Phoenix

Chapter 21

The helicopter was there minutes after Rat had made contact with Jaeger, its rotors kicking up dust and dirt. The villagers clearing a way for the helo, as Dante picked himself up from the ground, collecting his helmet, he found the villager who had taken the corpse of Olephus.

Still standing in a crowd, the man continued to hold up the partial corpse, cheering as the helicopter touched down.

The armored Legionnaire, standing at seven feet, four inches and four-hundred pounds, easily pushed his way past the people in the crowd.

He grasped the helmet in the man’s hands, gently pulling the corpse away. There was slight resistance for a minute before the man realized what was happening and allowed the corpse to be taken from him.

Lugging both his helmet and the corpse, Dante lazily approached the helicopter. The villagers who had previously given him room to instead celebrate the death of the most hated person in the Imperium, now decided to crowd around him, arms and fists pumping into the air.

“Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion!” The crowd cheered, the Legionnaire gently pushing his way past the crowd.

The rotors died down as the back hatch of the helicopter fell. Mechanized infantry storming out the back of the grey helicopter, their powered exoskeletons absorbing every footfall, a pack containing various pieces of equipment and tools also supported by the frame.

Their bodies were covered by plates, designed to protect from a variety of dangerous hazards, and their heads covered by fully enclosed helmets, capable of filtering out many atmospheric hazards.

They came out, their rifles raised and scanning for any possible threats. After three of them had come out, they were followed by a familiar face.

A white skinned woman with blonde hair filed out of the helicopter with her soldiers, her rifle scanning the area and the helmet present on the other troops missing on hers.

“Rat.” Dante called out, as he pushed his way past the threshold of the crowd, the blonde woman lowering her rifle as she caught sight of the man, the dirt now slowly settling.

“Dante!” She called, as she quickly jogged up to the man, reaching her hand out for a handshake, which Dante took after dropping the corpse, then quickly pulled her into a hug, the Legionnaire towering over her by a good few inches despite her exoskeleton.

The hug continued for a few seconds, before it was let go.

“Dante, I’m sorry. We were minutes away when Lekn-” Dante raised a hand, stopping her.

“Everyone knew what we were getting into… and every single one of those men understood the likelihood of coming back alive was... Nil.”

Dante made to enter the helicopter. “Come on, Rat. We’ve still got the NPR’s fleet on the run. I need to hook up with the Doc and get refitted, get back out there and assist with the intercepts.”

“Wait, what no.” Rat moved to the back of Dante quickly. “Dante, your helmet’s fucked, your armor’s compromised, you just got through three years of continuous fighting. You’re not going back in.”

Dante, having to crouch in order to enter the door to the helicopter, straightened up in the main body, he tossed the bloody corpse to the floor, as he took a hold of a loop of cloth on the roof, barely tall enough for the Legionnaire to not have to crouch.

“Doc will refit my armor and the three years isn’t an issue. I don’t have time to wait, Rat. Get your men back in here and get us to the nearest RV point.”

“Dante!” Rat waved her arms, her rifle resting on her chest. “The fleets have the NPR, they don’t need your help. They’re called replacements for a reason.”

Dante pointed away from her with his hand.

“I’m not letting the NPR get away. They made an enemy of the Legion and I fully intend to see that out. My men didn’t die on that beach for nothing. Durendal’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain. The NPR exists as a threat to the Imperium… to every decent thing. And I. Will. Not. Rest. Until every single one of the bastards personally responsible for the shit that happened here are dead.”

Rat shook her head. “Dante, you need to rest and that is an order.”

The large man rolled his eyes, raising an eyebrow. “Really, Rat?”

She nodded, resolute. “Yes. It is.”

Dante raised two fingers in the air. “First, the Legion has never had any policy in place requiring Legionnaires to recognize outside rank. So while you may technically outrank me, I’m not listening to you. Second, all Legionnaires are authorized to commandeer military vehicles if they determine the use of said vehicle is necessary for the completion of their mission… and I’m getting really fucking close to doing that, Rat.” Dante lowered his hand. “So this is my last demand. Get me to an RV point, right now. Before I take control of the bird myself.”

As Rat moved closer to the Legionnaire to continue arguing, she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. One of her troops had stopped her, nodding to the towering super soldier. “General, I think you’re right, I think he needs rest. Ain’t a person in the world who can fight straight for three years with no relief, but I also think he’s right. The fleet could use the morale boost that would come from a Legionnaire being present. Besides… Ash will stop him if she determines he can’t do it.” The voice filtered out of the helmet.

“An immovable object meets an unstoppable force… that will be interesting to see…” Rat muttered, as she sighed.

She hit the side of the helicopter on the outside, catching the attention of the troops who had formed a guard around the entrance hatch.

“Hey! We’re movin’ out! Get the fuck back in here!”

As the troops loaded back into the helicopter, the bird began spinning back up, Rat taking a seat. Sighing, she rubbed her face.

“This is why I hate being your friend, you fuckface.”

Dante didn’t respond, as the helicopter began gaining air.

Luna quietly walked through the halls of the hospital they were in. It had been a bit of a chore getting through the streets of the battle damaged Canterlot from the hospital to the castle and back to the hospital. The hospital had been opened by Royal decree quite a long time ago, and as a result, one of the choices made during its construction was a tunnel that could carry royalty from the castle to the hospital in secret.

That tunnel had been utilized by Luna for her current mission.

The steel cart in front of her, being pushed by her magic. And she was nearing her destination. Stopping in front of the door, she paused in confusion. The room was empty. There was dried blood on the bed, but otherwise it was just another room in the hospital… with the exception of the door no longer connected to its hinges.

A doctor passing down the hallway nodded to the Lunar alicorn. “Good evening, Your Highness.” The sight of even the alicorn sisters were not an uncommon thing in this hospital, so the staff had come to the point of acknowledging them formally. To bow down would be to waste too much time in assisting sick ponies.

“Excuse Us, Doctor?”

The stallion stopped in his tracks, turning to meet his princess. “Yes ma’am?”

Luna pointed to the empty room. “Where is General Jaeger?”

“… Ah, the biped. Yes, he gave the nurses quite a spook when he woke up, amazingly gentle for a pony his size, though. I believe I was informed he had made his way to the… changeling’s room.”

To say that Luna didn’t panic would be a lie, but she had enough practice to keep it hidden.

She thanked the doctor and quickly made her way to the level and room she knew the changeling to be at, her pace quickening as she got closer to it.

She released a breath she had been holding when she reached the room, no angry biped throwing things around, just a nurse examining a chart in the room.

… And a door not connected to its hinges and the rough shape of one of General Jaeger’s boots in it, the locking mechanism still active on the inside of the door.

Luna knocked on the wall, catching the attention of the unicorn mare in the room, who looked up from the chart and nodded at the Lunar Diarch. “Your Highness.”

“How is Lady Fortnite coming along?”

The brown mare, paused, as she chose her words carefully. “She’s… doing as well as somepony in her position can. We have no idea how to care for her, so we’re just making sure she stays alive. It would appear as though, from initial scans, her internal organs are remarkably similar to a ponies, which is unfortunate. Both lungs are collapsed. We believe the only reason she’s even alive is because we found remnants of spriacles, typical of insects, present on her chitin. Under normal circumstances, we would have assumed they were merely vestigial and became useless upon them developing lungs, but given the… less then favorable state of the lungs, we can only assume they’re functional enough to the keep the changeling alive… barely.”

Luna nodded. “So… she’s alive, but if we wish to help her, it will require more research.”

The nurse nodded.

“Hm… wonderful. Keep tending to Lady Fortnite and insure she’s comfortable as she can be. We have one last question.”

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“Have you seen General Jaeger at all?”

The blank stare on the nurse’s face told her she either hadn’t, or had no clue who she was talking about.

“I’m… sorry? I don’t know anypony with that name.”

Luna shook her head. “No, a tall biped wearing black armor and undoubtedly covered in dried blood. Doesn’t really seem to care for social conventions and does whatever he fancies when he so fancies…”

Luna glanced at the damaged door on the floor. “… Doesn’t seem to understand what a door is… or how it works.”

The nurse’s face lit up in realization. “Oh, yes! I did see him. He asked me where the morgue the royal guard uses would be.”

Luna nodded, realizing exactly what it was… or rather or who it had been the biped was going after.

She turned around, abandoning the cart, as she blinked out of existence from the hospital.

Bulwark sat in the room, watching the clock. It had been a few hours since the battle with Discord had concluded. The sterileness of the building was making him uncomfortable. The white lights on the ceiling making the whole place seem unwelcoming.

From what he could deduce from the short reports of the guards who had responded to the scene of the biped crashing onto the streets of Canterlot, he stumbled around for a minute before collapsing, unresponsive. Leading to the Two Sisters to take him to the nearby Royal Hospital. A place Bulwark had absolutely no chance of getting into, given their clientele.

As such, he had run with his intuition. He remembered who Lakia was from a previous conversation with him, and if she was as important as she seemed to him at the time, he could only assume he would soon find his way down here for her.

He heard a crash, as he rolled his eyes, nodding his head.

He was right.

The door in the storage room crashed open, as Dante’s boot appeared through it, landing back on the ground. A magical aura wrapped around his other foot, though it seemingly had no effect on him as stalked over to a desk containing a book, something Bulwark had identified as the log book and had already laid out to prevent Jaeger from physically overturning desks.

He should have left the doors open.

A unicorn mare followed… or rather was pulled closely behind, her rump seated on the ground as she was pulled along, attempting to trip the biped up with her magic.

“Sir, you can not be in here! This is a closed facility and you need to leave right now before we get the Royal Guards.”

The biped was still covered in blood, though this time it was all dry, flaking off in places.

The mare let go of the biped, as she rushed back into the main lobby, calling for her coworker to find some royal guards.

Bulwark wasn’t in his uniform, and the few guards who had helped deliver Lakia’s corpse to the morgue had identified her as being in his custody, in the name of the Diarchy. Which is why he had been allowed to stay.

Dante picked up the log book, paying no attention to the stallion, who was sitting quietly in a corner. He opened to the last page, finding the entry he wanted.

Bulwark already knew what he was looking for… locker one-fifteen.

Jaeger tossed the book over his shoulder as he quickly walked over to the large wall of lockers to Bulwark’s left.

Corpse storage, the lockers enchanted to cold temperatures, just slightly above freezing. They opened with a small handle.

Which Dante gripped, ignoring the fine motor functions required to manipulate it, which was to turn it up and then pull, Dante pulled straight back, ripping the door off its hinges and revealing the inside. He tossed the door behind him.

The lockers themselves large enough to store the corpse of even an alicorn. The door of course sealed the lockers and concealed the corpse until viewing it was necessary. And the corpse was stored on a table that rolled out and in.

Though, in a seemingly sudden change of attitude, instead of ripping the table out as Bulwark would have expected if he had taken the three doors Dante destroyed on his way in as precedence, the biped instead gently grasped the end of the table and slowly pulled it out, almost as though he were afraid of causing bumps and general movement of the corpse stored.

The table stopped as Jaeger stepped to the left side, where the door would have been resting… had he not torn it off.

He stared at the mare, the corpse uncovered, before bring his right hand up and gently running it down her side, her head at the top of the table closest to the wall of lockers.

Bulwark sighed, levitating a folded white sheet from a nearby cart in his magic and getting up from his seated position.

He slowly walked over to the biped, passing the sheet to him. Jaeger took it into his hand, unfolding it and gently draping it over her.

Without looking up, he removed his helmet from his waist and put it on, obscuring his face. Once it was seated, he looked up. Though Bulwark couldn’t see them, he was certain Jaeger had just locked eyes with him.

“Sir.” Bulwark nodded, receiving a nod back from Dante.

“Bulwark,” Dante spoke, his voice being oddly filtered through the helmet, having an almost mechanical tone to it, something Bulwark had never heard. “You’re here.”

“Yes sir,” Bulwark nodded to the table pulled out. “I’ve figured you out, at least a small bit. And I figured you’d be coming here soon… at least after you woke up.”

Dante nodded. “Yeah… and I suppose you were able to guess what my plan is now.”

“I have a general idea… you want to lay her to rest… but I’m not able to guess the specifics.”

Dante gently slid his hands under the still mare, tucking the sheet under to cover the rest of her body.

“I have the site set up.” He said, as he carefully picked the mare up, using his left hand to support her head.

Without another word, Dante began to make his way to the door, Bulwark following closely behind.

“Sir, you can not take that corpse.” The unicorn mare who had tried to restrain Dante upon entrance blocked the door, Bulwark cringing at her foolhardiness.

“Even if you hadn’t broken in here, I would need approval from one of the Diarchs to release her, she was interred under Royal Custody.”

“I don’t answer to the Crown.” Dante responded as he stepped past the mare, paying no heed to her protestations. “Lakia falls under my custody and not a single damn thing anyone here says otherwise can change that fact.

“Sir,” The mare charged in front of the biped into the street, latching onto his leg. “It is my duty to ensure the honor and dignity of all deceased in Canterlot is maintained and I can not and will not allow you to take that mare’s body.”

Dante continued to pay no mind to the mare, dragging her along with no difficulty, lifting his leg up and putting it back down. Bulwark merely cringed and dropped his head at the crowds stopping to stare the bloodstained biped dragging the mare.

“There’s a dozen other corpses in there needing your tending. Go help them.”

“They’re not being stolen by you!” She protested

Dante stopped in his tracks, as Bulwark began to worry just what he was planing to do with the mare.

He quietly shifted Lakia’s corpse to be held in his right arm, reaching down with his left hand and grasping the mare’s blonde tail, pulled her off his leg, bringing her face to his, the mare suspended upside down.

“You are a massive pain in my ass, you know that, right?”

“Sir, this is assault and I demand you put me down right now and return that mare to the mortuary right no- what! Wait.”

Dante had stopped paying attention half way through, lowering the mare. High enough her head easily cleared the ground, but low enough she was now left staring at the thighs of Jaeger. And began to continue his walk to wherever he was going.

“Sir!” She yelled. “This is now not only theft of a corpse, assault but also foalnapping. Let go of me right now, you will regret this! You’re not exactly subtle, the guard will have no trouble finding you!”

As the mare ranted on, Dante merely continued walking, caring not a single modicum for the punishments she promised would follow once the guard found him.

Bulwark merely shook his head.

The mare had mostly quieted down when Dante had repositioned her, with the help of Bulwark’s telekinesis, to a more comfortable position… tucked into his side.

“You’re being oddly helpful in this kidnapping.” Dante called back to Bulwark.

The stallion sighed. “I figured if we’ve already gotten to the point of foalnapping, I don’t want my last memories as a free stallion to be the whining of this mare, sir.”

“Excuse me for not being a fan of being kidnapped… you jack-arse.”

“You had a choice in this, Lady. If you hadn’t tried to keep stopping me, I wouldn’t have picked you up. You wanted to guard Lakia’s dignity and honor, now you get to see to that. You get to ensure her husband lays her body to rest with dignity and honor.”

“Her husband?” The mare’s snout scrunched up, as she pointed with her right hoof behind her to Bulwark.

“Him?”

“No.” Dante responded. “Me.”

“You?” She pointed to him.

“Yes, him.” Bulwark affirmed, the mare looking back to him.

“H-”

“I swear to god, if you say ‘him’ I am going to throw you against that wall and ensure someone guards your ‘honor and dignity’.”

The mare decided it was best not to continue with her questioning, instead looking up and seeing… the bridge to Castle Canterlot.

She smiled smugly.

“You’re not a very smart criminal, are you?” She questioned.

“I’m sorry?” Dante questioned, an eyebrow raised.

“There’s guards at the castle. I’ll yell and they’ll stop you.”

“Uh-huh.” Dante nodded.

They soon crossed the bridge and into the courtyard.

And there, guarding the main doors to the castle were two solar guards. And just as the mare had promised, she began screaming… and flailing.

Beating her hooves on the hard armor of the biped, she yelled. “Help! Help me, this thing’s foalnapping! He assaulted me and he stole a corpse under royal custody! Help!”

The tall biped continued walking, the two guards remaining stoic despite the flailing and creaming pony.

Dante gave them a lazy wave as he passed by them. “Frank, Bob, evenin’.”

“Evening.” The two guards responded, despite neither of their names being Frank or Bob, as the biped passed the mare slowly quieting down and her protestations dying.

As the tall biped entered the castle and turned a corner, one of the guards turned to the other.

“I’m sure he’s got a good reason.” He spoke, trying to reassure himself.

“Oh, undoubtedly.”

“He probably received the okay from one of the princesses.”

“Yep.”

“And besides, even if he didn’t, what are we supposed to do about it?”

“Nothing we could do about it.”

“I mean, for Celestia’s sake! He fought the changelings head on, went hoof-to-hoof with Discord and then survived being blasted by the Elements of Harmony! You heard the briefing, just like I did!”

“I did.”

“So the only thing we could do is just let him do what he wants. And besides… I mean, he hasn’t actually hurt anypony yet, so why would he start with her?”

“I agree.”

There was a silence between the two guards, before the talkative turned to his comrade.

“This one doesn’t go in the logs.”

“Oh, no, absolutely not. Didn’t happen.”

The two nodded simultaneously. “Not in the log, it didn’t happen.”

Dante rounded the corner, the mare hanging limply in his arms.

“… Why?”

Dante did not answer the mare this time, instead it was Bulwark. “Because the castle guards have learned telling General Jaeger not to do something will result in him doing it out of spite… unless it goes against his as of yet unknown code of ethics.”

“And his code of ethics is okay with foalnapping mares?”

“Only when they’re a pain in my ass and I’m trying to do something… like cremate my wife.”

“She is under the custody of the Diarchy and you have no legal authority to do anything with her.” The mare shot back.

“And as I said, I answer to no one. Not here, not in the Imperium.”

The group continued to walk, Dante leading them up multiple flights of stairs and then through multiple hallways, until stopping in a nondescript hallway, standing in front of a wall. A smooth, grey wall, as it was in many other places of the castle.

“Venus.”

Suddenly, the wall split apart, revealing a hallway, though this one was entirely different. Darkened with just enough light to see down it, various carts were abandoned, along with a large amount of…

“Are those… skeletons?”

“Bulwark, my hands are full, could you do me a favor and do a flourishing wave over the ship for me?” Dante, asked.

Bulwark complied, waving his foreleg across the ship, left to right.

“Welcome, pony of whom I do not know the name of nor do I particularly care to find out what it is, to the Celeste! A former capitol ship of the Imperium, before Republican troops captured it.”

The mare twister her neck to look at the biped. “My name i-”

“Pony of whom I do not know the name of nor do I particularly care to find out what it is.” Dante reiterated, as he entered the ship.

Lights audibly flicked on, almost as though a large switch had been thrown.

The lights flooded the hall, seemingly coming from every and almost extinguishing any shadows.

The mare cringed, screwing her eyes shut at the sudden assault of light.

“The lift’s right at the end of this hallway. Come on. I want to get this out of the way as soon as possible. I need to get back to Fortnite.”

The mare opened a single eye, squinting. “And what are you planning on doing with me?”

“Oh, that? You can leave when we get down there. I just wanted to make you walk all the way back up to Canterlot for being a pain in my ass.”

“Wait, up… walk back up?” The mare asked as Dante stepped over a very small gap and onto a platform.

The mare could feel the biped’s grip loosening on her, as he positioned himself so Bulwark was standing between his legs.

“Sir, what are you do-” Bulwark was cut off as Dante spoke.

“Venus, activate the anti-boarders lift program, please.”

As the words left Dante’s mouth, being filtered through his helmet, the platform suddenly shot down, Dante still attached to it, though the mare having been repositioned so she would fly out of his arms. Bulwark’s hooves left the platform, though he was stopped by the V formed by Dante’s legs.

The mare screamed, though Bulwark just looked bored, almost as though he expected this. Dante’s reaction was impossible to make out due to his helmet obscuring his face.

The mare was floating ten feet from the platform itself, about three feet from Dante, as she flailed about in a failed attempt to grab the biped, forgetting she possessed magic and could have used that pull herself down.

The platform came to a slow, though relatively sudden stop, Bulwark catching himself on his hooves, Dante’s outstretched left arm gently caught the now properly falling mare with ease.

Bulwark stepped out from between Dante’s leg, raising an eyebrow as she looked to the supersoldier.

“What was that?”

Dante pulled the shivering mare close to his body, similar to how he was holding her before.

“Well...” Dante began. “It was supposed to be a precaution against boarders by tossing them into the air. But ships got boring pretty often so we’d activate that mode and see just how high we could get before reaching the bottom. Made for some pretty fun nights. It was even better when you’re drunk, watching the Squids clean the puke up, though, was even better.”

“Squids?” Bulwark questioned, turning his head.

“You know.” Dante stated as he stepped off the platform and into the vehicle bay of the ship, various alien vehicles sitting in silence, along with the skeletons of many dead NPR soldiers. A familiar sight for Bulwark due to him having been down here before. “Squids. Sailors. Seamen. Swabbies… Faggots. Homosexuals. Fudge-Packers. Sodomites. Anal Astronauts. Back Door Bandits. Bone Smugglers. Butt Pirates. Cockpipe Cosmonauts. Donut punchers. Turd burglars.”

Bulwark looked at him blankly, Dante sighing.

“Naval troops, Bulwark. Jesus Christ, does Equestria not have a navy?”

Bulwark nodded. “Of course we do… er, rather, we have some guards stationed on airships.”

Dante paused, midstep. “I mean… an aquatic navy.”

Bulwark snorted. “Nopony’s stupid enough to travel on the surface of the oceans.”

“I’d criticize you.” Dante began as he once began his walk. “But I’m sure you would tell me something really dumb… like there’s a shit ton of krakens in the oceans on this planet.”

It was Bulwark’s turn to pause, Dante instead choosing to push past the stallion. Bulwark cocked his head to the side. “There are… there are krakens in the oceans… Do you all… do you all not have krakens back home?”

“No we do not and in order to be considered a serious player in the world, you need to have a navy. Force projection.”

The mare who had been kidnapped by the alien creature remained quiet, having been traumatized by nearly being flattened from the lift, saved only by the arm of her kidnapper.

Quickly moving through the garage and through the vehicles, the group made their way to a corner, as a large door loudly pulled it self up, to allow the group access to the outside. A ramp helpfully appearing from the side of the ship. Dante and Bulwark stepped out into the valley below Canterlot.

The sun was slowly setting, giving way to twilight, and soon dusk.

Dante gently set the trembling mare down, shifting Lakia’s weight, he transferred her to two arms. He knelt down, gently sliding her onto the grass moving with a slight breeze.

“I got most of this set up. I just need to get a get a few things moved out here from the bay.” Dante said as he turned around to head back into the bay.

“Do you need help?” Bulwark questioned.

Dante waved the concern away, turning around to walk backwards and up the ramp. “No. But pony who I don’t know. You’re free to go. You just can’t come back into my ship. You have to go the long way around.”

Dante shrugged as he began turning a corner into the bay. “Or stay here and ensure the honor and dignity of Lakia is kept. I don’t care. But be warned, burning bodies in open air is a lot worse then in an enclosed crematory.”

With that, he finally disappeared, as Bulwark took the time to examine the site, supposing a cremation made sense.

But the issue was he seemed to be wanting to do a funeral pyre. Most cremations were done in an enclosed oven powered by magic. Bulwark knew some of the more rural areas opted to honor their dead with a funeral pyre, but those were large structures, built up so as to remain burning long enough for the deceased to burn to ashes.

Yet, this valley was, with the exception of the grass growing in it, bare.

He had said he already had the site set up, but...

Bulwark rolled his eyes. Certain this had a fairly straight-forward explanation involving nanites.

“I swear, if his explanation is ‘nanites’…” Bulwark muttered to himself.

He turned back to the ship, just in time to see Dante coming back out with a quite large sheet of what appeared to be a dull colored metal in his hand with a square container in his other.

The sheet of metal was held lengthwise. Approximately eight feet by eight feet, and surprisingly did not look odd being carried by the large biped.

The mare had decided to sit on her haunches, unsure of what she wanted to do. Dante paid her no heed, walking past her with the metal sheet, and approaching Bulwark. He walked past the stallion a little further out. Now about a hundred feet from the ship.

He tossed the metal sheet down on the grass, walking back to Bulwark as it thudded on the ground.

He dropped the container with no concern for how it fell.

His hands now free, he walked back to where he laid Lakia down, once more picking her up gently.

The sun was even further down, now no longer twilight, but rather dusk.

He walked back past Bulwark.

“The metal’s an extremely thermally resistive metal. It’s used as heat shielding and in blast doors. It’s so resistive, the Imperium has to use nuclear fusion to get to a heat it can be worked with. This is going to be the base.”

Dante walked on the sheet metal, the metal flexing under his feet as he gently set the corpse down, sheet still covering the mare underneath it.

Dante knelt down, his hand grasping the sheet, though he paused, seemingly hesitating.

He took a deep breath, removing the sheet and exposing the corpse.

He remained there, sheet in hand, for a few seconds, as he looked at the mare he had revealed.

Jaeger let go of the breath he had been holding.

He removed a cylinder from the webbing connected to his armor. Tucking it into the crook formed Lakia’s shoulder and foreleg.

The device nestled safely, Dante stepped back and off the metal sheet. The cloth sheet still in in his hand. The mare was dwarfed by the large sheet of metal.

“Venus,” There was a pause, more hesitation. “Venus, define the parameters. Control the burn so it stays on the metal. Maintain eighteen-hundred degrees until…”

A flame quickly burst to life, slowly catching the mare’s leg, and soon spreading to the rest of her body.

Growing quickly, the flames burned higher and hotter as it fully engulfed the deceased woman. Dante merely standing there, staring at the flames.

The sun gave way to the moon, allowing the celestial body to claim its place in the sky, Dante paid no attention, the burning corpse his sole attention.

The two ponies, Bulwark stood behind the biped in silence, his head bowed in respect. The mare from the mortuary slowly and quietly made her way to Jaeger’s side, viewing the burning.

The smell of meat burning, the sulfur of the keratin hitting her nose.

She sat on her haunches.

“I’m sorry.” She spoke. Looking up to the biped’s head, who still seemed to gazing at the funeral pyre, the high heat consuming the mare’s body.

“Losing a loved one is… is always a difficult time.” She followed up.

“It’s become the norm for me...” Dante answered back, his voice once more mechanically filtered. “I stopped feeling it after the fourth time.”

A large blue wing encompassed Jaeger’s back, the soft voice of Princess Luna cutting through her night air. “I believe we both know that’s not true, General Jaeger.”

Dante glanced down, meeting the alicorn’s eyes who stood to his right. “No amount of time or experiences can stop the cutting from the death of a beloved. We may not have the years you have, but We understand what it is like to see others suffer from the ravages of mortality while you stand there. A lone dam struggling to hold back the inevitable. You and you alone. We had our sister to stand with Us for most of that time, We can not imagine you took it better by yourself.”

Dante remained silent, having moved his head back to continue watching the pyre.

“We do not mean to intrude, but from Our understanding, you spent most of your life alone. To you, everyone you encountered was like dust being blown by the wind. You meet them and the next day, they are no longer by your side. Taken by the sands of time and the ravages of life.”

The only sound filling the air in response to Luna was the crackling of the fire.

“We shall not be so conceited so as to dredge up past memories you wish to be forgotten, in pursuit of satisfying Our own curiosity. We shall trust that you had good reasons, more so for Our own sanity. But Our visit has two purposes behind it.”

Dante gave a light grunt in response, the vocalization giving Luna the go ahead to continue.

“We left some food at Lady Fortnite’s room. Please help yourself to it.”

“What makes you think I’m heading back there?” Dante asked, not bothering to turn his head.

Luna merely smirked.

“We believe the fact that you checked on her first before heading out to retrieve this mare is telling of how important she is to you.”

“... Pragmatic reasons.” Dante replied. “She happened to be in the same area I was so it only made sense for me to check on her before leaving the hospital.”

“You and We both know that’s not how you think, but if that’s what you want to believe, then We will not try to argue.”

“In any case…” Dante breathed, reaching up to take off his helmet. Replacing it back to its spot on his armor. “You said there were two reasons. You gave me one.”

Luna nodded. “Indeed. We had hoped to catch you at the hospital. But that didn’t work. The other reason We came was because of this.” Luna’s magic grasped something held between her wing and body. Pulling out a long and narrow object wrapped in white cloth, she passed it to Dante.

“Our sister wished to have it destroyed. We managed to stop her on the basis that you should have a chance to explain why you wanted such a grim trophy saved.”

Dante unwrapped the cloth, revealing the horn he had taken from the other Celestia, no longer bloodied and the nerve bundles at the end having been removed.

He nodded. “Yeah. I took it because I needed to get home. Humans can’t focus magic. We require focusers… wands. Some of the socialite witches I’ve met in my time used crystals. But they were horribly impractical. The more combat oriented witches and warlocks utilized wands. This.” Dante held up the horn. “Was an improvised wand… Luna… that wasn’t my first time jumping dimensions.”

Dante tucked the horn into a pouch on his armor. “I’ll admit, it’s the first time I was dumped in an alternate dimension intentionally, but doing what I do, you’re exposed to massive energy dumps fairly often. Enough energy and you can tear a hole in reality. Of course, the issue is, dumping energy can tear a hole, but you have no control over where it goes. So if I had just torn a hole in reality by dumping a shit ton of energy, then I could have landed in a place that… well, god knows what it could have been. I needed something to anchor me to this dimension and I needed something to focus that energy dump onto the anchor. I used some money I had from here as the anchor and then used Celestia’s horn to focus the energy.”

“... What was going on there that you could justify killing her?” Luna questioned.

“I don’t know the events leading up to the present, but over there, apparently magic is extremely toxic to Humans. Somehow, a portal between Terra and UX3234,” Dante caught the curious look on Bulwark’s face, clarifying. “The Imperial designation of this planet is UX3234.”

“The name of the planet is actu-” The mare who had been kidnapped began, though was quickly cut off by Dante.”

“Don’t care. Anyway, portal between here and there opened up. From there, a planet consuming wall of magic began transforming Terra and destroying Human structures. Celestia had control of it, but used it to wipe out Humanity by turning them into mindless ponies by tricking them into using a polymorphic potion. Twilight and Celestia tried to do the same to me after by extreme coincidence we landed next to Lakia. Celestia retreated back to Equestria and I opened a portal back there and killed her, taking her horn and getting back here.”

“... Wait, you said you needed an anchor to get back here and used a bit to do so… Couldn’t you have just used something from your planet and opened the portal there to get home? Why come back here?” Bulwark questioned.

Dante shook his head. “I knew this UX3234 and that UX3234 occupied the same space because Discord was able to drop me there from here. But I had no idea if that Terra and this Terra shared the same space. If I tried to do so, I could have ended up in the middle of absolutely nowhere and I would just be floating through space.”

“What makes you think Discord didn’t just adjust the positioning so as to ensure you were put on the Earth.” Luna questioned.

Dante snorted. “Earth? Is that what you all call this rock?” Dante sighed. “This fucking place. I guess all cultures are pretty fucking similar no matter what.”

“Sorry?” Luna turned her head to the side.

“Earth translates to a similar word back home. Ground. Which we took that word from an old language and turned it into the colloquial name for Terra.” Dante pronounced a word that none of the ponies present could even begin trying to duplicate.

“And in any case,” Dante shook his head. “That’s not how interdimensional travel works.”

The group sat in continued silence for just a few more minutes, the flames burning strong and concealing any sight of a corpse.

“I know Bulwark and… this pony,” Dante gestured to the mare next to him. “Know who she is. But I feel like you should also know just who you’re viewing the cremation of. That’s Lakia.”

“The name sounds familiar.” Luna answered.

“Twi probably dropped her name once or twice, I’m certain she debriefs with Celestia and I told her about Lakia. But she’s...” Dante sighed. “She’s my wife.”

Luna nodded, not entirely sure how to respond to the fact that she was watching a husband bury his wife, after killing her no less.

“We’re certain the… mercy killing was not easy for you to do...”

“How’d yo-”

“The wound, General. It’s become quite obvious how you fight. You kill quickly. Might not be the cleanest wounds, but the pony passes quickly.”

Dante snorted. “Ballistic wounds are always a bitch to deal with, yeah...”

The group descended into silence for a few seconds, before Dante broke it.

“You know… it’s funny.” He chuckled. “Lakia always told me that if… when she passed, she wanted to be cremated during a full moon. She wanted me to spread her ashes right on the edge of the troposphere, right before you hit the stratosphere. That way her final resting place could be the entire planet. And just my fucking luck.” Dante gestured to the moon resting in the sky above him. “Just fucking… what, a few days from a full moon?”

Luna’s horn lit up, the blue aura enveloping it. “Unfortunately, while We can not help with the spreading of her ashes, We can help with one thing.”

In front of his eyes, Dante watched as the moon went from a waxing gibbous to a full moon.

“Is that better?” Luna questioned, smiling.

“That still makes no fucking sense.” Dante shook his head, Luna’s smile faltering. Before Dante looked down to her. “But thanks, nonetheless.” Her smile returned.

“We are glad to be of help, General.”

Silence reigned once more for several minutes, as none of the group could think of a single appropriate thing in order to continue the conversation.

Dante, once more, was the one who broke it. “Venus, kill the flames.”

And faster then a pony could clap their hooves together, the flames were snuffed from existence.

The disappearance of the flames revealed no trace of the body, except for a pile of ashes about as long as the mare had been.

Without speaking any further, Dante approached the funeral pyre.

The three ponies present bowed their heads respect, as Dante gently brushed the ashes to a corner, having stood up the container he had brought with him in the grass.

Having moved the ashed into a pile on one corner, he easily lifted the sheet metal and carefully poured them into the container.

He knelt down, flipping the lid back into its proper position, the container now closed.

Picking it up, he began walking back to the group.

“Bulwark, get some rest. Morgue pony, you’re free to go. Luna… well, do whatever, I don’t care. Just don’t go picking up any guns in my ship. I don’t feel like dealing with ponies shooting themselves negligently.”

Dante strode past Luna disappearing from her sight, as slight breeze blew through. The alicorn of the moon turned around to say something to him, though as she turned, she caught no sight of the biped. Only the glow of the light from the garage of the ship.

Bulwark merely turned around and started walking. “He can teleport, Your Highness. He probably teleported to the lift.

Dante turned the corner of the hospital. It had been a bit far of a jump. But thankfully, he didn’t have an entire group of people he needed to keep together this time. He only lost his spleen this time.

He ignored the pain that came from having an entire organ ripped from him thanks to physics and magic that no one really truly understood.

Besides, it would grow back quickly enough.

He had more important things to attend to.

As he turned the corner his eyes landed on the door he was looking for. The door leading to the changeling’s room. Fortnite.

And it would appear as though that in the few hours he had been gone, the staff had repaired the door he had ripped from the hinges.

He quickly scanned the hallway. Seeing no staff or even patients. It would make sense. Middle of the night, skeleton crew. The nurse on duty was probably in another wing helping someone else.

He made his way to the door, opening it quietly and slipping into the room, closing the door behind him. The only light coming from a small light on the wall. Just enough for a normal pony to see. Dante, of course, would not have been bothered even if there hadn’t been a light.

For comfort’s sake, though, he flipped the light switch on, turning on the main light hanging on the ceiling of the room, and being greeted by the sight of a battered changeling laying on her side. The sound of the air being pulled in by the device breathing for her wheezing through the room. Intubation running through her nasal and tracheal cavities.

Dante slid to side, laying the ashes of Lakia on an empty table left on wheel, picking up the clipboard hanging on the wall.

He quickly read through the notes the last doctor who had worked on Fortnite left, grimacing as he finished.

“Fuck.” He sighed, tossing the clipboard next to the ashes, approaching the bed.

“Stabilized my fucking ass. Barely fucking alive is more like it. Hanging on by a literal fucking goddamn string. Incompetent fucking assholes.” He cursed to himself.

“Fuck.”

Dante pulled a chair from the wall and gently lowered himself into it, with some difficulty. The chair having been made more with equines less then half his size in mind.

He watched the severely injured and comatose changeling in silence.

“You know…” Dante began talking. To no one in particular. “This...” He gestured to Fortnite. “This is all my fault. I should have… could have moved faster. And stopped Discord before he did it. Hell, I should have ended the fight before he had a chance to toss me into another dimension. But, now… because of my hesitation, someone else is severely injured. None of this would have happened if I had just stopped fucking around and doing what I needed to do. But no, my dumbass let a missing heart stop me from fighting.”

Dante leaned back a tad more. “But now look at you. Barely hanging on, I tossed one country into political turmoil, undoubtedly, by murdering their leader and essentially installing her little sister as the new head of state. Then I get back here and I kill the “god of chaos”… well… not quite.”

Dante slipped the snapped in half deer antler of Discord from a pouch on his armor.

“You’ve been oddly quiet this entire time, Discord. Not something I came to expect from the intel I grabbed from the last two incidents involving you and Equestria.”

The disembodied voice of Discord rang through out the room. “Yes, well, very astute observation, General Jaeger.”

A miniature floating version of Discord appeared in front of Dante, the Human’s eyes focusing on him.

“But you see, my dear abomination of the natural order. I am not so dumb or conceited so as to think I have the power at the moment to take you on. Much less you and Luna. Besides, you saved my life from the Elements and that… bomb of yours. I kept my mouth shut because trying to take on Luna and Celestia, or even just Luna, as I am now would surely result in my death.” Discord floated his way to the top of Dante’s head, nestling himself into the rather short hair on top of the biped.

“I must say, er, rather I should say ask. Were you aware that taking my horn would keep me alive.”

Dante grunted, his eyes focusing back on the changeling in the bed. “I had a hunch.”

“You don’t seem to be the kind of person to keep someone who hurts a loved one alive, so what makes moi special?” Discord questioned.

“I thought you would be useful in the future.”

Discord made himself comfortable on top of Dante’s head, snapping a pillow and blanket into existence. “Ah, I see. A pragmatist. I must say, I knew you didn’t save me out of the goodness of your heart, but somehow hearing it directly from you cut me deeper then I expected.”

“If you hadn’t been a dick and tried to take over Equestria, I wouldn't have had to do what I did.”

Discord gasped, insulted. “I was not trying to take over Equestria, you undying old man… I was trying to take over the world. Please, get my reasoning correct.”

Dante lightly shook his head. “Point being is, play nice and maybe I won’t have to hit you with the gay pride crown again.”

“I’d like to see you try to explain your subterfuge in keeping me alive to the princesses.”

Dante scoffed. “You think I’m worried about those two?”

Discord huffed, repositioning himself on the top of Dante’s head to make himself more comfortable. “No matter. I don’t care. I’m going to sleep.”

Dante grunted, not giving the chimera any more notice.

As Discord drifted into sleep and into the horrifying realms of his insane mind, Dante continued his watchful guard of the injured changeling.

“It won’t happen again.” Were the last words before the hospital room slipped into silence for the rest of the night.

Author's Notes:

Hello there, everyone!

God, this chapter was depressing for me to write.

Hopefully more of the action should be coming soon.

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!