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.