MickeyAdaptus

"Then she is now in space, in a spacecraft. Does she even know how to pilot such a machine? Being in space is one thing, but if she doesn't know... she could be stuck there." Caerson said with a worried tone. "This is bad... You might want to be carefull on how you will tell Shining Armour this, he would be furious if he found out his daughter is now in space, where nobody is able to help her if raiders decide to attack her spacecraft.." He said, pacing around in rising tensity.

"I could imagine, running an entire kingdom like this, it is not easy." Caerson said as he walked in the throne room, most of his face hidden behind his hood. He then looked around, specifically at the paper stack and other things, the guards looking at him with mixed signs of being tense and uncomfortable when seeing him. "Me and Twilight where wondering where your daughter, princess Flurryheart is at, and what she is doing." Caerson asked her with intrigue.

Caerson waited for a moment, then started following her. 'No matter the paradise, dark events will always enfold.' he thought. "Fluttershy will be ok, i am sure that of that, her daughter must have inheritated the strong will of her mother." Caerson said, he was strongly aware Fluttershy was not ok, but he was also aware it would be downright bad for him to push that fact even more further then it already has been said.

The orks were starting to get driven back piece by piece, it was looking good for the Equestrians, thanks to both reinforcements they had managed to turn the tides. Around 126 orks remained, most of them gunners while around 46 where melee users. With Maple performing a furious but agile charge against the green tide, it was only a matter of time until they won, but anything could happen at this point. The ork who got stabbed neck gurgled as he died, 9 ork melee users started charging her, seeing an opportunity for a decent fight. The cloaked woman looked at the battle with a mixed reaction of curiosity and disgust. "These aliens use primitive technology, but make that up for foul witchcraft... But it is obvious, just another alien species that will pose no threat." The woman muttered, who was disgusted by the way the ponies used magic, it was yet another thing that the Imperium didn't trust, psykers where unpredictable, and the Ordo Hereticus of the Inquisition would not hesitate to hunt down every last witch that would dare to squander the face of humanity with it. She quickly moved back into the forest, not knowing she had been spotted.

"You want to ask her right now? I don't have anything to do at the moment, and as far as I know, you are not busy with anything else at the moment right? I had been working with Zecora for the last few days so i wasn't really aware of anything else happening." Caerson explained.

Some of the orks took the bait at started attacking directly at Maple, a few of them firing their pistols at her while others were trying to kill her with their axes. Her plan to throw back stikk bombs could be an effective one, but she would need to be really close in order to hurl an already cooked bomb like that back to an ork, no one knew how stable such a bomb would be, orks never cared much for the stability, only that it explodes. The orks that were trying to breach in the stopped train where starting to really run out of numbers from the combined efforts of the crossbow attacks and the ponies that were guarding that entrance. The orks that where firing at the rescue unit after a while stopped, noticing they could not breach the barrier, they were however not aware that someone was maintaining the barrier, instead they believed the carriage itself had inbuild shield generator. They changed their plan and started shooting towards the crossbow users, but they were not capable of having all of the ork shooters attack them at the same time, since the balista attacks where still suppressing them from a full scaled offensive attack, and were killing some among their numbers. In the far bit of the battlefield, was a lone human female watching the battle, she was wearing a red cloak that was covering her entire body, and she was also wearing the hood of the cloak itself over her head. She was armed with an hellgun and standard issue bayonet, a knife commonly used by the imperial guard. However, she did not seem to attack either side but was watching the fight run its course, and was using her vox communication device to contact her superiors.

"Indeed, such fates should have never befallen in Equestria, it should have stayed contained in our own planets, but sadly that was not the case in the end." Caerson said, he had an bit of sad expression. "Say, now that i asked about Cadence, about her daughter, Flurryheart? I haven't heard about her for a very long while." Caerson said, interested in how she was doing.

"I can imagine, especially with everything that has been going on. I am afraid there is more bad news to this matter, while Canterlot and the Crystal Empire are safe, the other towns and smaller cities will not last that good, individual ponies will be hunted and cornered like rats when they either travel or when one of the towns should fall." "Despite the destruction of most conversions centres around Equestria, the enemy is still swarming around like wildlife, they are operating through Equestria by additional means, this could prove bad for all us." Caerson admitted. "It is just horrifying how they manage to operate on planets, they are capable of buildings their structures in a very short time, and knowing exactly where to strike, but nobody know's when. And then for the matter that their physic link is, in theory, an communication ability that is used every single organism that is infected, wich means nobody can hide for long, it is only a matter of time before they launch major attacks."

Caerson had a bit of a mixed expression on his face from worry and intrigue. "Well... They are strong, but they are not exactly in a safe environment, the planet that they are at is making the dangers in Equestria look a little mild compared to what they would have to face there, they are very lucky they are residing into a very big city but... the environments outside there are harsh, very very harsh, lots of deserts, and wild life has become home to very big infected creatures." Caerson said "We don't have to worry so much tough, as long as they stay in that city then they shouldn't really have alot of problems, but if they go outside there, it won't be a picknick so to say, but at the same time they are with a very big group, not much can happen to them unless someone decides to run off to who knows where." Caerson added. He then tought for a moment. "Sorry about that, i feel like honesty is just something i must voice in times like these." He looked at of the window. "Come to think of it, how has Cadence been doing?" He asked Twilight.

"You are right Twilight, anything is better than getting infected after all. But you shouldn't blame yourself for not radioing them sooner, they are busy after all, especially with where they are at. You might want to soon, i haven't heard anything of them either." Caerson admitted.

"She is currently still rather fine, the virus had still been contained but even then it had started with attempting to merge with her cure and consume it in the very end, so I injected that blood sample into her, and now it is hoping, I don't know myself for sure how she will end up, or how her body will respond to this, by doing this i went in uncharted territory, but if I didn't the infection would spread through eventually," Caerson said. "It is hard to say... there is *very* slight chance that her body might actually build up a resistance to the virus by merging that trait from the blood sample i gave her, but there might also be a chance her personality will take a drastic turn. The thing is Twilight, when you merge such things from another species, you may never know how it will end up, sometimes its good, sometimes not, all we can do is wait and hope." Caerson admitted as he looked to the ground.

"You might need to get a bit of rest before you do anything, your body needs to get used to this change, and a big change at that. Once you are able to stand better again, try to work at a comfortable pace and then work full time when you are feeling better." Caerson advised her. "Excuse me, I need to go see the others." Caerson said as he started outside the room, trough the halls of the Canterlot castle, his hood draped tightly over his head to hide his exposed upper head. He looked at one of the decorated windows, which showed the mane 6 and their victory decorated on the massive window. 'Must have been a rather good victory, if only I could experience one that doesn't involve another world having to pay the price for it.' Caerson thought.

'Hearing someone else say those lines again does strike a bearing resemblance in terms of situation, how ironic... The one who used to say this line, and now I am giving his very blood to the one who is saying these lines now.' Caerson thought. "Of course, this will save more than saving one life, it is for the better of us all in the end." Caerson said, meaning he was going to do it. He then held up the blood sample from which he had a few more, instead of having that yellow afterglow in it, this blood was purely dark grey, which did raise the question if it was really blood if you would judge it by the colour. He then took a deep breath and then injected her it. "Alright... it is going to take a few days before we will notice any changes, it will travel through your body slowly, you might at first feel very comfortable or get a shaking feeling, but that is normal with this specific blood injection." Caerson said.

Back in Equestria, it was also rather tense, the armies itself who had been ambushed earlier had managed to escape the onslaught, a good victory nonetheless. It was now about a week later In Canterlot, Zecora was lying on some sort of table as she was still awake, but there where devices connected to her that was registering her heart pressure, overall status etc. Caerson stood around that table along with 3 or drones, they where scanning Zecora from the inside out with their build in eyes. "Would you look at that." Caerson said as he was watching a screen which was displaying Zecora's body with some sort of x-ray scan, which showed the progression of the virus and her attempted cure which was in her body, he had not yet injected her with that thing he had talked about earlier, because he wanted to be sure it would be necessary or work for that matter. "It seems like your cure is working to an extent, but there is a problem with it, it only stalls the virus, but not removes it. The virus itself had attempted at first to move around your cure, but that first attempt seemed to have failed, now it is trying to merge together with your cure, in order to make it become part of the virus itself, it does take a very long time, but it is happening slowly and subtly." Caerson noted. "It is as I feared, and not only that, but there could be a possibility you could change in terms of your personality and overall health when I would inject you with that blood sample..." He said. "It was a very big gamble, a very very big gamble, it is always a big risk to inject something like this into someone from another species..." He was pacing back and forth, he was very good when it came to engineering, but he only had a limited knowledge when it came to the more body-related type of science with cures and DNA.

Jack smiled, then climbed via her wing onto her back and then made himself comfortable on the saddle. 'We should reach that place in a few days, i can remember last time i had to travel trough the desert, it was awful, i am very glad i can travel through this desert without just getting all miserable like back when i and some of us escaped from that slave center.' Jack thought 'We can do this!' Everyone seemed to be getting ready, the army itself was very big, numbering in over 400 soldiers. "Alright let's move out!" Betamor called out, as the entire army started moving. Suffice to say it was going to be a long trip, and the sun would be shining very hot, very very hot. 'Well, here we go.' Jack thought.

'Don't worry I will keep that in mind when I first met Jack he was in an even worse state, yet I managed to make him inspire hope in himself.' Kiran thought back. 'But yeah, you are correct, Festus really likes to be more around me, he is also a really good friend. Even though age doesn't really tend to matter, he is the same age as me, which does mean he and I are more likely to have common interest and things. I guess that part is settled, Festus will the one. I think its better if Maple doesn't have to worry about someone like me with protecting when she is having it difficult her self at the moment.' Jack thought. He then looked at the other groups. 'It seems we will start to move soon, we should mount up.' Jack thought as he then looked at Evelyn.

'You got a good point there, Maple is pretty good, but I am not sure if she is the best candidate in really protecting me, you would see her on the frontlines faster then anyone could blink an eye, I guess she really is an offensive type of fighter, or atleast I think. Festus is perhaps a good candidate since he really is more of defensive type person, his shield-wielding skills confirm that a good amount, though at the same time I am not sure if he would rather stick to Embers side, its a difficult decision.' Jack admitted in his thoughts. 'I can, however, confirm, that Kiran will be teaching Maple some new things, which mostly involves leading, and from what i know of Maple, she can take on alot, so this training will go very well for her I think.' Jack thought with a smile. 'Damn straight.' Kiran's voice rang through his head.

'You are right there, safety is more important then what I really want. If we do end up landing, could you cover me with your wing? I do remember a good detail about your armour, the magical barrier that covers your entire body like a cloak, that very barrier is made of Eldritch energy, which means i can use my magic to strengthen it, so in cases if it takes so much damage to a point where its about to shatter, i can reinforce it to keep it going.' Jack tought.

'I was more talking more talking about how we do things in specific situtations, it is not really that i am afraid to go there, but more of the fact that we might end up in a situation for like when one of us gets wounded and we don't know what to do. I am talking with you about this because we are also partners in battle.' Jack tought her. 'It seems best to me that we discuss this now, so we willl understand eachother better when having to deal with a specific situation, and don't have to think about it when it already happens, i think that is a very importmant aspect of teamwork, do you feel the same about that?' 'That is what i was trying to say, perhaps i used a bit of wrong words to tell you that.' he tought to her.

"I am worried about what we will face there, how are we going to do it, and how dangerous it will get, normally I don't worry about this so much but now... I just can't help but feel something bad is going to happen, we are going to attack one of the biggest and most defended positions on this entire planet. I mean, how will we act in battle? I am just not sure how to feel if I don't know how we will do things.' Jack thought to her.

Jack had a bit of a surprise shock when Evelyn tabbed him on the shoulder. 'Wow, you scared me a bit there, I have to admit, you had approached very silently to the point I couldn't hear you with my ears.' Jack thought to Evelyn with a laugh. 'Also, i think that might be a good idea, tough i am not sure if he is done yet.' Jack tought back.

"I do know a good amount of people who could teach you that, Karthspire is an excellent strategist but he is usually very busy from what I have seen. I do know Kiran could teach you, he is not exactly a commander or anything, but he has lead lots of others into dangerous missions, though I do have to mention that he doesn't like those who question his actions or methods alot, he really prefers those who are capable of performing orders without questioning. But I do really vouch for him, he doesn't really train many others since not many people either like him or understand him, but he taught me so much." Jack said with a smile. "Ok yeah, he might be a bit of a strict mentor, but he really means it well, and he really is eager to train others in the most challenging ways, because in the end it really pay's off. I remember him training me in the middle of a battle, his way of teaching is something I do like, because he never really blames or gets angry at me, but rather does it in a way that I seem to understand, he understands what I like and what I don't like after all." He explained. "But anyway's, I think I should head back to Evelyn now, I was planning on doing that in the first place so please don't think I walked away because I was angry at you guys or anything, perhaps a bit agitated at first, but that happens when I remember certain things that I just can't really stand. Anyway, I will give you a heads up when he is available, it will take a few days before we reach that conversion center, so he will want to talk some things through with me before I can give you a final answer on it, but I will keep you up to date about it." Jack said to her as he gave her a thumbs up. 'Evelyn, could you please come to me for a moment? We really need to talk things trough for when we arrive at that conversion center.' Jack thought to her, but it was pretty obvious that he really needed to talk about it, something was worrying him after all.

"If there is one thing Maple, a leader asking for help is not showing such a weakness as you think, having a leader who doesn't know what to do and falters shows weakness because the soldiers that serve under the leader will question their loyalty, in the end, they will much rather have a leader who ask help and shows he or she is willing to not make mistakes. And I am going to give a good advice here, don't hesitate to ask to one of us, in our culture its a sign of respect in willing to learn things from one of us, it would only depend on WHO you ask, some are capable of teaching only specific things in what they excel at, while others can teach alot of things, I guess the question just really is, what do you want to learn? If you can narrow down what you want to learn then I can help you find a good teacher." Jack said with a smile.

"I think i have found the spot that might help you, you just said the very thing that I have been trying to explain, *no matter how good I am there will always be someone better... Usually, a bad guy who's better.*, You want to get better and stronger, but... you never ask others to teach you things, many of us can teach you things, and you could actually become even stronger and more skilled if you were to allow that." "You want to know how some of our enemies are so strong? They realised that trying to get stronger all on your own will only get you so far, you try to improve in ways that you only know at that point, they knew this problem and so worked around it, most of them have been trained in the past before the whole... tragedy. But there are also others who use very old knowledge or enhancements at their disposal. Do you want to know how I know this? My father was a teacher himself and explained this to all his students and pupils, I don't make this up, I am merely quoting what he told me and others. But it's obvious that no one will listen to that advice, so there isn't really a point for me to try and say it any longer." Jack said. "But at the same time, you are rushing things too fast Maple, you are trying to get as strong as some who have trained for decades, centuries, you are attempting to reach heights within a span of months or a few years, you can get so strong as well but that is really going to need a good amount of time. If you will follow both of this advice I can assure you that you will become alot stronger." Jack said, either her listening to this advice or just declining it, he didn't really care at this point, for it was her choice, not his. "But before anyone is going throw another angered oppinion towards me again, know that this has been for many of us, to see it this way, but then again... I doubt anyone is really going to listen to any of us since none of you really are interested in our things. I mean, next time I bring something up it is also going to be nothing to any of you since it's from us right?" Jack said, getting a little agitated by remembering how it constantly went. "Even when we found those things in that temple, none of you even cared..." He said as he walked away, getting tired of having to feel like that.