Chapter 27

Celestia stepped into her newly furnished room, the clock had been replaced and her wooden desk had been replaced with a desk made of gold and silver. The walls and floor were clean again, the windows replaced with new glass and the mannequin that was used to hold her regalia was now accompanied by a smaller one for Nox and a human shaped one for Dave

Nox walked in after his mother and went up to his mannequin, only the chest of his regalia had been made and he quickly put it on. It was lightweight obsidian that housed a large diamond in the centre, the size fitted Nox perfectly and he started doing heroic poses to himself

Dave chuckled as he saw Nox’s royal attire “If Odio sees that obsidian and diamond combo then he is going to faint” he smiled as he wrapped an arm around Celestia and kissed the side of her head “Did I ever tell you that I loved you?”

“Many times and I hope you never stop” She smiled as she used her magic to fix Nox’s messy mane “And you need a bath, you have had a lot of excitement recently”

“Aww mum” Nox groaned in protest as he removed his regalia and placed it back on the mannequin before dragging himself into the bathroom. His groans of protest quickly changed to excited cheers as he swam around the pool

Dave smiled as Celestia turned and wrapped her hooves around his neck “I hope you didn’t mind what I did in the throne room, it just felt right” Celestia nuzzled Dave’s shoulder until he gently lifted her head

“So long as I get to kiss you then I have absolutely no problem with anything” Dave smiled as he gave Celestia another kiss, forgetting that the bedroom door was open and that two guards were trying to ignore the sounds of gentle moaning

“Psst” One guard whispered to the other “Why is it that we get promised a lot of cool stuff and then the world is saved by a bunch of girls?”

The other guard shrugged “I don’t know, while Strong Shield was sergeant at least we did regular drills to keep ourselves active”

“I know, I wish we had something interesting happen again” the first guard sighed “Just once”

“Whoa don’t talk it up” the second guard frowned “you know I hate it when you do that”

The first guard scowled “Nothing happens in this castle anymore, a thousand years ago there was danger at every turn!”

“A thousand years ago, everything happened” The second guard rolled his eyes “Discord, Nightmare Moon, Sombra, Herpes”

“Those were the days” the first guard shook his head “when guards couldn’t sleep with a witness without catching either a criminal or an infection”

Meanwhile…

Strong Shield strolled down the corridor as an angry Odio floated alongside him. The black fog glared at him even though the black unicorn continued to ignore him and continued to walk

“So you are going to give me the silent treatment for the rest of your pathetic life?” Odio spat as he sneered at the unicorn “I know that something is going on, I don’t need to read minds to know that”

Strong Shield groaned “All you need to know is that I will resolve this issues and make sure that Dave is safe” he turned his head away from the fog as he reached the guard barracks and headed for the abandoned recruit quarters

Odio smiled sarcastically to the guards that glared at him, he followed Strong Shield into the room before snarling again. “You won’t protect Dave from both of them, let me kill them and we will have no problems!”

“No” Strong Shield sighed “They are my responsibility and I will take care of them myself” he began opening his secret room as Odio watched in wonder “Just keep yourself out of trouble”

Strong Shield opened his secret area as Odio rushed in after him and began to inspect the various rooms and objects. The black unicorn sealed the entrance behind himself as he stepped into a room full of various files and folders

“What the hay is all this?” Odio looked at the lava that flowed in the basin in the middle of the room “It is very nice and certainly seems cosy but… the fuck?”

The unicorn rolled his eye as he levitated a brown folder onto his desk in the main room, he sat down and pulled out a sheet of paper as Odio peeked over his shoulder. Strong Shield quickly read the file before handing it to Odio

“That is the Daedalus, it is in the Manehatten Trainyard because it is unusable, unknown and makes the ponies that spend too much time around it go mad” Strong Shield rubbed his scared eye as he looked at Odio “It’s the perfect prison train”

Odio read the paper and instantly slammed it back on the desk “The Tartarus prison train?” he laughed loudly “How the hell does Tartarus have its personalized train?” Odio lost his smile as he saw Strong Shield’s cold stare “That prison is a massive black fortress that is guarded by a huge three-headed dog”

“Cerberus and the fort aren’t Tartarus” Strong Shield sighed “That is to keep ponies out and away from the real prison” he pulled pictures out of the folder as he looked at them with a vacant stare “The real prison is a gap in reality, every reality”

“So Tartarus is a black hole in space, time and all the universes?” Odio floated gently to look at the pictures of a pony covered in deep cuts “What happened to him?”

“He volunteered to go in” Strong Shield sighed “He came out ten minutes later with information that every universe dumps their most horrific monsters in Tartarus” he tapped the pictures “he died within his first day inside, info carved onto his own body”

Odio shook his head as some of the images became even more brutal “how could the vault get in there without the Daedalus? And what were this Project Unity and Project Harvest?”

“The vault… I have no idea” Strong Shield walked over to the lava centrepiece as he dropped his head “both the projects were run and created by Puppetmaster”

The fog of hatred scowled “How come I have never heard of this?” He whirled around Strong Shield’s head as he rested the other side of the gold basin “I have read your mind and this is completely new to me”

“After the incident of Project Unity I fell into a depression, I used magic to hide my injuries and drank to hide the memories” Strong Shield rubbed his head as he felt all the buried emotion strike at him “When the Mercenary War happened I threw myself at it for no reason, maybe I wanted to die or I wanted to fight for justice”

“Well aren’t you Max Payne?” Odio chuckled before he sighed at Strong Shield’s depressed face “Sorry… continue”

Strong Shield smirked “I got beaten up so badly, I was almost killed and left for dead” He paused as Odio giggled “Anyway I was thrown into a river and floated downstream and out of Equestria, I was retrieved by a family of zebra that nursed me back to health”

“Zidindi” Odio whispered as Strong Shield let out a slow and regretful nod “her family helped you and you slept with her?”

“Yes” Strong Shield groaned as his ears drooped “My mind was haunted by Flux and Battering Ram, I thought I had killed them but… I was wrong” he glanced at Odio before continuing with his tale “Zidindi helped me recover and put the past behind me, she loved me but I was still thinking of Flux”

Odio dipped a tendril into the lava and swirled it in small circles “I suppose that you returned to your badass ways and defeated the mercenaries”

“Yes” Strong Shield said proudly “I stopped the private war and left the mercenary business to die” he shuddered as he looked down at his body, many small scars covered his body, he tapped one on his hoof “I got this when I punched a minotaur to death”

“Oh shit really?” Odio hurried over and inspected the battle scar “How the hell did you pull that off? I can understand Battering Ram doing that but you!”

Strong Shield nodded “I pinned him to a wall by running him through with a few spears and then punched his head until his jaw broke and his teeth cut my hoof”

“Ouch” Odio giggled excitedly as he poked a scar on Strong Shield’s thigh “How did you get this? Probably fighting a dragon armada or something”

“Basic training” Strong Shield chuckled “Our captain of the guard handled the training back then, I got this when he was doing one of his speeches” Strong Shield traced the thin line across the front of his leg “I asked a question and this was my answer”

Odio laughed, “Wow that captain sounded like a major dick” he smiled at Strong Shield “What happened to him? He died thirty years ago and Shining Armour has been the first to replace him”

Strong Shield stopped smiling “I killed him” he shrugged “Long story short, he was bad and was responsible for Puppetmaster, so I killed him and somehow got away with getting the job of sergeant”

“That is one way to get promoted” Odio chuckled “So what was Project Unity?” he whirled enthusiastically as Strong Shield levitated over a bottle of brandy and a wide glass. The black unicorn poured himself a drink as he leaned back and stared at the alcohol, levitating the bottle back onto his desk

“Project Unity was designed to unite all of Equestria and beyond” Strong Shield frowned “It involved building an army of mechanical ponies that used brains as a way to improve performance”

Odio shook his eyes as he spluttered “R-robotic ponies?” he smiled “Oh wow, I would love to have some of them!”

“I was going to have my brain removed and placed in one of his latest designs” Strong Shield took a sip of his brandy and cleared his throat “Something about my training would make the machine better than the rest”

“Admittedly Mecha Shield sounds cool as fuck” Odio sighed “But I suppose you would have to do” he joked as Strong Shield glared

“The machines were going to put the world under martial law that was decided by Puppetmaster” he glared at the lava as the molten earth flowed through the basin “Equality and living in fear, the ones that fought would be turned into one of the machines”

Odio sighed, “Well I suppose you did well, considering you had to kill your friends, fight a robot army and lost an eye in one mission”

Strong Shield drank the rest of his brandy in one gulp as he placed the glass on the floor “Puppetmaster allowed Flux and Battering Ram to remain as normal because they were more useful alive than as slaves”

“Until you went in like Captain Price and kicked their shit like a boss!” Odio cheered as Strong Shield rose an eyebrow at the fog’s unusual eagerness “Or used CQC to totally own them! Like Solid Snake, not like Raiden… well maybe Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriots, but not Sons of liberty”

“I think those video games have messed you up” he rolled his eyes as Odio began muttering quietly to himself “Why are we even down here? I never asked for this”

“AH!” Odio cheered “Adam Jensen! Definitely Adam Jensen style!”