We made it back to Canterlot late, immediately everyone went to bed. The next day Twilight was… well I don’t think overjoyed is the word to use. She passed Celestia’s “test”. I would like to point out that I was the one to kill Sombra and nearly die from it… but I think I’ll keep that to myself. Twilight and her friends were so overjoyed they sang a song…

A song!

The real question is who does that?

…

Then again, I’m stuck on a planet with small magical ponies. This place looks too much like a little girls television show. I guess got to use to the dark and bland colors of Corpus and Grineer ships. Anyway, I stayed behind in Canterlot to get ready for the world wide meeting coming up in a week. With the return of the Crystal Empire, word spread fast… and I mean within twenty four hours fast.

Then again Celestia had sent out letters to all the nations… and apparently she told them who had returned the empire… yay me. Sorry, I guess I’m a little down still. Death never bothered me, but the loss of my wife always did. Anyway, during my time in Canterlot I learned that Celestia had a big plan for Twilight.

I ended up walked up on the twin princesses. Celestia and Luna were standing on a nearby balcony in the throne room as they watched Twilights train leave for Ponyville. Celestia explained how this book she had used to be a great wizards journal. She said she was going to give it to Twilight so that she could finish the spell on the last page.

Putting the book aside, Celestia, her sister and I spent two days negotiating a meeting of the nations. I hate negotiations, but we eventually settled on meeting in the Crystal Empire in a week’s time. It was the most neutral spot since its recent return. Once I was done there I headed back to Ponyville. I had Ordis send me my Itzal Archwing. Since I had to make yet another Odonata Prime.

Once I made it back to Ponyville, Twilight wouldn’t stop rambling about how Pinkie had pretty much cloned herself. All because she couldn’t have fun on more than one occasion... at a time. Twilight had five other friends, Celestia, Luna, Cadence, her brother, and me to consult for advice in a strange situation like that.

And she made all the Pinkie clones watch paint dry…

Paint. Dry. Honestly.

As stupid as it sounded it did work… oddly enough. Good thing she had Applejack’s brother close the hole to the… mirror pool? Makes me wonder what the Grineer would do with something like that? Instead of producing clones in a tube, in a lab and deal with all the complications that come with cloning. They could make an army in seconds instead of months.

I’m getting off track, as long as the pool stays hidden in the Everfree things should be good. The Grineer don’t know about it anyway. Once I got back, I took Serenity out of cryogenic sleep. I wasn’t too surprised when she didn’t wake up.

With the latest event at the empire I decided to examine the new scar I was given.

I stood in my arsenal as the robotic arms removed my armor. The arms took the gloves first, then the left sleeve, and then the left half of the abdomen, finally the arms removed the right half. Everything but the glove is a whole piece. Once I was out of the upper half of my armor I stepped away from my arsenal and had Ordis bring up a live feed hologram. I looked at the battle scared man.

The black polyester undershirt was full of holes, cuts, and was caked in my blood. The suit does its best to keep me clean, but when you haven’t taken your armor off in a few hundred years, it tends to miss a few things. I looked at the hologram of the muscular man. I might be ripped, but the only thing I can thank for that is the Tennogen Virus. I gained about twenty-five or thirty pounds and my muscular build just exploded. I was like Captain America, except I’m the real deal, and had a suit like Tony Stark.

I brought my hand up to my chest and ran my middle finger in one of the bullet holes in the shirt and rubbed my chest lightly. I sighed as I removed my hand and let my arm go limp. I looked down at my stomach and saw a tear the size of my sword running vertically. I grabbed each side of the tear, separating the fabric and looking into the hole. A long bloody scab had taken the place of what used to be a large hole in my stomach.

I let go of the tear and grabbed the shirt by the back of the collar and pulled it over my head and off my arms. Once the shirt was removed I could see what I had “earned” over the years. The scar in the middle of my chest where an arrow barely missed my heart, the bullet wound where I sniper hit me in the right shoulder, and the electrical burn that covered my left arm, the burn mark on my right bicep, and finally… the massive burn on my back, left shoulder. That's not including the other various bullet wounds I've suffered from over the years.

I sighed as I looked at my broken and torn up body. We have the ability to hide scars like this, but where is the point when they’re be hidden by my armor?

Tink, tink, tink!

“Ordis, who is it?” I asked the ship not taking my attention away from the hologram.

“Miss Sparkle.”

I let my head drop, “*sigh* let me grab a shirt and I’ll see what she wants,” I looked at the hologram one last time before closing the feed and walking away.

I gave the old shirt to an arsenal arm and grabbed a clean one from another before walking to the back ramp. The ramp opened once I got close enough. I descended to see Twilight looking at the open field. I made it about halfway down the ramp before she turned to look at me.

“Excalibur, I was wonderrrr-”

She trailed off as her eyes went wide. She was enjoying the eye candy I was giving off…frankly I hate it. Now I know where this is headed. First shock, then sadness, and finally wanting to feel me up like an animal.

I stopped at the bottom of the ramp, “Can I help you Twilight?” I asked before I slipped the shirt over my head.

“I… uh…” she blinked twice, “Wow!” she was starting to blush.

I adjusted the shirt until I felt comfortable. Although the shirt showed off my muscles as it clung to my skin, which didn’t help with my situation.

“So this is what you look like without your armor?” she never took her eyes off my chest and toned abdomen.

“Yeah. So?”

“I… uh… those scars…” if she was blushing any harder she’d turn into a cherry, “Did they hurt?” it was like her brain wasn’t even working.

“Yes… a lot,” I deadpanned.

I never liked it when people hit on me especially when…

When it’s not Melanie.

I turned around and started back up the ramp, “You’ll never know what it’s like to be truly shot,” I entered the lower half of the ship and walked past the medical pod, up the second ramp and into the upper part of the ship.

A few seconds later I heard Twilight walk in. She must have been recovering from a heart attack... or an orgasm. I hope it was the first option. I placed my hands on the left table while I started to look at the codex. I just ignored the little unicorn that had pretty much had a human fetish now.

I had a moment of realization, “Ordis, did you find out what that artifact is?”

“Yes Excalibur, it is calling a Kuria.”

…

I looked around in bewilderment, “And?” I asked while gesturing for him to continue.

“That’s it Excalibur. All I was able to find was a name.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed, “Thank you Ordis.”

“You’re welcome Excalibur.”

I looked back at the codex, “Could you please give it to me?”

“Yes Excalibur,” the little object popped up for the inside of the table I was leaning on.

I grabbed the little object and placed it somewhere else on the table. If there is nothing exciting about it, I might as well make it look good. Once it was placed where I wanted it I went back to looking at the codex. Twilight just stood there awkwardly.
After a minute or two she spoke up.

“So Excalibur…” she looked at me. I just ignored her, “I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions?”

“Sure,” I said with no expression.

Her demeanor changed from interested to concern, “Is everything okay?”

That was the last thing I was expecting to hear. Honestly I expected something like, “How do your weapons work? Or, how did you do that thing at the empire? Or something about my old life.”

“I’m fine,” I deadpanned.

“You don’t seem like it.”

“I said I’m fine!” I snapped at her.

She leaned back and brought a hoof up in fear, and after what I did at the empire, she had every reason to be scared.

I let my head drop in shame, “I’m sorry Twilight. I didn’t mean to snap at you,” I looked up at her, “let’s just say that I haven’t been myself since we came back from the empire. And two days of planning for the upcoming nations meeting didn’t help either.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Well…” might as well get it over with, “after I-”

“Excalibur! You are needed at the medical pod!”

Looks like I get to keep my little secret for a little longer.

Immediately I ran down the ramp with Twilight in tow. I ran up to the pod and looked inside the glass. I could see the frame inside pawing at the glass in a panic.

I placed my hands of the pod, “Shit!”

I grabbed the handle on the top half of the pod and pulled it open. The pod hissed as the top came unclasped from the bottom half. I grabbed the last two handles on the lower half and separated them. In a flash Serenity sat up screaming her head off.

I grabbed her by the shoulders while she grabbed me by my forearms, “Heyheyhey! Look at me! Look at me!” her searching eventually rested on me, “No one is going to hurt you, your safe with me!”

Her breathing was heavy but it wasn’t as bad as when she started. She started to calm down.

“Where… where am I?” her voice was pretty light now that she wasn’t trying to kill me.

“Aboard my Liset,” I said calmly.

She looked around; her site eventually fell on Twilight. Twilight smiled sheepishly and waved a hoof at her. Serenity just stared for a few awkward seconds.

She leaned in closer to me, “Why do you have a horse?” she asked in a whispered tone.

I laughed a little; Twilight looked a little annoyed and insulted, “That’s Twilight, I’ll explain in a minute. Serenity what do you remember?”

Twilight opened her mouth, only to get cut off, “How do you know my name!?” Serenity frantically asked.

I looked at her, “Serenity, when you went missing there was an A.P.B. sent out by the Lotus. When I found you, I did a little bit of research. Didn’t take me long to find out who you are.”

She looked at me, “Really?”

“Yep,” I grabbed her by the shoulders and helped her to stand up, “So what do you remember?”

She looked at the floor and grabbed her helmet with her right hand, “I don’t remember anything.”

I let go of her and stood up straight, “Well that’s not a big surprise.”

She looked at me, “How so?”

“Cryogenic Amnesia. When you spend prolonged periods of time in a cryo-pod, your memory tends to take a serious hit,” I said, “It’s a pretty regular thing.”

“Excalibur, that doesn’t explain some of the things you told us a few weeks ago?” said Twilight.

She looked at Twilight and leaned back a little of shock, “She can talk!?”

I rolled my eyes and sighed again, “This is going to be fun to explain,” I looked back at Serenity, “How much interaction do you have with aliens?”

She looked at me, “Aliens aren’t real!?”

“That’s what I thought!” said Twilight as she put a hoof to her chest.

She looked at Twilight, “What sick joke is this!?”

I sighed before looking at Twilight, “Twilight, could you please go and wait outside?”

She thought about it for a moment before she nodded, “Mhmm,” she turned and walked down the ramp and left the ship.

I looked back at Serenity, “Take a seat on the edge of the pod and let me explain.”

She took a seat on the edge of the right pod door and held onto it for “balance” while I stood in front of her. I decided to start from the beginning. I told her about how I ended up on Equin, shorted the changeling attack by a few hours, the meeting of the three princesses. Then I told her how I ended up stumbling upon the Corpus ship in the Everfree Forest, and finally ended with the latest events at the Crystal Empire.

“So why don’t you just leave?” asked Serenity.

“The hit from the Grineer Galleon caused a massive amount of damage. I lost the hyper drive, my coms are shot, and I’m down an engine. And with the latest events I have participated in in the last two or three weeks. I haven’t been able to get very far with my repairs.”

“So how long should the repairs take?”

I crossed my arms, “Months… and I’m about two weeks behind. Ordis has to fabricate an entire left engine. I still need to remove box that contains the workings of the hyper drive, I need to get the communications or radio box removed, and the cloak isn’t really a necessity. And somewhere along the line I have to figure out how I’m going to get that engine out and the new one in,” I let my arms go limp, “then there’s the nations meeting in a week.”

“Nations meeting?”

“With the recent events at the Crystal Empire and the Corpus ship where I found you, this planet not only needs to know about us. They need to know about the powers that lie beyond their atmosphere.”

She crossed her arms, “So were stuck here,” she deadpanned.

“Welcome to my pain.”

She let her arms go limp, “So now what?”

“Well… I guess the first thing to do is get you accustomed to the situation. I’ll remove the ability inhibitor and tell you what you’ve got going on. Here turn around.”

She stood up and turned around. I grabbed the small round device and removed it from her armor.

“Alright,” she turned around and looked at me.

“AHHH!” she screamed.

“What!?”

“My abilities! What happened to them!?”

Looks like she finally got a good look at her abilities in her helmet.

I relaxed, “When the Corpus experimented on you they augmented your abilities.”

“So my...?”

“Your originals were lost… along with a few other things,” I paused, “you have 150 shields instead of your original 700. You armor has been boosted from 300 to 600. And for your abilities, you have what is called Rip Line, it’s a grapple hook that you can use to move with or you can pull a target toward you. Next is called Warcry, it allows you to transfer some void energy to you and your allies. It gives us a boost with our suits, allowing us to attack faster, while also slowing our enemies.

Next is Paralysis, which transfers power from your shields into an energy attack. It’s powerful enough to knock enemies off their feet and give them what is essentially and invisible gut punch. And finally, Hysteria, you become imbued with energy and basically become a ball of vicious rage; you are capable of unleashing a torrent of deadly claw attacks,” she looked at her hands, “Those claws of yours are made of the same energy that my Exalted Blade is made of.”

She looked up at me and lowered her hands, “But what happens if that rage overtakes me and I attack someone that doesn’t deserve it?”

Well she attacked me and I’m not dead.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t. I’ll be monitoring you from here on out until the ship is repaired.”

Her head dropped, “…Okay…” she said nervously.

“Here… I think we’ve let Twilight wait long enough,” I turned and gave her a follow me wave with my hand, “come on.”

I started walking with Serenity in tow. We exited the ship and walked down the ramp. Twilight was sitting nearby reading a book. She looked up at us and made the book disappear.

Serenity pointed at where the book used to be and looked at me, “Did that book…?”

“Disappear into thin air,” I looked at her, “Yeah, magic,” I looked back at Twilight, “nuff said.”

“What took you so long?” asked Twilight with a hint of annoyance.

“I had to explain a lot of things. Anyway! Twilight this is Serenity,” I said as I gestured to Serenity with my left hand. I looked at my new ally, “Serenity, this is Twilight.”

Twilight stuck a hoof out, “It’s nice to finally meet you,” she said with a smile.

Serenity looked at me. I could tell she was nervous, “She’s not going to hurt you.”

She looked back at Twilight. She took a knee and stuck her right hand out and grabbed Twilight’s hoof, “It’s nice to meet you too,” she said nervously while they shook hoof and hand.

One of the most powerful frames ever made is jumpier then a kangaroo…. Wow!

Once the introduction was over she stood up and looked at me.

“So, what now?”

“Let’s see if I can do something about that collar on your neck. It probably isn’t very comfortable?” I looked at Twilight, “Twilight, I’m sorry, but you’ll have to go home.”

Her ears dropped and she looked at the ground, “Do I have to?”

She was sounding like a three year old.

“I’m sorry Twilight, but I can’t allow you or anyone else to catch a glimpse of any tech. This planet isn’t ready for it.”

She looked up at me, “Okay,” she said with sadness.

“Here, we’ll stop by late and we can do whatever you want.”

She perked up, “Really?”

“Yeah. With the recent events, Serenity here will need to get used to her surroundings. Talking to you and your friends would be a good way to start.”

“Okay!” she said happily. She stood up and started to walk away with a smile on her face, she looked over her shoulder and waved, “Bye Excalibur!”

“By Twilight!” I said with a wave of my hand. I let my arm drop and I looked at Serenity, “Alright let’s see what we got going here,” Serenity had her head tilted, “What?”

“Why do you go by your suit name? Don’t you have a different name that you prefer?”

“Only a certain few go by their suit name,” I turned to face the ramp, “My last name is Prime,” her shoulders dropped and I swear I heard her jaw it the bottom of her helmet. I started up the ramp, “Congrats! You have now joined the squad of the very first Tenno!” I hollered over my shoulder, “Hope you can handle it!” I said sarcastically.

Author's Notes:

IT LIVES!
...
Well she was never dead anyway. Anyway, say hello to Serenity. This frame is now apart of the story, she will be showing her abilities off some more in the next chapter.
To see here abilities in action click here
To see Excalibur and that sword of his click here

Two chapters today because I lacked out last week.