Phoenix

Chapter 6

“With all due respect,” Celestia stated from her cocoon, which was no longer spinning. “Could someone be a dear and get Luna and me down from here, thank you very much?”

Twilight lit up her magic and grabbed onto the strands of gunk that held the cocoon and pulled. And pulled. And pulled. It wasn’t budging.

“Cadance, we have a slight problem, those strands are stronger then I thought. Can you cut them?” Twilight asked the disheveled Cadance, who was now joined by Shining Armor. Both of them shook their heads in a no.

“I’m afraid not, Twilight. We’re both exhausted from the fight.” Shining answered his sister.

“Oi.” By this point in time, the voice was instantly identifiable as the alien.

Twilight turned her head to look in his direction, as he was now inspecting one of the marble columns.

“Don’t worry, I got this.” Dante said. Before Twilight could ask him just how he planned to reach them when they were nearly fifty feet in the air, Dante jumped up, letting his rear hoof hit the column, propelling him to a parallel column, where he then repeated the process. Once again, all eyes were on the alien who just continued to prove himself stranger.

Twilight watched as he bounced off the columns several times until he had reach the ceiling. With almost seemingly practiced ease on the final jump, he caught himself on one of the rafters, pulling his lower body up and wrapping his hindlegs around the rafter and began moving almost, sort of, like a pony does. Instead of his normal biped movement. Except he was moving like a pony who was upside down and crippled hindlegs.

He reached Celestia’s cocoon and allowed his upper body to dangle from the rafters with his lower body supporting him. He grabbed onto several strands. With seemingly no resistance, the gave way to the alien’s strength. He did this several times until, eventually, the rest snapped and sent Celestia plummeting to the ground. Or, at least, it would have. Had the alien not caught the cocoon with his forehoof. In a superpony display of strength, the biped brought the rest of his upper body back up the rafters, using his free hoof to support himself, while dangling the cocoon with his other hoof.

Twilight was so engrossed in the display of acrobatics and strength from the alien that she hadn’t even noticed the contingent of Royal Guards enter the room. But Cadance and Shining did and had stopped them. They too, were engrossed with the display of strength.

“Hey! Twi!” Dante shouted.

“Uh… yeah?” Twilight shouted back.

“You got the strength to support Whitey with your telekinesis if I toss her to ya? I still got Blue to get down.”

To be honest, Twilight had no idea whether or not she could support Celestia. She had never had the chance to test her telekinesis on Celestia. So she went with the most logical decision.

“Uh… yeah...” Twilight said weakly.

“Great! If she gets a concussion, it’s your fault!” Dante stated as he began swinging the cocoon.

“Waitwhatst-” Celestia had tried to stop the alien, but her words had no effect as Dante released her at the highest point of the arc.

Twilight lit her magic up and focused on the cocoon, as she mentally prayed to Princess Celestia, that she wouldn’t injure Princess Celestia when catching Princess Celestia.

Thankfully, her magic caught the falling cocoon, as she strained to hold the weight of this particular pony up. She managed to slowly and calmly lower the cocoon to the ground, where she let out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding.

“Don’t worry, Twi, I plan to be more gentle with Blue. Try getting that fuckin’ sack open while I’m dealing with Blue. I came up with a more efficient plan.” Date shouted to Twilight as he scooted along the rafters.

He silently repeated the process for Luna. But how he was planning to get her down was a bit different. He allowed himself to dangle.

“Hey, Blue?” Dante asked Luna.

“Our name is Luna, but yes?” The Princess of the Moon answered the alien who appeared to be lacking in etiquette.

“I’m gonna drop ya. But don’t worry, I promise ya, I’ll be right there to catch ya.”

Before Luna could affirm his plan or reject it, he let go of the cocoon. And disappeared. The cocoon dropped with Luna in it. The ground was approaching fast. And Luna could only think one thing.

'This is going to hurt.'

As the ground got closer, Dante reappeared under the cocoon, his forelegs stretched above his head. Grabbing the cocoon above his head, he slammed into the ground. His legs taking the brunt of the impact. This entire event happened in seconds. As he looked up to Twilight, grinning.

“Told ya it would be more efficient this way. Hey, Blue, you alright in there?”

“Oh, you know, besides nearly being dropped fifty hooves to the ground by an odd biped who’s drenched in blood, We're perfectly fine.” Luna answered.

“You’re welcome.” Dante said, as he lowered the cocoon to the floor. Kneeling down he sunk his hands into the material used to create the cocoon and then pulled back on the material. Tearing a hole big enough for Luna to begin pushing herself out of the cocoon.

Twilight had been successful in cutting open Celestia’s cocoon, with a little difficulty. Apparently the material was less strong then the material used to suspend it.

The Sovereign of the Sun forced herself from the constrictive sack. Her massive form emerging, as she spread her wings out.

“Oh, thank you so much, Dear Twilight.” Celestia told the pruple unicorn, who, despite the princess being covered in green goo and slime quickly walked up to her teacher and nuzzled into her shoulder returned the gesture. After holding this gesture for a few seconds, Celestia moves away to turn and face Dante.

“And thank you Dawn-Bringer.” Celestia stated, as she watched the biped help her sister extricate herself from the cocoon and then to her hooves.

As he was helping the wobbly blue alicorn to her hooves, he glanced up.

“The fuck’s up with this Dawn-Bringer shit, Whitey? My name’s Dante.” The biped questioned the sun princess.

“And my name isn’t Whitey.” Celestia answered.

Dante clicked his tongue, as Luna finally found her feet. He let go of her and looked at his hands, now covered in blood, changeling slime and goo. However, the transfer was mutual, as Luna now had Changeling blood in addition to the slime she had been covered in.

Although Dante wasn’t bothered by the substances he was now soaked in, Luna was.

Walking as dignified and gracefully as someone who was covered in the bodily fluids of a parasitic, equinoid insect species could walk, Luna spoke to her sister.

“I’m sure you can handle the situation here, sister. We're going to wash this… stuff off Us.” Before Celestia could protest the fact that Luna was running away from her responsibilities as a royal princess, she teleported away. Celestia rolled her eyes as turned to the biped. It was obvious to anyone viewing the situation that the alien towered over everyone in the destroyed chapel.

Various attending nobles began shakily getting to their hooves. Most of them wanting to get as far away from the death and destruction as possible.

As they slowly began to filter out of the destroyed chapel, Twilight turned to Dante. Since the danger was over, she was interested in interrogating him about his technology and the civilization and culture of this “Imperium of Phoenix”.

However, he wasn’t where he had been a second ago. As Twilight began turning her head every which way in an attempt to find the biped. Yet, somehow, despite his massive stature and height, she didn’t seem to be able to find him.

She caught sight of him at the last moment as he was walking out of the door, the strange object that Dante had called a “rifle” back in his hands.

“Dante! Wait!” Twilight shouted, though she doubted how helpful it was going to be, considering he had already gone through the frame by the time she shouted.

As she began walking at a fast pace, though not galloping, to her suprise the biped popped his back into the door frame. The rest of his body below his neck concealed by the door frame.

“Yo?” He asked.

“Where do you think you’re going? You haven’t even been properly introduced to princess yet.” Twilight scolded the biped.

“I’m going to collect some shit from my ship and then shave and take a shower.”

“The ship has working showers?”

Dante snorted. “Fuck no. It lost those when I tore it in half to escape from a massive fucking explosion. I’m lucky it’s got any goddamn power to begin with. So that’s why you’re gonna wait here for me so you can show me to the room I’m certain Great White over there’s gonna offer me for savin’ all y’all’s asses so I can clean this changeling shit off me. I look like a nurse in a fuckin’ gay porno set in a hospital that can’t stop getting alien ejaculate on him.”

Before she could argue with Dante anymore, he disappeared.

Celestia sauntered up to Twilight.

“He seems more annoying and crass then I remember him being… could just be nostalgia, though, I suppose.” Celestia stated.

Twilight turned to her teacher and decided to ask something that had been bothering her.

“Can I ask you something? How do you even know him.” She saw a small spark in the eye of her teacher.

“The only reason why I’m still breathing is because of him. Well, actually, he’s indirectly responsible for Equestria existing. Luna and I are also included in that.”

Twilight looked in confusion at Celestia.

“He… saved you? How?” Celestia took on a look that could only be described as the memory of a mare looking very far back into the past.

“I was separated from my mother and Luna by wendigos when we were attempting to take refuge in his crashed ship. For some reason, Dawn-Bringer left the safety of his ship to save me. He never spoke… or, at least, never spoke Equestrian. But I certainly remember the terrifying sight of something that made even wendigos scared. Of course, the flames coming from his hands also probably helped spook them.”

“Uh… wendigos? I thought they were banished from the world before you came to Equestria.” Twilight questioned the princess’ story, but then backtracked, afraid she may have offended her. “Uh, not that I’m calling you a liar or anything, Princess, but I’m just tryi-” Twilight was cut off as Celestia held up a hoof.

“Don’t worry, I understand Twilight. Yes. The official story that the Diarchy backs is Clover the Clever, Private Pansy and Smart Cookie banished the Changelings by uniting together in friendship, and Luna and I came into being later on in the history of Equestria with no known past. That is the heavily censored and pony-washed version. The truth of the matter is this. The last survivors, including my mother, Luna and me, took refuge in a cave when Dawn-Bringer's ship crashed on the planet for an unknown reason. The wendigos were actively avoiding it so Pansy led the charge for safety. I was straggling behind due to being a foal. It was when I was pulled back into the storm that Dawn-Bringer emerged and banished the wendigos. Before the alien did this, Luna and I were both normal Earth ponies. Exposure to the Dawn-Bringer's magic is what made us into what we are now.” Celestia explained.

Before Twilight could push for even more information, the alien Celestia had just been talking about reappeared before Twilight, spooking both Twilight and Celestia.

“Those wendigos were actually aliens as well.” Dante stated, matter of factly. Twilight could not, for the life of her, understand how this massive creature managed to move without making a single sound. She had assumed the armor it was wearing should be making metallic clanking sounds everytime he moved, but she can’t recall a single time that remembered him making a noise beyond talking.

“Anyway, I got my shit.” Dante raised his arms, indicating the clothes he had in them. “If you could show me to the nearest shower, that’d be great.”

“Wow, way to make yourself at home.” Twilight snarked.

“Well, I mean this is kind of my property to begin with.” Twilight cocked her eyebrow.

“What do you mean by that?”

Dante tsked. “Y’all motherfuckers built your stupid goddamn castle around my stupid goddamn ship!”

“Well maybe you shouldn’t have built your ship around our castle!” Twilight responded. To this, both Dante and Celestia took their turns to cock their eyebrows at the response.

“Real mature, Twi, what are you? Five? Anyway, this is going to be an issue when I do finally manage to contact the IoP. They consider that ship wreck their property. So either they’ll sell you the ship after stripping it of any technology or the castle will have to be rebuilt.”

At this point, Shining finally spoke up. “And who does this Imperium think they are to demand a sovereign nation to demolish their castle.”

Dante snorted once more. “You want to know who the Imperium is? They’re the guys who made that ship.”

Dante turned to Twilight. “Still, I’d enjoy getting this shit off me, so if you could...” Twilight looked to Princess Celestia. The princess sighed.

“Twilight, would you please show him to the guest suite in the west wing. There’s a shower there.” Twilight nodded to her teacher.

“Dante, if you would please follow me.”

“Oh, sweet, y’all have indoor plumbing, I was afraid I was gonna have to shit in a bucket.” Dante stated as he was just about to disappear from the door frame.

Twilight waited outside the door to the room Princess Celestia had loaned the alien. He had been in there for a while. He had also asked for a bucket, for whatever reason and the shower had been running for a while, as her ears had picked up on the rushing water. After a little while, she heard the faucet shut off.

After a few more minutes, the door where the biped stepped out. Looking significantly differently. His beard was gone, now exposing the bare hide underneath it. His formerly long mane now buzzed down significantly. Not shaved completely, but definitely shorter than an inch. And instead of the armor, he was now wearing what was very obviously cloth. But it wasn’t like any of Rarity’s designs. And around his flank, Twilight noted that there appeared to be a shorter “rifle” hanging on his hips on a belt, alongside several pouches containing more of those rectangles. These being smaller than the one on the “rifle” he had used during the fight with Chrysalis. The rest of the belt was concealed with the cloth that was covering his top.

“Sorry about the wait, Purple,” Twilight rolled her eyes at Dante’s insistence on using color to name them. “Being in a coma for five millenia causes your hair to grow quite long. I also had to wash the gunk out of my armor.” Before Twilight could respond, Dante raised a hand.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t wash any guts down the drain. I’m not a heathen. I collected all the solid waste in the bucket. I’ll toss it out later. So what are we doing now?”

“Well,” Twilight began, “If I had my way, I’d be interviewing you right now. But Princess Celestia and Princess Luna wanted to debrief you and catch you up to speed about Equestria. This will, of course, be done over dinner.”

“Alright,” Dante gestured out the door, swinging his foreleg away from the room, “Lead the way, Purple.” Twilight took off as Dante followed.

“If you don’t mind me asking, Dante, how did you end up here in the first place?”

Dante scratched his chin.

“Shit, honestly. Some asshole terrorists from way back when launched an attack on my home planet. I had been posted there by the Imperium, so I of course joined in on the defense until the Imperial Navy reached us and brought reinforcements. I boarded the mother ship of their attack and found a super weapon on board, enough to destroy a shit ton of space. So I dropped it off in a black hole and then got out of there by ripping the ship in half. And then I landed here. And some retarded engineer didn’t put redundant comms system in the part of the ship that didn’t get destroyed. So I am, at the moment, unable to contact Overlord and get them here. Fuckin’ pricks.”

“Overlord?” Twilight looked back at Dante, raising an eyebrow.

Dante waved his foreleg in front of his face. “Yeah, it’s a general name for mission control. They coordinate information and intel to and between operatives on the ground, and acting as go-between for the boots on the ground and Command as well as other forces, like armored units and air units. Basically Command tells Overlord to tell Captain Joe Schmo to move his guys to grid x, Overlord tells Cap to move his guys. Cap Joe Schmo needs air support because he’s got a tank column coming his way, Overlord patches him into the comms system of the nearest air unit.”

“Is it… is it okay for you to be telling me this stuff?” Twilight questioned. While she had never been in the Royal Guard, but Shining Armor is and he was notoriously short and vague regarding their procedure.

Dante gave a snort that Twilight was slowly beginning to associate as a normal tic for him.

“Fuck no. Anyone else and they’d be facing multiple court martials for interfering with a level one species.”

“Level one?” Twilight questioned.

“Yeah, general description being a species that is still utilizing primitive technology and has not yet reached space. But don’t worry, even when I finally get Overlord off their lazy asses to come and get me, they can’t do shit to me.”

“Why? Are you immune from court martials?”

“Nah, just the issues that would arise from it just wouldn’t be worth it for Brass. Both from the citizenry and my fellow Legionaires.”

Twilight looked back the strange alien creature. He certainly did not have a military air about him. He didn’t seem disciplined, didn’t seem to care about secrets and didn’t seem to be worried about his government finding out he was apparently breaking laws severe enough to be court martialled for.
“Dante, why do I have the feeling you’re not entirely being forthcoming with who you are?” Twilight asked, looking back once more to see a grin on the creature’s face, revealing two fangs tht she hadn’t noticed before.

“Well, took you long enough to catch on. Don’t worry, I’ll properly introduce myself when we talk with your princesses. For now, tell me more about this world.” Dante feigned interest and allowed the purple pony to talk. Of which she seemed eager to do. He wasn’t actually listening to her, at least not actively. Venus was collecting all of her words and filing them away for review. But Venus was also the reason Dante had her start talking. Given that he and Venus were literally connected through the mind, he could tell when she wanted something.

“I started receiving signals from a tracker, commonly seen in Imperial technology. The signal is faint.” Venus informed Dante, though no sound escaping his brain this time.

Normally, Dante would have just spoken aloud to her, but due to his lack of a helmet, that would alert Twilight to the fact something was up.

So he instead spoke to her through his thoughts.

“Do you have a lock on its signal?” Dante thought back to her.

“I do, but due to the lack of satellites in orbit, I was forced to change my mapping. I sent out a pulse a few minutes ago when I first found the signal. I just got a pingback and created a map out of the ping. It’s going to be rough because the ping was spread out across twenty miles, but once we get close enough, I should be able to run a hot/cold trace on it and get you to it.”

“Well,” Dante thought, as he slowed down and instead walked to a nearby window. Twilight continuing to move forward and not realizing she was leaving behind the biped. Dante stepped onto the ledge created by the window and slowly opened it, not wanting to let Twilight know what he was doing. “I guess we’re postponing our meeting with the Princesses, huh?” Dante stepped out of the open window, disappearing as gravity took hold.

“-nd a small region of gryphons in the western part of the city. Well, that’s about all there is to say about Canterlot. What about your country, Dante?” Twilight continued waiting as she waited for the biped’s response. After waiting a few seconds, Twilight said his name once more. “Dante?” She turned her head, as her eyes widened as the sudden and terrifying realization.

Dante wasn’t there. And Celestia had tasked Twilight with bringing Dante to her for dinner and a meeting.

Which meant… Twilight’s brain swirled as she did the mental math. Her jaw lowered as her already large eyes became even larger!

Dante could hear the scream as he landed on the stone ground with no appreciable damage to either him or the stone. He cringed as he looked back up towards the window he just came from and muttered an apology to the purple unicorn. Taking a moment to orient himself, Venus mapped out a rough path for him to take to the signal and Dante began his jog to the origin.

Author's Notes:

Or... rather... jumping through a window.

Dante's so considerate. Not clogging their drains with changeling guts and hair.

Again, as always, if you liked and favorited this story, please tell me why. Especially if you're reading both the original version and this version. If you disliked this story, please tell me why you disliked it. Thank you very much.