The morning was strange, Octavia was fully dressed in her grey tank top and tan shorts while Vinyl was still in her under garments. She refused to leave the room and have their 'Guest' be alone. So far, he hasn't caused anymore trouble since earlier, all he did was stand, his arms crossed in the corner of the Living Room. Vinyl tried to give him some food by levitating some of her own breakfast on a plate to him. His response was to stare at it, before facing his head downwards towards his arms. Their guest kept his eyes closed.
Her roommate was currently cleaning up while sending glaring glances at him, Vinyl sat at the table, tapping her fingers along the wood creating a beat. The silence was eree at most, eventually. It unnerved Octavia to her bone, Vinyl was also unnerved by the silence. A plate was smashed as Octavia faced their guest, her finger pointed accusingly at him. "What is your deal?! Just standing there and creeping us out!" He glanced up at her and huffed. Vinyl watched as her roommate grit her teeth, a sudden knock at the door caught their attention.
Vinyl was quick to her hoofs and quickly ran to their guest and tried to usher him into her bedroom. "Go, hide in there!." Octavia shook her head and neatened her hair down before clearing her throat. When their guest was inside the room, she opened the door and was greeted by three Solar Empire guards. The lead figure was a cobalt mare with a green mane. Her fellows had the usual white coat and black or blonde mane, she barged her way past Octavia and looked around the room.
She snorted in disgust when she spotted Vinyl trying to throw on some clothes but failed. She turned her head towards Octavia and raised a hand towards her. "You know the drill, you pay us and we leave you alone. Got it?" Octavia reached into a pocket and pulled out some gold coins and gave it her. Inside the bedroom, the human listened in before he crept towards an window, unlike the others. This one was open, the open fresh air was new to him unlike the dangerous polluted and in Red Zones, the poisonous Tiberium gas, he heard the sounds of children playing and the shaking of metal as soldiers walked by. Pushing a cart full of golden coins, he heard one of them shout. "Quickly! Before the Lunar Scum raid us, and make sure no blastin thieves take it as well!" He looked back at the door when he heard it creek open, diving behind the bed.
He watched as one of the guards walked in, his eyes searching the area around, the guard slowly walked forward. His spear lifting up the dirty clothing off the floor, the clothing which happened to be a bra fell back the handle as the guard brought it up to him which he then sniffed it. In contained anger, the human accidentally hit the bedside table. The guard quickly threw the bra off his spear and prepared it as he creeped further into the room, before he could turn his head to look over the bed, a hand grabbed his shoulder. The human sighed in relief as Vinyl told the guard to get out.
The guard simply chuckled and stroked her cheek causing her to shiver as he whispered something into her ear causing her to blush and shiver in fear almost. "Hey!" The guard stopped what he was doing to look at his captain as she continued, "Let's leave this joint. We got bigger things to do." The guard grunted and followed her. Not before slapping Vinyl on her ass. He chuckled as he left. Octavia glared at them until they finally disappeared. After making sure that the lock was in place, the human sprung up and placed his hand on Vinyl who had some tears in her eyes and was shivering. Vinyl and Octavia turned to look at him only to see pure rage and an determination in his eyes. He blinked a couple times as he slowed his heavy breathing.
"They are sick." His words where dark and slow. Venom traced each letter. Vinyl took in a deep breath and said, "I know. But that's what happens in this world." He nodded in agreement before he looked at Octavia. "Who were they?" He saw the roommate rub her temples in annoyance before she went to get a glass of water. "They are the Solar Empire, the ones we saw are just tax men or women, so far. They're nothing but assholes." She took a very unlady like gulp of the drink. "And then there's the Lunar Republic, they say they will save us all. Sounds like horseshit to me." Vinyl was surprised at this language while the human nodded.
The human decided to look around the room he was in and was not surprised. The room was covered in used clothing, a simple bed and a bedside table with a lamp on it as well as a closet built into the wall on the other side of the bed. The walls where painted a navy blue with the floors a light blue carpet. Vinyl noticed his staring and coughed slightly, "Sorry. I don't normally tidy up with guests around. Right babe?" This caught the human's attention, his eyebrow raised. Vinyl blushed while her roommate facepalmed, "Sorry, but we're not a couple..." Vinyl blushed even more and covered her face with her hands from embarrassment. As the human looked around the room once more, he was surprised that what he could guess was a tomboy would act so awkward, and embarrass herself easily.
Octavia muttered something under her breath, she then went towards the door. "I'm going out to clear my head." Once the door was shut as Vinyl's roommate left, Vinyl chuckled awkwardly as she quickly walked into the Living Room and turned on the TV. The human only shook his head and went back to the open window, he spotted that same female guard and her lackeys from earlier pouring golden coins from their pouches into the cart as the guards continued to push it. He watched as more of the guards walk out and pour the gold in, some assisted in pushing the cart while others took protective positions around the cart. Defending it. The cart was slowly pushed along the cobblestone path, eventually. It left his view, he watched as some of the locals peek out from around corners and doorways. Before walking out and continuing with their lives.
After ten or so minutes later, he saw Octavia walk onto the streets. She was carrying what looks to be a purse and had a voilà case on her back, he watched as she walked to one of the buildings walls and take off the voilà case. She then placed it on the floor where she opened it, when the instrument was carefully removed from the case, she began to slowly play it. The music started off slow before it sped up where it would slow again and speed up again, or do some fancy music moves or something. He wasn't much of a musician. He just followed Kane's will. His head slowly started to nod in tune with the sound as children danced together as the people clapped in tune and nodded their heads as well.
His eyes closed, when they opened. The world before him was gone. Replaced by black smoke and ash, around was soldiers in black and red armour. Some in grey hoodies, all of them holding the same black rifle. He glanced down as a visor of a helmet faded into view, in his hands was that same weapon. A sword also layed on his waist. Looking up as the ash and smoke formed the ground, ruined cars and wrecked and crumbling buildings, in front of him charging towards him was people wearing brown or tan armour with orange stripes. Each holding a similar but accurate weapon then what he held. Bullets whipped past him and hit the ground where it vanished into ash and dust.
He ran and dodged, eventually diving behind a car. He raised out of cover, the weapon shouldered, a burst of recoil hit his shoulder as three bullets shot out his rifle, the first two hit one the tan soldiers in the chest where he turned into ash and disappeared while the third one hit another in the shoulder, aiming again. He fired, a single shot echoed out and hit one in the head where he too became ash, this carried on until the weapon clicked empty. In his ears that rang from the sounds of gunfire was the song played by Octavia. It got stronger as the song played faster. The Nod soldier threw his rifle to the side and jumped over the car and ran at the other side, his hand pulled out the bladed sword out, one of the other soldiers which now seemed familiar to him aim the weapon at him.
He jumped into their lines and used his left hand to pull that soldier down as he swung over him. The sword plunged into the guys neck as this happened, twisting with the turning body until the Nod soldier landed on his knees where he forced the blade out the neck. Severing it completely from the rest of the body, before he could charge at another, the world vanished and flew around in ash before impacting him in the chest.
His eyes burst open, squinting. He moved his left hand to block the sunlight that peeked over the tops of the wooden buildings, he looked at the streets to see Octavia packing up. He felt his right hand being held and turned his head to see Vinyl's own hand gripping it, the weight on his shoulder happened to be Vinyl's head leaning on it, he didn't move nor did he want to experience that dream again. Well, whatever it was. He eventually shifted his body causing Vinyl to move away from him, he glanced at her when she looked at him. Her eyes widened as she tried to back away. The human shook his head before looking back outside.
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The trees and leaves where comforting to the Lunar Princess, wondering through these woodland cleared her mind and helped her think, especially about this Celestium being mined. It sounded impossible to her, soon enough, the green foliage was replaced by a dying life. What was once plants was nothing but a dried out soil and trees mutated to reassemble the very crystal they were seeking. The Lunar Princess raised her hand when she came to a edge of a cater, inside was thousands if not millions of Celestium, unique storms raged above. A green mist rose into the sky and flowed in between the crystals.
She looked at her guards before looking back at the green substance, it obvious that a large patch of it was missing. Mostly towards the middle, before any of them could move up, the trees further up started to move. Her guards prepared their swords and spears, one of them removed a bow from the string it was hold from.
What arrived surprised them. It was a black vehicle of some kind, pointed and curved towards the front and middle. The back was large and bulky with what looks like pincers resided there, it moved with a quick rumble. Luna spotted what looks like a red logo painted on the side. She wasn't sure to think of it only to see that it looks like a red hand surrounded by a triangle. Minutes of waiting as the vehicle moved into the field, she was impressed, it entered without getting damaged or the occupant not getting sick. Well, whoever is inside it. Even if there's nopony in there at all. Slowly, it moved to a stop, the pincers arched outwards and struck the ground. The crystals shattered to the Lunar people's shock and jaw dropping. The pincers moved back and forth in sync, dragging the shattered and damaged crystal inside it before moving on and digging up another patch.
One of the guards crouched next to Luna, "We shouldn't stay here any longer. It may have guards protecting it and on patrol, it'll find us if we don't leave." The Princess nodded and stood up slowly and was about to speak when a sound of something being pulled back with a click. The guards looked behind them to see four armed beings covered head to hoof in black and red armour, a scorpion tail painted on their shoulders. One of them walked forward and spoke with a raspy voice, "You are to come with us. By the order of Kane." One of her guards, a mare with a brown coat sneered, "Never!" The beings looked at each other with their red visored helmets. When one of them holding his black gloved hand to the side of the helmet nodded.
The one that spoke first looked back at the mare before rasing a L shaped device, it flashed with a bright light with a echoing bang, a flash of light erupted from the device. A red light that cut the air around it shot forward and impacted the mare, she was knocked backwards. A sizzling hole burned in her armour, some of the guard let out relief when they saw her chest move up and down. Luna straightened up and stared down the armoured beings, "Pardon my companion. She means well, I believe we should introduce ourselves. I am Princess..." the armoured leader cut her off. "We know who you are." Luna reeled back from this. She quickly looked back at her guards before facing the armoured solders, "Very well, we will come with you."
The leader nodded and placed his hand on the side of his helmet and spoke into it, "Requesting a Recknor for transport. I have one of the leaders with me..." it was quiet after that, the Lunar guards waited patently until a sound of something rumbling echoed around them, trees toppled over as a large rectangular vehicle drove into view. Luna studied the vehicle in awe, to her, it was impressive to see this box like vehicle. She noted that it had six wheels on each side, small holes on the side of the box that could possibly be used for these soldiers to fire their weapons out of them. "Move!" Her ears twitched as one of the armoured men shouted at her and her people to get on, sighing, she got one of her guards to carry the downed guard onto the vehicle. A hatch slowly opened on the back which allowed them to climb on. When they got inside the box, they all sat on metal seats on one side of the vehicle while their armoured 'escorts' sat on the other. Luna sat next to a door that led to the drivers seat while the armoured leader take his seat across from her.
The one that acted as the leader placed his hands on his helmet and inched it off, her eyes widened in shock, her jaw dropped. The leader was a young human, possibly in his twenties with strong piercing blue eyes, a hint of green was seen inside them. As the others followed their leaders lead and removed their own helmets, all of them ranged from different ages and such. One of them on the far left sitting across from the injured guard was in fact female but one striking feature was the hints of green peeking through their eyes and veins. The same green colour that was seen on Celestium. The young leader looked at Luna and spoke almost too calm, "When we arrive, Lord Kane will want to see you."
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He couldn't believe this, after hiding from some guards inside an apartment, now he was outside. Wearing a brown shifty cloak as Vinyl and Octavia walked ahead of him, the cloak was only long enough to cover his face and his waist. His armoured legs and boots where the only thing revealed and that's what got stares and questions from the ponies that surrounded them. Even some Solar guards that walked nearby stopped and stared. He heard some making bets on who will make the first move on getting him, the Lunar Republic or the Solar Empire. He was told this town had constant raids and yet both sides patrol and guard this town, until Vinyl told him that businesses inside town hire guards either from the Empire or the Republic to protect and guard their merchandise and it was clear that the Empire owned Equestria from the taxes that happened earlier.
Vinyl kept glancing at him to make he was still following while Octavia huffed at this act. He still couldn't believe they convinced him to follow them, well, Vinyl convinced him. All because, they needed to go grocery shopping. He wanted to face palm because of this but held his hand, his crimson eyes began to look around the area he was in, the streets where of course cobblestone like last time but seemed more wider than the streets back where the apartment was. Lifting his head slightly to move the hood up, he saw that they was now in a town square like place, market stalls scattered around. Food, drinks, even lemonade or drink stands and antique stalls. This place had it all. As he looked around he didn't see the pony in front of him, "Hey watch it!" He glanced at the pony in question, he was red coated and had a pair of wings. He stood there glaring at him before snorting at him and walking away. "Bastard." Was all he muttered to himself.
So far, he didn't like this place at all, especially with similar incidents like that happening where they all insulted him and claimed he was a poor peasant. If only they knew, if they knew what he was capable of, what he did for his glorious leader. Luckily the only thing that prevented him from lashing out at some of the Equestrians was Vinyl's look of sympathy, after seeing how those guards treated her and her broken tomboyish attitude due to how she acted around him and certain males of her kind, he has grown an urge to protect her at all coats. He even had ideas of locating his leader and his fellow brothers and sisters, and convert her to their course as well as keep her safe but it would be impossible to even find his people due to the limitations in technology of this world, they had TV's but for some reason. Lacked computers, lacked proper guns and equipment. It strained his mind to think about this.
"Well well, look what we have here?" The Nod soldier turned his head to see Vinyl fearfully stepping back as three stallions blocked her path, a forth one blocked Octavia as the black stallion used magic to hold her in place. The three stallions walked towards Vinyl, the leader of the group who had a brown coat and was a unicorn with his pointed horn. He spoke again with a grin on his face, "If it isn't the red eyed freak, how is it knowing you'll never fit in this world. Despite you being a DJ, but how long will that last? Freak." If one thing that made his eye twitch was the fact that people judge others based on their appearance. The Nod soldier walked forward towards them, Vinyl turned her head at him and pleaded. "Just leave it alone, I'll be fine." She claimed this was her fight. To him, her pleas meant nothing as he continued. "Ohhhh, look at this boys, the freak has another friend." The others of his gang laughed as the soldier kept moving.
The leader made one of his goons to stop the Nod soldier, the pink coated stallion which lacked wings and a horn got in his way and laughed, stopping his attempts of moving towards Vinyl as the other two closed in on her. He looked around and saw the guards were doing nothing but continue walking away, of course this would happen. A natural town with hired guns would have this. At least GDI and Nod had the decency to surcure order. The pink goon laughed again as he spoke at him, "Oops, am I in your way? Nice cloak, wonder what's behind it? Haha." His hand immediately reached for the hood, it never got far as the soldier had grabbed the wrist. The stallion tried to pull away as the hooded human twisted it, snapping bone in two. Pulling the broken arm towards him, he headbutted the stallion causing him to fall unconscious onto the floor.
The remaining three gang members stared at him in shock, the Nod soldier cracked his knuckles through his gloves, the black unicorn stopped holding Octavia and charged at him. Once Octavia was free, the Earth mare grabbed the unicorn's shoulder and turned him around so she could punch him in the face. After that, she brushed off some non existent dust and glared at the remaining two. The Nod soldier began to step towards them, "I would leave if I was you." His voice harsh yet spoke with a calm anger, the brown stallion stepped backwards, fear in his eyes. "Who are you?" He fell back onto the floor. His eyes darting to Octavia and to the cloaked human as he crouched down, "I am Vinyl's newly hired bodyguard." It was simple yet convincing as he brought it and tried to run away, his fear laced his voice as he quickly spoke. "Have fun with the show tomorrow, hope you do good." And then he ran, his tail between his legs. The surrounding crowd quickly returned to what they were doing.
Vinyl walked to stand beside the human, "That was something." She asked him gently, he only glanced at her and nodded, Octavia rolled her eyes and said. "At least something stays the same." Vinyl gave a small laugh and smiled warmly at the Nod soldier before leading the group to a food stand, and once again in the soldier's life, he was glad that he was a quick thinker.
The human waited a bit longer as the roommates continued walking, he glanced round to confirm his suspicion of the guards doing absolutely nothing to help him or anyone else, neutral shits. After shaking his head, the Nod soldier followed the two from a respectable distance, fortunately, no one wanted to be near the two roommates, mostly from him. He preferred it that way, at least he could think deeply again without any interruptions. But still he couldn't help but notice the way Vinyl walks, something about it keeps appearing in his mind.
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Deep within Temple Prime, Kane strolled down the many hallways, passing many brothers and sisters who said his name in pride as he passed to greet him, he still was impressed at how far Nod has become and the many followers that would follow him to the end. He smiled and returned the greetings. Turning into a doorway that slid open, the room he appeared into was some kind of factory, vehicles and aircraft was constructed and repaired in this very room. A Nod engineer watched on a raised platform, a datapad in his hand as he shouted at the mechanics, ordering them on what to do.
Kane carefully walked up to the engineer, the man was a what many would call a dwarf due to his short size, he had a considerable weight size and was balding on his head. When Kane finally reached him, the engineer turned and faced him. "Lord Kane." His gruff voice and heavy Scottish accent marked his words, "Wha'dd you need? Sir." The prophet glanced his eyes towards the aircraft VTOL or Carayall as it's named. The four engined VTOL dropship looked like a box with four engines attached to it, it's red and black colour seemed almost out of place in this dull grey vehicle shapes. The gruff engineer followed Kane's eyes. "Ah, you need a ship. Lucky for you, that one is finished being built. Just need some fuel and she's ready to go."
"Excellent, I want the ship ready for takeoff as soon as possible, I must be somewhere else right now." The engineer nodded at Kane's order, he turned his eyes to a couple of mechanics. "Okay you fools! I need you lot to prepare that dropship. NOW!" The many mechanics, engineers and saboteurs ran as far away from the screaming chief engineer. They quickly went to work on the VTOL, some piloting a couple Avatars to attach a crane magnet on it in order to move it. Kane once again smiled. "Excellent work old friend, when shall it be ready?" The chief engineer reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigar case, taking a cigar out. He lit it with a nearby blowtorch and began smoking it. "I would say in about an hour or so. Maybe less if the yanks work hard enough." His leader and prophet nodded and asked, "Shall I give them some inspiration?"
The engineer laughed to the point where his cigar almost fell from his mouth, "Nah, they won't need it. All they need is some scotch and they'll be fine. No need to waste your precious voice. Where you plan on goin by the way and why the rush?" The Nod prophet sighed slightly and opened his mouth to speak. "I'm going to explore a certain town in order to find our dear commander." The chief engineer looked in surprise, before he could speak, a armoured soldier walked in. His helmet looking different with three slitted red visors and what looks like a red visor vent where his mouth should be. The Black Hand flamethrower specialist marched straight up to Kane. His voice muffled by the helmet and monotoned.
"Your highness. A Recknor is en route with the Lunar princess. Estimated time if arrival in 17 hours, shall I burn down the forests nearby to decrease time of arrival?" This surprised Kane, coughing into his hand, Kane walked off the raised platform. "Doctor Shen. I'm sorry but I must deal with this, inform me immediately when the ship is fueled and ready for departure." The chief engineer shrugged and faced his datapad again, Kane motioned for the fire specialist to lead the way. The Black Hand guard marched with Kane following behind out of the War Factory and towards the War Room. Which interestingly enough looked like a dinner table that a royal family would have.
The tall, black chair sat at the other end in front of the red stained glass window. Taking his seat, Kane twirled the chair to make him face the window as he gently placed the Nod rings out of his jackets pocket and onto his fingers. Where he placed his hands into a interlocking position as he waited for his guests to arrive. "I require some guards just in case, and you may burn the forest down. Ensure that there are no witnesses and make it appear like a natural fire." The fire specialist bowed as he left the room, leaving Kane to wonder about what is to come.
A/N
I had trouble with this one, even wrote two scenes for our Nod guest, reason for that is because I wanted to at least have the public have some information about him for a later chapter. Kane's character was hard to deal with during this chapter but I hope I nailed it right. Some things may be lacking and I'm deeply sorry, my spare writing time is mostly during after midnight here in the UK. As for that flashback scene our Nod guest got was mostly me being addicted to a fantastic game called Shadow of Mordor. I recommend anyone to play it, I love it alot. Anyway, R&R and help me out for this one, I'm very tired and I believe I messed up alot. Cya next time