A/N: good news, i have a lightening fast computer with Word on it. now i shall update more often. but i am also writing a story, check my blog later for info on that. now on to this chapter.

Shining Armor stood with Cadance and waited for the human to show. The training grounds were surrounded by both civilian and guards alike, waiting for the duel to begin. On one end of the circle stood Twilight and her friends, who didn’t like the idea of the duel. The crowd was getting anxious, for the fight was supposed to begin in a few minutes, and only one of the duelists was present.

The crowd then started to part, allowing a…speaker system to pass through? The ponies all looked at it like this is not supposed to be right. On the stage that carried the system were Vinyl Scratch, Princess Luna, and Anthony. The human stood at attention the whole time, zero expression on his face. The crowd started to cheer, seeing as they would finally get a chance to see the human in action.

The sound system moved toward the open ground and stopped when it reached the outer edge, The Spartan than jumped down and landed in the middle of the 50 foot diameter circle that was to be the sparring area. Shining Armor trotted to meet him, and stood about five feet back.

“I will give you this one chance to surrender. I suggest you take it,” the human said, keeping a neutral stare and voice. This slightly unnerved Shining Armor, but he quickly replied.

“Only cowards offer surrender. This just confirms my suspicions. But I do have a quick question; what is up with the sound system here?” he asked the question on ever ponies mind.

“I thought it would help for some mood music while we dueled, and I think that everypony deserves a little cultural taste of my home,” the Spartan said, keeping the same calm, neutral look.

“Fine, now for the terms of this fight. I propose a one –on-one match, no weapons, only skill and magic. Since you lack magic and standing injury, I will allow you to have one weapon of your choose for the match. You may pick when we begin. If I win, you will have to change back into a pony immediately, and forced to join the guard,” Shining said, grinning at how much pain he would inflict on the human.

“And if I win, you will respect me for the fact that I am not so different from you, just look different. And I will be allow to train your guards as I see fit.” The Spartan stood there, seeing the shock on the unicorns face. Shining was expecting something horrible, not respect and training detail. This though was not going to be allowed anyway if Shining Armor was to have his way.

“deal, now pick your weapon, the first to surrender, or the first to faint loses,” Shining Armor said, taking a few steps back as a cart loaded with a large quantity of weapons on it. The Spartan didn’t even look at it, just waving it away like it was a fly buzzing near his food. This shocked everypony there, even Luna. She thought he would take something to try and defend himself.

“I will not fight with a weapon, as that would put me at an unfair advantage over you. Vinyl, start to playing,” the Spartan said, and he started to remove his shirt. His muscles were already full visible from how the shirt was designed, but it only covered them up. Every fiber of the human was covered in dense muscles, along with a bandage on his left side. He looked at the bandage, and removed it with one good pull down. The stitches that were supposed to be there had all fallen out, showing a mostly healed side. Not a scar was visible. He then cracked ever joint in his hands, neck, and shoulders. The crowd was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

The shirt and bandage were tossed away, and Vinyl Scratch started to play the music he had selected. The bass and synthetic music instantly filled the air, as the Spartan turned and waited for his opponent to start the match. Shining Armor started the match by firing a bolt of magic at his opponent.

The Spartan moved faster than anypony thought possible. He was out of danger and half way toward Shining before anypony saw him. Shining only had time to raise a shield before the Spartan collided with him. The human bounced off and landed a few feet away, before running up and slamming his fist in and through the shield. This caused Shining to jump to avoid the over powered human.

The Spartan kept going and ran into the unicorn. The music now had words, but it was no heard by Shining Armor as he was too busy trying not to get crushed by the Spartan in such a short time. Shining teleported to the other side of the ring, and turned toward the human, who had already turned around and was waiting. The human took a lower stance and kept his arms up to deflect any object that could fly towards him.

How can he be so calm and collected? And how he was able to just punch threw my shield. That shield was strong enough to hold back a kick from an earth pony for at least a few minutes. It was like he didn’t have anything in his way. Shining Armor thought as he tried to figure out a way to face this challenge. This was his next mistake.

The Spartan saw that Shining was contemplating on his next strategy, almost forgetting the Spartan. Anthony was not going to use the same thing as before, waiting for your opponents move means that you have to wait for their move. The Spartan charged as fast he could traversing the twenty feet between them with just two steps, and collided with the distracted unicorn. The human grabbed Shining Armor by his neck and lifted him up above his head, and slammed him into the ground.

Shining let out a shout of pain. The Spartan then planted his boot on the pony’s head, and held him down with just a little pressure. Shining Armor struggled to move the rest of his body so as not to have his underbelly open to attack. Shining Armor blasted the human with a burst magic, sending him flying ten feet back. The crowd watched this in silence, for they had no clue as to what way this fight would go. Pinkie Pie sat there eating cotton candy.

The Spartan landed on his back, and groaned as he attempted to get back up. He was stopped though by Shining Armor, who had charged at him and was pinning him down with his whole weight. This weight though was nothing to the Spartan, who picked up Shining and threw him away. The unicorn landed on his right side and was back up, ready to keep fighting. The Spartan kept his neutral stare the entire time.

Shining charged up a excessive amount of magic in his horn, before firing it at the human. Anthony just dodged the blast and began running at the Captain of the Guard. What he didn’t see was the same bolt fly towards him from behind. The blast hit him like a freight train. The Spartan was flung to the ground and laid there, a round burn occupied most of his back. This though did not faze the Spartan, as he stood back up and continued his attack on the now weakened unicorn.

How did he survive that blast!? That should have landed him in the hospital for a week. He isn’t even slowed by it either. How is he this strong? shining thought as he tried to avoid the Spartan, but the magic had left him weak and slow. Anthony tackled him to the ground and grabbed him around the neck with his arm, and took a hold on his horn with the other hand.

“I will give you this last opportunity to surrender. I don’t want to knock you out, because it will be easier for the next person next time,” the Spartan said with a calm tone. “I didn’t wish to fight you, but now I am. I am giving a choose; surrender, or be permanently damaged. Your choose.” Shining Armor just laid there in his grip, panting from the exertion of the duel. He tried to struggle, but the hands on him prevented any movement. The two stayed in the same position for twenty seconds, before Shining Armor felt his mind start to get fuzzy.

The Spartan released Shining Armor and stood up. Shining’s mind started to clear up and he noticed that the human had let go. He attempted to stand, but the lack of blood in his brain made him dizzy and collapse.

“I wouldn’t try and stand for the next few minutes. Your body needs to resupple your brain with blood. But this match is done. I have defeated you, and I know when this match is over. I sparred you something that you should not through. Take it, and stop being in a rage,” the human said, turning back toward Luna and Vinyl. He got about three steps before collapsing right on the ground. The crowd gasped and Shining Armor just looked at the human.

Luna ran right over to him and tried to check to see if he was okay. Cadance had ran out to comfort Shining, but he was to distracted at what had happened. The Spartan had gone through the whole duel without showing any signs of fatigue, but right when it ended, he fell over in pure exhaustion. Cadance helped Shining up as a group of medical ponies trotted over and got him on the stretcher.

Another group had arrived and were attempting to help the Spartan. Luna appeared worried and didn’t leave the human’s side, even when they sped off to the hospital. Shining was taken away to the same hospital. The last thing Shining Armor remembered before passing out was his wife looking in his face.

Canterlot Hospital

The sun was shining into the room, saying good bye to the world for the day, and allowing the moon to bring in the night. Luna had gone out and performed her royal duty, but the rest of her duties were left to their own devices. Luna sat in the hospital room, waiting for the human to awake from his slumber. The doctors said that he would be out for a hours. Luna knew that the estimate was not entirely accurate, so she waited. The Spartan was dehydrated, and had not eaten in more than a day. Add that to his increased metabolizing and healing body, the doctor was surprised that he hadn’t collapsed sooner. The IV was put in his arm, and a feeding tube was put in, so as to get some nourishment into his system. The doctor had left and had to deal with other patience, so Luna was alone with her love.

She was resting her head on the Spartan’s chest, listening to the human’s heart beat and breathing. She was about to drift off to sleep because of the lack that she had acquired, when a voice woke her up.

“I knew I should have become a pillow instead, if I knew you were going to use me like one.” Luna’s eyes shot open, to find the love of her life awake and smile on his face. He chuckled lightly, but then stopped with a pained look covering his face.

“Are you okay?” Luna asked, concerned for his health.

“ya, I will be. Just that now I have nothing to block the pain, and it is not an easy thing to go through. How long have I been out?” he still was as stubborn as ever, but Luna was just glad he would be fine.

“few hours, the doctors thought that you wouldn’t even begin to stir until morn, but I didn’t care. I would have waited for you until the end of time if I had to,” Luna said, lightly wrapping her hooves around the resting man, trying not to put to much weight on him. He held her back and the two just sat that way for the next few minutes, until an unfamiliar noise startled them both.

*growl*

“Ha, I guess I’m still hungry,” the Spartan said, making the dark alicorn laugh, making himself laugh too. He had to stop again though because of his injuries. Luna stopped and regained her concerned look, wanting to help him and being unable to. “I think that it would be best if I got some food, could you please get the nurse?”

“Of course I will,” and Luna quickly left to retrieve the nurse, leaving a kiss on the humans lips. The Spartan took the moment to examine what it was that was adding weight to his left side. His Mauler with a few mags was sitting next to him, on top of the covers. He had brought it to the duel, just in case something happened and fists weren’t enough. The handle to his Energy Sword and Ipod sat next to it. He slowly grabbed the music device and headphones and turned on the device, to find it was still in the play list, but had cut off. He started to shuffle through the music, trying to find something that would be soothing.

He finally found it and plugged the left headphone into his ear, and pressed the play button. The drums and guitar of “Ain’t My Bitch” by Metallica started to blare through the headphones, and the Spartan released a sigh of content. He relaxed lessoning to the heavy metal that consumed his left ear. Luna reentered, seeing her love holding the Ipod in hand and single headphone in. She half smiled and walked back over to the relaxing human, and placed a kiss on his cheek.

“The nurse will be in with your food in a few minutes. What are you listening to?” she asked, her curiosity peeked.

“To a band in my world called Metallica. They came about in the early 1980’s, and were still making music when I left in 2012. In the 1980’s the major type of music that was around were hair bands. Humans don’t have that much hair on their bodies, and usually only women have long hair. These hair bands came out, and played hard rock and heavy metal and had long hair. And right now I’m listening to a song called ‘Ain’t My Bitch.’ I mostly use this type of music to calm down after a long day,” the Spartan said with Luna keeping her head on his chest, looking in his eyes the whole time.

“May I listen to it?” she asked apprehensively.

“of course, here take this and put it in your ear. I’ll let you filter through the songs I have, see if anything peeks your interest,” he said, showing her the screen and slowly scrolling down the list. He thought it would be better for him to hold it, considering that she has hooves and the scroll is not made for those.

“Oh, that one,” she said, pointing at “Pour Some Sugar On Me” by Def Leppard. He pressed the play button and the music started to play, the love of his life resting on his chest and not a care in the world. He wished to stay that way, but the nurse came into the room with his food. As the nurse placed the tray on the table, Luna got up and removed the headphones. Anthony turned off the Ipod and attempted to sit up in bed. The nurse had left the room, and Luna pushed the human back down. She levitated some of the mystery hospital food on a fork with her magic and raised the food to his mouth.

“You don’t have to do that,” he said, slightly blushing at the alicorn.

“I know, but I want to. Also, you barely had the strength to move your music player, so I’m doing this for you,” Luna said, putting the fork up to his mouth. He took a bite, keeping his eyes on the moon princess. The two continued to go at this for about half an hour, before the food had run dry. The Spartan needed his rest, so Luna placed the fork and empty tray on a far table and sat on the chair provided in the room. The human had fallen asleep a while ago, after sharing a kiss with his love, and Luna had decided to join him in the dream realm. Little did she know, his dreams were not going to be as peaceful as she thought they should be.

Dream Realm

Luna entered the dream of her lover, so as to spend time with him even while he was incapacitated. She found herself in a building, similar to the one she was in at the hospital. The room was amazingly detailed for a dream, most rooms are usually had basic detail, and nothing specific, but this blew her mind. Even the spots on the ceiling were all different. The moon shone through the open window, allowing the alicorn to see further detail. If it had not been day when she entered the dream, she would have thought she was still awake.

The room was empty except for her, so she went to the window to see if she could get a good idea on the world the Spartan had created. The view was not pretty.

Fires consumed much of the landscape. The city of Canterlot was burning, and ponies were running around to try and kill the fire. This was to no avail as the source of the flames was coming from a machine in the center of Canterlot. The monstrosity was massive, burning up everything around. Luna instinctively destroyed the window and flew out to protect her and her sister’s subjects.

She flew fast to reach the machine, when a red beam flew past her and impacted on the machine. The hole in the fire-shooting destroyer was large enough for a pony to fit through. A second red beam followed its partner right in the hole, sending the machine into an explosive destruction. The fire-machine started to crumble and collapse, ending its attack on the city. Luna turned around to find a humanoid holding a heavy weapon on its shoulders, the gun having smoke rising from it. The armored being was flying there, in a red and gray combo armor, looking at the alicorn with its polarized visor.

“well, nice to see you here,” it said, the voice familiar to the dark princess.

“Is it? I thought that you would have a more peaceful mind than this?” she questioned, looking him in the visor. He sighed, flying closer to her and removed the helmet. This revealed a wounded warrior, who appeared to have been fighting for hours, and achieved nothing. His eyes were glazed over, making Luna think that he was not in full control of the dream. Luna looked at the solder with horror on her face.

“How long have you been fighting?” Luna asked.

“I don’t know, the moon has been out the whole time. Even the suit clock has been unhelpful, every time I look at it, I forget what it says. I think for a few days though,” he said, looking even more tired by the minute. He then looked behind her and put his helmet back on. “have to go, new enemy sighted.” he powered up the jets and took off.

Luna hovered in the air for a few seconds, trying to figure out why he was having this type of dream. She decided to follow him and keep an eye on him, maybe ask him a few questions. Luna flew toward him in time to see him destroy another one of those fire machines. The location though was the same as before. He went through the motions, fire gun, make hole, fire again, fly to fight another. Each one he destroyed, he seemed to not save anyone in time. The ponies on the ground burned every time, and he had no time to save any of them.

The observation went on for about twenty machines, before she realized why he kept replaying the scenario; he was trying to save everyone, but couldn’t. his mind wasn’t letting him forget the failure. His conscious was literally preventing him from forgetting the fact that he couldn’t save everyone, and kept forcing him to relieve that pain. The scenario was different from what had caused it, but the pain was the same. She didn’t know why he thought that way, but she did know how to end this nightmare.

Luna flew as high as she could and began to cast her spell. Anthony had gone through another machine and was about to find the next when he noticed a bright light behind him. He turned and found the dream world start to dissolve into white. He started to fly away out of instinct, but the magic was faster then him. His mind didn’t do anything to prevent it, meaning that he was actually welcoming it. The white consumed the Spartan and everything stopped.

“Where am I?” he asked, looking around at the nothing. A black speck started to come in his field of view. The speck got closer as the Spartan prepared himself. The human it to be Luna, and he relaxed. He found that he was actually standing and was hovering at all. “Luna, what happened to everything?”

“I got rid of it, to save you from the pain,” Luna said, the thoughts still floating through her mind.

“What pain? I was in no pain.” he questioned, crossing his arms. His mind had not taken full control yet, and Luna knew it. It sometimes to a few minutes for the host to realize that they are in control.

“Not a physical pain, but a mental and emotional one. This dream was showing what and making you perform an act that would prevent you from saving everyone. And in doing so, hurting you at the very core of who you are. It took me a while to discover this, but when I did and ended the dream right away. Now we are in a type of limbo in your dreams. A transition if you will,” Luna said, sympathy reentering her voice, but not enough for the solder to notice. The Spartan relaxed suddenly, showing Luna that her love was back in control of his mind. He looked at the princess and removed his helmet, showing her the man she loved. He was still tired looking, but no glazed look in his eyes.

“Thank you. I don’t think I could have stood for another round of that. This isn’t the first time either,” Anthony said, not looking Luna in the eye. He felt as though it was shameful to admit it and still be prideful. “I know what it is too. In my world, this would be the beginning stages of PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This is because I have chosen the path of a killer, but I don’t want it. This bodies instinct are very powerful.”

“How so? I haven’t seen any instinctual actions from it,” Luna said, slightly skeptical.

“When I was fighting the Reapers, I got you all to safety. I did that all on the instinct to protect civilians, and I let it go through. When no civilian were around, full combat was not under my control. Seeing you out activated the ‘save civvies,’ but I over rode the command so I could talk to you. Another example was when I was fighting Shining Armor. I had no control, until the end when I released him. I have more control when my conscious can be affected. I just didn’t…didn’t, I…,” the human couldn’t continue as he cracked and started to cry. Music started to play in the background.

Luna trotted over to him and laid next to his kneeling form, laying a wing over him. She nuzzle him while he just cried. She knew that he needed to get it out, or else things would be worse. The two stayed in this form for many minutes, even after the tears stopped falling. He finally looked at the alicorn and kissed her; a kiss that was long and full of both passion and thanks. Luna accepted the kiss, holding him in her wing still. He broke the kiss and pushed up on Luna’s wing, signaling that he was fine.

She lifted the wing and stood up, Anthony right beside her. His eyes were red and puffy, but he was still in control. The music had stopped, and the armor on the human started to levitate off. It all arranged itself an a table that appeared out of no where. Anthony stood there in his under suit, walked over to Luna.

“Do you think you cold stay, please? I don’t want to go back to my dreams. They might be worse than before,” he asked, worry in his bloodshot eyes.

“Of course. Like I said in the hospital room, ‘I want to.’ I’ll stay as long as you need me to. I love you, and nothing will change that. Now what do you want to talk about?” Luna asked, knowing he didn’t want to do any activity that required entering a new dream.

“How about…” and the two talked for what felt like hours about everything. If they brought up the subject, they talked about it. From the world Anthony left, to how many cakes Luna has caught Celestia eating. The couple talked up until Luna had to wake so she could raise the moon, so they both rose from their shared slumber.

Reality

The two woke to find that a new meal had been brought in for both of them, and it was actual food, instead of the nasty hospital food. Celestia must have had it sent for them. Luna rose from the chair she was in and placed a kiss on her love. The human sat up with no pain, but the doctor walked in to find him doing this.

“No, you are not leaving or getting out of that bed. I know your military, so this is doctor’s orders. No if, and, or buts,” the doctor said, killing all thought of the human stretching his legs.

“yes sir, but what if I have to pee?” he asked, not expecting a reply.

“Easy, you can get up to use the facilities, but I want you right back in this bed when you finish. Understand?” the doctor said.

“Thank you,” Anthony said, getting up and heading straight for the bathroom. Luna stood there and snickered. The doctor shook his head and left the room. When Anthony returned, Luna had started to raise the moon. The human watch the sun fully disappear behind the horizon. While he was looking out the window, Celestia had walked in. The human looked at her and slightly nodded before returning to the bed.

“Good to see that your able to move on your own,” Celestia said.

“You could say that, but the doctor doesn’t want me walking around. So what brings you here, other than to check up on my health,” Anthony said, getting to the heart of the situation quickly. He hated when people tried to delay the inevitable.

“Fine, I came her to talk with both of you briefly. First, Luna you have not had night court for three nights, so that is a necessity. Second, Anthony with your promise. I can have the material brought to you as soon as you are well enough to work on them, just let me or Luna know and the material will be where you need them. Any questions?” Celestia said, gaining a sad look from Luna, and a half-pissed look from Anthony.

“Ya, can I have to materials now, I don’t want to sit here alone with nothing to do,” Anthony said, crossing his arms.

“of course, I brought it up on the off chance that you would wish to begin. I will see you two in the morning, because I have to get to bed soon. Good night,” celestia said, and left after receiving the fellow good nights.

“Luna, I hope that you don’t get too bored at the night court. I know this will keep me occupied until I finish. For lunch, could you come back? That would give us something to look forward to,” Anthony asked, trying to make a puppy face. Luna giggled at this and kissed him. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“I will be back, and maybe we can convince the doctor to let you out early. I’ll see you later my love,” Luna said at the open door, blowing another kiss at her lover.

“And the same to you.”

A/N: hope you all enjoyed, And may the force be with you.