Not our world anymore (IC)

[GalacticWar_Xavier]

It was as if Twilight had been thrown into a sea of despair with weights tied to her hooves as she felt Starling begin to move her aside after his apology, "No..." she choked out, but didn't try to stop him, her emotions sapping her of all her strength. Her fore hoof clattered along the armor on Starling's back before he moved beyond her reach. She watched him until he took off his helmet, then averted her eyes, wiping them with the back of one of her fore hooves, 'I'll always love Starling.' she repeated to herself in her head, over and over. She squeezed her eyes shut and awaited the sound of the weapon discharging. Starling's voice came instead, ordering Armature to tell him that he had changed. Hope burst into Twilight's heart like the Grand Galloping Gala fireworks. She looked on, although she didn't expect much from the ill-historied stallion, there was a glimmer of hope for Starling, and Twilight embraced it with her entire being.

Armature looked into Starling's eyes, so he would know that he told the truth, "Up until 12 hours ago... I was the same vile old pony who had left you with a suit of armor, a threat and a youth of awful memories. But yesterday... The Moon Goddess herself appeared outside my prison cell." tears formed in his eyes, "Princess Luna, accompanied by Queen Madison and Lord-Commander Spike... I thought, that I had been fated for judgement far beyond what any mortals could bestow. In her presence, for the first time, I was afraid. She spoke... And my hatred vanished. For so long, I had wanted to kill you, but that vanished as well. She told me that a new age was beginning. And that past sins would be atoned for, but not on the gallows... She told me that I must become a pony again."

[Blue Fox]

Starling looked deep into Armature, piercing his mind like a vicious predator waiting for the right moment. He listened and as Armature gave his reply Starling eased a little, but not enough. Memories flashed his eyes, images of his long dead friends and the ones who became victims to their slaughter. Tears rolled down his cheeks and after Armature finished speaking he paused for a long moment to think it over. His mind was at war as one side told him to kill Armature for the crimes he committed, while the other side gave opinions of second chances and the chance of redemption. He stared at Armature before finally his mouth and mind decided to speak. "You deserve to die... and so do I...but.... who am I to question the decision of our Moon goddess" he said before pulling his left hoof back, slamming it into Armatures jaw hard. The older stallion grunted as his head fell back, he didn't fight back and had fully expected this to be the end of his life. Armature closed his eyes waiting for Starling's killing blow that never came. But Starling then pulled Armature into an old soldiers embrace that was from their time all those years ago, one hoof around the back of Armatures head as they crossed horns. Armature was shocked but did the same bringing his hoof around the back of Starlings head, more on instinct and shock then anything else. Such a thing very rarely seen among soldiers today. They had their eyes shut for a moment before they pulled apart. Starling was frowning but he made his decision. "I can't forgive you, but you have my blessing for a second chance. You also owe my Mare-friend, Twilight Sparkle your life. Had she not placed herself between me and you, you would be dead right now" he said before he turned his back on him walking over towards Twilight. His eyes were red and his expression that of emotional exhaustion and pain.

[GalacticWar_Xavier]

Amalthea looked to Airimus, "I knew he was hiding something... Something which could have endangered us all..." Airimus shook his head, "We're probably all surprised by this, Amal, but I don't think I would use the term 'endanger us all'." Amalthea looked at Armature who backed off and retreated to the command cabin, "He was this close to killing the pilot." she said, emphasizing her point by holding up her thumb and index finger as close to each other as she could without them touching. Airimus looked to Twilight now, "But Twilight Sparkle was there to stop him." Amalthea sighed and looked to the lavender unicorn mare as she approached the white unicorn stallion.

Twilight had winced when Starling had struck Armature, but from what he had said, she had known that he wasn't going to kill him. She once again put her fore hooves around the back of his neck and brought her face close to his. She kissed him on the lips once again, eternally grateful to him that he had resisted the urge to exact revenge upon Armature, no matter how much either of them had thought he deserved it. Twilight knew that whatever the Princess had done had worked and that she had known what was best when she had done it. As she broke away from him, she smiled gratefully, "T-thank you, Starling." she said, "I knew... I knew you were better than that." Nimbus approached Starling and Twilight, knowing that Twilight wouldn't like what she was going to ask, "Starling... Was there any reason for beating the stuffing out of our pilot while we were in flight?... Better yet, is there a good enough reason that I shouldn't have your hooves bound for the remainder of the flight?" Twilight looked at Nimbus, surprised for a moment, and a little angry.

[Blue Fox]

Starling still wasn't sure if he had made the right call. He still felt a powerful urge to turn tail, march into the command cabin and deliver a fatal blast of magical plasma right into the top of his head. But he had made his choice, and after this maybe he might finally be able to lay the past to rest. He closed his eyes as Twilight kissed him, the world melting away like it usually did whenever their lips met. He knew then, after her words that he had done the right thing. The thought of loosing her over some old world memories would be more paint to him then the memories themselves. Starling looked into the eyes of his mare and produced a small loving smile. "No, thank you Twilight" he said taking a pause to study her expression before his smile grew a little wider. "You taught me a valuable lesson today.... a lesson of how to let go" he said before he leaned in and nuzzled her mane a little. His attention however was broken when Nimbus approached. Now Nimbus might be one of the hardest and most capable soldiers, but her use of timing and words was something to be desired. Starling was still tempered by the previous rage he felt and not only this, a threat wasn't something he would take lightly. After all he was also a soldier once, and a Captain. "Believe me when I say I had more then enough reason to have that stallion dead under my own hooves. And Nimbus I'll tell you now that attempting to 'bind' my hooves will not end well for you" he said with narrowed eyes. It was nothing personal against Nimbus, he was just in an emotional state that would take him time to calm down from. Starling was a very capable fighter, he had unique training and some advanced gear to back it up. But he had no illusions and knew very well that outnumbered and in such a close quarter space he wouldn't be able to handle all of them, in fact he could almost calculate the statistics.

[GalacticWar_Xavier]

Nimbus narrowed her remaining eye, "Take off that armor, then, until you cool off. You're nothing but a threat to everyone on board with that in your condition." Twilight had looked shocked when Starling said that he'd fight Nimbus, "Starling!" she growled, backing off from him, "Nimbus saved my life once. She's my friend, too." she said angrily, her expression then softened, "I know you're upset, and I still love you, but I won't let any of you hurt each-other! Now, Nimbus, leave Starling alone. Starling, do what Nimbus told you to do. She had a point." she looked intensely at the two. Nimbus immediately backed off. After Twilight had torn the Centurion Golem apart back at the Sorcerers' HQ, Nimbus had really respected her power and resolve. Twilight was both more capable and more qualified to control Starling than she could ever be. It seemed like push would never come to shove between the two, and even if it did, Twilight was far more powerful than her stallion-friend.

When Nimbus backed away, Twilight shifted her focus fully to Starling. Meanwhile, Admiralty went into the back parts of the airship where Rex and Leafrun had both fled. Leafrun had once again curled himself around one of Winter's hooves, terrified of how quickly Starling had gone from being amazing to being scary. Rex had huddled up under a blanket and had forced himself to sleep, hoping it would all be over by the time he woke up, "I wish I could have said that I was surprised by that development..." Admiralty said to Winter.

[Blue Fox]

Starling cringed back when Twilight scolded him for being nasty towards Nimbus. His ears flopped and he shifted on his hooves slightly as she gave orders to both of the larger ponies. When she told him to separate from his armour as Nimbus requested he immediately went to protest, but upon seeing how serious she was he let out a long sigh and looked at the floor. Starling could be a pretty stubborn pony but when it came down to it Twilight was probably going to be the only one capable of disarming him in any situation. Hell if it had been any pony else in front of Armature he would have thrown them aside and unleashed hell upon him. "Fine..." he said as he stood straight. His horn let out a single pulse of blue and the armour along with it's weaponry began making loud metallic 'clang' noises as the plates slid back and shifted, removing themselves from around his body like it was some kind of transformer. Within seconds it folded down to his hooves and he stepped back out of the hoof rings to allow it to finalize the folding ritual. When it was fully packed into its basic form he levitated it, along with the helmet over to Twilight and Nimbus. "If you both really think I'm a threat, then you can decide when to give it back. If anything this will be enough to prove that despite everything you might think, I would never intentionally harm another who didn't deserve it or intend to harm me." he went to turn before he stopped. "And another thing. At some point I may have to show you through a memory spell, exactly what happened between me and Armature... it maybe the only way to make you see why I acted how I did..... and-" he paused "It may also give you a better understanding of who I am and who I once was" he turned to face Twilight, his expression loving but sad. "I want to start the next chapter of my life with you, and I think its only fair you know about it and who I was. When your both ready, come and see me... but I warn you, these memories are very real and they aren't nice." he finished before turning his back to them. He walked across the room and over to a seat before settling down on his haunches. He had allot to consider.

Winter looked at Admiralty, she had been trying to calm Leafrun as he seemed quite frightened and rightfully so. "What do you mean ?" she asked unsure how he could have seen something like this coming.

[GalacticWar_Xavier]

Twilight heard Nimbus let out a quiet breath of relief as Starling agreed to surrender the armor. From what Nimbus had seen, Starling could have killed her or put a hole in the Eagle's Scream's hull without much effort in the suit, the pilot had apparently been tough enough to take a hit from the armor though. When Nimbus heard that the pilot had been none other than Armature, the disgraced Lord-Commander, she had been quite shocked. Princess Luna's arrival back in the mortal world was already having profound effects.

Twilight shook her head but said nothing when Starling said that she and Nimbus thought he was a threat. She didn't think he was a threat, she thought that he was confused, angry and sad. She wanted to know more, so she could maybe help him with the pain he had suffered. She had doubts, though, she had never experienced loss as traumatic as watching friends die. However, the more and more danger they seemed to be facing was steadily making her more and more afraid that it would happen. Winter had been stolen away and nearly indoctrinated into the Empire's Sorcerers' Order. Airimus had been nearly choked by Nazaras. Twilight herself nearly had her ribs caved in by that Centurion Golem. Even Rex had been kidnapped as well. She dreaded the thought of any of their lives being taken before her eyes. Naturally, she would do her best to help Starling in this. She looked at Nimbus as Starling walked away, "Use of magic in battle is great, but I don't want any magic in my head..." Nimbus said, "Whatever you discover, I'll just take your word for it." She then motioned for the two other Wonderbolts in the seating area to be at ease.

Twilight immediately afterward made her way over to Starling after telling Airimus and Amalthea to look after his armor for the time being, "Hey." she said as she approached him, "I don't think Nimbus will agree to the memory spell... She's more of a physical world type pony, you know?" she smiled, "I know that the things you said Armature had done sounded awful... But I think I'm ready to hear about it..." She looked down sadly, "All of my old friends are dead too, some of them died in awful ways, too... I didn't see it though..."

[Blue Fox]

Starling nodded sadly. "And I pray you never have to. There is no feeling quite like it... hopelessness, fear, sadness and a mixture of other emotions that drive you so mad that the thoughts of taking your own life just to end the pain seem all so friendly that you may even consider it" he said before he made room for Twilight. "I don't know if you've ever been under a memory spell before, but there's a few things you might want to know. First your senses are limited to hearing, seeing and even smelling if your strong enough magically, which you obviously are. Second you will see everything as I saw it from my own eyes, it may be weird at first but you'll get used to it in the first few minutes. And lastly I'll be right there with you, at any moment if you feel it might be too much then just speak with your thoughts and I'll bring us right back here" he finished. "Are you sure you want to do this ?" he asked again making sure she was fully ready to delve into his memories to see what he once experienced. He already knew where he would start and where he would end. He looked into her purple eyes with his own green ones, he smiled, offering what he could muster in terms of confidence with this subject. It had been a long time since he had visited these memories and he wasn't entirely sure how he would handle seeing them again. But he knew for the sake of their relationship and to reassure her of who she was with, it was worth it. She deserved to know, because in his mind he didn't believe he deserved her.

[GalacticWar_Xavier]

Twilight nodded as Starling explained how the memory spell would work, she had one used on her long ago by her mother on some random occasion, but she hardly remembered what the experience had been like, and it hadn't been for very long, a few seconds at most. She knew that this would likely be a quite different experience anyways, as well as being longer. She couldn't truthfully say that she was excited, but she was interested in knowing. She refocused on him when he told what to do if she felt overwhelmed, not by the spell, but by what she would be experiencing. She couldn't kid herself and hope that it wouldn't be scary or anything, it was going to be horrible from how Starling had described it. At least there would be no danger of her soul vanishing into oblivion in this particular out-of-body experience. Twilight nodded to Starling as he asked her if she was sure she wanted to do it, "I want to understand and try to help you, honey." she said, "This will be the first step." She got herself onto the seat next to him and settled onto her haunches next to him. She wished she could snuggle with him again, but he would need room to cast the spell.

Admiralty looked to the hallway leading to the seating area, "I could tell that Starling had been hiding something. He says nothing about it, and then suddenly explodes at that Armature fellow... He was a danger to us all, and we didn't know it. A ticking time bomb." He looked back to Winter, "We've already confirmed that he and Twilight Sparkle are in love, too... Even if she discovers something terrible about him, do you think she would tell us? If you ask me, he's still dangerous like that."

[Blue Fox]

Starling nodded and smiled thankfully as she said she wanted to help him. "Try to relax, and allow me to guide you" he said as his horn took on a deep blue glow. He leaned forward and touched the tip of his horn to hers. A spark ignited between them, confirming the connection that latched between their minds almost instantly. At first they were shrouded in complete darkness and In this state neither of them would be able to communicate as freely as the physical world. He could here her if she called to him to stop, but they wouldn't be able to converse. Soon light began to flood into their fields of vision as Starling brought his first memory to bear. First he took her through the start of the T series project where they came up with the idea and pitched it to Armature. He then took her through the preparations and field tests, all of which were done at the Talonopolis military HQ in safe set courses designed by them after the completion of the armour variant. He went through the good times, the laughing and the fun they shared as they spent time working on a project that they saw was doing good in the world of war. A project that would hopefully save lives rather then take them away. But as he took her through the memories he finally came upon the turning point to the time when Armature announced that they were being drafted for the war effort. He showed her how they had been threatened with family and friends before being brutally trained off record and out of sight of the other officials. He showed her how they were practically beaten if they refused and how if one refused they were dragged in front of the rest and beaten mercilessly to be made an example. It had happened to Starling more then once and he had scars under his coat left from them.

Even the mares were kicked to the ground and beaten for simply implying they might refuse to do what they were told. He showed her their living conditions, single cells with basic functions, food, only enough that they could sap energy and sustenance from. As the memories progressed they eventually took them to the last days of training and up to the point of where things got really bad. The days Armature began giving the orders to kill the innocent.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starling looked down as the cowering civilians. He activated his COM's to HQ before making his request. "Command this is Starling, call sign Harbinger requesting extraction of multiple civilians" he said before waiting for a reply. He and the others stood motionless as they waited for their next reply. Usually Command would send extraction vehicles to take them away to refugee camps to keep them safe while the town or city was under fire. "Starling this is Command, we can no longer identify civilians from rebels and have reason to believe they are integrating to flee, you have been given new orders to take out all civilian targets, Please confirm" came the voice over every pony's helmet COM. Starling looked at his friends in confusion before contacting command again. "Please repeat Command, you want us to what ?" he asked unsure if he heard correctly. "All civilians are now considered hostile, you are ordered to eliminate all civilians in the immediate area, please confirm" responded command. Starling looked horrified, he looked to the others and shook his head. "Negative command we can not confirm. We do not kill civilians" he replied. There was a long pause before a new voice entered their helmets. "Tut tut tut Starling, you know better then to refuse. You know I don't like it when my pets don't do as their told, let me remind you what happens when they do. First I will find their friends, and their families and I will cut them... make them watch as they bleed before I burn them alive" he said sickly before adding. "You know I will... remember what I did to Lotus when she refused an order from me during trianing ?" there was a pause before he continued. "Rape is a bit out of my normal discipline rules but it definitely increased morale for the soldiers" he said as rage ignited inside Starlings body. He turned in time to see Lotus take off her helmet and vomit onto the floor, Night Scape had his hoof on her back while Indigo comforted her. "Do as I say or I will put her through it again, and I'll make the rest of you watch" he said darkly before adding. "Ball is in your court now" he said as the frequency terminated. Lotus was sobbing into Indigo's mane and Spark Fire was looking to him, shaking his armoured head. Starling looked from them to the civilians. 'Its just another casualty of war, It's just another casualty of war' he repeated to himself as he powered up his weapon. "Goddesses save my soul" he said out loud as he began firing on them. Spark Fire joined him as did River Song as they made short work of the civilians. When they were done they had all collapsed in tears and sobs, more vomiting and realization of what they done setting in as they tried to regain themselves.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starling took her through more memories each similar but horrifically different in allot of ways. The torture they were subjected to and the wrong they were forced to do. The tears they shared as they often found themselves breaking between battles to regain their emotional strength. He took her through each of their deaths as they died one by one until he was the last one left. And finally to the last memory when Queen Madison had arrived with a battalion behind her to arrest Armature after a leak spilled of what had happened here. All the battalions officers had also been arrested. When Starling was finished showing her all that he could he brought them back into the physical world. Starlings face was flooded with tears again and his heart burned from the pain of those memories. "That's all of it" he said meekly, barely able to keep a strong voice.