"So, what exactly is going on here?" I asked the Stalker.

"You already know the basics, fortunately," he replied. "The specifics would be my enemy has discovered a way to turn their soldiers into Sentients, somehow, and use those in small numbers but for great effect. Not even with the Acolytes is taking one of them down easy for me."

"To be fair, you don't have a lot of variety with your weapons," I commented. "My loadout's got magnetic, gas, blast, and corrosive in it, along with the basic three with my Soma and Aksomati. Remember, the fuckers adapt to damage, and take less damage from those types."

"Yes, but even with Harmony, we can not use mods with our weapons effectively," he said. "They always seem to misfire, or do nothing at all. As such, we've abandoned them entirely," he commented as we left the forest, and I saw this world's version of Ponyville, only it was on fire.

"You know, I'm surprised Sombra hasn't called in his lover yet," I remarked.

"You and me both," Stalker said. "Stay nearby, Excalibur, but do not intervene."

"You're kidding, right?" I asked as we began to run.

"Yes," he replied. "Whatever it is, the militia here is trained to help us deal with it, even if it is an alicorn."

"I doubt that highly," I muttered. "Fine, but if there's even a hint of you all getting your assess kicked into hell and the Void, I'm jumping in, regardless of who it is."

Stalker chuckled. "I can see why Harmony chose you."

"Chose us dumbass," I shot back. "Technically, we're the same person."

"Fair enough," he laughed out as we reached the town, and I bullet jumped to the rooftops to follow him, my Aksomati in hands while Stalker had two of his throwing Knives ready for action. As we neared the town center, I slid across the rooftops and bullet jumped close so as to avoid the chances o fbeing seen while Stalker seemed to jump into and out of the shadows.

When we finally arrived, I saw two Sentients along with multiple ponies in crystal armor surrounding ponies in normal, civilian clothes as well as the Acolytes. With those surrounding them was a more goth looking Cadence and Shining Armor, each wearing ornate but functional armor. "Talk about unexpected," I murmured, referring to the fact two of the leaders are here. "You seeing this?" I asked Stalker over comms.

"Yeah, and it's odd, seeing those two here. That makes defeating this group much harder."

"I'll cover you from up here best I can," I told him. "Don't worry, my personal setup for this frame has a maxed rush, so I'm close to a default Loki sprint speed."

"Use it for hit and run, then," Stalker ordered. "If I fail, run to Canterlot, tell Sombra what happened, and get him to have Celestia bring her part of the Tenno here. We will need as much help as possible."

I hesitated for a second before replying, "Right."

"Then wish me luck," Stalker said as I crouched and took aim, waiting for a good point to provide support as Stalker walked into the square, and threw the two knives, one a piece at a guard's head, resulting in two, silent deaths before he drew his bow, followed by two of those arrows, nocked one, and fired it, beheading another guard, nocked the second, and fired, the second going through a guard's chest to his another and staying there.

Here, they had turned to face him. "So, Harmony's shadow has finally arrived," Cadence said with a noticeable smirk. "I was surprised when you weren't with your Acolytes." She shrugged. "Not that it matters." She motioned with her chin to the guards and two Sentients. "Kill or cpature, I don't care which. Capture's preferable, as we can kill him later to ensure he's dead."

"M'lady," a Sentient said-how?- before they rushed him, causing the black and red Tenno to draw his scythe, and me to fire off two rounds, four thanks to the barrel diffusion mod overall, before moving to avoid being seen. As I did, I saw the first actual guards reach Stalker, only to be cut down by his weapon, often sliced in half, at least. Just as I finished moving, I saw the two Sentients reach him, and he tried to fight, but, well, as I said, Sentients adapt to attacks. After a few strikes, they didn't look like any damage was being done.

As Stalker went to deliver another strike, one of the Sentients swiped the weapon out of his hands, and on the ground before a blue aura wrapped around him, tearing the other weapons off him before making him hover to in front of Cadence. "And here I thought the one who was Harmony's champion was a threat," she sneered. "I will most definitely enjoy breaking you," she said before throwing him into the crowd next to the Acolytes, and I saw the one that had Mesa's body-I forget the specific names for the Acolytes- move and put an arm around his shoulder and leaned him before he nodded.

He then looked up to the roof tops, and scanned them for me before nodding. Again, I hesitated before nodding, and running again, this time away from the fight.

I know this is supposed to help I told Harmony, but these morons could take this Equestria over before any help gets here.

Perhaps, Harmony replied. But this is what he wanted you to do. If it means ensuring both Equestria's are safe, what does it matter?

And people say I care only about results.

You do often say "if it works, it works."

Touche, I muttered mentally as i jumped over a roof top and onto this worlds version of the library Twilight used to live in. Well, more accurately, hit a window sill, and had to use my arms to keep from falling.

"Uh, what was that?" I heard from inside, and the voice sounded like Applejack's.

"I don't know, I'll check it out," a second voice, probably this world's Twilight given the voice, said.

"Just be careful, Twi," a third voice said, confirming my guess. "Cadence and those damned soldiers of hers are out there, and Fluttershy isn't back yet." Oh, yeah, one of the Acolytes had a Valkyr body with the immortal skin. Makes sense this world's Fluttershy would be an Acolyte, then.

Still, I was just barely able to drop down as I heard hoofsteps coming toward the window. "Doesn't look like anything, girls," Twilight said. "Probably just a rock falling down from the roof."

"Must have been a big rock, then, to make that sound," this world's Rarity said.

"Still, I just hope Fluttershy and the others are doing okay, given the lack of sound."

"I'm sure they're doing alright, Rainbow," Twilight said, though there was doubt in her voice.

Oh, fuck it, I thought before I made my way back to where Stalker and the others were being held.

Excalibur-

Shove it, Harmony, I told her. I took your offer to protect civilians, and running right now would only bring more pain to them. This way, I can at least give them a chance to run.

If you fail, you'd better hope Sombra asks your Celestia for help, Harmony said.

I'll keep that in mind, I replied as I entered an alleyway lose to the area I was heading. Can I at least have access to Prime form if I need it?

. . .Yes, but only for thirty seconds.

That's all I need, I said as I leaned around a corner to see my objective. Well, time for an entrance. Now, what song? Oh, I know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG1HhynkNqA

As the song began to play, I grabbed my dual automatic pistols, and walked around the corner to see the confused faces of multiple guards and civilians staring at me, as well as an angry alicorn. I brought my right hand up sideways, and made a come and get me gesture, to which two morins happily obliged, only to be shot down by head shots. "Try again," I said as I reloaded the pistols by twirling them around the trigger finger, ejecting the clips as I moved them to where the spare ammo was stored, and it slid in before I brought it back up, and fired into the guards coming toward me. Once i ran out, I dropped the guns just as the Sentients neared me, and I drew Silva, causing its blade and Aegis to ignite, and rolled out of the way as one took a swipe at me, and i came up with Aegis in front of me, Silva hanging by my side. "Og, this is going to be fun," I muttered before rushing in.

Just as I reached them, I slid under one of their arms as they tried to swipe at me and spun Silva into a reverse grip before spinning myself around, channeling energy into the blade as it struck, allowing it to tear through the Sentient's armor before going to town on it, using every single Final Harbinger combo on it before jumping back, sheathing the sword as I did so, and drew my Soma, and fired into the glowing heart of the Sentient as I landed, the four damage types-Slash, Puncture, Impact, and Gas- quickly making work of the fighter before it split apart, the heart which held it together as dark as a starless night. The other one charged me in retaliation.

Now, I told Harmony. And a Prime blade weapon, too.

If you think it'll help, she said before there was a small flash, and I was now in my Prime frame, with the Nikana Prime in hand. I did a quick glance, and saw it had corrosive and gas damage on it, in combo with the high slash.

"Let's go," I said as the Sentient fighter reached me and tried to swipe at me, to which I sidestepped, drew the sword out of its sheathe, and sliced off the right arm with a single stroke before replacing the blade into its scabbard "Try again." Good thing they don't know they have ranged weapons.

Again, it silently charged at me, only this time in a tornado fashion, to which I raised the scabbard to block as the blade dropped free. I grabbed it in my right hand, and proceeded to use the Breathless Lunge combo from the Tranquil cleave stance, stabbing and slicing at the core. As it fell, I twirled the blade around before putting it back it is scabbard, which was at my side and, as it is in game, held blade up. I then looked back. "If you two wish to live," I told Cadence and Shining Armor, "leave. I have faced worse than the alicorn of love in this form, and won. You can not hope to best me now."

Cadence growled. "You will pay," Cadence growled before she teleported herself and Shining Armor away. Timely, as I went back to normal Excalibur just after they left.

"Talk about lucky," I said. "They didn't use their guns, and every strike was at their core."

"Not to mention the fact I'm not putting you in the ground," Stalker said as he walked over to me. "I told you to go to Canterlot and tell Sombra about what happened."

"And I remembered why I became a Tenno in the first place," I said as I turned around. "You can beat me into the ground later. Now, we need to make sure Cadence and her allies know they have another enemy, and one that can handle their best fighters. So either we stay here and don't do anything, or we make sure everyone's alright, and you introduce me to the Acolytes, because we'll need to know each other if we'll have a chance here to fight them."