Darkness Comfort

"I'll do what's right" I said, moving away from the dead corpses and going over to Luna who seemed to collapse as I put my hooves around her. It was not something I ever excepted to be doing yet here I was, holding a sobbing Princess in the middle of a collection of underground sewage centuries from my own time and I couldn't help but blush all thanks to my new damn emotions which seemed to make me so angry that I just wanted to kick the shit out of something.

However standing there with my arms around Luna was something that just cooled my heart and made all my cares in the world go away except for the one which was most important and foremost... to protect her no matter the cost.

"Asimov" said Red. "Deactivate!" I said harshly and she went away but it was enough to shatter the tranquillity bubble and I realise Luna was making a lot of noise so said softly "Luna please listen to me".

She didn't respond and I repeated the question this time shaking her a bit. "Listen Luna you and no other pony should see the horrors of my world but you have to be strong for me now and walk past it and never look back, please help me on this one" I asked with a slight pleading voice.

She looked up at me and I saw red rims around her beautiful blue eyes which blinked gratitude at me before I pulled away to look at Char who was still looking away but now trembling in fear.

"Luna, grab Chad and lead him, over the mess" I told her. She grabbed Chad whose eyes were still closed tightly as his fragile mind made up terrifying images within.

I looked down a yet another twisted wreck of sewn together muscle and misplaced limbs. The smell in the sewer was fowl but they gave off rotting flesh smell.

"Red take a note entry" I asked. She came back online not saying a word about my previous emotional outbreak.

"Recording" she said and I began to talk. "Three ponies discovered underneath Canterlot in abandoned medieval sewage tunnels, by state of decay they cannot have been here for more than a few days."Cause of death time mutilation" I said choking on the last word and wondering that this might have been me. "Beginning my search for any items of importance" I said as I kneeled down and looked at the poor little ponies.

I scanned all over but couldn't find any insignia on their bodies apart from what looked like a toolbox which had merged with their bodies about in the centre. "Beginning extraction of toolbox from the…" I looked hard trying to determine what part of the body I was removing it from. "The back or chest area" I settled for and began cutting it out with my knife.

Due to the fact that the tissue was far dense due to three ponies being stuck together and their muscles fusing with each others.

As pitied the box free maggots fell out of the opening and I struggled not to throw up as I stared into the fleshy hole of pure flesh and fat maggots.

"Asimov Luna and Chad are probably getting close to be end now" warned Red. I picked up the pace and quickly pried open the toolbox which was slightly damaged already due to the time shift.

Unopened it and saw the small contents inside. "One light wave wrench which use magnetic force controlled over one point to remove the largest of bolts, a high powered small laser but with no charge and last but not least a small portable soldering iron similarly not charged.

"I told the recording what I had found before packing up all my stuff and pulling a small grenade from my pouch."Asimov you're not going to waste that on these ponies are you"? "I'm not leaving them like this and I have no time to build a fire" I said as I twisted the head to go off in 45 seconds.

I looked down once more before I double timed it out of there as quickly as possible, galloping flat out with my rifle slung next to my backpack.

I saw Luna up ahead and just as I caught her up a large boom echoed though the caves and rocked the ground we stood on. A large orange and blue flame erupted further down the tunnel before quickly dissipating.

I had jumped on both Luna and Chad as it had erupted in case any flying debris came this way. None came however and I remarked "they built this place to last".

Luna and Chad got up Chad looking like his sanity was hanging by a thread and Luna in a state I shock. "What just happened" she asked.

I looked down at the ground before I shouldered my pack and answered. "A merciful burial" before walking off with them confused and scared.

We didn't need to walk long as we came upon the safe room/sewage connection plant fairly quickly. It was a large room with swords and rusty weapons on racks in one corner away from the main sewage tunnel. A ladder led up to the surface and away from the cramped oppression of the drains we'd been walking through for nearly an hour.

I went first to make sure the ladder was firm enough to take our weight and started climbing up it to check the surface. The exit was buried under some undergrowth but I pushed through it easily enough and emerged into the daylight clearing of the Everfree forest never so happy in all my life to see the light of dawn.

Luna started ascending the steps now and the ladder pulled off its hinges slightly. "Err Luna you might need to hurry it up, I don't think that the ladder can take your weight" I warned her.

She looked up just a few feet from the exit and said outrageously "are you calling me fat"! I looked at her trying to detect if this was a joke or not before the ladder nearly gave away entirely. It wasn't a joke and I took it upon myself as a time to do some serious apologising for something I didn't actually do.

"Your highness I was simply stating that the ladder had gotten weaker and was only concerned for your safety"!
Luna still frowned as she pulled herself up from the ladder ignoring my hoof of help.

Chad took longer however, being weighed down by the sack of supplies and his heavy equipment and armour and as he stepped off of the ladder it completely broke away and fell back into the pit. "Looks like we aren't going back that way" said Luna.

I gathered everyone around in a huddle by a large free and held up a map for them to see. "Ok" I began "this here is the Everfree forest which we are in the heart of at the moment". "We need to go west near Ponyville and then slowly make our way through a smaller quieter part of the forest until we get to the mountains, then we climb them until we reach the top where we shall camp for a few days".

"What about all the assassins?" asked Luna. "Well hopefully none will turn up but they could just be waiting to ambush us in Canterlot so I wish to wait some months before doing anything else involving Canterlot".

"What if they find us" asked Chad fearfully. I looked at him surprised that he put in his input but glad all the same. "We kill them of course" I said perhaps a little too coldly for comfort as everybody immidielty went quiet.

I looked at everyone before rolling up the map. "We'll rest and prep once we reach the safety of the mountains but until then everyone be on your guard, there are a few things I found in this forest which will give anypony nightmares".

So our little troupe set off with me at the lead and Luna tucked safely in the middle and Chad protecting behind. An hour into the walk I looked behind us at Chad whose head was down, virtually on the ground. I stopped for a second and Luna stopped at the same time, however Chad kept walking eventually bumping into Luna.

Before he could apologise I walked up behind him and pulled him up by his plate armour until I was holding him up. "You want to know some advice Chad?" I asked him rhetorically. He shook his head before he could help himself and I dropped him, he fell onto his rump and stared up shocked at me as I pointed out "Now you have been trained to be a guard, not a very good guard to say the least but anyway at least the guards back in Canterlot hold their heads up high in confidence" I stared at him and he tried avoiding my gaze but I caught him out and said quietly "look at me".

He warily kept his eyes fixed on mine and I began to go into a monologue "Now holding your head up high and showing your enemy that you have an unwavering gaze is important, also the ground is not where enemies are going to sprout from... most of the time".

Luna seemed to look on in fascination as I lectured Chad. "Stand up" I told him. He stood up with hunched shoulders and his head drooping down nearly touching the floor. I strolled over to him and held his chin up forcefully until it was my height and stared intensely at him. "Defeat the enemies gaze and you win half the battle, look at me and keep your mind clear and your gazes unwavering do not despair or think of the ways in which I could kill you but instead assess me".

"I am your ally but pretend I am an assassin, your wavering now before me which indicates you are weak which means I could strike and kill you without a though, however if you can bluff your enemy into being a well trained killer it can give you valuable seconds to think of a strategy".

Chad seemed to be getting the hang of this now and he straightened up and held his head up without my help. "Good" I told him encouragingly "Now copy my gaze and don't give away any emotions but keep your brain moving, don't show any signs like blinking or shaking or else I will kill you" I said in cold tones now stepping away from him and looking at him with an intense gaze.

Chad first looked at Luna before he began to hold my gaze. He did well with his posture and his eyes barley fluttered once in the minute that I was testing him.

"Good Chad" I said giving him a slap on the back, now you practice that death stare and you'll be knocking heads together within a week" I said going back over to the head of the group.

"Oh and keep checking behind you every couple of minutes and check well" I advised him to which he nodded with his head high. "Yes sir" he said in a voice not as quiet as before but still pretty disappointing,

we continued to walk on through the forest in a companionable silence that was much better than the stale silence previous. I was pleased to see that Chad was finally acting a bit more like he knew what he was doing but he was still way under qualified for any protection for the Princess, but it felt good to have finally made progress with him.

"So what happened?" asked Luna. "What" I asked confused. "To those ponies back in the tunnel how... how did they get... mutilated like that"? I looked back at her and wondered how I could explain this.

"I don't think". "Please Asimov" she begged me. I looked back at her once more and her eyes still seemed slightly puffy from the crying hours ago. "Well ok but if it's not nice" I warned her, "Most likely the ponies were not assassins but engineers judging by their lack of uniform and the tools which were futuristic also confirming that they are from my time".

"The most likely explanation is that they were forced into the time portal or whatever you'd call it where there particles kind of fused together which explains why they are deformed".

Luna looked confused and asked "what are particles"? "Umm they are... little tiny bits which make up who you are" was the simplest explanation I could come up with. "Anyway they may have died immidielty if their bodies fused into the heart or brain but it's more likely they suffered hours of pain".

I thought I t would affect Luna a lot more but she just seemed to take it in her stride and give off an array of "I don't want to talk about it".

So we kept walking west through the thick and lush forests making good progress although I'd prefer a marching speed to a walk but I guessed I couldn't have it all.

The day quickly began to darken, something that Luna began to notice as she kept glancing up at it until eventually she asked "Asimov we need to find a clear space to stop so Incan raise the moon".

I looked around before spotting a small clear patch to the right of where we were. I pointed over to the patch with my hoof and we all went over and in Chad's case collapsed onto a fallen tree.

"Will the raising of the moon take very long?" I asked curiously despite the fact that we had broken stride. "Oh no in fact the sun has almost completely set so I guess I can raise it now and we'll be off in five minutes if I skip the stars" she told me.

Chad looked over finally recovering from his exhaustion now too curious. "I've seen Princess Celestia raise the sun but I never thought I'd see you raise the moon".

Luna nodded a little and explained "it is not a whole lot different from how Celestia does it, minus the fact that she has had 1000 years more practice than me".

I sat on my haunches and folded my arms; this was going to be good. Luna walked slowly into the centre of the wide area as we both me and Chad looked on in fascination right now spellbound as she slowly began to flap her wings and rise into the sky.

The sky appeared to darken now as her wing beats increased and suddenly she shot up into the sky like a pulse had been let off from my rifle and the moon rose in perfect unison with her casting her into a perfect silhouette.

She slowly began to flap down, her eyes closed now and her mane flowing very fast. This reminded me to ask her why it flowed like that after I checked up on her.

She landed and I got up and trotted over to her. She opened her eyes and looked directly into mine. Instead of being starry blue they were pure white and now I realised her teeth were held into a snarl and suddenly in a loud tone she shouted "You said you would be back for me but you lied"! I blinked and reached for my rifle but instantly dark magic wrapped around my body and threw away my equipment. It stretched my limbs to the limit and info as if I was being torn in half as I watched Luna kill me….

I opened my eyes and gasped as I collapsed into Luna's outstretched hooves, gasping as I looked up into her face I quickly pulled away and pulled out my sidearm, levelling it at her head.

"Asimov what are you…" she asked before I stopped her by yelling "what the fuck did you just do"! She looked frantically between me and Chad who was also on his feet with his eyes flitting between me and Red.

"Captain Put down the gun!" said Red forcibly which I ignored asking her "didn't you just see that"? "See what" asked everyone. "You finished raising the moon and attacked me, looking like you wanted to bite my head off" I accused Luna. Everyone looked at me and I realised that this was either reality or dream but Luna confirmed my suspicions when she said "you came over to me looked woozy and fell into my outstretched hooves".

I lowered my gun and realised my rifle was still on my back and that I and Luna were completely fine. "Perhaps it's just stress from the past few days" suggested Red, offering an answer which I took thankfully.

"Red is right, I'm awfully sorry Luna I didn't mean to do that I just have been under a lot of stress lately". She seemed a little hurt that I had pointed my weapon of mass destruction at her but she forgave me saying "it's okay… just a bit of a shock that's all".

Chad was also having a rough time and he was thankful for it to be over since he really had no idea what to do in a situation like that… yet.

I looked around at everyone who was still a little shaken and told them "ok since it's dark now anyway we are going to camp here, I will set some sensors and detectors and Chad will build a fire" I said. However Luna had quickly caught on and using magic she gathered loose pieces of wood together and pled them all using levitation the. By magic she lit it, completing a task that would take me ten minutes in under one.

I seemed to be staring at her without realising it and she was also staring bam at me except not in a full haze but a questioning stare, eventually turning in a "what"?

I blinked looking up and saying "err keep the magic to a minimum ok". "Ok she said nestling down by the fire she had just made as ingot up and threw a couple of sensors down around us before nestling down and announcing "I shall take first watch and wake Chad up when it's time to switch". Chad nodded and nestled down to sleep, instantly going out like a light and snoring in moments.

Luna however tested on her side and looked at me through the flames of the fire. "Thank you" she said to me finally closing her eyes.

I looked over at her and asked "what for" but she was already asleep.

I stayed up for hours, just staring into the flames, knowing it useless to keep lookout but keeping my ears sharp for the flap of wings or the tiny wine of magic that might catch on the air.

There was none, and after hours Red popped up and asked in a furiously hushed whisper "what the hell do you think you are doing"!?

I set her down and a tiny image of her stood up and started pacing. "What do you mean?" I asked confused. "Asimov, you made a pact to me and to yourself and not even to mention the U.E.R to remain emotionless so as not to complicate things but also due to the secondary personality you told me you were developing and what do you do… you only go and give the princess a big hug and nearly blow her head off hours later"!

I got angry now and whispered back "I am perfectly fine, I can control my emotion Red they can't win and as for the mishap with Luna and me pointing a gun at her hear that was due to stress like you said" I responded believing the lie Red had concocted for me.

"Asimov, I can only advise but I advise you to stop this emotional nonsense and focus on the mission"! I looked at Red and said "well I have advice for you, why don't you run a full diagnostic and file some reports and get back to me in the morning".

She looked at me angry before pointing at me and saying "you will regret your decisions" and with that she shut off leaving me in silence apart from the fire which occasionally spluttered and popped.

So I stayed there for the entire night in silence with only the darkness of both my thoughts and the night to comfort me.

OMG only a few days now!… (Silent scream)

…Yay