Phoenix

Chapter 11

“So, Dante,” Twilight began, as she levitated a notebook and pencil out of her saddlebags that she HAD tossed into the truck in the vehicle bay.

The odd group consisting of an alien supersoldier, an AI and six ponies crammed into a truck that’s travelling at nearly three hundred miles an hour over unpaved ground and not destroying itself, thanks to modifications made by the New Phoenix Republic was an odd sight to see.

Add to that the blue pegasus racing alongside the alien vehicle. The moon high in the sky, and if Venus was correct the local time for where they were was about two-thirty at night. Several of the ponies who had tagged along for the ride were snoring in the surprisingly quiet and stable cabin. Applejack leaned over to rest her head on Pinkie Pie, who was also asleep. Rarity had produced a pillow and was utilizing Fluttershy to hold her pillow up, the shy pegasus keeping quiet.

Bulwark, due to the size of the front seat had managed to curl up and fall asleep on the front seat.

Dante had to admit, if they crashed right now, all of the ponies in the car were kind of fucked.

“Yo.” Dante responded to the unicorn.

“Would you mind if I asked you some questions regarding both… Humanity and the Imperium.”

“Shoot.” Dante glanced back at the unicorn, who had brought the pencil up to the her notebook.

“First could you inform me of your species?”

Dante gave a light chuckle. “I’m a hybrid. My mom’s blood is Human. Homo Sapiens. Man Wise. Or in a better way of speaking, Wise Man. We’re the only intelligent species on our home planet, Earth, or Terra as the Imperium recognizes it officially.” Dante paid no mind the small squeak Twilight let out when Dante stated they were the only intelligent species.

“You all are the only intelligent species on your planet? What happened to everypony else?”

“They died. We outcompeted them. Homo Neanderthalensis, Homo Sapiens Idaltu. All of them lost the evolutionary arms race and couldn’t keep up with us. Then after the threat from other Sapiens was destroyed, we moved onto Canines. Once we domesticated dogs, we began the fight to becoming Terra’s apex predators. Of course, some retards claim we’re on the same level as anchovy or pigs because the stupid fuckers don’t understand how the world works. That’s why they’re retarded, ya know? But in any case, modern man has no natural predators.”

Twilight continued copying the information down, choosing to leave out the crass language, she looked up from her book.

“Why doesn’t man have any natural predators?”

Dante locked his eyes with hers through the rear view mirror.

“Because we exterminated any species dumb enough to prey on us. Tell me, Twilight, do ponies have any natural predators still on this planet?”

Twilight paused to think. Her eyes narrowing in thought.

“Well… disregarding the Changelings who seem comfortable to consume the love of any living being, there are creatures in the Everfree Forest who will readily consume ponies. And during the Contact Conflicts, gryphons would… hunt and consume ponies.”

Dante clicked his tongue. “And that’s why Humanity has no natural predators. Sparkle, Life is uncertain in many aspects. But there is one thing I can assure you, they gryphons are lucky man didn’t evolve on this planet.”

Fluttershy apparently had been paying attention to the conversation as she chose this time to speak up.

Well, tried to, rather. But given the fact that she still seemed to be terrified of the alien following his display of gratuitous violence, the voice came out a whisper.

However, the obstacle of Fluttershy’s whispers didn’t seem to stop Dante.

“Yeah, we’ve got’em back home.”

“How smart are they?” Twilight questioned.

“If you’re askin’ if they’re sapient, Sparkle, they ain’t. Remember, fairly certain I just said Humans are… well, I suppose were the only intelligent species back home. I’m assuming after the Battle for Earth, the Imperium officially revealed itself. But, yeah, no sapient pigs.”

“This Imperium, you seem to speak so highly of it. Why?” Bulwark questioned from his curled position.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got a couple of bones to pick with them. And in fact, I already have picked a couple of bones with them. But they were the best way for me to get what I wanted.”

“Which was?”

“Revenge. As corny as that sounds as a one liner, so I have to end it with an explanation. I wanted people dead, but I couldn’t reach them with the technology Earth had. But as it so happens, the Imperium also wanted these people dead… well, “arrested”. But they never came along peacefully. How unfortunate.” The tone at the end was very obviously dark, making Twilight grimace.

“So, in the spirit of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, I joined the Imperium. Then more shit happened and here I am. On this weird-ass planet with talking magic ponies.

Twilight tried to change the subject.

“So, Dante could you inform us of some more personal questions?” The purple unicorn asked.

“Don’t see why not.”

“So, could you tell us about your family? Maybe your moth-”

“Dead. She’s been dead for a long time. Even before I crashed here.” The biped answered bluntly, with Twilight quickly trying to scramble away from a topic she thought may be sensitive for the biped.

“Ah… uh… your fath-”

“Asshole. Don’t want to talk about him, he can get fucked for all I care.”

“Uh… f-frie-”

“Dead.”

“Was that before or after you crashed in Equestria?” Rainbow Dash questioned, her voice filtering through a radio in the car.

“Before.”

“Uh...” Twilight was searching for a way to pull herself to dig herself out of the hole she had dug. “Do you… have a mate?”

“A mate?” Dante began fiddling with the ring on his left hand. “Yeah, the most beautiful woman I’d ever met. Her name was...” His face scrunched as he searched for a word in Equestrian. Eventually he just made an odd sound that the awake ponies were incapable of making heads or tails of.

“Law-Kee-Uh” Twilight’s face grimaced as she heard Dante say the alien word.

“Her name doesn’t seem to fit in well with the Equestrian language, kind of odd since mine seems to exist in it. I suppose it’s kind of like asking a Prrlytuynkyrt… How fuckin’ weird is that, Prrlytuynkyrt seems to flow. How the fuck is a niche alien specie’s name in this language. Anyway, I suppose it’s kind of a like asking a Prrlytuynkyrt to mix English with their native tongue.” Dante looked at the various confused ponies, then clarified. “The letter “E” doesn’t exist in their tongue, at all.”

Danted looked back to his interrogator.

“A wife.” She nearly squeed, as she realized that Dante, although he had answered her previous questions mostly in the negative, seemed to know what what she was talking about.

“This means aliens understand the magic of friendship!”

“What in the everloving, actual fuck are you going on about Sparkle? Do not make me grab the spray bottle, I will grab the spray bottle!”

“Do you have foals?” Twilight almost began vibrating out of her seat, Dante’s threat of the horrific spray bottle went unheeded.

“Foals? What, you mean kids?”

She nodded.

“Did. I did have kids. And that “did” existed before I crashed here.”

And just like that, Twilight’s excitement went from one hundred to zero in the blink of an eye.

“Oh… I’m… Uh… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to… I mean, you know, I had no intention t-” Dante waved his hand.

“Don’t worry, Sparkle. I’ve mourned their loss. If all I ever did was mourn my dead, I’d never get anything done.”

Despite Dante’s assurance she had done nothing wrong by asking about his children, Twilight couldn’t bring herself to ask any more questions, in fear she’d be dredging up more memories like that.

So, the rest of the car ride was spent in silence, something that the exhausted stallion, Bulwark, was grateful for.

S-4292 was in quite a pickle. She was low in energy, struggling to maintain her disguise and still trying to figure out how to get love from these ponies. Oh, and she was stuck underground with the natural enemy of Changelings… Diamond Dogs. Her day had been going so well so far.

Her only hope was that stupid mare, Rose, had indeed gotten help and that the Royal Guard wasn’t so pathetic they wouldn’t send a rescue mission.

Of course, that’s assuming they were even able to find the caverns.

And given that 4292 was the only “pony” in the cage that wasn’t emaciated and struggling to stay standing, it seemed as though all the captives had flocked to her for safety.

4292 really wished she could consume irony in the same way she could consume love.

Movement to the side caught her eye, as two of the dogs entered the room they were keeping the caged captives in, arguing.

From what they were arguing about, she could tell this was going to get ugly real quick.

A large crowd of ponies had gathered to see what the commotion was, as the alien carriage sped into Ponyville, at a much more respectable speed. But the engine’s growl of power was more then enough to wake up the quiet village, as Dante brought the truck to a stop in what appeared to him to be a town square. A circular two story building occupying the center of the square.

“How fuckin’ quaint.” He remarked, as he dropped the gear into a park and unbuckled his belt, opening his door and stepping to the ground.

The crowd of ponies gathered to guffaw at the odd, armored towering being as he stretched his arms out and bent, popping various bones. Rainbow Dash having landed on the roof of the truck.

To the ponies, he had some fleeting similarities to the minotaur who had been in their town a few years back, mainly due to his bipedal stance and height, but the similarities ended there.

He grabbed the rifle he had stuck in a rack in the center of the truck and took it out, dropping the mag, he paid no attention to the gawking ponies. He pulled the charging handle to ensure there was a round in the chamber and then replaced the magazine. Slinging the rifle over his back, he leaned back into the truck, putting a hand on Bulwark’s withers and shook him violently.

“Oi, fuckface, get up.” Bulwark jolted awake from the sudden action, as he blinked his eyes warily.

Dante looked up to to the pegasus sitting on her haunches on the roof of his truck. He pointed at her.

“Don’t scratch the paint.” He said, with the same tone one would command a dog.

Rainbow Dash took the tone in stride.

“Funny.”

Dante repeated the process of waking a pony up with Applejack, who had elected to the take the seat behind the biped in Canterlot. However, he was noticeably gentler with her, as the five Elements slowly stumbled out of the back seat of the truck.

Various ponies rushed forward to ask the girls just what was happening and whether or not the should be concerned about the odd creature.

“My name’s Dante, if ya could stop callin’ me a creature it’d be appreciated. Jesus christ, Bulwark you’re acting like a child, get the fuck up, I’m not fuckin’ carryin’ you to the AO.” Dante had yelled behind his back, which caused the mare who questioned Twilight to back up a little.

Twilight, now fully awake was struggling to calm down the townsfolk down.

“That’s Dante, he’s a… visiting military official. A guest of the Diarchy. He’s no danger.”

“Hey, Bulwark, did you pack that machete I told you to dig out of that asshole’s skull? It doubles as a

bayonet and I may need to skewer some dogs.”

Twilight adopted a fake smile. “I swear, he’s actually just a giant teddy bear.”

“Yeah, I know. I was the one that did it. Asshole didn’t see me coming. I kicked a door at him and then buried the machete in his head… multiple times… come to think about it, he was still screaming and I had to dump a couple of rounds into him… anyway, did you pack it or not?”

Any semblance of a smile Twilight had managed to hold onto instantly disappeared, as she realized that the terrified crowd wasn’t going to believe her lies that Dante was harmless.

But those lies had been easier to explain then his odd morals.

“Okay… so… he isn’t… harmless, but he won’t hurt you unless you give him a very good reason to.”

“Bulwark, I swear to god if you didn’t pack that machete when we get back to Canterlot I am going to personally bury it into your fuckin’ skull.”

“That was a joke. He also moonlit as a comedian back home!” The crowd of ponies were agape at the biped’s casual threats of violence and Twilight could tell they weren’t buying it.

Danted hefted a duffle bag over his shoulder as he turned around from the truck, casually walking up to Twilight.

He stood by her left flank and looked at the crowd of gathered, terrified ponies.

“The fuck’s wrong with’em?” Dante questioned, gesturing towards with now gloved hands.

“They’re terrified of you.”

Dante cocked an eyebrows as he looked down to Twilight “I can tell, I can smell the terror coming off them in droves.” He looked back to the crowd.

“Boo.” He stated casually, his voice never raising. There was absolutely no malice evident in the word and his teeth never flashed.

Never the less, the crowd screamed and scattered, all of them rushing back to their houses and slamming doors, locking locks, closing curtains and hiding.

“And now I smell piss.” He stated. “You ponies are damned weird.”

Rainbow Dash snorted and jumped from her perch, gliding to land gracefully on Dante’s head.

The biped had to give it to her, she had impeccable balance.

“That’s rich, coming from the continuously angry alien who only seems to think about causing destruction”

“Rainbow, I swear to god if you shit on my head like a parrot, I will kill you like I would a parrot by wringing your neck.”

“Exactly my point.” Rainbow Dash shot, seemingly unfazed by his threat of violence.

Dante reached up and wrapped his hands around her barrel, lifting her off his head, he set her gently on the ground, lightly tapping her nose.

“Don’t jump on people’s heads. It’s rude.”

He turned back to the truck.

“Dante, dare, is your… carriage going to be okay like that.” Rarity questioned.

“Yep, I could leave all the doors open if I wanted to. It’s not like there’s anyone around here that actually knows how to drive it, much less could drive it. I can imagine it now. A pony trying to drive this, sitting like a Human, their rear hooves dangling a foot off the ground.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Rainbow Dash asked, as she trotted ahead of the group of massed ponies, and one biped.

“The “plan”, Rainbow, is for you girls to go get some some rest in actual beds.” Dante had produced a shotgun from the duffle bag, which he was now loading the magazine tube. “And Bulwark and I will deal with the dogs, retrieve Sea Biscuit and whatever other captives they have down there and get back here. From there, I should have the resources I need to make launchable satellites, which I will then use to track down my motherfuckin’ transmitter so I can go home. And also kill the bitch,” Dante slammed the shotgun’s pump down and then back up. “That stole my motherfuckin’ shit.”

“What? You can’t just go around kicking flank without us, we’re national heroes!” Rainbow Dash protested.

“The only reason why you all came along is because Sparkle requested, also because I figured locals would make my arrival here a bit less… terrifying.” Twilight grumbled something about it being his fault as Dante continued. “I am not going to allow civilians to accompany me on a military operation.”

“What about him?” Rainbow questioned as she pointed to Bulwark, causing Dante to raise his eyebrow.

“He’s a Royal Guard, you fuckin’ moron. Is he or is he not your equivalent of a soldier?”

“Well… yeah, but…”

“Listen, Rainbow, I realize you ponies aren’t as martial as the Imperium, or even Humanity. But Bulwark is a soldier… er, at least the closest approximation to a soldier as you all have. And trust me, this isn’t something you all want to see.”

Before Rainbow Dash could protest, she was enveloped in a purple aura, as Twilight pulled her along.

“Rainbow Dash, darling dear, this is the stallion who didn’t have a problem being covered in gore and viscera. If he says it’s not something we want to see, we should indubitably take his word for it.”

“Fine, I’ll go home.” Rainbow Dash relented, as she tried removing herself from Twilight magical grasp, only for Twilight to increase her grip.

“Nope, you’re staying the night with me. I’m not letting you follow them, Rainbow. Now come on, I need to check on Spike, he’s been home alone for days now. I wish he would have come with me.”

“I wasn’t plann… okay, maybe I was, but I swear I won’t. Let me go, Twilight!” Rainbow could only struggle futilely, as her wings flapped useless

“And I need to check on Sweetie Belle. I do hope mother and father haven’t burned down the Boutique while I was away.”

As the group of mares walked away, arguing or just talking, Dante merely looked down to Bulwark, shaking his head.

“Fuckin’ freaks, man, in any case, I need to speak to the Guards who took the report, but I think I spooked the bossman of this town. Y’all got an outpost down here?”

S-4292, somehow still managing to hold her “Sea Biscuit” disguise flattened her ears against her skulls. As tortured screams echoed off the walls of the cave.

She could only hope that the Diamond dogs would see her as a possibly valuable worker, and that the Royal Guard would get here before her magic ran out.

Bulwark had led the pair to the local guard outpost, a very run down looking building, right on the outskirts of town.

“It’s a shed.” Dante stated.

“No, sir. That’s the Royal Guard’s Ponyville outpost.”

Dante looked to the stoic pony, the look in his eyes making it obvious he thought the stallion insane.

“You motherfuckers are law enforcement, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then where the fuck is the goddamn jail? This is a shed! Fuck! That’s an insult to sheds around the world! I’ve seen goddamn port-a-shitters bigger then this fucking building. Does the Crown just not send any money to this outpost at all?”

“Ponyville doesn’t see a lot of crime.” The stallion replied, as he eyed the small building. It was indeed small, but Dante was exaggerating, if he was honest it was about the size of a shed where they would store plows.

“But it sees crime, so when you motherfuckers do arrest someone, where in the goddamn ever loving hell do you put them? I mean, for fuck’s sake, I was a Texas Ranger in the late 1800’s and not a single town I ever tracked a criminal down in had a law enforcement office this fucking pathetic. This isn’t even a fucking building!”

“We make do with what we have.”

“More like your assholes of princesses can’t even be bothered to protect one of their fucking towns.”

Bulwark took a visibly angry frown at Dante’s crass statement in regards to the diarchs.

“It’s not their fault, they have to divy up a certain amount of a budget and deploy guards to high risk areas. Ponyville is a low risk area!”

“Bullshit it is, it seems to be a nexus of fuckery in this world. Nightmare Moon attacks here first, then Discord, then Twilight went crazy because of some weird shit and put the entire town under some sort of mind control spell. If anything, I’d have this entire fucking place surrounded by armed guards.”

Bulwark eyed the biped suspiciously. “How do you know all of that?”

Dante snorted. “It’s called newspapers, you fucking retard. Rule one of being stranded on an alien planet, recon, I did as such and started researching the place. Kind of fucked your princess would banish her sister to the moon for a thousand years and then entomb another one of her enemies in stone.”

“What would you have done in both situations?”

“Killed them.”

“Why do you insist on killing everything you meet?”

“They’re threats, the best way to the stop a threat is to permanently end the threat, by killing it. But furthermore, it’s the more ethical thing to do.”

“Ethical? Nightmare Moon was defeated and Princess Luna was restored.”

“But did Celestia know she could do that? When Celestia fired the shot that sent Nightmare to the moon for a thousand years, did she know for a fact that she would be able to save her sister, or did she imprison and isolate her sister for a thousand years on blind faith and hope alone. And Discord? He’s still petrified. And from my understanding of how petrification works, he’s still fully conscious and aware of what’s occuring around him. So that means he’s trapped forever in one position with no freedom to move around. Do you know what we call that back home?”

Bulwark growled, Dante poked him in the nose.

“We call the cruel, unreasonable and unusual punishment, it’s explicitly banned in the Imperial Bill of Rights and we execute those who practice it.”

“There you go with the killing again.”

Dante narrowed his eyes.

“Yes, because it’s league’s ahead of a thousand years of isolation and restriction of freedom by turning someone to stone indefinitely.”

Dante whirled on his feet, to face the guard outpost. “In any case, we’ve spent way too much time fucking about and arguing over morality.” He approached the porch of the building as Bulwark followed. He stopped at the door and knocked.

“Hold on, coming.” A voice sounded from inside, as Dante waited patiently. The door knob shook violently, as some mild cursing was heard from within.

The rattling of the doorknob continued on for a minute, until it literally fell off. The knob rolled on the ground until being stopped by Dante’s boot. The biped in question bent down and picked up the knob with a bemused expression on his face.

“Sir, is everything alright in there?” He called through the door.

“Uh… yes, the door’s just… stuck, again… could you do me a favor and go fetch Big Mac from Sweet Apple Acres? He’s the one that usually fixes it.”

Dante looked to Bulwark and shook his head. “No time.” He turned back to the door and spoke. “Sir, we don’t have the time to do that. Can you step back a little bit?”

Dante didn’t wait for a response, as Venus had preemptively scanned the building, allowing him to the through the flimsy walls, he watched as the stallion inside took a few steps back.

“A bit further back.” Dante shouted, as the stallion hesitated but then took another step back. “Alright, that’s good.”

Dante took a step back as he examined the door, Bulwark questioned just what his plan was to open the uncooperative door.

Until he lifted his right foot up and in a violent movement brought it back down on the edge of the door, slamming the outwards opening door into the building and revealing the shocked look of an elderly unicorn stallion with a grey coat and purple mane and tail in the post.

“Sorry about your door.” He said, casually, as though he had just picked up someone’s keys from the ground, and tossed the broken door knob behind him.

“You’re taller then I expected. Lieutenant Rock Salt.” The stallion stated, he shook his head and held out his hoof, which Dante took in his fingers and shook. The stallion took his hoof back and examined it, expecting a bump rather then a shake.

“General Dante T. Jaeger, Imperium of Phoenix, Phoenix Legion Marine Corps. This is Equestrian Liasion Officer to the Imperium of Phoenix Corporal Bulwark.”

Bulwark saluted the lieutenant, who saluted back. “Liasion officer, huh, higher ranked then I was at your age, son. I received a telegraph from Canterlot informing me to expect some troops to aid in a Diamond Dog problem I have, I was expecting more, and not a...”

“Human.” Dante replied.

“A Human and a stallion. No offense meant, of course.”

Dante had began to examine the very small building, and had opted to drop his duffel bag at the door. “No offense taken, I come from a multi-racial nation, I’ve been called far worse then just not being called something at all. But we have more important matters, LT.” Dante turned to a desk he had spied and went over to it.

“I came here of my own volition. Mainly because I have reason to believe those Diamond Dogs are sitting on metal that I need to find my ticket home but also because I despise anyone who practices slavery. I was planning to came later in the week on the basis that we had no confirmation that there were indeed anyone being held captive by these dogs, in order to train my liaison officer in how to not shoot me in the back or get shot in the back, however the kidnapping of Miss Biscuit extradited my response to right now. I need to see any reports you have on missing persons in the area, as well as the report you took earlier today.”

“Absolutely, General. Please give me just a moment.” Salt disappeared into a closed door, as Dante sat on the desk. Bulwark noticed how his head or eyes never seemed to stop moving.

“Can I ask you something, sir?” Bulwark began.

“Shoot.”

“You have all the features of a predator, binocular vision, a seemingly inherent drive to violence and to kill, but you seem to behave like prey.”

“How so?”

Bulwark clicked his tongue as he formulated his response. “Well, for one, you seem to be constantly aware of your surroundings. I don’t think I seen your head stop moving or your eyes focus on one single thing. It seems like you’re emulating the vision of a large portion of prey species, whose eyes are situated in such a way that their blind spots are extremely small.”

Dante chuckled. “Bull, when you’ve been doing what I’ve been doing for as long as I’ve been doing it, you learn very quickly that letting yourself focus one small thing will get you killed or maimed. I’m constantly moving because my awareness depends on me keeping my blindspots covered. Plus, Venus helps.”

Before Bulwark could respond, the lieutenant appeared though the door he had gone through, a stack of papers held in his magic.

“Alright, here’s all the reports I could find on missing ponies for the areas, the ones that are believed to have been foalnapped by Diamond Dogs are marked with red.”

Dante sighed at the stack of papers, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Jesus Fucking Christ, Bulwark!” He shouted, causing both Salt and the named stallion to jump. The biped began tearing through the files.

“You all have this many missing people for such a small fucking area and no one ever bothered to send out a goddamned division or two to search for them? Not a single goddamn satan-loving, asshole-eating detective was sent out to the investigate it? What in the ever-loving have your two goddamn princesses been doing the past couple of fucking goddamn cock-sucking years? Sitting in bubble baths, gorging their fat cunts on ice cream and cake and reading trashy romance novels by some bitch named “AnonyMare” whose actually just some fat guy whose got his dick hanging half out of his christ loving trousers and whacking himself off to the fact that he’s fooled thousands of women into thinking he’s a kindred sister. JESUS FUCKING TAP-DANCING CHRIST, SATAN FUCK ME!”

Dante threw several files on the floor in a fit of rage, as the two stallions had their ears folded down in an attempt to drown out the yelling.

“I’m fucking standing here because apparently I’m the only asshole on this entire goddamn planet capable of any fucking thought beyond “HMM WHAT FUCKING CAKE AM I GOING TO HAVE AT PRINCESS FLURRY CREAM’S FUCKIN’ GODDAMN LUCIFER FUCKING WORSHIPPING TEA PARTY!” Why the fuck did it take an alien who had been in a coma for five goddamn cock-sucking cunt-licking millenia to finally get the ball rolling on this! Look! I’ve got fifteen fucking files for little kids!”

He threw the files in question on the floor in front of the two.

“Surely where you’re from they don’t find every missing pony, sir.” Bulwark stated, in an attempt to calm down the angered the biped.

It failed.

“OF FUCKING COURSE WE DON’T YOU STUPID COCK! But we at least have the goddamned decency to send officers to the location in a fucking attempt to find them! And it’s not like this is an isolated fucking goddamned incident! I’ve got over a hundred fucking files in my hand about missing persons in this area! And you’re telling me your fucking princesses haven’t had the common fucking sense to send more people into the area, or station more officers in the area. Instead I come here and I find the only fucking guard on duty sitting in a fucking port-a-shitter! “Ponyville’s a low crime area” my motherfucking ass! It’s more like your princesses are too goddamned retarded to rule a nation if they turn a blind fucking eye to a problem like this!”

Bulwark stomped over to the biped, glaring up at him.

“Do. Not. Talk. About the princesses that way.” He stated, stomping his hoof for emphasis.

Dante bent down, pushing his head into Bulwark’s. “I say what I mean and I mean what I say. And I only point out the facts.”

Bulwark responded by pushing his head hard into the biped’s, growling, an act that Dante reciprocated.

This continued until the lieutenant cleared his throat, causing the two feuding men to look at him.

“The general is correct, Corporal.” Before Bulwark could respond, he held up a hoof to stop him. “Allow me to rephrase that, the General is correct on a large portion of his statements, however I disagree with how he worded them and I disagree with his assessment that the princesses are unfit to rule. They have led Equestria through trying times, but they have made a large judgment error in not sending me more troops to investigate these disappearances and keeping me as the only guard on duty. Indeed, this area does suffer from a disproportionate amount of ponies disappearing, even when taking the Everfree into account.”

“So… what now?” Bulwark asked.

Dante turned to the desk, swiping the files off of it and grabbing his bag, setting it on there.

Bulwark watched as he pulled a shotgun from it and began loading the magazine tube.

“The answer is simple. We have a map for the mine, we know the dogs have captives. So we go in there, kil-”

“Arrest.” Bulwark interrupted, Dante slammed the pump on the shotgun back and forward, chambering a shell.

“Shut the fuck up. Kill the dogs, free the captives, find silver, make sattelites, find my goddamn larcom and then I get home.”

“Brilliant plan, sir.” Salt nodded.

“LT, do you all have… like, you know… an actual jail?” Dante questioned the elderly stallion, while glancing around the very derelict building.

“We do.”

“Very good,” Dante nodded. “I need you to get a hold of the big boss of this town and tell them the Imperium of Phoenix is commandeering it temporarily and if there’s not enough room, be ready to discharge the non-violent criminals.”

“Uh, si-” Salt attempted to begin his explanation of why that wouldn’t work, but Dante held up a hand.

“If they have a problem with it, I have been granted explicit authority by the Diarchy to requisition anything I need in my pursuit of these criminals.”

“I thought you were insistent on killing them?” Bulwark questioned.

I am, the jail is there so no one messes with the bodies. Now, Bulwark, to me!” Dante stated, as he dramatically turned around and began marching out of the building, bag on his back and rifle held high. “We ride tonight!”

Bulwark turned to the elderly stallion and rolled his eyes, trotting out after the biped.

“You never actually were given explicit authority, did you?”

“Nope!”

Bulwark once again found himself rolling his eyes.

“I’m sorry, what?” Luna looked at the messenger incredulously, as she sat on the throne.

“Yes, your highness.” The stallion fiddled his wings uncomfortably, holding a piece of paper. “Her highness, Princess Celestia, authorized the alien to confront a group of diamond dogs. Lady Sparkle informed the guard that the Elements of Harmony were leaving for Ponyville with the alien and we believe he also brought along a Solar Guard.”

Luna rubbed her forehead. “How is he even planning to get there. The train costs bits and from my underst-” Luna’s eyes narrowed, as she shot up, her wings flaring out. “Do not tell he shot his way onto the train!”

The messenger looked up at her, unamused. “No, your highness. We received an emergency telegraph from the mayor’s office in Ponyville. It reads: “Unknown carriage arrived, unpulled. Believed hostile creature to have brainwashed elements. Send help.”

“Oh, gods.” Luna rolled her eyes. “They’re overreacting, again.”

Luna stepped down from the throne, stretching out her wings and magicking open a window, shaking her head.

“I swear, at this rate, the general is going to be death of the Equestrian court system.” She turned to a guard standing near the window.

“Please inform anypony looking for my judgement that Night Court has been delayed due to extenuating circumstances. If anypony asks about the general, inform them that you can not answer but an official announcement will be released soon.”

“Yes, your highness.” The guard nodded, as Luna took off through the window.

“You stupid motherfucker, did they not teach you navigation in Basic?” Dante questioned, as Bulwark held a map up, attempting to puzzle it.

“Oh, shut up. The map’s extremely rough. There used to be a road. They never expected Diamond Dogs to overtake the mine and then let the road become part of nature again. The map just needed to point you in roughly the right direction and then you just followed the road.”

“So, essentially, what you’re saying is: We’re wondering through a forest using a map drawn by a little kid based off another map drawn by a toddler who drew their map using a map drawn by a newborn?”

Bulwark was silent for a moment. “… Yes.”

Dante threw his hands in the air. “Great, whose fucking idea was it to take this map?”

Bulwark glared at the biped, growling. “Stop complaining. You should have found a better map before coming out here.”

Dante threw out his arms. “How the fuck was I supposed to know you fuckin’ ponies were utterly in-fucking-capable of basic fucking cartography. I mean… for god’s sake, Humanity had accurate fucking maps before we were even capable of flight. You all have pegasi and gryphons you have no fucking excuse! Now we’re lost in the middle of the woods looking for some retarded mine so I can kill some dog-”

“Arrest.” Bulwark irritably corrected, as Dante glared at him.

“Kill,” Dante emphasised the word. “Some dogs and get some motherfucking silver. And the native, who’s supposed to be the liasion officer and guide is incapable of finding a fucking mine.”

“If you’re going to continue complaining, then help!” Bulwark snapped.

“I am helping!” Dante pushed his face into Bulwark’s.

“How!”

Dante pointed behind Bulwark.

“By keeping an eye on those three assholes hiding in those fucking bushes wondering whether or not they should ambush us!”

Bulwark could hear rustling and the thudding of feet, but before he could react, Dante had already moved from his previous position, rifle raised.

He covered the couple of hundred or so meters in just a few seconds, making the running diamond dogs look like turtles. He slammed into the back of the closest one bringing it to the ground, as he himself got into a kneeling position, using his knee to pin the dog to ground.

He brought his rifle to bear with his right hand, while his left was busy forcing the dog’s head into the dirt. He pulled the trigger twice, as the two fleeing Diamond Dogs collapsed to the ground. He allowed his rifle to fall, and used his right hand to pin down of the dog’s flailing arms.

“Bulwark! Get over here! Stop resisting! Give me your arm, give me your arm, motherfucker!”

The stallion obeyed, quickly trotting over to the fighting pair, the dog desperately squirming in an attempt to get away from Dante.

“Bulwark, there’s a pair of cuffs in the holster in my back grab those and cuff this wrist!” Bulwark did as told, levitating the pair of odd looking manacles out of the holster on the alien’s back and holding one of the ends to the wrist of the struggling dog. The manacles seemed to have no opening, but Bulwark watched as they seemingly magically slid onto the wrist.

Dante released the dog’s head and use his left arm to the grab the dog’s left arm, who was still doing all in his power to prevent his bondage.

“Motherfucker, stop resisting! Give me your arm! Give me your motherfucking arm, right now, or I swear to god I will break it.”

Whether his threat caused it or merely strength, Dante had managed to get the arm without having to break it, Bulwark watched as he brought the arm to meet the other arm, the manacle forming itself around the wrist.

With the dog’s arms chained, Dante moved his knee from the dog’s bag, bringing it to his neck.

He removed his pistol from his holster and tossed it to Bulwark, who deftly caught it in his magic.

“Check on those dogs, make sure they’re dead. I don’t want them running away to warn their boss about us. If it’s still breathing, drop a round straight into its head.”

Bulwark blanched. “Sir, that’s mur-”

“Just do it, I’ll deal with the repercussions later and tell Sunny I did it. Your name will be nowhere near the situation.”

Bulwark looked at the weapon the alien had tossed him, the alien who was now forcing the captured Diamond Dog to his feet.

“Sir, I will check on them, but I refuse to kill them.” He attempted to return the pistol to the biped, who light shoved his magic back towards.

“Fine, but keep it for now. If they attack you I’ve got to deal with a prisoner and trying to save your ass. If you’ve got the pistol, you got a better chance of not needing me to deal with it.”

“Sir, aren’t you worried about one of the Diamond Dogs getting a hold of it?” Dante snorted, as he twisted his captive Diamond Dog around, roughly pulling the arms up at an odd angle, the dog yelping, and pointing at the claws.

“Look at these retarded motherfuckers, even if the could figure out how the fuck that Glock works, these dumb bastards wouldn’t be able to slip a single fucking claw into the trigger guard. It would be like me trying to fire a fuckin’ LCP with just my palm. Go on and check those dogs while I… coax the location of this asshole’s,” Dante gestured to the pained Diamond Dog. “den out of him.”

Not wanting to further witness just what the seemingly heartless general had in store for the Diamond Dog as he led him behind some heavy foliage, Bulwark cautiously approached the two lying dogs, the pistol held in magic in such a way that he could put rounds downrange quickly.

He slowly trotted up to the first dog, his breath held. A breath he released upon realizing the first one was dead. He stopped himself, considering the fact that he was happy something was dead. This dog had rolled when he was hit, most likely due to momentum, and had landed on his back. His eyes had begun to lose any color and they had and his chest wasn’t moving.

He repeated the process, keeping the alien weapon leveled at this one. He had no desire to kill it, and with any luck he wouldn’t have to. He froze when he heard a groan.

“Uh, sir!” Bulwark called over to the Human, who was surprisingly seemingly having a friendly chat with the captured and bound dog.

“Yo!” He called back.

“This one’s alive.”

“Oh, great!” Dante gestured to the still standing dog pointing to his injured friend, muttering something Bulwark couldn’t hear. “Watch the big guy.” The Human stated to Bulwark, pointing to chained Diamond Dog.

He walked past the unicorn, snatching his handgun out of the magical grasp it was in, causing Bulwark’s heart to slow, until he heard the click of the weapon being secured in its holster.

“Okay, dog.” Bulwark stated as he approached the Diamond Dog. “Don’t do anything funny and I’m sure the General will help your friend over there.” He watched as the Human kneeled on a single knee, gently maneuvering the injured dog’s head.

“Hey… hey, buddy. You alright there?” He asked the dog, as Bulwark and the captured dog looked at how gently he seemed to be treating it.

The Human received a pained groan in response.

The tall biped nodded. “Yep, he’s alive.” Bulwark had a gut feeling something was about to go horribly wrong. He had never seen the enigmatic general act so calmly and gently.

His gut feeling was realized when the General lifted his leg up and brought his foot down, hard, on the Diamond Dog’s head.

“Fucking slaver!” He brought it down once more, the squelching sound making Bulwark’s guts turn. “Why the fuck would I ever show sympathy to you fucks!” He brought it down several more times, until the dog’s head was well and truly gone, nothing more then a pile of gore. He gave ti a few more stomps, Bulwark supposed either out of spite anger or hood measure.

He turned his attention to the captured dog. Bulwark unable to move due to the sudden display of violence. He had seen the biped in action from afar during the Changeling attack, as in seeing him through a bay of windows on the other side of a castle courtyard as he fought his way down a hall of changelings, but then his movements seemed mechanical, imponysable. These though… definitely seemed like he was putting more spirit into them.

Finished with his destruction of the head of the previous dog, he now turned his attention to the “arrested” Diamond Dog.

“You!” He yelled, pointing with his right hand as his left produced a black stick looking to be about twelve inches from another holster on his belt. He flicked his arm, Bulwark watching as the stick extended, now appearing to be nearly twenty-four inches. The tip was rounded off in a ball like shape.

Bulwark realized what it was. A truncheon, but unlike the fixed, solid wooden ones occasionally used by the guard to hold back crowds, this one was telescopic.

He advanced on the now backpedalling dog. “I tried to be nice to you, but I’m done with your shit!” He closed the gap and swung the truncheon, catching the bipedal dog in the leg. Bulwark grimaced as he heard a crack, not sure if it was bone or truncheon, and scream of pain.

“Where the fuck is your den!” The dog cried out in pain as Dante brought the truncheon down on its body several more times. Mostly on the outer extremities and absolutely avoiding the head, something Bulwark took note of.

The biped, who was dwarfed by the dog, hefted the groaning dog up, who quickly collapsed once more. Instead of wasting his time by lifting him back, Dante elected to grab him by his armpit and dragged him over to the body of his dead comrade, the one Dante had elected to do a nontraditional decapitation on with the use of his boot.

“Look at him!” He yelled, roughly grabbing the still living dog’s head and forcing his attention to his mutilated friend. “You thought his death was painful. I goddamn promise you if you don’t fucking spit out the location five goddamn seconds I am going to make your death a trillion times fucking worse then his!”

Dante forced the dog to his stomach, using his knee to pin it down. The dog flailed its unrestrained limbs as it tried to escape as Bulwark watched on in horror.

The biped drew his pistol from its holster and dug it into the shoulder of the terrified creature.

“Five!”

The dog continued to fight.

“Four!”

His legs kicked harder then they had before, but it was all for not.

“Three!”

Dante pressed the pistol harder into the bone of the shoulder, eliciting another scream of pain from the dog.

“Two!”

The dog’s eyes widened.

“On-”

“Wait!” Dante relieved some of the pressure as the dog finally spoke.

“Are you going to tell me where the den is?”

The dog nodded. “Yes. Yes.”

Dante once again dug the pistol deeper into the shoulder. “Well, Fido, I’m waiting.”

“How you know name?”

Dante pulled the trigger.

The dog howled in pain as his shoulder was destroyed.

“Knowing this world, that wasn’t a joke.” Dante switched to the left shoulder. “But the next joke will be met with you losing another goddamn shoulder! Where’s the den!”

“Just...” The dog took a ragged breath. “North East here. Near ponytown.”

Dante pulled the trigger, the howled once more as its remaining shoulder was destroyed. The biped grabbed the head of the dog and lifted it up, slamming it back into the ground.

“You stupid fuck, do I look like I was born yesterday. And I swear to god, if you say yes to that answer, I’m just going to light you on fire… after I break your legs.”

Dante now dug the pistol into the knee joint of the right leg.

“Now, enough of your shit. You, Killer Eyes over there and I are going to go to your home so your boss and I can have a little chat. But I have one more question.”

The only response Dante received was ragged breathing.

“Are there any other… areas I should know about that you dogs have been dealing with?”

There was moment of silence before the injured dog composed itself.

“No.” Dante dug the pistol deeper into the crook of the knee.

“Are you certain about that answer?”

The dog’s breath hitched.

“Grave. Big grave close to bog. We bury ponies there so big predators not attracted to den.”

Dante looked to the still frozen and wide-eyed Bulwark.

“You know anything about this bog he’s talking about, Bull?”

There was silence as Bulwark forced himself out of the shock of the display of extreme violence.

“He could be talking about the Froggy Bottom Bog, in the Everfree Forest.”

“I think I remember seeing that on the map Purple showed me. Good place to hide bodies, I suppose. If I remember correctly, Purple said something about ponies avoiding the Everfree?”

“Yes sir, it’s unnatural and full of predators. It’s avoided for good reason.”

Dante scoffed, as he stood up, reholstering his pistol and using the palm of his hand to close his baton, replacing it in his holster.

“In any case.” He hooked an arm around the armpit of the Diamond Dog and hefted it back up, the dog howling in pain from the movement and stress put on his wounds.

“Oh shut the fuck up, you big baby. It’s just a bullet wound. Little bitch.” He released the dog and give him a gentle shove, retrieving his rifle.

“As I was saying, in any case!” Dante poked the barrel into the back of the dog. “As we say back home! Mush, Balto! Mush! Actually, no… that’s offensive to Balto. Mush, Blondi! Mush!”

“Where they at!” 4292 sighed internally as the lead dog seemed to be throwing a temper tantrum. Something about a trio of Diamond Dogs he had sent out hours ago and still hadn’t come back.

She had a growing head-ache mainly from her low magic stores. Normally this wasn’t an issue, but it was also the fact that she was trying to hold up a disguise while doing so.

She had attempted to ignore the pain by falling asleep, but that wasn’t working thanks to the dogs yelling.

So she instead lifted her head and observed the room. Surrounding her in the cage were slumbering ponies, she figured they must have become used to the yelling in their months of captivity. The room she was being held in was quite a large one.

In one corner was a small pile of valuables the dogs had taken off ponies they had foalnapped, mostly shiny objects. Their value was debateable. The other corners were occupied by ratty mattresses and junk.

The dogs were still bickering when 4292 looked over at them. She really had to wonder how long they could keep this up. She could pray it would end soon.

Her prayers were immediately answered, as a Diamond Dog was bodily tossed into the room from a door in the western corner. From where she was, it appeared to be very badly injured and covered in blood. It was also screeching in pain.

What followed through made 4292’s blood run cold, as a primordial fear ran through her. Instinctually shooting up and taking what looked to be a mix between a fighting stance and a running away stance.

The dog had indeed led the two to the den and the descent had been fairly easy, since the mine had originally been designed with miners in mind.

And Fido had even kept quiet, after Dante had threatened to cut off a “favored” “limb” of his should he try to shout a warning out.

Knowing the general, Bulwark was fairly certain the threat was genuine.

“Through there, the door.” Fido whispered.

Dante gestured at the hole cut in the rock. They were still fairly far back in the hall leading to the “door” so they wouldn’t be seen by the occupants. “That’s where the other dogs and captives will be?”

Fido nodded his head.

“Great, move forward.” Fido did as told, advancing forward. He was nearing the door when he was suddenly picked up and thrown. All he heard was: “You first.” as he slammed into the ground of the main chamber of the den, howling pain from the stresses of landing on his shoulders.

Dante followed next, his rifle held in his arms and helmet on his head. Entering the room, his head moved, eyes scanning every single thing in the room.

Not even a second had passed and he had an accurate count of how many living things were in the room. Discounting Fido, there were four dogs in the room, a single one wearing armor and wielding a spear. To his right there were quite a few cages, all of them containing a dozen or so ponies. They appeared to have been sleeping but were no waking up thanks to the howling of the dog. One of them, however, a green unicorn seemed to be imitating a cat.

He’d have to remember to ask her what her deal was. But in the mean time.

“Hello, slaving dogs!” He announced jovially to the on edge Diamond Dogs. “I am General Dante T. Jaeger of the Imperium of Phoenix, Phoenix Legion Marine Corps! I have arrived to place all of you under arrest for crimes against Sapience.”

He allowed his announcement to hang in the air for a second, before the uninjured dogs burst out laughing.

Dante seemed to take a hurt look on his face, as he turned back to Bulwark.

“What?” He asked, as the dogs continued to roar in laughter.

The shaking green unicorn seemed to shake only harder.

“Oh! I know! You don’t believe me.” He pulled something from a cloth pouch on his armor, approaching the small dog who had been throwing the tantrum before being interrupted by the alien and holding out a leather wallet. “Here’s my badge. Imperium of Phoenix, Phoenix Legion Marine Corps, General Dante T. Jaeger, blah blah blah I have the authority to place you under arrest under Article 2 of the Senatorium’s Declaration of Military Assets and Law Enforcement.”

The dog took the wallet, examining it. The right flap contained a badge. The main body of the badge consisted of a shield shape, with a stylized bird-of-prey perched atop the shield, colored what appeared to be gold. In the center of the shield lay a colored enameled coat, consisting of the same bird with shackles attached to its legs. The chain connecting it had been broken in half, the chain links now dangling limply. Clutched in its right talon was a sword, its left a shield, below lay a pile of what looked like ashes. The dog also noticed the blade that had been shoved through the bird’s chest, now dripping blood. The bird beak was raised to the sky, screeching. Beneath the coat lay alien text the dog could not understand.

On the other flap, a piece of square plastic imprinted with alien text sat. The only thing he was able to understand on it was small photo on the upper right corner of the card, containing a photo of the creature who had handed the badge to him.

“As you can see, the badge itself is the badge issued to PLMC agents, and the ID on the left identifies me as a representative of the federal government of the Imperium of Ph-” Dante was cut off as the dog tossed his badge into the pile of valuables they had amassed.

“Badge shiny we keep, and deal with you now.” The dog spoke.

“You fucking asshole! That was my favorite badge!” Dante shot back.

“Quiet, no use fighting now. Tell your pony there to come here and give weapons. We outnumber you.”

Dante snorted, turning back to Bulwark and gesturing with his thumb to the dog. “Oh, would you look at that? The retard can count higher then two!”

The small dog almost exploded at that remark. “I show you retard!” He transitioned form a bipedal stance to a quadrupedal stance and charged towards the alien, intent on tearing him to shreds.

Which would have worked, had the biped not casually kicked his left foot out at the last second, connecting with the dog’s torso.

The chamber echoed with the cracks of ribs being broken and crushed the assault of a genetically modified and physically enhanced supersoldier wearing power armor. An assault which caused the dog to seemingly defy gravity and fall straight down, without his momentum carrying him.

Then again, all of his momentum got used up on the alien’s leg, so that’s probably why he had been injured so badly from a casual kick, a kick someone would give to a soccer ball inside a house when their one and a half year old pushes the ball to them from five feet away.

“So… let me get this straight…” Dante stated, nonchalantly as he strolled past the howling dog, his lungs miraculously apparently not punctured. The biped walked up to the shiny pile of valuables the dogs had collected, the other dogs who had been present backed up and hesitated from the violent scene, not expecting their leader to be so readily beaten.

4292 was panicking. She was expecting the Royal Guard, not… this monstrosity.

The same unnatural creature that had thwarted their invasion of Canterlot, and forced the Queen’s flight with unholy power.

And here it was, come for her. Once it tore its way through the diamond dogs, it would surely find her. She had no choice, she had to get out, she had to get away, now.

She began slamming herself against the cage, as the scent of anger and abject horror filled the air, the howls of pain of two dogs filled the air.

Dante, who had been bending down to paw through the pile to search for his beloved badge, turned around as he heard a metallic clanging, several times in quick succession.

He watched the sea green unicorn slam herself into the cell’s door several time, as he raised his eyebrow and turned to the unicorn who had accompanied him.

The unicorn in question currently had a borrowed rifle clutched in his magic as he incredulously surveyed the insane scene. Two Diamond Dogs groaning in pain on the ground, the others not sure what to do and ponies in the cage trying to restrain the panicking one from hurting herself.

Dante gestured back to the unicorn panicking in the cage. “The fuck’s wrong with her?” Bulwark could only give a look to Human that said it all.

‘I have no clue what’s happening right now.’

“In any case,” Dante declared as he removed himself from the pile, holding his missing badge and ID in victory. “What the fuck made you think that was a good idea? You saw your boy over there!” He gestured to the original dog he had several injured. “You sent him out in a three man scouting party, and guess what! I only showed up with one survivor, the fuck did you think was going to happen to you, buddy? I killed the other two! And for some odd reason,” Dante bent down in front of the injured dog. “You fucking thought charging me was a good idea? Are you a special kind of stupid?”

The dog could only moan in pain.

Dante pointed at the other dogs in the cave, all of them armed now, but still held up defensively.

“You!” Dante shouted and pointed at one of the still standing dogs, causing almost all of them to jump.

“Under normal circumstances, I would arrest you. But in the Imperium what “arrest” actually means for slavers is summary execution. Something I would have no problem doing given I have direct and impartial evidence that you all did indeed participate in trafficking operations, namely, those cages over there,” He pointed to the four cages containing ponies, as well as one of them containing the panicking green unicorn. “But, since I am on someone else’s land, it would be rude of me to just execute all of you without a chance, but I find myself in a conundrum. I can’t arrest you peacefully, because that would violate the time-honored tradition of Imperials wiping out slavery with over-the-top fanatical zeal, but I also can’t let you go. So tell you what.” Bulwark could have sworn he saw an evil glint in the general’s eyes.

And his heart stopped as the general pointed to him, Bulwark.

“Surrender to my boy, Corporal Bulwark over there and I’ll let you live. Refuse and I will arrest you.” Almost immediately, the three dogs seemed to realize how bad of a position they were in and immediately dropped their spears and rushed over to the unicorn, who raised the rifle he had defensively, preparing to fire off a burst, but Dante’s hand stopped him as the dogs dropped and started begging him to arrest them. Bulwark looked to Dante, who merely shrugged.

“The Crown doesn’t have a reason to rip their limbs off, I do.”

“I don’t have the equipment to restrain all of them, sir. I thought that’s what you were planning to do.” With Bulwark’s statement, the unicorn could swear he smelled urine in the air.

Dante rubbed his chin, dropping the duffel bag he had been carrying on his back to the ground. He dropped to a knee and unzipped the bag, rifling around it.

“Hey, Bulwark, the Royal Guard’s considered law enforcement in Equestria, innit?” He asked.

“Yes, we are both martial and law enforcement.”

“Do you have the ability to deputize someone?”

“Uh, yes… why?”

Dante held up several pairs of restraints, why the ship he crashed in seemed to have so many of them, he had no idea.

“Corporal Bulwark, I would love to assist you to arrest these dogs, however I am unable to carry out an arrest in the name of the Crown as I am not a law enforcement officer.”

Bulwark realized where he was going with this.

“General Dante T. Jaeger,” Bulwark glanced a quick peek towards the still quivering Diamond Dogs to make sure they weren’t doing anything weird. “As an authorized law enforcement officer who has been given the authority to arrest suspects in the name and authority of the crown, I would like to formally request you aid me in the arrest of these suspects as a temporary deputy of the Crown.”

“Gladly.”

“No killing.” Bulwark stated, then paused and thought. “Recruit.”

“Don’t push your luck, Bull. Go deal with the ponies over there, they’ll probably deal with another pony better then they will me.”

Bulwark made a slight nod towards to the two dogs laying on the ground in pain. “What about them?”

“Little fuck isn’t getting up any time soon, and big fuck is probably going to lose both arms, they’re not a threat.” Bulwark and nodded and made his way over to the cages which contained the now very awake ponies.

“Corporal Bulwark, Equestrian Royal Guard, Canterlot Division, I am here to help you.” He announced in a firm and confident tone. And if he was going to be honest, besides the practical course, that was about as much as he remembered from the two days they covered recovery of hostages of captives in basic.

But that still seemed to calm most of them down, with the exception of the still raving made sea green unicorn, throwing herself at the door.

He decided he would go to that cage last, as he crouched down to inspect the padlock.

“This lock shouldn’t be too difficult, I’ll have you all out in no time.”

“Oh, gods bless you!”

Bulwark focused on the lock and grabbed it in his magic, it shouldn’t be too difficult. A common trick for unicorns was being unable to unlock locks without the key. It may have seemed like advanced magic to pegasi or earth ponies, but it was a simple as the finding the lever in the lock and releasing.

The alien armored unicorn smiled as he found it, turning it.

The lock sparked, as he felt a sudden shock in his head. Yelping, he recoiled. “Whoa-ly shit!”

“Oi, look at that Bully! You’re catchin’ my fuckin’ tongue!” Dante shouted as he finished binding the last diamond dog. He walked over the unicorn, who was still rubbing his horn in pain, hissing.

“It’s enchanted.” He explained, looking to the nodding biped. “Unicorns can’t open it. We need the actual key. It should be around here somewhere.”

“I’ve got a masterkey...” Dante stated, as Bulwark looked at him as though he was insane.

The alien took the padlock in his hand, and then gave it a violent downward tug.

The lock sparked as the shackle was torn from the body. The biped smiled. “There we go, I just saved us minutes of looking for it and minutes of the worst pain those dogs would have ever experienced...” Dante’s eyes narrowed. “Fuck. I should have looked for the keys.”

“Do you need to remain a deputy to assist me in transporting the prisoners?” Bulwark questioned.

“Nope.”

“Good, you’re fired and you’re the single worst deputy I ever hired.”

Dante did a mock bow. “I do my best to please, sir.”

Dante manipulated the remaining shackle off the hasp, opening the hasp. “Mornin’, General Dante T. Jaeger of the Imperium of Phoenix, Phoenix Legion Marine Corps. I’d like to apologize for the delay in finding you all. We suffered some technical difficulties on the way in here, but you all are free now!” Dante gestured outside of the door, and watched as several of the ponies were hesitant to come out of the cage.

‘They probably consider it the safest space in this hellhole.’ Dante shook his head at the realization.

“Come on now, those dogs can’t hurt you anymore.”

A pegasi with bound wings took a careful step beyond the threshold, and Dante gestured the pony to him.

The pony cautiously approached the evidently violent biped, when he spoke.

“Now, I’m going to pull a knife out. I am not going to hurt you, my only intention is to cut the ropes on your wings, okay?”

The pegasus nodded, as the biped slowly pulled out an odd cylinder. The pegasus watched in fascination as the biped seemed to squeeze the cylinder and a blade appeared from it.

The biped carefully slipped the knife in between the pegasi’s hide and the rope, then easily slice through the rope. The pegasi gratefully bowed her head and stretched her sore wings.

“Bulwark.” Dante tossed the open knife to stallion, who caught it in his magic. “Help this cage. I’ll get the other two out. And figure out what in the ever-loving fuck is going on with nut-case over there.” He thumbed at the still panicking green unicorn. “Maybe she’s just really happy to get out.”

“Sir,” The pegasus whom Dante had cut free just seconds earlier.

“Yo.”

“She just arrived here. She hasn’t been here for a long time.”

Dante’s eyes lit up as a realization hit him, as he patted the pegasus on the head. “That must be Sea Biscuit.”

He looked to the cage. “… I’m still opening that cage last.”

Dante repeated the process of destroying the lock on the second cage, as Bulwark finished up the last of the pegasi of the first cage.

As the biped approached the final cage, containing the panicking mare, she only seemed to grow more worried and what had turned into a slow thud, presumably due to exhaustion now turned, seemed to become renewed, as the mare threw herself at the door even harder.

Dante stood, wondering how he was going to do open the door without getting bowled over by a tiny unicorn, then shrugged.

“I’ll have to treat it like a band-aid, I guess.” He ripped the lock off and stepped to the side as the unicorn charged out of the cage, covering a couple of dozen feet within a few seconds.

And then promptly collapsing.

Dante stared the unicorn, a blank look on his face. “Well… that was amusing.”

He blinked as the unicorn’s body seemed to spontaneously combust into green flames.

“Oh, shit. That’s going to be fun to explai-” The flames died down before he could finish his sentence and Dante grinned as he recognized what it was.

“Ah, dude, no fuckin’ way!” He quickly walked over to the collapsed changeling and picked it up, his arms holding it up under its front legs. “It’s a changeling! Bull! Look!”

At the word of “changeling”, Bulwark had quickly shifted his attention to the biped, expecting the worst. A changeling attacking him.

Only to see his temporary commanding officer holding a changeling like a puppy.

“Well!” Dante spoke, not paying attention to the bewildered look on the stallion’s face. “’S’veryone ready to go? If there’s a pony that’s supposed to be here but ain’t, now’s the time to speak up. No?” Dante looked around the crowd of ponies, but none of them said anything.

“No? That’s a no? Yeah. Great. Let’s get the fuck out of this hellhole!” Dante repositioned the changeling so that his left arm was supporting her body, with his right arm was free. He walked over to one of the dogs and kicked it causing it yelp in pain, but leaving no permanent injury

“Come on, we’re leaving.” Dante released the shackles on the dog he had kicked and one other. Pointing to the two injured dogs, the biped spoke.

“Help those assholes over there. Anything funny and I’ve got no problem dropping you.” The dogs seemed to have shifted from a victorious attitude to a terrified attitude, as the alien one handed his rifle and aimed it at them, poking one of them with the barrel. “Go on, git. Get going.”

The trip back to the surface had been a most uneventful one, with only minor hissing from the ponies upon reaching the surface and into the morning sun.

“Oh, would you look at that! The sun’s out.” Dante stated as he peered into the calm, blue sky, the changeling resting in his arm squirming a tiny bit to make herself more comfortable, still asleep.

“Kind of disappointed I only fired two shots.” Dante muttered.

“You fired four, sir.” Bulwark stated, as he ushered the crowd of ponies out of the entrance to the mine. Dante muzzled the two unchained dogs with his rifle.

“I don’t consider those wastes of rounds to be actual shots fired in anger, they were enhanced interrogation techniques.” The last words were said with venom as he stared at the remaining Diamond Dogs, who balked.

“How the hell were these assholes giving y’all trouble anyway.” Dante stated as he followed behind the group of dogs who had been separated from the other group, who were the now free ponies.

“Would it have been any different back home.”

“Sort of.” Bulwark gestured another pony to stay in the line.

“Stay together for safety, please. What do you mean, sir.”

“Well, back home on Earth they may have given us trouble. But in Imperial territory either the military would have dealt with them as soon as we got a sniff of a possible slave ring on the wind or the citizens themselves would have taken up arms along side their local law enforcement and lynched them.

Bulwark gestured to the rifle in Dante’s hand. “Civilians are allowed access to those?”

Dante laughed. “Yep. Even back in the United States and my home country of Switzerland. Arguably, however, the Imperium has the loosest regulations regarding them.”

“But… why?”

“Why… well, let’s see. The Imperium of Phoenix has a Bill of Rights that were ratified with out Constitution after the First War of Sovereignty, where the Imperium cemented their position as a sovereign country. The Bill of Rights contain twenty inherent rights all sapient persons are born with and can’t be denied. The first right establishes the Right of Freedom. The second Right is the right to bear arms.”

“No… I mean, why do you all need to be so heavily armed.”

Dante twisted on his heels, walking backwards and looking at Bulwark. “Rights aren’t based on needs, Bull. They’re based on what’s inherently right.”

“And allowing civilians access to weapons of war is inherently right?” Bulwark cocked an eyebrow.

“Yep. And I’ll fucking fight you over it.” Dante looked to the sky, the scanners in his helmet tipping him off to something flying over them.

His helmet’s optics zoomed in on the object in the sky, allowing him to see just what, or rather, who it was.

“Hey, look at that!” Dante gestured to the sky with his head as he continued walking backwards, Bulwark seriously questioning just how he was able to keep his pace while he was doing that. “It’s Luna. Wonder why the fuck she’s here.”

Bulwark and various ponies in the crowd looked to the sky. Indeed, there was something in the sky, but with the exception of the pegasi, they were unable to make it out.

“It is Princess Luna!” One of the pegasi shouted, hopping a tiny bit in excitement. The flying object banked around the trail they were on and then lined up for a landing.

Dante turned around to face the now stopped Diamond Dogs. “Oi!” He barked, roughly shoving the barrel of his rifle into the spine of one of them. “You fucking shitheels, did I say stop walking! Keep going. We ain’t got all day. Fuckin’ move it!”

The pony who had been flying moments earlier landed between the group of dogs being escorted by the alien general and the ponies.

“Oh, hey there Luna. Have a nice nap?” Dante called behind his shoulder. “You were snorin’ pretty fuckin’ hard when I dropped you off in your sister’s room.”

“General, what is going on here.” Before Dante could answer the blue alicorn, she raised a hoof to cut him off.

“Actually, We’d rather not hear it from you.” Luna turned away from the biped, to address the crowd of ponies who, unlike the Human, had bowed in respect to her.

“Who here is the current standing liasion officer?”

Bulwark raised from his bow, saluting. “Your highness, Corporal Bulwark, Canterlot Division, Solar Guard. Current standing liasion officer of Equestria to the Imperium of Phoenix”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “A corporal is a liasion officer?”

Bulwark grunted. “Title only, your highness. It was the general’s decision and Her Highness Princess Celestia approved the choice.”

“Please remind us to promote you when we return to Canterlot, Corporal. We’d do it now, but it also involves a lot of paperwork that needs to be filled out. Could you inform of us of what has happened?”

Bulwark nodded. “Your highness, the General pushed for action against a den of diamond dogs. Ostensibly it was solely for resources the mine could offer him and his apparent hatred of slavery. As we were attempting to find the mine, we were ambushed by a group of three diamond dogs. The general killed two and then…” Bulwark glanced to the line of still walking dogs, and the happily whistling biped who still had his rifle training on them. “Interrogated the survivor, who led us to the den. Upon reaching the den, the General assisted me in arresting them and releasing the prisoners.”

“And that’s all up this point?”

“There is… uh… one other thing we found down there, your highness. The General currently has a changeling in his custody.”

Luna nodded. “Thank you very much, Corporal. Please, raise these ponies and continue leading them back to pony. We will ensure that they’re checked out by the hospital before releasing them.”

Bulwark saluted as Luna trotted to catch up the biped who escorting a line of diamond dogs. As she reached him, she realized that he did indeed have a changeling who appeared to be asleep nestled in his left arm.

“You are quite the enigma, you know that, right?” Luna stated, as Dante stopped his whistling and looked down to her.

“How so?”

“Just a few days ago, you were brutally murdering changeling in droves. Now you have one cuddled up in your arms.”

“It’s called professionalism, Luna. I don’t have anything that makes me inherently despise changelings. The only reason why I was killing them at the wedding was because I didn’t have much of a choice, did I? I certainly couldn’t tickle them into submission. Or duck my head into the sand and pretend they weren’t there.” Luna balked at the last sentence, she could almost taste the hatred dripping off his tongue.

“Why do We feel as though that last bit was directed at Us?” She muttered.

“Because it was.”

Luna shook her head. “But that’s not the only thing We were talking about. You’re currently holding a being that you would have killed a day ago. From Our understandings, you were absolutely adamant about slaughtering the Diamond Dogs, but here they are, only two of their number dead. What’s driving you, General.”

“Oh, gee…” Dante let his rifle fall to rest on the sling and rubbed his chin. “Maybe it’s because I base my decisions off current context. You’re right, I would love to see these assholes executed.” He gestured to the diamond, a few of whom were limping. “But it makes my life easier if I don’t have you all absolutely despising my guts.”

Dante smiled at the lunar princess. “So, are you going to walk with us all the way back to Ponyville, or...”

“We will walk, yes.”

Mayor Mare had been present for many things. Things such as Nightmare Moon’s return and the Discord nearly destroying Equestria.

So why was it that she was now prancing about on her hooves like a filly who had to use the bathroom.

Bon Bon watched as the older mare kept doing a small jig. She was currently seated at a cafe’s table, waiting for her sandwich to come out. She had heard about the commotion last night. Something about an alien coming into town, having brainwashed the Elements and then chasing everypony trying to eat them. She thought it was a load of hogswash.

Then again, that odd mass of metal in front of the town hall certainly looked like nothing she knew about being present on the planet.

Still, she was adamant. There was no way aliens exist.

“Lyra might believe in them. But I don’t.” She sucked down some more of her tea as she waited for her food to be ready.

‘Seriously, how long does it take for somepony to make a sandwich?’

She watched as a pegasus flitted up to the mayor and say something she couldn’t make out at this distance.

The pegasus flew away and the mayor’s seeming anxiety did not dissipate.

Bon Bon stopped paying too much attention when the waiter finally brought her food out to her. She finished the daisy sandwich. She started on the hay fries. When she noticed something out of the corner of her eye which made her stop chewing.

There, crossing a bridge and heading towards the mayor. There was Princess Luna, accompanied a by a few chained diamond dogs and a column of emaciated looking ponies, all of them at different stages.

That wasn’t the strangest thing about the group, though. It was the black skinned bipedal creature with and oddly shaped black tube pushed into the back of one of the diamond dogs.

Bon Bon abandoned her food, she had to Lyra before the news did.

She could not let her hear about this.

‘Lyra won’t ever shut up!’ She panickedly thought as she rushed past the gathering line of ponies, who all wanted to see the Lunar Princess.

A decrepit old temple sat, seemingly abandoned in the middle of a forest. Long forgotten. To any passersby, the main area of worship had collapsed.

But no one knew of the small hatch, camouflaged to blend in with the area just a few hundred feet from the main building.

A cloaked pegasus landed near it, scanning the area for anyone who wasn’t supposed to be know about it. Once the pony was certain the coast was clear, it lifted the hatch up and dropped into a tunnel. Closing the hatch behind her, the pegasus quickly made her way down the tunnel and reached a door, pushing it open she entered a room, containing other cloaked ponies circled around a table, all of whom seemed to be in deep meditation with their heads held down.

“Brother Oakley,” She spoke.

“Sister, you are aware of what time it is. It is sacrilege to disturb worshipers at this time, we are still praising the dawn.” One of the ponies spoke at the table, causing the female pegasus to bow her head.

“I apologize, Brother. But I bring important news from Ponyville...” She raised her head, revealing a pair of golden eyes. “Dawn-Bringer has woken.”

These words seemed to break the silence at the table, as everyone at the table voiced their opinion, ranging from claims of heresy and blasphemy to cries of praise.

The pony who had been identified as Oakley stood, reared and brought his front hooves down the table.

“Silence!” He turned to the pony who had brought the news. “Sister Barrett, are you certain of this claim?”

She nodded. “Yes, Brother. I saw him with my own eyes. Exactly as he is in the paintings by Star Swirl. He was with Daughter Luna, leading a group of chained diamond dogs and rescued ponies!”

Another pony spoke up, protesting. “We understand those paintings to be metaphorical, painted by someone who could not see Dawn-Bringer’s true form.”

Another shot back. “Star Swirl is one of the few who had the glory of being chosen by Dawn-Bringer to view his form! He painted how a pony would see him, so it would only make sense that Sister Wesson sees Dawn-Bringer as Star Swirl did.”

“Dawn-Bringer has also been seen as a female unicorn! Who's to say this is not some impostor!”

“You dare imply that Dawn-Bringer would allow somepony to take his form!”

“He allowed the Two Daughters to split and take to combat, he allowed Daughter Luna to be banished to the moon for a thousand years! He did no intervention to prevent the dissolution of the Diarchy a thousand years ago! Allowing an impostor to take his form is not unthinkable!”

With this statement the room once more erupted into shouts of disagreement. Causing Oakley to once more rear up on his hooves, slamming them down into the table.

“Stop arguing!”

He stood to address the congregation. “Brother Ford is correct in his statement. Dawn-Bringer has chosen not intervene several times when his children have gone through trying times. As a result, we are stronger for it. Sister Barrett.” He turned to the pegasus, who nodded.

“I am assigning you a new mission. Investigate this, find out whether or not this truly the fated theophany we have been waiting for, or if it’s an impostor who is attempting to usurp Dawn-Bringer’s power and faith.”

“If it’s the latter, Brother?”

Oakley grimaced. “If it is an impostor, ensure his blasphemy is ended. Now go, and may the Dawn raise upon you.”

The pegasus nodded and then quickly turned to leave out of the door she came in.

“Sister Aimpoint” he began, turning to another pony at the table. “How are the negotiations going?”

The unicorn mare identified as Aimpoint shook her head. “Not as good as they could be. The Children of the Sun have been far more amiable, willing to hear our messengers out. They’ve agreed to meet with us as the neutral party. But the Children of the Moon have absolutely refused to hear us and have attacked every messenger we sent. Sister Enterprise barely made it out of Hollow Shades and she was severely injured during her flight to safety by moonies. We had to pull a few strings and make it look like an animal attack. She’s been grounded for a little while.”

“They outnumber us, but we wield far more political power then they do… and despite that if we can not get a peace treaty between the two, then many innocents will lose their lives… all because of a petty squabble between sisters.” Oakley shook his head. “It’s unfortunate to see a family be caught up in such violence.”

“Assuming this being is indeed Dawn-Bringer,” Ford spoke. “Then perhaps that will change things. If it is indeed him, perhaps he has personally come down to prevent the Second Battle from occurring.”

Oakley nodded. “Perhaps. In any case...”

The stallion stood, lighting his horn up and picking a book up in his magic. “The Church of the Forgotten God will continue to do what it has done for the past five thousand years.”

He set the book down gently back onto the table. “We will continue to protect Equestria. And perhaps we will no longer have to call ourselves followers of the Forgotten God.” He smirked. “Brother Ford, get word to Brother Abrams in Canterlot. Let him know about the possible theophany and to send any word he hears from the nobles about him to us. No doubt many of them are already plotting his fall, and should he indeed be Dawn-Bringer, the Church must ready to intervene against attempts against him made by our brothers who have not seen the dawn yet. You are dismissed.”

With those final words, the ponies at the table got up and began walking around. Some of them would stay here, and some of them would leave.

Oakley looked to the book on the table, smiling even wider.

“The Holy Book, written in Dawn-Bringer’s tongue. Perhaps now is when you will finally be revealed to us lesser beings.”

He pondered the alien text on the cover, thousands of idea swirling around his head on what it could say.

“Occupation: The Official Biography of General Dante T. Jaeger. Lyrky Iknash. Foreward by Colonel Rat”

Oakley could only hope that this was truly Dawn-Bringer in Ponyville.

Author's Notes:

Oh, wow. I forgot an author's note.

Uh... yeah, religions can be really weird.

Again, as always, if you liked and favorited this story, please tell me why. If you disliked this story, please tell me why you disliked it. Thank you very much. I also enjoy criticism as it helps me to improve. So if you do downvote, please leave a comment letting me know why. Be it grammar, spelling, pacing, or you just fucking hate the character!