

I welcomed the first guests, Princess Celestia and Luna. I really wasn't surprised to see them first, and not long after, the dragon ambassador guy followed. He was a dark, forest green, and stood about four feet above me. He was walking on four limbs, but according to the books, these smaller forms can also function on two. Fair enough. Within a few minutes, the rest of the ambassadors/rulers had arrived.

A stag and doe, a pair of griffins, a buffalo, a diamond dog, a huge-ass pony/bug (changeling), a pair of minotaurs with goats alongside them, and an honest to God pair of horses, along with their honor guards and entourages of various types, all were greeted by me and directed to the mess hall, now mostly clear of tables. I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the changelings and the mess of black and bug I found earlier, but I was going to give them the benefit of the doubt... for now.

I didn't remember all of their names, and frankly, I could care less. The dogs didn't like me, I didn't like them. The changeling just looked suspicious, and frankly, she deserved it. The minotaur seemed to be bored out of his mind, and the griffin was staring at me, constantly. The horses and ponies seemed to act normal, but the only types who actually seemed to be interested in the Warehouse were the dragons and deer. And Twilight, always Twilight.

I led them to the mess hall (mostly cleared for use), and after pulling a beanie bag chair from the side (I set those up earlier, don't ask where I found them) and a coke (I set up a mini-fridge with them and some assorted drinks, alcoholic ones included)(it tasted the same as before the war, I swear those preservatives are bad for us) and sitting my ass down on the beanbag, I started talking.

"Okay. Greetings, welcome, whatever. Take a seat and let's start talking." I popped the cap off the bottle as only five of the creatures in the room actually sat down, pulling other cushions of various sizes from the side, following my lead. The Princesses, the horses, and the dragon sat down, curling up in various forms, ready to talk, as the rest just stood, a look of slight shock on their faces.

"Do... you... actually expect us to sit down on the floor?" The slightly hesitant but arrogant voice of the griffin king cut through the tension in the air like a hot knife through butter. I almost laughed out loud.

"No. I expect you to stand and try to exert your dominance over me." I deadpanned at him, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "You are in my home, and as any civilized race knows, you should be polite to your hosts. If you want to leave, go ahead, I'm not stopping you. But if you want to stay, I expect you, every one of you, to act civilized enough to participate in negotiation. Frankly, I don't care. So, sit, or leave." I gave him my ultimatum. I'm a goddamn soldier, not a politician. He can sit or fuck off. I noticed a frown on the Princesses' faces, but the dragon seemed to enjoy that as much as I did. Hopefully a kindred spirit.

The griffin glared at me for a moment, before one of his guard/servants pulled a cushion over to him. I sighed and put a hand to my face. The rest of the rulers sat, after a moment, and most of them also had a servant of some sort bring them a seat. The only one who didn't was the minotaur. I'll give him some credit, he seemed to understand that doing so actually raised him in my eyes. Or maybe the sigh gave it away.

Once every...one had settled, I spoke again. "Now that that's out of the way, any of you want something to drink. It might be stale after a really long time, but it can't be that bad." I sipped my cola. I was actually right. It wasn't that bad. It seemed as if none of them had ever gotten into this situation before. Or maybe I was being too callous about these things.

Princess Celestia seemed to try and play peacemaker, as she agreed to one after a second. I hopped up from my seat and walked over to the mini-fridge next to the cushions, and after rolling it back to my seat, I popped the thing open and tossed a bottle over to the Princess.

The changeling Queen, Chrysalis or something, looked at me with a sort of distaste. "No servants of any sort? I'd expected more out of a race so 'advanced'." Oh god, the sheer arrogance in her. No wonder she never got anywhere in life.

I looked at her, the smirk on her face growing wider. "Muse." I called out to the VI watching this. "Activate the turrets and point them at the bug. I though I told you to let in the rulers, not the roaches." On my command, a pair of ceiling based turrets opened from hidden panels and swung down. Both were equipped with magnetic mass drivers, similar to my rifle, and a pair of .40 caliber anti-personnel chain guns. A pair of red targeting lasers slowly hovered around the center mass of the bug. She visibly swallowed, her eyes twitching between myself and the turrets.

My voice dropped. "I don't rely on others because it makes me better. And I'm a soldier, but that's irrelevant. I don't have servants do what I can do myself. The quote 'If you want it done right, do it yourself.' explains one of my standards very well. And so... Muse, deactivate the turrets... If I were to want you dead..." I stood up and drew my pistol. "I'd put a hole in your damn head myself. Does that answer your question?"

The queen nodded, her fear diminished and turned to dislike. Fine by me. The dragon still looked on the verge of laughing, and the rest of the races simply sat, observing my actions. I might have come on a bit strong, but I'm a human. We tend to do that. And if a show of force now stops later bloodshed, then I've won a battle today.

I sat back down, took a sip from my cola, and started. Most of this was prepared. "Now let's just get to the point. I wanted to just tell you all that if there are human-created structures inside of your countries, the artifacts inside are all under your own jurisdiction. You can have them. However, if there are any remains of humans of any sort, they are to be sent here. In addition, weaponry is also to be sent here, and and cryopods, active or not, are to be returned to this location. We have tracking devices on most all of these, so hiding them from us is impossible. Also, if I discover a human in your custody, anywhere, and they have been mistreated in any way, then you are to be held responsible. No questions asked. If you are holding a human and refuse to send them here, unharmed, I swear upon my own blood that I will put a bullet in your head after bringing them back here. To show the extent of our technology, we destroyed this world once, we can do it again." Bluff. But it worked. "In addition, we have orbital platforms capable of wiping out cities in the blink of an eye without radioactive fallout." Not entirely a bluff. None of them are active at the moment, but that's irrelevant. "So in short, all humans, weapons, and cryopods are mine. Anything else you can keep, if it's in your own territory. If you disagree, I will allow you to leave here now, but you will never gain anything from the experiences of my race. And if you fail to deliver, you are subject to persecution with extreme prejudice. Any questions?"

I seemed to have scared most of the other races. They were staring at me, eyes wide, and I think they knew I was being serious. Good.

A voice spoke up. "And how do we know you're not just going to exterminate us? What stops you from doing that? How can we trust that you'll be just with your power?" The stallion of the horses. His tone was even, and it was made in actual curiosity, not in arrogance or fear. Or at least, no detectable fear.

I smiled at him, the predatory smile humans tend to make well. "You don't, nothing, you can't." I counted my negative responses on my fingers." But there's nothing you can do about it. You could say I'm being a tyrant, but my nation consists of two people and a VI. I'm being cautious. All I want is to be left alone with ample supplies and resources. All I have in return is technology. I have the knowledge of how to build, not the materials to build. But trust me when I say that weapons for everyone would just spawn war. I've seen it firsthand." My voice dropped slightly at the end of the statement.

Most of the others caught on to it, after my previous statement of being a soldier.

Then, another question. "Why are the ponies allowed access to this building, and not any of us?" The black bitch again. That sheer arrogance. This was turning out to be more of an interview, rather than a negotiation.

"They gave us the mountain. Simple." I stated as simply the statement itself. "Resources for info, same as what I'm asking for. I bet you didn't know that the majority of matter is actually just empty space." I deadpanned, just as before.

The only interesting reaction came from Twilight, who gasped in shock. A loud "WHAT?" came along with it and drew the gaze of the rest of the creatures. "Yes, it really is. Protons and neutrons, subatomic particles with a positive and neutral charge, respectively, inhabit the nucleus of an atom. The negatively charged particles, electrons, orbit the nucleus at different energy levels, but they orbit much farther away from the nucleus than the nucleus is wide. And, their placement is actually theoretical, as they move to fast to be located."

Twilight was scribbling notes on paper as I lectured, and the other races just stared, uncomprehendingly, except for the Princesses and the dragon. It appears as if the most intelligent is not necessarily the ruler...

"And I though you said you were a soldier?" The griffin spoke up. I couldn't resist this chance.

"Exactly. What I said is common knowledge. We take twelve years of schooling in general subjects before our eighteenth year, and then go for undergrad, bachelors', masters' degrees and then doctorates. I was barely out of that twelfth year before enlisting, and I know that. Imagine what the Ph.D's of our civilization know." I stated, smugly. "That is what I mean by my species being more advanced than yours."

He looked at me, his glare matching my smirk. Finally, as it broke, a deep voice, as resonant as the ocean itself but as clear as a flawless diamond spoke. "Although this... banter is quite amusing, we should move on to the matters at hand. I, for one, would love to listen about the humans' technological advancement all day, but not all of you are as gifted as I am to be allowed the gift of longevity." The complexity but simplicity of the dragon almost matched Muse herself. "Human, might I have your name, it seems as if we may all have forgotten our manners."

I nodded to him, my smirk leveling. "I'm President Virus, just call me Virus. And for the record, I'm actually older than you." I winked at him, and the old dragon, curled up in a beanbag, laughed at me.

"That is true. I am known, now, only as Elder. But I have two things to add. Recently, I have come across a very cold metal tube, slightly larger than yourself, in my territory. It is currently still cold and sitting inside my hoard. I believe it is one of these 'cryopods' you speak of..."

My eyes widened. Another one. YES! "Yes. It most likely is. I'd like if you could deliver it back to us here."

He chuckled at my face. "Yes, of course. My second question was about the cushion I'm currently sitting on. I'd like to ask you if I could take one back with me and keep it in my hoard. Gold sometimes gets uncomfortable when you're sitting on it." I cracked a smile, my spirits already lifting.

"Well, I'm sure we could come to an agreement. But that's for later. Anyone else have something to talk about?" I looked back expectantly towards the group of creatures before me. It seemed as most of them just wanted to...

"Yes, I actually do." This was the dog. I held back a sneer. "I have a personal eye-witness report of one of my royals stating that a monster of some sort, about the same size of you, broke into his arena and tried to assassinate him. He said that over thirty of his guards were slain with brutal efficiency by multiple weapons. Some were killed with blades, some with puncture wounds, and some were killed by weapon that seemed to shred a portion of their body. One other's corpse was found torn apart into bits, it's organs removed and body vivisected. I'd like to ask if you know anything about that." The snarl in his voice was just as badly concealed as my sneer.

I sat for a moment, introspectively. "It was barely a dozen. And if I wanted him dead, he'd be six feet under. And he had my colleague fighting in said arena. The punishment was no different from the one I had explained earlier, and his ignorance of my rule makes no difference. He enslaved a member of my species, attempted to murder her..." Hopefully these beings still had a shred of chauvinism inside of them... "and in general committed a crime against humanity. He got less than he deserved." I stated, with no desire to sugarcoat it.

The black bitch spoke up. "Really? And what about the scout I sent here to make contact with your kind? What happened to him?" I frowned. Was that black thing a changeling? Probably. The tapes showed it invisible in the visible spectrum and strangely enough, in the infrared too, before it got shred by the turrets. Sonar caught it.

"I don't know any messengers who travel invisible into the domain of their heavily guarded neighbors. That was no messenger, and don't even try to lie. We all know how trustworthy you are. Nice try on the castle, but make sure you kill the people you replace. It makes it a lot harder to find them. And if you had, even if Twilight got out, not a single person would have been able to stop you. Yes I read the reports." I stared at her, my eyes hard.

She stood up out of her beanie bag, and then responded. She was mad to say the least. "So what? We don't deserve getting our population cut into one tenth of what it was when we didn't actually kill anyone!" She shot a glare at Celestia, which I'll admit was responded to quite well by the Princess.

I spoke calmly back to her. "Really? If you kidnapped our First Lady and tried to assassinate our President, we would wipe your species off the face of the Earth. Your home would be a crater. You should thank your lucky stars that they didn't choose to pursue your subjects and invade in response. Humans would have."

She looked at me for a moment with a glare, and then sat down on her beanie bag with a 'hmph'. It would be cute if it was a five year old.

I leaned back in my beanie and took another sip of the cola. I could see why the dragon wanted one of these.

The deer, for the first time, spoke. "Human. You seem to be quite strange. One moment you threaten us with oblivion, and the next, you joke around." He stopped there, in thought. "What have you seen, that plagues your mind so?"

I sighed, and answered him, memories returning to me. "It's not what I've seen. It's what I've done. It's what I caused. It's who I left behind. It's my own mind that plagues me. But that is irrelevant. I have a duty, and it must be completed. I have a responsibility, a task, a purpose, if you will." Fuck, I'm getting philosophical in front of a bunch of technicolor monarchs. "But it's my burden to bear. Now, are there any questions or offers of non-aggression or trade agreements. I'm sure at least one of you wants exclusive rights to our space program's information."

The other monarchs digested this for a moment, and then the dragon spoke again. "Virus. What a curious name. I would like to offer you my support in you endeavor, in addition to a large amount of supplies of various origin. I ask in return for complete access to your Warehouse, in addition to the places you had state were previously off limits. I say this because I want personal access, for the sake of pleasing an old dragon, not for the sake of improving his kind. Dragons are solitary creatures, and the others only defer to me because of my age. Once, I'd use this knowledge as a powerful weapon, but now, I wish to follow it for a purely intellectual purpose."

I thought for a moment. What does he have that I would want. Metals, of course, but I know that dragons hoard gold and gems. Bullion would always help. And he wasn't lying, dragons don't work together. There's no way that they would join together, they're all like humans, but with exaggerated main aspects. The young ones are innocent to a fault, but then grow greedy to a fault. In their old age, they tend to let go of their possessions in the pursuit of hobbies of various sorts, liked retired old men. And they devote their lives to it. The younger ones make up a majority of the population, and they wouldn't agree to cooperate...

"What type of resources are we talking about?" I just needed to make sure I'm not getting cheated out of a bargain. I raised an eyebrow at the faces of the races around me. They were mostly confused, frowning, or scowling. "For the record, if there is one, he's right. The dragons are the only race solitary enough to not actually use our weapons. They couldn't build the ones that really matter without a team of experts."

Elder looked thoughtful for a moment, although he usually does, before responding with the shortest and least elaborate while also most surprising answer I could have thought of. "All of them. I offer my hoard in exchange for yours." After a moment of silence, he elaborated. "In my hoard alone, I have enough bullion to wreck the entire Equestrian economy, namely, my hoard is the sister to the sisters' treasury, in gold alone. The gemstones also match their treasury again. Finally, that which I think is most valuable to you, the amount of metal in my hoard of the forging type is enough to match their armory four times over. I believe you will find it to your standards."

I grinned, and then stood up. I walked over to the dragon and extended a hand. "Deal." I said. He responded by standing up, like me, and grasping my hand. I returned to my seat, reinvigorated, ready to begin trade negotiations.

"Now..." I began with the biggest of shit-eating grins on my face. "I'm going to need a way of transporting that material here. I'll offer five percent of all the gold in the shape of bullion to anyone who wants to move that much gold from point A to point B with none of it lost in the process..."

Author's Note

I suppose this is pre S-3, atleast before Twilicorn and Discord's return.

Third

All in all, it was a good conference. Phoenix showed up in the room near the end of the trade negotiations, but she left after a few moments of watching the rest of the rulers. She was there probably just to observe. Afterwards, I found out that she had been watching the entire thing on one of her screens down in the control room. She approved of the way I handled the other rulers. I did too. They need to know that they are no longer of the highest power on the planet. They must know that they are not invulnerable.

I was able to negotiate for resources from the dragon, who I suspect just wants to see how this will play out. Elder seemed to me the type to watch over the world just to see what happens, and be entertained by it. I gave him a home inside our home, and he gave me his resources. That would kick-start our race.

From the ponies, I was able to get a supply of food in exchange for my race's history and medical knowledge. This info was given under the condition that the ponies did not share, as I could still sell this info to others for resources. Our scientific discoveries were still going to be kept mostly secret from them for now.

I gave a large amount of our metallurgical techniques away to the minotaurs and griffins, and in return I asked for transportation by land and air respectively. The griffins had a network of airships, and the minotaurs a network of caravans and ships. That worked out well, although the griffins were unhappy with my personality, I was able to get them to cooperate. The minotaurs were mostly fine with it, as long as they received some profit.

I also was able to obtain a steady supply of unrefined metals from the diamond dogs. They only asked for gems, of which I honestly had no use for. The deal ended up that I would give the dragon's supply of gemstones to the dogs in exchange for 90% of their metal, as they just left it lying around.

I was also to trade away our medical secrets and history for a ridiculous amount of petroleum from the horses. They knew the petroleum was there, but were not able to access it easily. I offered to build an overground pipeline from there to here, and they agreed readily, as they had no idea what to use it for other than as a fire starter. I'm so glad I didn't nearly give them the scientific information.

I completely refused to deal with the changelings during the meeting, but I was able to contact them afterwards on the comm unit. I wanted spies. In return, I promised them sanctuary in the case of being discovered as these spies. I already knew they spied, and I informed Chrysalis of that fact. She denied it, but after I also told her that I had devices that could perceive heat signatures, UV radiation, infrared, and sonar, she quickly shut up and agreed. I might have blackmailed her a bit, but that's politics.

I might also have actually cheated the horses and ponies out of their possessions, because I didn't exactly tell them how to manufacture most of our chemicals. Also, humans use a lot of plastic, and they don't know how to mass produce it. If I'm correct, they're still using natural rubber. So... I guess I could get some more resources out of them later...

I also gave every one of the rulers a comm unit, so they could keep in contact with us for whatever reason. I also put a tracker in it, but they don't need to know that. It never hurts to keep tabs on your enemies... and friends... in a political environment.

The griffins ended up being the ones to accept my shipping offer. I refused to budge from my 5% offer, as it was still nearly enough gold to wreck the Princess' economy and definitely was enough gold to let one person live in opulence for the rest of their lives.

I also was able to salvage the old Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and I requested Elder's help drafting a new Constitution. After he looked over our Declaration, he stated that it was a 'masterpiece' and should be shown to the rest of the world. I agreed, and decided to publish it. He also assisted me in writing the constitution of a new nation named 'Sapius', in the same way the other species had areas named after their Latin names. I just though Sapius sounded cool.

Before I knew it, a week had passed. A full week of negotiating, bartering, information brokering, threatening, blackmailing, intimidating, coercing, middle-manning, trading, communicating, and in general, ensuring our future would be bright had passed. I swear the other races don't understand the fact that yes, I could end them at will, as we still had some nukes, and no, I would not give them any information about our weapons. The only races that even had a clue were the ponies, because I shot Twilight, cleaned a pistol on video, and shot a door lock, and the diamond dogs, because we killed a bunch of them with our guns. In addition, the first motorized vehicles were being created around the world. The other races took to the internal combustion engine quite well. I also informed them of the pollution caused by them, and told them to use the vehicles for emergency purposes only, due to the pollution. I spent fifty years living in a smoggy world, I don't need another fifty in one too. And it's good for them on the long run.

I also took a little time every day to check up on Phoenix. She might have tried to hide it, but I knew she was taking the new world hard. She had barely spoken after our first encounter, and she had devoted her time to the mainframe, the gym, the barracks, and the showers. Every time I saw her, I saw someone else in her place. We need to find some more people.

The vault was filling up quite nicely. In addition, our metal stockpiles were doing just that, stockpiling. Muse had told me that we would be able to manufacture most anything, and I asked her to make me a new shotgun, mag-rifle, and pistol just to make sure. In addition, I had her make some custom ammunition for all of them. The shotgun was now using a slab of titanium-lead alloy mixed with a sprinkle of other ingredient layered with iron oxide and aluminum with a magnesium pilot. This would cause the shot to become white-hot on its way out the barrel, but remain suspended in the center of the barrel when shot, while also allowing steam to exhaust out of a set of gill-like slits. Basically, dragons' breath. The mag-rifle was made with my special rounds, the iron core, depleted uranium point, and the ceramic cover, for maximum damage. I also had a few explosive rounds. I kept the pistol with hollow-points, as it wasn't meant for armored targets.

I also got an EMC. Armor piercing rounds all the way.

Finally, however, the last delivery arrived. It was, as I had expected, hand delivered by Elder himself. The ten-foot tall dragon walked in with an eight-foot long cryopod strapped to his back. I met him at the front, brimming with excitement.

"Phoenix, Elder's here. He has the pod. We'll open it in the warehouse, next to the statues." I was referring to the statues of our world's greatest people, in addition to the newest addition, the old president. It was a fitting place for the opening of a new pod.

I opened our front doors and let Elder in. He seemed to be somewhat winded, but not as exhausted as I expected him to be. In fact, I think he flew the entire way over with his own wings.

"Greetings, Virus, I have the pod of which you require. Where would you like for me to leave it?" Elder's resonant voice greeted me as the doors rumbled to a halt.

"We'll open it here, just bring the pod a few meters in. I also want to see who exactly this guy is..." I beckoned to the center of the statues.

"Absolutely. Give me a moment." I have to admit, dragons are freaking strong. Elder just picked a cryopod up with an arm and hung it under his shoulder like a boss. He took a few steps forward, and then set the pod down, gently.

"Just as a reference, where'd you find this pod?" I asked him as I brushed a layer of frost off the control panel.

"One of the younger dragons near my peak found it buried inside a cave that was apparently very 'creepy' and 'inorganic'. He said the cave made him feel like he was intruding upon it, rather than settling in it. He left soon after, but took this with him. I got it from him through some bartering, due to the fact that it was always cold and I could see a shadow underneath the ice." He chuckled. "It worked well as a cold pad to soothe my old limbs."

I laughed alongside him. "Maybe there's more in that cave? Would you mind asking a dragon or two to check it out for me?"

"Not at all, I'll inform them after we finish up here."

I had finally gotten the panel to start up. I tapped the screen, and after a moment, the screen lit up. The display was fractured, with shards of color splitting across it, and no discernible command prompts were visible. I stood for a moment, a frown on my face.

"Virus. Need and help?" A voice shot out from behind me, Phoenix hurriedly striding towards us. "I wouldn't miss this for the world."

"Yeah, the panel's display is gone. Got anything for me?" I turned to her and asked.

"One sec, I can hack it. Step back please." Elder and I both took a step back as Phoenix pulled a cable from her wrist mounted computer and plugged it into the pod's display. After a moment, the screen wiped itself clear and reset, the prompts clear.

OPEN?
Y/N

Phoenix tapped the corner of her computer's display that corresponded with the 'Y'. A hiss of condensed water and freezing cold air ejected out of the now-broken seals. The pod began to open, and the three parts retracted into their bases, a 'Y' shape opening up on the pod. I felt a chill, the air mixing with ours and cooling it, as I stepped forwards to the base. I reached a hand in, and a hand reached out, grasping mine. It was cold and gloved, but I stepped backwards and pulled on it, the person behind it rising up with a shroud of mist.

"I'm Virus, acting commander n' chief of the USA." I held a hand out and stopped a salute. "At ease soldier. It's been a long time, welcome back."

A/N because my notes box is fucking with me.
Submit human OC's to me. Must be US military, must not be CQC spec, hacker, or Sniper/Spotter. I'm thinking heavy weapons or engineer.

You have a day, unless SeventhBrony read this already and then you have until I make the next chapter, which, at this rate, is a day.

Sorry for short chapter/filler

Coal

A gloved hand grasped onto mine and I leaned back, pulling the man behind it up. After a moment, a large man of apparent African decent followed it, leaning up.

"Well daa-yumm. The actin' president? That's some high-level shit. Did I get a fuckin' medal or something? Last thing I remember was getting my ass stuck in here and frozen."

I cracked a wry smile at the man's face, a tinge of bitterness stuck in it. "I don't know myself, but you should've. God knows the world's gone to hell and back while we were gone. Name's Virus. Nice to meet you."

"Virus. That yo callsign? I'm Coal, Vehicle Specialist, Engineer, and the 'Mad Bomber'." I raised an eyebrow. That was a familiar name.

"'Mad Bomber'? You mean the guy who went to town in that one Middle Eastern city? I heard you made your own napalm with their gas." He chuckled.

"Yup. That and the IED's. I set up an ambush point to kill a pair of aych-vee-tee's. It was great to give them a taste of their own damn medicine for once."

"I hear you, I was the sniper on that op. You might know me better as Needle." I pulled my cowl up off my head. Coal's jaw dropped.

"Th' hell man? You the fuckin' president now? You gotta be kiddin' me." He facepalmed.

I grimly smiled. "I'm not. The sitrep's worse than anything in human history, meet in the mess hall in 10 and Phoenix'll brief you. By the way, this is Phoenix, resident CQC specialist and hacker. Say hi." I waved him over to Phoenix. After a moment, he looked behind me on the other side, and for the first time, saw Elder.

"Oh SHIT!" He jerked backwards in the pod and drew a sidearm. "What the HELL is that?!" I jerked his arm up as he pulled the trigger, sending the bullets into the ceiling. I pushed the slide back and with my other hand, removed the magazine, and letting the slide back in place, pushed the trigger a second time, firing the chambered bullet in to the air.

"At EASE soldier!" He stopped panicking, and I removed my hands from his gun. "This is Elder. He's a dragon, yes I know, and he's my new advisor. The world has changed, the rules have changed, and we need you to learn with it. Meet Phoenix in the mess in 10, there's signs all over the place."

He looked shaken for a moment, then met my gaze. "Aye aye. Got a supply room?"

I nodded. "It's in the back, signs'll take you there. It's the 'armory', and it has most everything you need. Also, say 'Muse' loudly and clearly anywhere in this base if you need anything else. She can make you stuff too, she's our resident VI. I'll be with Elder in the control room, meet me there when you're done." I turned around and started walking. Elder fell into step next to me.

"I believe you handled that quite well, assuming that your kind always reacts with latent hostility to other creatures and loyalty to those of high rank. What do you need me for now?"

"I'll tell you in a second." We reached the control room, after a few moments, and I opened the hatch, letting Elder in behind me. We situated ourselves inside, and I accessing data files, syncing my stored info with the master archive.

"I threatened the other races. Now, I intend to make those threats real, not just bluffs." I typed in some more manufacturing specs for Muse, and then my finger hesitated on the 'Enter' key. "I'm going to put in a manufacturing request to Muse for a missile silo at the top of our mountain and non-nuclear Intercontinental ballistic missiles to go along with it, all equipped with MIRV's. In addition, the next step is to activate SS1, which is currently dormant." I turned to Elder with a solemn face. "These are all deterrents to war. But now that I've told you, I need your word that you won't tell anyone else, especially not the other leaders. If you did, I'd have to kill you..."

He responded with a smile. "Worry not, my young friend. I'm a dragon. I have no material possessions left, all I have is my knowledge and my honor. You have my word."

I smiled and lowered my finger on the key. "Thanks. This is the legacy of our kind. Sadly, it wasn't a very good legacy to leave behind, but it's our legacy nonetheless. It's also our deterrent, because we can't afford to take a single hit. There's not enough of us." I turned back to the screen.

"Muse." I called out to the system in front of me. The glass bump on the ground lit up, and after a moment, a holographic avatar appeared above it. She was a Greek woman in a toga, and he strummed idly at a lyre. She was quite attractive, if I do say so myself. "What's the estimated construction time for the silo and missiles?"

She looked me over for a second, then the dragon behind me, and then turned back to me. "It should be done within three days, the projected time is sitting at 62 hours. I've dedicated all out assets towards it."

"Good. Keep the projection available on my AR. Also, I want you to inventory the arsenal and restock anything that needs to be. I also want half a ton of demolition-grade plastic explosive in shaped charges. I also want a kilometer of thermite cord. Yes this is for a demo op, and no, this is not going to be actively used." I thought for a moment. "Oh, and give me some signal boosters for the detonators of those. I'm going to want to be able to detonate them from here."

"Acknowledged. The silo production's projection has updated. Expect the armory to be restocked within four hours."

I turned around and headed up the hatch. "Elder, you're free to roam. The weapons are all pretty cool, if you want to go and check them out. I'll be in the mess, eating and briefing Coal."

On my way to the mess, I began thinking (that's never a good thing) about our allies and enemies. What I was planning to do... would need to stay under wraps, as if any of our neighbors found out about it... Well, now wasn't the time to worry.

I entered the mess to see Phoenix talking to Coal. Coal was holding a data-pad and pointing at things, and Phoenix was explaining something to him. I moved to the kitchen area and started cooking more eggs.

"Anyone want eggs?" I called out the serving opening. A "hell yeah, I'm starving!" and a "sure" came back in. I started cracking eggs into a bowl and then I turned on the stove. Grabbing some cheese (imported) and vegetables (also imported), I chopped them up and added them to the bowl of egg. I then proceeded to make omelets. Grabbing the three plates of four omelets each, I took them over to the mess with utensils and some salsa/ketchup/sauce thing.

"Alright, food's served. Eat up, you need the protein." I sat down next to the other two. "What were we talking about?"

Coal answered, nonchalantly. "Oh, she was just telling me how you completely scared the shit outta all the other animals during negotiations." I chuckled.

"Well, good. I have an op I need you for, Coal. It involves demo, but we don't actually get to set off the charges. In addition, we must stay unseen under any circumstances. Yes you both get adaptive camo, if you want to come."

He raised an eyebrow. "An op already? Well damn! Count me in. When do we do it?"

"Glad you're excited. We move tomorrow at 1900 hours. We're going to plant charges on some buildings. We go in, split up, and then meet back up after setting the charges. I've sent the intel to you already, your armor is in the armory. You don't get an AR, but you get a standard stealth gear HUD." I raised a fist up. "See you at 1900 tomorrow. Get some sleep."

He bumped my fist, and I stood up, finished with my food. "Phoenix, I want you to see if you can activate SS1. I already have a silo under construction and next we'll make a mass driver on the side of the mountain. We need to get to SS1, and hopefully, it's active."

"Sir." She nodded. "I'll get to it asap."

"Good. Don't hurry yourself just yet. I also need you on overwatch for us. You any good with a mag-rifle and tranqs?"

"I'm alright, sir. What range are you looking at?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm asking. I need to know how well you can shoot if I'm going to plan. Take a look at the briefing and check on the sniper points I marked. I'm going to need you to move with me and spot for me." I turned to Coal. "Your path should be mostly clear, and you'll be meeting with a pair of changelings who'll take you to the targets. They're a pair of support beams holding Canterlot up. Just set the charges, don't pop 'em."

Both the two nodded. "Good. Check the briefing, pick up your armor in the armory, see how the camo works. Phoenix, don't worry about SS1 until after this op." I turned around and headed out. "Oh, and Muse'll answer any questions and provide gear, if you want any."

I headed out of the mess, towards the armory, to prepare for the op. We really needed an engineer... and a fucking cook.

Author's Note

Keep submitting OC's. PM please, I realize that commenting them probably isn't as good an idea as I thought.
I want callsign, description, background, specialization, and whatnot.
I might do a round of zombies with the first 4 characters, L4D style. And maybe some other Omake's.

Infiltration

The good new is that Canterlot's not even an hour away. The bad news is that we can't use the roads after about half-way. What we were going to do was ride up the side of a mountain, get to a peak overlooking Canterlot, and then jump in. We were each equipped with wingpacks (surprisingly enough, they actually exist today) and parachutes. We would fly in and split up, Phoenix would land at a sniper point, Coal would circle around to underneath the city, and I would land in the city and make my way into the castle. The night court should be active, so I shouldn't have to worry about meeting the Princesses, as long as I stayed away from the throne room thing in the middle.

Now, I know that what we are doing is technically an act of war, but if they never know about it, then it's perfectly fine. And I can always use the 'this is how we did it back then' excuse... to a certain point. The ponies, although technically our allies, were the strongest force other than us, although pacifistic. They could use 'magic' and claim that the only reason there was still water on this Earth was that they could essentially stop the sun's aging. I don't understand how they did, but it was disturbing nonetheless.

The drop went without hitch. It was actually quite fun, as I haven't used a wingpack in ages. In addition, Coal reported in quite quickly after he landed, meeting the changelings. I landed inside the grounds of the castle, and Phoenix got to her covering location as I landed.

It was a dark night, the moon was just a crescent in the sky, and my muffled footsteps were hidden by the sound of various other night creatures. I landed somewhere outside, near a pool of water. I had three cans of spray-on plastic explosive and the detonators for each. I just needed to place them near the main supports of the castle and be done with it. That means to pillars I saw in the throne room. I also needed to hide the explosive, perhaps disguise them as decorations or something.

I activated my adaptive camouflage as I neared the door to the castle itself. I had a silenced, air propelled tranq pistol, but I didn't want to use it. Two guards, both dark colored pegasi with bat-like wings, stood at either side of the doorway. Their armor was a dark purple, and in the center of their chest, a silver crescent moon sat. The door was closed, this could be a problem. If I opened the door and they were there, it would be quite obvious that I was there. They were most likely familiar with the idea of invisibility.

I could make this look like a robbery, if I had to knock them out. I could throw a rock somewhere, lure one out, knock him out, then lure the other one too, or just sneak up on him, and then sneak inside, plant the charges, and steal a painting or something on my way out. I suppose the right diversion would leave the charges unnoticed, if I hid them well enough. Yeah, that would work.

I crept over to the side of a flower bed, and I picked up one of the rocks lining it. If I let him see his friend get knocked out, he'd know it was invisibility. The ponies don't know that we have it yet... I'd need to hide it.

"Muse." I spoke into my comms. "Hide all information about adaptive camouflage and invisibility and stealth from the ponies in our archives."

"Acknowledged."

Good. I tapped the rock against the one next to it, and I was pleased to see both guards stiffen, the one closer to me look at me for a second, or at least the rocks, and then lower his spear and move forwards. Where would a pony hit if they were going for a knockout..?

I took two steps forward, then moved to the side and let him pass. I then closed my fist, and slammed it down on the back of his head. He crumpled beneath my blow, and I stepped quickly towards the other guard, whose eyes narrowed as he lowered his spear also. He started scanning the area, and I jerked my right arm, the air behind it wavering. He fell for it, charging at the spot where my arm was, and I grabbed his spear as he passed, pushing it to the side. One step past me, and I put a tranq dart in his ass. I caught his body as it fell, and I plucked the dart out of him. Then, I hit him on the head, like the other, so he would bruise. I didn't need them knowing he was tranq'd.

I crept up to the doors, and after testing them, opened them into the palace. Left or right?

The front of the palace was directly ahead of me, so either should work. I went right. I followed the hallway around, and it ended where I though it would. It was a side entrance to the throne room, where I was surprised to see quite a few ponies. It seemed as if there was something going on.

As I got a closer look on the Princess, I realized it was Luna. It must be night court. Regardless, my job still stands. There were two huge pillars supporting the roof, and I made my way over to the backside of one, the ponies focused on their Princess. Invisibility rocks.

She was talking about some sort of tax law as I reached the pillar, not a single pony looking at me. I had the luck of being in the shadow, as the room was softly lit by moonlight, which seemed to be enhanced, and a torch, here or there. I quickly pulled a silent drill out of a pocket in my suit, packed for this occasion, and began to drill a hole, two inches in diameter, in the squared pillar, three feet on each side. By the time I had finished, the pony in front of the Princess was responding, saying something about how the 'tax was too high', even though she was wearing pure silk and gold jewelry. Fucking nobles.

I removed a can from my pack, and I fit a focus tube thing on it, like a straw, and I began spraying the explosive into the hole. It filled up quite well, and I evened it off with my knife. The hole, one foot deep, into the pillar, took the entirety of a can, the explosive compressed into the hole. With one set, I pushed the detonator into the putty-like substance, and then covered it with a little bit of the drill shavings. It looked like stone. Good.

I made my way over to the other pillar, and I did the same. The Princess had responded, and when the noble bitch had tried to talk back, the Princess got mad, and spoke with a voice that could be weaponized. I swear I had to turn off my helmet's audio input for a moment there. But I managed to get the charges set. Now, to find the stuff to steal.

I distinctly recall seeing a variety of paintings and stuff in a side hall, so I should probably go there. They, odds are, had some sort of alarm, so maybe I should just steal something out of the hall, not the museum thing.

I began to head back towards the exit. There was a painting or two of the royal family on the way in. I just hope they'd be valuable enough to warrant a break in. Whatever.

I pass back to the hallway where I cam in through, and lo and behold, on the wall, there are a line of oil on canvas or acrylic on canvas (probably oil, like the ponies would know what acrylic is yet) paintings of various royal figures, events, and combinations of both. Jackpot.

I slip my knife out of its sheathe, and targeting just the portraits of the current rulers, because they can actually be replaced, I cut the canvas along the edge of the frame. Much easier than taking the entire thing. After the third or so painting, I roll them up and slide them into my pack, held in place by straps. I then take off, for the exit.

"Phoenix. I'm on my way out, charges are set. I had to disguise break-in as robbery, cover my exit." I spoke into the comm as I turned the last corner. I activated my adaptive camo as Phoenix spoke back. "Acknowledged. Be advised, there is a heat signature approaching the location of the two nappers. Looks like a pegasus."

"Got it." I reached the doors, and I opened them and stepped outside. A lone guard was making his way around the far side of the flower bed where the two were knocked out. I quickly made my way behind him, and like the first pony, I slammed my palm (the bony part underneath my pinkie finger) on the back of his head, and like the first pony, he crumpled underneath me.

"I'm on my way out. Head for the RR's, I'll be there shortly.

They were at the top of a mountain. Shortly was actually quite accurate, due to the fact that Canterlot had passages up to that peak. There was apparently some sort of observatory at the top, so hot air balloons were actively moving up and down, even at night. It was child's play to stowaway on one and reach the top, near where we jumped in from, and hike the rest of the way(like a km). By the time the sun rose, we were halfway to our mountain. I burned the paintings back at base, we didn't need to be accused of stealing either. Regardless, we made the papers, but the headlines read 'Castle broken into, royal portraits stolen, Blueblood outraged', and stuff like that.

That, however, was not even the most interesting part. Apparently, the griffins were in the process of delivering a cryopod to us. They would be here the next morning. After a dinner of sorts, courtesy of Coal, who also successfully rendezvoused and planted his charges, we hit the sack to get ready for the next pod. Yes it was fried chicken, and by God was it good.

Author's Note

I'm not going to be able to write a lot over the next three weeks, and after one after that, I won't have computer access for two more.

Extra

I was wrong. They were actually going to deliver two cryopods. I honestly have no idea how I missed that, or how they found two cryopods in their territory so quickly, but that's good. Very good. Regardless, it was going to be a big day.

I woke up that morning, excited and in high spirits. We were going to add two more people to our ranks. I quickly took a shower and cleaned myself, pleased that the previous day's op went without a hitch. We needed to start putting other fail-safe plans into action. We essentially needed to do that with every single species' capitals. If the ponies decided to suddenly become hostile... well... there wouldn't be much of a war. They would lose their capital within a minute of the conflict. Regardless, as i finished shaving, I activated my comm unit and spoke.

"Hello, good morning everyone... and Elder. We have a big day, and we have two new members to meet. Elder and Coal, meet me in the mess hall. Phoenix, I want an after-action report on the op last night and the time of arrival for the griffins. Mess hall in twenty. Muse, I want a status report on the construction of the rest of our facility. Also, make sure the infirmary is stocked up, and see if you can't get some medicine for the local diseases. The last thing I want is one of us falling to the common cold."

I received four affirmatives, one of them quite sleepy, one quite fatigued, one artificial, and one laced with excitement. I then spoke into the intercom unit.

"Will all non-human researchers please report to the mess hall in thirty minutes. You will be allowed to witness the opening of a cryopod or two."

It was actually an order, but whatever. Muse would make sure it worked.

I made my way down to the mess hall, humming a simple tune on the way down. The lyrics echoed in my head, and a slight tear formed at the corner of my eye. There were so many memories behind that song. It's no matter though, not now at least.

I reached the kitchen of the mess hall as the song finished, and I poured myself a bowl of cereal. I cut a banana into the bowl, topped it off with some milk, and then sat down at one of the abandoned tables to eat.

"Hey Muse, what's the most recent news around the world? I could use a distraction right now."

"Virus sir, recently, the Crystal Empire spawned out of nowhere in the north. It is the reason Twilight Sparkle has been absent from the archives for the past few days. Captain Shining Armor, as the husband of Princess Cadance, has become Prince Shining Armor and is now the sovereign of the empire. Also, Coal and Elder are both en route to your position."

"Thanks Muse, how's the rest of the facility progressing?"

"Accessing data banks..." There was a moment of pause. "Better than I previously informed you. The repairs are going well, and the silo is coming along well. Production and repairs should be complete within the week. The facility will be operational within two. Our supply of raw materials is steadily increasing as the griffins deliver the metals, and we seem to be doing well overall."

"Good. Tell Phoenix I want her there when we open the pods." Just as I finished speaking, the mess hall doors opened, and Coal and Elder stepped in.

"Mornin', Virus." Coal nodded at me as he headed for the kitchen. I nodded back to him and took another bite of my cereal.

"Good morning, my friend. How goes it?" Elder sat down across from me at the table.

"Well enough, everything is progressing according to plan. How do you like the archives so far?" I looked up from my banana-laced cereal.

Elder snorted. "If I didn't know better, I'd claim your history to be falsified. Your kind seems so capable of destruction while also being so kind to those they care about. The best of you have done bad, the worst good, and to me it seems that within each and every one of you, there lies the potential for a hero or a villain."

I nodded. "Yeah, my father used to say to me that 'each one of us has a Devil and an Angel inside of us. Both are battling for control of our minds, but neither can win nor survive without the other. It is up to us to choose which side to take, but no matter how hard we try, we will have to change sides, for however short of a time, eventually'. He really was right. People can't be all good or all bad, it's impossible."

Coal walked in, a bowl of cereal in one hand, and a beer and large emerald in the other. "Yo, Grandpa, here you go." He tossed the emerald to Elder, and sat down next to me. I raised an eyebrow at the beer, and he waved it off.

"It's like mah coffee. It helps me wake up in the mornin'." I chuckled at him.

"And you didn't think of grabbing one for your commanding officer?" He laughed back at me.

"Nah, I'm sure you wanna stay soba' for t'day."

We ate in silence, for the most part, just consuming our choice of morning meal. I was still waiting for the arrival time of the griffins with the pair of cryopods, but I was going to enjoy my breakfast one way or another. In a few minutes, the mess hall door opened once again, and in walked the most elusive of our crew, Phoenix.

"Sir." She stated simply as she walked past us into the kitchen. A few more minutes of quiet eating saw her return to our table, a datapad in one hand and biscuit in the other.

She took a seat, straight-backed as usual, ripped off a chunk of the biscuit, and after swallowing it, began to deliver her report. "Sir, yesterday's mission went off without a hitch. Both charges inside the palace are set and primed, ready to be detonated on command. The charges need a three-man verification as long as all three are alive, otherwise, it defaults to two and then the last man standing. The city will literally fall off the mountain if it's supports are blown, and I'm estimating a total of 95% casualty rate. The magic and flight abilities of the ponies have not been counted in this. Also, SS-1 is actually responding to pings, but just barely. Courtesy of space, it probably hasn't changed much, and the guidance computers are still active. Also, it's orbit is stable and I believe the pods on board are still active."

I listened intently to her report. "Good work. Stay with us for today for the pod opening and be ready for anything. We don't know how the people inside will react."

She nodded, her expression still neutral, as she finished off her breakfast. As she stood up to leave, she hesitantly spoke up, her tone slightly more concerned. "Virus sir... how many of us do you think are left?"

I sighed and looked up at her, a trickle of remorse drifting into my voice. "I... I don't know. It could just be the five of us, including the new pods, or it could be thousands."

She nodded and turned around, heading for the door. Cole seemed a bit less optimistic as usual, and Elder held a thoughtful look on his draconic visage.

v^V^v

The proximity alert on my HUD flashed as I headed for the main hall in the front of the archive. The griffins had arrived with the pods. I broke into a light jog as I passed a group of ponies heading for the mess hall. Pshh, nerds.

"Muse, open the main doors and light up the emergency lights from them to the main hall, point the griffins in the right direction."

I headed on an intercept course. After a moment, I saw the chariot the griffins had arrived in roll into the main hall. Strangely enough, it was pulled by griffins. It stopped upon reaching the edge of the ring of statues, and then a larger griffin walked forwards, some sort of military commander, judging by his armor. His feather-tips were starting to grey, but his muscular build and various scars told me that he was more than just a simple messenger. That, coupled with the stalk of a predator and the steel in his eyes. Oh, and maybe the sword. And talons. And beak. And armor. And decorations. Like literally, painted armor.

He spoke up first. "So, this is the old-Biped that scared our Emperor off. Serves him right, the yellow-feathered coward. I'm General Steel Wing." He held out a clawed hand for me to shake. I took the proffered limb and responded accordingly.

"I'm Virus. Nice to meet you." I replied with a slight grin. "He was kinda being an idiot."

Steel Wing chuckled at the Emperor's expense. "He truly is. He doesn't understand the average life. He's had everything that he could ever want stuffed into his talons. Now, where do you want these... pod things?"

I stepped aside and beckoned with my arms. "In the mess hall, we'll open them there. You're welcome to stay and watch if you want to."

He nodded. "Well, I'm sure it wouldn't hurt. Let me just ask my birds and see what they want to do." The grizzled veteran turned around, and after speaking to his troops for a moment in a language that sounded suspiciously like Russian, half a dozen birds stepped out of the chariot and began unloading the cryopods. One was like mine but far more elaborate and perhaps lighter, showing that it was perhaps far more advanced. The other looked more like a jury-rigged storage unit of some sort, but it also appeared reinforced. Also, it was smaller than mine, by far. Whoever was in that must be cramped. But still, the design worried me a little.

"Muse, run that design by anything we have in our systems, I want to know if that is actually jury-rigged."

They carried the pods on boards of wood, like stretchers, on their backs and followed me to the the mess hall. Coal, Pheonix, and Elder were already there, in addition to Lyra and some other ponies which I didn't recognize. A few tables had been cleared away and stored to the side, leaving us with a sizable space to open the pods in. The griffins set the pods down, side by side, and took a few steps back. I stepped up to the pods, and before commencing, spoke to the crowd.

"All right everyone, here's the deal. Whoever comes out of that pod is going to know nothing about this place. That's why I'm here. I'll talk to them first. But I want all of you to stay back a little bit, because they may be hostile. In addition, you may want to start any recording devices... now." I took a step forwards to the pods as a hush filled the air and moved to the new and shiny one. I navigated through the menu on the holopad and strangely enough, it had more commands and even diagrams for each one. One was an 'in pod diagnostic' and another was to 'defrost cover'. I'm not one for formalities, though, so I quickly jabbed the 'OPEN' panel.

The pod hissed as three lines appeared on it's otherwise perfectly smooth surface. Cold, white air leaked out for a few moments as it mixed with the air around us. The pod began to completely open, and the three panels covering it retracted into themselves, fitting into place. The base began to tilt, raising the head of the man inside just to the edge of the pod. His eyes flickered, but then quickly closed again. His breath began to speed up, but after a few moments, slowed back down. As he squinted, opening his eyes for the second time, I reached forwards to help him up. He grasped the proffered hand, and I helped him up.

"Welcome back to the world of the living, son, it's been a long time coming." He felt weak against my arm; I didn't help him up as much as he helped me pick him up. He's probably not used to cryo-sleep.

"..." His mouth moved, but nothing came out. He frowned, and then grasped both hands around his throat for a moment, presumably to warm it up. After a minute, "Hello. Who are you?" He still hadn't seemed to notice the things around him.

"I'm Virus, acting leader of the three of us left. We shed our names a long time ago, you should do the same." I felt as if I should give him that much.

"Quite fitting, no?" He replied, his mouth returning to a thin line on his face. "Call me Icarus, I'll tell you why later, as long as you tell me why 'Virus'. Now, where exactly are we..." He turned around to examine his surroundings, and before he had moved an inch, he stopped, and spoke, very quietly. "You realize that there is what appears to be a humanoid dragon behind you, correct?" I nodded. "And also some griffins to my right, which are mythological creatures and shouldn't exist... right?" I nodded again. "And even more disconcerting... ponies?" I nodded a third and final time.

"It's been four billion years of radiation, Icarus. I'm not surprised at all, now. And apparently, physics has been broken, so don't ask me. Now, I'm ordering you, as an officer, a person who's been awake for more time than you, and a fellow human on a world dominated by ponies, go with Coal, the black guy, and Elder, the Dragon. I'm sure you can do something to help us. Any ideas?"

Icarus nodded, his expression turning slightly more serious with an undertone of glee, rather than shock. "I'm a biologist, Virus. This is a dream come true for me. Do you have a lab I can use? And tissue samples? And local records? And-"

I cut him off. "Yes. There's a lab, I'm sure we can get some samples for you, just send a message to Muse, she's our resident VI in the facility, and she'll get it for you or tell me. Now, go." I offered a hand to him, and he shook it, passing me to head to the pair I'd assigned to him. Within moments, the three had left.

One down, one to go. A biologist really could be helpful, especially if he had medical training.

"Muse, did we get any results on this pod?"

"Negative sir, I'm 87% sure this is jury-rigged, and 12% sure that it's a primitive design by a foreign country. The last 1% is that this is Russian."

Well, here goes nothing. I looked over the pod for some sort of opening mechanism, but it seemed to be some sort of manual release. I walked around the pod, and I finally found what appeared to be a set of screws and a rotating handle within this mechanism. I reached in and grabbed it, twisting it clockwise. After a little resistance, it turned, slowly but surely, and as it passed the first quarter turn, I could turn it no more. A moment passed, then white gas began leaking from slits in the cover. I reached my fingers into these and began to pull, opening the pod fraction by fraction. After it opened about half an inch, the pod jerked, and I stepped back. It's movements were quite jerky, but the pod eventually opened up completely.

As the white gasses settled around the pod, a dainty hand reached out of the pod. The person inside groped around for a moment before finding a handhold and picking herself up. Strangely enough, her hair was like mercury, silvery and fluid, if not quite short. She pulled herself mostly out of the pod before she looked around. Her gaze passed over me and Phoenix, and then the ponies and griffins. She shook her head for a moment, as as she extricated herself completely from the pod, she stiffened. She slowly looked back up, towards the ponies, and then back at me. As she stood completely up, I realized she was barely over four feet tall. A pair of tattoo's crossed her forearms, a continuous tally of something. I subconsciously reached for my pistol.

She pointed at the ponies for a moment, and then mouthed something, pinching herself. I shook my head. This isn't a dream, kid.

Her face instantly brightened with glee and before anyone could move, she'd hurled herself towards Lyra. Nearly tackling the poor mint-green unicorn, the kid, barely an adult, had wrapped her arms around Lyra and was squeezing her against her in the hug to end all hugs. She was letting out a high pitched 'squee', to the amusement of the rest of us. I walked over to the girl and knelt down next to her. Lyra was staring at me, hooves wrapped around the girl, with a look of silent pleading and discomfort. I though the ponies liked hugs.

I tapped the girl on the shoulder, trying to get her attention. "Hey, kid, are you alright?"

She looked at me after a second. "Am I dreaming?"

"No."

Her face brightened with a little bit of hope. "Is this unicorn real?"

"Yes."

Her face lit up even more. "Can I keep her?"

"Well, you're going to have to ask her..." I stated, pointing to the unicorn.

Lyra spoke up. "Umm... If it's okay with you... could you... pleaseletmego?!"

The silver-haired kid just held her tighter to herself, an contented smile on her face. "No."

I facepalmed and laughed. This was looking better every second.

Author's Note

Sorry for the crazy long wait. It was the end of summer and I went to a place with no internet, as i had said a long time ago. Also, I had school start on me, and i didn't expect this much work. Updates are going to slow down a lot now, no time to write.

Clothing

The kid's callsign was Shockwave, so we called her that. How a kid, barely over twenty if even so, got a military, custom callsign and a tally tattoo on her forearms, I'd never know. I have three, but that's different. I'm a government sanctioned assassin and 'anarchist'. That's what they call us regime destroying badasses... or at least used to. Regardless, I dismissed the pony researchers after the pods opened up and Shockwave finally let go of Lyra, and then invited the griffin soldiers for a drink later. Alcohol was prohibited on military installations, but I'm sure Muse would make an exception. However, there was one more thing that needed to be done, for all of us people. We needed to get to know each other, so, for dinner, everyone was going to dress up in whatever clothing they had and come to a little dinner party, hosted by the Princess, courtesy of Lyra.

Needless to say, not a single one of us had a set of formal clothes. Muse told me that she could probably make a generically sized one, but I chose to find an alternate method. Apparently, there was this pony seamstress and 'fashonista', a certain 'Lady Rarity', who was both in town and highly adept at adapting to new scenarios. So after a quick call to the Princess, she requested the pony to come down to our little big mountain base. As much as she wanted to come to us, she was apparently unable to, so we were supposed to visit her in this quaint little town called Ponyville. Huh, figures. Lyra volunteered to take me there. Phoenix was going to come along with us, but the rest had found something else to do. Icarus had said something about 'preparing samples', God knows he's dedicated at least, and Cole was just going to get a pair of suits for him and Icarus from Muse. Shockwave, surprisingly enough, had clothing to wear. Young people nowadays, stuffing formal wear into their pods. Shame.

v^V^v

It wasn't a long trip to Ponyville, especially by Roadrunner. Besides, the mountain we lived in was about halfway between Canterlot and Ponyville. As we drove, Phoenix began working on something on her datapad, probably a pet project of some sort. Regardless, the town soon came into view over a hill. I had to circumvent a large plot of land, covered in what looked like apple trees, to finally make my way into the town proper. Strangely enough, not a single pony seemed to be outside their homes. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, I wouldn't miss the chance to enjoy a day like this under ANY circumstance. Regardless, we passed by a few buildings and what looked like the Town Hall before arriving in front of a quite flashy building with an even flashier facade. A sign hanging from the door read 'Carousal Boutique'. After a second look, it did look a little like the Merry-Go-Rounds in fairs and circuses. An apt name for the building, I guess.

I knocked thrice on the door, and after a moment, a melodious "Comiiiiing!" sounded through the closed door. Another moment passed, and the door was surrounded by a pale blue glow. I tensed up for a moment, then relaxed. I still hadn't gotten used to the whole 'magic' thing. The door opened smoothly on well-maintained hinges, and a pure white unicorn with ridiculous purple curls stood behind it with a smile on her face. This must be -

"Welcome to Carousal Boutique..." She trailed off as her gaze turned up to my face. I gave a little wave and put on my best, most un-intimidating smile.

"You must be Lady Rarity, it's a pleasure to meet you." She moved slightly and beckoned us inside. "I'm Virus, and this is Phoenix. Princess Celestia said that you could help us in the department of formal clothing." I explained, pointing to myself and Phoenix.

Lady Rarity's eyes widened for a moment, then the smile on her face became some sort of fusion of relieved and excited. "Well, then, there's no time to waste. I must ask you, however, to wipe your boots on the mat before you come in. It'd be a shame to dirty the floors." We did as she asked and entered the boutique. She started walking farther in and a pair of red glasses floated to her face. "Now, what sort of style do you prefer for your clothing? Do you want a fancy suit that bleeds richness or just a conservative, more professional suit? You strike me as the latter, honestly." Spot on.

"I'd prefer the conservative type, honestly. I'm not, however, sure about Phoenix here. I think it'd be best for her to decide." I turned to Phoenix, who looked at me for a moment, then spoke. "How about you get yours done first, I think what I have in mind just might take a little longer to make." I nodded.

Lady Rarity watched us for a moment, then looked at Phoenix. "Alright darling, I don't suppose you could come back in a few minutes, I won't take long for your friend here. If you want, there's a good bakery and coffee shop down the road, it's called 'Sugarcube Corner' and it's spectacular." Phoenix nodded and then headed for the door.

Lady Rarity focused on me, directing me to the podium-like stand in the center of the room. "Lady Rarity,-"

"Now, Virus, there's no need for that. Please, just call me 'Rarity'."

"Alright, Rarity, how should I stand for this, I'm not actually very used to having my own personally tailored suits." I spoke with a tinge of red on my face. Rarely was it that I didn't know what to do, given my varied background.

"Just stand with your arms by your side, limp. Please excuse me if I move parts of you around, it's for easier measurements. Also, if you could remove any clothing you feel comfortable removing, it would make my life easier."

I hesitated slightly before lifting my shirt off of my head, exposing my torso and chest. I heard a slight gasp from behind me as the shirt came off, my well-toned body baring itself to the cool air inside. At least I know I can still impress the girls, human or not. Or maybe it was my ink. Probably the latter.

I have three tattoo's. One on each of my shoulder blades and one on my right shoulder. The one on my shoulder is an invisible ink tattoo of an ink that reflects a classified wavelength of light, used to identify agents in the field if incapacitated. The other tattoos are personal ones. On my left shoulder blade, I have a cross-hair, my custom cross-hair, to be exact, inked. On my other shoulder, there's a typical Virus cell and a small biohazard symbol overlain on top of it. This is my callsign, and so I have it inked. I'd be willing to bet that Phoenix has a tat somewhere of a Phoenix. Regardless, Rarity quickly recovered and began taking my measurements, making small talk all the while. Soon enough, she was finished, and told me to go get Phoenix so she could make a dress for her. I complied and made my way to the corner bakery shop known, quite fittingly I might add, as Sugarcube Corner.

For God's sake, the thing was a gingerbread house. Well, it looked like one, I would know, I tried to eat a little. But regardless, when I entered the building, I saw Phoenix nursing a cup of dark black coffee listening to a pony, shockingly pink, ramble on about something related to 'dust bunnies', 'cardboard', and 'drying paint'.

"Phoenix." She seemed to tense, for a moment, then relaxed again as she looked up.

"Hey Virus. You're here to inform me that Rarity's ready for me, correct?" I nodded. "Alright. See you at extract." She stood up, excusing herself from the pink pony, and walked past me. I nodded as she passed, and turned my attention to the-

SHIT! I jerked backwards, a bright pink face encompassing my vision. How the hell did she move so fast? Her wide smile widened, and I internally cringed. What in God's name have I gotten myself into?

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie!"

Author's Note

Sorry for the long wait, short update, and non0communication in general. Between school, AP classes, Warframe, Smite, reliving days of Lost Planet 2 on Steam, and work, I'm sorry I haven't had the time to write.

Also, I told Dark_Brotherhood that I'd give a big chapter. Well, here's the first half of it. XD sorry!