Site of Old Cologne, Rhine River, Dawn

The two factions fighting east of the Rhine River are duking it out, my eyes could see thousands of the furry bastards swinging and shooting at each other while lobbing their explosive and incendiary weapons, their screams filling the dawn air as I watched the Western Side, the gremlins wearing gold and green colorized gear while the Eastern Side wore red and silver colorized gear, the two sides from my vantage point fighting over control of the six large stone bridges connecting the two sides together. Even in the future land disputes are still common.

As I advanced to the battlefield I saw that both sides were now mixing into one another as arrows stopped raining down to prevent friendly fire but the explosively are now being randomly aimed and fired in high hopes of nailing the enemy and not their own forces. Both sides clashing against one another and from how experienced these beastmen are than this battle must have been one of many previously fought as neither side budged or gave ground to the other as the men fought to the bitter end for god and country...but this is ridiculous.

On my side I have to run past probably over fifty-thousand bodies to get to the French border than to cross the river to England, but getting past that many bodies, when the river was at its highest since this area just love its rainy weather and that from the spy satellite scanning the entire river and sadly those six bridges are the only ones to go across the river without having to swim or fly across.

And having to fight past fifty-thousand is something I don't want to do, sure it would be fun to get back into my blood frenzy and wipe out everything at Cologne but than the guilt would set it...something that has started to gnaw at my conscious after that damn Rachni Queen fiddled with my head...the damn bitch fixed the one thing inside my head that I liked broken...I now had that inner voice telling me the rights and wrongs and this one was a real motherfucker. That dickhead gave me a migraine when I wanted to short sell those gremlins for more than what I was going to give them.

I swear I had my conscious locked away when I had my L5X implants installed...now that he is back I have to deal with the scales of justice again....

Now just take things nice and easy, we don't have to fight them, maybe we can sort things out for them and end this little conflict of theirs with little bloodshed?

'Oh fuck off already, I liked it better when I had myself in my head not you and myself...I liked the hollowness that was my skull but now it has a walnut rattling in it cause of you. You better be worth these damn headaches...'

It is worth it, but you must be on your best behavior with these kind beings and sort this out through kindness.

'They are killing each other for a reason...they wouldn't be doing this cause its fun or that they are just trying to lower their population count to prevent their farming facilities from overgrowing their crops to the point of starving the land of nutrients. There is always a reason for everything...even a reason behind Pinkie Pie's ability to distort the very laws of nature to bend to her will...how she managed to go into the supply closet in her bakery and to appear behind me will forever elude me without concrete facts.'

So is there a reason as to why you are always acting like a Grade-A asshole?

'You were there when it happened...'

Armstrong City, Luna, 04/01/2074

Walking down the lunar streets at night is something to behold on the streets of the moon, the darkness of space beyond the dome as street lights and the stars only light illuminates everything in silver and yellow glows as people of all kinds walk up and down the sidewalk, idly chatting to one another as if this was a daily event that is part of their lives. My eyes wander from person to person, seeing who I could pickpocket and who I can pin the blame on in the event they figure out they got felt up and robbed. My friend Darius was walking next to me, his hands in his pockets as I put mine in my grey hoodie, the hood was down at the moment as we walked together down the streets, our eyes constantly gazing for an easy mark and when we found one he nudged me and gave me the details of our target and when I went for it I got results, a credit chit with 396 credits in it, a weeks worth of food and/or cheap medical supplies.

The next street we walked over to was near our home, the orphanage that has been my home for thirteen years now, and a place of rest when I get tired of stealing, fencing or spying for the day. When we knocked on the front door to see if Sister Tabi would open it up for us or Mother Isabella but we got no answer and that usually meant that they were with some adult or two looking to adopt one of the other younger kids, the both of us are considered 'too old' to be properly raised by a loving family, which we think is a load of crap but seeing how it is somewhat true we just grit our teeth, sigh and wave goodbye to those that are taken in to a loving family.

That is all that most of us want here in the orphanage, to be put into a loving family and cared for, not living off the streets and be forced to commit crimes of any kind just for crumbs of bread or mouthfuls of water. What I want is something else entirely from the rest of the kids and teens here, what I want is to know why my parents left me here on the orphanage steps and why they felt like they couldn't take care of me?

As we walked into the front room we knew something was off, first there was no talking of any kind, it was deathly silent and that never happened here, not once in all thirteen years I have been here that it was so quiet you can hear someone drop a pen on the floor, second the children we saw were cowering and hiding under anything they could squeeze under, and lastly not a single whiff of lavender perfume could be smelt in this hallway and everyone here knows that Sister Tabi was gonna get ready for a date with some upper echelon of society so they could pour money into this home of ours.

"Darius...get L-Sec over here as soon as I yell out for it, something isn't right...we both know Tabi would have that choking perfume on at this time and that smell is hard to get rid of in this house." I said as I pulled my hoodie up and pulled out my butterfly knives and slowly crept along the shadows of my now invaded home, the children all tried to say something but stop themselves when I give them the silent *shoosh* as they nodded and resumed their cowering, Darius stayed by the door and waited for the soon to be overtly loud scream for help in the event of thugs have broken into our peaceful home and raided it for what little credits there is here.

Creeping along the walls I did my best to not make any noise or sound as to not alert any thug and clearing out the first floor I gave Darius the thumbs up that I was about to check the second floor but he looked around and started to get the lunar security forces here, knowing Darius that glasses wearing dork had them on speed-dial.

My feet creaked slightly on the old wooden floorboards as I scaled up the stairs keeping a grip on my knives knowing that something is going to hit the fan, stuff like this always hits the fan as it is proven in every single movie that I have seen that stared the hero walking down the eerily creepy as fuck dark hallway and get ambushed by the villain and is held hostage only to be saved by his quick thinking and cunning wits.

I was not as lucky as those movie heroes.

Taking a brick to the back of one's head is something that no one ever wants to experience let alone ask upon anyone else but sadly it happened to me. Feeling the impact of that brick brought stars to my vision as I stumbled before falling face first onto the middle of the second floor's hallway and the feeling of something grabbing my left foot and whistling a merry tune as my face grind against the roughness that is the thick carpet of the orphanage.

As I came too I realized that I was not tied up or restrained like what most captives would be in but my butterfly knives were gone or lost but what I do know is that Mother Isabella is sitting next to me but with a gag in her mouth and her hair was a complete and scattered mess. The feeling of something tapping my right shoulder redirects my attention to the source and upon looking at the source I got sucker punched in the jaw as I felt something rattle inside my mouth and before long I spat out a fragment of one of my teeth.

"Now that you are awake, would you kindly tell me why you are here interrupting my little chat with the nun." the interloper said in a hush-hush tone before backhanding me on the other cheek from where I got punched. I let out a small yelp of pain but I said nothing as I held my tongue, giving the ski-masked thug the stink-eye.

My stare earns me another fist across the face and the chipped tooth finally shatters inside my mouth as I spit out multiple chips and pieces of at least two molars came shooting out of my blood seeping mouth.

"Not the answer I was looking for so let us try this again." I felt a rough calloused hand grab me by the hair and yanked my head away from the tile floor as I was once again face to face with the thug. My response was to spit blood at him and just give him a solid glare before receiving another bone cracking punch to the jaw, completely cracking another couple of teeth which was promptly spat out onto the floor.

"I am here because this is my home, asshole....I think that was my other top right molars this time....man the dentist is gonna love meeting me...."

It wasn't before long that the sounds of police sirens filled the night air as the lunar security teams formed up around the area, forming a tight-knit perimeter. The sound of a gun being loaded and cocked back was the only warning both me and Mother Isabella had before we were lifted off the tile floor and dragged toward the nearest window to see what was going on and low and behold, the fuzz was waiting outside with riot shields at the ready and of course their guns pointing at the windows and most likely at the fucker holding me by the hair head.

"This is Lunar Security, we know you are in there, drop your weapons, release your hostages and come out with your hands on your head." one of the officers said through his megaphone, being a bit old school but since this place is relatively old and that most of the security forces around here use cattle prods on most criminals instead of the Omni-tool Taser that C-Sec had.

As we stepped slowly away from the windows and the thugs gave them their demands and that they were actually met, we went down the stairs slowly but as soon as one of them opened the front door that was when I told my conscious to fuck off after it happened. As that door slowly opened up to the outside world, the thug took a round to the chest as I quickly went to the floor to avoid eating a machine gun sandwich, but Mother Isabella wasn't as fast as I was, a round tore through her lower spine as she screamed out in pain, my biotics at the time was still underdeveloped but in the high stress situation that I am in, it picks up the lack of focus with natural raw power.

When using Flare for the first time for even the most experienced and seasoned Biotic users, they would experience headaches of varying degree's, slightly burnt hands and maybe even smelling like sulfur. For me it was more like my entire body going up in flames, I unknowningly used Flare on myself, all of my clothes being burnt off or melted to my body, the two thugs that were closest to me ran out of the orphanage on fire and the one that was now holding up my injured adoptive mother by her neck was now looking at me as if I was the devil.

He didn't have a chance in hell, I Lifted him up as fast as I could which forced half of his body through the ceiling of the first floor and forced his head to pop out the floorboards of the second floor, his head caved in from slamming into a metal pipe.

After waking up in the hospital I felt alone, not from being just alone in the room but alone in my head, my thoughts were constantly being questioned if they were the right ones or if they should have been made, just me, myself and my own empty head.

Site of Cologne, Dawn

Oh....uhhh....yea you were the reason why I was gone for so long...your biotics burnt me away till now.

'I still wish you were gone...' I sighed explosively as I watched the two sides continue to battle on, it eventually turned to something that I recalled in the academy...trench warfare. 'But now I have to deal with this....tactic...something I would never do unless its being drawn into a stalemate.'

It took little than an hour for the fighting to come to a crawling end but as both sides started to pull back they attempted to collect their dead or dying forces before they get picked off by the opposing side, not one for leaving a man behind unless there really is no hope of getting them out alive.

'Okay...one side has the bridge and the other doesn't...I could help the side with the bridge or the side that doesn't have it at the moment to claim the bridge...hmmm....well a coin toss always helped for these kinds of decisions.' I mused as I checked my pockets for any kind of coin on my suits and pulled out a bit and looked it over for a second before flipping it.

'Heads for Bridge, Tails for Without.' as it lands in my right hand I saw that it was the sun facing up and flipping it over was the moon. 'Okay...fuck it I am just going out onto the field and talk to them to see what the hell is going on.'

'Kindess is its own reward you know.' his cheery tone was starting to grind on my nerves, relighting my anger against him.

'First chance I get in Equestria I am drinking you away at the first sign of major annoyance. Shut up and stay quiet and let this man do his job. And if you have something to say, than it better be when something important is going to happen and you are trying to save our asses from getting spit-roasted.'

Keeping my crossbow at the ready and my eye peeled for anything that would spell me a quick and terrible end, my helmet may be made of metal, leather and fur but it sadly isn't made of the same composite materials that made up my last helmet...but at least they have the eye holes covered up in a mesh to give moderate protection.

Upon reaching the base of the hill I came upon a low built house that is partially made into the ground to give it the appearance of a bunker or a tornado house, the residents of the building are just now coming out of their shelter as the battle seems to have entered a hiatus period...something that my wars wish we had. Walking over to them with my crossbow in hand startles the three children standing by their parents side who stood in front of them to protect them from what they think is a soldier out hunting for readily available supplies or workforce, and with the armor I am wearing, makes me look like a scavenger.

As I get within a few meters I stopped to look at them than at the battle field, than back at them before signaling them about the warzone by jerking my thumb at it and before long the father gets the message and wearily looks at me, his brown eyes trying to stare at my own.

"Where have you been all this time boy? Over by the bridges to Prance is the battle of Old Cologne...not sure who made the name up for that crumbling ruins of a city but the fighting is over those bridges, and neither the Pony Princesses or the Gryphon Lords have stepped in to deescalate the bloodshed here. By the time this battle is over the fertile fields here will wither and die by the coming summer from the pollutants..." he said as he kept his arms protectively around his family and I realized that I still had my crossbow somewhat angled toward them and as I pointed it at the ground and removed my hand from the trigger grip they gave a sigh of relief as I walked toward them slowly.

"So you are telling me this fighting is over six bridges?" I said as one of the little gremlins nodded quickly, "and not one of the leaders of the world is intervening correct?" again the same child nodded, "And exactly how long have these two sides been fighting?"

"For at least a hundred years...give or take the small skirmishes." The mother said as I feel something tap my helmet a couple of times before my right hand instantly grabs the disturbance to find Mirias staring at me from within my hand to wave a hoof at me before I slightly propped my helmet open to allow her to fly in and use my hair as a nest till we get to Equestria.

I simply stare back at the battlefield for a while before counting with my head how many battles must've happened here in the past hundred years but the only thing that came to mind was 'this land would most likely never recover', but looking back at the gremlin family before I concluded that this land could recover but it would take a long time of uprooting the corrupted dirt and gravel and replacing it with dirt and sod from somewhere cleaner, but it could be done...just slightly hard to do it at this rate or at this current time.

The family stared at me for a while as they watched me grab the 'supposed' insect that was on top of my helmet and put it inside but said nothing on the matter but when I started contemplating about the constant fighting here they started to go back inside their home but the father stayed outside to watch me and to make sure I don't follow them into their home.

"I need to get across that river..." I mumbled as I searched my pockets for one of the dried mushrooms that the changelings gave me for the journey home, it may taste extremely bitter and dry but it sure as hell makes your hunger go away real fast, and upon finding one I cracked open my helmet and popped two of them in my mouth and chewed them a bit before swallowing them.

"Can you get across?" the father simply said as I looked at him and the look on his face was that of someone telling an idiot an obvious answer.

"I can, but I know that if I try to swim across my armor would slow me down and I would sink to the bottom before getting across...I think I am just gonna take the bridge...but how..." I said as I started walking toward the now emptying battlefield, the wails of the dying and calls of crows overhead acting as my beacon to my next destination, moving my right hand back to the trigger and aimed at the feet of my enemy if they ever came within at least 30 feet of me.

As I started to walk off the father yelled out as I started to get out of shouting distance, "Try not to get killed out there stranger!", my response was to just wave him off.

Back in my day when we were wearing our full armor we never had to worry about rotting flesh, the smell of death and burning bodies, or just the smell of something foul, the helmet I have on me has nothing to cancel out the smell that is straight up assault my nostrils with the foulest of odors I have ever smelled in my life, it was the stench of the ages. I can even bet that the smell will sink into the furs of the scouting uniform and everywhere I go the public will look at me as if I haven't bathed in weeks.

These poor souls...

'Well that's a war for you, you live, you die, or you live but are maimed or scarred in some way that will haunt and affect you for the rest of your life...you'll get used to it eventually. If you don't than I hope you can get a physiatrist cause I sure as hell ain't going to another one of those meetings.'

The scene that lies before me is something that would be from the dark ages of the ancient days, crows littered the field and filled the skies as the dead bodies were being feasted on by the black birds of death, the wailings of those dying range from whimpers, crying, screams of pain or just the dying calling out for their parents. What I did not expect to see was my boss, standing in the middle of the fields, his scythe crooked in his right arm while his left was busy writing something down on a dirty ass old as shit scroll with a raven feather, the tip coated in black blood.

"Well...I'll be damned, looks like Death is finally coming out of his alcove in the void to gather his souls instead of using his agents for it." I said as I somewhat gave a curt bow to the black robed skeleton.

Death doesn't even grace me by even tilting his head in acknowledgement of my existence or my words, instead he simply waves his scythe around a few times and a small ripple in the air forms above the blade as the souls of those dead get torn from their corpses as they get sent to their proper afterlife and in a flash the ripple disappears as the Grim Reaper himself makes a wooden chair appear in the field as he sits down and pulls a little black book and slides the scroll down where it meets the seems and it melds into it like any other page in the book. It doesn't take much time before he finally looks up at me and motions me to sit down but from the looks of the field of rotting bodies I just stood their looking at him before sighing and sat down in a puddle of bloody mud.

"Yes yes, I am doing my job for a change but after your war, you have left me backed up for thousands of years but since that war ended rather quickly than I had expected and left many worlds barren and dead I had to wait even longer for my job to kick start itself...not that I was complaining about the couple thousand years of relaxation that you have given me but now it seems that humanity's legacy of war has been forever imprinted onto this world...something that I can appreciate on my own time but since most to all of my agents are long gone I have to this myself."

"Well you can just do what you did to me for these people, get one that wants to cling to life for eternal servitude or until they royally fuck up. I can bet you at least two or three of them are lying in this wasteland right now, just begging for a second chance at life and hell, you might even get a break or two while they go out reaping souls but they better not be like me cause I am not having to go hunt down a fellow soul reaper cause they bastard went bat shit crazy and has to be put down like a rabid dog...that and from what I can tell not many populations have even hit the 10 million marker so life is a precious thing....and just saying that makes me sound like a hypocrite since I kill people for a living..."

"Oh you don't say? And for once I actually agree with you, even though you are still so far my best and currently alive agent even I was about to go collect your soul, well I was until you collected recently two very large souls...King Sombra the Unicorn of the Crystal Empire, and Sanders the Desert Dragon, both of those souls are currently keeping you going and if you die now, that's it game over. So do try not to bite the bullet again cause if you do than that soul of yours is mine and I can finally finish my collection." Death said rather giddy as he pulled out from his robe a small brown paper bag and dipped his hand inside of it to grab a few pinches of bread crumbs and flung it around him and on cue the crows swoop down and started to peck and eat the dead bodies.

I just look in disgust for a few seconds before realizing this is the equivalent of an old person sitting on a park bench tossing bread crumbs and pigeons. My blatant reaction causes Death to chuckle rather deeply but as he gets off his black oak stool chair he floats ever so slowly towards me and raises his hand to try and grab my head by I just redirect his hand away from me with my bayonet, the touch of death is something I am trying to avoid at this point.

"You know you have a little bug on your-"

"Yes I know but this is my bug, and it keeps my head warm thank you very much, now get going you have souls to file and categorize or some shit like that." I said as I felt the changeling on my head grip down with four tiny hooves and even smaller fangs as I ever so slightly cringed from the little pricks.

Death merely shrugs at my cringe and walks off before bursting into a cloud of crows and scatters into the sky before disappearing from my sight.

"That dude seriously scares the crap out of me...and there is no way in hell that I am going to bite the bullet earlier than expected." I muttered to myself so only Mirias can hear it from me but it only serves to keep her latched to my dome and it took me a shake of the head to get her attention to stop the biting.

Looking around the battlefield and listening for the sounds of life or fainting life I came up with nothing, just the sounds of crows cawing, the slight howling of the wind, and the sounds of my boots crunching on gravel and cracked armor on bodies as I strode toward the side of the bridge, hoping that they would identify me as an outsider and let me pass instead of throwing me to the front lines to fight for me.

For the right price I just might help them...that is, for the right price.

And what exactly is this right price hmm?

'None of your damn business that's what the price is.'

"Halt! Identifizieren Sie sich!" a shrill voice shouted to my left as I had unknowingly wandered to close to the western trenches. It took a while for my chest armor's language suite to filter out what was said and into something I could understand. 'Halt! Identify yourself!'

Looking at the gremlin that spoke it was the one wearing the gold/ green leather armor, the crossbow in his hands clearly cocked back and pointed more than likely at my head from where I am standing. Clearing my throat and speaking in a low quiet voice so my suit can translate what I am saying and repeat it in a much louder tone, at first it was garbled until it came out pitch perfect. "Ich bin nur ein Reisender versucht, auf die andere Seite der Brücke zu erhalten.", 'I am just a traveler trying to get to the other side of that bridge.' as my response somewhat surprises the soldier pointing his crossbow at me as his ears twitched a bit before slightly lowering his guard as he spoke again.

"Sie versuchen, die Brücke zu überqueren, gut für wen haltet ihr eure Treue geloben, Außenseiter?" the soilder said again as my armor took a while to translate the now obvious german language, 'You are trying to cross the bridge, well who do you pledge your loyalty to outsider?'. His guard was still somewhat lowered but by now he can tell that I am clearly not much of a threat to him but for now he still kept his eyes on my hands while keeping his posture in a low crouch to quickly roll to either side in the event of an attack.

At first I wondered where my loyalties truly lied with, at first it was with myself and those are my friends, than I added the two ponies at Canterlot...than of course Discord even though I have yet to get revenge on him for dying my hair pink when I was asleep. Than of course it changed to Equestria and the Alliance since whatever is left of the Alliance is roughly myself, Hilo'Jaa and Katherine and as for Equestria...living there does have its perks.

"Meine Loyalität Soldat gehört zur Krone der Pony Prinzessinnen...und der letzte meiner Leute." I said as I knew what the translated words would say back inside my helmet, 'My loyalty soldier belongs to the crown of the pony princesses...and to the last of my people.' thinking to Mirias who is still sort of clinging to my head since I have no idea of the Changeling/Gremlin relationship is, but from what I know is that most species despise them for kidnapping their friends and family for food...hopefully it stops cause if they keep going eventually it will come back to bite them in the flank.

Apparently talking about the Equestrian Princesses grabs his attention more than the latter half of my response, he quickly lowers his crossbow and motions me to follow him, the other soldiers that are sitting in the trenches stare at me funny for a while before shrugging it off and returned to the wasteland before them, the trench floor is made of wood and the walls are lined with wooden struts to keep it from caving in, and knowing the area from the past, rain weather is a common thing so flooding is just as equally common but seeing how the floor is raised getting trench foot has been lowered, a good thing since losing a foot means your out for the count unless you get a peg-leg.

The soldier leading me hurries himself past a group of gremlins carrying boxes filled with bolts to the front line and in a matter of minutes we are in the rear of the trenches and I spot what I think is a bunch of carts and wagons being moved across the bridge and on the other side, ponies being hitched to them and bags of what I think is money being put inside of it. Well it looks like these guys are pony friendly since they are making deals with them.

'Yea for now, but if they are allies with the ponies and Celestia doesn't even know, I just might get that bone crushing cuddly hug I want out of her...that can wait until after I tell everyone that I am still alive, not before.'

Walking into a large tent at the very back of the friendly trench lines, the watch soldier and I walked in when the leaders of the army were discussing battle strategies and all five lifted and turned their heads to look at us before the head honcho of the group spoke up, his voice sounding eerily like Hackett's.

"Privat, warum bringen Sie ein Außenseiter in den Krieg Zimmer ... und wie kommt er riecht nach Tod und Verwesung?" his voice sounded rather hoarse and rugged than most people, my guess it was from rather countless sleepless nights and not eating and drinking enough, or that his voice was naturally this beat up, my translator finally spitting out what he said as I slightly leaned my head toward the tiny speaker system, 'Private, why did you bring an outsider into the war room...and how come he smells like death and decay?'.

"Nun ... I. .. äh ..." the private stuttered before I raised my hand to him so I can speak for myself. "Ich bin hier, weil ich über diese Brücke zu bekommen, nach Hause zu müssen, und ich wusste nicht, dass es war ein Kampf hier los ist.", 'I am here because I need to get across that bridge to get home, and I did not realize that there was a battle going on here.'.

He looked at me for a while, his left eye was white and a clean line ran down from him left eyebrow to the right nostril and his left ear was partially missing the end bit, his fur was a mixture of black and white, his hands, throat, lower jaw were white while everything else that I could see was a slightly light tone of black. His uniform was in a semi-perfect condition except for a barely noticeable rips and tears and the smudges of mud and dirt lightly coating the cuffs, his army cap has an arrow hole in the center from a more than lucky would-be assassin.

His heavy eyes stare at me for a while longer before signaling his guards waiting by the flaps of the tent and both of them clamp down on my shoulders as the one that brought my in smacked me in the back of the knees as I fell over before feeling the metal brace where the bolt head is placed at the back of my neck. He cleared his throat before walking over in front of me, his gravel voice growling out "Wie sind Sie sicher, dass diese Reisenden ist nicht nur einige Attentäter Verkleidung, ein Wolf im Schafspelz ist etwas, was ich lieber nicht wieder zu beschäftigen...so sagen Sie mir, wer Sie, bevor wir Sie werfen vor einem Erschießungskommando sind." each of his words brings his face closer to my helmet and as soon as the translation came in he backed up as the words came out, 'How are you sure this traveler is not just some assassin disguise, a wolf in sheeps clothing is something I rather not deal with again...so tell me who you are before we throw you in front of a firing squad.', and it was at that moment when he grabbed my helmet and yanked it off, the helmet dulled out the lights that came in so I could see clearly but as it came off I was temporarily blinded and the now angered words of the officers and guards filled the tent until I coughed loud enough for them to see that it came from me.

"If you gremlins are done talking as if someone cheated on a test, we have pressing matters at hand. Yes I was wearing your kind's armor but it came as a gift for services rendered, and yes my alliagence belongs to Princess Celestia and Luna, and god damn it yes I stole the last cookie from the cookie jar." I shouted as I realized that the last part was meant to be said to Pinkie Pie since I took the last triple chocolate fudge chip cookie from the jar and pinned the blame on Spike. The look of anger on her face was priceless, but the look of confusion and anger on the surrounding gremlins was a bit off putting.

It was only after they realized that I spoke English or in this case 'Equestrian' they had started to settle down, the three guards at my back lifted me up and apologized for the roughing up but I shrugged it off and told them it was necessary, the gremlin in charge on the other hand was now looking at me with a toothy grin that I knew all too well when dealing with the military, and since this is a warzone and they need every single available body they can get their paws on, and since I am technically a 'representative' for the Equestrian Crown he said that this would help build a bridge in terms of relationship for the two groups. For me it was more like a free soldier that comes with no strings attached and has a hankering for meat, cheese, wine and violence...sweet tasty cheese...

"So...Mr....Agent for the Pony Crown, as you have clearly seen outside past the trenches, these past few months has been in constant skirmishes and hit-and-run attacks but from yesterdays battle we can sense that this theater of war is coming to a close but we know another will open up somewhere else here in Germany...these Dominion rebels are trying to stall the unification of the city-states for whatever dying cause they believe in, but for each skirmish or raid the other states will see their system is more durable than ours and everything we have been working for the past 107 years will be for nothing." the General's short speech ends for a bit, his eyes going back to the map of the area and is looking for any kind of weakness he can exploit, "We need your help to quell this uprising, and in return for your assistance, we will..." he visibly shutters from what he is about to say next, "we will form up a treaty with Equestria forming an alliance, as soon as all of the other city-states form a new government system and elect a leader that can see past the different species not as potential threats but as allies." finally ending his speech, the army officers giving a short applause along with the private who brought me in, I simply stood there and smiled, remembering the last time I heard a speech was when Hackett sent my ass into the fire to come back with a trophy of a free pet varren.

"So where am I in all this grand plan of yours?" I said grinning widely as I took my crossbow and pulled the string back into its firing position, the general looked at me before going over the plan.

Old Cologne, Afternoon

"-And as soon as the enemy reaches the middle of the field, we will launch our canisters of explosive spheres at them, slowing them down long enough to set up into one of the launchers before shooting you in the midst of enemy lines. From what you have told us about this 'napalm' the enemy has been using it is best if we do not stay packed together but instead be evenly spread out to limit the casualties...if we can just get a small group of men into the trenches we can wreck havoc amongst their ranks to distract them long enough for the rest of our forces to breach their outer shell and to finally crack the nut and break their morale, forcing them to surrender."

"And what if they don't surrender?" I asked as I took a wedge of cheese from the food cart and nibbled down on it, savoring the rich flavor of dairy on my tongue before the battle commenced.

"If they don't...than we keep crushing their forces until they do surrender, sometimes not all rebellions are about fighting to the last man...cause if things don't bend with the flow they will break against it and be useless." an officer said as I finished my cheese wedge before grabbing a cinnamon roll and quickly devoured it as well, licking my fingers of the sticky goodness as I looked out the tent to see the artillery pieces being moved to the middle of the trenches for maximum firing range.

Looking back at the officers and at the food cart I know that this battle is going to be a while so I open up my satchel and stuffed it with a few non-sticky sugary snacks and one jelly filled donut, knowing that if this battle goes on longer than ten hours than that donut will be my life saver. The light pitter patter against the canvas tent signaled that the weather has turned from sunny to now rainy with a chance of bullshit, even in the future the weather can never stay consistent.

"Lets just hope that whoever is manning those launchers has good aim, cause I do not want to be thrown into the air to notice that I am being tossed in the wrong direction, or worse get thrown into the river...I refuse to be the first person in history to be tossed into a river at the beginning of a battle to end a rebellion..." I grumbled a bit, remembering something on the Citadel News, a video of Commander Shepard being shot at, in a sushi bar and the people shooting at him shot out the floor beneath him which was a fish tank and he fell through it.

To most people they were shocked to see such a thing happen, to me it was the funniest thing I have ever seen or ever appear on galactic news.

Before anyone could say anything else, the sound of horn blaring out through the trench lines warns us of an attack and in response, a black ball with a small fuse is launched toward the front trench, but instead of exploding upon impact it bounced over the front row, bounced a few more times in the dirt before exploding near the middle trenches, the blast sent shrapnel all around wounding the few gremlins that were exposed and were immediately sent to the medic tents. The rain already creating mud as it started to run down the trenches creating a rough gravel soup below the planks and above ground.

"Okay, get my launcher ready." I said as I grabbed what little gear that was in the tent that I had taken off before sliding my helmet back onto my head, Mirias stayed hidden in my hair and I felt the fluttering of her wings, obviously trying to keep them from going too stiff.

Briskly jogging to the armory and picking up the mace from the master-of-arms, adjusted the false fingers to the grip and tightened it so it doesn't let go in mid-flight or from any impact that my left skeletal arm might take during the battle. As soon as I go a grip on my tool of a new art style the horn goes off again but this time I saw the beginnings of a dust cloud beginning to form over the horizon and knew that the rebels were making their first charge toward the first trench line.

Clearing my throat I started to shout while running to the nearest launcher, "Any of you gremlins with a crossbow, open fire with everything you got!", the ones that heard that looked at me confusedly for a few seconds before I grabbed one of the officers megaphones before shouting at the top of my lungs, "FIRE EVERYTHING!".

On that cue, the sounds of rolling thunder followed by the chorus music of hundreds of bow strings being released followed by the groaning of metal as bombs get launched behind the hail of arrows, each one flying towards the mass of bodies as they hit their targets. The bombs blowing up within their ranks as body parts and corpse flew in the air along with the critically wounded being flung around like rag dolls before being pelted by another wave of arrows. I climbed into the catapult and looked at the crew, giving them a thumbs up before curling up into a ball and felt something drop in my stomach before I felt vertigo pull at me as I start sailing into the open air over the front trench toward the killzone.

"HEY YOU GUYS!" I shouted as I flew through the rain, the head of the mace sticking above my body as I slammed into a enemy soldier, my body bowling through him as my mace slammed down onto the helmet of the dude behind him and quickly rolling back I stood up and turned on my shield to block the blow of an axe, the blade shattering from the energy pulsing through the shield as I brought my mace down onto another, the thundering of paws on the now soggy dirt filled the air as both sides collided once again with each other, I was a bit farther past the stalemate center line fighting unrestrained while being surrounded on all sides by the enemy.

Using my body's rotation as a means to swing my mace I begin to turn left and right to swing in wide arcs, the blunt end smacking heads or hitting armor and shields as the enemy gave me a wide berth and with each returning swing the blade on my arm bites into anything that is exposed while the mace clips or just pushes back those trying to get in a quick jab. My eyes constantly looking around keeping track of who-was-who and also to avoid crippling strikes from the enemy but my eyes caught onto something flying in the sky in the air, I couldn't tell the colors of it but I knew it was a dragon by the body configuration of it.

The battle ensued for hours on end, my body count was starting to rise as I turned off my shield and replaced it with my blade, turning myself into a whirlwind of metal and energized death, the crows have returned as I felt Death's unholy and cold gaze beam down upon me, the soldiers that were behind me are now lying dead as my comrades took up the rear as we started to push inward, and it wasn't before long until we were stopped as they had formed an effective barrier of shields stopping our advance but it didn't stop me.

Turning my Omni-blade off I turned to the army and smiled at them before pointing at the enemy, "Men! These poor bastards think that a wall of metal will stop us from achieving victory, are they right!" their response was a resounding and reverberating "NO!", I only grinned as an incendiary bomb flew toward me, seemingly well aimed as it came closer and closer as those closest to me back away but it didn't stop me from chuckling before using my biotics to slow it down with a well timed Throw and as it stopped moving I used Throw one last time but I aimed it directly at the enemy line. The soldiers behind me were in awe that I stopped the bomb mere inches from my face, the enemy wasn't as lucky.

"Rückzug!", "Retreat!" I heard one of them shout before I threw back their bomb, the thing bursting on their shields as the napalm ate away at the flammable armor they are wearing as the ranks slowly broke apart, the enemy in the middle tried to hold on while the sides began to cave in, the army at my back began to move around them into a pincer maneuver as I saw friendly forces jump into the enemy trench lines, and it wasn't before long that the battle was soon going to be ours. My eyes returned to the skies, seeing where the dragon I spotted went but I searched for a while to find it circling overhead, its colors were obscured from the clouds it was flying through but from what I could tell it was more than likely blue with green...or purple and red...I couldn't tell as it kept flying in the storm clouds.

"FOR THE REPUBLIC!" I shouted for the last time before charging head long into the now crumbling shield wall as I used a Shockwave blowing them aside as I kept running, wanting to be the first to capture at least an enemy officer before they retreated into the woods, thunder started to rain down from the sky, the bolts of pure energy slamming into the ground, on both groups of soldiers and a few times almost close to me.

Running on rain drenched mud is hard as my footing kept sinking a good inch or two down into the earth but the rapidly crumbling rebels retreating into the forest was a victory as I spotted the back row, forming one last line of defense before they could retreat back into the woods. Halting my allies I watched as we once again formed a solid mass of hyped-up soldiers, their crossbows now pointing in an arch over their shields but the sight of something large moving behind them tipped me off that this was gonna be a gladiator style fight to the death.

This fucker was something of what my kind would call 'giant' cause this dude was at least seven feet tall and compared to the rest of his peers he was two feet taller, three feet if their is a midget in their army. His armor was a patchwork of leather and metal plates as I saw stiches keeping everything together and welding marks to keep the bent metal from falling apart when the moment of truth happens, his weapon of choice was something I did not expect to see on the battlefield. From all the axes I have seen from he humble hand axe to the grisly executioners axe, but this thing was taller and wider than this man, this thing was a monster cause the blade was at least a foot and a half wide and two feet long. This thing can easily cleave through a tree in one swing if the person holding it was tall enough let alone strong enough, the blade was a large crescent moon as the bottom tip could be used to hook limbs to yank it out from beneath them...a lethal weapon...

I stepped forward to be the one to fight this monster, he may be tall, hell might even be stronger than me but one thing I do know is that he doesn't have biotics or a hidden blaster in his right palm.

He made the first move by moving forward and bringing down his axe in a wide arc, that blade gleaming in the air as it came down in time for me to get out of its flight path, the blade sending mud everywhere as it impacts the ground with a heavy thud as I ran to him to try to end the fight early by giving him an uppercut, but my fist only serves to dislodge a canine and in retaliation he grabbed my right arm and head-butted me three times before tossing me next to his axe, grabbing it and lifting it above his head he brought it down near my head, not understanding how I dodged the blow I simply moved my glowing right hand a bit before shooting a psi-blast at right arm, melting an armor plating to his leather, the intensity of the heat only serving to gnaw at his arm.

Quickly scrabbling to get back onto my feet I had a split second to look up to get the spike behind the blade of the axe into my chestplate, digging into it a bit before yanking me toward him and placing both of his hands on my arms and crushing my body with his immense strength, the sounds of metal groaning and the creaking of my ribs. I started to squirm and wiggle in his bone crushing grip, my legs flailing beneath him as my right hand tried to angle itself to shoot him again but the pressure he was putting on my arms was enough to snap the left skeletal arm frame to render it useless and I felt the metal in my right arm starting to slowly buckle and bend.

Thinking irrationally I did what came naturally to any given situation when a heavy object is crushing something smaller and fragile, lift it up. Putting all of my barrier energy into my right hand I used Lift on the both of us, sending us slowly into the air and before long using Throw from below I launched the both of us into the sky easily thirteen stories off the ground, the look on his face was fear, fear that this was how he was going to die by becoming one with the landscape, but that was not how he was going to die. No for what I had planned for him was different, for as soon as he let go of me to try and grip anything to keep himself from falling to his death I grabbed his arm and pulled him closer to me as I sunk my Omni-blade into his chest, collapsing a lung before turning him over and forced him to be facing the ground as we started our free fall back to the muddy earth below us.

"Welcome to Ouch Town population you bro!" I said through the roaring air and in a few seconds we went splat all over the ground, his body making a large indent in the muddy ground beneath him while I on the other hand went slack onto his back, the impact knocking the wind out of me as I slowly rolled off of him and onto the mud, my eyes looking up at the sky in time to get a few raindrops to fall into the tiny holes to let the water get into my eyes and as soon as I felt the smallest hint of strength in my body I hauled myself up to see that the arena of bodies that was around us started to shrink I moved over to the hopefully dead rebel leader and yanked his head up to see that it has been caved in by a shaped rock, I grimaced a bit before letting it go and stepped on top of it and let out a weak victory yell and the rebels knew that they had lost the war.

Staggering back to our lines I received pats on the back and cheers before eventually getting lifted up by four gremlins and carried all the way back to the medic tents to get looked at, and about half way to our lines a shadow zoomed past us overhead, I only had to tilt my head to see something flying right at me using the sun as a shield of sorts to block anyone's vision to see what it is. The object in question let out an ear-splitting roar before spreading open its wings in time to slow itself down before landing on top of all four soldiers holding me up and myself.

I only had a few seconds to see that it was the dragon that was flying overhead earlier, but something about the dragon's body structure threw me off. First off that it was twice my size, twelve feet tall and was covered head to toe in glistening beige and red scales and upon seeing its body structure it was female...a pissed off female dragon. This dragoness has supple, long limbs and a build that is toned and athletic, with powerful underlying muscles. She looks strong and imposing, but feminine which is something that very few ladies can ever acquire. This dragoness was staring at me with her prideful, fierce, slit pupils burning yellow irises. In my current condition I couldn't even keep fighting, my ribcage hurts like hell from the rough squeezing and my right arm is nearly on its way to being useless while the skeletal frame in my left arm is sheered in half.

She only looked at me for a few seconds before giving out a low rumbling growl, her eyes never leaving mine as I staggered back to my feet, getting knocked down to many times and the exhaustion of five hours of constant fighting puts a toll on ones energy reserves, the others that got knocked down got up as well before we heard the dragoness roar again before yelling at me.

"You killed my father!" was all I heard before getting bowled over and yanked off the ground before being launched into the air, being held by her talons and I was staring at her chest before looking up to see her eyes looking at me before facing forward and continued to fly into the storm clouds, the electrical energy in the air made all of my hair, the fur on my armor and even the hair on my inner voice's head to stand up.

That flight took us over the sea separating Germany from the northern countries, and I knew from this height that the fall would be fatal, no matter what I do to slow myself down, and now that the moon was up the tide would have swept my body out to the ocean and I would never be seen again. I was in all terms of the words 'royally screwed'.

I didn't even need to guess that my trip back home was postponed...

Author's Notes:

Next Chapter Spoiler, Gonna be a long chapter...long long long chapter.