It had been a long day for Celestia. Not only had she her normal duty of raising the glorious sun to bring forth the day, a task that would require roughly a hundred lesser spell-weaving ponies by itself, but because of the threat made against Canterlot she had to constantly remain on the lookout for possible dangers approaching the city. While this wasn't exactly a tough task, especially when compared to raising the sun, it was surprisingly taxing on the old Alicorn's mind. Her hundreds of years of experience may have given her patience, yes, but lets see you constantly observe the surroundings of your city through a spyglass for days on end? Even Celestia gets tired.
Like right now. After scanning for signs of danger for a good six hours she had gone to get ready for her niece's wedding, a task that apparently gave an previously unseen mass of Changelings to begin assaulting Shining Armor's barrier. Then, after Twilight and the real Princess Cadence exposed the Princess at the altar as the phony she really was, Celestia found herself unable to match the power Chrysalis had gained from "eating" Armor's love for Cadence and trapped within a cocoon! And now that the trouble seemed to have finally passed, Celestia found herself looking forward to two things equally: Her niece's now rescheduled wedding and taking a nice long nap, possibly one that actually spanned the full night rather than just half of one, as was the usual.
Problem was, the trouble wasn't over.
All were just about ready to depart from the grand hall where the prior attempt at wedding Cadence and Armor had been held when Celestial felt a disturbance in the air she hadn't before. It was a stubble feeling, so subtle the other ponies in the room didn't notice it, but it was just so odd a feeling that it made the Alicorn uneasy. While it didn't feel at all malicious she couldn't help but think how unprepared she would be if someone else decided then and there to stage another takeover attempt. While this wasn't the case, these thoughts were reinforced when a tear suddenly ripped into existence in one of grand pillars that supported the room. Thankfully this didn't cause the pillar to fall, but what was on the other side of the rip in, well, reality made her skin crawl. Rolling, grey...
Static.
Nopony had paid any notice to the initial disturbance, but now they were all staring at the gaping hole in all that they knew, probably having been alerted by the distinct sound of tearing paper that had accompanied its appearance. Applejack was the first to speak.
"What in tarnation is that?"
"I-I don't know..." Twilight answered, taking a curious step the unnatural occurrence before them. "But it looks like a hole..."
"A hole to where..?"
As if in answer, the anomaly decided then and there to do what it had barged into their realm to do: Spit something out of subspace that didn't belong there. What it was... Well, nopony knew. It looked almost like a diamond dog in the way it was laid out but more streamlined, more smooth in its bodily construction. Also noticeable was the fact that its legs were all wrong, with paws that were too large, legs too thick and knees too far down its thighs, not to mention the fact that its head was far too small. On top of this, it seemed to wear a suit of armor of sorts, metal strips running across its torso, upper arms and legs and even face with a durable looking fabric in between them, though an eerie-blue, flickering light shone out of the gaps about where its face should be.
Regardless of what it was, it was currently slumped against the pillar across from the tear, and having been violently jettisoned from the land of static and slammed against the stone that was now behind it, the thing was probably hurting. Not that anypony moved to help it up, what with having been scared out of their wits and all. Even Celestia (whom Fluttershy was now clinging to like a cat) was shaken by the sudden intrusion and wore a shocked expression on her face. While she quickly gained her composure, she by no means had any clue what to do now, and looked at the ponies around her to draw on for inspiration. Nopony's position gave her any ideas, until her gaze fell on Shining Armor, who was standing protectively in front Cadence.
R-right, She began telling herself I must protect my s-
"Nnnng..." The thing interrupted, moving its head from the limp angle it was at, lifting it slowly. Its voice was unnaturally loud: being able to clearly broadcast its mumble to the entire room and cause Fluttershy to grip the Princess tighter. Its head wobbled just before reaching its proper position above the shoulders, though, and it brought a gauntleted paw to the side of its head as a wave of dizziness washed past the lights in its face set to flickering again, quicker than before, until they shut out completely. "D-damn.. Power cut out.."
Power?
Unable to hear the Princess's silent question, the thing proceeded to grip its head, no its helmet, with both paws and attempt to pull it off, struggling in vain for a few seconds before its head suddenly was released with an audible POP, thus exposing its real face to the onlooking ponies. Whatever the thing was, it seemed to be made out of flesh, as that was the color of its face... Albeit pale flesh. It also had a vibrantly red red, curly mane which was damp with what could only be assumed to be sweat. Now free from its mask, the thing took a deep breath and leaned its head back against the pillar behind it, uttering one word: "Ouch."
It was about this time that the Royal Guards, whom had been posted in the room after the Changeling incident had resolved itself, finally made their move, surrounding the apparently injured being and lowering their spears at it. Though it didn't open its eyes, the thing must have heard them clop up to him as it is sighed and spoke again, sounding weary now that its voice-distorting mask was removed. "I just can't catch a break... Can I?"
One of the guards snorted in response.
Sighing again and not bothering to open its eyes, the thing made to stand up which in turn caused the guards to tense up, obviously expecting a fight. This drew a chuckle from the being as it drew to its full height, roughly six inches taller than the guards. "Don't worry, I'm not looking for a fight," It assured, grabbing something nobody had noticed from the side of his leg before dropping it to the ground and kicking it aside, towards one of the guards. The guard in question jumped backwards, afraid that this was some kind of attack, but the thing just slid on by him and came to a stop roughly twenty yards from its owner. When the ponies looked back to the biped, they saw it attempting to work something akin to a zipper just below the base of its neck apparently having trouble due to its gauntleted paws.
"In the name of Princess Celestia," One of the more bold guards began, "I command you to be still, monster!"
"Monster?" The thing chuckled, finally gaining purchase of the release and unzipping the front of the armor it was wearing. "Listen guy, this 'Monster' is currently in the process of disarming itself so you won't have to worry about retaliation when you cart me off to wherever, and thus refuses to discontinue its movement. No disrespect meant to your ruler, of course," it continued, pulling its arms out from the suit, revealing that it was wearing a blue jumper of sorts that went up to the base of its paws. "Besides, you wouldn't be calling me a monster if you knew what the things I just escaped from looked like."
"Silence!" The guard commanded, the being saying the exact same thing at the same time, opening its eyes to look down at its paws to check to make sure they were undamaged. "Kinda sad that you guard-types all have the same response, no matter what realm I find myself in..." It glanced up at the guard before returning to its paws, stopping when it realized something and looking back at the stallion.
"You're a pony," It stated dumbly, voice clearly displaying of surprise if its puzzled expression didn't.
"And you aren't," Shining Armor replied, deciding it was time for the Captain of the Royal Guard to take charge of the situation before things got out of hoof as he walked over. "Why is that?"
The thing shrugged and returned to removing its armor-suit, looking over at the Captain. "Born on the wrong plane of existence I guess."
"Plane of existence..?"
"Its a long story," it sighed, kicking aside its armor-suit-thing after struggling with removing its hind-paws from the boots. "One that I'd rather not tell right now."
"And why is that?" Armor asked, much more relaxed now that the newcomer was out of its battle-gear.
"Because it requires I tell you my story as well." It answered casually, leaning against the pillar it had crashed against.
By this time the atmosphere in the room had changed a bit, now that it was clear that whatever this thing was it probably didn't mean any harm. Several of the group had decided it was safe to walk over to the edge of the ring of guards, curious enough to try and get a better look at the extra-dimensional being, including the timid Fluttershy (though she hid behind her friends). Pinkie Pie was smiling again, bouncing slightly in her place as her anticipation for the party she was starting to plan already grew, Twilight looked like she had a few scrolls of questions she'd like to ask, Rarity was staring at the way it dressed, appalled by the lack of flair at the simple jumpsuit it wore had, and Dash was trying to size up how fast it could go if it could fly.
Celestia stayed back where she was, however, warily eyeing the being from where she stood. It was certain that this thing wasn't going to attack, but what if more of them came out of the portal? Would they be as ready to abandon their weaponry and armor, or would they start attacking ponies on sight? And why would it be armored like that if there wasn't danger lurking where it came from? Her mind was swarmed with questions such as these, so it was understandable that she wasn't keen on getting closer to the thing, even if it was relaxing against a pillar with its eyes closed.
"And what kind of story would that be?" Shining Armor asked as his fiance walked over to his side.
It took awhile for the thing to respond, apparently looking for the best words to answer with.
"The kind of story tha-" It began, cutting itself off as its blue eyes snapped open to look at the portal it had come from. "Fuuuuuuck," It complained, taking on a battle-ready stance. "Everybody get out of here, something dangerous is going to be coming through real soon!"
"What do you-?" Armor began, only to be cut off by the thing.
"Fucking Necromorph, that's what!" It yelled, jumping from passive to aggressive in a heartbeat. "Now get the fuck out of here before it shows up!"
Before anypony had time to question further, however, the rift in reality spewed something else out at the first thing, whom dived aside and snatched a spear from the nearest guard. This new thing looked like it was the same species as the first think at some point in time, but had been warped beyond saving by some dark force. Where the first thing had arms with paws and opposable thumbs, this thing had grisly looking blades made of bone, and where the friendly one had a face this thing had nothing but a gaping maw filled with sharp looking teeth. The clothes it wore were tattered, torn and bloodstained and its flesh looked slimy, dead and corrupted. This "Necromorph" quickly picked itself up by using its blade-arms for support, apparently feeling no pain from crashing into the stone, and threw itself at the nearest pony, a guard, with obvious intent to kill.
It never met its target.
The instant it jumped at the stallion the other, friendly, thing sped forward, full-body tackling it out of the air with a roar before crashing to the ground on top of it, thankfully out of range of the Necromorph's flailing blades.
"RUN GODDAMNIT!" The stallion's savior bellowed, breaking everypony out of their stupor as they ran for safety. Glad that they had listened this time, the red-maned biped rolled off the Necromorph and quickly stood back and up to face its foe. The reanimated corpse soon found its footing as well and rushed its target without hesitation, impaling itself on the spear that its prey jabbed at it and continuing forward as if it were nothing!
This didn't surprise the would-be prey as much as it did the onlooking ponies however, and it quickly combat-rolled to the side, scooping up the metal thing it had cast aside a few minutes ago before aiming it at the monster and saying one word.
"Die."
Pachk! Pachk! Pa-pachk!
The think in the red-maned thing's paws bucked four times in its grip and likewise flashed four times. When this was over the monster was scrambling on the ground, one of its arms severed at the shoulder and its head blown off. There was semi-congealed blood splattered about the once clean floor and walls, and it didn't seem that this being cared. Its face was hard as it walked over to finish the job, getting slashed across the thigh when it got too close. Snarling in pain, the red-maned one pointed the weapon at the monster once last time.
Pa-Pachk!
This time the Necromorph didn't stir again, causing its slayer to sigh and drop the weapon.
"Gods I hate those things..." The thing muttered to the ceiling in relief before it passed out, adrenaline running dry. Rarity fainted directly afterwards.
A/N: Mkay, so... Yeah. This guy comes out of nowhere and apparently knows how to deal with Necromorphs. Doesn't that mean he's from the Dead-Space series? NOPE! It just means he was plucked from that reality before getting thrown into this one! ;D Next chapter should answer all yer questions about the guy, so don't worry, everything's gonna be fine.
Not.
Until next time, NuclearPoweredGinger out!