War in Peace

Chapters

A Day in Eternia
The Meaning of Dreams
Strife Assault Force [SAF]
The Calm Before the Storm
From the Depths of Hell to... Paradise?!
What a Relief

A Day in Eternia

A man sat in a large room that looked like it was made out of some sort of opaque-blue glass, the man had short brown hair and amber-brown eyes, his physique was more on the athletic side, but other than that, nothing other than his outfit seemed to be different from a normal person. He wore something that looked like a mixture between hellish dragon armor and a martial arts gi. He had an incredibly bored look on his face as his gaze drifted to at least ten other people sitting in the room. One of the other people looked over to him, a man with long blonde hair and features similar to that of an elf, but without the piercing eyes and pointed ears. The blonde man tried to get the first man's attention, but as it seemed that the blonde one's comment had been ignored, he tried again...

"Jericho!... hey man... you can't leave me hangin' like this... I don't want to be here just as much as you." the Blonde said with an expression that was a mixture of sarcasm and boredom.

Jericho rubbed his temples with his hands as he sat at a large, cloud-like table, he shook his head a little bit before answering.

"Sorry Vincent... my mind has been wandering for the past week... and you know that these meetings are not something that I find interesting... EVER..." He placed a bit more emphasis on the end as he spoke, trying to make sure that his intention came off clearly.

He hated meetings... and this one was no different. Ever since he had been put on the God Council his life had seemed to have slowed to a crawl as most days he found himself sitting in a large, semi-phased-out room whose only light source were the strange floating whisps that shed light. As curious as he was about the whisps though, he never had the drive to study them because they only appeared in the room that he had always dreaded going into... The Council Chamber... the entire argument that the other members had been going over had completely lost his attention several minutes ago, he threw a wayward glance to his older brother Vincent, and was a bit relieved as he saw that his brother was just as bored as he was.

Jericho's mind wandered back to his days when he was first drafted into Balamb's forces, the endless hours he spent training and fighting were the best moments of his life, all because he felt the adrenaline that came from putting your life on the line, and even the exitement of not knowing the outcome of a fight or spar... but ever since he had become a god, well, his life stopped being as adrenaline filled. he didn't even know why he was there... he had specifically made sure that he became a god of something so obscure that he couldn't have possibly been called to the material-plane based meetings... but nonetheless... he was there, the Abyssal Dragon God was now sitting in on a meeting where the council was discussing about finding a permanent peace between Balamb and Galbadia, all because he was a commander in the Balamb army.

one of the other members said something to him but he had missed it because he hadn't cared, so he decided to put something else into the argument, something he knew that would stop the incessant bickering. He stood up and prepared to speak.

"Members of the Council... there's a reason why Balamb hasn't taken over the entire world and every one around it... because it's boring! we keep other countries in power because if we didn't the world would grow too tiresome to stand. The fact that we could come across an enemy postion that could very well end our lives is the adrenaline-pumping cause that our soldiers live to feel. Balamb has known for years that the human species as a whole, regardless of individuality, desires conflict of some sort." He turned to each member of the council and began walking around the room, mostly because the hours of sitting had numbed his legs and he wanted to get feeling back into them.

"when you read a book, you don't feel as close to the characters if there isn't a plot going on... and a plot is driven by conflict... whether it is emotional, physical, or mental isn't anything specific. You watch your TV programs all because there is some sort of conflict. The civilians love playing their video games because of the classic theme, The hero is trying to defeat the villain who is trying to take over the world..."

Several members of the council turned to each other and nodded in agreement, but to Jericho that wasn't enough, he had to make sure that they knew that Galbadia was their enemy only during the scheduled wartime.

Jericho paused a moment as he thought about it, "a sheduled wartime... our world is so advanced that war isn't even unpredictable any more... and even most of the time it happens because we are bored... peace and parties only go so far before they stop being enjoyable."

He blinked only once as he pushed the thought to the back of his mind, "and besides... we already have peace between our countries when we are not in the war season... that, combined with our war policy concerning civilain casualties. Our men are trained for precision, we make sure of that ourselves by setting up the training sessions before they ever become part our fighting force." he left his last words to drift through the council's mind before he sat back in his seat.

for the most part, the proceedings went along the same, discussing the protection of trade routes, who was going to be fighting who next, and other stuff that Jericho hadn't bothered to even care about. He just wanted to get back to flying. His one Ability that took his mind off of the problems of the council, of course... being his bloodine of the Strife family, he was talented in many things... he had even been the one to invent the new type of power armor that Balamb's soldiers now wore, incorporating scouter technology with a bio-scanner and Heads-up-display, and that was just in the helmet alone. The suit itself served to reduce the amount of damage that the wearer would take by a drastic amout, thus reducing the possibility of casualties.

When the meeting finally ended after what seemed like forever, Jericho streached his body before placing his index and middle fingers on his forehead, he called to Vincent before leaving.

"So... is the SAF going to whup some ass tonight?" he asked his brother, who gave him a nod and a broad smile. Jericho smiled as he channeled his energy in his body, focusing his mind on his destination, his adamantine castle located near a large lake. he felt the familiar weightless sensation of flying as he teleported from one place to another, a great weight felt like it was lifted from his body and mind as he left the council room. In fact, he was happy, because his older and younger brother were going to join him on Battlefield 3. He and his brothers had created a clan between themselves and had just been going by the tag SAF, anywhere that they could put their clan tag. Jericho preferred the first person shooter genre, but didn't limit himself to it.

As his eyes began to focus, he could feel the cool lake air and saw his castle standing strong against the backdrop of the night. He gazed up at the night sky, "so beautiful... this is the best time of day, because those who truly know the meaning of the dark know that they have nothing to fear..."

Jericho walked up the cobbled pathway that led to his castle, he heard the calls from some of the Balamb soldiers that he had guarding his home and saw the gate going up. Despite the technological advancements of his society, he preferred living in a medieval-style castle... he didn't know why, but it just felt more at home to him.

The Meaning of Dreams

A winged butter cream-colored pony flew slowly toward a large tree, the mare had a nervous look about her... as if she was afraid something was going to jump out at her any second now and scare her back to her home. The tree that she was flying toward looked like a normal tree, except for the windows, door, and balcony attached to it. When she finally got to the door of the tree the mare cautiously put a hoof up to knock on the door, everything about her posture said she was nervous or afraid to be there. in fact, she didn't know what her friend's reaction would be when she told her what she came to tell her.

after taking a few seconds to muster up what little courage she had, she softly knocked on the door, waiting a few seconds before knocking again. After standing outside the door for a few minutes the door opened.

"yeah yeah... all right Twiligh, yeesh... don't get your tail in a twist I'm going to get the supplies now..." a small purple dragon said, his head was turned since he hadn't registered the presense of the yellow mare yet. He was about to leave when he jumped, realizing that there was somepony standing in front of him.

"Oh... Fluttershy... I had no idea you were out here... I'm heading to the store to get more paper and ink, you know how Twilight goes through so much in just a day." he grumbled and tossed a glance back at the interior of the room where a purple-coated mare with a horn on her laid with her back to them. The horn on her head was glowing a soft purple color as a book hovered in front of her, encased in the same purple aura.

Fluttershy gave a giggle before talking to spike in a voice that sounded as fragile as the mare looked.

"it's okay... May I come in...? I have something I want to talk to twilight about" she asked with a sweet smile.

"I don't see why not, Twilight's been pouring over those books for the past two days... saying something about 'dream magic'... it's started to weird me out. maybe you can bring her back to the world of reality and get her to at least spend some time away from those books." Spike replied in a nonchalant tone.

Once the greetings were out of the way Fluttershy tentatively took a step into the house, as if worrying that the floor was going to burst into flames when she touched it. After taking a deep breath and exhaling it she almost silently walked up to her friend. Fluttershy smiled as she realized her friend was so absorbed by what the book was telling her that she hadn't even the mare walk up to her. Fluttershy gently tapped Twilight on the shoulder and it seemed to bring the purple unicorn out of her trance, it took a second or two but Twilight finally registered Fluttershy's presence.

"Oh! Fluttershy... I had no idea you were coming over, I've been studying up on the meaning of dreams because I asked luna about a dream I had... and she told me that it was one that I would have to find out on my own." Twilight's look had changed to one of confusion as she saw her friend's gaze drop to her own hooves and she started scraping one of them on the floor.

"...Fluttershy...? what's wrong?" Twilight asked with obvious concern, knowing that out of all her friends, Fluttershy was her most troubled because of how painfully shy she was and how hard it was for her to get used to new things.

Fluttershy had to take several deep breaths before she could even begin to tell her friend why she was there.

"well..." She began, "...I had a dream that seemed so real... that I thought I wouldn't wake up in my own house..."

Strife Assault Force [SAF]

Jericho got into a device that looked like an escape pod, but it was attached to his floor. The black lettering on the side of the machine said [VR Station], a system that Jericho himself had helped to create, it made him proud that more and more people were gaining access to it... all because they could play their favorite games as if they were the main character, no controllers needed.

The main hatch of the system closed and Jericho said, "Hello ADA..."

The machine made a soothing whirring sound before coming into what looked like a gigantic room where the walls shimmered practically every color of the rainbow. A sweet female, yet mechanical, voice replied to his own.

"Welcome back Jericho... do you have a game in mind, or would you like to do something else?"

Jericho pondered the question for a second before saying, "Actually, I want to see if Vincent and Literon are on." as he finished his reply a screen came up in front of him as if it had inflated like a baloon, something he always found amusing, and two usernames were highlighted, Vincent_Strife21 and LiteronNaogon. Jericho gave a smirk as he saw that both had the Online notation next to their names.

"ADA... send and invite to both of them for Battlefield 3." Another musical whir sounded as ADA sent the message. With a few quick and practiced movements of his hands he brought up the play option for Battlefield 3. Just as he had finished making his Balamb character look the way he wanted him to, he recieved notifications that his brothers had joined his squad, his older brother spoke first.

"So... what's tonights playlist?" he said in an interested tone, Jericho began to think to himself, "Good, the latest update fixed the party audio-chat..." he paused for a second as he browsed his favorite servers, when he came across two he switched back to the party chat.

"Well, tonight's playlist is either TDM on PCMs, or Conquest on the default playlist." he informed them. "Which do you guys want?" he asked out of curiosity, he had an idea which they would pick, but decided to wait for them.

His younger brother, only by a few months, spoke up next.

"It depends on what PCMs we're playing on..." even though he didn't say he wanted to, Jericho could tell by the sound in his voice that he wanted to try something new, and so Jericho indulged his brother's curiosity.

"it's maps that were made to balance the potential of all the classes, so that snipers would be on the same playing field as the other characters." Literon had made a sound that sounded like he was interested and Jericho had them all jump into the lobby, fortunately there were fewer characters on the Balamb side, most likely from either a bad connection or the other team had won and the losers were pissed. Jericho watched the countdown draw to zero and prepared to drop into the game.

Jericho entered the map and wasted no time in picking his Recon class, his loadout was an M98B fitted with a flash suppressor, straight-pull bolt, and ballistic sight. he took a quick look around the field, trying to find the best possible sniping area. He appeared to have spawned in a giant airfield, which was only rienforced with the parked passenger-liners and the comm-towers. As he looked at one of the towers he saw the perfect spot for sniping, a high vantage-point that overlooked the entire airfield, he noticed one on the other side and made a mental note to watch for sniper fire.

he looked at the squadboard and saw that a random player had joined his squad for the game, and as he saw that the man was a support class character he was a little relieved as the player has spawned near him. "this guy hopefully knows my methods... if my hunch is right." he thought, hating the feeling of running out of ammo. Once the start meter hit zero Jericho took off to the tower, and as he looked back, he noticed that the support soldier was right behind him. Jericho smiled as he made his way up the tower.

After five hours of playing it was Literon who first said goodbye for the night.

"Hey guys... I'm gonna turn in... I have a garrisson of soldiers to lead tomorrow, I need to be rested because I'm gonna be going to the plane of water... not a single damn piece of land, the entire base is an underwater structure..." both Jericho and Vincent said their good nights as Literon logged off, and after another match of TDM back on the airfield from the beginning of the game, Vincent also said his own parting words.

"Jericho... I'm putting you in charge of the New Guys tomorrow." he said with a laugh and logged off without letting Jericho respond, and Jericho quickly jumped out of the lobby. His jaw hung open in a ridiculous fashion as only a single thought went through his head.

"I'm gonna tear him limb from limb the next time I see him... I hate being in charge of the new guys! almost as much as I hate meetings." He muttered, seething with anger. He could feel his rage being used as fuel for the demon within him, he could hear the demon's hissing voice that was similar to his own whisper in his ear.

"Well..." Zephyrus, the demon who shared Jericho's soul began, "...I think that this could possibly be the most fun I could have in a long time, let me scare those guys into the infirmary, you won't have to worry about them there..."

As much as Jericho wanted to do that he knew it wasn't something he was supposed to do, and thus countered the demon's thoughts with his own.

"No... my job is to train them... and besides... I would still have to worry about them, they're my soldiers." After several more minutes of arguing Jericho finally got out of his VR Station and Zephyrus had given up his argument. He quickly went to bed so that he could be up to find out where he was being stationed with his soldiers.

"it couldn't possibly be that bad right...? they are just recruits after all..." he thought before drifting off to sleep. his dream had him wandering through a beautiful, pastel-colored hill, the color was so vibrant and breathtaking that he didn't want to be anywhere else... he felt like he was truly at peace, he didn't want to move... until his gaze drifted down the hillside to a rustic-looking town, he thought about how peaceful it looked, neslted at the base of the hill and next to a huge forest, and began walking toward it. Just as he was about to enter the town though... he jerked awake at the sound of his radio, instead of an alarm, he had it set to play his favorite radio station. He grumbled a little, but got out of bed. Once he made sure that he had everything around he quickly made his way to Balamb garden, not being able to even think of the events to come... perhaps it was better that way... much more entertaining...

The Calm Before the Storm

Twilight sat with a stunned expression as her friend began her story about the dream she had been having. "how could anypony have dreams that vivid? scent, sight, touch, sound and taste?" she thought with confusion as she had heard Fluttershy describe how the buildings didn't look fliat like in most of her dreams, but were actually three-dimensional. Her description of how she could actually feel the grass and dirt under her hooves, coupled with how there was a strange whirring sound in the background of the dream that seemed to emanate from every direction.

Twilight worried about her friend when she described that just as soon as she began seeing a beautiful towering city appear before her, it had dissapeared and was replaced by something that looked like a battlefield and the smell of blood and gun residue was so heavy in the air that it felt like she was tasting it every time she breathed.

As Fluttershy looked like she was about to break down and start crying Twilight rushed to her friend's side and gave her a reasurring hug. The vibrations Twilight felt emanating from her friend quickly subsided as the hug's effect seemed to be working. When Fluttershy had calmed down once again Twilight let go and let her continue.

"it was so frightening... that whirring sound was replaced by something that sounded like small explosions..." Fluttershy explained, her voice betrayed the notion that she might start crying soon, "...and soon a bunch of creatures began to swarm the place... most of them stood on two legs, and used their forehooves- no, they didn't seem to have hooves... but whatever they were they didn't look like ponies... anyway, the ones that weren't on only two legs seemed to be more feral and violent than the creatures we have here."

Fluttershy suppressed a shudder as she remembered the next part of the dream

"...and out of what seemed like nowhere... a giant creature that looked like a T-rex began charging through the battlefield, not caring who it killed..." at this Twilight gave her friend another hug as tears began to form at the edge of her eyes. Twilight got an idea as she held onto her friend, hoping that this would help her.

"Fluttershy..." she began tentatively, "...would you mind if I made us some tea? I think it'll help your nerves..." she was relieved as the yellow mare slowly nodded her head without taking her gaze off the table. Twilight quickly took the opportunity to rummage through the cupboards in the kitchen, looking for her box of tea. When she finally found it she filled a teapot up with water and set it over the stove, there weren't any oven mitts to be found in the room because whenever she or Spike would be cooking something, she would either levitate the hot object with magic, or Spike would carry it since he was immune to fire and burns.

When the teapot finally whistled for her to come and get the steaming water, Twilight dashed over to it, levitating a few cups with her and proceeded to pour the water into the cups. She carefully placed the packets of tea in the cup and brought each one out with a little dish to set them on. With a little forethought, Twilight had picked up one of the Hoofshy's (pronounced Hoof-she, like Hershey) bars that she had been storing in the icebox, it was her guilty pleasure from time to time but she believed that the comfort that the bar of chocolate could give was what Fluttershy needed more than her.

The two settled in Twilight's living room once again and both were sipping from the cups that Twilight had brought out with her, while Fluttershy was eating small pieces from the candy bar that Twi had given her. Several thoughts passed through Twilights head as she waited for her friend to begin speaking again.

"how in the world can she stand to eat only a little bit of that at a time?! I've never seen anypony taste one of those and not just eat it in seconds because of it's sweet taste..." was her most pressing thought, others swarmed her head in a similar line of questioning until she had finally put them to the back of her mind with a simple thought.

"I am Fluttershy's friend... I gave her that bar because I am a good friend and I knew that she would need it more than me... and besides... I've been eating too many of them lately..." the way she ended the thought gave her a pang of regret, but ultimately silenced her other nagging thoughts.

Her attention was brought back to what her eyes saw as Fluttershy laid the half-eaten bar down on the table after carefully wrapping it up to prevent it from melting on her friend's furniture.

Fluttershy sniffed once and wiped the tear from her eye before turning her gaze to Twilight. and Twilight noticed how the young mare's eyes were as close to bloodshot as they could get without sleep deprivation. so she scooted herself over to her friend and gave her another reassuring hug, which she knew was working as the small trembles that Fluttershy had been making slowly subsided. the yellow mare took a deep breath before continuing, and twilight admired that, "she really wants to finish telling me the dream so that she can get all the pain off her mind... and... well... I'm ready to listen" Twilight thought with a bit of an impressed mental tone. She was surprised however as Fluttershy's expression changed from sadness to a small smile.

"the dream ended nicely though... it seemed as if the creatures that weren't bi-pedal were actually made of some sort of whispy stuff that dissapeared into the air when struck down, and when the bi-peds in the red and black armor won the fight, they cheered... at first I couldn't understand why they were happy at the slaughter that they caused..." she took a small breath and Twilight noticed that she had leaned a little too close to her friend in her interest.

"I-I'm sorry Fluttershy, it's just that I found what you were telling me to be interesting... and I do that out of a habit formed from sitting at school desks when I heard something interesting." Twilight managed to get out after she scooted back on the couch. Fortunately, Fluttershy understood what she was saying and continued her story.

"...anyway... after I spent a few minutes trying to figure out why they were celebrating, I saw one pull out this strange bottle that glowed orange. As the dream went on more of them pulled out more of those bottles, and when they tossed the bottles at the dead bi-peds... they began to get back up. The ones in the black and red armor removed the armor of the losers and placed these strange..." she paused as she tried to use her hooves to get the point across, "...glowing manacles. When all the losers had been brought back to life, none of the beings in my dream had any hostility towards each other... some of the winners said that the losers would return to 'Galbadia' after the war was over... and I kinda assumed that the losers were from a kingdom called Galbadia."

When Fluttershy had finished her story Twilight sat in a stunned silence as she registered the vivid details that her friend was remembering. It took her several minutes before she could answer Fluttershy as she tried to come up with a possible translation.

"maybe... maybe your dream is trying to tell you that the paradise we live in would become a battlefield... but that in the end, everything would go back to normal?" Twilight gave a shrug as she finished, she was still new to the dream interpretation theories herself, so she admitted she didn't have it down to the exact science that Luna did.

Fluttershy smiled as she gave her friend a hug that only meant to be a friend-to-friend hug. She quietly thanked Twilight and tried to make sure that her friend understood that she felt much better.

"Thank you Twilight... I appreciate you listening to me, I'm not sure if I could have told any of our other friends about this because they might overreact, but I knew that you would hear me out to the end. thank you for being such a good friend." She gave Twilight a friendly little smile.

"well, ever since I found out about the true meaning of the Elements of Harmony, that's what I've been trying to do... just be as good of a friend as I can." Twilight replied with a smile as she watched her friend fly off to her cottage.

As soon as Fluttershy was out of sight Twilight slammed the door shut without meaning to and began furiously reading through the books she had on dream interpretation to try and figure out what her friend's dream truly meant... praying to Celestia and Luna that her friend's dream truly meant what she had said.

From the Depths of Hell to... Paradise?!

Jericho sat in the commander's seat of the massive flying Battle-cruiser, he stared down at crew screens that showed a passing landscape of fire, lava, and brimstone. Jericho face-palmed for what seemed to be the fifteenth time.

"Hell..." he thought with irritation, "...He sends me to hell with the new guys to stop a Galbadian outpost from attacking ours... we had better just be here to reinforce the troops already there otherwise we're going to need a lot of Phoenix Down. After he issued a few orders for the lieutenant to take over his position while he was in the training room, he proceeded to a sealed room that was completely barren.

Jericho made a quick gesture and the room's walls seemed to fade to something that was similar to his VR Station room, but with more of a focus on the cool color spectrum. Jericho only had a few seconds before the weight of the atmosphere around him seemed to increase, when the pressure stopped, though, he looked back where he had entered and shouted.

"C'mon! You know I do four hundred thousand back at garden... max this one out!" a thought flashed across his mind and he quickly spoke again, "and do it quickly!" in response, the weight of the room dramatically shifted to a greater amount

"One-fifty eh...? Well… It’s not like our soldiers ever usually get to this point anyway..." He thought as his own body weight was increased by a hundred and fifty times its regular weight. Several types of weight-lifting equipment appeared nearby as if he had willed them to appear, he took the dumbbell that would've normally weighed a hundred pounds and placed it onto a mount for his shoulders as he began to train.

About an hour later the gravity of the room began decreasing back to normal, he looked around as the weights faded and the room turned back into the cold-metal one. The main door of the room beeped and slid open automatically as a petite brunette woman walked through it, she had amber eyes similar to Jericho's but a bit more on the Brown side, her hair fell neatly down her back and looked incredibly soft. Jericho turned to the woman and gave her a warm embrace as she walked up to him.

"I see you finally decided to walk around the ship..." Jericho said playfully, He knew that the woman wasn't afraid of flying, She was a dragon like him, But she was painfully shy of most people and got embarrassed or felt awkward easily. He let her take a step back and she smiled at him with a face that he always found to be beautiful when complimented with a smile. He spoke once again.

"So Blissera, you ready to face down the terrors of hell?" a certain playful joking tone was evident in his voice, and the woman cocked her head to the side like a cat and smiled as she replied.

"Viola has been trying to become the dominant personality ever since she knew I was being paired with you... I think I can handle devils and Galbadians." her voice was filled to the brim with sarcasm.

Jericho sighed as he thought of Viola, that woman was Blissera's version of Zephyrus, for both of them... a lifetime of suppressing negative emotions proved to let said emotions take on a life of their own. But Jericho and Blissera had learned to live with these 'other personalities' and it was actually them letting these other personalities take over from time to time that they found out letting out their repressed emotions calmed them... And it never stopped interesting Viola to try and find ways to kill Zephyrus... Fortunately for him, He was an unkillable demon... But it didn't stop her from trying.

Whatever had been going on though between them was halted though, as a sudden shockwave resounded through the ship, sending the couple and most likely a good section of the crew to the floor. Jericho and Blissera quickly got up and made their way to the command room, with Jericho still in his training gi. The second the doors to the command room opened he saw the flashing red lights that meant their ship took a direct hit from something powerful. He quickly made his way to the center of the room and began barking out orders.

"Sergeant! Divert power from auxiliary facilities to the shields! Captain! Switch to secondary lighting! We want to conserve as much power as possible... AND WHAT THE HELL HIT US!"

One of the recruit pilots who was manning the system controls replied to him.

"Our main engine was reduced to less than fifty percent by a class nine seeker rocket!" the private shouted above the warning alarm. Only one thought passed through Jericho's mind as he heard the attack.

"...Damn Galbadians..."

He used the metal bracer on his left wrist to quickly bring up a nano-screen and switch his outfit to his Balamb elite uniform before resuming his position at the command seat. He called out to each of his soldiers, trying to find out where their attacker was now.

"Gunners! Sweep your arcs! I want someone to find out how the hell we got blindsided like that when we have the most advanced sensor array in the military!" His growing anger caused Zephyrus to stir from his sleep.

"You know... you could just use your god power to destroy whatever hit us..." the voice hissed in his ear with a... chuckle? Jericho's mind rounded on the demon, "My purpose here is to get these guys field training... not fight their battles, it is against my orders to engage the enemy directly... no matter how much I want to." No sooner had he finished his thought than Zephyrus began to laugh his hoarse, hissing laugh that Jericho knew still haunted the minds of more than one galbadian. "...you used to be so much more fun... rebelling against orders of staying where you were... and annihilating all that stood between you and your quarry." Jericho felt his anger twinge as the demon brought up that subject, and Zephyrus laughed once more, "struck a nerve?" he asked as more of a joke than a question.

"if you don't shut up in the next few seconds I will send you into the most cramped part of my mind that I know you fear to venture..." he threatened, and he felt the influence of the demon cringe at the threat, "you wouldn't... you're bluffing..." the voice hissed with a twitch of fear, knowing full well that Jericho didn't bluff when it came to threats.

Since Jericho's attention had been on the mental argument between him and his inner demon, he hadn't noticed when the lieutenant had shouted for him, warning of a large Galbadian attack cruiser coming in behind them. Once his lieutenant had shaken him out of his trance and told him about the attack cruiser coming in, one of the soldiers stationed at an energy signature radar shouted above the warning siren.

"Commander Strife! Massive energy rift off of our bow! the gravity of the energy is making it impossible for our damaged engines to take us away from it!" Jericho cursed under his breath as he tried to come up with a solution, but as he saw the purple, swirling and pulsing rift enter the view of the command chamber's main window; only one thing crossed his mind as he grabbed the intercom to issue his soldiers an order.

"...Everyone! Brace yourselves for an imminent Rift Jump!" he shouted over the intercoms as all of his soldiers tried to grab onto something before their ship was dragged into the vortex. Everything about his vision was filled with a blinding white light before he forced himself to close his eyes, Shutting himself in a total darkness.

What a Relief

Jericho lay in the darkness, he figured he was laying down because he felt something flat against his stomach, as his mind began to register he wasn't dead he began to make a mental checklist of his internal systems.

"...Touch... Numb, but check..." He began, listing each of his senses, "Breathing, Check... Smell, there’s a metal scent, so check...Taste? I can taste my own blood... The metallic taste..." He paused his check for a second to think about it, "Wow... I haven't tasted my own blood in a long time..." As his intrigue had subsided he continued his checklist, "...Hearing... My ears are pounding and ringing at the same time... But I can hear a low humming so I guess that counts as a check...For now, Wings... Wait? When did I bring out my wings...I could've sworn I kept them phased out... it doesn't matter, I'll have to figure that out later. And finally...Sight... Either I'm blind or my eyes are closed... I hope it's the latter."

He finally attempted to use the muscles that opened his eyelids, and he was greeted in the order of darkness, then redness, Then whiteness as his eyes began to adjust to the fluorescent lights that were shining in the room.

Once his eyes finally adjusted completely, He was able to focus on his arms that were splayed out in front of him... He was checking his arms until his eyes drew to where his hands should be, and instead he saw...

"...Hooves... Well... No wonder my sense of touch is dulled... I have... Hooves..." His train of thought stopped for a few seconds as his discovery set in, "HOOVES! WHAT THE HELL!" His mind began to go over several different thoughts at once, Until a headache began in his skull just above his eyes, He closed his eyes and blinked away the pain as he brought his front right hoof to his head to massage the pain away. His hoof stopped as it touched something sticking out of his skull, "I swear to the eternal dragon... if I landed on a pipe... I'm going to be furious..." He thought with a groan as he slid the hoof up and down the protrusion, He found out that whatever it was had become attached to his skull as if he were born with it, He shot up into a sitting position... And even though his numbed tactile sense was in place, He still had a headache and his vision began making him see spots. Once his vision cleared he stared up at the roof of the room as if he were addressing some sort of higher being, And spoke in a low growl so that if anyone happened to be awake near him they wouldn't hear it.

"If I am... Where I think I am... And the council has done... What I think they've done... Those guys will certainly feel my wrath when I get back!" His gaze dropped down to the hooves that replaced his hands and he began to speak to himself, As if expecting his mind to reply.

"...An Alicorn... Do those guys even know how over-powered this crap is!? And if anyone back home found out about this I'd be alienated from all of them! An Alicorn! REALLY!?" His voice was certainly hoarse, but the muttered growl came out as if he was still refreshed... He continued to stare at his hooves until his eyes finally noticed something missing other than fingers.

"My ring! Uh-oh... that's not good..." He thought, bringing his mind to the enchanted ring that kept him sustained without the need for food. A magical item that went by the name of a Ring of Sustenance, Yeah... Nothing fancy, But it was the name that stuck. All of his other thoughts were suppressed as his stomach began to growl, knowing that it finally got to make a decision on how the (newly appointed) alicorn would live his life.

He tried to keep his mind on his other thoughts as his growing hunger began to try and take over. "...but seriously... an alicorn... I had always imagined myself to be a pegasus. But I can kind of understand, since back home I'm on the god-council... but an Alicorn? They seriously had to advertize that I have more power than the average person?" he grumbled as he finally started to examine his body.

He saw that his legs were probably long enough to stand him at least close to his original height of six-foot tall. He rubbed a hoof against his horn and knew that even if it felt uncomfortable now, He would have to get used to the thought of having one. He then began examining his wings, they were long, and were colored a kind of silvery-white color, the same as the hair on his hide. His wings tingled as their outstretched position felt the air around his body. His look flashed surprise as he realized how his uniform had changed, instead of a navy blue dress shirt, pants and combat boots... he only had a dress shirt on as well as combat boots that were in a different shape than a regular foot, "Probably to accommodate for the fact that I'm now an equine being." he thought dismissively. He had a mane and tail that seemed to be a tri-color mix of coppery-brown. When his gaze finally rested on his flank, he saw what cemented the fact that he was no longer in Hell... A cutie mark in the shape of the symbol of the Strife Assault Force (the cover art of this story).

Jericho blinked several times as he looked around, not only did he see the black and red armor of his soldiers, but he saw a sea of color showing under the armor. His crew began to stir, much as he had, slow and groggily. When more and more began to get a sense of where they were, Jericho knew that he would have to do something, because he certainly saw several of his crewmembers begin to silently panic in the unfamiliar bodies that were now theirs. He began to speak to all the crewmembers present in the room.

"Ok... everyone, attention!" he called out, and smiled inside as any panic the crew had was replaced by the habit of obeying a command given by their leader, he paused before continuing, "I'm going to call the rest of the crew in so I can try to explain as calmly as possible... what has happened."

The crew waited patiently as Jericho brought the mike to his face. It was quite awkward trying to lift it with hooves, he actually had to get one of his neaby crewmembers to press the intercom button when he was ready.

"All crewmembers and combat personnel report to the command room... I repeat, all crewmembers and combat personnel report to the command room to be debriefed on the situation." he quickly replaced the mike on it's stand and tried to think of how he was going to explain the sudden physical change in his crew.

When the rest of the crew had finally filed in, Jericho took a mental note that the amount of pegusai, unicorns, and earth ponies was roughly a third of the group each. he took a second to breathe before he addressed each of his soldiers.

"Alright, everyone knows that something quite unusual has happened..." he receives a few nods of agreement as several members of the group look around to their teammates, and he continues, with all their gazes snapping back to him. "From what I can tell, something about that Rift Vortex changed our physical appearance to that of an equine nature..." once again, a few nods from the crowd, "...So, what we need to do is find out how we can defend ourselves until the entire crew is able to bear arms again, or at least is confident in their ability at close quarters combat." he pauses for a few seconds, trying to think of some sort of logical action to take, then an idea pops into his head and he decides to roll with it. He gives the crew a look over and then begins to speak once more.

"How many of you consider yourselves skilled in the use of magic?" he asks, which only about half the unicorn members raise their hooves to, "Ok... a lot less than I was expecting... but at least it's better than nothing..." he ponders, then continues.

"You will be our defense until we can figure out how to defend the rest of the crew on their own..." The statement begets a few moans of protest from the crowd, but overall they understand that it has to be done, Jericho collects his thoughts once again as he continues. "Now... since you are our only means of defense right now, you're going to have to learn quickly how to walk as you are and make sure you don't go tripping over yourselves. Everyone else, report to the training rooms." he orders, his men salute once more before they begin to leave, many of them tripping over themselves or others since they're not familiar with being quadrupeds.

Jericho began taking a few careful steps, trying to keep his balance. He stumbled a few times as he walked to the training rooms, but he soon began to get used to walking on all fours, the entire time his mind drifted to the nagging sense in the back of his mind that he was missing something... something that made him who he was, but he shrugged it off as he reached the training rooms. A smile barely showed itself as he watched his soldiers enter the metallic rooms, relieved by the fact that the holographic interfaces could be resized and accessed by them.