I looked at Fluffle Puff who was currently gnawing on my left boot. The adorableness, it's too much! She seemed so innocent. It was like she was only a few years old. She seems so- Did she take a bite out of my steel toed boot? I lifted up my left boot and indeed, there was a hole in the steel toe. I looked back down and stared at the small ball of fluff. I chuckled before I snapped my fingers, quickly repairing my boot with a spell.

"Tran, the jet's repairs have finished and the fuel has regenerated" Nguyen said.

"Come on Fluffle, let's go" I said to the small ball of fluff. Fluffle Puff gasped before jumping onto my head. Now how in the world can she jump that high? Oh well. I shrugged and climbed back onto the jet and jumped into the cockpit. I took off my backpack, shrunk it with my magic, and then set if down on the left of the flight stick. Then I took off the Sparda and set it down with my backpack. I closed the cockpit and restarted the engine. The turbofans slowly spun up as I waited with Fluffle Puff sitting on my head. wait a minute, I can't fly with Fluffle Puff sitting on my head. I took her off of my head and placed her on my lap.

Soon enough, the A-10 Warthog lurched forward. It rapidly gained speed from the two turbofans. A few minutes later, the plane gained enough speed to go airborne. I continued to accelerate until I reached 700 miles an hour, shy of Mach 1. Meanwhile, Fluffle Puff had her face plastered against the left window, staring at the rapidly moving ground.

-X-X-X-

"So what now?" Applejack asked. She was standing on a castle balcony and looking down on the remains of the city. Crystal guards and citizens of the Crystal Empire was wandering around the Empire. They did not know what to do. Roughly 60% of the Empire's buildings were destroyed. Casualties had been counted. 6714 guards had been killed while 4108 was injured. A total of 705 were missing. The civilians weren't spared. There was a total of 3004 civilian dead while 1009 was injured. A total of 4507 was unaccounted for and therefore missing.

Nick spun a few of the barrels on his minigun. "Death" he simply stated.

Out on a balcony, Cadance was looking upon her empire. She was trying hard not to cry but was failing badly. Tears slowly streamed down her face as she tried to keep a straight face. Beside her was Shining Armor who was in the middle of putting his front left leg in a splint. "I don't condone violence" Cadance said. "But this means war."

Shining finished putting his leg in a splint. "They'll pay" Shining said.

Down on the Streets was Andy who was patrolling the Crystal Empire, M1 Garand in hand. He was surveying the damage that had been inflicted to the empire from the recent invasion. He looked up. The force field surrounding the Crystal Empire was still down. He could feel the temperature dropping.

Suddenly, a bullet tore through the air and landed itself right on Andy's chest, knocking him to the ground. As Andy lied on the ground, a griffon flew over to where he laid. The griffon bent down and picked up Andy's M1 Garand but as he did, Andy lashed out with his dagger and stabbed the griffon in the chest. The griffon started gurgling blood as the dagger had punctured his left lung. Before he could do anything else, Andy ripped out the dagger and stabbed his other lung. Andy, again, ripped his dagger out and picked up his M1 Garand. He took aim and and fired a round into each of the griffon's legs, blowing off the limbs. "Screw you" Andy said.

Andy looked down at where he was shot, Since he had been wearing his brother's armored robes, the bullet simply mushroomed and stuck clung to his chest where the bullet had impacted. He pulled the bullet off of his chest and dropped it immediately. Unfortunately for Andy, he did not know that bullets, after being fired, are REALLY hot. "Son of a bitch!" Andy yelled out as he waved his hand in the air, hoping to cool down his hand.

He took hold of his M1 Garand and continued walking. As Andy was walking, one thing donned on him. He was acting like his brother. Andy even had his brother's armored robes. He closed his eyes and took a deep breathe.

Inside the castle Alex was sitting on the corpse of a hippogriff. In his hands was a small zinc plated zippo that he was attempting to light. In his mouth was a small, wrapped piece of paper. It was a joint. He kept on trying to light the small lighter but kept on failing. Frustrated, he closed the lighter and tucked it in his pocket. He really wanted his flamethrower.

"Hey." Alex turned to whoever said that and saw Ike. Ike's left arm was outstretched and was holding a lit zippo. Alex leaned forward and lit his joint. Ike pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his leather jacket's pocket and pulled out a cigarette from his mouth. Using the same zippo, he lit it and took a long drag.

The two of them heard loud foot steps. Alex and Ike turned and faced Nick. In his hands was a small bottle of whiskey, griffon brand. Alex reached into his pocket and pulled out another joint which he tossed to Nick. He lit the joint and started to smoke it. "Definitely wasn't our best battle" Nick said.

"We have nearly ten thousand dead, Nick" Ike said. Ike ripped the bottle out of Nick's hand and took a gulp of it. A griffon popped up from a hole in a nearby wall and took a shot at Nick. The bullet pinged off of Nick's armored hoodie and struck a vase that was somehow still intact. Before the griffon could take another shot, Ike, Nick, and Alex shot him enough times to tear him to pieces. Reloading, the three of them just shrugged and continued their smoking.

-X-X-X-

Logan sat at the top of the staircase leading to the top of the castle. Unlike Twilight, Logan had teleported to the top. He was looking down on the empire with his McMillan. In his mouth of one of his special hybrid cigars. He dired once before he got up. "God damn griffons" Logan said. He took a puff of his cigar before picking up his McMillan. Logan took another puff from his cigar before throwing it off of the edge.

"So that's what its like up here." Logan turned around and aimed his anti-material at the source. It was simply Austin.

"What do you need?" Logan asked.

"Just enjoying the view" Austin said while walking up to the edge.

Logan flipped Austen off and jumped off the edge of the castle. As Logan fell through the air, he covered himself in his magic before changing into an alicorn. He flared open his wings and caught the wind, quickly slowing his descent. Logan slung his McMillan over his back, careful not to entangle his wings.

He quickly glided through the air, making his way towards the castle. Just as he was halfway there, a loud buzz filled the air. Logan turned and face an A-10 Thunderbolt flying directly towards him. Logan banked left and barely dodged in time. A communications interface opened up in his Nanosuit's HUD and Logan was forcibly patched to someone. "Who the hell is this?" Logan said while hovering in the air.

"Same guy piloting the jet you idiot."

"Tran?" Logan said.

"No, I'm Bruce Lee. Of course I'm Tran you stupid idiot!" Tran said. "NO! BAD FLUFFLE PUFF! NO EATING THE FLIGHT STICK!!!"

"What?" Logan said.

-X-X-X-

"Same guy piloting the jet you idiot" I said. I started to bank left.

"Tran?" Logan said.

"No, I'm Bruce Lee. Of course I'm Tran you stupid idiot!" I said. Fluffle Puff then jumped off of my lap and started to chew on the A-10's flight stick. I tried to pry her off of the flight stick but it was as if she had an industrial clamp for a mouth."NO! BAD FLUFFLE PUFF! NO EATING THE FLIGHT STICK!!!" Finally, she released the flight stick and jumped back onto my lap.

"What?" Logan said. I disconnected our communications link.

"Damn it Fluffle Puff. You can just go around eating or biting everything in this cabin. You might accidentally blow something up or crash us" I said to the ball of fluff. She blew a raspberry at me. "Compelling argument but you still can't eat my A-10." I started to decrease my speed while decreasing my altitude. As I descended, I lowered the landing gear. Minute after minute of descent, the landing gear's wheels touched the street of the Crystal Empire. The A-10 traveled a total of half a mile before it came to a halt. I popped open the cockpit and Fluffle Puff gasped.

"Well Fluffle Puff, welcome to the Crystal Empire" I said. Fluffle Puff jumped out of my hands and looked around the remains of the empire. She stuck out her tongue. As she looked around, I shut down the engines of the jet.

"Hey Tran!" I turned to see Logan in his human form. "What the hell is that?!?" Logan yelled, pointing to Fluffle Puff. Fluffle Puff started running towards Logan. She jumped in the air at Logan but was stopped when she was shot by Logan's SPAS-12. She was instantly knocked backwards to the jet.

I dropped my jaw, seeing Fluffle Puff get shot. Before I could respond in any other way, Fluffle Puff jumped up and landed on her hooves. "What?" I said. I unbuckled myself from the jet's seat and jumped out to look at Fluffle Puff. Embedded in her fur were several double aught pellets. Even more interesting they had only gone into her fur about one eighth of an inch. "What?" I repeated again.

"What the hell is that?!?" Logan repeated.

"That" I started. "Is Fluffle Puff."

"How isn't it dead? I shot with a twelve gauge!" Logan said. I held up Fluffle Puff and showed Logan where the pellets were embedded. "What the fuck?!? How did it's fur stop twelve gauge pellets?!?"

"The pellets didn't even go through a quarter inch of fur. It's like it's fur is a set of natural body armor for it" I responded.

"Let's see how bullet proof it is" Logan said. Before I could stop him, he pulled out his AR10 and fired a shorter burst at her. I looked at her fur. The 7.62 Nato rounds hadn't penetrated her fur more than the twelve gauge pellets. "What?" Logan pulled out his McMillan and fired it at Fluffle Puff. I looked where the round hit her and saw that, like the 7.62 Nato and the double aught buckshot, it had only gone into her fur about one eighth of an inch. "WHAT?!?"

I pulled the bullets and pellets out of her fur and looked at them. Each individual pellet and bullet had mushroomed upon hitting her fur. "It appears that her fur is bullet proof. Not bullet resistant but actually completely bullet proof. She also seems to not have suffered any blunt force trauma from the bullet impacting her either" I said.

"So you're telling me that this little ball of fluff is completely bullet proof?" Logan said.

"Yes" I replied. I tossed him the mushroomed rounds. "See?"

"What the hell is that?!?" I turned to face Ike. He was pointing at Fluffle Puff.

"Fluffle Puff" I replied.

"Okay?" Ike said.

"Hey Ike, tell the others to return to Ponyville. Our little units are due back" I said. Each of the units assigned to each of us had only been already trained for roughly a month. We had given them a ten day leave for Hearth's Warming Eve and now they were due back to Ponyville. "You guys can take the train, I'll take my jet." A train ride from the Crystal Empire to Ponyville takes about a days travel. A jet would take roughly two and a half hours.

I picked up Fluffle Puff and climbed back into the jet. I buckled myself into the pilot's seat and Fluffle Puff sat on my lap. I used my magic to create a localized atmosphere in the cabin of the jet so that Fluffle Puff and I wouldn't need oxygen masks for high altitude flying. It would also remove all Gs the two of us could possibly feel in transonic flight. I restarted the engines of the jet and started the long takeoff procedures. In a matter of minutes, we were airborne again. "What's our fuel level?" I asked Nguyen.

"Roughly sixty percent. Enough for two hours of flight at top speed" Nguyen replied. "Make sure to stay at a low to medium altitude to make maximum use of the current fuel." I increased my A-10's speed and started flying towards Ponyville.

-X-X-X-

Piloting a twin engine, straight wing jet aircraft designed for close air support and anti tank missions is very, very boring when the pilot has to fly in one direction and nothing else. It's even worse when the environment, background, and sky has experienced no significant change except for different clouds. It's even further worsened when the pilot has ADHD and can't stand sitting in one spot, focused on a single task for very long. Worst of all, the pilot was going through a hyperactive behavior mood.

I was sitting in my seat with Fluffle Puff on my lap. Both of us were bored. Fluffle Puff had been attempting to sleep but was constantly bothered by me bouncing in my seat. 'Gotta move gotta do something so boring so boring oh my god this is so boring something needs to happen this is so boring hyper hyper hyper hyper jumping jumping jumping that would be so fun why do I have to sit still jumpy jumpy jumpy exactly why am I doing this I really need to move or do something this is so boring.' Why is everything moving so slowly? I lowered the landing gear and quickly landed. I shut off the engines and jumped out of the cabin of my jet, Fluffle Puff in hand. Then I ran, jumped, and skipped all at the same time. I continued running, jumping, skipping. I ran, jumped, and skipped some more. More running, jumping, and skipping. After a few minutes or so, I stopped running,jumping, and skipping and skid for roughly half a mile. I believed that got rid of some of my excess energy.

"Hey Nguyen, how much did I run?" I asked while looking at my surroundings. In Layman's terms, I was in a forest. Which forest? I had no clue. Not really. I think I'm in the forest that's situated in between Vanhoover and the Galloping Gorge.

"Even with you, I don't think anyone can run at 6400 miles an hour" Nguyen said.

"So... Very fast?" I said.

"Yes. I believe Mach 8.3 is very fast" Nguyen said. "You ran over four hundred miles in under four minutes."

I looked down at Fluffle Puff. Her hair was standing up and she was shivering. Maybe I did run a bit too fast. "So the running was a bit overkill?"

Nguyen sighed. He actually sighed. He's an AI and he sighed. "Yes" Nguyen groaned out. "I'm basically a digital clone of your mind and even I didn't expect this."

I looked down at Fluffle Puff again. "Hey Fluffle Puff, are you hungry?" I asked her. She nodded and happily gasped.

-X-X-X-

I was sitting down on a log (I cut down a tree with the Sparda) eating an MRE cracker. Fluffle Puff was sitting on my lap and happily eating a piece of cake (I keep a stash in my backpack in case of Pinkie Pie). "Hey Nguyen, where are we?" I asked.

"North-west of the Galloping Gorge and north-east of Vanhoover" Nguyen replied.

"Hmm. I did run far" I commented. "Where's my A-10?"

"I'm currently flying it here" Nguyen replied. "It should be arriving... Now." My A-10 landed directly in front of me.

"Danke shoen" I said to Nguyen.

"Sie sind willkommen" Nguyen replied.

I looked around. Looks like a nice hiking forest. I finished the rest of my meal and picked up my belongings(my backpack and the Sparda). Fluffle Puff looked at me and saw what I was doing. She finished her cake(she ate half a cake in an instant(looks like Pinkie Pie has some competition)) and jumped off of my lap. I stood up and held the Sparda in my left hand to use it like a cane.

I started walking/hiking with Fluffle Puff walking by my side. This forest was a simple forest. Taking in the sights was rather interesting and rather nice. Fluffle Puff seemed to enjoy the hike too as she was smiling and lightly jumping the entire time.

"Hey Fluffle Puff" I said. She turned to face me and stuck out her tongue. "Want some gum?" She gasped happily. I took out a piece of gum and unwrapped it before holding it in front of her mouth. She grabbed the piece of gum with her mouth and started to chew it. As she did that, I popped a piece of gum into my mouth. I looked at her and saw that she was content with her gum.

*BANG*

Kakogo cherta? (What the hell?[Russian]) Then a series of gunfire sounded out. I counted a total of twelve gunshots. The softness of the gunshot indicated that it was black powder so it was either griffon revolving weapons or pony muskets. Another gunshot sounded out and I heard a distant scream of pain. 'Female' I thought. 'That scream was from a mare.' I pulled out my Remington 870 Super Magnum and racked the pump. *CHK-CHK* I looked down at Fluffle Puff and noticed that she had donned an M1 steel pot helmet with camouflage netting. "Nice helmet" I commented. She blew a raspberry.

I jogged towards the direction where I heard the gunshots from. After a few minutes, I approached a small cottage. "How quaint" I said to myself. I checked my left for Fluffle Puff. She was able to follow me. I looked back at the cottage. Overall, the cottage was run down and of low condition. All of the windows were broken and the door was kicked open. In front of the house were possibly some of the contents of the house.

Another scream came from the house. It was from the same mare that made the earlier scream. I silently made my way towards the house and stopped when I was directly in front of the house. I went close to the window, hoping that no one would spot me. I stayed ducked under the window sill. I looked around for where Fluffle Puff was. She was still behind me. Good. I checked my body. I had everything on me. From the weapons in my inventory to my Axe of Perun, I had them on me. I pulled the Axe of Perun out of its sheath and held it up. I put the axe's blade in front of the window, using it as a crude mirror.

From the mirrored side of the axe blade, I saw everything inside the home. Four earth ponies, all armed with griffon revolving rifles, were standing over a single pegasus pony.

'That yellow pegasus looks familiar' I thought to myself. Wait a minute. That dark tan coat. That grey scale striped mane. She's Daring Do. She was also heavily injured and her front legs and wings were tied up behind her back. I could see that her front right leg was suffering from a sprain or broken bone as the appendage was bend and held at a strange angle. Also, her left hind leg had a bullet wound through the stifle.

"So Daring Do, where's the ring?" one of them said.

"I'll tell you Caballeron!" Daring Do said. Caballeron huh? So that's you're name. A play on of the Spanish word for horse rider.

"It's Doctor Caballeron to you, Daring" Dr Caballeron said.

Hmm. Guns or knives. Remington 870 or throwing knives. Hmm. Knives. I went up to the door frame, still hidden from view as I wasn't exposed yet. I prepped myself by slinging my Remington 870 over my shoulder and pulling out my three custom throwing knives. I held the four knives in my left hand as I pulled out a flash bang with the other.

"Henchman, do whatever you want to make her spit out the location of our ring" Dr Caballeron said.

"Time to have some fun. Hold her down for me!" I heard one of them said. "Don't move and the both of us can have some fun."

I used my teeth to pull the safety pin on the flashbang. Say all you want about that being a bad idea. I still like to do that. I tossed the flashbang into the room. *BANG* I ran through the doorway and into the small cottage. Everyone was still stunned from the flashbang. Good. I threw a throwing knife at the first earth pony. It struck his front left hind leg and pinned him to the wall behind him. The revolving rifle he held fell to the ground. Smiling, I tossed a knife at a second henchman. It also struck him in the left hind, pinning him to the wall. His rifle also dropped his revolving rifle. I threw my last throwing knife at the last henchman. Like the others, it struck him in the front left hind leg, pinning him to to wall behind him. I looked to the Dr Caballeron and saw that he had a rifle pointed at my face.

He smiled and started to depress the trigger. However, he was interrupted when Fluffle Puff jumped onto his face. He fired a round into the ceiling and flailed around as Fluffle Puff clung to his face. 'Good job, Fluffle Puff' I thought. I pulled out the dagger the others gave me on Hearth's Warming Eve and threw it at Dr Caballeron. It struck him in the back left leg and pinned him to the floor. Fluffle Puff ran off to hide somewhere.

I looked at Daring Do. She was rubbing her eyes with her hooves and she was trying to say something but I heard nothing as the flashbang had taken out my hearing too. Enhanced hearing can also be a curse. I waited a bit and my hearing quickly came back. Dr Caballeron and his henchmen were all screaming in pain. Daring Do was still trying to speak to me.

"Who the fuck are you?!?" Daring Do demanded. Wow, a pony that actually uses real curse words. Even though my hearing was still ringing, I heard that clearly.

"Someone" I simply stated. I unslung my Remington 870. "I heard gunshots and investigated. I found your little situation and decided to help."

"That didn't answer my question. Who are-" she stopped. She had finished rubbing her eyes and taken a good look at me. "You're one of those humans. Question is, which one are you?"

"People call me Tran" I said.

"Ah. You're their leader" Daring Do said.

I walked over to Dr. Caballeron and ripped out the dagger that was pinning him to the floor. To end his screams, I punched him in the face, knocking him out. I repeated the same thing with the three henchmen. Then I tied each of them up with some rope I had in my backpack and returned my knives back in their rightful spots on my body.

"Mind helping me?" She wiggled her legs and wings that were tied up behind her back. I walked over to Daring Do and cut her bonds with my sword. "So, what's you're real name?"

"I said people call me Tran" I repeated.

"And you're real name?" Daring Do asked again.

"Only my brother knows my real name and he never speaks of it" I said. "He doesn't dare to speak of it."

"Why?" Daring asked.

"..."

"I'll just leave the topic alone" Daring said.

"Good." I sat down in front of Daring and placed my backpack on the ground. Fluffle Puff ran out of her hiding spot and sat beside me.

"Is that a fluffy pony?!?" Daring Do exclaimed.

I looked at Fluffle Puff. "Yes?" I said hesitantly.

"They're supposed to be extinct!" Daring Do said.

"Looks like they're not" I said. Fluffle Puff frowned at Daring Do.

"Forget it."

I looked at Daring's wounds. "Hold out your injured front hoof" I said. She stuck out her front right leg. She only had a dislocated hoof. I took a morphine syrette and injected it into her leg. "Hold still." I gripped her hoof and yanked hard. Daring Do, in return, yelled out in pain. "Oh don't be such a baby. I'm just fixing your dislocated hoof."

"It still fucking hurts!" Daring Do said.

"I have five broken ribs, both of my lungs are punctured, I have several ruptured organs, and my spine is fractured in twelve different locations" I said. "You don't see me complaining." The injuries I gained from that weird human Equestria universe had not healed yet. It would take roughly three weeks for the injuries to heal.

"You're insane" Daring Do said.

"Hold out your back hoof. The injured one, of course" I said.

Daring held out the shot leg. The bullet had hit her in the middle of her foreleg and had not exited. The bullet was still in her leg. "Please be gentle" Daring said. I took out another syrette full of morphine and inject it into her leg. Then, I took out a pair of tweezers. "You want something to bite on?" She nodded. I took off my bite and handed it to her. She took it with her front left leg and bit onto it. "Ready?" She nodded again. I stuck the tweezers in the bullet wound and dug around for the bullet. I quickly found the bullet and pulled it out. I tossed the tweezers and bullet away before applying medigel on the entry wound. The hole quickly faded away, leaving no scar.

I pulled out a bottle of antibiotics and handed it to her. She took the bottle and gulped down some of the contents. "Thanks" she said.

"You're injuries should be good. Just make sure you keep them clean" I said. I looked at her wings. Her left wing was hanging limply at her side. I lightly grasped the offending wing and examined it. "Broken forearm bone." I gently set the bone in place and placed a splint on it to keep the bone in place and to keep her from flying. "Don't fly and your wing will heal." I took out another syrette of morphine and injected it into her side. Thank god I only kept a small does of morphine in each syrette or she would have overdosed by now. "Daring Do I'm guessing?"

"Yeah. I guess you've read my books?" Daring Do said.

"Eenope. I just recognize you" I said. "Exactly why are those four here?" I pointed to the four unconscious earth ponies. "Something about a ring?"

Daring Do walked over to a nearby book shelf and pulled out a book. She walked back over to me and held out the book. "This" she said. I took a good look at the book. On the spine of the book were three dials that were labeled with strange markings. On the cover of the book was a turn tile with a horseshoe imprinted on it.

I took a book and looked at it. 'What could the combination be?' I thought.

'It's 000' Nguyen said into my mind. 'Then you need to turn the turn tile counter clockwise.' I did as Nguyen said and the book opened. Inside was... A large gold ring?

"How did you know?" Daring asked.

"I KNOW EVERYTHING!!!" I yelled out. "I"m going to guess its a magical artifact that's involved with a magical ritual that can possibly end the world."

"Correct. What you're holding is the Ring of Destiny. If my nemesis, Ahuizotl, gets his paws on this. He'll bring it to the Fortress of Talicon and bring eight centuries of unrelenting heat to the world!" Daring Do explained.

"How would it bring eight centuries of unrelenting heat to the world?" I asked.

"It would force the sun to stay in the sky!" Daring Do replied.

"Wouldn't Celestia be able to fix that? Also, couldn't Discord be able to fix that problem too?" I said.

"The ring is directly linked to a source of magic more powerful than anyone has ever seen!" Daring Do explained. Oh.

"Welp, good luck with that" I said. I picked up Fluffle Puff and turned around, ready to walk away.

"Wait! Aren't you going to join me?" Daring asked.

"I thought you work alone?" I asked back.

"So you have read my books!" Daring Do said.

"Eenope. A pony I know is a huge fan of your books" I said. "She can't stop talking about you sometimes." I set Fluffle Puff on the ground and donned the Sparda as a cane(though its still in katana/samurai sword form). "Aren't you going to come along?" I asked gesturing towards the door.

"Hey! You're supposed to be the side kick!" Daring Do said.

I laughed. "Side kick. That's a good joke." She trotted up to my side and the three of us started walking. "Anything you want to ask or say to pass the time?"

"Usually, everyone goes all fan crazy over me. You're one of the very few who have never gone crazy over me. Why?" Daring Do asked. "You haven't read my books but you were able to recognize me."

"It's useless to go crazy over a celebrity. If you happen to ever meet a celebrity, never go crazy. You will only create a sense of annoyance to the celebrity and he or she will be driven away" I explained. "I've noticed that you say everyone instead of everypony. Why?"

"When you travel as much as me, you will meet people other than ponies" Daring explained. "Do you know about the book series about you and your friends?"

"Book series? Oh! You mean the one by Twilight Sparkle" I said. "Eeyup."

"You're exactly like the how you are in the book series" Daring said.

"Getting mobbed because of those book series is getting too common for me. Twilight is a bit too egg headed sometimes and yet she writes something like those books." I said. "Eh. I'm a huge egg head too."

"I'm a HUGE fan" Daring Do said while blushing.

"Of course" I said. "Where are we headed?"

"The Fortress of Talicon" Daring answered.

-X-X-X-

The three of us walked/trotted towards where Daring believed where the fortress was. I stopped walking. "Stop" I said.

"What is it?" Daring asked. Fluffle Puff looked at me. I walked slightly ahead of Daring Do. I held out the Sparda and pointed at the ground. "What?" I touched the patch of the ground I was pointing at. Immediately, a log appeared out of the trees and went through the space that was directly in front of us. After the log stopped swinging, I cut it down.

"That" I stated. The two of us continued walking. This time, I was leading. Every now and then, I would disarm a trap like I had done with the first swinging log trap. Everything from pitfalls and spike drops to leg catches and noose catches were set up.  

The three of us soon made it to a large Mayan pyramid styled temple. One thought troubled me. WHY IN THE YEBAT WAS THE TEMPLE MAYAN STYLED?!?!??!?!?

"Okay, Tran. We'll go infiltrate the castle and intercept Ahuizotl. He was probably expecting Dr Caballeron to bring him the ring so he's most likely in the middle of his ring ceremony" Daring Do said.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just blow up the temple? Then never be able to anything in that temple of his" I said. "I think I have enough explosives."

Daring Do held up a hoof. "Well-" She paused. She brought her hoof to her chin. "Wait, that's actually a good idea."

I smiled. I took off my backpack and dug through it. I pulled out a small two hundred pound chunk of C4.

-X-X-X-

I handed Daring Do a large megaphone(thank you Pinkie Pie). "Hey Ahuizotl! Looking for something?!?" Daring Do yelled through the megaphone. The megaphone she used amplified her and directed all of the sound waves at the temple in front of us.

We waited a short moment. Out from the temple came a rather numerous amount of ponies(WHY IN THE FICKEN ARE THEY DRESSED UP LIKED WANNABE MAYANS?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?) and a large blue mythological Mayan cat creature that I knew as Ahuizotl. "Daring Do, my mortal enemy" Ahuizotl said. He then noticed Fluffle Puff and I. "Who are you two?"

I took the megaphone from Daring Do. "Just your local Crazy Asian and ball of fluff" I said.

"The Ring of Destiny!" Ahuizotl said, pointing to me. I had the ring draped over my left arm as I was holding it for Daring Do.

"No! Its a sandwich" I said sarcastically. "Of course it's the Ring of Destiny, pridurok!" I looked down at Fluffle Puff. "Hit it" I said to her. Fluffle Puff head disappeared into her fur and reappeared. In her mouth when she reappeared was an M57 firing device. She depressed the trigger by biting down on it. *CLACK*

Explosions rang out from each corner of the temple, covering everything in a dust cloud. When the dust cleared, it revealed... The temple. It was still standing and the only damage was that it was missing its corners.

"Hah! Your attempts to foil my plan have failed! You will never win, Daring Do!" Ahuizotl said. Daring Do slowly hovered over tot he foundation of the temple. She brought out her left hoof and tapped the base foundation. She then hovered back to where Fluffle Puff and I was. "What was the point of that?"

"Three" I said.

"Two" Daring Do said.

"Pfffftt" Fluffle Puff raspberried out. In an instant, the Fortress of Talicon crumbled away, leaving only chunks of stone that once made up the Mayan-esque temple. From the rubble of the temple popped up Ahuizotl.

"You won't get away with-" Ahuizotl started. However, he was interrupted when I ran up to him and punched him in the jaw.

"Shut up already! Tu necesitas a callate por una vez!"

"What?" Daring asked.

"Just some Spanish" I replied. Fluffle puff, Daring Do, and I simply turned around and started walking away.

"That was some good work, sidekick" Daring Do said.

"Sidekick? Hah! I did most of the work and I saved you from Dr Caballeron and his henchmen. I'm not a sidekick. It's either we are partners or you're the sidekick" I said.

"Partners it is!" Daring Do said. "What about her?" Daring pointed to Fluffle Puff.

"She's kind of like my pet" I said. Fluffle Puff gasped happily and jumped on my head.

We walked back to Daring's House but when we did, we found her home on fire.

"Aw fuck!" Daring said. On a post in front of the house, was a note that said "Dr. Caballeron sends his regards".

"I have some extra rooms in my home. You could stay with me" I said to Daring Do.

"My type writer and what I had already written for my next Daring Do novel was in there!" Daring Do said. She looked at me. "Can you also refer to me by my pen name, AK Yearling?"

"Sure."Then I pulled the aforementioned objects out of my backpack. "You mean these?" I said.

"What!" Everything else she had said were undecipherable bits of stuttering and anger. "Why do you have those?!?"

"Just cause" I said. "Going to take me up on the offer?" I placed the typewriter and manuscript back into my backpack.

"Yeah. Might as well. Nowhere else to go, right?" Daring Do said.

"We'll fly there" I said.

"How? You have no wings!" Daring said. "And my left wing is broken!"

I smiled and looked up. She did too. Fluffle Puff blew a shorter raspberry(she was still sitting on my head). In a few seconds, Nguyen had flown my jet in the above airspace before landing perfectly in front of the three of us. "That's how" I said.

"Can I have a ride?" Daring asked.

I nodded. "There's not much room so you'll have to sit on my lap" I said. Daring Do blushed again. Like usual, I placed my backpack and the Sparda on the feet of the jet. Fluffle Puff, who was still sitting on my head, clamored into my BDU like earlier. God was that adorable and god was she warm and fuzzy. I jumped out of the jet and carefully grabbed Daring Do, I had to be wary of her injuries, and climbed back into the jet. I didn't cast the sealed atmosphere spell on the jet's cabin because of one thing, EXTREME Gs! I buckled myself in for the oncoming ride.

I started the beginning takeoff procedures(starting the turbines, making sure everything was in place, checking the environment, etc.) and slowly started to lurch forwards as the engines/turbines slowly spun up. As the turbines began to spin faster, the jet started to move faster and faster and faster until... We ran out of takeoff strip? Apparently, a cliff was ahead of us. Oh well.

The A-10 promptly drove off the cliff going at roughly a hundred miles an hour. Daring Do immediately started screaming as we fell. Apparently, falling off a cliff inside a not yet airborne twenty plus ton aircraft is "scary" and possibly "dangerous" with "spikes" at the bottom of the cliff. Wait, why are there spikes at the bottom of this drop? Oh well. Before we ran out of altitude to "lightly descend to the ground", the A-10 gained enough speed to be truly airborne.  

"Hold on!" I said.

I immediately pushed the turbines to its max capabilities. Coupled with the magical enchantments I had placed on the jet, the A-10 increased in speed by nearby 300 miles an hour. This created roughly 7 G forces for the three of us to feel. For me, it pushed me into my chair as I was held in place by the "seat belts". For Fluffle Puff, it pushed her into my chest as she was inside my BDU. For Daring Do, It sent her flying around in the cabin. She nearly hit the cabin of the jet until I had grabbed her and held her down. In a few minutes, the G force lowered to normal amounts as the amount of acceleration had gone to a halt as my jet had stayed at 700 miles an hour.

I let go of Daring. "That. Was. Awesome!" Daring Do yelled out. I chuckled.

-X-X-X-

The trip back to Ponyville was rather uneventful but scenic as we passed the Galloping Gorge, Cloudsdale(every pegasus in Cloudsdale gawked at us(apparently, flying a very loud, dual engine/turbine, giant jet aircraft into a residential area is "interesting") and some tried to chase us), and Canterlot(again, everyone gawked at us). Overall, the trip only took a little over an hour and a half. I had landed in front of the Everfree Forest where my home was.

After landing, I unbuckled myself from the jet and jumped out. "Ah home, where you can kill a man and not be arrested, sort of" I said. I took Fluffle Puff out of my BDU and set her on the ground. I climbed back into my jet and gathered my belongings and grabbed Daring Do. "Mi casa es su casa."

A Few Days Later

Daring Do had taken up one of the many rooms in my house and quickly finished her book. The publishing date of the novel was in a month in a half. She had planned for some extra time to started the next book. In the meantime, the others and I had gone back to training our units (platoon in my case).

I was currently sitting in my store, watching the customers browse my inventory. A ring came from the door, signifying that someone had entered. I looked at the entrance and saw Rainbow Dash. "Tran! The others and me-" Rainbow Dash started.

"Others and I" I corrected.

She grumbled. "The others and I are going to A.K. Yearling's house to help her finish her book. Want to come?" Rainbow Dash asked. I laughed. "What? Why are you laughing?"

I took the early copy Daring Do had given me. The book's title read Daring Do and the Ring of Destiny. On the cover was Daring Do in her usual attire and beside her was a picture of me in my BDU with Fluffle Puff sitting on my head. Ahuizotl's eyes were plastered over the upper portion of the book and in the left upper portion of the book was the Fortress of Talicon. "I think I'm good" I said to her.